[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been copy-typed on to the computer. It is for reference purposes only.]
One can become wise very cheaply Just by acquiring knowledge. Then one only appears wise, one is not. One is not a man of wisdom. One may be a wise guy But to be a wise guy and to be a wise man Are totally different things.
The man who knows much Naturally starts dominating others Who don't know so much. He becomes powerful in a way. The knowledgeable people, the scholars The professors -- they are powerful people. They dominate because they have A large accumulation of information. But they are not wise. Their lives are as full of stupidities As anybody else's. There is no difference of quality They differ in quantity Somebody knows less, somebody knows more. The difference is of quantity But there is no qualitative change.
The great professors, the great scholars behave As foolishly and childishly in their life As anybody else. You will not find any difference at all. Sometimes they are even more stupid because They have not learned anything from life. They have remained so enclosed within their books They have remained so surrounded By an abstract world of knowledge That they don't have any acquaintance With reality itself. So when it comes to encountering reality They prove failures, utter failures Even about small things.
They are not very intelligent either They know only that which they know. If they have to face something new They are completely at a loss as to what to do. If it is something old for which they have Already acquired information They are very wise But if the situation is new The challenge is new They go completely empty Their mind stops working.O And life continuously changes It is never the same. It goes on bringing new challenges to you. It always proposes new questions And your answers are all old.
Hence the so-called knowledgeable people Are always lagging behind life. The more they know, the more burdened they are. They are carrying such a mountainous weight That they cannot dance with life They cannot move with life easily. Slowly slowly they become almost immovable They lose all movement, all dynamism. And that's what death is. The knowledgeable person dies before his death. He dies in his books His books become his graveyard.
Real wisdom is not cheap, not so cheap. It is a question Of changing the quality of your consciousness Not a question Of acquiring more and more knowledge But of becoming more and more aware. This is a totally different gestalts To acquire more knowledge is To be concerned with the content. To become more aware is To be concerned with consciousness Not with the content.
It is possible that a man of wisdom May not be knowledgeable at all. Jesus was not very knowledgeable. Mohammed was not educated at all. He could not read, he could not write. He had no relationship with the world of books. Still, he became one of the wisest men on earth For the simple reason that He gained more and more awareness More and more meditativeness.
A sannyasin has to become concerned With the quality of life, not the quantity. How long you live is irrelevant How deeply you live should be the only concern With what intensity, with what totality With what awareness, with what love. And all these energies Are released by meditation. Meditation is certainly
The greatest magical force on the earth. It is the only bridge between this shore And the farther shore, the beyond.
So put all your energies into one efforts How to be more aware. And if one puts one's total energies into awareness It is bound to happen -- it is our birthright. But one should not be half-hearted. It can't happen half-heartedly It happens only when You are one hundred per cent in it, into it When nothing is being held back, When you have put all your cards on the table The trump card included. When you are not hiding anything When you put yourself in totally It immediately happens.
And that happening is a great revolution. It transforms you from the lowest to the highest From the gross to the subtle From the visible to the invisible, It takes you from the mind to the no-mind. And to live in the no-mind is to be wise. To function out of no-mind Is to function out of wisdom. Then your life has a beauty, a grace, a godliness. Then whatsoever you do is right. It can't be wrong It is impossible to do wrong because You are so full of light and so full of insight, Your vision is so clear and unclouded That it is impossible to do anything wrong. The right happens of its own accord. There is no need to cultivate any character. Just consciousness is enough. Character follows like a shadow.
Man without meditation is very tiny Just a very small particle of dust. But the same man with meditation is infinite The same man with meditation becomes oceanic. He becomes the whole.
We are small because we cling to the ego Our smallness is caused By our clinging to the ego. The ego is a very small phenomenon, and we Are such fools that we go on clinging to it Thinking it is something immensely valuable. It is the only barrier, it is the only cause Preventing our life from gaining Significance, grandeur, glory. It is a subtle wall surrounding you Which does not allow you to have a communion With the whole.
Once the ego is dropped, you start feeling one With the trees and the moon and the sun And the stars and the people. Suddenly all barriers disappear Suddenly you are no more a dewdrop Your boundaries are gone. You have become unbounded. And that's the experience of god.
God is not a person whom you are going To encounter some day or meet some day. God is an experience -- The experience of your dissolution Of your ego disappearing. And when your ego is no more there What is left? Just a pure vastness, an infinite nothingness is But that nothingness is not negative That nothingness is a new kind of fullness. It is nothingness from the side of the ego It is fullness from the side of the whole. It is nothingness from the old vision But it is a new birth, and a new vision is born And it is overflowing It is overflowing with power. And this power is eternal This power has no beginning, no end.
