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Part VIII : Osho gives Guidelines for sannyasins
In morning discourses throughout October, Osho gives guidelines
to sannyasins
How active a role are You taking now in the operation of the
ranch on a day-to-day basis?
No, I never take any active part in anything. There are corporations
who function. My purpose is simply to give guidelines. To follow
them or not to follow them is their business. last315
Please provide some guidance about the order or discipline we
need to keep the commune together. And please, don't give up on
us.
Even without your asking, even if I want to give up, I cannot.
My love does not allow it. Order and discipline you have to find.
I would not like you to depend on anybody to give you order and
discipline. Just make a little effort—and it is not difficult.
If you go on depending on something, somebody, then any day
there will be disorder. One day I may not be in my body. Then
you will find yourself completely helpless. You don't have even
a father figure in God to pray to. I have taken all those props
from you. I want you to be responsible of your own accord….
Freedom means more order, more discipline, because now you are
the master of yourself; nobody is dictating to you.
I have destroyed all dependence. Dependence keeps you helpless,
and I want you to be independent, absolutely independent.
So just a little awareness—and whenever I find that you
are missing that awareness, I am going to give you bigger shocks.
I will not hesitate even to give you an electric shock.
I am determined to wake you up.
But it will be a joy if you wake up yourself. bond25
I have not given you a single rule—just to keep you focused
on the essential, the only thing that can transform you. And you
are asking me, "Now that the religion is dead, is there any
need of meditation?"
Then what the hell are you doing here? The religion is dead,
meditation is no longer needed, so what the hell are you doing?
Get lost! Go to the county road which goes directly to hell! You
will have some taste on the county road of what it means to go
towards hell. The county road has been made such a great thing,
to give an experience to people of how the road to hell goes.
Can't you see a simple thing?…
The real religiousness is essentially very simple. I call it meditation.
You can give it another name, awareness; or another name, consciousness.
But whatever you call it, it has nothing to do with any organization,
any holy scripture, any leader. Yes, a friend who has seen that
luminous, that ecstatic world, who has touched the farthest star
in his being, can help you as a guide.
I am not your leader—leaders happen in politics. I am not
your priest—because I cannot do anything on your behalf.
I am simply a friend whose own experience has made him so full
of love that he wants to share it with anybody who is willing
to share. And to a guide you don't owe anything. Just a thank-you
perhaps will be more than enough. So you don't owe anything to
me.
But the death of religion makes meditation absolutely important.
Now you don't have anything left with which to deceive yourself.
I have taken everything away that could have distracted you, and
left you alone with meditation.
And you are asking me, "Should we stop meditating too?"
Why don't you ask, "Should we stop living too? Because religion
is dead, should we be also dead?"
No, meditation you want to stop—and what are you going to
do then? Eat, drink and be merry, because the religion is dead?
I am not against "Eat, drink and be merry," but a meditator
really eats. He knows really the taste. While you are eating,
you are doing a thousand and one things in your head; you are
not there.
A meditator just drinking a cup of tea enjoys each sip as if he
has found a treasure. He tastes everything—the beauty of
a rose, or a bird on the wing, a white floating cloud in the sky,
a night full of stars. Existence is so full of splendor that a
meditator—because he is silent, available, present to the
moment—enjoys everything to its fullest.
I am not against your eating, drinking and merrying. I would like
it to happen more deeply, more profoundly. But to give it that
intensity, that totality, that profundity, that depth…except
meditation, there is no other way.
Life without meditation is simply vegetating. You can be different
vegetables. Somebody is a cabbage, somebody is a cauliflower….
A cauliflower is only a cabbage with college degrees, not much
difference.
But to live truly, you have to know yourself.
"Know thyself," says Socrates, but his statement is
incomplete. I would like to say to you, "Know thyself so
that you can be yourself."
And in being yourself, you are fulfilled. You have come home,
the wandering is finished. Now there is nowhere to go, you have
arrived. You have known the eternal life, its beauty, its bliss.
All that you can do now is share it—which comes automatically.
When you see people stumbling in the dark, you start helping them,
trying to move them in the right direction. It is a joy. When
the gardener sees his rosebush full of flowers one morning, his
heart also blossoms with the flowers.
