Parable

Beloved Osho, whenever I read friedrich nietzsche, and feel quite relaxed, it appears as if I have a connection with a spirit which is alive and I talk to him. He is not dead but a living friend and it doesn't sound absurd at all that all the great spirits are in deep communication with one another whether they are dead or alive. But with you, all names and words disappear and I feel bright and enlightened. I love this state of being with you like this. What is your secret?

Ramakrishna said, "That is a way of saying things which cannot be said. You said, `God does not exist.' And I say you are the proof that God exists; otherwise, from where such beautiful intelligence?" Now, how to argue with such a man? After ten minutes, Keshav Chandra was at the feet of Ramakrishna -- "Just forgive me, I had no idea of a man who is not in the mind but in the being. You have made it clear to me. You are not a man of logic, you are a man of love -- but love is far higher, logic is mundane. Please accept me as one of your disciples." Nietzsche is a great logician, a great philosopher, but he knows nothing of reality. All that he says is mind -- guesses, inferences. Assumptions supported by argument may befool people but they cannot befool a man who knows.…

Question: MATTHEW I3 10 AND THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES? 11 HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN. 12 FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH. 18 HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 19 WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, WHEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVED SEED BY THE WAY SIDE.

Why did jesus constantly talk in obscure parables which baffled even his disciples most of the time? Was this a deliberate technique? Why couldn't he be more straightforward like you?

You never forget a beautiful story. It is just like -- if you sing a beautiful song, you will remember it better than if it was prose. If it is poetry, it is remembered well. Somehow it fits with the deepest quality of your mind. If it is a parable, if there is a drama in it, it has a tendency to cling to you. It will come again and again and again; it will become an inner climate. Bare principles are soon forgotten. And in the days of jesus, books were not written. All that Jesus was saying was recorded many, many years afterwards. For those many, many years it was just in the memory of the people who had heard him. A parable can be remembered well. You will forget what I say, but you will never forget the parables, the anecdotes, the jokes. You may forget Mahavir…

They grew sad, wept, prayed; then the three consulted and said to Buddha: we understand—you say it cannot be spoken. Never has it been spoken. Since always we have heard: it cannot be said. And even if you speak, none will understand. And even if someone understands, to live it will be hard. Still we pray: there are also those who stand exactly on the boundary—still in the world, yet at the last edge. Merely your speaking—that Buddha spoke, not what he spoke—your speaking alone, your very presence, will jolt them; they will leap. And if you speak to a hundred and even one leaps—that too is great compassion. Thus Buddha agreed. For this the Hindu mind felt hurt. Those who felt hurt did not understand. They thought: to place gods, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, before Buddha—this story is not good.