Osho – I have told you the story many times about Gautam Buddha. One day, walking on the road from one town to another, he was talking to Ananda. A fly sat on his forehead, and just as you do automatically, he remained engaged in talking to Ananda and shooed the fly. Then he suddenly stopped, and he again raised his hand, with great grace, and moved the hand. Ananda was absolutely puzzled. He said, ”The fly is gone. What are you doing?”

He said, ”I did that act mechanically. I continued to talk to you and I left the functioning mind, the automatic mind to do the work of shooing the fly. But I was not aware. I did it, but without any original awareness. Now I am doing it as I should have done it.”

Another time he was passing through a village, and thousands of people were against him, as it is bound to be. Only little people are respectable; great people are greatly condemned. The enemies had gathered and they started abusing him in as ugly language as possible. He listened, standing silently, just like Basho. Those people felt a little embarrassed that he was not answering anything. Buddha said, ”You just complete your thing, because I have to go to the other town. And for you to contemplate a thing… In the previous town people love me and they had brought sweets and flowers and many presents. I cannot carry them – it is not possible for me to carry things – so I told those people to go back and distribute all these sweets and flowers to the people of the village from me.

”Now I ask you – you have come with abuse, ugly words, nasty expressions. I don’t accept them. You have come too late. You should have come ten years ago and there would have been bloodshed. These hands are of a warrior. Ten years ago, if a single word that you have said to me had been uttered, all these heads would be rolling on the ground. But fortunately you have come a little late. Now I don’t function as an automatic machine. I can see you are ignorant people, I can see your unconsciousness – and unless I take your abuse, you cannot give it to me.

”You will have to take all this garbage that you have brought back home. What will you do with it? – distribute it on my behalf to the whole village. And if something is left to say, when I am returning again by the same road, I will make it a point to stay here one day. You can blame me, you can tell as many lies, complaints as you want, but remember, unless I take them, your work is absolutely futile. You are talking to the skies. Not even a scratch has happened to me by your talk. I simply enjoyed it. Thank you.” And he moved on.

Ananda, his disciple – because he was also a warrior, and a cousin-brother of Gautam Buddha – said, ”I was forgetting completely your whole idea of compassion and kindness and love. I was getting ready to cut off their heads. I was just looking for my sword – but I could not do anything in your presence. I had forgotten completely.”

Ananda remained unenlightened until Buddha’s death. He became enlightened after Gautam Buddha’s death, the next day. And Gautam Buddha had said, ”You will remain unenlightened while I am alive. Your attachment to me is a barrier. Your love towards me is a barrier. You cannot forget that you are my cousin-brother. That prevents you from becoming a disciple, so your disciplehood is just hypocrisy. And I know you are helpless, you cannot do anything. You try to do everything, but trying to do is one thing, and its arising spontaneously is another.”

And the strange thing is that it actually happened the day Buddha died. The next day, Ananda did not move from the place where he was sitting the whole day without food, without water. Everybody wanted to help him. It was such a shock, because he had been for forty-two years continuously in service, day and night, never bothering about himself, but Buddha should have all the comforts possible. Perhaps the shock was too much. He had closed his eyes and was just sitting like a stone statue. But nobody dared to disturb him either. It was too delicate a matter. Only by the evening of the next day he opened his eyes and he said, ”After all he was right. Now you can cut off my head, but you will not scratch my consciousness.”

So the functioning consciousness is one thing; everybody has it. You have to find out the deeper original witness which can witness your body, your mind, your thoughts, your actions, and still remain far away from any attachment or judgment. This discovery is the greatest discovery in the history of consciousness. No discovery of science or of any other subject, mathematics, or logic, or philosophy – no discovery can be bigger, greater, with more splendor, with more ultimate categorical character than the discovery of the witness. The witness makes you a buddha.

Source – Osho Book “Isan: No Footprints in the Blue Sky”

Question – Beloved Osho, When you looked at me i felt afraid and empty. i am confused. please comment.

Osho – Confusion is almost the natural state of humanity. Everybody is confused. When I looked into your eyes, you became aware suddenly of the confusion because there was a comparison. When I look into your eyes you can see a clarity, a cloudless sky. That gives you a comparison, that your eyes are full of dark clouds, hence the confusion.

And whenever I look into anybody’s eyes… very few people remain for a few seconds looking into my eyes and allowing me to look into their eyes. Emptiness is bound to be felt. Emptiness is going to be there; it is there inside you, unless you become aware, more conscious, so conscious that your whole emptiness becomes filled with a light, becomes luminous.

This very emptiness is going one day to become your enlightenment. It is just a space. You have never worked on it. There is a story…. A king wanted to choose his successor. Ordinarily it is not difficult, the eldest son becomes the successor. But he had three sons born simultaneously. Their age was the same, their courage was the same, their intelligence was the same — it can happen in twins, triplets — everything was the same. It was difficult even to find out who was who. Even the father and the mother got confused between these three brothers.

