How can a seeker become unburdened by the mind despite a vast storehouse of memories?

Osho, even while sitting within a vast storehouse of memories of billions upon billions of years, how can a seeker become unburdened by the mind? Such an immense past gives rise to despair in the heart.

Donkeys are great contemplatives! They look so pensive standing around—always thinking. That famous sculpture, The Thinker, by Rodin—very highly regarded in the West. But stand beside a donkey and see: even Rodin could not sculpt a thinker like the donkey appears, standing there and thinking. The donkey thought and thought. Hunger grew, but he could not decide: left or right? Because one had to be left. He was unwilling to leave even one; he wanted both. In trying to gain both, he lost both. There is a saying: “Accomplish one rightly and all is accomplished.” The donkey knew nothing of it. He could only go to one heap. This is the state of everyone’s mind. What appears in the world seems worth gaining. And what the saints say also seems worth gaining. The mind gets stuck between two greeds. Sometimes you think, “I will drop everything.” Immediately you see: the…

And the tug between the known and the unknown — that is man’s tension. Until that tension is released, we cannot enter the doorway of life. Do not ask how to release it; understanding is needed. Once clearly understood, it drops. It is not a visible load to be lifted off the head. It is a matter of understanding, of seeing plainly. If there is understanding, if it is seen, the matter is finished. Look within yourself — how many memories are you hoarding? What use are they? What meaning have they? I am not saying you should forget in which hotel, in which room you are staying, nor am I saying you should forget which village you must return to. This is practical memory; it carries no burden. The burdens are other — psychological, mental.

To bring knowledge you do nothing to knowledge itself; you only remove the memory, the samskaras, the load upon the mind-stuff. When the mind-stuff becomes unburdened, when it becomes totally unconditioned—when no samskara and no external imprint remains and the mind becomes empty—then, as when someone has wiped the dust from a mirror—the dust is wiped, the mirror is as it is. When the dust was there, it was just the same; when the dust is gone, it is just the same. Perhaps the mirror has not changed at all. The dust was on top; when it is removed from the top, the mirror is as it is. But with the dust removed, the mirror becomes clear, and reflections become possible. Knowledge arises when the dust of memory is wiped away. So those engaged in the sadhana of knowledge do not have to memorize scriptures.

Osho! To live in the world and yet not be of the world is sannyas. Why does this feel impossible to me?

Prem Chaitanya! It certainly feels impossible, but it isn’t. It only seems so because, until the taste of witnessing arises, whatever we do and wherever we are, we identify with it. That very identification settles on us like dust. Then the mirror of consciousness no longer reflects existence. A Zen saying: cranes and egrets fly over a lake; they have no desire that their reflections form in the water, yet reflections appear. The lake has no desire to reflect them either, yet reflections appear. The cranes and egrets fly on, and the reflections vanish. Such is the state of witnessing: reflections appear and disappear. Ordinarily, we clutch at the reflections. As they begin to fade we cling, we plead with them, “Stop! Stay!” They cannot stop; hence pain, hence sorrow. We cannot let go of the past; we cannot be free of the familiar—that is the hindrance. And upon the…

Osho, why can I not forget my past? Even though in my past there is nothing but suffering.

Perhaps for precisely that reason. Man keeps scratching at his sorrows to remember them—because there is a certain pleasure in suffering. You will be surprised. You will say, “Pleasure in suffering? What kind of pleasure?” There is a pleasure in suffering: suffering is the food of the ego. In a state of bliss the ego dissolves; in a state of suffering the ego becomes very dense. People have not chosen suffering for nothing; they have chosen it cleverly, knowingly. People are not miserable by accident; they are miserable because only in suffering does the ego survive. “I am somebody!”—this remains only in pain. The moment a wave of bliss comes, you are swept away; the ego cannot remain. So people talk about bliss, but they do not want to be blissful; they are afraid. If they become blissful, this sense of “I” will not survive. That is why all the…