the mind is doubt -- every mind, mind as such hence nobody should think that he is without doubt because whatsoever is done through the mind is bound to be doubt-full even the so-called beliefs are nothing but cover-ups for doubt one believes so that one can escape from doubt doubt is like a wound but belief is not a healing force it only covers the wound it deceives others but that is not very significant it deceives you -- that is of real importance
to live in self-deception is to miss the whole point of life
there are only two ways to deal with doubt you can cover up your doubt with belief millions of people all over the world have been doing that for millions of years doubt remains and goes on growing like a cancerous thing the other way is to go into your doubt rather than hiding, deceiving encounter it, face it, dig it and that is the way to transcend it if one encounters one's doubt one can immediately see that one is separate from one's doubts they are there like objects, you are here the mirror that reflects them the awareness that encounters them this very experience takes you beyond doubt that is the state of faith, of trust and that is the beginning of sannyas
desiring includes all desires -- the worldly, the other-worldly
material, the spiritual the mundane, the sacred so it is not a question of choosing either one drops the whole of desiring or one remains in the grip of it
the so-called religious people are still in the grip of it they may not desire money but they desire meditation they may not desire power but they desire god they may not desire things of the world but they desire the kingdom of the beyond it is the same desire it has come in from the backdoor again you have to be very watchful not to allow desire in any form to enter you because desire is bondage, desire is misery, desire is hell
the more full of desires one is the more frustrations one is breeding
because each desire will end in frustration whether it succeeds or fails makes no difference frustration is bound to happen, it is inevitable if the desire fails and out of one hundred desires ninety-nine are bound to fail because it is a competitive world you are not alone
many people are desiring the same things there are not enough things and people are many things are scarce and people are millions how many people can be presidents how many people can be prime ministers very few... but everybody wants to be hence ninety-nine per cent of desires are bound to fail, and then there will be great frustration
one per cent of desires may succeed but frustration comes all the same in fact more so because when a desire succeeds for the first time you become aware that you have wasted your whole life for it and nothing is attained money is there but your poverty remains untouched by it your inner emptiness remains the same in fact in contrast with the money that you have achieved your inner emptiness looks even emptier than before you have attained power outside but deep inside you know you are impotent impotent in the face of death one has to die, no power can save one
so whether a desire succeeds or fails it fails all the same this is one of the most fundamental truths to be understood once you see the point then you don't go on changing horses because they are all the same the black horse and the white horse, devil and god it doesn't make much difference it is just the difference between a black horse and a white horse they will all lead you into misery then one simply gets out of the whole trip one forgets desiring, one starts living
desiring is always somewhere else the fulfilment is in the future living is now here
these are the only two ways to create a style of life living in the future which is only so-called living because the future is non-existential and living in the present which is the only way of living, authentic living
time consists only of two tenses, not of three ordinarily it is divided into three parts the past, the present and the future that is existentially wrong grammatically it may be right linguistically it may be right but i have no concern with language and grammar my concern is with existence as far as existence is concerned time only consists of past and future the present is not part of time it is part of existence
existence is always now, it is never then it is never yesterday, never tomorrow it is this very moment and to go beyond time is the whole art of meditation
meditation is the transcendence of time past and future both and the plunging into the now, the here. the deeper you plunge into the now and the here the more you disappear because mind cannot exist without past and future mind is like a pendulum of a clock it moves from one opposite to the other from right to left, from left to right stop it in the middle and the clock stops
mind moves between past and future the clock of the mind stop it in the middle and the clock stops and the moment the mind is not there you are not then god is then freedom is then love is then flowering is then eternity is
there are many boundaries around us we are the centre of many concentric circles and we have to go beyond all those concentric circles only then can we find the centre the most important concentric circles are four
the first is the world of objects the majority of people is concerned with the world of objects money, power, prestige, respectability they remain very peripheral presidents, prime ministers queens, rotarians, lions you will find all Kinds of stupid people hanging onto the very outermost circumference and making much fuss about it