The king was getting old; somebody has to be crowned, given the responsibility before he dies. But he could not figure out what to do, how to find out. They were all beautiful, they were all courageous, they were all intelligent. They were copies of one another.

He went to a wise old man and asked, “How have I to find my successor?”
The man said, “It is not such a difficult thing. Your three sons all have beautiful palaces, separate. You tell them… give some money to each, the same amount, and tell them, `You have to fill your house completely with something this money can buy.’”

The money was so little…. They thought of many things — bringing roses and filling the whole house with roses — but the money was not enough.

So the first one went to the municipal corporation of the city, because the cheapest thing he could purchase was the rubbish that the municipal trucks collect. He told them, “Rather than throwing it away, just dump it into my palace. Fill it completely, that is the condition.” And for that much money they were ready, there was no question. They were going to throw it out anyway, outside the city: “This will save time, and he is giving money too.” But they could not believe what he was going to do!
He said, “You don’t bother about it. It is a very decisive thing in my life.

The second son was very much in trouble — what to do? And he was even more puzzled, because the first had already filled his palace. Something cheap had to be found. He had to fill his house with mud. It was the rainy season and all over, mud was available; he just had to bring trucks to carry the mud and fill the house. The amount of money was enough to do that.

They both were happy, and they both were looking at the third, what he was doing, because he was not doing anything at all. The evening came, and the king came to visit. He went to the first house. It was stinking, he could not enter it. But the son said, “The house is completely full, not a single inch has been left empty.”
The king said, “I accept your word. I will not go in.”

The second he could go in, but what did he see? A marble palace filled with mud! Both the sons and the father went to the third son, and they were surprised — the house was completely empty. The son had even removed the furniture and everything; it was absolutely empty.

They could not believe what his idea was. They said to him, “The house is empty and you were given money to fill it completely.”
He said, “Look a little more clearly.”
They looked again: it was empty.
They said, “Don’t fool us. It is completely empty. Even the furniture, the piano — the things that you used to love — all are taken out. It is more empty than ever!”

The son said, “No. You just look at the candles which are filling it with light. It is empty, but full of light. And I thought, there can be nothing more significant than to fill it with light. And this is the remaining money I want to return to you, because candles were cheap and there was no need for so much money.”

Of course he was chosen the successor. Your emptiness is not anything to be worried about. You just have to light a candle in it and it will be full of light, overfull with light. And then you will see the beauty of its being totally empty. There is nothing to hinder the light, there is nothing to make a shadow even.

I can understand your question. It is a significant question. Looking into my eyes you felt empty, and then you felt confused — naturally. Looking into my eyes you must have thought you would find something significant, and you find only emptiness.

But I tell you that is the most significant thing in life: to find your emptiness. My eyes only mirrored what was in you. And don’t feel confused about it. Let this be a beginning of the search for light, which is also there inside you, but you have never taken care of it. You have never sharpened it. You have never gone to your very center.

Once you are there your whole energy centered in your being, creates a light which is eternal. That light transforms your being completely. Your actions will have a different quality, your words will have a different depth, your gestures will have a different grace. You will have come home. There is no need to be confused at all.

Source – Osho Book “From Death to Deathlessness”

Osho – I have heard a story. A wasp made its abode near a window outside a big building. In winter this wasp would sleep and rest, in summer it would fly, dance and collect the pollen of the flowers. It was very happy. But this wasp was a special one — it was a thinker. It used to think a lot and used to look down upon other wasps because there was no thinking in their lives. Their lives were full of desire. They never did any thinking, they never contemplated, they never knew the scriptures.

Sometimes it used to fly into that building also. It loved that building. The people visiting the building seemed to it of its own type because they were thinkers. Actually, this building was a big library. Professors, teachers, writers, philosophers, poets used to come there. Usually people used to drive out the wasp but it always would come back.

Gradually it started reading and writing. It started in the children’s department and soon it was studying big books of philosophy. It began to read big volumes of science and poetry. It became very proud and just could not tolerate the other wasps — they seemed very insignificant. It became very egoistic. It was thinking day and night. It forgot all about dancing in the sun, flying in the air and visiting the trees. Now mostly it used to sit down engrossed in deep thoughts like, “Who made this world? Why was it made? From where has this existence come and where is it going?” It used to think about these serious questions all the time.

One day it was reading a book on the science of aviation. It was written in that book of aerodynamics that the body of a wasp is heavier than its wings, so theoretically a wasp cannot fly because its wings are small and weak and the body is big and heavy. On reading this it became confused and puzzled. Up to now it did not know that its body was big and its wings were small. It was the first time it had learnt this and, of course, whatever is written in the scriptures cannot be denied. It is not possible to go against what is said by the scientists.

