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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : Discourses: The silences
The silences during Osho's discourses become increasingly longer.
He draws attention to these silences as they are the essence of
his teaching, of meditation
Just be watchful this minute. In this silence you are tasting
something which is beyond time.
We are tasting the taste of this minute of eternity….
It is something very strange, that all the mystics, whether
they were born thousands of years ago, or they are alive today,
all fundamentally agree on the essential points of spiritual growth
and realization.
For example: the silence, this minute, gives you not an explanation—but
it gives you an experience.
Dancing and singing, allow yourself to be so completely overwhelmed
that nothing is left behind. And you have entered into the temple
of God, where you are the mirror, and you are the face mirrored
in it; where you are the seeker and you are the sought; where
you are the devotee and you are the God at whose feet you are
offering yourself. spirit23
I realized that it is easier to become silent while listening
to you than in any other meditation. When you stop talking everything
seems to stop for a moment and I get a glimpse of what meditation
can be! these are the most precious moments for me! Why is it
easier to become silent in your presence?
The question you have raised is significant not only to you,
but to many more who are not fortunate enough to be in my presence,
but who will be reading these words or listening or seeing this
on the video screen all over the world.
The question arises almost for everyone, that the way I talk
is a little strange. No speaker in the world talks like me—technically
it is wrong; it takes almost double the time!…
My purpose is so unique—I am using words just to create
silent gaps. The words are not important so I can say anything
contradictory, anything absurd, anything unrelated, because my
purpose is just to create gaps. The words are secondary; the silences
between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give
you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible
for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being.
Most of the people in the world don't think that it is possible
for mind to be silent. Because they don't think it is possible,
they don't try. How to give people a taste of meditation was my
basic reason to speak, so I can go on speaking eternally—it
does not matter what I am saying. All that matters is that I give
you a few chances to be silent, which you find difficult on your
own in the beginning.
I cannot force you to be silent, but I can create a device in
which spontaneously you are bound to be silent. I am speaking,
and in the middle of a sentence, when you were expecting another
word to follow, nothing follows but a silent gap. And your mind
was looking to listen, and waiting for something to follow, and
does not want to miss it—naturally it becomes silent. What
can the poor mind do? If it was well known at what points I will
be silent, if it was declared to you that on such and such points
I will be silent, then you could manage to think—you would
not be silent. Then you know: "This is the point where he
is going to be silent, now I can have a little chit-chat with
myself." But because it comes absolutely suddenly….
I don't know myself why at certain points I stop.
Anything like this, in any orator in the world, will be condemned,
because an orator stopping again and again means he is not well
prepared, he has not done the homework. It means that his memory
is not reliable, that he cannot find, sometimes, what word to
use. But because it is not oratory, I am not concerned about the
people who will be condemning me—I am concerned with you.
And it is not only here, but far away…anywhere in the
world where people will be listening to the video or to the audio,
they will come to the same silence. My success is not to convince
you, my success is to give you a real taste so that you can become
confident that meditation is not a fiction, that the state of
no-mind is not just a philosophical idea, that it is a reality;
that you are capable of it, and that it does not need any special
qualifications.
You may be a sinner, you may be a saint—it does not matter.
If the sinner can become silent, he will attain to the same consciousness
as the saint.
Existence is not so miserly as religions have been teaching you.
Existence is not like the KGB or FBI—watching everybody
to see what you are doing, whether you are going to the movie
with your own wife or with somebody else's wife. Existence is
not interested at all. The problem of whether the wife is yours
or not is just a man-created problem. In existence, there is nothing
like marriage. Whether you are stealing money, taking it out from
somebody's safe or from your own, existence does not and cannot
make the difference. You are taking out the money from the safe—that
is a fact—but to whom the safe belongs, that is absolutely
of no concern to existence….
My effort here to speak to you is to give you a chance to see
that you are as capable of becoming a no-mind as any Gautam Buddha—that
it is not a special quality given to a few people, that it is
not a talent. Everybody cannot be a painter, and everybody cannot
be a poet—those are talents. Everybody cannot be a genius—those
are given qualities from birth. But everybody can be enlightened—that
is the only thing about which communism is right. And strangely
enough, that is the only thing communism denies.
