mind is a coward, mind is basically fear-oriented it is always suspicious always doubting, always on guard mind creates a situation in which you feel a stranger to existence because of all those suspicions that mistrust disconnects one from all that is and then there arises a vicious circle the more you feel lonely, an outsider the more afraid you become
because the vast universe seems to be inimical this is mind's projection and if the whole existence is inimical to you naturally, you become more afraid the more afraid you become the more the universe seems to be inimical that's how mind goes on shrinking into itself closing its doors, windows. out of fear it becomes a windowless, encapsulated existence and out of that arises all suffering misery, greed, anger
mind is the creator of the hell around
the heart is always brave because the heart cannot doubt just as the mind cannot trust the heart simply trusts -- it is its nature
but the religions have been creating a very difficult situation for man they tell to you believe but that belief is going to be of the mind and any belief of the mind is carrying within it all its doubts because that is not the nature of the mind the christian, the hindu, the mohammedan they are all believers but belief is part of the mind hence it can never be true
it is always superficial, not even skin-deep scratch it a little bit and you will find all the doubts hiding behind it
i don't say to my sannyasins believe that's what has been driving the whole of humanity crazy i say to my sannyasins move your energy from the mind to the heart and then there is trust -- it is not belief
belief is a suppression of doubt and trust is absence of doubt that is a totally different phenomenon of tremendous beauty and of immense innocence
and the way to move from the mind to the heart is becoming silent, more and more silent mind is noisy, heart is silent so one has to renounce the noise and slowly slowly, imbibe the spirit of silence a moment comes when you can hear
the Sound of one hand Clapping
and that is the moment of ultimate transformation then you are really born for the first time then one is not a christian or a hindu
or a mohammedan or a jew one is simply religious
because of that trust, that silence a quality, a totally new quality arises in your being that quality i call religiousness
aloneness and silence are two aspects of one experience two sides of the same coin if one wants to experience silence one has to go into one's total aloneness it is there
we are born alone, we die alone between these two realities we create a thousand and one illusions of being together all kinds of relationships friends and enemies, loves and hates nations, races, religions we create all kinds of hallucinations just to avoid one fact that we are alone but whatsoever we do, the truth cannot be changed it is so, and rather than trying to escape from it the best way is to rejoice in it
rejoicing in your own aloneness is what meditation is all about the meditator is one who dives deep into one's aloneness knowing that we are born alone we will be dying alone and deep down we are living alone so why not experience what this aloneness is it is our very nature, our very being
because of this aloneness two possibilities open up one, to escape from it then whatsoever you do in the name of love is false because you don't love the person you are simply trying to find an excuse in the other person to escape from yourself
and the other is also doing the same it is a very negative kind of love the other is trying to escape from his or her aloneness and you are just an excuse
the person who chooses the first alternative of escaping from one's reality becomes pseudo in all his love, in all his relationships
the second alternative is to experience your aloneness, your silence that absolutely virgin spot inside your being where nobody can enter, nobody can trespass that is your true world knowing it, experiencing it, one is surprised that there was no need to escape from it it is one of the most ecstatic experiences even love is secondary
the person who has known his aloneness also loves but his love has a tremendous beauty t is positive: he is not escaping from himself he is rooted in himself, centred in himself and because of that rootedness and centering he is so full of joy that he wants to share it his love is a sharing, it is not an escape his love is a gift the other is not being used as a means the other is dignified by his love
ordinarily love reduces people into slaves into bondage, into possessiveness, into jealousy into all kinds of ugly things real love is a by-product of the experience of silence and aloneness
i teach meditation and i teach love through meditation when love is grounded in meditation then it is alive then it is exactly synonymous with god then it brings freedom and it brings great blessings and benedictions very few people have known really what love is because very few people have entered into their own innermost, silent, alone space
a sannyasin has to do only one thing he has to rejoice in his aloneness then love comes just like a shadow of its own accord
one can cultivate a certain kind of silence by chanting mantra by other auto-hypnotic methods by focussing on something constantly one can create a kind of silence but that is pseudo