It became very sad. That day it did not fly back to its hive, it arrived there by crawling. How was it possible for it to fly — to do something which was quite against science? It became very sad and stopped moving about altogether. It still saw the other wasps flying around, going to the flowers, but it thought that they were doing so out of ignorance — how can a wasp fly? Its wings are small and its body is big. It was full of pity for those who were flying because they did not know the facts of science. If they knew they would have stopped flying.

But one day a bird attacked the wasp, intending to eat it for breakfast. In its nervousness and confusion the wasp forgot all about the scriptures and flew away.

It sat on a bush, rested a little and became calm and realized that it had flown! “I was thinking that a wasp cannot fly but I have flown, so there must have been a block in my mind stopping my natural capacity for flying which melted in the moment of danger.” It had read about mental blocks in the mind in a book on psychology. So it started flying again from that day. It gave up the knowledge of scriptures from that day, and from that moment it again became the wasp — the natural wasp! From that day it became free of knowledge and stopped looking down on other wasps. That day it experienced its true nature.

Religion is freedom from knowledge, and in that freedom is the ultimate knowledge. The scriptures are not meant to make you lame but to give you the capacity to fly. If the scriptures have made you lame, then it is sure that you have misunderstood them or you have interpreted them wrongly. If the scriptures have made you sad, then you must have missed something in them or must not have understood them properly. The scriptures which have snatched away your natural capacity to fly or flow are not your friends — you have turned them into your enemies.

A scripture is a scripture only if it gives you freedom. A scripture is a scripture if it makes you natural. A scripture is a scripture if it does not fill you with condemnation for others and is able to make you realize that the divine is hidden also within them.

Source – Osho Book “The Great Transcendence”

Osho – Thousands of people have been waiting for thousands of years, with great longing and passion. Their waiting has helped – not that they came to know God, but their waiting helped them to become more alert.

Judaism, particularly, has used waiting as a methodology for awareness. It is Judaism’s parallel to vipassana. But remember, the waiting is not for God – there is no God to come – the waiting is just a device. When you are waiting, you become, of course, more alert.

Have you ever waited for a friend? In the mowing he is to come, and you cannot even sleep during the whole night. You toss and turn, and you look again at the clock. Maybe night is over and it is already mowing and you have to go and pick up the friend from the station…?

Have you waited for your beloved? Then any movement on the street and you rush out. It may be just the wind knocking on the door, and your heart beats faster; and you open the door: maybe she has come or he has come? Or a postman walks by and you rush and look out of the window…. Whenever you wait, you become aware. If waiting can become absolute, total, it will create a great flame of awareness.

It is said of the great mystic, Zusya, that he awaited the arrival of the Messiah and redemption with such fervor, passion and eagerness that when he heard a tumult in the street he was at once moved to ask what it was and whether the messenger had not come. And each time he went to sleep, he commanded his disci-ples to awaken him at the very moment when the messenger came.

One day he said, ”If the Messiah should come today and say to me, ’Zusya, you are better than others,’ then I would say to him, ’Sir, then you are not the true Messiah.’”

His whole life he waited, and with such eagerness that even in the night he was afraid, ”I may be asleep and he may come.” One disciple had to wait continuously by his side, so if the messenger came, Zusya could be awakened immediately – because he would not like to miss a single moment. See the passion, the longing, the love.

But the question is: Did the Messiah come? That is not the point. The point is that Zusya became more and more alert, more and more aware. He became so alert and aware that it is said that one day he said, ”If the Messiah should come to me today and say to me, ’Zusya, you are better than others,’ then I would say to him, ’Sir, then you are not the true Messiah – because now I myself that there is no better, no worse, there is no higher, no lower. That all is one. That there is nobody to be redeemed and nobody as the redeemer.”’

Waiting, waiting, waiting, becoming aware and aware, one day the heart opened, and he knew God is everywhere. There is no need for any Messiah to come. God has already come! God’s presence is already there.

Source – Osho Book “The Perfect Master, Vol 2″

Question – Beloved Osho, you said the other day that if you were a cab-driver nobody would be able to recognize you. I don’t agree. At lease I for one would recognize you.

Osho – Madam, I don’t believe you. You don’t know enough about yourself. I appreciate your love for me, but I cannot say that you would be able to recognize me.

I will tell you one real story. I used to stay with a family in a certain city in India for many years — a very rich family, millionaires. He was very respectful to me, he was a follower. When I used to go to his town he would touch my feet as many times as possible — at least four, five times every day.

Then after seven, eight years, he wanted to come to visit the place where I used to stay in Jabalpur. He came. Just to puzzle him, just to confuse him, I went to receive him at the station. That he had not expected — that I would come to receive him at the station.