the second concentric circle is of the body many live in the body, particularly women man hangs onto the first more, the most peripheral his concern is more about things, objects far-away objects what is happening in israel and what is happening in korea the woman is not so concerned about korea and israel she is most concerned about the colour of her hair, her eyelashes the proportion of her body
she looks at the male as being a little bit crazy you are unnecessarily worried about the stars and the speed of light what have you to do with it the real thing is the furniture the curtains, the pillows the kitchen, the bathroom
it looks more mundane to man it looks more earthly but in a way she is closer
but many men also remain there they have to because their wives are there their girlfriends are there they cannot go to israel they cannot go to the moon they cannot go to everest they are possessed by their women they won't allow them to so they also have to be just very close near the kitchen, the bathroom maybe the woman looks at the mirror and they clean the mirror but they are not very far either
millions of people simply live at the physiological, the biological the chemical level of life closer than that is another concentric circle that of the mind: thoughts, ideas philosophers, theologians, thinkers, scientists these people live there closer than that is the concentric circle of the heart the poets, the painters the musicians, the dancers the aesthetic people live there but all are outside your real being
one has to transcend all these four boundaries only then does one encounter oneself then for the first time one stands face-to-face to oneself and that is the moment of great illumination when you see your centre you have seen all that is worth seeing you have seen god himself you have seen the truth there is nothing higher than that nothing deeper than that nothing more valuable than that
sannyas is the transcendence of all boundaries so that one day you can simply relax in your very centre that centre is consciousness awareness godliness
life is one energy but out of that one energy we can either create love or attachment love is heaven, attachment is hell we can create out of that energy bondage or freedom it all depends on us on how we work upon our energy
the lower is cheaper and easier to create hell does not need much intelligence it does not even need courage all that it needs is imitation because millions of people are doing the same thing all around you you can just imitate them your parents, your teachers, your leaders it is simple you will become a carbon copy you will live in the same kind of hell misery, anguish and you will give to your children, your heritage and they will repeat the same pattern this way it goes on and on from adam and eve up to you it has been going on in the same way
only very few people have been able to get out of the rut and those are the salt of the earth
a jesus, a buddha, a lao tzu a zarathustra, a kabir -- very few people they can be counted on one's fingers they are real miracles in existence because to get out of the rut of the crowd is really a great act of courage, intelligence, rebellion
the crowd lives in attachment attachment to money attachment to children attachment to parents attachment to wives, husbands attachment to this and that there are thousands of attachments and they think it is love because they think it is love they cannot get out of it so the first thing is to label things correctly to categorise things correctly
attachment is love standing upside-down attachment is love gone sour attachment is an ill state of love love is a healthy phenomenon attachment is sick, nauseating and everybody experiences it the more you become attached, the more miserable the more you allow others to become attached to you
the more miserable they become and of course we become infected with each other's misery and it is never a simple addition it is always multiplication
a sannyasin has to learn what the causes of his misery are and you will find one of the most significant causes is attachment
don't be attached to anything live live totally, live lovingly but don't possess, don't dominate and don't allow anybody to possess or dominate you if you want to be really blissful and if you are blissful you can share love
love is a sharing of bliss attachment is a sharing of misery it is ugly, it is inhuman love brings freedom to you and also freedom to the person you love
let that be the criterion if it brings freedom it is love if it brings bondage it is attachment attachment has to be dropped
and love has to be grown the more loving you become the closer you are to god
jesus is right when he says god is love
man lives in words the words can be beautiful but they are all empty the word god is not god the word love is not love either you cannot be nourished by the word food and you cannot quench your thirst with the word water words are dangerous they can keep you in deception they can give you the feeling as if you know
millions of people think they know god because they know the word millions of people think they know love because they know the word
a sannyasin has to get beyond words to the real content he has to disperse words and to see what is hidden behind them that's the exploration
just as one goes on peeling an onion one has to go on peeling words so one can come to the very core of them and the miracle is when you go on peeling words like an onion ultimately you come to emptiness, nothingness
