Osho
The Great Pilgrimage
From Here to Here
Chapter 21 Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
CAN YOU PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS BEAUTIFUL POEM BY
RUMI WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH:
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE "OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
GROWS WARM, KINDLING.
GROWS WARM, KINDLING. LEGROWS WARM, KINDLING.
GROWS WARM, KINDLING. LET THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH
THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH THE
HORNY CRUST. WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE. THE
THORNY CRUST. WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE. THE THORNY CRUST. THE
CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS,
EVCONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS,
CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS, EVERYTHING
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
IS IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."
THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."
Devaprem, the poem by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is beautiful, as always. He has
spoken only beautiful words.
He is one of the most significant poets who are also mystics. That is a rare
combination; there are millions of poets in the world and there are a few mystics in
the world, but a man who is both is very rare to find.
Rumi is a very rare flower. He is as great a poet as he is a mystic. Hence, his poetry
is not just poetry, not just a beautiful arrangement of words. It contains immense
meaning and points towards the ultimate truth.
It is not entertainment, it is enlightenment.
He is saying,
OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
GROWS WARM, KINDLING
GROWS WARM, KINDLING GROWS WARM, KINDLING
GROWS WARM, KINDLING.
The outside is not the real space for you to be. Outside, you are a foreigner: inside,
you are at home. Outside, it is a freezing desert night. Inside, it is warm, kindling,
cozy.
But very few are fortunate enough to move from the outside to the inside. They
have completely forgotten that they have a home within themselves; they are
searching for it but they are searching in the wrong place. They search for their
whole lives but always outside; they never stop for a moment and look inwards.
LET THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH THORNY CRUSTLET
WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE.
Don't be worried about what happens on the outside. Inside, there is always a
garden ready to welcome you.
THE NEWS WE HEAR
BECOMES A SCORCHED, BLACKENED BALL.
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE.
These words of Rumi are more significant, meaningful, today, than they were when
he wrote them. He wrote them seven hundred years ago, but today it is not only a
symbolic thing, it is going to become the reality:
THE CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS, EVERYTHING
ONTINENTS BLASTED, THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
FULL OF GRIEF FOR FULL OF GRIEF FOR FULL OF GRIEF FOR
THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
This last sentence depends on an ancient saying which says: No news is good news.
I was born in a very small village where the postman used to come only once a week. And people were afraid that he may be bringing a letter for them; they were
happy when they found that there was no letter. Once in a while, there was a
telegram for someone. Just the rumour that somebody had received a telegram
was such a shock in the whole village that everybody would gather there -- and
only one man was educated enough to read. Everybody was afraid: A telegram?
That means some bad news. Otherwise, why should you waste money on a
telegram?
I learned from my very childhood that no news is good news. People were happy
when they received no news from their relatives, from their friends or from
anybody. That meant everything was going well.
Rumi is saying:
THE NEWS WE HEAR IS FULL OF GRIEF FOR THE FUTURE.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
Everything
is silent and everything is as beautiful, peaceful, blissful as it has always
been. There is no change at all; hence, there is no news.
Inside it is an eternal ecstasy, forever and forever.
I will repeat again that these lines may become true in your lifetime. Before that
happens, you must reach within yourself where no news has ever happened, where
everything is eternally the same, where the spring never comes and goes but always
remains; where flowers have been from the very beginning -- if there was any
beginning -- and are going to remain to the very end, if there is going to be any
end. In fact, there is no beginning and no end, and the garden is lush, green, and
full of flowers.
Before the outside world is destroyed by your politicians, enter into your inner
world. That's the only safety left, the only shelter against nuclear weapons, against
global suicide, against all these idiots who have so much power to destroy.
You can at least save yourself.
I was hopeful, but as the days have passed and I have become more and more
acquainted with the stupidity of man... I still hope but just out of old habit; really
my heart has accepted the fact that only a few people can be saved. The whole of
humanity is determined to destroy itself. And these are the people... if you tell
them how they can be saved, they will crucify you. They will stone you to death.
Going around the world, I still laugh, but there is a subtle sadness in it. I still dance
with you but it is no longer with the same enthusiasm as it was ten years ago.