He used to fall at my feet. That day he touched my feet, but halfheartedly — because a great ego arose in him: that I have come to receive him. He used to come to receive me for seven years and each year at least three or four times I used to visit his town. He had not expected this. He had expected that somebody would be there to take him to me. But that I myself would come to receive him? — that was not even in his dreams. He must have argued inside: “I am somebody, a millionaire…”

That day he bowed down, but very halfheartedly. How can you bow down to somebody who has come to receive you at the station, with great respect? We left the station, and when he saw that I was going to drive him back home, then all his
respect disappeared. Then he started talking like a friend. The millionaire became very ‘famillionaire’! And after three days, when he left — I had gone to say goodbye, to give him a send-off — he did not touch my feet.

And the family that I used to live with all knew that I was playing a joke on him, and the poor fellow had got hooked in it. They all laughed when the train left. I said “You wait. Next time, let him come — he will expect me to touch his feet. And it will be no wonder if he forces me to touch his feet.”

That’s how things go, that’s how mind functions. You recognize me, you love me, but you don’t know your own mind. And in that experiment I lost one of my millionaire followers. I have been losing many followers that way, but I go on experimenting.

Source – Osho Book “The Heart Sutra”

Osho – The path back home is certainly a razor’s edge. As you come closer and closer to yourself, the path goes on becoming narrower and narrower. At the very end of this path you are going to find your pure aloneness. The crowd has never found any truth. On the contrary, whenever anybody has found the truth, the crowd has rewarded him with crucifixion. To seek truth is the most dangerous, but very exciting, challenging, experiment.

An ancient Tibetan proverb says: One hundred seekers start; ninety-nine are lost somewhere on the way, go astray. Only one – that too, very rarely – reaches the goal of his search. With this proverb is attached a small story….

Deep in the mountains there is a monastery, far away from Lhasa. The chief monk is getting old and he wants a master from Lhasa to replace him. He sends a messenger, a young man, to the main monastery in Lhasa to ask them, ”Our master is getting very old and he wants a man to replace him.”

After long, long difficulties of mountainous paths the young man finally reaches to the main monastery. An audience is given to him. And the master says to him, ”I can understand. I will send one hundred people with you.”
The young man said, ”But I have asked only for one.” And the master said, ”Have you forgotten the old proverb? A hundred should go; rarely, one reaches.”

The proverb was certainly known to the young man, but he could not trust that a hundred people could go and only one would reach. But he could not argue either, with the chief of all the monasteries of Tibet. One hundred monks followed the young man.

They had not gone very far when they were stopped by a few soldiers with naked swords, who said, ”Our small kingdom has lost its master. We need a master urgently. The pay is good, the palace to live in, and you will be the only religious man in the whole kingdom. And we are simply conveying to you the orders from the emperor. Refusal can be dangerous – you can see the naked swords.”

Many of those hundred monks started thinking, ”This is a good place – why unnecessarily go deep into the mountains? It is close to Lhasa, the kingdom is rich, the monastery is rich, all facilities are available, and you will be the high priest of the kingdom…” So not only one, many wanted to go. The young man said, ”Have you forgotten?”
They said, ”We have not forgotten. You forget it – all! We are going to stay.”
The soldiers said, ”We need only one, but the monastery is big. If many of you want to come, you can be part of the monastery and the emperor will be immensely happy.”

Half of the crowd disappeared. The young man could not believe…. Just a few miles further they were again prevented, this time by a crowd. They needed four priests because the richest man’s daughter was being married, and the reward was going to be great.”… And it is only a question of a few days, and then you can go on wherever you are going.”
Immediately, more than four were ready, but the crowd said, ”We don’t want more than four.”
The other monks tried to ask them, ”What are you doing? We have been sent for a certain purpose, because of a certain message.”

They said, ”We are not going astray. It is only a question of a few days. Soon we will finish the marriage and we will come a little faster and join you. Your journey is long. The path is tedious. And we cannot miss this opportunity of earning, getting rewards, from the richest man.” Four persons again disappeared.

In this way it went on, and the young man started feeling that ”Perhaps I am the only one who is going to make it back!”

As they were passing a river, a very beautiful young woman with tears in her eyes said, ”You are all compassionate people. My father is a famous hunter – I live with my father, my mother is dead. He was supposed to come back this morning and it is evening and he is not back. And I am immensely afraid in this lonely part of the Himalayas. Won’t you be kind enough, at least one, to be with me for the night? And in the morning you can go as soon as my father comes home.”
Immediately a young man… in fact many were ready, but a young man said, ”I am coming. This is the essential teaching of Gautam Buddha – compassion!”

And this goes on…. It is a long story, how people went on disappearing. Finally only two monks and the young man remained. They were passing the last village and soon they would be arriving at the monastery. It was already shining in the morning sun on the mountains.