And that's what happens to a man who has known himself, who has
become himself. He starts sharing his joy, his bliss, his love,
in different ways with different people—whoever is available.
And whenever he sees somebody moving in the right direction, he
is immensely gratified, satisfied. Existence has given him so
much, and he has nothing else to give to existence to show his
gratitude. This is his gratitude. And when he sees others also
reaching home, he feels that he has not been ungrateful—and
that is a tremendous experience.
When I see you moving, growing, this is my gratitude towards existence.
It has given me so much, there is no way to pay anything back;
there is no word even to express gratitude. The only way is that
my every breath should be used in helping people to reach to the
same Everest of consciousness. bond19
What is the difference between RIMU—Rajneesh International
Meditation University—and Rajneesh Academy?
The Rajneesh International Meditation University is an educational
institution. It teaches you everything about meditation. It makes
you knowledgeable about the art of meditation, but it is not existential
or experiential. It is educational—just the way all other
universities are.
There are universities of different kinds in the world. They give
you knowledge about the subject. And the meditation university
gives you degrees according to your knowledge, your acquaintance
with all the literature about meditation.
Let me emphasize: it is about meditation, but it is not meditation.
Rajneesh Academy is an existential, experiential institute. It
does not give you knowledge about meditation; it gives you the
experience of meditation. From the university we can create teachers
of meditation, writers, Ph.Ds, scholars, D.Litts. But as far as
they themselves are concerned, they have not tasted anything of
meditation.
There are one hundred and twelve methods of meditation; they were
discovered ten thousand years ago. I have made a few new methods
for the modern man, because those methods were created for a totally
different kind of humanity, for very simple people. The contemporary
man is not simple, he is very complex. Those methods were for
people who were not repressed, who were natural. In these ten
thousand years religions have made everybody repressed; sexually,
and in other ways, they have driven humanity against its own nature.
So I have created new methods which are cathartic, so that you
can throw out all repressions, all garbage out of your being,
and can become clean, a tabula rasa. Then those one hundred and
twelve methods—any one method that appeals to you will be
enough to transform your being.
The Academy also gives titles, because the meditators—although
they experience the same space of blissfulness, of eternal life,
they come from different paths, and after their experience their
expressions are different….
The siddha simply denies expression. The arihanta tries, but tries
in such a way that in no way is the truth polluted by language
and words. His expression goes above your heads. The acharya is
more humane; he tries to reach you in your language, in your ways.
He comes down from the hill into the valley to pick you up and
lead you up towards the peak. Their experiences are exactly the
same; hence, nobody is lower or higher.
Rajneesh Academy is an experiential university; the Meditation
University is informative. It creates teachers, the Academy creates
masters—and there is a great difference. The teacher is
only saying what he has learned from his teachers, from the books,
but he cannot support it by his own experience. The master does
not care about the books, about the teachers. He is his own authority,
he is his own scripture.
Hence, I have made two different institutions. The University
will prepare you to be acquainted with meditation, so that you
become interested in having the real taste of it. It will lead
you towards the Academy. The Academy has a far higher status than
the University. bond26
The other day You spoke about siddhas, arihantas and acharyas.
Could You speak about bodhisattvas. Is there any relevance in
these sansads now?
The Rajneesh Academy has many dimensions to fulfill. One I talked
to you about was to appoint acharyas, siddhas, arihantas. These
are not clergymen, not bishops and cardinals and popes. They don't
have any function to perform—marriage, birth of a child,
circumcision, death, no. Any friend, any sannyasin can do all
these things.
So there is no question of clergymen. In fact, it is a question
of friends. Somebody dies…then those who were close to him,
they should perform the death ceremony. The clergyman may not
have even known the person; he will simply repeat a certain ritual.
It is better that friends perform the ceremony….
I have told you about these three titles—siddha, arihanta,
acharya—which are experiential.
I have also created three groups which will be active only when
I leave the body. So you will have to wait a little for them to
become active. While I am here there is no need for these three
groups to be active. But these three groups belong to Rajneesh
Academy.
