Abraham

Osho, I heard you say that jesus' finger pointing to the moon is not a very good one. Is there a better one?

God is somewhere far away in space -- how far none of them have said. Although this Maria goes four times a month, I don't think she can say the exact distance from the earth to heaven. She meets Jesus once a week, has a direct contact with God. Certainly these entities are outside you; the God is outside. You can have a direct contact, you are not it. You can meet Jesus once a month; certainly you are not Jesus. Jesus is separate from you, then only is meeting possible. And the woman goes to heaven -- of course there is a distance that has to be traveled. So there is a distance in space, and there is a distance in time, because Jesus continuously talks about the kingdom of God -- but that is going to happen after this life. Everything of Jesus' religion is after death. So…

Osho, before Mahavira there were twenty-three Tirthankaras. Then Mahavira’s family members must have been followers of someone—Mahavira himself was not a follower of anyone—so were they followers of Parshvanath or of someone else? How did it happen that Mahavira, who forged his own path and was not anyone’s disciple, ended up with a path that coincided with Parshvanath’s path, or with that tradition? Because that path already existed! And the name “Jain” for the sect is associated with Mahavira; before him, what were those people called?

There are two or three things to understand here. First, only with Mahavira did a stream of thought become a sect. Before Mahavira there was indeed a current of thought, but it had no separate existence from the Aryan tradition. It was a current that arose within the Aryan tradition. Its name was Shramana. It was not called “Jain” yet. And there was a reason for calling it “Shramana,” as I have said earlier. I have told you that the Brahmin current does not put faith in attaining the ultimate through effort, through sadhana, through tapas. The ultimate is to be attained in an attitude of extreme humility, in prayer, in utter meekness—where we are completely helpless, where we can do nothing; the doer is That alone. In this perfect poverty—what Jesus called “poverty of the spirit”—one who is so humble and indigent in spirit that he says, “What can…

The buddha said: "there was once a man who, being in despair over his inability to control his passions, wished to mutilate himself. The buddha said to him, 'better destroy your own evil thoughts than do harm to your own person. The mind is lord. When the lord himself is calmed, the servants will of themselves be yielding. If your mind is not cleansed of evil passions, what avails it to mutilate yourself?' " thereupon, the buddha recited the gatha: "passions grow from the will, the will grows from thought and imagination: when both are calmed, there is neither sensualism nor transmigration."

THE BUDDHA SAID, "THIS GATHA WAS TAUGHT BEFORE BY KASHYAPABUDDHA." THE BUDDHA SAID: "FROM THE PASSIONS ARISES WORRY, AND FROM WORRY ARISES FEAR. AWAY WITH THE PASSIONS, AND NO FEAR, NO WORRY." Go deeper and catch hold of anything arising in the first step. And then it is so easy -- just like you can destroy a seed very easily, but to destroy a tree will be difficult. And when the tree has sent its millions of seeds into the air, then it is almost beyond your control. The winds have taken the seeds to faraway fields; now it is impossible to find out where they have fallen. Now the tree is not one; it has created many possibilities of its own being. It will be imitated in many fields. BUDDHA SAYS THAT DESTROYING THE BODY IS NOT GOING TO HELP. If your eyes make you desirous of beautiful women…

Osho, “Shrutih vividhāh, smritayash cha bhinnāh; na eko munir yasya vachah pramāṇam. Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhāyām; mahājano yena gatah sa panthāh.” “That is to say, the revealed scriptures (shruti) are various, the remembered traditions (smriti) are also different, and not even the word of a single sage is final authority. The essence of dharma is subtle and hidden; therefore, to know it, only the path trodden by the great ones is the path.”

Osho, what is the mark of a mahājan (a great one)? What does it mean to walk on their path? Please be gracious and explain. Just yesterday I received a long letter from a Jain lady, evidently very learned; she has extracted the essence of Jain scriptures. She writes: “Your words seem very lovely, but why do you take the names of Krishna, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha along with a vitarag like Mahavira? Only the passionless one is God. Vitaragata is the sole criterion. On that touchstone, Ram and Krishna fail; even Buddha fails, for he at least uses clothing and a begging bowl—so much attachment, so much possession! Mahavira is sky-clad, bowl-less—hand-to-mouth; even a loincloth not retained. Digambar-hood is proof of vitaragata.” So she is troubled that I name Mohammed—who carries a sword—or Krishna, entangled in political strategies—or Ram, who goes to war—alongside Mahavira. To her this is all mere…