Do some people wake up and find themselves famous?

Beloved Osho, I set my alarm clock at night and trust it to wake me up when the morning comes. I sometimes see the master as an alarm clock that at any moment may ring like crazy and rouse me from my spiritual slumber. Osho, am I simply waiting for you to ring?

He said, "I have been coming every day, but what to do? -- the whole night there are worries, all kinds. Only in your presence do I find peace and fall asleep. So I have not heard what you have been saying. I wait every morning to come here because this is the only place where I find peace and fall asleep. And because tomorrow you will not be here, I want simply to ask what has to be done." But not a single man was ready to go or stood up with the master. And the master laughed. He said, "I was just joking! I cannot take anybody with me. But I was seeing whether you have been listening to me or not. And this man is right. And he is not right only about himself, he is right almost about everybody. So I will explain vipassana again." He…

Osho, you spoke of two kinds of sleep. One is the ordinary sleep from which we wake in the morning when it is complete. The other is what we call spiritual sleep, in which we are all asleep—even during the day. To wake from that sleep too, is it necessary that it also be allowed to complete itself?

When Buddha was born, astrologers said that when he grew up he would either become a renunciate or a great emperor. His father grew very anxious. To become a great emperor—this a father can desire—but if he becomes a renunciate, that would be a painful event. It is easy to touch the feet of a renunciate, but if your own son wants to renounce, it hurts deeply. If someone else’s son renounces, you even go and touch his feet. The father was troubled. He asked the astrologers, “Then what can be done so that he does not become a renunciate?” They said, “Only one thing: see that his sleep is never disturbed at all. Because sometimes, through a disturbance, a man wakes.” It is not necessary that only an alarm awakens you—the alarm is merely a disturbance. Clouds may thunder in the sky and your sleep may break. Some circumstance…

Such is our unconsciousness! We do not know our own condition—we hear from others that we are troubled. The awakened come and shout in your ears that you are asleep—but you, even in sleep, are dreaming that you are awake. You are engaged in all ways to avoid—lest the sleep be broken. You have invested so much self-interest in sleep, you have decorated such sweet dreams, that you are afraid this sleep might end—then what will happen to this golden palace I have built? What of these apsaras I have invoked! Are you asleep, O unknowing one? Wake up. Make your life true by awakening. For only those who have awakened have known the truth of life. Only they have made life true. The rest live untrue lives. Had I had more awareness in the course of life, with each breath a revolution would have happened within me.

Someone asked Buddha: Who are you? He was so beautiful—his body beautiful, and meditation had poured immortality upon him—nectar rains, the lotus blooms! A stranger asked: Are you a god descended from heaven? No, said Buddha. A gandharva of Indra’s court? No. A yaksha? No. A universal emperor? No. Then at least a man? No. An animal, a bird? No. Exhausted, he said: Then who are you? Buddha said: I am only awakening. I am awake—a witness. Those were all states of sleep—some sleep like animals, some like men, some like gods. One dreams of being a gandharva, one a yaksha, one a chakravartin. All are dream states—identifications with thought. I have simply awakened. I can only say this: I am awake. I see, awake. I am awakening—only awakening. Such a one we call awakened. The master wakes the soul; but only the intoxicated rise awake.

Beloved Osho, to me, your fantastic variation of dynamic meditation you do with us at the end of every evening discourse is one of the most energy-laden experiences I've ever had. All your lovers are radiating, everything is vibrating. I feel we are broadcasting energy waves like a huge radio antenna. The glow must even be visible from outer space. Osho, if we don't wake up this time, then what? Or are you keeping even louder alarms up your sleeve?

There is another story about Lin Chi, a Japanese Zen master. He had a disciple to whom he had given the traditional Zen koan to meditate -- "Meditate on the sound of one hand clapping." Now this is absurd. One hand cannot clap, and one hand cannot make any sound. Without clapping there is no possibility of any sound. "Meditate on it and when you have found the sound of one hand clapping, come and report." The young monk went out into the garden, sat under a tree, tried in many ways to think what could be the sound of one hand clapping. Suddenly, he heard a cuckoo in the bamboo grove and he said, "This must be it!" He rushed and told the master, "I have found it. It is the cuckoo in the bamboo grove." The master hit him hard on the face and said, "Don't be foolish;…