Just fall like a bag of rice Live Zen #17
Discourse Overview
Osho offers a three-part Live Zen practice: begin with 'gibberish' — a Sufi-inspired nonsense to dismantle the mind's meanings — then move into an absolute, frozen silence where the body is stilled and energy gathers, and finally relax completely and 'fall like a bag of rice' to allow being to surface. The drum of Nivedano structures the passage from sound to silence to surrender, and the ritual reminds the seeker that presence is both intimate and shared. On the mind: gibberish is a deliberate technique to expose thought as mere noise and to free attention from linguistic prisons so one can taste pure existence. On silence: the sudden, collected stillness is not emptiness but the concentrated gathering of awareness where the self's chatter simply stops. On surrender: falling without effort is the antidote to spiritual striving — total relaxation opens the doorway to true Zen. On practice and presence: the communal enactment and the teacher's presence underscore that absence is a personal choice, so remain here and let the practice bring you back to the moment.
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Osho's Commentary
I am introducing you to a new meditation. It is divided in three parts.
The first part is gibberish. The word `gibberish' comes from a Sufi mystic, Jabbar. Jabbar never spoke any language, he just uttered nonsense. Still he had thousands of disciples because what he was saying was, "Your mind is nothing but gibberish. Put it aside and you will have a taste of your own being."
To use gibberish, don't say things which are meaningful, don't use the language that you know. Use Chinese, if you don't know Chinese. Use Japanese if you don't know Japanese. Don't use German if you know German. For the first time have a freedom -- the same as all the birds have. Simply allow whatever comes to your mind without bothering about its rationality, reasonability, meaning, significance -- just the way the birds are doing.
For the first part, leave language and mind aside. Out of this will arise the second part, a great silence in which you have to close your eyes and freeze your body, all its movements, gather your energy within yourself.
Remain here and now.
Zen cannot be understood in any other way. This is the last part of the series LIVE ZEN.
In the third part I will say, let go. Then you relax your body and let it fall without any effort, without your mind controlling. Just fall like a bag of rice.
Each segment will begin with the drum of Nivedano. Before Nivedano gives the drum, there are a few more things I have to say to you....
I am extremely sorry that I have not been physically here for many days, but I am also extremely happy that you never missed my presence.
I was in your heart
and I was in the wind and in the rain
and the thunder of clouds.
I was in your tears,
in your nonsense utterances....
I was absolutely present here with you --
and those who are present know it perfectly.
I was absent only for those who themselves are absent. At least today, don't go anywhere.
Nivedano, give the first drum....
(Drumbeat)
(Gibberish)
(EVERYONE BURSTS INTO A SEA OF SOUND, VOLUME AND TEMPO CLASHING AND CRASHING IN ONE GREAT CRESCENDO -- A TIDAL WAVE OF MIND.)
(OSHO MOTIONS TO NIVEDANO FOR THE SECOND DRUMBEAT, AND AN INSTANTANEOUS SILENCE FALLS OVER THE WHOLE OF BUDDHA HALL.)
(Drumbeat)
Now the third drum... Relax.
(Drumbeat)
The fourth drum... Come back!
(Drumbeat)
This begins and ends the series called LIVE ZEN.
What I could say, I have said to you.
What I could not say, I have given to you.
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.