is the ultimate sense of existence that is silence when all noise of the words has left you and there is only profound silence undisturbed, undistracted in that silence knowing happens seeing happens, being happens
bibles, korans, gitas cannot give it to you -- they are all words, they are beautiful they were spoken by beautiful people but that does not make any difference even if buddha says the word rose it does not become a rose even if jesus says the word fire it does not become fire but beautiful people can be so hypnotic that you start believing in their words
christians, hindus, mohammedans, buddhists are all doing the same they have all forgotten the reality
and are clinging to the labels they are all clinging to the cages maybe they are golden cages but the bird, the alive bird, the singing bird is no more there
the search of sannyas is for the alive, the singing bird
man has two alternatives two possible orientations one is character, the other is consciousness
character is imposed from the outside it is a political and social strategy to dominate the person consciousness is individual, character is social all societies are against consciousness and for character because they can manipulate character it is within their grasp they can paint it according to their own investment they can cut you into shape to fit with their mechanism they can make you obedient through it they can make you a slave
and that is the desire of all the establishment
but the real master never gives you character he gives you consciousness consciousness is a discovery of your own being no discipline is imposed on you in fact all discipline is disposed of you are allowed to be yourself, authentically as god means you to be one has to discover one's nature one's spontaneity, one's original face that is consciousness the very discovery makes you more and more conscious the deeper you go into it the more conscious you become a point comes when you are just a flame of light and in that light whatsoever you do is right in that light wrong is impossible and right is inevitable then a totally different kind of character comes like a shadow following consciousness i call that character religious, spiritual
the so-called character in the world is just political, social it has no value at all so go beyond the ordinary character
so that you can find the real character and the way to find the real is through consciousness
the master cannot say anything about truth truth is inexpressible it is beyond all indications it cannot even be pointed at because it is not an object -- it is all over so when you point at it in a direction you are already falsifying because it is not in one direction it is the whole space no gesture is capable of capturing it hence the only way is to go beyond language to go beyond scriptures, to go beyond indications to go beyond all possible symbols, metaphors and just to be in tune with the master just in a silent communion nothing is said, nothing is heard and yet it happens
say something and it will be misunderstood try to understand it and you have already misunderstood it neither saying is going to help nor listening is going to help the master is silent, the disciple is silent
slowly slowly the two silences merge and become one and when the two silences become one you hear
the Sound of one hand Clapping
that is beyond alI expression and that is the moment of enlightenment it is a transmission beyond the words beyond indications, beyond scriptures just a flame jumping into another heart a quantum leap from a lit lamp to an unlit lamp the lit lamp loses nothing and the unlit gains everything it is a transmission of light a transmission of the lamp
so the disciple has to learn only one thing how to sit in silence, in tremendous love waiting waiting for the moment when it comes not desiring, not expecting not asking, not demanding just waiting that is the very soul of sannyas the word waiting
truth is beyond discussion it cannot be discussed either you see it or you don't see it it cannot be proved no argument can support it or destroy it it is not a question of philosophical debate
because it is not intellectual at alI hence the most futile exercise in the world is philosophy it is just hair-splitting, absolutely pointless the most stupid thing that one can get involved in is philosophy
after thousands of years of philosophical analysis not a single conclusion has been reached not a single truth has been arrived at that is enough reason for philosophy being dropped, completely dropped it is an exercise in utter futility
this is where sannyas takes a totally different route sannyas basically means mysticism it is not philosophical, it is existential we are not searching to know about truth we are not trying to know about truth we are trying to be the truth and to be the truth is the only way to know it there is no other way unless you have tasted it totally so totally that it has become part of your blood, bone and marrow you will not know it unless you have become it there is no knowing of it
truth cannot be an object it becomes your very subjectivity truth is subjectivity, your very innermost core it is self-discovery; hence one has to drop all the patterns of argumentation all the methods of analysis all doubts, all beliefs, all systems of thought theistic, atheistic catholic, protestant, hindu, mohammedan one has to get rid of the whole fabric of the mind the whole junk has to be burned so that one is simply in a state of not-knowing and in that very state of not-knowing the flower of knowing opens up in the east we have called the flower the one-thousand-petalled lotus
