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Part VII : Osho's Garden
In May 1974, Osho gives a series of question and answer discourses
in English, which explain his way, the master-disciple relationship,
and the development of his work in Poona. The discourses are published
under the title My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, and attract
many seekers from the West.
This very morning there were white clouds in the sky. Now they
are there no more. Where have they gone? From where do they come?
How do they evolve, and how do they dissolve again? A white cloud
is a mystery, the coming, the going, the very being of it. That's
the first reason why I call my way The Way of the White Clouds.
But there are many reasons, and it is good to ponder, to meditate
upon them. A white cloud exists without any roots. It is an unrooted
phenomenon, grounded nowhere or grounded in the nowhere. But still
it exists. The whole of existence is like a white cloud: without
any roots, without any causality, without any ultimate cause,
it exists. It exists as a mystery.
A white cloud really has no way of its own. It drifts. It has
nowhere to reach, no destination, no destiny to be fulfilled,
no end. You cannot frustrate a white cloud because wherever it
reaches is the goal.
If you have a goal you are bound to get frustrated. The more
goal-oriented a mind is, the more anguish, anxiety and frustration
there will be, because once you have a goal you are moving with
a fixed destination. And the whole exists without any destiny.
The whole is not moving anywhere; there is no goal to it, no purpose.
And once you have a purpose, you are against the whole - remember
this - then you will get frustrated. You cannot win against
the whole. Your existence is so tiny - you cannot fight, you
cannot conquer. It is impossible to conceive how an individual
unit can conquer the whole. And if the whole is purposeless and
you are with purpose you are going to be defeated.
A white cloud drifts wherever the wind leads - it doesn't
resist, it doesn't fight. A white cloud is not a conqueror, and
still it hovers over everything. You cannot conquer it, you cannot
defeat it. It has no mind to conquer - that's why you cannot
defeat it.
Once you are fixed to a goal, purpose, destiny, meaning, once
you have got that madness of reaching somewhere, then problems
will arise. And you will be defeated, that is certain. Your defeat
is in the very nature of existence itself.
A white cloud has nowhere to go. It moves, it moves everywhere.
All dimensions belong to it, all directions belong to it. Nothing
is rejected. Everything is, exists, in a total acceptability.
Hence I call my way The Way of the White Clouds.
The white clouds have no way of their own - they drift.
A way means reaching somewhere. The White Clouds' Way means a
pathless path, a wayless way. Moving, but not with a fixed mind - moving
without a mind.
This has to be understood, because purpose is synonymous with
mind. That's why you cannot conceive how to live without purpose,
because the mind cannot exist without purpose. clouds01
So I am the white cloud, and the whole effort is to make you
also white clouds drifting in the sky. Nowhere to go, coming from
nowhere, just being there this very moment - perfect.
I don't teach you any ideals, I don't teach you any oughts.
I don't say to you be this, become that. My whole teaching is
simply this: Whatsoever you are, accept it so totally that nothing
is left to be achieved, and you will become a white cloud. clouds01
You are asking: You have talked to us about total surrender
to the master, but often our minds come up with reasons for not
following the instructions literally. We say things like: The
master can't know that the situation has changed; or, the master
doesn't realize what the practical conditions are in the West.
Should we follow everything the master says to the letter, or
are there times when we should use our own discretion?
You should follow either absolutely, or not at all. No compromise
should be made, because anything half-hearted is not only useless
but harmful. Anything half-hearted divides you - that is the
harm. You should remain an undivided unity.
So either surrender totally...then there is no need to think
on your part; follow blindly. I emphasize the word blindly - as
if you have no eyes; somebody who has eyes is leading you. Then
you will remain an undivided unity; and undivided, integrated,
you will grow.
Or, if you feel this is impossible and cannot be done, don't
follow at all. Completely follow yourself. Then too you will remain
undivided. To remain undivided is the end, the aim. Both will
do, the ultimate result will be the same. If you can be alone,
without a master, if you can follow your own consciousness, wheresoever
it leads, it is the same, the result will be the same. So it depends
on you.
But the mind always says: Do both. The mind says: Follow the
master, but think about it. Follow only those things which you
think right. Then where is the following? Where is the surrender?
If you are the judge, and you are to decide what to follow and
what not to follow, then where is the surrender, where is the
trust? Then it is better to follow your own consciousness. But
don't deceive - at least there should be no deception. Otherwise,
you go on following yourself and you think that you are following
a master.
If you are the deciding factor, if you have to choose, if you
have to discard something, accept something, then you are following
yourself. But you can create the impression around yourself and
you can deceive yourself that you are following a master. Then
nothing will come out of it. You will not grow, because through
deception there can be no growth.