Enlightenment is the only thing, the only experience where everybody
is equal—equally capable. And it does not depend on your
acts, it does not depend on your prayers, it does not depend on
whether you believe in God or not. It depends only on one thing
and that is a little taste, and suddenly you become confident
that you are capable of it. My speaking is just to give you confidence.
So I can tell a story, I can tell a joke—absolutely unrelated!…
My own understanding and experience is that the idea of sin, the
idea of virtue, the idea of reward, the idea of punishment, heaven
and hell, are simply ideas to exploit you, to keep you under control.
It is a psychological bondage, because I don't see any point….
My own experience is that if you can be silent, and if you can
transcend mind and your consciousness can grow, it does not matter
what you are doing; your actions are not counted at all, only
your consciousness….
So I have changed it completely. Religions were insisting on
action; my insistence is on consciousness, and consciousness can
grow only in silence. Silence is the right soil for consciousness.
When you are noisy you cannot be very alert and conscious. When
you are conscious and alert, you cannot be noisy—they cannot
co-exist.
So my speaking, my talking should not be categorized with any
other kind of oratory; it is a device for meditation to bring
confidence in you which has been taken away by religions. Instead
of confidence, they have given you guilt which pulls you down
and keeps you sad. Once you become confident that great things
are available to you, you will not feel inferior, you will not
feel guilty—you will feel blessed. You will feel that existence
has prepared you to be one of the peaks of consciousness. But
you have not been going accordingly; you have been following the
priests who have destroyed your dignity and your pride.
You say, "I realized that it is easier to become silent
while listening to you than in any other meditation," because
in those other meditations you are alone. It will take a little
time to gain confidence—that's why I am speaking morning
and evening, almost for thirty years continuously. Perhaps two
or three times in these thirty years, I have stopped because I
was not feeling well; otherwise I have continued to speak.
Every morning and evening I want to give you the confidence
that you are losing in your meditations. When you are meditating,
of course it is you who are meditating; your mind goes on with
its old habit. And many people who have not been given the confidence
have turned back. They try meditation for a few days and it becomes
a failure and a sadness that it doesn't happen. And they start
thinking, "Perhaps my evil acts of the past life"—which
the religions have forced in your mind—"or perhaps
my belief in God is not total; something is wrong with me."
I want you to be absolutely certain that nothing is wrong with
anybody; all wrongs have been fed into you.
Religions have not been helpful in creating a better humanity.
They have only destroyed all that was beautiful in man; they have
stopped its growth, they have cut the very roots. Man has remained
a pygmy in the world of consciousness.
I have changed the whole focus. I don't say to you that you
have to do this, you have not to do that, that this is sin and
this is virtue. I say only, simply be alert and conscious and
silent and blissful, and everything else will follow. Alone, it
will take a little time for you. As your confidence becomes more
and more solid, then alone also you will be able to be silent.
With me, to be silent is easier because of one other reason—I
am silent; even while I am speaking I am silent. My innermost
being is not involved at all. What I am saying to you is not a
disturbance or a burden or a tension to me; I am as relaxed as
one can be. Speaking or not speaking does not make any difference
to me.
Naturally, this kind of state is infectious. Seeing me, being
here in my presence, looking into my eyes…even watching
my hands, you can feel that they are the gestures of a silent
man. Slowly, slowly you become infected, contagious; moreover,
around a silent man there is a certain energy field created….
A man of silence moves with a certain field of energy around him,
and if you are receptive, his vibe starts touching your heart.
Have you noticed? A husband and wife, if they have really been
in love, non-possessive, non-jealous—and if they have helped
each other to remain individuals and they have deep respect for
each other—living a long life, for fifty years together,
you will be surprised to know…it is a well-known fact noticed
down the ages that they start looking almost the same. Their voices,
their eyes, their faces, their gestures…they become so harmonious
with each other.