it is really a state of dullness, not silence it is a state closer to sleep not closer to awakening methods like transcendental meditation are nothing but non-medicinal tranquillisers if you repeat a certain mantra continuously the very repetition is so boring that the mind becomes tired, exhausted in that tiredness and exhaustion certainly it stops but that is not true silence, it is very cheap it is only a trick and anybody can manage it in the name of religion, spirituality it is selling simple auto-hypnosis
i am not in favour of such a silence the real silence happens when you start watching the noise of your mind
there is a constant traffic in the mind thoughts, memories, imagination thousands of desires it is always a crowd moving in all directions if you can stand by the side of the road and just watch, without any evaluation, judgment without condemning something or appreciating something just sitting on the bank of the river watching the flow of the river unconcerned, detached, just being a pure witness then the miracle happens
as your witnessing deepens the traffic on the road of the mind starts dispersing, in the same proportion when the witness is zero per cent the traffic is one hundred per cent -- it is rush hour when the witness is fifty per cent the traffic is fifty per cent when the witness is ninety-nine per cent the traffic is only one per cent and when the witness is one hundred per cent totally there, with absolute awareness the traffic disappears
and to see the empty mind is true silence then silence explodes from the innermost core of your being then it is like a lotus flower opening its petals that silence is liberating
i teach only that kind of silence
silence is not a dead thing the so-called religious people the saints and the spiritual leaders of mankind if you look at them you will get the idea that silence seems to be something dead because they are not really silent
they are boiling within, they have repressed their thoughts, desires, everything they are sitting on top of a volcano
when your mind is just repressed you get something dead then it is a silence of a graveyard but that is not worth achieving in fact the noise of the mind is far better at least it is alive compared to a dead silence the noise of the mind is far more valuable, because it is alive i am always in favour of life
for example, i would like an alive insane man more than a dead corpse it may be the corpse of a saint but the insane man is at least alive and life has possibilities the insane can become sane but that corpse of the saint cannot come back to life
silence has to be alive, vibrating pulsating, dancing, singing it has to be the experience of inner music then one has to move in a totally different way repression is not the way to attain to true silence, alive silence a silence full of music and song and dance understanding is the way
never repress anger: understand it never repress greed: understand it repression should not be a word in the vocabulary of a sannyasin understanding should be substituted because through understanding one transcends the moment you have understood your anger you are no more angry the energy of the anger is released from its old pattern through understanding and that same energy becomes compassion the moment you have understood the noise of the mind the same energy becomes the music of your inner being
man has not to deny anything in him because all that is there is immensely pregnant we have to find out -- with love, with insight what is hidden there then even things like jealousy, the ego possessiveness, the desire to dominate, ambition all are transformed you need not cut anything from your life we have to absorb all the energies then only can one have the inner orchestra because these are the people greed, anger, ego which will play on different instruments of your being
these are the musicians -- if you start killing them distorting them, throwing them out you will be left only with instruments and no musicians that's what happens to your so-called saints they are sitting there with all kinds of instruments, surrounded but there is nobody to play all the energy has oozed out of them they themselves have thrown it out it is sheer foolishness
energy is neither bad nor good it all depends on how you use it
so let understanding be the only law the only discipline and one can come to a very alive silence a silence which is also a celebration
it is our noise that is keeping us asleep the noise of the head functions like a lullaby and it keeps you asleep even while you think you are awake you are not truly awake because just below the thin layer of your so-called wakeful state there is a deep layer of constant noise that goes on day in, day out -- it is a constant lullaby
it allows you only a little bit of awareness just a little bit that is necessary for day-to-day work going to the once, coming back to the home eating your food, going to your bed just a very small quantity of awareness is needed for all these things in fact people go on doing all these things almost mechanically
if you eat your food every day at twelve o'clock and somebody has played a trick on you it is not twelve o'clock, it is only ten and somebody has fixed your clock on twelve looking at the clock you will suddenly feel hunger which is absolutely false, mechanical it is not there, it is your imagination it is just a projection, just an idea, a dream and while you are eating you simply go on stuffing yourself not knowing what you are doing the mind may be somewhere else -- in timbuctoo in constantinople, in istanbul -- anywhere any stupid place but not on the dining table where you are sitting