And you will get more and more confused, because if you are
to decide what is to be done and what is not to be done, if you
have to choose from your master's guidance, you will create a
chaos - because whenever a master guides you his guidance
has an organic unity about it. Every instruction is related to
another. It is a compact whole. You cannot discard something and
follow something; you will become a ruin, a wreck. Even if a single
thing is denied, then the whole has been disturbed. You don't
know how things are interrelated.
So this is my suggestion to you: Remain a unit, undivided. Decide.
If you have to decide, then decide: I will follow myself. Then
don't surrender, there is no need either!...
You can take my help if you surrender; you can take my help
if you don't surrender, but you have to be clear about it. If
you choose the path of surrender, then you have to follow me totally.
If you choose that you are not going to surrender, then decide
it. I can be a friend on the path, there is no need to make me
a master. I can be just a friend on the path - or not even
a friend.
You are searching and you meet somebody absolutely unknown,
a stranger, and you ask him: Where is the river? Which path leads
to the river? When he has spoken you thank him and you move. I
can be just a stranger. No need even to be a friend, because with
a friend also you get involved. You can take my help - my
help is unconditional.
I don't say: Do this, then I will help you. I don't say: Surrender,
only then will I help you. But this much I must say: Do whatsoever
you like, but do it totally. If you are total, the transformation
is closer. If you are divided, it is almost impossible. clouds12
Osho then gives a series of discourses in Hindi: Nahim Ram Bin
Thaon (English: Nowhere to go but in). He explains how a master
can help, not by teaching but by awakening, for which meditation
is the preparation.
A few things will have to be understood. The first is that to
attain buddhahood is very difficult. To be awakened is almost
to attain the impossible. Total awakening is a phenomenon that
does not and cannot happen every day, because there is a deep
attraction to sleep and there is comfort in sleep....
Now and then, maybe once in a thousand years, someone awakens.
And whenever a single individual awakens, that door which is usually
closed opens, even for those who are still asleep. Here we are
so many people: suppose we are all asleep, then who will awaken
us? If even one of us wakes up, the door opens up for the awakening
of us all, because the one who is awake can awaken the sleeping
ones, he can shake them to wake up....
I am taking you into all these experiments with meditation so
that it becomes possible for you to recognize the buddha when
the meeting happens; so that you do not turn your back on the
door when it opens; so that you won't miss even if the door opens
only for a single moment. Meditation will help you to recognize
the master. Now this is a puzzle, because normally we approach
the master in order to learn meditation. But I am telling you,
without meditation you will never be able to recognize the master.
Where will you look? Only meditation will make you capable of
seeing the master. If you try to recognize the master through
your thinking, you will miss...
Don't interpret, simply look at the facts. Don't be lazy. It
is already late enough; wake up! It is morning! But for those
who are asleep the night continues. Only those who are awake can
see that the morning has come.
And whatsoever I am saying to you, my emphasis is not on what
I am saying, it is rather on shaking you, stirring you so that
your sleep is broken. So many times I have to use what psychologists
call shock treatment.... When someone has gone into extreme
insanity, only the administration of electric shocks brings him
back into sanity.
You too need strong electric shocks. Hence, many times I say
things that give you a jolt, a shock. And this process that I
have been calling meditation is exactly electric shock treatment.
It will create so many tremors in you that you will become an
earthquake - and not until you are an earthquake will you
break out of your sleep....
All meditation techniques are techniques to shake you, to jolt
you awake.
And I am always waiting for that moment when your layer will be
so thin that just the merest indication will shatter it. And if
you are able to open your eyes and look even once, the matter
is over.
My speaking to you is nothing but persuading you, getting you
to agree to a journey which is utterly unfamiliar to you, to a
journey where you have no idea of the destination; where it is
possible you may get lost, or it is also possible you may reach
the destination. I am taking you in search of such a treasure
which you have no idea of, and you will have to travel leaving
that behind which you call treasure; hence your attachment is
understandable. Every now and then you turn around and look back - it
is natural. That you want to take along with you very carefully
even that which is worthless is natural. Your sleep is natural,
my shaking you is natural. nowher15
You ask me: What is Your function here as a master?
It is a difficult question, because I have to do so many things - without
doing them, that is the most difficult part of it! I never leave
my room, but I have to do many things, conceivable, inconceivable.
But the basic function of the master is to force people out
of their unconsciousness. It is a thankless job, because you have
to hit them hard - their ideas, their notions, their middle-class,
bourgeois philosophies. All that they have thought is great, all
that they have thought is true, you have to go on telling them
that it is all nonsense, that it is just bullshit! And of course
they feel hurt....
Allow a single insight of a buddha in you and you will never
be the same. That's my function here as a master: to give you
something which will not fit with you but which will be so tremendously
significant for you that you will be ready to change for it, that
you will be ready to risk everything for it. dh0702
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