Absurdity

By "creating an absurd situation," do you mean that a person must be disturbed in some way? What will be the result?

People are disturbed enough already. But because they are disturbed already, they have identified themselves with their disturbances. They have become at ease with them. The disturbances have become habitual. We are disturbed already! It is impossible to be undisturbed and not know the truth. Disturbance is our normal situation, so when I disturb you, your disturbance is disturbed. Then the disturbance is negated. You become calm for the first time. When I talk about creating an absurd situation, it is not to achieve any result but only as a means to convey a message that is essentially nonconveyable. You ask, "What will be the result?" Something can be said about it provided that what is said is not taken to be the truth. It should be taken only in a symbolic, poetic, mythical sense. To me, every religious scripture is a myth and every assertion that comes from a…

Beloved Osho you have been called "the genius of the absurd." your way in this world seems so relentlessly wild and crazy that many people -- perhaps all people -- are filled with wonder, or confusion; and sometimes, even anger. But the european parliament, gathering votes to ban you from europe forever seems also absurd and crazy. I wonder who is more absurd: you or them? What can we discover about truth in your absurdity?

They are not absurd; they are functioning very logically. They can see the potential danger that I can bring to the younger generation, and which can destroy their centuries of vested interests. They are not absurd. It may look absurd -- the whole world against one single man -- but it is very logical. They can see that what I am saying is true, and they have no way to defend their morality, their marriage, their family, their social structure. Naturally, they would not like me to come in contact with their youth, because their youth is going to be powerful tomorrow; and if their youth becomes aflame with my ideas, tomorrow the old world will have completely collapsed. To save the old and to prevent the new, they are taking every measure -- and it is logical. I am certainly absurd. You have to understand the meaning of absurd.…

Beloved master, whenever one comes to the absurd, something inside simply explodes and the whole world looks anew. Is it when the absurd becomes overwhelming that one gets an insight into the gestalt of everything?

For a buddha, life is a continuous revelation, unending revelation. There is no beginning to it and no end to it. It is a mystery; unfathomable, immeasurable, unknown and not only unknown but unknowable too. You can only taste it, feel it, see it, touch it, but you cannot KNOW it. You cannot reduce it to a theorem, to a hypothesis; that is not possible. Prabhati, you are right: if you can have a contact with the absurdity of it all, with the irrationality of existence, you are moving into a totally different dimension -- moving from mind to no-mind, moving from mind to meditation. That's what meditation is all about: taking you out of the prison of the mind, the prison of the past. And there is no other prison; that past is the only prison. The man of awareness -- the meditator -- goes on dying every moment…

Mamiya later became a well-known teacher, but while he was studying under a master he was asked to explain the sound of one hand clapping.

ALTHOUGH MAMIYA WORKED HARD AT IT HIS MASTER SAID TO HIM ONE DAY, "YOU ARE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH. YOU ARE TOO ATTACHED TO FOOD, WEALTH, THINGS -- AND THAT SOUND. IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DIED." THE NEXT TIME MAMIYA CAME BEFORE THE MASTER, HE WAS AGAIN ASKED WHAT HE HAD TO SHOW REGARDING THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING. MAMIYA AT ONCE FELL OVER AS IF HE WAS DEAD. "YOU ARE DEAD ALL RIGHT," SAID THE MASTER, "BUT HOW ABOUT THAT SOUND?" LOOKING UP MAMIYA REPLIED, "OH, I HAVEN'T SOLVED THAT ONE YET." "WHAT?" ROARED THE MASTER, "DEAD MEN DON'T SPEAK. GET OUT!" Once you are awake and out of the vicious circle, God is there, nothing else exists. Then there is no need to believe. Then you know. But before that knowing happens, faith will be needed. And all those philosophers who have been trying for…