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Part VII : Gautam Buddha's Prophesy and the Buddhafield
In December 1977 Osho comments on Diamond Sutra wherein Gautama
Buddha answers questions from Subhuti, his disciple. Buddha foretold
that in 2,500 years his teachings would revive and start a new
cycle of consciousness, 'turn the wheel of dhamma'. Osho explains
that this is what he is doing, and reintroduces the word buddhafield
to describe his work.
Subhuti asked: 'Will there be any beings in the future period,
in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred
years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when
these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their
truth?'
Now you will be surprised: this is the time Subhuti is talking
about, and you are the people. Twenty-five hundred years have
passed. Subhuti has asked about you.
Buddha has said that whenever a religion is born, whenever a Buddha
turns the wheel of Dhamma, naturally, slowly slowly the wheel
starts stopping. It loses momentum. mm? You turn a wheel, it will
start moving. Then by and by, by and by, a moment will come when
it will stop.
When a Buddha moves the wheel of Dhamma, it takes two thousand
five hundred years for it to stop completely. After each five
hundred years it goes on losing momentum. So those are the five
ages of the Dhamma. After each five hundred years, the Dhamma
will be less and less, decreased and decreased and decreased,
and after twenty-five centuries the wheel will stop again. It
will need another Buddha to turn it for the coming twenty-five
centuries.
This is a rare phenomenon. It is really intriguing that Subhuti
asked Buddha:
'Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time,
in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time
of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of
the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?'
The Lord (Buddha) replied: 'Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even
then there will be beings who, when these words of the Sutra are
being taught, will understand their truth.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas. And
these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored
only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of
merit under one single Buddha only. On the contrary, Subhuti,
those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the Sutra are being
taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, be
such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, such
as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands
of Buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition.
Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye.
Fully-known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata. And they all,
Subhuti will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable
heap of merit.'
Buddha is talking about you. The Sutra is being read to you. Twenty-five
centuries have passed. Subhuti has asked about you.
The other day I had told you that many of you will become bodhisattvas,
many of you are on the way. It is strange that Subhuti should
ask such a question. And more strange is that Buddha says "Those
people after twenty-five centuries will not be less fortunate
than you but will be more fortunate."
Why? I have been telling you many times that you are ancient
ones, that you have walked on this earth many many times, that
you are not listening to Dhamma for the first time, that you have
come across many Buddhas in your past lives—sometimes maybe
a Krishna and sometimes maybe a Christ and sometimes maybe a Mahavira
and sometimes maybe a Mohammed, but you have come across many
many Buddhas, many enlightened people.
You are fortunate to know so many Buddhas, and if you become a
little alert, all the seeds that have been sown in you by the
past Buddhas will start blooming, will sprout. You will start
flowering.
Buddha says:
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition.
Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye.
Fully-known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
It is very mysterious, but it is possible. A Buddha can have
a vision of the future. He can see through the fog of the future.
His clarity is such, his vision is such, he can throw a ray of
light into the unknown future. He can see. It will look very mysterious
that Buddha sees you listening to The Diamond Sutra….
This is ecstatic to even think that Gautama the Buddha had seen
you listening to The Diamond Sutra. In The Diamond Sutra you are
talked about. That's why I have chosen it. When I came across
these words I thought, "This is the thing for my people.
They must know that even they have been looked into by Gautama
the Buddha; that something about them has been said twenty-five
centuries ago; that they have been predicted.'
The wheel that Buddha moved has stopped. The wheel has to be
moved again. And that is going to be my and your life-work—that
wheel has to be moved again. Once it starts revolving it will
have again twenty-five centuries' life. Once it starts moving
it goes on moving for twenty-five centuries at least.
And it has to be done again and again and again because everything
loses momentum, everything functions under the laws of nature—entropy.
You throw a stone, you throw with great energy, but it goes a
few hundred feet and it falls down. Exactly like that Dhamma has
to be made again and again alive. Then it breathes for twenty-five
centuries and then dies. Everything that is born has to die.
But Buddha says, "Subhuti, do not speak thus." Subhuti
must be thinking, "Only we are fortunate. We have listened
to Buddha, lived with Buddha, walked with Buddha. We are fortunate,
we are blessed people. What will happen after twenty five centuries
when the wheel of Dhamma has completely stopped moving?"
He is thinking about you unfortunate people.
Buddha says, "Do not speak thus, Subhuti. Don't start thinking
that only you are fortunate." That is a very subtle ego:
"We are fortunate, nobody else is so fortunate." Buddha
immediately puts his hand on Subhuti's mouth:
'Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings
who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand
their truth.'