And once you know that you are one with it You have experienced something Of tremendous value. Nothing is higher thAn that More valuable than that. You are freed from all small identities You are no more a body and no more a mind. Once you drop the ego, all small boundaries Start disappearing of their own accord. Tremendous bliss is yours, great ecstasy is yours All that you have to lose is this ugly ego Which has not given you anything. And it cannot give you anything, It can only create trouble, misery, conflict.
The ego is the only hell. And to be free of the ego is to regain Paradise Is to regain innocence.
By becoming a sannyasin one is taking a step Towards this dissolution of the ego. I don't ask you to renounce anything Except the ego. Just be a nobody, anonymous With no name, with no identity And all is yours, the whole is yours! Then there is no death. Once you have gathered the courage To drop yourself into the whole Naturally, there is no death possible: You have already gone Something new has taken place. Time is no more relevant.
The whole process of sannyas is to Slowly slowly help you to come out of the ego. The world need not be renounced. Nothing else has to be renounced, My sannyasin only has to renounce The ego and nothing else Because that is the problem, not the world. You can escape to the mountains But the ego will be with you. You can renounce your family But the ego will be with you, Even more than it was in the world.
Sitting alone in a mountain cave Your ego will have no competitors It will start flourishing, it will have more space. You will start thinking, 'I am holy And the whole world is living in sin, Only I am going to heaven And all others are going to hell.' You will start gaining more strength for the ego. That's why the so-called religious people Are not egoless people. Your saints, your mahatmas are very egoistic For the simple reason that They have renounced the world They have renounced the comforts of the world -- Which are absolutely irrelevant -- And they have not renounced the real thing The real problem Which goes on, persists within them.
Be aware of it and consciously drop it. All is attained once the ego is gone. With the ego one is a beggar Without the ego one is an emperor.
Osho's Commentary
One can become wise very cheaply
Just by acquiring knowledge.
Then one only appears wise, one is not.
One is not a man of wisdom.
One may be a wise guy
But to be a wise guy and to be a wise man
Are totally different things.
The man who knows much
Naturally starts dominating others
Who don't know so much.
He becomes powerful in a way.
The knowledgeable people, the scholars
The professors -- they are powerful people.
They dominate because they have
A large accumulation of information.
But they are not wise.
Their lives are as full of stupidities
As anybody else's.
There is no difference of quality
They differ in quantity
Somebody knows less, somebody knows more.
The difference is of quantity
But there is no qualitative change.
The great professors, the great scholars behave
As foolishly and childishly in their life
As anybody else.
You will not find any difference at all.
Sometimes they are even more stupid because
They have not learned anything from life.
They have remained so enclosed within their books
They have remained so surrounded
By an abstract world of knowledge
That they don't have any acquaintance
With reality itself.
So when it comes to encountering reality
They prove failures, utter failures
Even about small things.
They are not very intelligent either
They know only that which they know.
If they have to face something new
They are completely at a loss as to what to do.
If it is something old for which they have
Already acquired information
They are very wise
But if the situation is new
The challenge is new
They go completely empty
Their mind stops working.O
And life continuously changes
It is never the same.
It goes on bringing new challenges to you.
It always proposes new questions
And your answers are all old.
Hence the so-called knowledgeable people
Are always lagging behind life.
The more they know, the more burdened they are.
They are carrying such a mountainous weight
That they cannot dance with life
They cannot move with life easily.
Slowly slowly they become almost immovable
They lose all movement, all dynamism.
And that's what death is.
The knowledgeable person dies before his death.
He dies in his books
His books become his graveyard.
Real wisdom is not cheap, not so cheap.
It is a question
Of changing the quality of your consciousness
Not a question
Of acquiring more and more knowledge
But of becoming more and more aware.
This is a totally different gestalts
To acquire more knowledge is
To be concerned with the content.
To become more aware is
To be concerned with consciousness
Not with the content.
It is possible that a man of wisdom
May not be knowledgeable at all.
Jesus was not very knowledgeable.
Mohammed was not educated at all.
He could not read, he could not write.
He had no relationship with the world of books.
Still, he became one of the wisest men on earth
For the simple reason that
He gained more and more awareness
More and more meditativeness.
A sannyasin has to become concerned
With the quality of life, not the quantity.
