The third question

Question 3

OSHO, YOU SAY, "DO NOT IMITATE CHRIST, BUDDHA OR YOU," BUT CANNOT ONE LEARN BY IMITATION? CANNOT ONE LEARN BY FOLLOWING? CANNOT ONE BECOME ONE'S TRUE SELF BY THE LIGHT OF CHRIST, BUDDHA OR YOU?

Anand,

TO IMITATE IS TO GO AGAINST YOURSELF. To imitate simply means you are denying yourself and you are imposing somebody else upon you. Love Christ if you can find him, but don't imitate him. Understand the Buddha if by chance you meet him, but don't follow him. You are here with me: BE with me in deep love, in deep trust; allow me to have a communion with your heart -- let our hearts meet, merge, mingle with each other. But please don't imitate me, don't follow me.

You have to go on your own. You have to be a light unto yourself. You have to BE YOURSELF! If you imitate Christ you will be a Christian but never a Christ -- and to be a Christian is ugly, and to be a Christ is one of the most beautiful happenings. The most precious happening in the world is to be a Christ.

To be a Buddha means to be awakened to your inner light. How can you be awakened by following somebody? My sannyasins are not my followers, they are my friends, they are my lovers. They are not my followers! I am not giving you any instructions about how to live; I am not giving you any commandments about how to behave. I am not giving you any character to cultivate. I am simply sharing my insight -- I am simply sharing with you what has happened to me. I am simply telling my story to you. And I am grateful that you are listening to it.

Just listen to it as totally as possible, and then something will start happening in you. It will not be a following, it will not be an imitation. It will not be caused by me: it will be a synchronicity. It will be acausal.

The law of synchronicity has to be understood. This is one of the greatest contributions of Carl Gustav Jung to modern humanity: the law of synchronicity.

Science is based on the law of causality. The law of causality is mechanical. You heat water to a hundred degrees -- it evaporates. Where you heat it is irrelevant -- in the temple, in the church, in the mosque, it doesn't matter; in India, in Tibet, it doesn't matter. If you heat water to a hundred degrees, it evaporates; the water has no say in it. The water cannot say, "Today I am not feeling like it." Or, "Today is Sunday and I am on a holiday, and I am not interested in becoming vapour." Or, "Today I am not in the mood, and you can go on heating and heating and I will not evaporate." Or, "Today I am suddenly feeling very generous towards you so I will evaporate at fifty degrees. I will favour you." No, the water has no choice. The law is mechanical, it is causal. If you create the cause, the effect HAS to follow. And it is without any exception.

Because of this law of causality, science cannot believe in the existence of soul, in the existence of consciousness, in the existence of God -- because they are non-mechanical phenomena. The very methodology of science prevents it from accepting them; they cannot be absorbed in the scientific world. They will disturb it, they will destroy its whole edifice. They have to be kept out -- God, soul, consciousness, love -- they have all to be kept outside the temple of science. They cannot be allowed in. They are dangerous: they will sabotage its whole structure. They are acausal. But they must be following some other law.

The credit goes to Carl Gustav Jung. The law has been known down the ages, but nobody had named it exactly. He called it 'the law of synchronicity'. It suddenly happened to a scientist. A scientist a hundred years ago was staying in an old house. In that old house there were two old clocks on the same wall. He was surprised to see that they always kept exactly the same time, second to second: "Old clocks, and so perfect? Not even a single second's difference?"

Being a scientist he became curious. He put one clock five minutes back, and after twenty-four hours in the morning when he looked again, they were again keeping the same time. Now it was a great puzzle. He enquired... nobody had changed, nobody had touched anything. He tried again and again, and again and again they would come to the same rhythm. Then he tried to find out: "What is happening? -- something strange. They are disconnected!"

Then he observed more minutely and he came to conclude: "The vibration of the one clock, which is more powerful, the bigger clock, goes through the wall -- just the vibration -- and keeps the other clock in tune. It is a subtle rhythm. Nothing is visible."

That was the beginning of a new phenomenon... then many many more things happened. And by the time Carl Gustav Jung started working on how things happen in consciousness, he came to conclude that the vibe of one heart, if it is powerful enough, can change the rhythm of another heart -- just like the bigger clock was changing the smaller clock.

The vibe is invisible. There is not yet any way to measure it, but it is there. It is not tangible, but it functions. It is not causal.

That's what happens in SATSANG -- in communion with a Master. If you are with a Christ, he is a tremendous power -- he is God! He is a window to God. God is flowing through him. If you come close to him -- and that's what disciplehood is all about: to come close to a Master, to come close to a window from whom God is flowing -- his power, his vibe, will set the rhythm of your heart. It is acausal, one of those mysterious intangibles, but it has been happening down the ages.

Have you watched it? Two lovers, if they are really lovers, and deep in intimacy, slowly slowly start looking alike -- that is synchronicity. You can see it: real lovers, slowly slowly start looking like brother and sister. Something in them starts becoming synchronized, they start having the same rhythm.

The mother and the child have the same rhythm; hence, now it is a known fact, and even scientifically proved, that if a child is killed thousands of miles away from the mother, something in the heart of the mother feels the pain. She may not be able to understand it, what is happening; she may not be able to explain it. She may not know anything about what is happening to her child, but if something is happening to the child and the child is thousands of miles away -- that doesn't make any difference -- the mother's heart immediately starts feeling it. Something is broken in her heart too.

Just the other day a sannyasin wrote to me that his mother died a few days ago -- just now he has received the telegram. And he is puzzled, because the day she died he was in such agony, with no physical problem, with no psychological problem, with no visible came, but in such agony, such terrible agony, as he has never been before.

This is synchronicity. The mother and the child have lived together for nine months, the child lives in the mother's womb; his heart beats in rhythm with the mother's heart, his blood pulsates in rhythm with the mother's blood -- he is not separate at all! He is one with the mother. And that oneness persists.

When two lovers become really intimate, when they don't have any secrets from each other, when they are really open to each other, when they are not afraid of each other and not hiding anything from each other... that is intimacy. When they can say each and everything without any fear that the other will be offended or hurt.... If the lover thinks the other will be offended, then the intimacy is not yet enough. Then it is a kind of arrangement which can be broken by anything. But when two lovers start feeling that there is nothing to hide and everything can be said, and the trust has come to such a depth, where even if you don't say it the other is going to know, then they start becoming one. Then they start becoming more like brother and sister.

Many people become puzzled... just a few nights ago, a couple came to me and the husband was very much puzzled. He said, "What is happening to us? We are no more husband and wife -- all sex has disappeared, but still we feel a deep intimacy." And I told them, "Something immensely valuable is happening. You are becoming brother and sister. Your love is taking on a new dimension, a higher one -- that of non-sexuality. It is becoming purer."

Hearing it, immediately everything became clear to them. They hugged each other, tears started flowing from their eyes. It was a beautiful scene to see -- they understood it. Yes, it clicked. Yes, that's what is happening. They were worried because they came from the West -- the East has always known it: that if love deepens it transforms the relationship; husbands and wives become brothers and sisters. And ultimately a moment comes when not even brothers and sisters... a kind of oneness arises, they become one.

THIS IS SYNCHRONICITY! And this is what happens between the Master and the disciple -- on a far deeper level than any other love, on a far higher plane than any other intimacy. You need not imitate Buddha, you need not imitate me, you need not follow Christ or Krishna or Mohammed. If you are fortunate enough to be with an alive Master, just become vulnerable to him. Let intimacy happen, come closer and closer. Drop your defences and armours. And the powerful dynamo of the Master, his magnetic field, his Buddhafield, will transform you. And he will not even give you any commandment. And his transformation will not be something imposed on you but something stirred within you that will bring your own being alive.

Real life is not acting. Imitation is acting. Imitation is superficial. Real life is not a game, and if you are playing games you will never be real and you will not know what real life is.

An actor who had not worked for some time was offered a one line replacement in a show. He practised the line all the way to the theater: "Hark, I hear the cannon's roar. Hark, I hear the cannon's roar."

Having gone through all the possibilities, he decided on the best one. When he arrived at the theater they told him his line was just about to come up and asked him if he was ready. He said he was. They pushed him out on to the stage to an enormous sound of cannons roaring. The actor jumped with fright and said, "Christ, what the hell was that?"

Life is a constant surprise. If you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan you are going to miss it. You cannot depend on rehearsals, and you cannot depend on playing superficial games. And that's what is happening: people in the churches are just playing the game of being Christians. In their real life they have nothing to do with Christ. Has any Christian anything to do with Christ?

Just watch. Christ says: "Blessed are the meek, for theirs is the kingdom of God." But look at Christians: they have become the most powerful religion in the world. The Pope is not meek; he has the greatest empire in the world -- all the Rockefellers and all the Morgans and all the Fords have nothing.... In fact, I am always puzzled how the Jews missed such a big opportunity, and the poor Italians befooled them! Such a business!

And you will become ugly if you imitate, you will become distorted -- because trying to become like Christ you will have to cut many things here and there.

Do you know that in the ancient scriptures Christ is described as a hunchback? And do you know his height? -- four feet five inches. And the ancient scriptures say he was one of the most ugly of men. Now, try to be Jesus Christ -- become a hunchback, cut your legs or your head, and distort your face and become the ugliest of men.

A man went into a tailor's shop. He tried on a sports jacket; the tailor took a tuck. The man's shoulder went up three inches. The tailor said, "That's fine -- I will fix it." He made another adjustment; the man's arm twisted into an awkward position. And an hour later he walked out in his newly fitted jacket.

Two elderly women noticed him. The first one watching him from across the street said, "Isn't that a shame -- such a handsome young man and so hopelessly crippled!"

Her friend nodded, "Yes, but doesn't that jacket fit him beautifully?"

Avoid such jackets and avoid all rehearsals.

Giant Polish dockworker, Kraczewski, was considered by most of the longshoremen to be a great lover. They claimed he could make love to twenty girls in an hour. When some disbelieving seamen showed up, bets were made and the next night twenty girls were lined up in one of the warehouses.

The big Polack went to work. He had made love to the first dozen when suddenly he fell to the floor in a state of exhaustion. His pals rushed up to him screaming, "What happened?"