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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : The Zen
Manifesto: Freedom from Oneself
On 20 February 1989, Osho begins a new series: The Zen Manifesto:
Freedom from Oneself
Friends, It is time, ripe time for a Zen manifesto.
The Western intelligentsia have become acquainted with Zen, have
also fallen in love with Zen, but they are still trying to approach
Zen from the mind. They have not yet come to the understanding
that Zen has nothing to do with mind.
Its tremendous job is to get you out of the prison of mind.
It is not an intellectual philosophy; it is not a philosophy at
all. Nor is it a religion, because it has no fictions and no lies,
no consolations. It is a lion's roar. And the greatest thing that
Zen has brought into the world is freedom from oneself. zenman01
The whole of the Western intelligentsia has become immensely
interested in Zen, but their interest remains intellectual. They
have written great books, and we will be discussing in this manifesto
almost everyone who has written books on Zen.
My effort is to make you really clear that all these intellectuals
may have written very beautiful books…I appreciate their
scholarship, I appreciate their articulateness of expression,
but they are not men of Zen, to say nothing of masters of Zen.
Hence this manifesto is absolutely needed to make the whole world
clear that Zen is not a mind affair. It is a no-mind space….
I call Zen essentially freedom from oneself. You have heard
about other freedoms, but freedom from oneself is the ultimate
freedom—not to be, and allow the existence to express itself
in all its spontaneity and grandeur. But it is existence, not
you, not me. It is life itself dancing, not you, not me.
That is the Zen Manifesto: freedom from oneself.
And only Zen has refined, in these twenty-five centuries, methods,
devices to make you aware that you are not, that you are only
arbitrary, just an idea.
As you go beyond the mind, even the idea of "I am" disappears.
When the "I" also disappears and you start feeling a
deep involvement in existence, with no boundaries, then only has
Zen blossomed in you. In fact, that is the state, the space of
the awakened consciousness. But it has no "I" at the
center, no atman, no self.
To make it clear to you… Socrates says, "Know thyself."
Gautam Buddha says, "Know—just know, and you will not
find thyself." Enter deeper into your awareness, and the
deeper you go, your self starts melting. Perhaps that is the reason
why none of the religions except Zen have tried meditation—because
meditation will destroy God, will destroy the ego, will destroy
the self. It will leave you in absolute nothingness. It is just
the mind which makes you afraid about nothingness….
This is only possible to experience by falling deeper, beyond
the mind, to the very depth of your being, to the very source
of life from where your life is flowing. Suddenly you realize
the image of yourself was arbitrary. You are imageless, you are
infinite. You were living in a cage. The moment you realize your
sources are infinite, suddenly the cage disappears and you can
open your wings into the blue sky and disappear. This disappearance
is anatta, this disappearance is freedom from oneself. But this
is possible not through intellect, it is possible only through
meditation. Zen is another name for meditation…
Once you know meditation, you don't have to follow anybody.
You have your own eyes open, and you have your light just ahead
of you showing the path, and all that is right and all that is
good happens choicelessly. It is not that you are doing it, you
cannot do otherwise….
The Zen Manifesto is absolutely needed, because all old religions
are falling apart, and before they fall apart and humanity goes
completely bananas, Zen has to be spread wide around the whole
earth. Before the old house falls down, you have to create a new
house.
And this time don't commit the same mistake. You have been living
in a house which was not there; hence you were suffering rain,
winter, sun, because the house was only an imagination. This time
really enter into your original home, not into any man-made temple,
any man-made religion. Enter into your own existence. Why be continuously
a carbon copy?
This time is very valuable. You are born in a very fortunate
moment, when the old has lost its validity, its proof, when the
old is simply hanging around you because you are not courageous
enough to get out of the prison. Otherwise the doors are open—in
fact, there have never been any doors, because the house you are
living in is completely imaginary. Your gods are imaginary, your
priests are imaginary, your holy scriptures are imaginary.
This time don't commit the same mistake. This time humanity has
to take a quantum leap from the old rotten lies to the fresh,
eternally fresh truth.
This is the Manifesto of Zen. zenman01
I offer you resurrection.
But in resurrection you will not be Christians, you will not be
Hindus, you will not be Mohammedans.
In resurrection you will be men of Zen.
Hence the Zen Manifesto. The world needs it immediately, urgently.
zenman02
Let this be the declaration of the Zen Manifesto:
You are enough unto yourself.
You are the whole universe. zenman04
Zazen is Zen. Sitting silently, doing nothing, an explosion comes
to you. Your own nature blossoms, your buddhahood comes to its
ultimate peak. zenman04
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