It seems that the higher powers of consciousness are helpless against the lower and
ugly powers of politicians. The higher is always fragile, like a roseflower; you can
destroy it with a stone. That does not mean that the stone becomes higher than
the roseflower; it simply means the stone is unconscious of what it is doing.
The crowds are unconscious of what they are doing, and the politicians belong to
the crowd. They are their representatives. And when blind people are leading other
blind people, it is almost impossible to wake them up; because the question is not
only that they are asleep -- they are blind too.
There is not time enough to cure their eyes. There is time enough to wake them
but not enough time to cure their eyes. So now I have confined myself completely
to my own people. That is my world, because I know those who are with me may be asleep , but they are not blind.They can be awakened.
Osho
The hidden splendour
Chapter 7
Question 3
One great Sufi mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, one day took his disciples to a field where a farmer had been trying for months to dig a well. The disciples were feeling a little reluctant -- what is the point in going there? Whatever he wants to say, he can say here. But Jalaluddin insisted: "You come with me. Without coming you will not understand."
What the farmer had done was, he would start digging in one place, go ten feet, twelve feet, would not find water and would start digging in another place. He had dug eight holes and now he was working on the ninth. He had destroyed the whole field.
Rumi told his disciples, "Don't be like this idiot. If he had put all this energy into digging one hole he would have found water, howsoever deep it is. He has wasted his energy unnecessarily."
And that's what everybody is doing. You start, you go a little bit, and then you start again sometime later, or some years later. You go a little bit from a different direction.
These little bits are dangerous. Your effort should be concentrated, and once you start, and you have a master in whom you can trust and in whom you can see the realization of a buddha, then there is no going back. Then go on digging, even if it takes thirty years.
Osho
Joshu The Lions Roar Ch.4.Go On Digging
BELOVED MASTER,
I READ A POEM OF RUMI THE OTHER DAY WHICH WENT:
MOVE WITHIN, BUT DON'T MOVE THE WAY FEAR MAKES YOU MOVE."
AROUND THE SAME TIME I AWOKE FROM A DREAM IN TEARS AND ALL I REMEMBERED WAS LOOKING AT MYSELF IN A MIRROR,
FACE TO FACE, AND MY EYES WERE FULL OF FEAR.
SOMETIMES IN MEDITATION I TOUCH A BLANK HORIZONTAL SPACE WITH NO REFERENCE POINT FOR WHO I AM AND THIS SAME FEAR IS THERE.
CAN YOU HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND AND MAKE FRIENDS WITH THIS FEAR?
Alima, the words of Mevlana Rumi are immensely significant. There have been very few people who have moved and transformed as many hearts as Jalaluddin Rumi.
In the world of the Sufis, Mevlana Rumi is the emperor. His words have to be understood not as mere words, but sources of deep silences, echoes of inner and the innermost songs. He is the greatest dancer the world has known. Twelve hundred years have passed since he was alive.
His dance is a special kind of dance. It is a kind of whirling, just the way small children whirl; standing on one spot they go on round and round. And perhaps everywhere in the world small children do that and their elders stop them saying, "You will become dizzy, you will fall, you will hurt yourself," and, "What is the point of doing it?"
Jalaluddin Rumi made a meditation of whirling. The meditator goes on whirling for hours -- as long as the body allows him; he does not stop on his own. When whirling a moment comes that he sees himself utterly still and silent, a center of the cyclone. Around the center the body is moving, but there is a space which remains unmoved; that is his being.
Rumi himself whirled for thirty-six hours continuously and fell, because the body could not whirl anymore. But when he opened his eyes he was another man. Hundreds of people had gathered to see. Many thought he was mad: "What is the point of whirling?"
... Nobody can say this is a prayer; nobody can say this is great dance; nobody can say in any way that this has something to do with religion, spirituality....
But after thirty-six hours when they saw Rumi so luminous, so radiant, so new, so fresh -- reborn, in a new consciousness, they could not believe their eyes.
Hundreds wept in repentance, because they had thought that he was mad. In fact he was sane and they were mad.
And down these twelve centuries the stream has continued to be alive. There are very few movements of spiritual growth which have lived so long continuously. There are still hundreds of dervishes. `Dervish' is the Sufi word for sannyas. You cannot believe it unless you experience, that just by whirling you can know yourself. No austerity is needed, no self-torture is needed, but just an experience of your innermost being and you are transported into another plane of existence from the mortal to the immortal. The darkness disappears and there is just eternal light.