the mind is a great tourist it is always somewhere else and you are doing, eating or taking a bath just like a machine, just like a robot it has become a habit, so slowly slowly
even a little bit of awareness is not there one simply goes on doing mechanical gestures
when you say to somebody hi, how are you you don't mean anything in fact you were not even thinking to say it when you say it you are surprised why are you saying it it is just there like a gramophone record it works autonomously the moment you see some face which seems to be familiar it looks as if you have seen him somewhere the gramophone record simply starts turning on this constant noise inside is the barrier to awakening
silence does just the opposite it helps you to be awake hence initiation into sannyas is really initiation into silence
sannyas is another name for silence
become more and more silent allow more and more silent spaces to yourself and as you will become silent you will see a new kind of awakening happening to you a new awareness arising in you
new insight into things, new understandings which will transform all your activities
when a person attains to total silence he becomes a flame of awareness he becomes a buddha, the awakened one that's the ultimate goal
i don't believe in religions my emphasis is on religiousness
religions are bound to divide humanity that's what they have done in the past the whole of humanity is divided into camps inimical to each other, and the things they have been fighting about with each other are so stupid and ridiculous one religion says there are seven heavens another says there are only three and that's enough for a crusade it has to be proved in a war who is right great theologians of the middle ages were engaged in a great debate that continued for centuries the debate was how many angels can dance the point of a needle now these are the people who have been dominating humanity guiding humanity towards truth
these fools, utterly insane, are the leaders the great moral teachers
if you look into religious doctrines, dogmas you will be surprised -- the whole thing seems to be so pointless, utterly meaningless but so much energy has been wasted and the whole of humanity has been turned into small fragments hence i am not interested in any dogma any creed, any doctrine, any theology i don't teach you principles i simply want you to imbibe the spirit of religiousness and that is possible only through silence not through argumentation not by reading the scriptures not by cramming scriptures like parrots because that will only increase your inner noise it is already too much
silence can be attained only if we understand that language is needed for outside communication it is not needed for your inner exploration at all because there you are alone there is nobody to talk to
language is a social phenomenon needed of course when you go to the marketplace and if you want to purchase bananas language is needed if you just stand silently there they will think you are a banana in the marketplace, in the outside world when you are communicating with people about things, objects, it's perfectly adequate, valid but when you turn in all use of language is finished there comes a full point there is no need to carry the language in and with the language dropped the mind is dropped because mind is only the mechanism for language, for thoughts mind is basically an instrument for dialogue but when you are moving in there is no question of dialogue because there are not two who are going to discuss, argue, communicate you are one hence silence is the only way to discover oneself and the moment you have discovered yourself you will have a quality, a very subtle quality like a fragrance surrounding a rose that quality i call religiousness it is deep love for all it is unconditional love for the whole existence
silence has many aspects to it
it is multi-dimensional on the bush of silence thousands of flowers blossom of different colours, of different fragrances and the brightest of them all is an inner glow, inner light
the last words of buddha to his disciples were be a light unto yourself he was dying so nobody could ask him how? how should one be a light unto oneself? and it is not appropriate at all to ask him when he is leaving the world and he has given his last message it condenses his whole life's teachings
but when he died great quarrel, argumentation discussion arose amongst the disciples what does he mean by be a light unto yourself and of course he was no more there immediately thirty-two sects arose thirty-two interpretations of this simple sentence be a light unto yourself
the only person who was not involved at all in this argumentation was manjushri one of his great disciples he was sitting under his tree many came and asked manjushri, you are one of the oldest disciples what do you think about the last statement we are very much agitated -- what does it mean and it is really significant because it is his last statement it is his whole condensed philosophy of life
manjushri did not say a single word again and again they asked and he remained silent finally he said you cannot understand because i am answering you -- this is the only way to be a light unto yourself if you become silent and all these fools who are arguing they will argue for centuries they will never know the light that is within themselves
be silent, be still -- and the light is there just because of the cloud of your noise you cannot see it as the dust cloud settles suddenly the flame is seen and to see one's own inner light is to see the eternal, the ultimate, the deathless
