The Body has its own Wisdom The Shadow Of The Whip #14

[A sannyasin returning from Germany says: I got myself pretty lost there. I don't seem to be able to get a relationship together. Can you give me any kind of advice?]

Mm (a pause). It is not only a question of relationship. When you are here you are in a certain atmosphere, it is very nourishing to your inner growth. When you go away, you're in a totally different world, uprooted, in a different soil, in a different climate. And the whole atmosphere there is non-meditative. So when a person is growing he needs a constant nourishment. Once he has become grown-up there is no need for it.

It is almost like a small child -- he constantly needs the nourishment from the mother, the milk from the mother, the warmth, the protection, the caring. One day he will become capable of going away from the mother. In fact the whole effort of the mother is that one day he should be able to be on his own. So here it is a mother-atmosphere. When you go away you have to be on your own. Many things that are supporting you disappear, and many things appear that are destructive and it becomes a constant fight. Here you are floating.

Many people here are simply growing without any effort on their part. And that's my whole effort: to make this community so big that it almost becomes a world in itself. Then many people will be growing without any effort of their own. They will be simply riding on the tide, on the wave, mm? They will be simply moving with the total energy of the community. That is the meaning of a commune.

From the ancient days people have always tried to create a commune. And whenever a commune was created there was tremendous growth. Humanity was forged into a new world, in a new altitude.

A community simply means people who are moving in the same direction, holding each other's hands. So sometimes somebody who cannot run on his own also starts running. Somebody who would be left alone, if left alone would feel lost, feels in tune. Where people are dancing, you start dancing easily. Where people are laughing, you start laughing easily.

Once a professor tried an experiment. He decided with one of his students that the student should try to laugh, mm? and the professor should observe him in many situations. So the student went to the station, purchased a ticket, smiled at the clerk, laughed and was very happy, and the clerk also smiled and started laughing. When the student left, while the professor was watching the clerk another passenger came, and the clerk smiled -- he was still bubbling with energy that had been released by the student -- and the passenger started laughing.

Then the professor followed the passenger. The passenger went into the compartment, into the train, talked to somebody and started laughing, and he was smiling; it became infectious. And in this way he followed many people from one to another up to the evening. And he reports that a single person can have the whole town laughing.

We set things moving. And when there are many people laughing, of course it is very difficult to be sad... almost impossible, it is going against the grain. In the first place, who wants to be sad? In the second place, when it is difficult, who would like to take that difficulty and that arduousness and be sad? And when everybody is laughing your vibe changes.

Mm? have you watched? -- if there is somebody beating a drum, your feet start beating with it, your hand starts beating with it; suddenly your heart starts beating with it. You would like to dance. Just a single moment before there was no idea of dancing, but just the drum and the beating of it has entered you. You are no more your ordinary self.

So a commune is a deliberate effort to create a certain pattern of energy. That's why you were feeling lost. It has nothing to do with relationship, but relationship is always good. You are back here; just be happy. Move happily -- laugh more, dance more. And there are always people who would like to have a relationship with somebody who is happy and dancing and singing. Just don't be sad, then you are open to relationship, so whomsoever you deserve, you get. Never complain -- there are no complaints; there is no need -- if you get an ugly person, that you deserved. It is always the right person that comes to you. So if you want to find a better person become better; then a better person will be coming to you.

As I have been watching thousands of people, I have never come across any relationship which was not deserved. You create it, you are the cause of it, so just be happy and somebody is bound to knock... because people are born to be related, they are born in relationship; relationship is a must. An unrelated person is no more human -- he falls below humanity.

That's why monks who move out of society and drop all relationships look a little stupid, retarded. Put a human child in isolation from the very beginning and he will never become a human being. He will never learn how to speak, he will never learn how to sing, he will never learn how to dance. He will never learn how to relate because there is nobody to relate to. He will remain like a rock, he will not flower. He will not be a human being at all -- he will be subhuman. And he will be in a worse state than animals, because at least animals have their own society -- they relate, they are not isolated. The child will be dull, closed.