His words, Alima, have to be understood very carefully because he has not spoken much -- just a few small poems. His statement, "Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move" -- it is so beautiful.
Don't move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move.
Move the way joy makes you move -- not out of fear, because all so-called religions are based on fear. Their God is nothing but fear, and their heaven and hell are nothing but projections of fear and greed.
Rumi's statement is very revolutionary: Do not move because of fear. All the religions say to people, "Fear God!"
Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "I do not fear anybody but God." When I heard this
I said this is the most stupid statement anybody can make. You can fear everybody,
but don't fear God because God can only be approached through love. God is not
a person but the universal heartbeat. If you can sing with love and dance with
love... an ordinary activity like whirling out of love.... Joy and celebration are
enough to reach to the innermost sanctum of being and existence.
You all have been living out of fear.
Your relationships are out of fear. Fear is so overwhelming -- like a dark cloud
covering your life -- that you say things which you don't want to say, but fear
makes you say them. You do things which you do not want to do, but fear makes
you do them. A little intelligence is enough to see....
Millions of people are worshipping stones carved by themselves. They have made
their Gods and then they worship them. It must be out of great fear, because where
can you find God? The easier way is to carve a God in beautiful marble and
worship. And nobody thinks that this is sheer stupidity, because everybody else is
doing it in different ways -- somebody in the temple and somebody in the
mosque and somebody in the synagogue; it does not make any difference. The
essential thing is the same, that what you are doing is out of fear -- your prayers
are full of fear.
Rumi is making a revolutionary, an extraordinary statement: "Move within, but
don't move the way fear makes you move." Then what is the way to move within?
Why not move playfully? Why not make your religion a playfulness? Why be so
serious? Why not move laughingly? -- just like small children running joyously
after butterflies for no special reason. Just the joy of the colours and the beauty of
the flowers and the butterflies is enough -- and they are so immensely happy.
In every twenty-four hours find a few moments which are fearless, which means in
those moments you are not asking for anything. You are not asking for any
reward and you are not worried about any punishment; you are simply enjoying
the whirling, the going inwards.
In fact, just in the beginning it may look a little difficult. As you move a little
inwards you become automatically joyful, playful, prayerful. A gratitude arises in
you that you have never known before and a space opens up which is infinite, your
inner sky. Your inner sky is not less rich than the outer sky: it has its own stars and
its own moon and its own planets and its own immensity; it has exactly as vast a
universe as you can see outside. You are just standing in between two universes:
one is outside you; one is inside you. The outside universe consists of things, and
the inside universe consists of consciousness, of bliss, of joy.
Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move, because fear cannot
enter inwards. Why can fear not enter inwards? Fear cannot be alone, and inwards
you have to be alone. Fear needs a crowd, fear needs companionship, friends, even
foes may do.
But to be alone, to go inwards, you cannot take anybody with you; you have to be
more and more alone. Not only can you not take anyone, you cannot take
anything either. Your wealth, your power, your prestige -- you cannot take
anything. Inside you cannot take even your clothes! You will have to go nude and
alone; hence fear cannot move inwards, fear moves outwards.
Fear moves towards money, fear moves towards power, fear moves towards God;
fear moves in all directions except inwards. To go inwards the first requirement is
fearlessness.
Alima, you are wondering how to make friends with the fear. One has not to make
friends with darkness, death or fear. One has to get rid of them. One has to simply
say good-bye forever. It is your attachment; friendship will make it even more
deep.
Don't think that by becoming friendly with fear you will become ready to go
inwards. Even the friendly fear will prevent it; in fact, it will prevent it more so. It
will prevent you in a friendly way, it will advise you, "Don't do such a thing. There
is nothing inwards. You will fall into a nothingness and returning from that
nothingness is impossible. Beware of falling into your inwardness. Cling to things."
Fear has to be understood.
You don't have to make friends -- and it disappears.
What are you afraid of? When you were born you were born naked. You did not
bring any bank balance either -- but you were not afraid. You come into the world
utterly nude, but entering like an emperor. Even an emperor cannot enter into the
world the way a child enters. The same is true of entering inwards. It is a second
childbirth; you again become a child -- the same innocence and the same nudity
and the same non-possessiveness. What do you have to be afraid of?