And I know, here are people who understand the truth. Slowly slowly
the morning is happening, the dark night is disappearing. Slowly
slowly the seed is gaining ground, entering in your heart.
'For even at that time, Subhuti, There will be bodhisattvas,'
There are many here who are going to become bodhisattvas. Just
a little work more, just a little play more, just a little more
effort into meditativeness, just a little more pouring of the
energy, just a little more concentration of the energy, avoiding
of distractions, and it is going to happen. And it is going to
happen to many. And you are the fortunate ones, Buddha says….
If you can even understand a single word of The Diamond Sutra,
if you can understand a simple look of my eyes into your eyes,
if you can understand a simple gesture of my inner dance….
And you are the people Buddha is talking about. And you are
the people I am depending on. The wheel of Dhamma has stopped.
It has to be turned again. diamon03
My effort here is just to reverse the whole process. I am trying
to turn the wheel of dharma in a totally different way; I am trying
to change its direction. It has been anti-life: I am trying to
make it life-affirmative.
Calmness is beautiful, but it must surround a dancing bliss.
It must be capable of singing. If it cannot sing it is not true;
it is not worth either.
So my sannyasin has to learn love, life, laughter. I want to create
a temple which knows how to celebrate, whose only worship will
be festivity, whose only prayer will be dance, love, and who will
know how to participate in this life—not to live for another
life but to be totally herenow. Because God knows no other time
than now and no other space than here. The real temple of God
can be made only out of two bricks: those two bricks are now and
here. wakeup11
Put your mind aside—let there be a direct communion between
me and you. And I'm not interpreting Gautam Buddha. What he is
saying is my own experience too. Hence, in a way I am simply explaining
to you my own existential experience. But I love Gautam Buddha,
his words are beautiful. It is significant to revive them again
and again, to give them life, to let them breathe again. I am
not interpreting here, I am simply making myself available to
him so that he can say something to you in your language, in the
language of the twentieth century. dh0701
The word buddhafield is of tremendous importance. You have to
understand it, because that is what I am doing here—creating
a buddhafield. It is just to create a buddhafield that we are
moving away from the world, far away, so that a totally different
kind of energy can be made available to you.
Buddhafield means a situation where your sleeping Buddha can
be awakened. Buddhafield means an energy field where you can start
growing, maturing, where your sleep call be broken, where you
can be shocked to awareness—an electric field where you
will not be able to fall asleep, where you will have to be awake,
because shocks will be coming all the time.
A buddhafield is an energy field in which a Buddha matures beings,
a pure land, an unworldly world, a paradise on earth, which offers
ideal conditions for rapid spiritual growth. A buddhafield is
a matrix.
The word matrix comes from Latin; it means the womb. From that
word we get the words matter, mother, etcetera. The womb offers
three things to a newly forming life: a source of possibility,
a source of energy to explore that possibility, and a safe place
within which that exploration can take place.
That's what we are going to do. The new commune is going to be
a great experiment in buddhahood. Energies have to be made available
to you, possibilities have to be made clear to you. You have to
be made aware of your potential, and you have to be given a safe
place from where you can work: a place where you are not distracted
by the world, a place where you can go on without any disturbance
from the crowd, a place where ordinary things, taboos, inhibitions,
are put aside, where only one thing is significant—how to
become a Buddha; where everything else simply disappears from
your mind—money and power and prestige; where all else becomes
insignificant, when all else becomes exactly what it is—a
shadow world—and you are no longer lost in the apparent.
Maya is to be caught up in the apparent. That is the greatest
illusion in the world. The apparent holds such sway on our minds.
A buddhafield is a place where you are taken away from the apparent.
In the silence of a commune, in the uninhibited, untabooed atmosphere
of a commune, the master and the disciple can enact the drama
totally. The ultimate is when the master can touch the feet of
the disciple, when the master and disciples are lost into one
reality….
Now understand: if somebody says, "I will create the buddafield,"
and the emphasis is on 'I', then the statement is false, because
a person who has the 'I' still alive cannot create a buddhafield.
Only a person who has no 'I' within him can create a buddhafield.
In fact then to say he creates is not right; language is inadequate.
The Sanskrit word for creation is far better. The Sanskrit word
is nirpadayati. It means many things. It can mean to create, it
can mean to accomplish, it can mean to ripen, it can mean to mature
it can simply mean to trigger into existence. That's exactly the
meaning.