In that village there was an atheist who challenged those monks: ”If you have any guts, first accept my challenge for a debate. I don’t believe in Gautam Buddha and I don’t believe in his teachings, and I am ready to fight on each and every point.”

The young man said to the remaining two fellows, ”Don’t get involved in this. Our monastery is there, you can see it – so beautiful in the eternal snows of the Himalayas.”
But one of them said, ”I cannot move an inch. My master Gautam Buddha has been challenged. I am going to remain here. Either I will convert this man to Buddhism or I will be converted to his disciplehood, however long it takes.” So he was left in that village.

Only one monk and the young man reached the monastery. The young man said, ”I have passed through an immense experience. I had never thought that proverbs are so accurately true.”
The old master said, ”I knew he would send at least one hundred people because I had asked for one.”
The young man said, ”But you never mentioned it to me.”

The old man said, ”There was no need to mention it. This is how things go on happening in this world. We are fortunate that at least one has arrived. There is no certainty; there are so many by-paths, so many allurements, and once you have gone astray it is not easy to come back to the right path.”

The crowd consists of people who have all gone astray. Once in a while a courageous person comes out of the crowd and starts searching a path of his own. It needs daring, it needs courage, it needs intelligence. It needs trust in yourself, and also a deep understanding that you will be condemned by the crowd.

The crowd never likes people to be individuals. Individuals irritate the crowd very much. The crowd wants you just to be a part of the crowd, a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian. The moment you declare that ”I am myself; neither a Hindu nor a Christian nor a Buddhist, and I am going to search on my own the truth of my being,” all the crowds around you will become antagonistic.

There is a deep psychology behind it. Your standing aloof and alone and moving in the direction of the unknown – without any companion, without any guide – irritates the mind of the crowd, because you are showing them that they are cowards clinging to each other like sheep, not moving like lions.

But the truth is not for the sheep. The sheep is not courageous enough to allow truth to reveal its mysteries and its glories to the mind of a sheep. The glories are so immense, so boundless, the mysteries are so infinite, that only the heart of the lion can rejoice, can dance, can sing.

Yes, there are moments when even the heart of the lion trembles, feels fear, because the path is so alone. And it goes on becoming narrower. As you are reaching higher and the path is becoming narrower, naturally, to look by the side… your whole being goes into a trembling. Just a single wrong step and you will be finished. On both sides are such depths….

But strangely enough, although the path is of the razor’s edge, nobody has fallen from it. Everybody has felt the fear, but existence supports those who are in search of truth. Its support is unconditional. Existence does not support those who are nothing but living lies. They may have great power, but their own power will destroy them. Many civilizations have existed on the earth and they destroyed themselves by their own power. We are not the first civilization in the world. Atlantis drowned – perhaps the people of Atlantis had reached a far higher civilization than we have.

Source – Osho Book “Om Mani Padme Hum”

Osho – The Hebrew idea behind the concept that God is the judge is of great importance. It means that no man has the authority to judge. You should not judge – judgment is to be left in God’s hands. And we go on judging. We go on saying: This is right and that is wrong, and this should be done and that should not be done. This is an ego trip. If God is the only judge, then who are we to decide? And how can we decide? – we don’t know the whole story.

Life is so complicated that you only become acquainted with a part. You may have even lived with the person for your whole life, you become acquainted only with a part of his behavior. You don’t know his intentions and you don’t know his unconscious, and even the behavior is not known to you in its totality.

It is almost like you tear a page from a novel: you read it, and you judge the novel. That judgment will be absurd, because you cannot judge by one page. You will not know anything by the single page, you will not know the story before and after. And that’s how we know people: we know only very small fragments.

Even lovers don’t know each other in their totality. In fact it is impossible to know the other in his totality. Only God can know the total. Only he can read your whole soul like a story, from the beginning to the end. And without that, every judgment is wrong.

So the first thing is to remember not to judge. Jesus says: Judge ye not. He even says: Don’t even judge evil. If it appears absolutely wrong, then too don’t judge… because it is such a complex existence. Something may look evil and may not be, and something may look good and may not be. Things are complicated. And everything is only a part of a long chain: one never knows how it began and how it is going to end. Only because God knows the whole, can he judge.

And the second thing is: God can judge because God is love. When love judges, nothing ever goes wrong, because love knows how to forgive. Love forgives absolutely. Because it can forgive, it can judge. You cannot forgive, hence you cannot judge.

God is love. We can open our hearts to God. We can stand in utter nudity before him with absolute certainty that we will be forgiven. He is love and compassion: these two things are implied in the idea. Both are of tremendous beauty. The first will prevent you from judging others, and the second will encourage you to open your heart. No need to hide, no need to cover oneself. No need to be afraid: God is love and God is the judge.