In life you cannot be afraid of birth. It has happened, now nothing can be done
about it. You cannot be afraid of life -- it is already happening. You cannot be
afraid of death -- whatever you do it is going to happen. So what is the fear? I have always been asked even by very learned people, "Do you never get concerned what will happen after death?" And I have always wondered, that these people are learned. And I have asked them, "One day I was not born -- and there was no worry. I have never for a single moment thought that when I was not born what kind of trouble, what kind of anxiety, what kind of anguish I had to face. I was simply not! So the same will be the case: when you die, you die."
Confucius was asked by his most significant disciple, Mencius, "What will happen after death?"
Confucius said, "Don't waste time. When you are in your grave, lie down and think over it, but why bother now?"
So many people in their graves are thinking! You will think that there seems to be no problem. In every cemetery -- and there are millions of cemeteries -- people are simply lying. They don't even get up to inquire, "What has happened, what is the news today?" They don't even change sides. They are so relaxed.
And when people die, others close their eyes out of fear: "The poor people will go on seeing in the grave." It makes you afraid that thousands of people in their graves are looking -- "Close their eyes."
I had one distant aunt who was unique because she slept with one eye open. She had to, because that one eye was false. But whenever she used to come to our family I would frighten people. Whenever she would go to sleep I would take them and say, "Look, this is what happens: even when she is alive one eye is open. In death you try to close people's eyes, but don't believe it... they will open their eyes and they will look all around, `What is happening?'"
Fear of what will happen when you die is unnecessary. Whatever will happen will happen -- and anyway you cannot do anything beforehand. You don't know so there is no question of doing some homework, getting ready for the kind of questions you will be asked or what kind of people you will meet, learning their manners, their language... We don't know anything; there is no need to worry. Don't waste time.
But it is fear, fear that something is going to happen. After death -- and you will be so alone; even if you call from your grave nobody is going to listen. People close the grave completely just out of fear. If you leave some window open and dead people start looking from there, they would make anybody afraid!
Just now I have heard that there is a new phenomenon in America called The
Couch Potato Movement....
It was created for people who sit at home all day and watch TV. It was started in
nineteen eighty-two, but has recently become a great phenomenon: the home-
video revolution. The Couch Potato Movement has published two books: THE
OFFICIAL COUCH POTATO HANDBOOK and THE COUCH POTATO GUIDE
TO LIFE. It also has a newsletter THE TUBER'S VOICE with a circulation of eight
thousand.
Mr. Armstrong, the founder of the movement is spreading the Couch Potato
gospel: "We feel that watching TV is an indigenous American form of meditation."
He says, "We call it Transcendental Vegetation."
Alima, out of fear people can do anything. They can even become a member of The Couch Potato Movement. Just sitting for seven and a half hours per day just like a potato on the sofa, and growing fatter and fatter and fatter.... Once in a while they get up to go to the fridge; otherwise, they are doing so much Transcendental Vegetation. It has never been done on such a vast scale.
Why should people watch television the whole day? One has to look into the psychology. These people simply don't want to know anything about themselves. These people are trying to avoid themselves by watching television. Television is a substitute; otherwise, having so much time you will have to look inwards -- and that is a fear. Inwards?... but the fridge is outwards. Inwards?... but the boyfriend is outwards. Inwards you will not find anything. You cannot go shopping... You will just get drowned in nothingness.
This being drowned in nothingness creates fear. But the problem is that this fear is only because you don't know the beauty and the bliss and the joy of drowning in nothingness, because you don't know the ecstasy that opens up as you fall inwards. It needs a little taste.
I don't want you to believe, I want you to experiment.
If thousands of mystics have experienced something inside, at least hypothetically,
you can also have a look. Perhaps there may be something that you are missing.
There is no question of fear, just a little intelligence is needed -- not friendliness
with fear but an intelligence: the adventurer's heart, the courage of those who go
into the unknown. They are the blessed ones, because they find the meaning and
the significance of life. Others only vegetate; only they live.
*To be continued...
The Great Pilgrimage
From Here to Here
Chapter 21 Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
CAN YOU PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS BEAUTIFUL POEM BY
RUMI WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH:
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE "OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
"OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
GROWS WARM, KINDLING.