Certainly, between a master and disciple the phenomenon is a
millionfold greater, because there is no conflict at all. And
particularly with a man like me—I am not in any way forcing
you to be disciples, and I will not prevent anybody from leaving
me. I welcome you when you are here; if you leave, my welcome
remains the same. My love does not change. You can go away, you
can even betray me, but my love remains the same. There is no
contract between me and you; you are here out of your freedom,
any moment you can go. I am here out of my freedom; you don't
bind me.
In this state of freedom the master and disciple can come closest,
and naturally energy flows from the higher to the lower. It is
just like water coming from a mountaintop towards the valley….
You say, "When you stop talking, everything seems to stop
for a moment and I get a glimpse of what meditation can be."
You have forgotten to note one thing. What you have noted is right,
that you get a glimpse of what meditation can be. You have forgotten
to note that you are capable of having such silent moments, that
you see that meditation is not something impossible, that it is
not only for any exceptional category of people, that it is available
to everybody. You have pointed out one thing absolutely correctly,
but you have forgotten to see that you are also capable of being
silent, which is very important to remember.
Because I cannot go on speaking the whole day to keep you in
meditative moments, I want you to become responsible. Accepting
that you are capable of being silent will help you when you are
meditating alone. Knowing your capacity…and one comes to
know one's capacity only when one experiences it. There is no
other way.
You are saying, "These are the most precious moments for
me. Osho, why is it easier to become silent in your presence?"
In my presence you forget your own ego, you forget yourself. The
emphasis should be not on me, the emphasis should be on you, on
the fact that in my presence you love me, you respect me, you
trust me, so you put aside your defense measures—your ego
is your defense measure.
Pay more attention to it, to why you become silent. Don't make
me wholly responsible for your silence, because that will create
a difficulty for you. Alone, what are you going to do? Then it
becomes a kind of addiction, and I don't want you to be addicted
to me. I don't want to be a drug to you.
The so-called masters and teachers of the religions of the whole
world—I have come across almost all kinds and all categories
of teachers—want their disciples to be addicted to them,
to be dependent on them. That is their power trip. I don't have
any power trip. I love you, whether you are with me or not with
me.
I want you to be independent and confident that you can attain
these precious moments on your own.
If you can attain them with me, there is no reason why you cannot
attain them without me, because I am not the cause. You have to
understand what is happening: listening to me, you put your mind
aside. Listening to the ocean, or listening to the thundering
of the clouds, or listening to the rain falling heavily, just
put your ego aside, because there is no need…The ocean is
not going to attack you, the rain is not going to attack you,
the trees are not going to attack you—there is no need of
any defense. To be vulnerable to life as such, to existence as
such, you will be getting these moments continuously—soon
it will become your very life.
If you ask me, I have almost forgotten the taste of misery;
and because I have forgotten the taste of misery and suffering
and anxiety, I have also slowly been forgetting the taste of joy,
blissfulness, ecstasy—they have become natural. Just as
a healthy man does not feel continuously that he is healthy, only
sick people become interested in health. The moment that you have
become healthy…coming out of your sickness, you will feel
health but when it becomes your natural experience of every day,
every moment, you don't have any contrast of sickness to compare
it with.
You don't know your head unless you have a headache—have
you observed it? Do you become aware of your head? You become
aware of your head only when you have a headache. A headache gives
you the idea—people who have not experienced headaches,
don't know what it is to have a healthy head without any headaches.
All our experiences depend on their opposites. If you cannot
taste the bitter, you cannot taste anything sweet either—they
go together. If you cannot see darkness, you cannot see light.
And if you are continuously in one state, you start forgetting
about it.
That's what I call going beyond enlightenment—the day
you start forgetting that you are enlightened, the day it becomes
just the natural course of your life, ordinary, nothing special.
The way you breathe, the way your heart beats, the way your blood
runs in the body, enlightenment also becomes part of your being.
You forget all about it.
When you ask the question, I am reminded that yes, there is
an experience called enlightenment. But when I am sitting alone
I never remember that I am enlightened, that would be crazy! It
has become such a natural, ordinary experience.
