Abiding Place

Question: BELOVED OSHO, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT WHETHER YOU'RE HAPPY OR ANGRY, IN QUIET OR NOISY PLACES, YOU STILL MUST BRING UP CHAO CHOU'S SAYING, "A DOG HAS NO BUDDHA-NATURE." ABOVE ALL, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT. IF YOU CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU'RE SAYING, "RIGHT NOW I'M DELUDED." IF YOU WAIT FOR ENLIGHTENMENT, CLINGING TO DELUSION, THOUGH YOU PASS THROUGH COUNTLESS EONS YOU WILL STILL NOT BE ABLE TO GAIN ENLIGHTENMENT. AS YOU BRING UP THE SAYING, JUST AROUSE YOUR SPIRIT, AND SEE WHAT PRINCIPLE IT IS. CONSTANTLY TAKE THE TWO CONCERNS -- NOT KNOWING WHERE WE COME FROM AT BIRTH AND NOT KNOWING WHERE WE GO AT DEATH -- AND STICK THEM ON THE POINT OF YOUR NOSE.

Beloved Osho, where am I?

My God! Om Saraswati, you are not. You are nowhere. You have never been -- and you will never be. Om Saraswati is just a name given to a nameless reality for utilitarian purposes. Otherwise, you are just a presence. Every child is born as a presence, with no name, with no address. And becoming a sannyasin is a second birth, far deeper and far greater than the first. In the first, at least you are a body. You may not have a name, you may not have an address; but you have an abode -- in the body. The moment you become a sannyasin, you have dropped the idea of being a body, too. Now you are just pure consciousness -- either everywhere or nowhere. Both the words mean the same. You can choose. You can choose to be everywhere, or you can choose to be nowhere. In either…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, KASSAN AND JOZAN WERE GOING ALONG, TALKING TOGETHER, WHEN JOZAN SAID, "IF, WITHIN LIFE-AND-DEATH, THERE WERE NO BUDDHA, THERE WOULD BE NO LIFE-AND-DEATH." KASSAN SAID, "IF THE BUDDHA WERE WITHIN LIFE-AND-DEATH, THERE WOULD BE NO DELUSION WITH REGARD TO LIFE-AND-DEATH." THEY ARGUED BACK AND FORTH, AND THERE WAS NO END TO IT. FINALLY, THEY DECIDED TO ASK DAIBAI. KASSAN SAID TO HIM, "OF THESE TWO OPINIONS, WHICH IS THE MORE FAMILIAR?" DAIBAI SAID, "ONE IS FAMILIAR, ONE IS DISTANT." "WHICH IS THE FAMILIAR ONE?" SAID KASSAN. "GO AWAY AND ASK ME AGAIN TOMORROW," RESPONDED DAIBAI. THE NEXT DAY KASSAN CAME AGAIN AND ASKED. DAIBAI SAID, "A FAMILIAR ONE DOES NOT ASK. ONE WHO ASKS IS NOT FAMILIAR." KASSAN AFTERWARDS SAID, "AT THAT TIME, WHEN I WAS WITH DAIBAI, I LOST MY BUDDHA-EYE." ON ANOTHER OCCASION, HOGEN ASKED HAKUYO, "WHERE IS THE DWELLING PLACE OF THE BUDDHA?