GROWS WARM, KINDLING. LEGROWS WARM, KINDLING.
GROWS WARM, KINDLING. LET THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH
THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH THE
HORNY CRUST. WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE. THE
THORNY CRUST. WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE. THE THORNY CRUST. THE
CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS,
EVCONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS,
CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS, EVERYTHING
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
IS IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."
THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL."
Devaprem, the poem by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is beautiful, as always. He has
spoken only beautiful words.
He is one of the most significant poets who are also mystics. That is a rare
combination; there are millions of poets in the world and there are a few mystics in
the world, but a man who is both is very rare to find.
Rumi is a very rare flower. He is as great a poet as he is a mystic. Hence, his poetry
is not just poetry, not just a beautiful arrangement of words. It contains immense
meaning and points towards the ultimate truth.
It is not entertainment, it is enlightenment.
He is saying,
OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
OUTSIDE, THE FREEZING DESERT NIGHT. THIS OTHER NIGHT INSIDE
GROWS WARM, KINDLING
GROWS WARM, KINDLING GROWS WARM, KINDLING
GROWS WARM, KINDLING.
The outside is not the real space for you to be. Outside, you are a foreigner: inside,
you are at home. Outside, it is a freezing desert night. Inside, it is warm, kindling,
cozy.
But very few are fortunate enough to move from the outside to the inside. They
have completely forgotten that they have a home within themselves; they are
searching for it but they are searching in the wrong place. They search for their
whole lives but always outside; they never stop for a moment and look inwards.
LET THE LANDSCAPE BE COVERED WITH THORNY CRUSTLET
WE HAVE A SOFT GARDEN IN HERE.
Don't be worried about what happens on the outside. Inside, there is always a
garden ready to welcome you.
THE NEWS WE HEAR
BECOMES A SCORCHED, BLACKENED BALL.
FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE.
These words of Rumi are more significant, meaningful, today, than they were when
he wrote them. He wrote them seven hundred years ago, but today it is not only a
symbolic thing, it is going to become the reality:
THE CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS, EVERYTHING
ONTINENTS BLASTED, THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS
FULL OF GRIEF FOR FULL OF GRIEF FOR FULL OF GRIEF FOR
THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE
IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
This last sentence depends on an ancient saying which says: No news is good news.
I was born in a very small village where the postman used to come only once a week. And people were afraid that he may be bringing a letter for them; they were
happy when they found that there was no letter. Once in a while, there was a
telegram for someone. Just the rumour that somebody had received a telegram
was such a shock in the whole village that everybody would gather there -- and
only one man was educated enough to read. Everybody was afraid: A telegram?
That means some bad news. Otherwise, why should you waste money on a
telegram?
I learned from my very childhood that no news is good news. People were happy
when they received no news from their relatives, from their friends or from
anybody. That meant everything was going well.
Rumi is saying:
THE NEWS WE HEAR IS FULL OF GRIEF FOR THE FUTURE.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
REAL NEWS INSIDE, IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL.
Everything
is silent and everything is as beautiful, peaceful, blissful as it has always
been. There is no change at all; hence, there is no news.
Inside it is an eternal ecstasy, forever and forever.
I will repeat again that these lines may become true in your lifetime. Before that
happens, you must reach within yourself where no news has ever happened, where
everything is eternally the same, where the spring never comes and goes but always
remains; where flowers have been from the very beginning -- if there was any
beginning -- and are going to remain to the very end, if there is going to be any
end. In fact, there is no beginning and no end, and the garden is lush, green, and
full of flowers.
Before the outside world is destroyed by your politicians, enter into your inner
world. That's the only safety left, the only shelter against nuclear weapons, against
global suicide, against all these idiots who have so much power to destroy.
You can at least save yourself.
I was hopeful, but as the days have passed and I have become more and more
acquainted with the stupidity of man... I still hope but just out of old habit; really
my heart has accepted the fact that only a few people can be saved. The whole of
humanity is determined to destroy itself. And these are the people... if you tell
them how they can be saved, they will crucify you. They will stone you to death.
Going around the world, I still laugh, but there is a subtle sadness in it. I still dance
with you but it is no longer with the same enthusiasm as it was ten years ago.
