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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : Osho is ill;
he receives and comments on therapeutic bodywork
Osho is sick and unable to give discourses for approximately
two weeks in each month of December, January and February 1988.
He is given sessions by sannyasins trained in therapeutic bodywork,
including massage and rebalancing
You ask: Is it possible for a master to take the pain of his
disciples in helping them to understand their enlightenment, and
in the process cause his body to become sick?
Amrito, it is possible for a master to take the pain of his
disciples in helping them to understand their enlightenment, and
in the process cause his body to become sick. Theoretically it
is possible, but practically it is not.
When I say, theoretically it is possible, I mean, there is no
barrier in its happening. But the problem is that the moment the
master becomes enlightened, his grip over his own body comes to
the minimum. Most of the people who have become enlightened have
died either immediately or within a few minutes or a few hours.
The experience is so great, and the shock to the system of the
body is unabsorbable. Out of thousands, perhaps a few have survived.
And there are reasons why they survived.
But they suffered tremendously from sicknesses. These are not
sicknesses taken away from disciples, these are sicknesses intrinsic
to the experience of enlightenment. Enlightenment means suddenly
becoming aware that you are not the body, and a distance is created.
The old identity that, "I am the body," was keeping
you together. You start falling apart. Mostly, the shock is so
much that people have died.
But it has not been discussed because to discuss it…People
have thought, "Rarely does somebody become interested in
enlightenment. And if you tell them that enlightenment means that
you will have to suffer afterwards, then anybody will simply say,
`Then why should we become enlightened? We are good as we are.'"
That part has not been disclosed. But I don't want to keep anything
secret, because I know my people can die celebrating, laughing,
rejoicing. Death is not a fear to them.
Just today, Anubuddha was massaging me, because my hand has
been in terrible pain for many weeks. He said, "You seem
to be aware of every pain point, wherever I touch. I have never
seen anybody…" And he is our best body worker—very
sensitive, very alert, very loving, and very successful.
His work is that ordinary people, who are identified with the
body, should become more aware, if there is some pain or not.
"But you are not identified with the body. Then how do you
become aware? And so minutely?" Because I go on telling him,
"This is the right point, this is where you should work."
Nobody may have told him before, because you don't tell the body
worker—he is the expert, not you.
And I go on telling him, "You missed a point just now."
And he has to go back and he finds it. So he was asking…I
told him, "After the massage." But then I forgot, so
I said, "It is better to tell it now."
Once you are enlightened, a distance starts creating itself
between you and your identity with the body. That does not mean
that death is inevitable. It only means that now you will not
be able to control the body in the same way you used to control
it in the past. But it does not prevent your awareness; it gives
you more awareness. You become a witness.
Just as he is working on my body…for him it is only guess
work, whether some point is a pain point or not. To me it is not
guess work; I am seeing from within that it is a pain point.
Awareness comes with enlightenment, but awareness brings its
own problems. Ramakrishna died of cancer, Maharishi Raman died
of cancer, J. Krishnamurti suffered for forty years continuously
with a terrific migraine. The migraine was so much, twenty-four
hours a day, that he said, "Sometimes I feel like hitting
my head against the wall and crushing it. The pain is unbearable."
Amrito, your question is created by the disciples, because disciples
cannot understand—"J. Krishnamurti suffering from migraine?
No, it cannot be. There must be some hidden reason. He must have
taken the migraines of many, many disciples." And then they
feel satisfied—a right explanation has been found.
Ramakrishna suffered from cancer, and his disciples go on writing
that he had taken the cancer of some disciple. But even if you
take the cancer of some disciple, that disciple is not going to
become enlightened, so what is the point? The poor fellow was
suffering with cancer. At least there was something—you
have taken even that.
In fact, if your body sicknesses can be taken by enlightened
people, you will not think of becoming enlightened. It is better
to be unenlightened and let the enlightened people take care of
your sicknesses, and meanwhile enjoy—unless accidentally
you become enlightened, because then you cannot go back. That's
what I mean when I say, theoretically it is possible. That needs
some explanation.
You have two words in English, `sympathy' and `empathy'. Sympathy
is when you feel superficially: somebody is miserable, somebody
is sick and you feel sympathetic. You sit by the side, cry a little
and then go on to the movies. What else to do? Your eyes are more
clean, and now…Empathy means that you become so one with
the person that sicknesses or anything can be transferred.
(Here Osho recounts the story when Ramakrishna inexplicably
experienced pain as if beaten. It was then discovered that nearby
a man was being beaten.)
That's why I say, theoretically it is possible. And once in
a while it has happened, not because consciously enlightened people
take other people's sicknesses and diseases on themselves, but
accidentally, just like in the case of Ramakrishna.
The reality is that the enlightened person is somehow pulling
together his body. He has lost all desires, all ambitions. He
has no impetus for tomorrow. Even to breathe one more breath he
has no reason for. So a great gap goes on growing. Awareness becomes
more and more clean and clear, he can witness his own body from
inside, but a witness is only a witness; he cannot do anything.
So all these stories that are being spread around, that some
master took away a disease, are just an explanation to protect
the so-called master. But how can a master fall sick? In fact,
the master can fall sick more than anybody else, because he has
separated himself from his body. The old clinging, the old grip
is gone. Now it is a miracle that he goes on living for a few
days. Hence he lives in a very calculated way.
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