A Buddha does not create, he triggers. Even to say he triggers
is not good; in his presence things happen, in his presence things
are triggered, processes start. Just his presence is a fire, a
spark, and things start moving and one thing leads to another,
and a great chain is created.
That's how we have been going on. I simply sit in my room doing
nothing, and seekers from all over the world have started pouring
in. I don't even write a letter…just the presence. One comes,
another comes, and the chain is created. Now the time has come
when a buddhafield is needed, a matrix is needed, because you
don't know—thousands more are on the way. They have already
moved, they are already thinking of coming.
And the more people are there, the bigger the buddhafield will
be there, and the more powerful it will be. The possibility is
that we can create one of the greatest and the most powerful buddhafields
ever created in the world, because never before was there such
search, because never before was man in such a crisis.
We are on the threshold of something new that is going to happen
to humanity. Either humanity will die and disappear, or we will
take a jump, a leap, and a new being will be formed. We are exactly
at the same point as millions of years ago when monkeys came down
from the trees and humanity started and a new being was born.
Again the moment is coming very close. It is a very dangerous
moment, because there is every possibility….
It was possible that the monkey may not have survived on the
earth, he may have died on the earth, but a few monkeys took the
risk. And they must have been thought of as fools by other monkeys,
mm? who had always lived on the trees and were perfectly happy.
They must have thought, "These people are going mad, crazy.
Why in the first place are you going to live on the earth? Why
create unnecessary trouble for yourselves? Our fathers and their
fathers and their fathers have all lived on the trees."
Again the same situation is going to happen. Man has lived a
long time the way he has lived. By the end of this century a critical
quantum leap is possible. Either man will die in a third world
war or man will take the jump and will become a new man. Before
that happens, a great buddhafield is needed—a field where
we can create the future. diamon09
A Master carries a noosphere around himself; I call it the "Buddhafield".
Jainas have a very specific idea about it; they worked very hard
to find it, exactly what it is. And I think no other tradition
has discovered all the details about the Buddhafield that surrounds
a Master like Mahavira. Jainas have worked—they were a little
bit scientific in their approach—and I agree with their
discoveries about the Buddhafield.
They say a Master has a Buddhafield around himself extending
in all the directions for twenty-four miles—a circle with
the radius of twenty-four miles becomes a Buddhafield whenever
a person becomes enlightened. No other tradition has worked it
out with such scientific detail—even they have measured
the length, how big is the circle that surrounds the awakened
person.
Whosoever is a little bit open entering in the Buddhafield will
start feeling something strange that he has never felt before.
But it happens only if one is open. ithat09
I am creating this Buddhafield for all those who need to be
with me, who want to be not only spiritually connected with me
but materially too. I am a material spiritualist, or a spiritual
hedonist. Any paradox will do to describe me. sands108
You say: As more people come and take sannyas and more days
pass, it seems that many of us grow together—stronger and
stronger without even meeting much. It seemed to me when you spoke
of the 'new community' that somehow it is an old community of
friends, reuniting again through your love and grace.
Yes, that's how it is. Many of you have been with me in the
past. Many of you have been together with each other in the past.
It is a meeting of old friends. You have forgotten—I have
not forgotten. And sooner or later you will also start remembering.
This new commune is going to be one of the oldest things on
the earth, very ancientmost. And travellers from different paths
have come—travellers from different directions and dimensions.
Jews are here and Mohammedans are here and Hindus and Jainas and
Buddhists and Christians and Taoists—all kinds of people
are here. All cultures are meeting here; all religions pouring
into each other. And a natural synthesis will arise. We are not
creating any synthesis, but it is happening on its own.
The universal man can be born only out of such a commune—the
man who will not be a Christian and will not be a Jew and will
not be a Hindu and will not be Indian and will not be Chinese
and will not be German. All boundaries are dissolving here.
And you are certainly not new. You have been here long enough,
you have lived long enough. Many many lives you have been passing.
And you have brought many riches; you have brought great heritages
with you. And once all those heritages are poured into one pool,
it will be one of the richest phenomena that has ever happened
or can ever happen. feet09
That's why my effort is to create a great Buddhafield, to release
as much energy as is released in an atomic explosion. Sannyas
is an effort to collect all those people who are ready to be aware,
to be intelligent. And we have to spread the color all over the
world. This is the color of spring.
Man needs a new life, a new birth. And all that has been told
and taught up to now has failed. It was bound to fail because
it was not meant to create a better humanity; it was meant to
keep man as much enslaved as he is. guida02
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