It seems that the higher powers of consciousness are helpless against the lower and
ugly powers of politicians. The higher is always fragile, like a roseflower; you can
destroy it with a stone. That does not mean that the stone becomes higher than
the roseflower; it simply means the stone is unconscious of what it is doing.
The crowds are unconscious of what they are doing, and the politicians belong to
the crowd. They are their representatives. And when blind people are leading other
blind people, it is almost impossible to wake them up; because the question is not
only that they are asleep -- they are blind too.
There is not time enough to cure their eyes. There is time enough to wake them
but not enough time to cure their eyes. So now I have confined myself completely
to my own people. That is my world, because I know those who are with me may be asleep , but they are not blind.They can be awakened.
Osho
The hidden splendour
Chapter 7
Question 3
One great Sufi mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, one day took his disciples to a field where a farmer had been trying for months to dig a well. The disciples were feeling a little reluctant -- what is the point in going there? Whatever he wants to say, he can say here. But Jalaluddin insisted: "You come with me. Without coming you will not understand."
What the farmer had done was, he would start digging in one place, go ten feet, twelve feet, would not find water and would start digging in another place. He had dug eight holes and now he was working on the ninth. He had destroyed the whole field.
Rumi told his disciples, "Don't be like this idiot. If he had put all this energy into digging one hole he would have found water, howsoever deep it is. He has wasted his energy unnecessarily."
And that's what everybody is doing. You start, you go a little bit, and then you start again sometime later, or some years later. You go a little bit from a different direction.
These little bits are dangerous. Your effort should be concentrated, and once you start, and you have a master in whom you can trust and in whom you can see the realization of a buddha, then there is no going back. Then go on digging, even if it takes thirty years.
Osho
Joshu The Lions Roar Ch.4.Go On Digging
BELOVED MASTER,
I READ A POEM OF RUMI THE OTHER DAY WHICH WENT:
MOVE WITHIN, BUT DON'T MOVE THE WAY FEAR MAKES YOU MOVE."
AROUND THE SAME TIME I AWOKE FROM A DREAM IN TEARS AND ALL I REMEMBERED WAS LOOKING AT MYSELF IN A MIRROR,
FACE TO FACE, AND MY EYES WERE FULL OF FEAR.
SOMETIMES IN MEDITATION I TOUCH A BLANK HORIZONTAL SPACE WITH NO REFERENCE POINT FOR WHO I AM AND THIS SAME FEAR IS THERE.
CAN YOU HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND AND MAKE FRIENDS WITH THIS FEAR?
Alima, the words of Mevlana Rumi are immensely significant. There have been very few people who have moved and transformed as many hearts as Jalaluddin Rumi.
In the world of the Sufis, Mevlana Rumi is the emperor. His words have to be understood not as mere words, but sources of deep silences, echoes of inner and the innermost songs. He is the greatest dancer the world has known. Twelve hundred years have passed since he was alive.
His dance is a special kind of dance. It is a kind of whirling, just the way small children whirl; standing on one spot they go on round and round. And perhaps everywhere in the world small children do that and their elders stop them saying, "You will become dizzy, you will fall, you will hurt yourself," and, "What is the point of doing it?"
Jalaluddin Rumi made a meditation of whirling. The meditator goes on whirling for hours -- as long as the body allows him; he does not stop on his own. When whirling a moment comes that he sees himself utterly still and silent, a center of the cyclone. Around the center the body is moving, but there is a space which remains unmoved; that is his being.
Rumi himself whirled for thirty-six hours continuously and fell, because the body could not whirl anymore. But when he opened his eyes he was another man. Hundreds of people had gathered to see. Many thought he was mad: "What is the point of whirling?"
... Nobody can say this is a prayer; nobody can say this is great dance; nobody can say in any way that this has something to do with religion, spirituality....
But after thirty-six hours when they saw Rumi so luminous, so radiant, so new, so fresh -- reborn, in a new consciousness, they could not believe their eyes.
Hundreds wept in repentance, because they had thought that he was mad. In fact he was sane and they were mad.
