Zen

NIRVANA: THE LAST NIGHTMARE

Chapter 8: Collecting seashells

Question 3

 

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 Nirvana: The Last Nightmare

 

 

Question 3

YOU SAID YESTERDAY THAT EVERYTHING IS PERFECT HERENOW, NOTHING HAS TO BE CHANGED, EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE. THEN, OSHO, WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE IN THE MEDITATION CAMPS? PLEASE EXPLAIN.

If you understand what I have said, then there is no need to do anything. If you don't understand, then much will have to be done.

You are doing meditations because understanding is missing. If understanding comes to you, there is no need for any meditation. If you understand, then your whole life becomes a meditation. Then whatsoever you do, you do meditatively.

You eat meditatively, you sleep meditatively, you walk meditatively. Then meditation is not something set apart -- it is like breathing or the beating of the heart. It becomes a quality of your being. Not that you do meditation; you become meditative. Whatsoever you do, meditation follows you like a shadow.

If you understand, then meditation is not something to be done; it is a consequence of understanding. But if you don't understand, then meditation has to be done, because only through meditation, by and by you will be cleansed and understanding will become possible.

They are interrelated. Either you understand -- then meditation follows; or you don't understand -- then you have to meditate and understanding follows. They are interdependent.

Don't ask which is first -- the egg or the hen. Neither is first; they are interdependent. The hen cannot be there if the egg has not been before, and the egg cannot be there if the hen has not been before.

But one has to start from somewhere. Don't get confused. Go to the market -- either purchase a hen or bring an egg, but do something. Just don't sit and contemplate philosophically that first you must decide which is which and which is first. Then you will never be able to decide. Nobody has ever been able to decide which comes first.

In fact, they appear as two; they are not two. The egg is nothing but unmanifested hen, and the hen is nothing but manifested egg. The hen is nothing but the egg's way of producing more eggs. They are interconnected.

So either understanding or meditation. If you understand, then there is no need.

But don't deceive yourself, because deception is very easy. You can think, 'Yes, I understand.' You can think that you understand, because it is very ego-enhancing to think that you understand -- and so what need is there to meditate?

But if understanding really happens, then all problems disappear immediately. If problems still linger on, then you must have deceived. If anger continues to be there, if hatred continues to be there, if jealousy continues to be there, if fear continues to be there, then you have deceived yourself. Then please, start meditating. Then much cleansing has to be done.

Meditation is nothing but catharsis. Meditation is throwing out all junk from inside. If the mirror is clear, it reflects perfectly. That is what understanding is -- a clear mirror of consciousness. But if the mirror is covered with dust, then first you have to wash the dust, clean the mirror. That is what meditation is.

Meditation is just cleaning the mirror. Understanding is the clean mirror, the cleaned mirror.

So if you feel that you are not yet able to understand what is being said to you here, then continue meditating. Someday you will be able to see it. If you have understood, then there is no point. But understanding means that now there are no problems.

Just a few days ago, a man came and he said that he has been meditating for years, and I asked him, 'How are you feeling?'

He said, 'Beautiful, perfect. Meditation has helped me tremendously. I have become completely silent and I see visions and light and things like that.'

I said, 'Then it is perfectly okay. Why have you come to me?'

He said, 'But this anger and sex and greed -- they continue.'

Then I said, 'You must have deceived yourself. You must have seen a dream of light, of visions, of silence. You must have persuaded yourself that you have become silent, because it is impossible to become silent, to be full with light, and then continue to be angry, greedy -- it is impossible. Either you have deceived yourself or you are trying to deceive me.'

If you understand, then there is no need to do anything. Then simply everything disappears. You are awake. The sleep is gone and all the dreams have disappeared.

One zen master awoke one morning. He called one disciple who was passing by and said, 'Listen. I had a dream. Would you like to interpret it?'

The disciple said, 'Wait.' And he went out and brought a bucket of water and told the old man to wash his face. The old man did so, and laughed and blessed the disciple and said, 'Right. This is the right interpretation of the dream.'

Then another disciple who was passing was called and the master said, 'Look, I had a dream and I asked this disciple to interpret it and he brought a bucket of water. Now, would you like to interpret it?'

The disciple said, 'Wait.' He went out and came back with a cup of tea. He said, 'Please drink a cup of tea. Finished! The dream is finished, so why bother about it?'

When you are awake, you are awake. When you have understood that it is a dream, it needs no interpretation. Finished! A dream means it is not. What is the need to interpret something which is not?