The first group is the mahasattvas. These are the people who will
become enlightened before my death. The second group is the sambuddhas,
who are already enlightened, but because I am here, they will
remain anonymous just out of their gratitude. The third group
is the bodhisattvas, who will become enlightened before their
death.
So I have chosen names for these groups, and I have directed the
groups about their numbers—that these numbers should remain
constant, and if one person dies, how he has to be replaced. I
have given them all the instructions. But that is not of any use
to you.
When I am not here, then the people who will be running the commune
will need elders for guidance. These three groups will provide
all kinds of guidance. They will not have any power; they will
not be holding any post, but they will be available to all the
people who are running the communes here and around the world,
for any guidance.
When I say they will not be holding any post, that does not mean
that anybody who is holding a post cannot be a member of any of
the groups. As a group member, he will not be holding the post,
but as an individual he can hold the post. But while he is on
the post, he cannot function as a member of the group.
I want these groups completely free from any politics, so they
can have a very nonpolitical vision. And if they need to, all
three groups can meet and take decisions, and their decisions
will be absolute. All their decisions have to be unanimous. Unless
they come to a unanimous decision, it is not of any worth. So
it is not a political thing, that majority decision will win.
They have to argue, discuss, persuade, and come to a unanimous
decision. Then only can they advise the people who are in power
to follow it.
Rajneesh Academy will become your source of religio. bond28
I would like to change the name Rajneesh Foundation International.
Sheela and her fascist gang have contaminated the name. I would
like it to be Rajneesh Friends International. It remains RFI.
RIMU and RA are two wings of RFI. last323
Here I would like to say something which I have been keeping
a secret my whole life: One beautiful morning, Gautam Buddha had
gone for a walk with his caretaker, disciple, Ananda. It was fall
time; the trees were getting almost naked and all the leaves were
on the path. The wind was fluttering the trees, and the leaves
were making beautiful sounds. Walking on those leaves, Buddha
was immensely happy…the music of the dry leaves.
He took a few leaves in his hand. Ananda asked him, "Bhagwan,
I have always been thinking to ask one thing, but privacy is so
difficult. You are always surrounded by people. Today you are
alone in this forest, and I cannot resist the temptation. I want
to ask you: Have you said everything to us, or have you kept some
secrets? Buddha said, "Do you see the leaves in my hand?
And do you see the leaves all over the forest?" Ananda said,
"Yes, I do see, but I don't understand that that is the answer."
Buddha said, "You will understand. I have said only this
much, and I have kept secret all these leaves that are in the
whole forest."
My situation is just different. I have said the whole forest;
only one thing I have kept secret, just one leaf. Buddha declared
before his death that he would be coming again after twenty-five
centuries, and that his name would be Maitreya. Maitreya means
the friend. Buddhas don't come back; no enlightened person ever
comes back, so it is just a way of saying….
What he was saying is of tremendous importance. It has nothing
to do with his coming back; he cannot come back. What he meant
was that the ancient relationship between the Master and the disciple
would become irrelevant in twenty-five centuries. It was his clarity
of perception—he was not predicting anything—just
his clarity to see that as things are changing, as they have changed
in the past and as they go on changing, it would take at least
twenty-five centuries for the Master and disciple relationship
to become out of date. Then the enlightened Master will be only
the friend .
I had always wanted not to be a Master to anybody. But people
want a Master, they want to be disciples; hence, I played the
role. It is time that I should say to you that now many of you
are ready to accept me as the friend. Those who are in tune with
me continuously, without any break, are the only real friends….
It is exactly twenty-five centuries after Buddha's death that
I am changing the name of the Foundation so that it becomes Rajneesh
Friends International. It is not only just a change of the name.
It is going to change the very flavor of our whole movement. And
you have to rise up so that what I want the movement to become,
it becomes. So that the dream is realized.
Don't let me down. last323
How come people do not see this as a mystery school, a place
of healing, a "religio" to oneself and to the world
all around, the most powerful religion there is…a place
to find yourself, and to find yourself loved by yourself and all
those around you?
