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ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX
VOL. 2
Chapter 8: There is No Back of this Book
Question 3
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
Question 3
SAYS A: IF YOU WANT TO KNOW YOURSELF, YOU NEED TO SIT STILL. BUT IF YOU WANT TO BE YOURSELF YOU HAVE TO MOVE. SAYS
B: IF SELF-KNOWLEDGE ENDS IN ENLIGHTENMENT, THEN ACTION MUST INVOLVE ENDARKENMENT.
WHAT DO YOU SAY, OSHO?
Self-knowledge has nothing to do with just sitting silently. And if you attain to self-knowledge just sitting silently -- never moving, never active, never dynamic, never living -- your self-knowledge will be a dead self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge has to be total. It has to be known while you are sitting silently, and it has to be known while you are in move-ment. It has to be known in inaction, it has to be known in action. The real man of self-knowledge is both together -- simultaneously both. He is action plus inaction. That is the meaning of the Chinese word, WEI WU WEI. WEI means action, WU means no, WEI means action -- action-no-action. WEI-WU-WEI: action-no-action.
This is the polarity: from action to no-action, from no-action to action. The man of self-knowledge moves to both the polarities, he is at ease with both. Sitting, he is in God. Walking, he is also in God. Not doing anything, he is in God. Doing a thousand and one things, he is in God. In the temple he is in God, in the marketplace he is in God.
But I can understand your question. It is one of the perennial questions, and has created much trouble. Because there are people who think if you are in the world you cannot know yourself, you cannot become enlightened. Leave the world, renounce the world, escape from the world -- the world is a disturbance and a distraction. So go to the Himalayas, move to some caves deep in the Himalayas. Be there, alone -- only then can you know God.
But this God will be very poor. And this knowing of God will be very very starved knowing, it will not be rich. Because when you are not active, there will be a dullness in your being, a deadness. Dust will settle in you. You will be like dormant water -- stagnant, not moving; you will not be fresh like a river. Even if you are silent, even if you are peaceful, you will be dead. Yes, stars will be reflected in you, but you will not be going to the ocean. The river is more alive.
But I am not saying that people who are in the marketplace are going to know God just by being in the marketplace. Because if you are not silent within, the marketplace can become a madhouse -- it does become.
There are two kinds of people -- and they are not really enemies, they are of the same attitude. One believes that this is the only world, this is all that there is to life -- so live it. Rush into ambition, desires, thoughts; do many things -- achieve, attain, become. This man, by and by, drives himself mad.
Another man, seeing all this madness happening, escapes from the world, sits silently in a cave, becomes dormant, dull and dead. The man in the marketplace is alive, but he has no silence. And the man in the cave is silent, but he is no more alive. Both have missed.
That's why, for my sannyasins, I insist: Be alive and be silent, together. You will be richer. Be in the world and yet be not of it. Be a lotus flower -- remain in the water but don't be touched by it. Then there is beauty and there is grace, and life enriches you. Because life is nothing but God, manifest in many many ways. Then life is no more taken as a distraction, but as an opportunity to grow, as a challenge.
Don't think of life as a distraction, but as a challenge. When somebody insults you, you can think he is disturbing you -- that is one interpretation. Or you can think he is challenging you. Whether you are disturbed or not, it depends on you. If you are not disturbed, he has given you a great opportunity to grow. You will be thankful to him. You should go to him and say thank you, you should convey your thankfulness to him -- because he insulted, and yet you were not distracted; something has become very, very solid in you, something has integrated.
A beautiful woman passes by, and there is no distraction -- not that you avoid; not that you don't see her.
Just the other day, somebody sent a cutting from a London newspaper, that the leader of the Swami Narayan sect went to London.
For forty years he has not seen a woman. Even in the aeroplane he was curtained, and the air hostesses were warned not to go to him. Special arrangements were made so he could avoid women. Then at London airport he was driven from the aircraft in a closed car. In the airport a special curtained place was arranged to be there for him before he was cleared. And now in London he moves with his eyes focused on the ground. He could not even see the jubilee celebrations on the tv, because the Queen is not a king. So a special commentator... he was sitting in another room and a special commentator just commented to him, so he heard about it.