There is a famous Sufi story: A man has just got married and he is coming home with his wife. They are crossing a lake in a boat, and suddenly a storm arises. The man is a warrior, but the woman becomes very afraid. It seems that life is finished: the boat is small and the storm is really huge, and any moment they are going to be drowned. But the man sits silently, calm and quiet, as if nothing is happening.

The woman is trembling and she says, ”Are you not afraid? This may be our last moment of life! It doesn’t seem that we will be able to reach the other shore. Only some miracle can save us, otherwise death is certain. Are you not afraid? Are you mad or something? Are you a stone or something?”

The man laughs and takes the sword out of its sheath. The woman is even more puzzled: what he is doing? He brings the naked sword close to the woman’s neck – so close that just a small gap is there, it is almost touching her neck. He said, ”Are you afraid?” She starts giggling and laughing and she says, ’Why should I be afraid? If the sword is in your hands, why should I be afraid? I know you love me.’

He put the sword back and he said, ”This is my answer. I know God loves, and the sword is in his hands, the storm is in his hands, so whatsoever is going to happen is going to be good. If we survive, good; if we don’t survive, good, because everything is in his hands and he cannot do anything wrong.”

This is the trust that a sannyasin needs to imbibe. Such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your whole life. Only such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your life; less than that won’t do.

Source – Osho Book “The Rainbow Bridge”

Osho – Religion does not mean to belong to a particular church. It does not mean to believe in a particular dogma or belief system. It does not mean to perform a particular ritual. It does not mean being a Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Jew.

To be religious means to be blissful, to be cheerful: cheerful because God is, cheerful because we are in God, cheerful because we are his extensions, cheerful because to be is a great blessing. Just to be is more than one can ask for. A single moment of being is so precious that there is no way to thank God for it, but because it is given freely and we don’t have to earn it, we don’t feel grateful.

The day that Alexander was dying he wanted his physicians to let him live at least twenty-four hours more, because he had promised his mother that he would be back. The mother was very much afraid because he was going on such a long journey to strange lands and he had this mad idea to conquer the world: he may be killed, he may never be back. His mother was very worried. He had promised his mother that, ”Don’t be worried! I am a man of word – I will come back. Whatsoever happens I will be back.”

And now he was only a few miles away from the mother, he had almost arrived: just twenty-four hours more were needed and he would have reached and fulfilled his word. But the physicians said, ”It is impossible, we cannot do anything.” He was ready to give half of his kingdom, but they said, ”Even if you give the whole of your kingdom it can’t be done, it is impossible. Death has arrived, there is no more time left.”

It is said that Alexander wept and said, ”If I had known this before, that you cannot extend your life even for twenty-four hours in exchange of your whole kingdom, I would not have wasted my life in conquering the world. Rather I would have lived, loved.” But it was too late. And many people become aware when death arrives, but then it is too late. This is good, that you are becoming a sannyasin while you have enough time to live creatively, to live intensely, to live passionately.

Remember one thing: it is bliss that brings you closer to God. Misery is the distance between you and God. Bliss – and the distance disappears; you are suddenly in God. Let cheerfulness be your prayer, let blissfulness be your meditation.

Source – Osho Book “The Rainbow Bridge”

Question – Can the Master really save the disciple?

Osho – Certainly, absolutely… if the disciple is really a disciple he is already saved. It is not that first you have to be a disciple and then you will be saved – in your very being a disciple you are saved, in your very surrender you are saved. It is not that the Master will save you afterwards because you are a disciple – just by being a disciple you are saved. In that very surrender you have dropped the ego. That ego was the barrier, that ego was hindering the path. When the barrier disappears you are saved.

In fact, you have always been saved. You were carrying an unnecessary load and because of that load you could not fly into the sky. Now you can fly. The Master is just an excuse. Without a Master it is difficult for you to drop your ego because you need some excuse. Otherwise how to drop it? Where to drop it? At whose feet to drop it? The Master is just an excuse.

You fall in love with a man – a man like Jesus, a man like Buddha, naturally attracts thousands of people, seekers. who fall in love – and the man is so tremendously beautiful that you would like to surrender all. That is just an excuse. Once you have surrendered you will know that you are not saved by anybody else, you are saved by your surrender. But it will be known only when you have surrendered, not before it. To become a disciple is to be saved.

You ask: CAN THE MASTER REALLY SAVE THE DISCIPLE? It is very simple. It is nothing much to fuss about. Sometimes it has even happened that a disciple has saved a Master – because, in fact, it is love that saves. Sometimes it has happened that the Master was not really a Master, was not himself enlightened, but was a charismatic man, a man of great magnetism. And somebody surrendered to him and through surrender became enlightened.

Many times it has happened that the disciple has become enlightened before the Master – you will be surprised because you think that you can only become enlightened through an enlightened Master. All rubbish! You become enlightened through surrender. Even if you have surrendered to somebody who is just a pseudo-Master, who simply pretends that he is a Master, if your surrender is total you are saved. And it has happened sometimes that the Master was saved by the disciple when the disciple became enlightened.