It is just because of that, that people cannot see it. It is a
mystery school. It is not a commonplace phenomenon, an ordinary
theological college, but a mystery school. The very word "mystery"
answers your question. The ordinary human mind cannot comprehend:
what mystery is there? For it, there is no mystery. For the idiot,
everything is already known….
Ignorance that knows…you have become ignorant in the sense
that you do not carry the burden of scriptures, doctrines, theologies,
philosophies. But you have a clarity which only innocence can
give to you. In that clarity you can see, but what you see is
beyond words; hence you cannot say, "I know." In fact,
in that clarity, in that seeing, the seer disappears. There is
only seeing. There is experiencing, but the experiencer has disappeared.
This is the state of the mystic, and this is the search of a mystery
school.
Do not expect that people will understand you. Their misunderstanding
is a recognition that you are a mystery school. Their misunderstanding
is a qualification for you. If they start understanding you, then
you are no longer a mystery school.
That's why I said, "Religion in this commune is dead"—because
religion they understand, but they do not understand the mystery,
the origin, the root from which the word "religion"
is derived. It is religio. It means putting yourself together:
no longer split, no longer divided into body, mind, soul; no longer
divided into God the creator, and existence the created. Everything
that divides is against religio.
The mystic disappears in his experience, because to remain an
experiencer is a division. The knower and the known—there
is still a division. There is a certain experiencing: the experience
and the experiencer have become one. That is religio….
Yes, it is a mystery school.
Religion we have buried, burned. Religio we are going to live.
Religion becomes an organization. Religio remains always an individual
inquiry. Religion sooner or later becomes a hierarchy. Religio
never becomes a hierarchy—the question does not arise.
This is a mystery school for people who are in search of themselves.
That is the only common ground, that they are all seekers. Other
than that there is no belief which joins them, no ideology to
which they are connected, no faith to which they are surrendered….
A mystery school simply helps you, because somebody is ahead of
you, somebody is behind you, somebody has already reached. The
atmosphere of the commune, the milieu, gives you courage: "Don't
be afraid. If others are moving inwards, why not you? If they
are not losing anything, then aloneness is not dangerous. In fact,
they are becoming more and more radiant, more and more loving,
more and more compassionate."
Seeing so many people helps you. It creates a certain energy field
which becomes your support. Of course, you have to go alone, but
those who have reached can say with authority: Your inside is
not empty; it is the only fullness in the whole existence. You
are not hollow; you will find the greatest treasure of joy and
bliss, peace and serenity, grace and gratitude, within yourself.
You will find that you have always been here and you will always
be here; death does not exist, life is eternal.
But your question is relevant. You are asking me, "Why don't
people understand that this is a mystery school?"
They have never understood. And down the centuries such schools
have existed, but behind a façade. For example, you know
about alchemists….
My only fault is that I thought, "This is the twentieth century
and man has become more cultured, more civilized; we are not living
in the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages"—and I created this
mystery school without any façade.
But somebody has to bring it into the open, because there are
millions of people who want to be seekers, who don't want to be
believers. They need to know that they are not alone, that there
are millions of other people around the world who are working
on the same lines, that there are people who have arrived, reached,
found the ultimate source of life.
But the mob will never understand you. There is no need to bother
about the mob. Don't waste your time about others understanding
you. You put your whole energy into understanding yourself. The
mob has remained always in the Dark Ages, and it seems it is determined
to remain always in the Dark Ages. It is their freedom and their
choice. Let them remain whatever, wherever, they want to be. Don't
be bothered whether they understand you or not.
You put your total energy—because your own inner work needs
your totality, and life is short, and nobody knows about tomorrow.
So not even a single moment has to be lost in unnecessary worries.
bond21
What has grown around You has been presented by newspapers as
a cult, as a sect, and I wonder if You can now explain what it
is?
It is simply a movement; neither a cult nor a sect nor a religion
but a movement for meditation, an effort to create a science of
the inner. It is a science of consciousness. Just as science is
there for the objective world, this movement is preparing a science
for the subjective world. last403
All religions are against change, because their vested interests
are with the status quo. I am all for change, and I would like
my sannyasins to be always for change. The new has also the right
to be experimented with, and the old has been used and found useless.