And down these twelve centuries the stream has continued to be alive. There are very few movements of spiritual growth which have lived so long continuously. There are still hundreds of dervishes. `Dervish' is the Sufi word for sannyas. You cannot believe it unless you experience, that just by whirling you can know yourself. No austerity is needed, no self-torture is needed, but just an experience of your innermost being and you are transported into another plane of existence from the mortal to the immortal. The darkness disappears and there is just eternal light.
His words, Alima, have to be understood very carefully because he has not spoken much -- just a few small poems. His statement, "Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move" -- it is so beautiful.
Don't move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move.
Move the way joy makes you move -- not out of fear, because all so-called religions are based on fear. Their God is nothing but fear, and their heaven and hell are nothing but projections of fear and greed.
Rumi's statement is very revolutionary: Do not move because of fear. All the religions say to people, "Fear God!"
Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "I do not fear anybody but God." When I heard this
I said this is the most stupid statement anybody can make. You can fear everybody,
but don't fear God because God can only be approached through love. God is not
a person but the universal heartbeat. If you can sing with love and dance with
love... an ordinary activity like whirling out of love.... Joy and celebration are
enough to reach to the innermost sanctum of being and existence.
You all have been living out of fear.
Your relationships are out of fear. Fear is so overwhelming -- like a dark cloud
covering your life -- that you say things which you don't want to say, but fear
makes you say them. You do things which you do not want to do, but fear makes
you do them. A little intelligence is enough to see....
Millions of people are worshipping stones carved by themselves. They have made
their Gods and then they worship them. It must be out of great fear, because where
can you find God? The easier way is to carve a God in beautiful marble and
worship. And nobody thinks that this is sheer stupidity, because everybody else is
doing it in different ways -- somebody in the temple and somebody in the
mosque and somebody in the synagogue; it does not make any difference. The
essential thing is the same, that what you are doing is out of fear -- your prayers
are full of fear.
Rumi is making a revolutionary, an extraordinary statement: "Move within, but
don't move the way fear makes you move." Then what is the way to move within?
Why not move playfully? Why not make your religion a playfulness? Why be so
serious? Why not move laughingly? -- just like small children running joyously
after butterflies for no special reason. Just the joy of the colours and the beauty of
the flowers and the butterflies is enough -- and they are so immensely happy.
In every twenty-four hours find a few moments which are fearless, which means in
those moments you are not asking for anything. You are not asking for any
reward and you are not worried about any punishment; you are simply enjoying
the whirling, the going inwards.
In fact, just in the beginning it may look a little difficult. As you move a little
inwards you become automatically joyful, playful, prayerful. A gratitude arises in
you that you have never known before and a space opens up which is infinite, your
inner sky. Your inner sky is not less rich than the outer sky: it has its own stars and
its own moon and its own planets and its own immensity; it has exactly as vast a
universe as you can see outside. You are just standing in between two universes:
one is outside you; one is inside you. The outside universe consists of things, and
the inside universe consists of consciousness, of bliss, of joy.
Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move, because fear cannot
enter inwards. Why can fear not enter inwards? Fear cannot be alone, and inwards
you have to be alone. Fear needs a crowd, fear needs companionship, friends, even
foes may do.
But to be alone, to go inwards, you cannot take anybody with you; you have to be
more and more alone. Not only can you not take anyone, you cannot take
anything either. Your wealth, your power, your prestige -- you cannot take
anything. Inside you cannot take even your clothes! You will have to go nude and
alone; hence fear cannot move inwards, fear moves outwards.
Fear moves towards money, fear moves towards power, fear moves towards God;
fear moves in all directions except inwards. To go inwards the first requirement is
fearlessness.
Alima, you are wondering how to make friends with the fear. One has not to make
friends with darkness, death or fear. One has to get rid of them. One has to simply
say good-bye forever. It is your attachment; friendship will make it even more
deep.
Don't think that by becoming friendly with fear you will become ready to go
inwards. Even the friendly fear will prevent it; in fact, it will prevent it more so. It
will prevent you in a friendly way, it will advise you, "Don't do such a thing. There
is nothing inwards. You will fall into a nothingness and returning from that
nothingness is impossible. Beware of falling into your inwardness. Cling to things."
Fear has to be understood.
You don't have to make friends -- and it disappears.
