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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : Osho gives
advice about the Commune
On 6 April, Osho sets up the inner circle of 21 disciples who
will take care of practical administration of the commune. Osho
does not discuss it in discourse, but he does give advice about
the commune.
You cannot avoid a tradition; it is beyond your hands. Once you
are dead, what people will be doing you cannot prevent. Rather
than leaving it in the hands of the ignorant, it is better you
should give the right guidelines. hari30
Sarjano has written a letter in which he feels afraid that "perhaps
the ghost of Rajneeshpuram will take possession of this commune
also."…
A commune gives certain responsibilities and certain freedoms.
A commune is not necessarily destructive of the individual. In
fact, that is the very purpose of the commune: to preserve the
individual, his integrity.
A commune is not an organization, but when thousands of people
are involved, somebody has to cook, and somebody has to watch
on the door, and somebody has to do small things. There are people
who start thinking that even doing these things is destroying
their freedom. This is sheer nonsense.
A certain responsibility is not against freedom; in fact, freedom
can only exist with responsible people. Somebody has to take care
of the gardens, otherwise there will be no flowers.
Sarjano's trouble may be the trouble of a few other sannyasins.
It has to be made clear that a commune is not dictatorial, but
it is not democratic either. It gives respect to the individual.
With the respect it gives the responsibility also, that you have
to be aware not to trespass on anybody, and that you have to contribute
to the commune.
If you are taking from the well of the commune, you have to
contribute something--whatever you can do.
When you are working with friends there should be no discussion
about anything, only dialogues. There should be no need to impose
anything on anybody. When intelligent people are there, they can
see the reason themselves. They are not to be forced.
But there are a few people who think licentiousness is freedom.
Sarjano, that is your attitude.
Licentiousness is not freedom.
We are sitting here--nobody is forcing you to be silent. It
is according to your intelligence that you are silent, and this
gives your individuality a tremendous grace….
Your silence is not democratic--you have not been asked to vote
to be silent. It is not dictatorial--you have not been told that
you have to be silent. This is the beauty and dignity of your
silence: it is arising out of you. It is not imposed from outside;
it is coming from within. And when something comes from within,
it has a beauty and a grace, and a tremendous aliveness. This
is not the silence of a graveyard; this is the silence of a garden.
It is not dead; it is throbbing with life.
Sarjano, Zen teaches revolution in a graceful way. In the name
of revolution much ugliness has happened in the world. Zen wants
you to understand the implications of the inner revolution, and
you have to go on your own way. Zen simply makes it clear that
there is nothing to be found, that there is no truth which is
hidden--it is only your eyes which are closed.
Do you see the shift? All other mystery schools in the world
have been teaching that the truth is hidden. If it is only a way
of saying it, it can be forgiven. But the reality is, truth is
not hidden. Truth is all over the place, only our eyes are closed….
It is a miracle that thousands of people can live here without
any conflict, without any fight, without any violence. The whole
world can live with such peace and silence if freedom is not misunderstood
as licentiousness.
Freedom is a greater responsibility, it gives you dignity and
pride. It makes you aware that you are living in a meaningful
way. There is no other meaning to be found…
The whole effort of Zen is to bring you to your own consciousness,
and then there is no need of any scripture, and there is no need
of any guide. You have your own light and you can live accordingly,
intensely, joyfully, dancingly. zenman04
This commune has to be a commune of understanding, awareness,
looking into one's own mind patterns and remembering that they
are not yours. You are simply the watcher, and the watcher is
outside the mind.
I teach you the watcher.
The only way to get out of misery patterns, whether ancient
or new, is witnessing. I say it is the only way, because nobody
has escaped from the mind without becoming a witness. Just witness,
and suddenly you will start laughing at your own misery. All our
miseries are so superficial--and most fundamentally, they are
all borrowed. zenman05
And we are here only to learn that which cannot be destroyed
even by death--the immortal, the eternal.
It is only a question of remembrance, a forgotten language remembered
again.
And keep on remembering all the day along. Act the way a conscious
person acts. Doing ordinary things: chopping wood or carrying
water from the well, do it as if the buddha is doing it himself.
And what I am saying to you is not a philosophical statement,
it is the experience of thousands of buddhas.