Let me tell you one beautiful Hasidic parable. ELISHA BEN ABUYA WAS A GREAT RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR. But he was just a scholar. He attracted many people, many talented people. His name was known all over Israel. Many people came and surrendered to him. But he was just a scholar, a pundit, he was not a real Master. He knew about God but he had never encountered God. AND IT HAPPENED THAT LATE IN HIS LIFE HE TURNED A SCEPTIC AND BECAME REBELLIOUS – became irreligious, turned against God.

And he was a great logician and well versed in scriptures, so it was very difficult to defeat him. When he started talking against God he was as impressive as when he was talking for God. He was a real intellectual.

HIS CHIEF DISCIPLE RABBI MEIR TRIED MANY TIMES TO BRING HIM BACK TO THE FOLD. The disciple tried to bring him back to the fold. Rabbi Meir, who was Elisha Ben Abuya’s disciple, had become enlightened.

And the disciple TRIED MANY TIMES TO BRING HIM BACK TO THE FOLD BUT THE OLD MAN WAS REALLY A LOGICIAN AND IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO ARGUE WITH HIM. The disciple suffered very much because he loved the man. He knew that he was not enlightened and he knew that he was not a real man of knowing but he loved the man and he felt grateful because he had become enlightened through him. Whosoever he was, whatsoever he was, through surrendering into his feet Rabbi Meir had become enlightened. How could he be ungrateful? He persisted.

RABBI MEIR, HOWEVER, PERSISTED IN HIS ATTEMPT. WHEN HE HEARD THAT ELISHA WAS DANGEROUSLY ILL HE WENT TO VISIT HIM. HE AGAIN ASKED HIM TO REPENT. AND ELISHA ASKED, ’WILL HE RECEIVE ME NOW? WILL GOD RECEIVE ME NOW? WILL HE FORGIVE ME?’

’YES,’ REPLIED RABBI MEIR. ELISHA WEPT AND DIED. AND A FEW DAYS AFTER RABBI MEIR WAS TOLD THAT A FIRE WAS ISSUING OUT OF THE GRAVE OF HIS MASTER. HE WENT THERE, COVERED IT WITH A MANTLE AND SAID, ’SLUMBER TONIGHT, FOR PERCHANCE THE LORD WILL SAVE YOU. AND IF NOT, I WILL SAVE YOU. SLEEP UNTIL MORNING.’

This is of tremendous beauty. He says, ’Sleep tonight, for perchance the Lord will save you. And if not, I will save you. Sleep until morning.’ That’s why I say it is very simple for a Master to save you because sometimes even the contrary has happened – that a disciple has saved a Master. But remember, it is love that saves; it is surrender that saves. Remember that love liberates – that is the mantra: love saves, love liberates. Fall in love with a Master and you are saved.

Source – Osho Book “Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 2″

Osho – Sat-Chit-Anand – truth, consciousness, bliss. All are possible to you. In fact, they are your birthright. You just have to claim them … and the claim needs a little patience.

There is a Sufi story: A king stopped his horse. He was passing by a nursery that belonged to a poor gardener. And he looked at the poor gardener – he had stopped for a special reason. He had wanted to stop many times. He used to pass through that beautiful place where the nursery of the poor gardener was – it was the most beautiful way to the palace.

Today he could not contain his curiosity. The curiosity was that the man looked so old … certainly he had passed at least one century. Perhaps he was one hundred and twenty or even more. He looked so old and yet he was preparing small plants and working the whole day on those plants. And those were plants of trees which take at least one hundred years to grow to their full height.

Their lifespan is long – they live at least four thousand years. After one hundred years, they are still just children. They can count on a lifespan of four thousand years, but only after one hundred years do they start flowering – not before that. And after one thousand years, they start giving fruit.

The king was puzzled: this man seemed at least one hundred and twenty years old. ”Is he mad, or what? He cannot expect to see the flowers of these trees, to say nothing about the fruits. And he is working so hard in his old age, the whole day in the hot sun” – it was a desert land.

He stopped and went close to the old man and said, ”I watch you every day, and I see how hard you work, but a question … Every day I go on repressing it, not wanting to interfere. But you will have to forgive me – I want to ask one thing: Do you think you will be able to see the flowers of these plants?”

The old man laughed. He said, ”No, I will not be able to see the flowers of these plants. But do you see just behind my hut those huge trees, thousands of years old? They are the same trees. They are giving me fruits, they are giving me flowers.”

The king said, ”I can see them, but I still don’t understand. What do you mean by bringing those trees in?”

The man said, ”If my parents or my forefathers had also thought that they would not be able to see the flowers, to say nothing about the fruits, there would not have been those trees. I am not thinking about myself. I am thinking about my forefathers and about my future children. I owe them something.

