Collective Experience

And someone has asked: "Hasn't the same thing happened on a collective plane in the countries of the East?"

What the buddhas said could not be understood; so what happened is not the buddhas’ responsibility. People understand something else. They do not understand what is said. For example, I have heard: Mulla Nasruddin was standing in a bus, traveling without a ticket. Eventually he was caught. The ticket inspector said, "Sir, you’re dressed like a gentleman, and you’re traveling without a ticket! And can’t you see the notice right in front of you that says, ‘Sitting in the bus without a ticket is an offense’?" Nasruddin said, "Exactly—that’s why I’m standing. I haven’t sat down precisely because of that notice. Sitting is the offense, isn’t it?" People understand like that—according to themselves. What the Buddha says is not understood as the Buddha said it. A professor said sympathetically to one of his students, "Ah, you failed in philosophy; did you read the book I wrote or not?" The dejected…

Osho, you said there are three successive steps of evolution—body, mind, and soul. Western civilization has evolved a great deal on the planes of body and mind, yet the outcome has been melancholy, meaninglessness, and despair. Please explain why, as a natural sequence, the Western intellect has not evolved toward the third stage?

Have you ever thought what you would ask if God appeared to you? Think honestly: if tomorrow morning God stood before you, what would you ask? On a piece of paper, write three things. You will be shocked at your own desires—“a beautiful wife, a film actress; a big house; a big car; victory in my lawsuit.” Whatever you ask will reveal where you are. Your asking will expose you. Will you start begging when you see God—or will the seeing itself so fulfill you that you say, “Nothing to ask”? In the very impulse to ask is hidden the fact that you did not seek God—you sought something else and were going to use God to get it. God was not the goal; what you want to ask for is the goal. If God appears and you ask for an Impala car, then the car was the real deity;…

Question: OSHO, TO ME THE FUTURE OF THE EAST APPEARS BLEAK WHICHEVER WAY ONE LOOKS AT IT -- EITHER POVERTY AND STARVATION THROUGH FATALISM, OR WESTERNIZATION THROUGH CAPITALISM -- FOR IS IT NOT NECESSARY FOR THE EAST TO BECOME WEST BEFORE PEOPLE AGAIN BECOME INTERESTED IN THEIR INNER SEARCH? IS IT NOT NECESSARY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST TO BECOME MATERIALLY RICH BEFORE THEIR SPIRITUAL POVERTY AGAIN BECOMES EVIDENT? BUT THE BURDEN OF THE WEST ALREADY LIES HEAVY ON THE WORLD: THE ATOMIC BOMB; VIOLENCE THROUGH FRUSTRATION; THE AUTO-MATIZATION OF THE SOUL; THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS AND THE POLLUTION OF THE AIR AND SEA SO THAT IT IS UNCERTAIN WHETHER THE ENVIRONMENT CAN MAINTAIN ITS DELICATE BALANCE. CAN THE WORLD SUPPORT ANOTHER WEST?

Osho, you say, “As He wills, let us become mere instruments; whatever role in life we have been given, let us fulfill it.” But letting what happens happen—i.e., flowing along with the body, mind, and ego—gives rise to suffering. So should we keep applying the principle of instrumentality even in relation to the body, mind, and ego, and go on suffering? How do we solve the riddle between the principle of instrumentality and the continuous reality of suffering?

That supreme bliss is beyond both pleasure and pain. It is neither like night nor like day. It is twilight. The sun has set, night has not yet come; the light remains—very gentle, sweet, non-aggressive—that is twilight. Morning has come, the sun is not yet risen, the night has gone—such is the twilight. One who abides in that twilight—that is what we call prayer. That is why Hindus call their prayer sandhya. Sandhya means one who has stopped in between the dualities, who has found the truce between the two. Between pleasure and pain, love and hate, victory and defeat, night and day, life and death—one who has found the pact and stands in that concord. Seek that interval of conjunction. Krishna says, it is simple to find. If you cease to be the doer, you will find it instantly. It is only through your doer-ship that you keep missing.…