Osho's Commentary
hence nobody should think that he is without doubt
because whatsoever is done through the mind
is bound to be doubt-full
even the so-called beliefs
are nothing but cover-ups for doubt
one believes so that one can escape from doubt
doubt is like a wound
but belief is not a healing force
it only covers the wound
it deceives others but that is not very significant
it deceives you -- that is of real importance
to live in self-deception
is to miss the whole point of life
there are only two ways to deal with doubt
you can cover up your doubt with belief
millions of people all over the world
have been doing that for millions of years
doubt remains and goes on growing
like a cancerous thing
the other way is to go into your doubt
rather than hiding, deceiving
encounter it, face it, dig it
and that is the way to transcend it
if one encounters one's doubt
one can immediately see
that one is separate from one's doubts
they are there like objects, you are here
the mirror that reflects them
the awareness that encounters them
this very experience takes you beyond doubt
that is the state of faith, of trust
and that is the beginning of sannyas
desiring includes all desires --
the worldly, the other-worldly
material, the spiritual
the mundane, the sacred
so it is not a question of choosing
either one drops the whole of desiring
or one remains in the grip of it
the so-called religious people
are still in the grip of it
they may not desire money
but they desire meditation
they may not desire power
but they desire god
they may not desire things of the world
but they desire the kingdom of the beyond
it is the same desire
it has come in from the backdoor again
you have to be very watchful
not to allow desire in any form to enter you because
desire is bondage, desire is misery, desire is hell
the more full of desires one is
the more frustrations one is breeding
because each desire will end in frustration
whether it succeeds or fails makes no difference
frustration is bound to happen,
it is inevitable
if the desire fails
and out of one hundred desires
ninety-nine are bound to fail
because it is a competitive world
you are not alone
many people are desiring the same things
there are not enough things and people are many
things are scarce and people are millions
how many people can be presidents
how many people can be prime ministers
very few... but everybody wants to be
hence ninety-nine per cent of desires
are bound to fail, and then
there will be great frustration
one per cent of desires may succeed
but frustration comes all the same
in fact more so
because when a desire succeeds
for the first time you become aware
that you have wasted your whole life for it
and nothing is attained
money is there
but your poverty remains untouched by it
your inner emptiness remains the same
in fact
in contrast with the money that you have achieved
your inner emptiness
looks even emptier than before
you have attained power outside
but deep inside you know you are impotent
impotent in the face of death
one has to die, no power can save one
so whether a desire succeeds or fails
it fails all the same
this is one of the most fundamental truths
to be understood
once you see the point
then you don't go on changing horses
because they are all the same
the black horse and the white horse, devil and god
it doesn't make much difference
it is just the difference between
a black horse and a white horse
they will all lead you into misery
then one simply gets out of the whole trip
one forgets desiring, one starts living
desiring is always somewhere else
the fulfilment is in the future
living
is now
here
these are the only two ways
to create a style of life
living in the future
which is only so-called living
because the future is non-existential
and living in the present
which is the only way
of living, authentic living
time consists only of two tenses, not of three
ordinarily it is divided into three parts
the past, the present and the future
that is existentially wrong
grammatically it may be right
linguistically it may be right
but i have no concern with language and grammar
my concern is with existence
as far as existence is concerned
time only consists of past and future
the present is not part of time
it is part of existence
existence is always now, it is never then
it is never yesterday, never tomorrow
it is this very moment
and to go beyond time
is the whole art of meditation
meditation is the transcendence of time
past and future both
and the plunging into the now, the here.
the deeper you plunge into the now and the here
the more you disappear
because mind cannot exist without past and future
mind is like a pendulum of a clock
it moves from one opposite to the other
from right to left, from left to right
stop it in the middle and the clock stops
mind moves between past and future
the clock of the mind
stop it in the middle and the clock stops
and the moment the mind is not there
you are not
then god is
then freedom is
then love is
then flowering is
then eternity is
there are many boundaries around us
we are the centre of many concentric circles
and we have to go beyond
all those concentric circles
only then can we find the centre
the most important concentric circles are four
the first is the world of objects
the majority of people
is concerned with the world of objects
money, power, prestige, respectability
they remain very peripheral
presidents, prime ministers
queens, rotarians, lions
you will find all Kinds of stupid people
hanging onto the very outermost circumference
and making much fuss about it