So the more you relate, the more human you are. And to reach to God means to reach to the peak of your relationship. Prayer is the ultimate relationship -- a relationship with the whole universe. Mm? you loved so many persons -- now they are not fulfilling. Now a person is a limited thing. A limitation, a boundary always comes; then you want to relate to the whole, to this whole universe. Then there is prayer. So people start from sex, move into love, and reach to prayer.

Never be afraid of sex, but never be content with it. Always move beyond sex towards love. But love is a bridge, not the goal. The goal is prayer. When you can relate to the whole universe, then you can never be isolated. So sometimes it has happened... a Buddha, a Mahavira, they moved from the world, but they were not retarded and they never became subhuman. They became super-human because they learned the art of love in the world. Then there was nothing to learn -- all that the world could give, it had given them. Then they went into isolation. But it was no more isolation because the whole universe was there -- how can you be isolated? If you know how to relate with the universe, trees and rocks and stars, you are never alone. Then wherever you are, you are amidst your family. So they never fell below humanity; they became super-human.

So I am not against going into the forest. I am in favour of it ,only when the society has given you all that it can give. When one has learned love, one can be alone -- or one can be in the society anywhere; then everything is good. One is never uprooted. You can throw that person into a desert and he will be as happy. You can throw him anywhere, alone on an island, and he will be as prayerful as anywhere else.

So never be afraid of sex -- but never be contented with it. Always strive for love -- but love is not the goal. Love is a bridge -- the goal is prayer.

[A sannyasin asks: Sometimes I find it difficult to distinguish between the genuine need to sleep and laziness. I wondered if you could shed some light.]

Then do one thing: whenever you feel like it, go to sleep. If it is not genuine you will not fall asleep. So nothing wrong -- you simply rest. If it is genuine, you will fall asleep. And it is difficult to know whether it is genuine or not, because we have lost track of our natural instincts -- and this is the case with everybody.

There are people who cannot make any distinction between the hunger which is genuine and the hunger which is simply psychological; they cannot make any distinction. Maybe it is just the time that they eat every day, so they feel hungry; or maybe it is just the smell that is coming from the kitchen that makes them feel hungry. Maybe it is just the food that they have seen, and the colour is appealing and their memories are revived: in the past they liked that kind of food and suddenly there is hunger. It is difficult because we have lost track of the natural instinct. No animal has that difficulty. When the animal feels hungry he knows, when the animal feels sleepy he knows; and there is no problem because there is never false sleep and there is never false hunger. But with man there is a problem, because man has a great imagination -- the imagination is the problem, that makes the trouble. The imagination can create such situations that it looks almost real.

That is the problem and that is the glory too -- it is only because of imagination that man has thought about God, that man has thought about meditation, that man has thought about churches and temples, bibles and korans, and the philosophies and art and music and painting. It is only because of imagination. No animal has painted, no animal has created any music.

Even when we say that the birds are singing, it is not true -- they are not singing, they are simply making noise! And if you listen long enough you will see they are making the same noise again and again and again, there is no singing in it. And this noise is unconscious; there is no deliberate creation. So man's imagination is his richness and his problem too. With every richness problems arise. So this is a basic problem... and not only with you. Maybe it has become more focused on sleep.

My suggestion is: never repress. So if there is any indecision in the mind as to whether the need to sleep is real or just imaginary -- if there is any suspicion -- go to sleep. Otherwise there will be repression and that is more dangerous. If the need was real and you repressed, that's very bad. That's how we have lost contact with our instincts. Repressing the real is creating a barrier; then you will be losing contact more and more. A moment comes when one knows nothing about one's natural needs. Then the society goes on teaching you, 'This is your need.' The advertisement in the newspaper or on the radio or on the TV creates the need.

In the old days they used to say, 'Whenever there is a demand there is a supply.' Now the law has completely changed: you create supply and there is demand. You simply bring anything into the world, manufacture it first -- don't be bothered whether people need it or not -- then advertise it. If rightly advertised you will find people as if waiting for it, hungry for it -- anything whatsoever! Any foolish thing will do and people will always be ready to purchase it, because people have lost track of their natural instincts.

So my suggestion is: if you are ever in any suspicion, then always err on the side of nature; never err against it. So if you feel sleepy, go to sleep. Being lazy is better than being repressive.

Lazy people have not done anything wrong in the world. I have not come across any crime that lazy people have done, but repressive people have been very dangerous, murderers. They have murdered themselves and they have taken revenge on others too.

