| 
Part VII : Development of the Ashram
Until September 1974, there is little organisation in the ashram.
Osho gives directions through Vivek, who looks after his well-being
and household, and through his secretary, Laxmi, who is responsible
for the ashram. Now, as more people participate, rules are introduced,
and guarding at the gates.
I give you freedom because I love freedom, but the ashram cannot
give you freedom, the ashram is part of the world, the mundane
world. That distinction you have to keep in mind. Don't identify
me with the ashram.
I may be a guest here, as you are, but I am also an outsider.
This ashram is not mine—no ashram can be. The ashram exists
for some other functions. It is an organization! An organization
has to be an organization. Rules and regulations. How can you
be loose and free in it? You cannot be. But you have to suffer
the ashram for me. So just feel pity for it and don't get disturbed.
treas404
My trust is in the individual, I don't trust the crowd. The
crowd is by its nature ugly. My sannyasins are connected with
me individually. My sannyasins are not in fact connected to any
organisation.
If you see any kind of organisation, it is just like the post
office or the railway management. It is not a church, it is just
to make me available to you more easily, more comfortably—otherwise
I would be crowded and it would not be possible to work at all.
The organisation is there just like the postal department. It
is needed. But it is not an institution. Its function is there,
its utility is there, but it is not a church. My sannyasins don't
belong to any organisation, they belong to me. And each sannyasin
belongs directly to me, it is not via the organisation. The organisation
is there only to facilitate things. It is not a party, a sect,
a church; it is nothing of the kind. sufis108
This ashram is just a device, nothing else. I am not interested
in creating a monastery or an ashram. This is just a device so
that people can be here with me and learn how to love and surrender…how
to transform small things into great…how to transform cleaning
into prayer or cooking into worship, or typing or editing or guarding
or gardening into holy experiences. greatn12
You are asking: You said that you never came across a woman
who is really intelligent. But how come in the ashram all the
executives are women?
Because I don't want the ashram to be run by intellect. I want
it to be run by the heart. I don't want it to be run by the male
mind. I want it to be run by the feminine heart…because,
to me, to be feminine is to become vulnerable, to become receptive.
To be feminine is to become passive, to be feminine is to allow;
to be feminine is to wait, to be feminine is not to be in a hurry
and tense; to be feminine is to be in love. Yes, the ashram is
run by women, because I want it to be run by the heart.
I say I never came across a woman who is really intelligent. I
mean 'intellectual,' not the intelligence I was talking about
just now. That intelligence is neither male nor female. That intelligence
is of the no-mind. Mind is male, mind is female—no-mind
is none. No-mind has no sex to it. No-mind is just an openness,
a space. There all dualities disappear—male/female, yin/yang,
positive/negative, existence/non-existence. All dualities disappear
in the no mind, but before that no-mind comes, if you have to
choose in the mind, then choose the feminine mind rather than
the male mind—because male mind has an aggression to it….
The feminine is not the goal—the feminine is nearer to
the no-mind. That's why Lao Tzu goes on insisting, "Become
passive. Wait, patience. Don't be in a hurry. And don't be aggressive,"
because truth cannot be conquered. You can only surrender to it.
So the ashram will be run by women till I find people who have
no-minds. When the no-minds are available then there will be no
question of male and female; then the ashram will be run by no-minds.
Then a different type of intelligence functions. In fact then
only, intelligence functions: it is not intellectual; it is total.
yoga508
In India people have the idea, particularly the villagers—and
eighty percent of India consists of villages—that if you
serve a saint you earn tremendous virtue, punya merit, and you
will be rewarded greatly in heaven, so you have to serve a saint.
Now whether the saint wants to be served or not, that is not the
point at all! So many times I had to force people to go out of
my room because they wanted to serve me….
They would force themselves upon me.
It is out of those twenty years of experience that in my ashram
you see guards—because the people have served me so much,
I am tired of it!…
And people ask me why there are guards! You cannot imagine what
would happen to me if there were not guards—you cannot imagine!
theolo04
Osho advises a sannyasin on guarding in the ashram:
Guarding can be very very useful—it can become a great
meditation if you do it rightly, because all that is needed for
the meditation is a requirement for being a good guard. For example
you have to be alert, very alert, you have to be watchful about
who is passing and what is happening all around…and that's
what meditation is!
There is a hassidic parable…. A hassidic rabbi could not
sleep one night, so in the middle of the night he came out of
his house and walked on the road. There he met another man who
was guarding a rich man's house, so they walked together, and
the rabbi asked him, 'What kind of work do you do?' And he said,
'I am a watchman.' The watchman asked, 'What kind of work do you
do?'
And the rabbi laughed—he said, 'I am also a watchman but
not as good as you! I fall asleep many times. My alertness is
not perfect—I miss. There are gaps in my watchfulness.'
Meditation is a kind of watchfulness and a sitting, just looking
around with no purpose—because there is no purpose. If anybody
passes by you have to look without any purpose, without any judgement;
you have just to see. That is another quality of meditation: to
look at things without any kind of prejudice—good or bad—without
any judgement. And then sitting there the whole day doing nothing
the energy settles—it is not hectic; it rests.
That is another quality of meditation. That's why zen people
call their meditation 'zazen'; zazen means sitting and doing nothing.
The very word zazen, means sitting doing nothing. The work of
a guard can become zazen. stars27
|
