The ninth question

Question 9

WHY DO I MISUNDERSTAND YOU, OSHO, CONTINUOUSLY?

Dharma Das,

THAT IS NATURAL. Understanding will be a surprise -- misunderstanding is not a surprise. You are bound to misunderstand me because you ARE. You will understand me only when you are not. That 'I' is the cause of all misunderstanding. [t remains between me and you. It do- i not allow me to say what I am saying -- it interprets, it colours it, it distorts, it chooses, it adds, it deletes -- it docs a thousand and one things, and only then does it allow it to go in. And by the time it reaches you it is something totally different. It is not what was said to you: it is something that your mind has made out of it.

You will have to disappear if you want to understand me. Less than that won't do.

Lorenzo was extolling the virtues of his newly adopted homeland. "This is-a great-a country." he declared. "Look-a at Sinatra -- where else could a piece of spaghetti wind up-a with a-so much-a gravy!

Everybody is carrying his idea, his conditioning, his knowledge, his past with himself. That's what your 'I' consists of.

The Ozark farmer's wife had a baby each year for the past twelve years in a row. He finally went to a doctor for some advice. "Here's a gross of rubbers,' said the doctor. "Just read the instructions on the label."

A year later, the hillbilly brought his wife in, pregnant again. "Did you follow the instructions on the box?"

"Yep, Doc! Sure I did! The only thing was I didn't have no organ so I put them on the piano."

Your understanding is going to be your understanding. How can it be my understanding? If you disappear, if you put yourself aside, then there is no barrier, then there is no censor between me and you, then the communication is immediate. Then it is not even a question of words: it is a question of energy.

If your mind is put aside, my vibe will start stirring your heart, my being will touch your being, will trigger something that is fast asleep in you -- will awaken it.

And the more I see that my sannyasins are dropping their egos, the more and more my work will change -- it will become less and less concerned with words and will become more and more concentrated on energy. That's exactly what is slowly slowly happening.

I will be speaking less and less to you. If you are not there then I can just enter in your being, can just call you: Friend, wake up!

One night Mrs. Mantoni got into a taxi. After riding a while, she realized she had forgotten her pocketbook and had no money to pay the fare. The meter now read $7.50.

"Mista driver," she cried. "You betta stop. I no canna pay you!"

"Oh, that's all right," said the cabbie. "I'll just pull down a dark street, get in the back seat with you, take off your panties...."

"Mista, you gonna get gypped," said the Italian lady. "My panties only cost-a forty-nine cents!"

Please, Dharma Das, disappear, don't come in between me and you. Let the contact be immediate, direct, heart-to-heart, not mind-to-mind. Yes, it is good in the beginning -- it is good in the beginning because there is no other way. I have to talk to your mind, I have to seduce your mind, but once the mind is seduced, once you have become a sannyasin, then the second step is: put the mind aside -- now let me have a direct contact with your heart.

And finally even the heart has to be put aside. Then you will not find any difference between me and you; then my understanding will simply be your understanding, without any transfer, without any communication, because then we will meet at the center. And your center and my center are not different. Your body is different from my body; your mind is less different from my mind than my body and your body. Your heart is even less different than my heart. But your being and my being are the same; they are not different at all.