For one month whenever you feel sleepy just go to sleep. And within one month you will be able to feel real need. It will simply come to you and then there will be no problem about it. But for a few days -- even if there is any danger of being lazy -- take the risk, be lazy, but never repress. If the need is real and you pull on, somehow you force yourself, and the eyes become tired and the body feels tired, that is not a big problem because in the night you will sleep and tomorrow the tiredness will go. The real problem is that you are falling away from your natural needs: you are not listening to your needs, you are not listening to your nature. You are becoming deaf to your nature, so there will be more and more problems.

And as I see, many people have completely lost all moorings. They don't know exactly who they are, what they want -- everything has to be told to them. They are almost like zombies. They need somebody to tell them that this is time to get up,' so get up; this is time to go to sleep, so go to sleep; this is time to pray, so pray. They need somebody to order them -- then they can manage. There is no spontaneity.

So for one month, simply whenever you feel -- maybe it is lazy, sometimes it may be laziness; I am not saying it is not laziness -- just go to sleep. After one month, tell me again. You will have the taste of the real and then you will have the distinction, clear-cut. Right now I can tell you how to distinguish but there is danger, so I will talk to you after one month.
There is a very famous story about a sufi mystic, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi.

A woman came to him and brought her child and she said, 'You are a great teacher -- do something. She eats too much sugar and her teeth are getting bad and her stomach is disturbed. We are constantly in trouble and she is almost obsessed: sugar and sugar and sugar. Though she does not understand you, she respects you, so if you say something she will listen.'

Rumi said, 'Bring her after three weeks.' The woman was puzzled -- it was such a simple thing, but okay. Three weeks afterward, she brought the child and Rumi said, 'Three weeks more -- bring her after three weeks.' After three weeks she brought, and Rumi said to the child, 'Stop eating sugar. It is bad.'
The woman said, 'Just to have you say this we had to wait for six weeks?'

Rumi said, 'There are many things implied in it. First, I also like eating sugar very much, so I had to try on my own to see whether I could say to this child or not -- how can I say? Secondly, it will be too aggressive to jump upon a child; it will be too early. Let the child feel that I am considering -- I am not in a hurry. Let the child feel that I am thinking about it I am not inconsiderate. You have been telling her, "Don't eat... don't eat..." Just repeating that won't have helped. Let there be a deep relationship between me and the child. Now the child must be able to see that I'm not just supporting her mother. I have taken six weeks and now I say to the child....'

And he said to the child, 'I am also an addict, I love sweet things, so it was very difficult to say anything to you. Unless I can renounce, how can I ask you to renounce? You are such a small child, and I am so old and still I love sugar! So I had to renounce it -- now I have renounced. And I tell you it can be renounced. So don't be worried, it is my experience that it can be renounced. And if I can do it -- such an old man; you are so young -- you certainly can do it.' And the child renounced.

Right now I can say something to you about how to distinguish but that won't be right because whatsoever I say will become an intellectual understanding to you. And there is every danger that your intellectual understanding will make you repressive. The intellect is very repressive, dominating, dictatorial. That's how it has disconnected you from your own body. So first put that intellect aside -- that's what I am trying to say. Just put it aside. If it is saying it is lazy, it is lazy -- okay. But if the body is saying something, you are going to listen to the body and not to the intellect.

There is one way to make the distinction -- through the intellect; that will always be repressive. There is another way to make the distinction -- through the body; that will never be repressive. The body is more wise. In fact the body is so wise that it does not need intellect at all -- it can function without it.

I was just reading a few days ago in a medical journal that when a man dies, within four minutes his intellect disappears. Then you cannot revive it -- the brain is gone, it cannot be repaired; four minutes is enough. The heart can be revived but the brain cannot be revived any more. So in a heart attack, if within four minutes the heart can be revived the intellect will be functioning, but then too much will be lost. Immediately as the heart stops the brain starts disappearing. It is a very fragile thing -- exists with great difficulty.

