Dream

Beloved Osho, what is that dream for which, disregarding all obstacles and hindrances, you have been continuously active for the last twenty-five to thirty years?

In no language of the world is there a word for the human being like “manushya.” In Arabic and languages derived from Arabic, in Hebrew and languages derived from Hebrew, the words mean: a figure of clay. “Admi” means: a figure of clay. “Man” means: a figure of clay. Only “manushya” carries the acknowledgment that you are not a figure of clay; you are consciousness; you are of the nature of the immortal; within you is the supreme light of life. The lamp may be of clay, but the flame is not clay. This body may be of earth, but that which is awake within it, which is conscious, is not earth. While the whole world engaged itself in the search for clay, a few remained dedicated to the search for the flame. Harshida, you ask, “What is your dream?” The same as it has always been for the buddhas:…

Osho, you have said that as long as there is dissolving, losing, the continual change of life, to be—to be eternal—is not possible. Right now we are here before you; is this just one long dream?

From your side it is a long dream, not from mine. For you it is nothing more than a dream, because you are asleep. Only when you wake will the dream break. If you look at me awake, you will find something entirely different. If, asleep, you look at me, you find something else. If you listen to me awake, you will hear something else. Half-asleep you listen to me, and you hear something else. Your sleep stands in between like a curtain, and it distorts everything. For you it is a dream. But if you want to, if you want to awaken, it can be the truth for you too. Buddha told stories of his past lives. He said that when I was ignorant, I went to an enlightened man. I bowed and touched his feet. I had not even stood up when I was filled with astonishment, because…

Question: Anando has asked: OUR BELOVED MASTER, DOKAI SAYS IT IS ALL DREAM TALK. ARE YOUR WORDS THEN JUST AN EXCUSE TO LULL US INTO A SPACE WHERE HOPEFULLY, SOME DAY, WE MAY BE READY FOR THE SPECIAL TRANSMISSION? You are ready for the special transmission right now, Anando. It just needs courage to accept it. The society has condemned you so deeply, the condemnation has gone so deep in you that you never think you are worthy of anything. And to be "worthy" of being the original man is not a question of worth, it is not a question of deserving. You are. Even if you deny it, still you are. Even if you try to escape somewhere else, it will be within you. So, Anando, Dokai is right when he says all is talk. You just stop talking, stop thinking -- and the original man is there.

At the hour of death, when one looks back, what will be seen? Some substance? Some truth? Life will appear like a tale. Who knows whether it was lived or not. Do you think that at the hour of death this will not appear—that what we had taken as life, whether it was lived or not lived, what difference does it make? It may be it was all seen in a dream. Tolstoy wrote in his diary at the time of death: Now I look back and I suspect—either my memory has gone bad or my intellect—but I suspect whether the life I lived was truly lived or merely seen in a dream. Chuang Tzu, in China, was an extraordinary sage. He wrote: One night I saw in a dream that I had become a butterfly.