”If my forefathers were so patient that they could be happy that some children whom they could never know would enjoy the fruits and the flowers of these beautiful trees … Do you think I am a worse human being than my forefathers? Can’t I think also of someone, far away in the future, being thankful towards me?”

The king wrote in his biography: ”The old gardener has shocked me with his patience and with his infinite love and compassion and trust.” Somebody, some day, is bound to see the flowers.

Source – Osho Book “Sat Chit Anand”

Osho – Try to see that whatsoever action is there, it is not arising out of you but rather arising out of the chain of actions you have done in the past. Try to understand this distinction clearly. Whenever you do something – if somebody insults you, you think that the reaction is arising from you. That is wrong. It is arising not from you but from the chain of your mind which has come from the past. You have been trained in the past that this is an insulting word.

I will tell you one anecdote. Kahlil Gibran writes somewhere that one man came to Lebanon. He was not a Lebanese, he didn’t know the language of the country; he was totally a stranger. The moment he entered Lebanon he saw a very big palatial building, many people coming in and out, so he also entered to see what was going on there. It was a big hotel, but he thought, ”It seems the king has given a party – so many distinguished guests coming out, going in, and everybody is being served.” And, as the human mind works, he thought, ”It may be that because I have come to Lebanon, just for my reception, in my honor, the king is doing something.”

The moment he entered he was received by the manager, he was placed at a table and food was served. He enjoyed it and he was very happy, he had never been so happy in his life. And then when he had finished his food, drink, and everything, he started thanking them. But they could not understand his language and he could not understand their language. They were placing a bill before him – it was a hotel – but he couldn’t understand. He thought, ”They are giving in writing, ’It was so good of you to accept the invitation. You have honored us.’” So he took the bill, put it in his pocket, and thanked them again.

Then the manager became disturbed: either he was insane, because he was talking in such strange sounds they couldn’t understand, or he was a rascal just trying to deceive. So he was brought to the owner of the hotel. The man thought, ”Now they are bringing me to the chief minister or the prime minister of the country.” He again started thanking them. It was no use, so he was brought to the court.

When he entered the palatial building of the court, bigger than the hotel, he thought, ”Now this is the palace of the king, and he himself is going to receive me in person.” Again he started bowing down and thanking, and the magistrate thought, ”This man is either mad or a perfect rascal,” so he punished him. And it was the punishment of that country in such cases that the man should be forced to sit on a donkey backwards, and a plaque should be hung around his neck on which it was written: ”This man has committed the crime of deception, and everybody should be aware.”

He was painted black, and he enjoyed it very much because he thought, ”A strange country, with strange manners, but they are paying every attention to me.” Naked he was placed on a donkey, a plaque was hung around his neck. He enjoyed it. Then the donkey started moving all over town just to make the whole town aware that this man was a criminal. And a crowd, children and many cripples followed, and he enjoyed. He thought, ”These people are just following in my honor.”

The children were enjoying it and he was also very happy and joyful, but only one sadness was in his heart: ”Nobody knows what is happening to me in my country. I wish they could become aware of how I have been received. And they will not believe me when I go back, they will say that I am just inventing stories.”

Then suddenly he saw a man in the crowd who belonged to his country. He was very happy and he said, ”Look how beautifully they have received me! This is not only in my honor, but my country is honored.” But the other man who knew the language of this country, Lebanon, simply disappeared in the crowd, hiding his face, because he knew what was happening. This was not an honor. And the man on the donkey thought, ”Jealousy, nothing else. This man is jealous. They have honored me and they have not honored him.”

You have a mind trained through many lives. Things come out of that, not out of you. You have a long chain of actions; whenever a new act is born in you it comes out of that chain. It is a new link in that chain; it is born out of that chain, not out of you. When somebody insults you, you get angry. That anger comes from your past angers, not from you.

This difference has to be noted, because it will help you to become a witness. And that is what is meant by living moment-to-moment – that is the moment. Don’t allow the chain of the past to react. Put aside the chain and let your consciousness function directly. Don’t be influenced by the past, respond here and now, directly. The whole life will be different if you can act out of the present moment. But all your actions are almost always out of the past, never out of the present. And action that is born out of the present is nonbinding, an action that is born out of the past chain is a new link in your bondage. But first one has to become aware.

When you get angry just look: from where is that anger coming? from you or just from your past memories? You have been insulted before, you have been angry before – that memory is there waiting, that memory works like a wound. Again something happens and that memory starts functioning, that memory creates the same reaction again. If you watch and observe for twenty-four hours you will see that you are just a mechanical robot, you are functioning out of memories, out of the past. The past is dead, and the dead is so weighty on you that your life is crushed under it. Look at the chain.

Source – Osho Book “Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi”