Hassidism, The Art of Dying Chapter 2: Confusion is my method, last question

The last question:

Question 9

I AM A PIECE OF ROCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOUNTAIN. EVEN THIS I DON'T DARE TO REALISE. I DREAM INSTEAD. OSHO, WHY DID YOU TELL ME ABOUT RIVERS, THE OCEAN AND THE SKY? AND HOW COULD YOU GIVE ME SANNYAS? I AM A PIECE OF ROCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOUNTAIN.

Everybody is a piece of rock. Unless you attain to your uttermost glory, you are bound to be a piece of rock. But nothing is wrong in being a piece of rock. The piece of rock is nothing but God fast asleep, snoring.A piece of rock is God asleep. Nothing is wrong in the piece of rock, it has to be awakened. Hence, I have given you sannyas.

You say, AND HOW COULD YOU GIVE ME SANNYAS?

Sannyas is nothing but an effort to wake you, an effort to shake you, an effort to shock you into awareness. Sannyas is nothing but an alarm.

EVEN THIS I DON'T DARE TO REALISE -- that I am a piece of rock in the middle of the mountain -- I DREAM INSTEAD.

That's how the rock avoids its own growth, the rock avoids its own future -- by dreaming. Dreaming is the barrier. By dreaming we are avoiding the reality, by dreaming we avoid the real. It is our escape. You don't have any other escape. This is the only escape route -- dreaming.

When you are listening to me, you can dream also. Sitting here you can have a thousand and one thoughts roaming around in your mind. You can think of the future or of the past. You can be for and against what I am saying, you can argue, you can debate with me inside yourself. But then you are missing me. I am a fact here. You need not dream here, you can just be here with me. And tremendous will be the result of it.

But we go on dream ing. People are dreamers, and that is their way. When they are making love to a woman, they are dreaming; when they are eating, they are dreaming. When they are walking on the road -- they have gone for a walk in the morning, the sun is rising, the day is beautiful, the.people are getting up, life is coming back again -- they are dreaming. They are not looking at anything.

We go on dreaming. Dreaming functions as a blindfold, and we go on missing the reality.

OSHO, WHY DID YOU TELL ME ABOUT RIVERS, THE OCEAN AND THE SKY?

Because those are your possibilities. The rock can fly; the rock can grow wings. I myself was a rock one day. Then I started growing wings, sol know. I know your possibility, you may not know it. Hence I talk about the rivers, the ocean and the sky. The rock can become a flower, the rock can become a river, the rock can become the ocean, the rock can become the sky -- infinite are your possibilities! Your possibilities are as many as God's possibilities. You are multi-dimensional.

That's why I go on talking about the rivers and the ocean and the sky. Some day or other a great thirst will possess you, a new passion will arise for the impssible and you will be able to fly into the sky. It is yours, claim it! You only look like a rock. Rocks also only look like rocks. If they make a little effort, if they shake themselves a little, they will find wings are hidden there. They will find infinite possibilities opening, doors upon doors.

But dreaming functions as the barrier. Being a rock is not a problem: being too much in dreams is the problem. Start dropping dreams. They are futile, meaningless, a wastage and nothing more. But people go on dreaming, go on dreaming.... By and by people start thinking that dreaming is their only life. Life is not a dream and dreaming is not life. Dreaming is avoiding life.

Let me tell you an anecdote.

On his seventy-fifth birthday, Turtletaub rushed into a physician1s office. 'Doctor,' he exclaimed, 'I have got a date tonight with a twenty-two-year-old girl. You gotta give me something to pep me up.'

The M.D. smiled sympathetically and supplied the old man with a prescription. Later that night, out of curiosity, the medical man phoned his elderly patient, 'Did the medicine help?' 'It's wonderful,' replied Turtletaub. 'Seven times already.' 'That's great,' agreed the doctor. 'And what about the girl?' 'The girl?' said Turtletaub. 'She didn't get here yet!'

Don't go on dreaming, otherwise you will miss the girl. You will miss life. Stop dreaming, look at that which is.And it is already in front of you. It is already around, it is within and without. God is the only presence if you are not dreaming. If you are dreaming, then your dreams occupy your inner space. They become the hindrances for God to enter into you. This dreaming we call maya. Maya-means a magic show, a dream show. When you are not dreaming, when you are in a state of no-dream, the reality is revealed.

The reality is already there, you are not to achieve it. You have only to do one thing: you have to put aside your dreams. And you will no longer be a rock, you can fly with me to the very end of the sky.

Receive my invitation, receive my challenge. That's what sannyas is all about.

Hassidism

THE ART OF DYING

Chapter-2

Confusion is my Method