Give chance to the new; At the most it can fail. The old has already
failed. We will find something else. How long we can fail, if
we go on changing and don't get stuck with a system that is continuously
failing, if we are ready to change, sooner or later we are going
to find a system that works.
That's the simple way of science, of finding any truth—go
on experimenting. One experiment fails, another experiment fails,
but sooner or later you stumble upon something and you have found
the right key.
So always choose the new. It will keep you fresh, young, it will
keep you alive, it will keep you flowing. Otherwise the old becomes
heavy, a burden, a corpse, and then it stinks. All the societies
are stinking with corpses of all kinds.
It is a simple thing. Just the individual has to understand that
all that is old is not gold. In fact, all that is old is never
gold. If you are in search of gold, try the new, the fresh, the
young. Move always into the unknown and the unknowable.
And what is there to lose? The very adventure into the unknown
is so nourishing, so rejuvenating, that whether you find something
at the end or not does not matter. Every moment of the adventure
is of tremendous beauty and benediction. last328
Why are we afraid, and sometimes even resent taking responsibility
for ourselves, and we expect either You or the commune to take
the responsibility?
It is because from your very childhood you have been taught not
to be responsible. You have been taught to depend. You have been
taught to be responsible to your father, to your mother, to your
family, to your motherland, to all kinds of nonsense. But you
have not been told that you have to be responsible for yourself,
that there is nobody who is going to take your responsibility….
I teach you not to be responsible to anybody; the father, the
mother, the country, the religion, the party line—don't
be responsible to anybody. You are not. Just be responsible to
yourself. Do whatsoever you feel like doing. If it is wrong, the
punishment will immediately follow. If it is right, the reward
will follow immediately, instantly. There is no other way.
This way you will start finding what is wrong, what is right,
on your own. You will grow a new sensitivity—Indians call
it the third eye. You will start seeing with a new vision, a new
eye. Instantly you will know what is wrong, because in the past
so many times you have done it and always suffered in consequence.
You will know what is right, because whenever you did existence
showered great blessings on you. Cause and effect are together,
they are not separated by years and lives….
This is what I mean by being responsible to yourself. There is
no God on whom you can dump your responsibility, but you are always
searching to dump on somebody, even on a poor man like me, who
is continuously telling you that I am not responsible for anything,
for anybody. Still, somehow, deep down you go on carrying the
illusion that I must be joking. I am not joking. 'He is our Master',
you must be thinking, 'how can He say that He is not responsible?'
But you don't understand. Dumping your responsibility on me, you
will remain retarded, childish. You will never grow.
The only way to grow is to accept all good, bad, the joyful, the
sorrowful. Everything that happens to you, you are responsible
for. That gives you great freedom.
If I am responsible for something, then the key to your actions
is in my hands. Then you are a slave to me. Then you are a puppet
and the strings are in my hand. I say dance, you dance; I say
stop, you stop. Of course, the puppet cannot be responsible for
anything. The puppeteer, who is behind the screen, is always responsible.
God is the great puppeteer….
The moment I say there is no puppeteer, no God, no saint, it is
all rubbish, I am trying to give you total freedom. I am making
you absolutely responsible for everything that happens to you
or does not happen. Rejoice in this freedom. Rejoice in this great
understanding that you are responsible for everything in your
life. This will make you what I call the individual. And to become
the individual is to know all that is worth knowing, is to experience
all that is worth experiencing. To be an individual is to be liberated,
is to be enlightened. last106
The (master's) whole effort is to transform man. You are accustomed
to a certain way of life, and that way of life creates your bondage.
Coming close to a Master certainly creates fear. If you don't
see fear around a Master that means there is no Master. The fear
simply shows that people know that being here they have to change—and
change is painful….
It is painful; there is fear. It is only through the love of the
Master that you may gather courage, and you may take a jump.
Immense love is needed from the side of the Master because that
is the only thing that can dispel fear. Love is almost like light,
and fear is just like darkness. If the Master really loves you—and
there is no other possibility; an authentic Master is nothing
but love. His love is the guarantee that your fear sooner or later
will be destroyed, that you will gather courage, that you will
take a jump. And once you have taken the jump and attained a new,
luminous experience of life, you will be grateful for the Master,
grateful for his love—because without his love it would
have been impossible for you to get rid of the fear.
