Concepts

Without concepts, how will one know what is the path and what is the wrong path; what is to be accepted and what is to be discarded; what is virtue and what is sin; and finally, who is the seer and what is the seen?

I have heard of a scientist—a great scientist, especially skilled with electrical instruments. He was very worried about his daughter, because a boy was after her. If he had been an old-fashioned father, he would have driven the boy out with a stick. He was not old-fashioned; he was a modern man. But modernity is only on the surface; inside, the old goes on. So inwardly he was troubled. He called the boy that monkey. Has that monkey come again? He couldn’t stand him at all. The two would sit for hours in the drawing room, chatting; many a night they sat till midnight. Finally it was beyond his endurance; he grew very restless wondering what on earth they did sitting there. Being a modern father, he couldn’t just go and stand between them—the old days of doing that were gone. It would have spoiled his modern image; people would…

Osho, Somewhere you have said that you are an iconoclast, a breaker of illusions. It seems to me that beyond that you are a great breaker of concepts. Would you kindly say something about this?

Sahajanand! Whether idols, delusions, or concepts—these are all different facets of the mind. With these very bricks the prison of the mind is constructed. Only by removing the bricks one by one can you enter the state of no-mind. Whatever you believe, whatever you worship—everything will have to be taken away from you. It feels harsh. It hurts. Wounds happen. The cowardly run away; only the courageous can remain with me. And it is not a question of whether your concept is right or wrong. No concept is right. Concept means wrong. Concept means: you have believed what you have not known. What you have not experienced, not encountered, not realized—you have adopted it: out of fear, out of greed, out of conditioning, out of society, out of convenience, out of consolation. Because it was taught since childhood. Because it was repeated again and again. Because it has had centuries…

We get rid of illusion and acquire the truth, but this is discrimination; our mind is cleverly false. All principles are no principles; they have no relation to spiritual perception. It never leaves this place, and is always perfect. When you look for it, you find you can't see it. You can't get at it, you can't be rid of it. When you do neither, there it is! When you are silent, it speaks; when you speak, it is silent.

The ordinary man's ego is gross, the saint's ego is very very subtle, refined, sophisticated. When the poison is pure, it is more poisonous, so is the case with the ego. The saint's ego is a pure ego, hence it is more poisonous. The sinner's ego is nothing compared with the saint's ego. Never be a sinner and never be a saint. Just be. Drop all definitions and confinements. Celebrate being. Never think yourself as a saint or a sinner. Never feel guilty, and never feel gratified because you are virtuous. And then you are a sage; when you are neither, you are a sage, a SIDDHA. Then you are a sage, then you have arrived. Remember, God has not to be sought, nothing has to be sought. Never lose the quality of herenow. Bring yourself back again and again whenever you start on a journey. Whenever the mind starts…

Osho, how to see what is?

Akam, THERE IS NO HOW TO SEE WHAT IS, because if you are carrying a how you will distort it. That which is needs no method, technique, to see it -- just silence, a transparent stillness, no thought in the mind, not even the thought of a certain method. No strategy, because all strategies are bound to distort. In fact, no mind is needed to see that which is. Mind means thoughts. And if there is a traffic of thoughts, you will never be able to see what is, you will see something else. You will see what your thoughts allow you to see. Your thoughts prevent much reaching you. You will be surprised to know what modern psychological researchers have come to know: ninety-eight percent of the reality is not allowed to enter in your being; the mind only allows two percent. So whatsoever you see is only two…