the second concentric circle is of the body
many live in the body, particularly women
man hangs onto the first more, the most peripheral
his concern is more about things, objects
far-away objects
what is happening in israel
and what is happening in korea
the woman is not so concerned
about korea and israel
she is most concerned about
the colour of her hair, her eyelashes
the proportion of her body
she looks at the male as being a little bit crazy
you are unnecessarily worried
about the stars and the speed of light
what have you to do with it
the real thing is the furniture
the curtains, the pillows
the kitchen, the bathroom
it looks more mundane to man
it looks more earthly
but in a way she is closer
but many men also remain there
they have to because their wives are there
their girlfriends are there
they cannot go to israel
they cannot go to the moon
they cannot go to everest
they are possessed by their women
they won't allow them to
so they also have to be just very close
near the kitchen, the bathroom
maybe the woman looks at the mirror
and they clean the mirror
but they are not very far either
millions of people
simply live at the physiological, the biological
the chemical level of life
closer than that is another concentric circle
that of the mind: thoughts, ideas
philosophers, theologians, thinkers, scientists
these people live there
closer than that
is the concentric circle of the heart
the poets, the painters
the musicians, the dancers
the aesthetic people live there
but all are outside your real being
one has to transcend all these four boundaries
only then does one encounter oneself
then for the first time
one stands face-to-face to oneself
and that is the moment of great illumination
when you see your centre
you have seen all that is worth seeing
you have seen god himself
you have seen the truth
there is nothing higher than that
nothing deeper than that
nothing more valuable than that
sannyas is the transcendence
of all boundaries so that one day
you can simply relax in your very centre
that centre is consciousness
awareness
godliness
life is one energy
but out of that one energy
we can either create love or attachment
love is heaven, attachment is hell
we can create out of that energy
bondage or freedom
it all depends on us
on how we work upon our energy
the lower is cheaper and easier
to create hell does not need much intelligence
it does not even need courage
all that it needs is imitation
because millions of people
are doing the same thing all around you
you can just imitate them
your parents, your teachers, your leaders
it is simple
you will become a carbon copy
you will live in the same kind of hell
misery, anguish
and you will give to your children, your heritage
and they will repeat the same pattern
this way it goes on and on
from adam and eve up to you
it has been going on in the same way
only very few people
have been able to get out of the rut
and those are the salt of the earth
a jesus, a buddha, a lao tzu
a zarathustra, a kabir -- very few people
they can be counted on one's fingers
they are real miracles in existence
because to get out of the rut of the crowd
is really a great act
of courage, intelligence, rebellion
the crowd lives in attachment
attachment to money
attachment to children
attachment to parents
attachment to wives, husbands
attachment to this and that
there are thousands of attachments
and they think it is love
because they think it is love
they cannot get out of it
so the first thing is to label things correctly
to categorise things correctly
attachment is love standing upside-down
attachment is love gone sour
attachment is an ill state of love
love is a healthy phenomenon
attachment is sick, nauseating
and everybody experiences it
the more you become attached, the more miserable
the more you allow others
to become attached to you
the more miserable they become
and of course
we become infected with each other's misery
and it is never a simple addition
it is always multiplication
a sannyasin has to learn
what the causes of his misery are
and you will find
one of the most significant causes is attachment
don't be attached to anything
live
live totally, live lovingly
but don't possess, don't dominate
and don't allow anybody
to possess or dominate you
if you want to be really blissful
and if you are blissful you can share love
love is a sharing of bliss
attachment is a sharing of misery
it is ugly, it is inhuman
love brings freedom to you
and also freedom to the person you love
let that be the criterion
if it brings freedom it is love
if it brings bondage it is attachment
attachment has to be dropped
and love has to be grown
the more loving you become
the closer you are to god
jesus is right when he says
god is love
man lives in words
the words can be beautiful but they are all empty
the word god is not god
the word love is not love either
you cannot be nourished by the word food
and you cannot quench your thirst
with the word water
words are dangerous
they can keep you in deception
they can give you the feeling as if you know
millions of people think they know god
because they know the word
millions of people think they know love
because they know the word
a sannyasin has to get beyond words
to the real content
he has to disperse words
and to see what is hidden behind them
that's the exploration
just as one goes on peeling an onion
one has to go on peeling words
so one can come to the very core of them
and the miracle is
when you go on peeling words like an onion
ultimately you come to emptiness, nothingness
is the ultimate sense of existence
that is silence