First go beyond mind. Then go beyond enlightenment too. Don't
get stuck anywhere until you are simply an ordinary part of the
existence, with the trees, with the birds, with the animals, with
the rivers, with the mountains. You feel a deep harmony—no
superiority, no inferiority.
Gautam Buddha had some glimpses of going beyond enlightenment.
He mentioned it, that there is a possibility of going beyond enlightenment.
He did not say that he had gone beyond it, but he recognizes the
fact that there should be a state when you forget all about enlightenment.
You have been so healthy, you have forgotten all about health;
only then have you come home. Finally even enlightenment is a
barrier—the last barrier.
Now a joke for you, not related to anything! I am grateful to
you that you allow me to say anything that I want; you don't object….
invita14
Osho has a clipboard with copies of the sutras, questions and
jokes. While he refers to these there is silence, and anticipation
What is the hidden mystery in the silence between the pages in
front of you?
All that I want to say to you is in my gaps. I use the words only
to create gaps. So when I am simply looking at the pages, I am
giving you a chance to receive the message which cannot be said
in words, which can only be relayed, transferred, in utter silence.
There is an ancient proverb: "People will believe anything,
if you whisper it." Particularly if you want the women to
hear anything, whisper it! But I go one step further. If you really
want to express the truth, don't say anything about it, just leave
the gap. Let people hear without your saying anything. That's
the only way truth has always been transferred—from one
silent heart to another silent heart.
In utter silence is the only possibility to meet, to merge, to
share.
A joke for you…. The purpose of the joke is not the joke.
The purpose is the laughter that follows, because in that laughter
your thinking stops. In that laughter, you are no more mind. And
after the laughter, just a very small gap and I can reach to the
deepest core of your being. invita09
This beautiful silence…this is my creation.
Thousands of lotuses suddenly start flowering.
Thousands of hearts suddenly become a tremendous harmony, a song,
a blissfulness. satyam30
I am giving you these moments of silence for a single purpose.
I don't have a teaching, I have only strategies for transformation.
I speak to you not to convey anything in particular, I speak to
you so that I can give you a few gaps of silence.
Listening to me, there are two possible ways: the way of the
scholar—he will listen to my words—and the way of
the seeker, who will listen to my silences.
My silences are my communion with you.
My words are only to divide small pieces of silences for you.
One word is being used only so that before I utter another word,
you can feel a silence sweeping over you. Nobody has used language
in this way. Language is just creating possibilities for silence.
Alone, your chattering mind does not allow you to be silent. But
with me, I am chattering and you are freed at least for a few
moments because in those moments you are waiting for what I am
going to say. Naturally, a waiting gives you an experience of
silence. mani18
Just a joke to make this silence deeper…. First experience
this silence, so that after the laughter you can experience the
deepness of it…how laughter can make silence deeper, how
laughter can make love deeper, how laughter can make meditation
deeper. But first, feel it…. pilgr09
This silence is beautiful, but each laughter makes the silence
go deeper. Have you observed it or not? After each laughter, there
is a deeper layer of silence revealing itself to you. It is almost
like being on a road, and a car passes with its headlights on.
Suddenly there is light where there was darkness. But once the
car has gone, the darkness becomes darker.
Something almost similar happens; hence I have started calling
my jokes "the time for prayer." mani16
Be more alert and watch and note down whenever you see something
hilarious happening—and particularly in my place. Where
do you think I get all these jokes? My people just go on watching
each other and creating jokes and informing me. I never go out.
But people are learning watchfulness, so they come across so many
hilarious things in themselves and in others…. They go on
preparing jokes for me.
I'm never short of jokes, because in my place in twenty-four
hours there is nothing else to do. It is a continuous carnival.
chit02
I have made you serious again! Once in a while I forget. So for
no reason at all, just for a good laugh, because I hate to leave
Buddha Hall unless I see you all are rejoicing and laughing…
pilgr06
Last night you did great. I went on hearing your laughter for
almost half an hour. I loved it so much that my people are starting
to learn how to pray. Don't be miserly as far as laughter is concerned;
that is the only miserliness I hate. satyam19
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