And once you have experienced something that was just so close—but
you were not opening your eyes, you were so afraid; once you take
one step out of your fear, anxiety, anguish, then the whole journey
becomes easy. Now you know on your own experience that on each
step you are becoming new, that on each step you are gaining strength,
insight, vision: that things are the same but you are not the
same, that the same flowers have a totally different beauty, the
same flowers have a new fragrance. The same sunset takes you into
an ecstasy which you had never imagined before.
You have seen the sunset many times, you have even told your friends,
"How beautiful!" Now you know those words were phony,
you have simply learned those words—because you have not
experienced beauty, you were simply repeating words which are
part of etiquette, part of social formality. Otherwise you had
no contact with the beauty. Now you see what beauty is, and now
it is so difficult to say, "How beautiful" because words
fall short. The beauty is so vast, so immense, and the words are
so tiny. You cannot put the sky in the small capsules of your
words. Now you will be standing there dazed….
I can gaze at the moon for hours, as if time stops….
I can look at a flower for hours. Not even the word beauty arises
in my mind, because that will be a disturbance. That will disturb
what is transpiring between me and the flower, between me and
the moon, between me and you. last321
It seems in watching your sannyasins with you and you with them,
that there is an incredible relationship?
There is no relationship. You are an outsider, that's why it seems
so. It is a state of being so overwhelming that they all become
part of one state, that my being and their being is one, that
their heartbeat starts beating in the same rhythm as my heart.
It is not a relationship. It is just what Karl Gustav Jung calls
synchronicity, just as when the sun rises and the flowers open
up. Do you call it a relationship? It is synchronicity. The sun
goes down, the flowers close. Do you call it relationship? last308
You are the center of the cyclone. When I am near You I feel
fine. But when I am a little away from You I am again in the strong
whorls of the cyclone—the great movement of emotions and
feelings. How can I get to the center of my own cyclone?
Just be a witness of all those emotions, thoughts, which you call
the cyclone. Just be a witness, and that point of witnessing is
the center of the cyclone.
This is the simplest method to realize oneself. bond15
How many of Your sannyasins do You personally know? There are
over a thousand people here. Do You know most of them personally?
I know them individually, not personally. And I make a distinction
between knowing someone personally and knowing someone individually.
Ordinarily we know people only personally: their name, their qualifications,
their job, and things like that which are all superficial. You
can change the name but the individual remains the same. You can
change the job but the individual remains the same. You can change
the address, you can change his wife, but the individual remains
the same.
I am not interested in people's personalities. I know them individually.
That means I know them in their very essence. When I pass by the
side of a sannyasin, I don't know the name but I know at what
stage of meditation the individual is or whether he has at all
progressed in meditation or not. I know whether the individual
has come to taste something of the higher qualities of love or
is still thinking that sexuality is all there is. I know just
by looking in the eyes of anybody whether the person has any inner
approach to himself or he lives just outside himself. That inner
approach is his individuality, and that outside life is his personality.
I am not concerned with the personality at all. The person may
be a man or a woman, it does not matter. What matters is his essential
being, how close he has come to his essential being. The closer
he comes to it, a certain aura arises around his body, a certain
fragrance. You can immediately recognize that here is someone
who is very close to the center, and when somebody reaches the
center then it is as if a house was dark and suddenly you have
switched the light on. Even from the outside you can see through
the windows that the house is lighted.
Ordinary people are just without light; from their windows you
can see only darkness. When a person reaches to his center of
individuality, suddenly he is aflame. And you can it see from
his eyes, from his gestures, from his words, the way he walks.
His words start becoming more poetic, his walk becomes more of
a dance, his gestures have a grace that was never there before.
I know my people only in that inner context. It is almost impossible
to know them personally. One million people around the earth—how
can I know their names? But I can know them, and the moment I
look into their eyes, they also know that they have been found,
where they are. last404
What is shaktipat, the transmission of spiritual energy?