when all noise of the words has left you
and there is only profound silence
undisturbed, undistracted
in that silence knowing happens
seeing happens, being happens
bibles, korans, gitas cannot give it to you --
they are all words, they are beautiful
they were spoken by beautiful people
but that does not make any difference
even if buddha says the word rose
it does not become a rose
even if jesus says the word fire
it does not become fire
but beautiful people can be so hypnotic
that you start believing in their words
christians, hindus, mohammedans, buddhists
are all doing the same
they have all forgotten the reality
and are clinging to the labels
they are all clinging to the cages
maybe they are golden cages
but the bird, the alive bird, the singing bird
is no more there
the search of sannyas
is for the alive, the singing bird
man has two alternatives
two possible orientations
one is character, the other is consciousness
character is imposed from the outside
it is a political and social strategy
to dominate the person
consciousness is individual, character is social
all societies are against consciousness
and for character
because they can manipulate character
it is within their grasp
they can paint it
according to their own investment
they can cut you into shape
to fit with their mechanism
they can make you obedient through it
they can make you a slave
and that is the desire
of all the establishment
but the real master
never gives you character
he gives you consciousness
consciousness is a discovery of your own being
no discipline is imposed on you
in fact all discipline is disposed of
you are allowed to be yourself, authentically
as god means you to be
one has to discover one's nature
one's spontaneity, one's original face
that is consciousness
the very discovery
makes you more and more conscious
the deeper you go into it
the more conscious you become
a point comes when you are just a flame of light
and in that light whatsoever you do is right
in that light
wrong is impossible and right is inevitable
then a totally different kind of character
comes like a shadow following consciousness
i call that character religious, spiritual
the so-called character in the world
is just political, social
it has no value at all
so go beyond the ordinary character
so that you can find the real character
and the way to find the real
is through consciousness
the master cannot say anything about truth
truth is inexpressible
it is beyond all indications
it cannot even be pointed at
because it is not an object -- it is all over
so when you point at it in a direction
you are already falsifying
because it is not in one direction
it is the whole space
no gesture is capable of capturing it
hence the only way is to go beyond language
to go beyond scriptures, to go beyond indications
to go beyond all possible symbols, metaphors
and just to be in tune with the master
just in a silent communion
nothing is said, nothing is heard
and yet it happens
say something and it will be misunderstood
try to understand it
and you have already misunderstood it
neither saying is going to help
nor listening is going to help
the master is silent, the disciple is silent
slowly slowly
the two silences merge and become one
and when the two silences become one
you hear
the Sound
of one hand
Clapping
that is beyond alI expression
and that is the moment of enlightenment
it is a transmission beyond the words
beyond indications, beyond scriptures
just a flame jumping into another heart
a quantum leap from a lit lamp to an unlit lamp
the lit lamp loses nothing
and the unlit gains everything
it is a transmission of light
a transmission of the lamp
so the disciple has to learn only one thing
how to sit in silence, in tremendous love
waiting
waiting for the moment when it comes
not desiring, not expecting
not asking, not demanding
just waiting
that is the very soul of sannyas
the word waiting
truth is beyond discussion
it cannot be discussed
either you see it or you don't see it
it cannot be proved
no argument can support it or destroy it
it is not a question of philosophical debate
because it is not intellectual at alI
hence the most futile exercise in the world
is philosophy
it is just hair-splitting, absolutely pointless
the most stupid thing
that one can get involved in is philosophy
after thousands of years of philosophical analysis
not a single conclusion has been reached
not a single truth has been arrived at
that is enough reason
for philosophy being dropped, completely dropped
it is an exercise in utter futility
this is where sannyas
takes a totally different route
sannyas basically means mysticism
it is not philosophical, it is existential
we are not searching to know about truth
we are not trying to know about truth
we are trying to be the truth
and to be the truth is the only way to know it
there is no other way
unless you have tasted it totally
so totally that it has become part
of your blood, bone and marrow
you will not know it
unless you have become it
there is no knowing of it
truth cannot be an object
it becomes your very subjectivity
truth is subjectivity, your very innermost core
it is self-discovery; hence one has to drop
all the patterns of argumentation
all the methods of analysis
all doubts, all beliefs, all systems of thought
theistic, atheistic
catholic, protestant, hindu, mohammedan
one has to get rid of the whole fabric of the mind
the whole junk has to be burned
so that one is simply in a state of not-knowing
and in that very state of not-knowing
the flower of knowing opens up
in the east we have called the flower
the one-thousand-petalled lotus