Now, this type of people -- do you call them alive? And do you say of them that they have transcended sex? You cannot find more perversion; this is sheer perversion. This man needs to be psychoanalyzed, hospitalized -- even electric shocks will be good. Now, this is absurd. And this man thinks that he is coming closer to God. To be so much afraid of women simply means you are afraid of your sexuality. Otherwise what can a woman do? What can a poor air hostess do? Why should you be so much afraid? The fear is indicative of repression.
And this type of man will be constantly thinking of women. He cannot think of God. He is not worried about God at all, he is worried about women. When will he find time to think about God? And even if he thinks about Ram, he will have to avoid Sita -- and they both are standing together. If he thinks about Krishna he will have to avoid the gopis, because they are dancing around him. This man cannot enter the temple of Kali, because she is a woman.
How did this man manage to live in a mother's womb? Curtained?
This is sheer foolishness -- but this foolishness has been thought of as a great religious quality. This is neurosis in the name of religion. No, if you have transcended your sexuality, you will by and by start forgetting who is a woman, who is a man.
Buddha was sitting under a tree meditating. A few people from the town had come with a prostitute for a picnic, and they all became drunk and they took away the clothes of the prostitute, and she became afraid. They were much too drunk. Naked, she escaped. By the morning when the cool breeze started blowing, they became a little alert and they saw that the woman had escaped. So they started searching for her in the forest, and they came across Buddha sitting under a tree. So they thought, 'We should ask this man, he must have seen her -- because this is the only way she can go, there is no other way.'
So they asked Buddha, 'Have you seen a beautiful woman, naked, passing by?'
Buddha said, 'You came a little late; you should have come ten years before.'
They thought this man mad. What is he talking about -- 'ten years before'? They asked, 'What do you mean?'
He said, 'For ten years, I have lost all distinctions. Yes, somebody has passed -- but whether she was a woman or a man... you are asking the wrong question to the wrong man. Yes, somebody has passed. I have heard somebody's footsteps, I have seen somebody passing. But to say whether she was a man or a woman is difficult, because I was not looking for a man or a woman.'
Unless you look for, how can you see? Have you not watched it happening to you some time? One day you are in the market, and somebody comes and says your house is on fire. And then you rush towards your house. A beautiful woman passes by -- do you see? You look, certainly you look -- but do you see? And if tomorrow somebody reminds you that a beautiful woman had passed, you will say, 'Forget all about it. My house was on fire -- how could I see the beautiful woman? Maybe somebody passed, but I don't remember. It didn't make any impact on me, I was concentrated so much on my house.'
Another day, this same man will SEE the woman. And if she is beautiful, will see more alertly, more keenly, more closely. You see only that which you are LOOKING FOR.
Buddha said, 'Since ten years ago, I have stopped looking for women. I am not searching; they have disappeared from within me. In fact, I am no more a man.'
Strange words, but of tremendous truth. Buddha says, 'In fact, I am no more a man, because I am no more searching for a woman.' A man searches for a woman -- that's what a man means. A woman searches for the man, that's what a woman means.
You cannot define a man as a man if he stops searching for the woman -- he is no more a man. And Buddha says, 'I am no more a man. It is very difficult, sir, to tell you, but somebody has passed. You can go and inquire, somebody must have seen.' Now, this seems to be something valuable.
My whole approach is: You are to live in the world, but you have to live here with great awareness. Watch, see, live, go into everything. Don't deny anything and don't repress. Only by ex-periencing the whole of life, one goes beyond it. Only experience liberates.
So I am not for just sitting silently in a cave. And I am not for just getting involved in a thousand and one activities because you don't know how to sit silently. Yes, sometimes sit silently, and sometimes move into action. And by and by create a bridge between inaction and action.
And become so much in tune with your being that neither action nor inaction will make any difference to you. Acting, working, moving, flowing, you will still remain sitting silent. That's something worth attaining -- when you are moving and nothing moves in you, when you are running and nothing runs in you, when you are talking and still you remain quite silent. When you do a thousand and one things and you are not a doer at all, then you have achieved the synthesis I call spirituality.
Otherwise, both kinds are 'endarkenment'; they are not enlightenment. One is endarkened by too much activity and occupation, another is endarkened by too much inactivity and unoccupation. Both miss.
Enlightenment is a great synthesis, a great harmony of the opposites. It is WEI-WU-WEI.
Next: Chapter 8: There is No Back of this Book, Question 4
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
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ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TESTIMONIALS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE FAQS |