To find the essential in you is the Manifesto of Zen. zenman04
We are going to create new campuses around in the pyramid shape
for meditators. Even people who live inside a pyramid find it
very rejuvenating. The scientists could not believe it; they themselves
found that they were more alive inside the pyramid than they were
outside. Something happens; just the shape of the pyramid is the
thing.
Those pyramids were created by Egyptian mystics from very ancient
scriptures from the continent, Atlantis, that drowned either by
natural catastrophe or by man's stupidity. But in Alexandria in
Egypt, they had saved everything worthwhile from the lost continents
of Lemuria and Atlantis. The library of Alexandria was so big--perhaps
the biggest library in the world. The Mohammedan, Khalif Omar,
burned it down….
It had all the maps of the pyramids, and the reasoning why that
particular shape is rejuvenating.
Pyramids can be called authentic creativity, but our so-called
painters and our so-called musicians have no understanding of
meditation. So it is just being busy without business, just doing
something because the society does not accept you sitting silently….
So if your creativity comes out of your silence, out of your
Zen, out of your meditations, then it is authentic, original.
If it comes only as an occupation because you are feeling lost
and there is nothing to do--a long holiday, so you start doing
something…. That is not coming out of your silences, it
is coming out of your crazy mind….
Anything that arises from your silences has a beauty, a truthfulness,
an authenticity. And that which arises out of the mind is only
a carbon copy. Howsoever beautiful it may appear to the ignorant,
it cannot be called a creative phenomenon….
If you don't have to do anything, that is the greatest moment
just to be. Don't do anything. Be silent. Do only when things
are necessary to be done. So much nonsense will be cut out and
you will have much more energy to explore the inner. zenman10
I have been asked again and again why I declare people enlightened
only when they die. This is simply to keep the peace of the commune.
If I declare somebody to be enlightened, you will kill him. You
will not be able to tolerate that this man has become enlightened.
You will find a thousand faults in him, you will condemn him,
and you will be very jealous.
I have made it a point that I will declare people enlightened
only when you cannot be jealous, and you cannot quarrel, because
they are already gone.
And when I leave the world, I will leave a note about the people
who are enlightened, but in deep secrecy. The note will remain
with Nirvano, so whenever somebody out of the list dies, declare
it.
Declaring anybody enlightened while he is alive is certainly
going to create great trouble for the man who is declared enlightened.
Now he will feel very much embarrassed smoking cigarettes. And
what to do with the girlfriends? Enlightened, and you have a girlfriend?
Only Sardar Gurudayal Singh is an exception.
But ordinarily you will feel very much in difficulty, drinking
wine, going to the pub--even just ordinary beer. And particularly
my Germans, what will they do without beer? For Germans I will
have to make an exception.
I don't want you to be embarrassed. It is good that you are
trying to be enlightened. On the way enjoy everything, and I will
declare you enlightened when you are completely at rest in the
grave. Nobody can disturb you--no beer, no cigarettes, no girlfriends,
nothing. At the most you can toss and turn inside there. If you
want, I can put some chewing-gum in every grave, so whenever you
feel too much upset, just start chewing gum! yaku04
It's easy here, where miracles happen before breakfast and then
never stop, but how to make it work the same way in everyday life
and in society?
If it has really happened to you, the question will not arise.
If you have imagined it, only then will the question arise.
Here, it is easy to imagine before breakfast that you are enlightened.
Here, there are so many enlightened people, so it is very easy.
Nobody is against enlightenment, everybody is supportive; it is
easy to imagine.
The test, the fire test, will be out there in the society. If
your enlightenment disappears, it has never happened. If it has
happened, no society, no culture can destroy it. It is such a
force, such an eternal life, nobody can even touch it, so don't
be worried about society. Just let your enlightenment be a reality,
not an imagination.
Once it is a reality you are no more, only enlightenment is--a
flame, a fire which cannot be put out, put off. You can be killed,
but your enlightenment cannot be killed. You can be crucified
and poisoned, but your enlightenment remains a witness even on
the cross.
And when there are thousands of enlightened people, the society
will not have the courage. Where are you going to have so many
crosses? If enlightenment becomes a great phenomenon around the
earth, then no enlightened man or master is in danger. He can
have his life unhindered, unhampered, uncrippled by the society.
The society could manage to kill Socrates, because Socrates
was alone.
The society could crucify Jesus because he was alone.
I am not teaching any cult here, any creed. I want you to taste
the very life source. Then nobody can take it away. zenman09
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