But I was surprised to know that when the heart stops the stomach continues for twenty-four hours. The person is dead for twenty-four hours and the stomach continues to digest. The man is dead, the brain is gone, the heart has stopped. The doctor has given the death certificate, but the stomach goes on absorbing juices, and work continues. For twenty-four hours the body works on its own -- with no brain, with no heart -- and remains perfectly okay. If the brain can be substituted and the heart can be substituted, the body will function again.

So the body has its own wisdom... deeper than the brain, very much deeper than the brain. The brain is just the surface. So the distinction has to come from the body, from the stomach. And food and sleep both are stomach needs: when you have a full stomach you feel sleepy; when you are fasting there is no sleep. Food and sleep are both stomach needs. So if you are hungry you cannot sleep. You will turn and toss in the bed and no sleep comes. And when you have taken a good meal, immediately you feel sleepy, because when the stomach has food to digest it wants all brain functioning to stop.

The functioning of the brain is a disturbance to the stomach, hence after food one wants to sleep a little. After a good meal a little sleep is a must. Just fifteen minutes will do, but it is a must, because when the stomach has food a very basic thing happens: the head cannot function -- the energy is called back to the stomach. All energy has to get involved into digestion, mm? so the head feels sleepy. That's why if you are on a fast you will not be able to sleep, but your head will rush and run and think of so many things.

For people who write and do mental work, fasting is very good. They think more and more clearly, because when the stomach has no need for energy, all the energy is released to the head. So simply for one month, go with the body. And after one month, report to me. And I will also try (a chuckle) and then we will see what happens. Good! (chuckling) Good!

[A sannyasin asks: Since I've been in Poona, my body's just been as though it were a hundred years old. It's got to the extent now where I can hardly function. I just stay in my room all the time. Physical activities tire me out to the point of exhaustion. And sometimes I've gone through groups while I've been here, even though I've been very tired, because I thought, 'Well, it's just the mind.' But I'm pushing myself into a brick wall.
Osho checks his energy.]

You do a few things: one is -- and the most fundamental -- accept it. Your rejection of it is making things worse. Accept! Mm? the first thing is to accept it and follow the body -- whatsoever the body says. If it feels exhausted, don't go, don't do anything, mm? So the first thing: drop the rejection and the idea that you have to do something to become more energyful. Forget about it -- that very idea may be one of the basic causes.

The second thing: whenever you are lying down or sitting silently, just feel that you are not the body, but energy. Just with closed eyes, simply feel your body as a moving energy, a fluidity. Energy is moving; the blood circulation is energy, the breathing is energy. You are simply sitting there as an energy pool. Lying down on the bed, again become more and more identified with energy. Move the hand and feel that it is not matter, but energy.

And do every act very slowly so you can feel it. You go to the bath -- go very slowly, feeling that your energy is moving. You eat -- eat very slowly, feeling that you are eating energy. Breathing in, feel you are breathing energy -- and in fact that is what we are breathing: it is prana, it is bio-energy.

So while breathing in, feel you are taking energy in; and breathing out, feel you are throwing out all sadness, all dullness.

Whatsoever you do, do very very slowly. Slow down every process. In fact that idea is very good -- that you are one hundred years old. Let that idea -- that you are one hundred years old and you have to move like a one hundred-year-old person -- be accepted. For three weeks be one hundred years old, and do whatsoever at that age would be right, mm? Don't run like a young man, and don't do Dynamic Meditation and don't do Kundalini. Sitting silently, if you feel like doing any meditation, then do Nadabrahma. You can come to the music group if you feel like it -- just sit and listen to the music. Swaying will do -- but do everything very very softly so that it does not exhaust energy in any way. Do this for three weeks, and after three weeks tell me how you are feeling.

It will be possible to get out of it, but drop the idea of getting out of it; accept it. What to do? If one has become one hundred years old, one has become one hundred years old. Sometimes it happens. Everybody has his own pace. A few people become a hundred years old when they are thirty, a few become when they are forty, a few become when they are a hundred, mm? And a few don't become even when they are a hundred and ten. Time is not by the clock. The body has its own time. So if you have become hundred years old, perfectly good. Mm?

And I need old people here, mm? (laughter) There is so much young energy, I need a few old people. You can make friends with Paritosh (a sixty-eight-year-old resident sannyasin present at darshan). You can treat him just like a younger brother (laughter). Just for three weeks you have to be a hundred years old, so let it be known to everybody. You can have a walking stick and things like that and in three weeks you tell me! Mm?