What are you afraid of? When you were born you were born naked. You did not
bring any bank balance either -- but you were not afraid. You come into the world
utterly nude, but entering like an emperor. Even an emperor cannot enter into the
world the way a child enters. The same is true of entering inwards. It is a second
childbirth; you again become a child -- the same innocence and the same nudity
and the same non-possessiveness. What do you have to be afraid of?
In life you cannot be afraid of birth. It has happened, now nothing can be done
about it. You cannot be afraid of life -- it is already happening. You cannot be
afraid of death -- whatever you do it is going to happen. So what is the fear? I have always been asked even by very learned people, "Do you never get concerned what will happen after death?" And I have always wondered, that these people are learned. And I have asked them, "One day I was not born -- and there was no worry. I have never for a single moment thought that when I was not born what kind of trouble, what kind of anxiety, what kind of anguish I had to face. I was simply not! So the same will be the case: when you die, you die."
Confucius was asked by his most significant disciple, Mencius, "What will happen after death?"
Confucius said, "Don't waste time. When you are in your grave, lie down and think over it, but why bother now?"
So many people in their graves are thinking! You will think that there seems to be no problem. In every cemetery -- and there are millions of cemeteries -- people are simply lying. They don't even get up to inquire, "What has happened, what is the news today?" They don't even change sides. They are so relaxed.
And when people die, others close their eyes out of fear: "The poor people will go on seeing in the grave." It makes you afraid that thousands of people in their graves are looking -- "Close their eyes."
I had one distant aunt who was unique because she slept with one eye open. She had to, because that one eye was false. But whenever she used to come to our family I would frighten people. Whenever she would go to sleep I would take them and say, "Look, this is what happens: even when she is alive one eye is open. In death you try to close people's eyes, but don't believe it... they will open their eyes and they will look all around, `What is happening?'"
Fear of what will happen when you die is unnecessary. Whatever will happen will happen -- and anyway you cannot do anything beforehand. You don't know so there is no question of doing some homework, getting ready for the kind of questions you will be asked or what kind of people you will meet, learning their manners, their language... We don't know anything; there is no need to worry. Don't waste time.
But it is fear, fear that something is going to happen. After death -- and you will be so alone; even if you call from your grave nobody is going to listen. People close the grave completely just out of fear. If you leave some window open and dead people start looking from there, they would make anybody afraid!
Just now I have heard that there is a new phenomenon in America called The
Couch Potato Movement....
It was created for people who sit at home all day and watch TV. It was started in
nineteen eighty-two, but has recently become a great phenomenon: the home-
video revolution. The Couch Potato Movement has published two books: THE
OFFICIAL COUCH POTATO HANDBOOK and THE COUCH POTATO GUIDE
TO LIFE. It also has a newsletter THE TUBER'S VOICE with a circulation of eight
thousand.
Mr. Armstrong, the founder of the movement is spreading the Couch Potato
gospel: "We feel that watching TV is an indigenous American form of meditation."
He says, "We call it Transcendental Vegetation."
Alima, out of fear people can do anything. They can even become a member of The Couch Potato Movement. Just sitting for seven and a half hours per day just like a potato on the sofa, and growing fatter and fatter and fatter.... Once in a while they get up to go to the fridge; otherwise, they are doing so much Transcendental Vegetation. It has never been done on such a vast scale.
Why should people watch television the whole day? One has to look into the psychology. These people simply don't want to know anything about themselves. These people are trying to avoid themselves by watching television. Television is a substitute; otherwise, having so much time you will have to look inwards -- and that is a fear. Inwards?... but the fridge is outwards. Inwards?... but the boyfriend is outwards. Inwards you will not find anything. You cannot go shopping... You will just get drowned in nothingness.
This being drowned in nothingness creates fear. But the problem is that this fear is only because you don't know the beauty and the bliss and the joy of drowning in nothingness, because you don't know the ecstasy that opens up as you fall inwards. It needs a little taste.
I don't want you to believe, I want you to experiment.
If thousands of mystics have experienced something inside, at least hypothetically,
you can also have a look. Perhaps there may be something that you are missing.
There is no question of fear, just a little intelligence is needed -- not friendliness
with fear but an intelligence: the adventurer's heart, the courage of those who go
into the unknown. They are the blessed ones, because they find the meaning and
the significance of life. Others only vegetate; only they live.
*To be continued...
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