Crazy

Beloved Osho, a few years ago I asked you a question, with great fear and trembling: "Osho, is it inevitable that I will go crazy?" and now, beloved Osho, at last it has finally happened: I have gone crazy. Thank you, Osho, thank you.

There are all types of people here at different stages of craziness. But don't be satisfied. Rejoice! -- but remember that there are still crazier states. A moment comes when you start talking with the trees, playing with the stones, arguing with the ocean... because your very idea of being separate has disappeared. Now this whole existence is one organic unity. And it is not that when you talk to a tree it does not respond to you; if you are crazy enough, there is a dialogue. Perhaps one time you have to speak from your side; another time you have to speak from the tree's side -- because the tree cannot speak, but you can understand what it wants to say. Just remember the basic criteria -- that your happiness, your blissfulness should go on growing; your intelligence, your clarity should go on growing; your love should go on…

Deep inside, the volcano, and on the surface is peace. So when you start meditating, that volcano comes closer to the surface. That's the whole effort: to bring the unconscious closer to the conscious so you become more aware of your craziness. Not that you become more crazy -- you simply become more aware of things that have always been there but at which you were never looking. You were never courageous enough to look at them. They were there but you were always putting them behind you, escaping from them, avoiding them. Now you have become a little more courageous -- you allowed it. You want to be acquainted with yourself. Anybody who wants to move towards self-knowledge has to go through this period when he starts feeling that he is becoming more crazy. Not that he is, he is becoming more aware.

Question: OOOH OSHO! THE WHOLE LIFE WATERFALLING ON ME! HEAVEN AND EARTH, WORK AND PLAY, EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER BEEN AND DONE, ALL THINGS I HAVE EVER WANTED TO WILL BE, PAST AND FUTURE SWELLING SWELLING IN BALLOON DANCING NOW! THIS ENLIGHTENMENT IS SOME CRAZY BUSINESS! Crazy baby, crazy... absolutely crazy! But don't be afraid. Go into it, and soon you will see the sanity of insanity, soon you will see that it is not crazy. You have been crazy all along before it. It looks crazy compared to your life that has happened up to now. People are living in madness, so when they come closer and closer to some inner light, compared to their life it looks crazy. Once it settles, the whole of life looks crazy, and only this light, this awareness, looks sane.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS MADNESS? There are two possibilities: Madness literally means going out of the mind; hence the two possibilities. You can go out of the mind either below the mind or above the mind. Ordinarily, people go below the mind because it needs no effort, you don't have to do anything. Any shock can shatter the stability of your mind: somebody you loved died, your business has gone bankrupt -- the shock is so much that you cannot keep your normality. You fall below the mind, your behavior becomes irrational. But you go beyond the misery -- if you had remained in the normal mind the shock would have created immense misery. It is a natural way to avoid the shock. It simply pulls you down; now you don't know what has happened.