[A sannyasin says: I found out in the group (the Tathata group) that I'm a big fool. I have a sense of a higher self -- occasionally I act it out -- but mostly I'm in my ego, my personality. I meditated on this all day and I think it's fear.]

Mmm... you seem to be right. The ego is always out of fear. A really fearless person has no ego. The ego is a protection, an armour. Because you are afraid, you create an impression around you that you are so and so and this and that, mm? So nobody dares... otherwise fear, it is basically fear. Good! You looked into it deeply and rightly. And once you see the basic cause, things become very simple. Otherwise people go on fighting with the ego -- and the ego is not a real problem. So you are fighting with a symptom, not with the real disease. The real disease is fear. You can go on fighting with the ego and you will go on missing the target because the ego is not the real enemy, it is bogus. Even if you win, you will not win anything. And you cannot win. Only a real enemy can be defeated -- not a false enemy that does not exist at all; it is a facade. It is as if you have a wound and it looks ugly and you put some ornament on it.

Once it happened that I was staying at a filmstar's house and he had asked many people to come and see me. A film actress was also there and she had a really beautiful watch with a beautiful and very big band. Somebody who was sitting by her side started asking about the watch and she became a little worried. I was simply watching. He wanted to see the watch -- and she was not willing to take it off. But the man insisted and she had to take it off. Then I could see what was the problem. She had a big white spot, a leprosy spot. She was hiding that leprosy spot under the band of that beautiful watch. Now she was exposed -- and she started perspiring and became so nervous.

The ego is just like that. There is fear, but nobody wants to show his fear, because if you show that you are afraid many people will be there who will make you more afraid. Once they come to know that you are in deep fear, then everybody will hit you hard. They will enjoy humiliating you, finding that someone is weaker. People enjoy exploiting; to kick that person.

So every person who is afraid, deep down creates a big ego around the fear and goes on pumping more air in that balloon of the ego and becomes too big. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin of Uganda -- that type of person becomes very puffed. Then he starts making others afraid. Anybody who tries to make anybody afraid, know well that he must himself be deep down afraid, otherwise why? What is the point? Who bothers to make you afraid if he is not afraid?

People full of fear make others afraid so they can rest at ease. They know well that now you will not touch them, you will not trespass their boundaries. .

You looked well -- that is exactly the case. So don't fight with the ego. Rather watch fear and try to accept it. It is natural... it is part of life. There is no need to hide it; there is no need to pretend otherwise. It is there -- all human beings are full of fear. It is part of humanity. Accept it, and the moment you accept it the ego will disappear, because then there is no point for the ego to be there. Fighting with the ego will not help; accepting the fear will immediately help. Then you know that yes, we are so tiny in such a vast universe -- how is it possible not to be afraid? And life is surrounded by death -- how is it possible not to be afraid? Any moment we can disappear... a small thing goes wrong and we disappear -- so how is it possible not to be afraid? When you accept, by and by fear disappears because now there is no point. You accept it, you have taken it for granted -- it is so!

So don't create something against it to hide it, and when you don't create anything against it, it simply subsides. I'm not saying you will not have any fear -- I am saying that you will not be afraid. Fear will be there but you will not be afraid. You follow me? To be afraid means that you are against fear -- you don't want it to be there, and it is there.

When you accept it.... Just as trees are green, humanity is full of fear. Then what to do? Trees are not hiding. Everybody is prone to die. Fear is the shadow of death. Accept it !

[A sannyasin says: I feel very happy. I'm feeling tremendously happy since I took sannyas.]

It happens (he chuckles). Sannyas helps. It simply changes the very current of your consciousness. Trust is a great change: if you can trust somebody, a thousand and one burdens simply disappear. Then you are not fighting alone. In the dark night of life you are not alone. Somebody is there, you are with somebody. And if you can feel that somebody has an inner light, you can move more trustfully, more totally.

It happens, but the problem is that it is only when people take sannyas that they understand. Those who have not taken sannyas go on wondering whether there is something in it or not. And it is very difficult to tell them there is something unless they take it. There are a few things you come to know only when you have tasted. So now tell others about your taste, mm?