Of course, Freud would not like the story at all. He has created a great business. He was a jew. He turned psychoanalysis into a great business. Now it is one of the greatest firms in the world; even General Electric and Ford, they are nothing. Psychoanalysis is going to remain....

The eastern attitude says that once you realize a dream is a dream -- finished! A full-point has come.

If you understand what I am saying, that very understanding is enough. If you don't understand, then you have to meditate. Then don't deceive.

Intellectual understanding won't help. Of course, whatsoever I am saying you can understand intellectually. Intellectual understanding is not understanding. Whatsoever I say, you hear, you listen to it, you know the language, and everything is clear. But that is not understanding.

Understanding is a total phenomenon. Just listening, and just by listening something happens within you -- a turning... what Buddha used to call a paravritti, a conversion. Buddha used to say that there is only one miracle. He called it the turning-about in the deepest seed of consciousness -- paravritti.

Listening to me, something happens in your consciousness -- a turn-about. You are no more the same. Not that you have accumulated some intellectual knowledge from me, and you have become more informed. No, suddenly you are no more the same. Somebody had come to listen to me; somebody else goes back. A gap, a discontinuity, a death has happened... a crucifixion and a resurrection. It rarely happens.

Understanding is very rare. It needs tremendous courage to die and be reborn in a single moment. But it happens. If it has not happened, then go on continuing meditations. One day meditations will prepare you. The mirror will become more and more clear. One day the reflection will be perfect and understanding will come to you.

Understanding means a total transformation of your being.

Don't be too concerned with words; rather, be concerned with me. Don't be too concerned with what I say to you; rather, be concerned with what I am herenow. Then there is more possibility for transformation and understanding. If you just go on listening to me, you can find ways to avoid, escape.

Words are just words. No word is real. They are just artificial devices -- useful, but very limited. Language comes into existence by coincidences. It has no ultimacy about it. That's why there are so many languages. For the same thing, there are thousands of words in the world. There are almost thousands of languages. It is artificial.

Whether you call a rose a rose or you call it gulab makes no difference to the rose. The rose is blissfully unaware of what you call it. Otherwise the rose would get confused. There are one thousand words for the rose. It will be impossible for the rose to bloom any more if it becomes too linguistic, if it becomes too intellectual. The rose does not bother about what you call it. And whether you call it a rose or you call it gulab, what difference does it make? A rose remains a rose. Language is artificial, coincidental.

I have heard a very beautiful story, almost unbelievably true:

"Joseph and Mary were on their way to Bethlehem to be taxed. Mary, being great with child, was on the donkey, of course. Joseph walked patiently at her side.

It happened that Joseph turned his ankle on an unexpected stone in the road and nearly fell. Caught by surprise, he muttered under his breath, 'Jesus!'

Mary turned to him, eyes sparkling, and said, 'Just the name for the child.'"

That's how all language comes up -- just coincidences.

Don't be very concerned with what I say; be concerned with what I am. And then a different type of understanding, not intellectual at all but total -- that goes deep down in your guts, that starts circulating in your blood, that starts beating in your heart, that you start breathing in and out, that becomes a part of your very being -- arises. Then there is no need of meditation.

But before that, please don't deceive yourself. Because I know -- many of you will be thinking, 'Very good. So now there is no need to meditate.'

No, meditation cannot be dropped unless you have come to understanding. Continue.

I know everything is right now as it should be. Everything is perfect. I can see you as perfect beings, buddhas, luminous beings full of light, but you are not aware. Just by my saying, it cannot happen to you. You will have to cleanse your eyes, your perception.

Meditation is just medicinal. It helps to clean the eyes. It helps to clean the perception. It gives you a clarity to see.

The last question. Listen to it carefully, because this is how the mind tries to be clever, tries to be cunning, and can deceive you. Of course, nobody else is deceived, but you can deceive yourself.

And when you deceive yourself, there is no possibility of getting out of it, because there is nobody else to get out of it. You are alone there. The deception can become permanent.

Listen first to the question... a beautiful question in a way.

 

Next: Chapter 8: Collecting seashells, Question 4

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 Nirvana: The Last Nightmare

 

 

Chapter 8

 

 

 

 
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT
TESTIMONIALS
EE LEVEL1   EE LEVEL2
EE LEVEL3   EE LEVEL4   EE FAQS
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
NAME:
EMAIL:

Google

Search energyenhancement.org Search web