Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

BELOVED OSHO,

WE WERE TOLD THAT OUR TOTAL PARTICIPATION IN THE YAA-HOO IS NEEDED FOR YOUR WORK ON US. IS IT THAT A CRESCENDO OF SOUND IN THE YAA-HOO, AND THE INTENSE EXPERIENCE OF SILENCE IN THE LAST STAGE OF MEDITATION, LEAD TO EXACTLY THE SAME SPACE  --  THE "SEA OF CONSCIOUSNESS"?

Yes, Maneesha, Yaa-Hoo can lead even deeper because Yaa-Hoo can become more intense, one-pointed. It can hit, deep down. You just watch when you make the sound Yaa-Hoo. It is not a word, it means nothing. It is simply my finding, amongst many sounds which have been used by different mystics in different times. I have found that Yaa-Hoo goes the deepest.

It has never been used. HOO has been used; it has been used as part of ALLAH-HOO. If you repeat "Allah," which is the name Sufis give to God  --  if you repeat it continuously, ALLAH, ALLAH, ALLAH, soon you will find it is becoming "Allah-hoo, Allah-hoo, Allah-hoo Allah-hoo." Then Sufis dropped the "Allah." There is no need, you can just shout "Hoo" and it hits at the very center of your being.

But my finding is that "Hoo" only touches your being and immediately comes back. It does not go deep, like an arrow, penetrating. For that, my experience with Yaa-Hoo has made me absolutely certain that it goes deepest in you. It goes just like a sword. It all depends with how much intensity, urgency, totality, you do it.

It is not a mantra. It is simply using sound to reach the soundless silence. After Yaa-Hoo you are left in a deep silence. So it is part of my work on you, and as you get deeper into it, you will find changes happening to you.

Now it is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh.If Sardar Gurudayal Singh leaves his material body, he will have to come as a ghost, a holy ghost, just to help all these people with a total laughter.

Don't laugh superficially, because that is wasting time. Laugh as totally as possible, bringing your whole consciousness to it. The jokes are just to trigger you.

Soon I will have to drop jokes, because I must have told more jokes then anybody else in the whole history of man. In fact, I have told more jokes than there are! So sooner or later we have to change the technique, from jokes to spontaneous laughter.

Why unnecessarily waste time with a joke when we can laugh without it? It is just for Sardar Gurudayal Singh that I am postponing, day by day, because he is old and any time he may pop off. At least in his lifetime, I think to continue the jokes. Anyway, when he is not here it will be so embarrassing to tell jokes in his absence.

It is Thanksgiving weekend, the big national holiday in America, and at the Sons of Columbus annual picnic, Grandpa Risotto gets up and makes an announcement.

"And-a now," he says, "for the winner of the grand-a prize! This beautiful apple pie baked by Mrs. Alucchi!"

Grandad Piesta is sitting at the back of the picnic a little drunk, and shouts out, "Fuck Mrs. Alucchi!"

"Ah!" says Grandpa Risotto. "That's-a second prize!"

An Englishman, an Italian and a German are exploring the Amazon jungle in Brazil, when they are captured by cannibals. They are tied to bamboo poles and carried to "Spoon-em-out," the village cook.

"Hmm!" says Spoon-em-out, prodding the naked bodies expertly. "I don't think we can cook them all together in the soup. But this one," he says, poking the Italian, "we can eat for dinner tonight. He is greasy enough to be fried immediately.

"This one," continues Spoon-em-out, jabbing the Englishman, "we can boil up for the sick people. He has no salt and almost no taste, like tofu!

"And this one, " grimaces Spoon-em-out, eyeing the German, "we will soak in water for a week. Then he might be less tough and easier to digest!"

Sidney Silicon, the San Francisco yuppie, is jogging on a foggy morning along the cliff-tops around the bay.

He loses his way in the fog, gets too close to the edge, trips, and falls over the cliff. He manages to grab hold of a small branch which is sticking out halfway down, and there he hangs, suspended in space.

"Help!" screams Sidney. "Is anybody there?"

There is a long silence, and then a loud voice booms from above, "Yes, my son, I am here. I am God! Just let go of the branch and my angels will catch you and bring you to paradise."

Some seconds go by, and then Sidney shouts again, "Is there anybody there?"

"My son," booms the voice from above, "I told you, I am God and I am here! Trust me!"

"I know," says Sidney, "that you are there. But isn't anybody else there?"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes, feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards, with your total consciousness, with great urgency, as if this is going to be your last moment. Just like a spear, go on piercing towards the center.

This moment that you are at the center, you are a buddha. This buddha nature is the only thing that remains forever.

Witnessing is another name of buddha nature. Just remain unwavering at the center and witnessing whatever comes before the mirror.

To make it more clear, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. Just witness: you are not the body, you are not the mind. You are only the witness. This experience of being only the witness is what we metaphorically call the buddha.

As silence becomes deeper, as your separateness from existence disappears... as this Buddha Auditorium contains only consciousness as an ocean, the evening becomes tremendously beautiful. It becomes a festival.

Thousands of flowers will be showering on you. Gather as much fragrance, as many flowers as possible, to bring back. Slowly slowly, you have to bring the buddha back to your circumference. In your every activity, in your every gesture, every word, every silence, you have to show the buddha.

This is the highest achievement in existence.

Bring as much of your self-nature as possible.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but remember: each movement of sitting up should be that of a buddha  --  peaceful, graceful, a beauty unto itself. Blissful, grateful, sit for a few moments just recollecting where you have been, just remembering the golden path that you traveled to the center and back.

Your meditation has to become your very heartbeat. Twenty-four hours a day you have to remind yourself: nothing should happen through you which will not be suitable for a buddha. And soon you will see the great transformation happening.

Okay, Maneesha?