The device you are asking about is an ancient device. I have used
it, but not for six years (since 1981) because I have refined
the device to better forms, to more invisible transformations.
The device is absolutely dependent on the disciple, and in that
discipleship you cannot use the word `friend'. The word `friend'
can be used only with my refined techniques….
But I have not used the method of shaktipat for six years because
I felt there were some flaws in it. First, the disciple has to
be in a lower state than the master—which I don't like.
Nobody is lower here; nobody is higher. The disciple has to be
just a receiver. He cannot contribute anything to it. He becomes
dependent also, because only when the master touches him does
he feel full of energy, full of joy, but not otherwise.
Secondly, the very idea of surrender is basically difficult, and
to ask for total surrender is to ask for the impossible. We should
think in human terms. We are dealing with human beings, we should
not ask something which they cannot do. And when they cannot do
something and are condemned, they start feeling guilty that they
are not open, that they are not totally surrendered, that there
are doubts in their mind. So guilt is created. Instead of surrender
you have created guilt.
For six years I have been trying to find more refined methods,
and I have found them. Perhaps they have never been used before,
but they are more civilized, more cultured, more human. For example,
when I am speaking to you I am not asking you to surrender, I
am not asking you to be open, I am not asking you for anything.
But just listening to me, all this happens automatically—you
don't have to do it.
Energy is not something physical, that you have to touch the person.
It can happen just by looking into the eyes of the person. It
can happen just by your gesture, or just in the silence between
two words. This way nothing is asked and yet it is more easily
available.
Secondly, the disciple need not be a slave, a spiritual slave.
He can be a friend. And my feeling is you can trust a friend more
than you can trust anybody else.
Friendship is the highest flowering of love, where all that is
primitive in love has been dropped and only the perfume remains.
And the perfume can reach without any physical connection. In
these six years I have seen it happening again and again on a
vaster scale. Neither are you waiting for the energy, nor are
you preparing for the energy—unexpectedly, it comes as a
surprise and fills your heart.
In the old method surrender is asked; in the new method only a
loving friendship, which is more human, more natural. In the old
method surrender had to be the basis of all. But remember, whomsoever
you surrender to, you will carry a grudge against him. It is not
just a coincidence that Judas, one of the most prominent disciples
of Jesus, betrayed him. Mahavira's own son-in-law betrayed him.
Buddha's own cousin-brother, Devadatta, betrayed him. It is not
an exception, but a rule. These people may have surrendered, but
some reluctance must have been there….
My own insight is that these people had surrendered, but some
part of their being remained unsurrendered waiting for a revenge,
waiting for an opportunity—and sooner or later the opportunity
comes.
I am not very much in favor of the old strategy. I have used it
because that was the only strategy that was available. But slowly,
slowly I saw its drawbacks, its flaws. It may help a few, but
it has harmed many more. Since then I have been trying to find
more subtle, more human, more invisible ways. And I have found
them and they are working, they are working tremendously. I can
do the same just by speaking to you. I can do just the same by
my silence. I can do the same just by my presence.
And I don't ask you for anything. Whatever I am doing, if you
get involved in it—which you are going to be…! If
you are listening to me, you are going to get involved in it.
If I am looking at you, at that moment you cannot think of anything
else and something transpires and you become aflame. It is more
delicate and more suited to the higher layers of consciousness.
In this reference the word `friend' can be used, but not in the
first reference. That's why I have been insisting on the word
`friend'.
I don't want to be betrayed by you.
I don't want any Judas, any Goshalak, any Devadatta. And if I
am not presenting a higher status than you, there is no need to
betray.
I have been just a friend on the way, walking together—nobody
higher, nobody lower. We just liked each other and walked together!
And as we walked together, the liking became love. As we walk
together we come closer and closer and the energy transfers itself.
This is something new that has never been said before, and never
been attempted before. I want to make it a clear-cut line that
divides the history of spiritual slavery from spiritual freedom,
where the master is so confident of his authority he need not
pretend to be higher. Do you see the point? Whenever somebody
pretends to be higher, he himself is suspicious of his highness,
he is suspicious of his authority himself.