How long you live is irrelevant
How deeply you live should be the only concern
With what intensity, with what totality
With what awareness, with what love.
And all these energies
Are released by meditation.
Meditation is certainly
The greatest magical force on the earth.
It is the only bridge between this shore
And the farther shore, the beyond.
So put all your energies into one efforts
How to be more aware.
And if one puts one's total energies into awareness
It is bound to happen -- it is our birthright.
But one should not be half-hearted.
It can't happen half-heartedly
It happens only when
You are one hundred per cent in it, into it
When nothing is being held back,
When you have put all your cards on the table
The trump card included.
When you are not hiding anything
When you put yourself in totally
It immediately happens.
And that happening is a great revolution.
It transforms you from the lowest to the highest
From the gross to the subtle
From the visible to the invisible,
It takes you from the mind to the no-mind.
And to live in the no-mind is to be wise.
To function out of no-mind
Is to function out of wisdom.
Then your life has a beauty, a grace, a godliness.
Then whatsoever you do is right.
It can't be wrong
It is impossible to do wrong because
You are so full of light and so full of insight,
Your vision is so clear and unclouded
That it is impossible to do anything wrong.
The right happens of its own accord.
There is no need to cultivate any character.
Just consciousness is enough.
Character follows like a shadow.
Man without meditation is very tiny
Just a very small particle of dust.
But the same man with meditation is infinite
The same man with meditation becomes oceanic.
He becomes the whole.
We are small because we cling to the ego
Our smallness is caused
By our clinging to the ego.
The ego is a very small phenomenon, and we
Are such fools that we go on clinging to it
Thinking it is something immensely valuable.
It is the only barrier, it is the only cause
Preventing our life from gaining
Significance, grandeur, glory.
It is a subtle wall surrounding you
Which does not allow you to have a communion
With the whole.
Once the ego is dropped, you start feeling one
With the trees and the moon and the sun
And the stars and the people.
Suddenly all barriers disappear
Suddenly you are no more a dewdrop
Your boundaries are gone. You have become unbounded.
And that's the experience of god.
God is not a person whom you are going
To encounter some day or meet some day.
God is an experience --
The experience of your dissolution
Of your ego disappearing.
And when your ego is no more there
What is left?
Just a pure vastness, an infinite nothingness is
But that nothingness is not negative
That nothingness is a new kind of fullness.
It is nothingness from the side of the ego
It is fullness from the side of the whole.
It is nothingness from the old vision
But it is a new birth, and a new vision is born
And it is overflowing
It is overflowing with power.
And this power is eternal
This power has no beginning, no end.
And once you know that you are one with it
You have experienced something
Of tremendous value.
Nothing is higher thAn that
More valuable than that.
You are freed from all small identities
You are no more a body and no more a mind.
Once you drop the ego, all small boundaries
Start disappearing of their own accord.
Tremendous bliss is yours, great ecstasy is yours
All that you have to lose is this ugly ego
Which has not given you anything.
And it cannot give you anything,
It can only create trouble, misery, conflict.
The ego is the only hell.
And to be free of the ego is to regain Paradise
Is to regain innocence.
By becoming a sannyasin one is taking a step
Towards this dissolution of the ego.
I don't ask you to renounce anything
Except the ego.
Just be a nobody, anonymous
With no name, with no identity
And all is yours, the whole is yours!
Then there is no death.
Once you have gathered the courage
To drop yourself into the whole
Naturally, there is no death possible:
You have already gone
Something new has taken place.
Time is no more relevant.
The whole process of sannyas is to
Slowly slowly help you to come out of the ego.
The world need not be renounced.
Nothing else has to be renounced,
My sannyasin only has to renounce
The ego and nothing else
Because that is the problem, not the world.
You can escape to the mountains
But the ego will be with you.
You can renounce your family
But the ego will be with you,
Even more than it was in the world.
Sitting alone in a mountain cave
Your ego will have no competitors
It will start flourishing, it will have more space.
You will start thinking, 'I am holy
And the whole world is living in sin,
Only I am going to heaven
And all others are going to hell.'
You will start gaining more strength for the ego.
That's why the so-called religious people
Are not egoless people.
Your saints, your mahatmas are very egoistic
For the simple reason that
They have renounced the world
They have renounced the comforts of the world --
Which are absolutely irrelevant --
And they have not renounced the real thing
The real problem
Which goes on, persists within them.
Be aware of it and consciously drop it.
All is attained once the ego is gone.
With the ego one is a beggar
Without the ego one is an emperor.