Osho's Commentary
it is always suspicious
always doubting, always on guard
mind creates a situation in which you feel
a stranger to existence
because of all those suspicions
that mistrust disconnects one from all that is
and then there arises a vicious circle
the more you feel lonely, an outsider
the more afraid you become
because the vast universe seems to be inimical
this is mind's projection
and if the whole existence is inimical to you
naturally, you become more afraid
the more afraid you become
the more the universe seems to be inimical
that's how mind goes on shrinking into itself
closing its doors, windows. out of fear
it becomes a windowless, encapsulated existence
and out of that arises all suffering
misery, greed, anger
mind is the creator of the hell around
the heart is always brave
because the heart cannot doubt
just as the mind cannot trust
the heart simply trusts -- it is its nature
but the religions have been creating
a very difficult situation for man
they tell to you believe
but that belief is going to be of the mind
and any belief of the mind
is carrying within it all its doubts
because that is not the nature of the mind
the christian, the hindu, the mohammedan
they are all believers
but belief is part of the mind
hence it can never be true
it is always superficial, not even skin-deep
scratch it a little bit
and you will find all the doubts hiding behind it
i don't say to my sannyasins believe
that's what has been driving
the whole of humanity crazy
i say to my sannyasins
move your energy from the mind to the heart
and then there is trust -- it is not belief
belief is a suppression of doubt
and trust is absence of doubt
that is a totally different phenomenon
of tremendous beauty and of immense innocence
and the way to move from the mind to the heart
is becoming silent, more and more silent
mind is noisy, heart is silent
so one has to renounce the noise
and slowly slowly, imbibe the spirit of silence
a moment comes when you can hear
the Sound
of one hand
Clapping
and that is the moment of ultimate transformation
then you are really born for the first time
then one is not a christian or a hindu
or a mohammedan or a jew
one is simply religious
because of that trust, that silence
a quality, a totally new quality arises in your being
that quality i call religiousness
aloneness and silence
are two aspects of one experience
two sides of the same coin
if one wants to experience silence
one has to go into one's total aloneness
it is there
we are born alone, we die alone
between these two realities we create
a thousand and one illusions of being together
all kinds of relationships
friends and enemies, loves and hates
nations, races, religions
we create all kinds of hallucinations
just to avoid one fact
that we are alone
but whatsoever we do, the truth cannot be changed
it is so, and rather than trying to escape from it
the best way is to rejoice in it
rejoicing in your own aloneness
is what meditation is all about
the meditator is one who dives deep
into one's aloneness
knowing that we are born alone
we will be dying alone
and deep down we are living alone
so why not experience what this aloneness is
it is our very nature, our very being
because of this aloneness
two possibilities open up
one, to escape from it
then whatsoever you do in the name of love is false
because you don't love the person
you are simply trying to find an excuse
in the other person to escape from yourself
and the other is also doing the same
it is a very negative kind of love
the other is trying to escape
from his or her aloneness
and you are just an excuse
the person who chooses the first alternative
of escaping from one's reality becomes pseudo
in all his love, in all his relationships
the second alternative is to experience
your aloneness, your silence
that absolutely virgin spot inside your being
where nobody can enter, nobody can trespass
that is your true world
knowing it, experiencing it, one is surprised
that there was no need to escape from it
it is one of the most ecstatic experiences
even love is secondary
the person who has known his aloneness also loves
but his love has a tremendous beauty
t is positive: he is not escaping from himself
he is rooted in himself, centred in himself
and because of that rootedness and centering
he is so full of joy that he wants to share it
his love is a sharing, it is not an escape
his love is a gift
the other is not being used as a means
the other is dignified by his love
ordinarily love reduces people into slaves
into bondage, into possessiveness, into jealousy
into all kinds of ugly things
real love is a by-product of the experience
of silence and aloneness
i teach meditation
and i teach love through meditation
when love is grounded in meditation
then it is alive
then it is exactly synonymous with god
then it brings freedom
and it brings great blessings and benedictions
very few people have known really what love is
because very few people have entered
into their own innermost, silent, alone space
a sannyasin has to do only one thing
he has to rejoice in his aloneness
then love comes just like a shadow
of its own accord
one can cultivate a certain kind of silence
by chanting mantra
by other auto-hypnotic methods
by focussing on something constantly
one can create a kind of silence
but that is pseudo
it is really a state of dullness, not silence
it is a state closer to sleep
not closer to awakening
methods like transcendental meditation
are nothing but non-medicinal tranquillisers
if you repeat a certain mantra continuously