Only a real master can be humble.
Only a real master can be human.
The old ways of religion—all the ways have to be abandoned.
We have given enough time for them; they have not succeeded in
transforming humanity. Now we have to work in a different way,
in a new way.
My feeling is, there are millions of people in the world who want
to be transformed but who do not want to be humiliated before
a God, before a master—who have some self-respect.
I am opening the door for all those people who have some self-respect.
We will not touch their self-respect. It is perfectly okay. If
it disappears on its own accord and leaves a better consciousness
within you, that is for you to decide. sword07
Note: *1981-1986
In Rajneeshpuram I was your gardener, and it was the best and
the most beautiful and fulfilling time in my whole life. Now,
sitting here at your feet, I suddenly realize that you are my
gardener. Is this so?
It is so. But the realization has come a little late, because
in Rajneeshpuram also I was the gardener. Think it over again.
With me, you cannot be a gardener.
My disciples are my garden, and when they blossom and flower I
rejoice as any gardener rejoices. With each of my disciples coming
to flower, I attain enlightenment again—because from my
side, there is no distinction at all, no distance. Particularly
as you become blissful, the distance starts becoming less and
less. In your misery—you have to forgive me—I cannot
be with you. The greater your misery, the further apart we are.
But in your blissful moments, you are so close that there is no
distance at all. In your enlightenment, you are not even close—you
are one. I feel that again another spring has come to me.
So this time you are right. The last time you were wrong. Those
two years there in Rajneeshpuram in my garden, working as a gardener,
were only a device to keep you close to me—but I was the
gardener. And from now onwards, wherever you are, I will remain
the gardener. So behave like a beautiful rosebush—bring
as many flowers to your being as possible. upan40
This quotation seems to say everything there is to say: "The
greatest good fortune that can befall a man is to be born in the
age of a buddha. Even greater is the good fortune of he who comes
to hear of the existence of the buddha. And even greater still
is the good fortune of he who is drawn into the family of the
buddha."
So my question is: How can any sannyasin be such a peabrain as
to not be here with You come hell or high water, poison or prison,
bullets or boredom, anguish or AIDS?
It is true that it is a great fortune to be born in the age of
an enlightened one. It is greater fortune to have heard about
him. It is an even greater fortune to be part of his family.
But there are people who are blind; they have eyes but they cannot
see. They are deaf; they have ears but they cannot hear. Even
sometimes by accident they may get into the family of the enlightened
one, but they still remain an outsider, they never merge with
it. And it has been always so.
In Gautam Buddha's time, how many people were in his family, how
many of those people became enlightened? How many people dropped
out of his family—how many people even became enemies of
Gautam Buddha? How many attempts were made to kill him by his
own ex-followers? Buddha's own cousin-brother tried to kill him
many times. He could not succeed, but he made those efforts.
So the statement is true, but not for all. It is true only for
those who have a sensitivity to feel the presence of the enlightened
one, to be soaked in his silence, to be filled with his fragrance,
to let their heart beat in the same rhythm, to become part of
his song, his dance. How many people have eyes to see?
The birth of a buddha is very rare—that's why the statement
that it is very fortunate to be born in the times of an enlightened
one. It is more fortunate to hear about him, because millions
will not even know that he had existed, that he was here, that
the river was just flowing by their side and they remained thirsty.
Millions will see the body of the enlightened one, but will not
be able to see his spiritual aura, his energy field.
Millions will hear about him, but will not believe. Millions
will hear him, but will not listen. And there will be many who,
on trivial excuses, will leave the enlightened one's family, not
knowing what they are leaving, not knowing that their excuses
are just meaningless.
And many will try even to destroy the man, because somehow his
presence is against their egos. His presence makes them feel to
melt with him, to become one with him, and there are egoistic
people—hard, they don't have hearts—who cannot melt.
For them it is better to destroy this person, because he is a
constant reminder of their dead heart.
But there will always be a few who will remain with the enlightened
one in every situation. Nothing matters more than to be with him.
But one needs a little sensitivity, and then all stupid things
become meaningless. It is certainly a great blessing. bond38
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