Enough

The melody is invisible but those notes are physically there, tangibly there. You can hear the notes; that doesn't mean that you will hear the music. Just good ears are not enough to hear the music. Something more than the ears -- a deep understanding, a capacity to fall en rapport, a capacity to be absorbed, to be possessed, an openness -- is needed. Then those single notes are no more separate; they start falling into a gestalt, they are together. Then it is not just a heap of flowers but a garland. A thread is running through them all but the thread is not visible. Human beings are still just a heap, a crowd, because the thread that can join them, that can connect them, is missing. Love is missing... love is that thread.

The second question is: though you have infused the sutras with life and humor, for me, zen remains the stark beauty of the desert, and I long for something else. Why can't I drop the idea that my way is not via emptiness, but fullness? I still carry this longing for some kind of union, a melting outwards rather than dissolving into nothingness inside.

Gurdjieff has written a book, ALL AND NOTHING. I would like to withdraw the word `and', because all is nothing; there is no question of and. Whatever type you are -- introvert, extrovert -- it does not matter, you are all part of the same existence. And when you relax into existence, all your differences disappear, only oneness remains. You can call that oneness whatever you like, but basically it is nothingness. You can give it any color, you can call it by any name, but don't start calling it by another name from the beginning, because that can take you astray. Somebody may think that he can call it God, then he will start worshipping a God which is man manufactured. For the beginner, nothing is the most secure path to avoid the mind playing games. Nothing is beyond the reaches of the mind, so it cannot play games…

Osho, what is zen?

These sounds, these birds, these trees, these people, this silence... three thousand people disappearing into a silence, losing their identities, egos... and suddenly Zen is there! It becomes almost tangible. You can touch it, you can eat it, you can drink it. But there is no way to convey it through words. You have to be calm and quiet and contented so that you can be in the present. You have to be free of all care. Care simply means you are not trusting existence; you are trying to be careful on your own. You are afraid. You are not yet aware that existence cares for you, that it mothers you, that it fathers you. Once you start feeling the mothering, the fathering that surrounds you, in the air, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, you drop caring for yourself. There is no need to be worried.…

Osho, what is the meaning of existence?

Buddha says: The inner emptiness is so beautiful, don't stuff it with junk, leave it as it is. And that's what meditation is all about, that's what Zen is. It means living out of emptiness, asking nothing from life, living moment to moment for no other reason, just enjoying being alive. It is more than you can ask for! What more meaning do you need? Is breathing not enough? Is this chirping of the birds not enough? Is the green and the red and the gold of the trees not enough? Is this vast existence with all its splendor not enough? You want some meaning? Yoka says: <q>THE MOON RISES ABOVE THE RIVER. ON THE BANK THE WIND PLAYS SOFTLY IN THE PINES ALL NIGHT LONG, PURE AND CALM. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT SERENITY? LOOK ON THE BUDDHA'S PRECEPTS OF NATURE. WINTER AND AUTUMN MISTS, DEW, CLOUDS, SPRING…