the very repetition is so boring
that the mind becomes tired, exhausted
in that tiredness and exhaustion certainly it stops
but that is not true silence, it is very cheap
it is only a trick and anybody can manage it
in the name of religion, spirituality
it is selling simple auto-hypnosis
i am not in favour of such a silence
the real silence happens
when you start watching the noise of your mind
there is a constant traffic in the mind
thoughts, memories, imagination
thousands of desires
it is always a crowd moving in all directions
if you can stand by the side of the road
and just watch, without any evaluation, judgment
without condemning something
or appreciating something
just sitting on the bank of the river
watching the flow of the river
unconcerned, detached, just being a pure witness
then the miracle happens
as your witnessing deepens
the traffic on the road of the mind
starts dispersing, in the same proportion
when the witness is zero per cent
the traffic is one hundred per cent -- it is rush hour
when the witness is fifty per cent
the traffic is fifty per cent
when the witness is ninety-nine per cent
the traffic is only one per cent
and when the witness is one hundred per cent
totally there, with absolute awareness
the traffic disappears
and to see the empty mind is true silence
then silence explodes
from the innermost core of your being
then it is like a lotus flower opening its petals
that silence is liberating
i teach only that kind of silence
silence is not a dead thing
the so-called religious people
the saints and the spiritual leaders of mankind
if you look at them you will get the idea
that silence seems to be something dead
because they are not really silent
they are boiling within, they have repressed
their thoughts, desires, everything
they are sitting on top of a volcano
when your mind is just repressed
you get something dead
then it is a silence of a graveyard
but that is not worth achieving
in fact the noise of the mind is far better
at least it is alive
compared to a dead silence the noise of the mind
is far more valuable, because it is alive
i am always in favour of life
for example, i would like an alive insane man
more than a dead corpse
it may be the corpse of a saint
but the insane man is at least alive
and life has possibilities
the insane can become sane
but that corpse of the saint cannot come back to life
silence has to be alive, vibrating
pulsating, dancing, singing
it has to be the experience of inner music
then one has to move in a totally different way
repression is not the way to attain
to true silence, alive silence
a silence full of music and song and dance
understanding is the way
never repress anger: understand it
never repress greed: understand it
repression should not be a word
in the vocabulary of a sannyasin
understanding should be substituted
because through understanding one transcends
the moment you have understood your anger
you are no more angry
the energy of the anger is released
from its old pattern through understanding
and that same energy becomes compassion
the moment you have understood
the noise of the mind
the same energy becomes
the music of your inner being
man has not to deny anything in him
because all that is there is immensely pregnant
we have to find out -- with love, with insight
what is hidden there
then even things like jealousy, the ego
possessiveness, the desire to dominate, ambition
all are transformed
you need not cut anything from your life
we have to absorb all the energies
then only can one have the inner orchestra
because these are the people
greed, anger, ego
which will play on different instruments
of your being
these are the musicians -- if you start killing them
distorting them, throwing them out
you will be left only with instruments
and no musicians
that's what happens to your so-called saints
they are sitting there
with all kinds of instruments, surrounded
but there is nobody to play
all the energy has oozed out of them
they themselves have thrown it out
it is sheer foolishness
energy is neither bad nor good
it all depends on how you use it
so let understanding be the only law
the only discipline
and one can come to a very alive silence
a silence which is also a celebration
it is our noise that is keeping us asleep
the noise of the head functions like a lullaby
and it keeps you asleep
even while you think you are awake
you are not truly awake because just below
the thin layer of your so-called wakeful state
there is a deep layer of constant noise that goes on
day in, day out -- it is a constant lullaby
it allows you only a little bit of awareness
just a little bit that is necessary for day-to-day work
going to the once, coming back to the home
eating your food, going to your bed
just a very small quantity of awareness
is needed for all these things
in fact people go on doing all these things
almost mechanically
if you eat your food every day at twelve o'clock
and somebody has played a trick on you
it is not twelve o'clock, it is only ten
and somebody has fixed your clock on twelve
looking at the clock you will suddenly feel hunger
which is absolutely false, mechanical
it is not there, it is your imagination
it is just a projection, just an idea, a dream
and while you are eating
you simply go on stuffing yourself
not knowing what you are doing
the mind may be somewhere else -- in timbuctoo
in constantinople, in istanbul -- anywhere
any stupid place but not on the dining table
where you are sitting
the mind is a great tourist
it is always somewhere else
and you are doing, eating or taking a bath
just like a machine, just like a robot
it has become a habit, so slowly slowly
even a little bit of awareness is not there
one simply goes on doing mechanical gestures
when you say to somebody hi, how are you
you don't mean anything
in fact you were not even thinking to say it
when you say it you are surprised
why are you saying it
it is just there like a gramophone record
it works autonomously
the moment you see some face
which seems to be familiar
it looks as if you have seen him somewhere
the gramophone record simply starts turning on
this constant noise inside
is the barrier to awakening
silence does just the opposite
it helps you to be awake
hence initiation into sannyas is really
initiation into silence
sannyas is another name for silence
become more and more silent
allow more and more silent spaces to yourself
and as you will become silent you will see
a new kind of awakening happening to you
a new awareness arising in you
new insight into things, new understandings
which will transform all your activities
when a person attains to total silence
he becomes a flame of awareness
he becomes a buddha, the awakened one
that's the ultimate goal
i don't believe in religions
my emphasis is on religiousness
religions are bound to divide humanity
that's what they have done in the past
the whole of humanity is divided into camps
inimical to each other, and the things
they have been fighting about with each other
are so stupid and ridiculous
one religion says there are seven heavens
another says there are only three
and that's enough for a crusade
it has to be proved in a war who is right
great theologians of the middle ages were engaged
in a great debate that continued for centuries
the debate was
how many angels can dance
the point of a needle
now these are the people who have been
dominating humanity guiding humanity
towards truth
these fools, utterly insane, are the leaders
the great moral teachers
if you look into religious doctrines, dogmas
you will be surprised -- the whole thing
seems to be so pointless, utterly meaningless
but so much energy has been wasted
and the whole of humanity
has been turned into small fragments
hence i am not interested in any dogma
any creed, any doctrine, any theology
i don't teach you principles
i simply want you to imbibe
the spirit of religiousness
and that is possible only through silence
not through argumentation
not by reading the scriptures
not by cramming scriptures like parrots
because that will only increase your inner noise
it is already too much
silence can be attained only if we understand
that language is needed for outside communication
it is not needed for your inner exploration at all
because there you are alone
there is nobody to talk to
language is a social phenomenon
needed of course when you go to the marketplace
and if you want to purchase bananas
language is needed
if you just stand silently there
they will think you are a banana
in the marketplace, in the outside world
when you are communicating with people
about things, objects, it's perfectly adequate, valid
but when you turn in
all use of language is finished
there comes a full point
there is no need to carry the language in
and with the language dropped the mind is dropped
because mind is only the mechanism
for language, for thoughts
mind is basically an instrument for dialogue
but when you are moving in
there is no question of dialogue
because there are not two
who are going to discuss, argue, communicate
you are one
hence silence is the only way to discover oneself
and the moment you have discovered yourself
you will have a quality, a very subtle quality
like a fragrance surrounding a rose
that quality i call religiousness
it is deep love for all
it is unconditional love for the whole existence
silence has many aspects to it
it is multi-dimensional
on the bush of silence
thousands of flowers blossom
of different colours, of different fragrances
and the brightest of them all
is an inner glow, inner light
the last words of buddha to his disciples were
be a light unto yourself
he was dying so nobody could ask him
how? how should one be a light unto oneself?
and it is not appropriate at all to ask him
when he is leaving the world
and he has given his last message
it condenses his whole life's teachings
but when he died great quarrel, argumentation
discussion arose amongst the disciples
what does he mean by be a light unto yourself
and of course he was no more there
immediately thirty-two sects arose
thirty-two interpretations of this simple sentence
be a light unto yourself
the only person who was not involved at all
in this argumentation was manjushri
one of his great disciples
he was sitting under his tree
many came and asked
manjushri, you are one of the oldest disciples
what do you think about the last statement
we are very much agitated -- what does it mean
and it is really significant
because it is his last statement
it is his whole condensed philosophy of life
manjushri did not say a single word
again and again they asked and he remained silent
finally he said you cannot understand
because i am answering you -- this is the only way
to be a light unto yourself
if you become silent
and all these fools who are arguing
they will argue for centuries
they will never know the light
that is within themselves
be silent, be still -- and the light is there
just because of the cloud of your noise
you cannot see it
as the dust cloud settles
suddenly the flame is seen
and to see one's own inner light
is to see the eternal, the ultimate, the deathless