The second question:

Question 2

BELOVED OSHO,

IN MANY TRADITIONS THE TOTAL TRANSMISSION WAS PASSED FROM A MASTER TO ONLY ONE DISCIPLE, SUCH AS FROM BUDDHA TO MAHAKASHYAPA, FROM BODHIDHARMA TO HUI-KE, DOWN TO HUI NENG, WHOM YOU MENTIONED THIS MORNING. DO YOU HAVE SUCH A ONE RIGHT DISCIPLE TO WHOM YOU PLAN TO TRANSFER TOTAL KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOUR DISCIPLES? IS THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU WILL DO THIS WITH A NUMBER OF PERSONS RATHER THAN ONLY ONE? WHY IS IT THAT THE ULTIMATE SECRET IS USUALLY TRANSMITTED TO ONLY ONE IN MANY TRADITIONS?

It is not transmitted to only one. It is transmitted to many but only one is authorized to transmit it further. Buddha transmitted his knowing to thousands but he gave his authority to Mahakashyapa because he was the most capable of being a master. It is not so difficult to become enlightened but to become a master is very difficult. There are many enlightened persons but not all enlightened persons are masters.

When you become enlightened, it is your own thing but to be a master you need some art to convey it to others. And it is the most difficult art because something has to be conveyed which cannot be conveyed; something has to be transmitted which is not transmittable; something has to be said which cannot be said in language. So a very highly qualified artist can be appointed to transmit it.

It happened that Buddha came one day with a flower in his hand and he sat under the tree. He was going to talk to the disciples but he remained silent and the disciples became uneasy. It had never happened before. He would come and he would start talking, so why was he silent on this day? And he went on looking at the flower as if he had forgotten completely that ten thousand disciples were gathered there to listen to him.

Minutes passed and they looked very long at him but no one had the courage to say, "What are you doing? Have you forgotten us? Have you forgotten what you have called us for and what you wanted to say?"

He had called them particularly and they had come with great expectations. He had become very old, so they thought that before he left the body he was going to say something secret, esoteric, something very essential that he had not said before. And then he remained silent and he continued looking at the flower. The silence became heavy, it became a burden. Everyone was uncomfortable. And then Mahakashyapa, one of the disciples, laughed. And this Mahakashyapa is rare because his name had never been mentioned before this. He was an unknown disciple as far as the world is concerned but not to Buddha. Buddha must have known him.

There were many famous disciples. Sariputta was there who was a great teacher in his own right. Moggalayan was there: he was also a great teacher in his own right; he had thousands of disciples of his own. Ananda was there, the closest one, who was constantly with Buddha like a shadow. And there were many -- very well known, famous in some way or other. And this Mahakashyapa was never mentioned in Buddhist scriptures before this episode.

He laughed. Buddha looked at him. Buddha smiled and asked Mahakashyapa to come near. Mahakashyapa reached near. Buddha gave the flower to him without saying a single word. And then he said to the assembly, "All which could be said through language I have said to you and that which cannot be said through language I have given to Mahakashyapa."

This is called the great transmission. Mahakashyapa could understand the language of silence and one who can understand the language of silence can teach and convey things through silence. Mahakashyapa is not the only one to whom Buddha has given his secret key; the secret key had been given to many. But the secretmost key can be conveyed only in silence and Mahakashyapa understood that language. Then he was appointed to go on conveying this silent teaching.

Bodhidharma is the sixth in that tradition. Mahakashyapa was the first who got the teaching from Buddha; Bodhidharma is the sixth. And Bodhidharma went around India to find a person who could understand that language of silence. He couldn't find him here; that is why he had to go to China. There he met Hui-Ke, after sitting for nine years in front of a wall.

Buddha had given his enlightenment, the taste of it, to many but they were not all masters. They attained it for themselves and then they dissolved into infinity.

To be a master is a very difficult and delicate thing. You have attained the infinity, and still somehow you remain here on this shore to teach others. It is very difficult. In a sense, it happens so rarely that it seems exceptional because one who has known the infinity would like to dissolve into it. Why bother teaching you? Why bother saying something to those who cannot understand or to those who can only misunderstand? Why go on teaching them? Why bother? One would like to move into silence, into bliss, into the infinite, and forget the world.

A master means someone to whom the call of bliss is less urgent than the call of compassion. He says, "Wait." The infinite can wait; there is no hurry about it. The bliss can wait, the ultimate dissolution can wait a little; there is no hurry about it.

A master means a being who lingers on a little more on this shore. It is very difficult because he will have to devise things which will allow him to linger here a little more. And this is going to be very arduous because now the body wants to rest, to go back to nature. Once you become enlightened, the body wants to rest. Now there is no need to carry it. The body would like to dissolve back into nature because the destiny is fulfilled. Now the house is not needed; now the bird of the soul can fly to the infinite. This abode is useless. Why carry it on? But a master has to carry on. He has to create devices through which he can go on carrying the body in order to help others.

The body is not the only problem. The very effort seems so futile because you talk to ten thousand people and maybe only a single one will understand. And the remaining nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine will create such problems for you... they will create problems and troubles for you in every way.

This is natural because they cannot understand you and whatsoever you say and do becomes dangerous for them because their established values are challenged. Their established life is challenged, their way of living is challenged -- everything. You go on giving shocks to them, so they will take revenge. They will do whatsoever they can do to stop you -- to stop you from helping them. Thus, it is easy for an enlightened person to simply dissolve.

So Buddha says that there are two types of enlightened persons. One he calls an ARHAT; by arhat he means one who has attained his self and who is not bothered by anything else, he simply dissolves like a drop into the ocean. The other he calls BODHISATTVA; by bodhisattva he means one who has become an arhat, but who resists the ultimate desire -- the ultimate desire to dissolve -- who resists the ultimate desire and lingers on this shore, on this bank, to help others. And Buddha says that the bodhisattva is making a great sacrifice.

Arhats can never become masters; only bodhisattvas can become masters. And neither can all bodhisattvas become masters because mastery needs a particular training -- a particular training to convey, a particular training to help, a particular training to advise and counsel, a particular training to create new devices -- because with every individual something different is needed and with every age something different is needed.

That is why all old techniques become meaningless. They were devised for particular minds and those minds are no more in the world. And we go on practicing those techniques. They cannot help many; they can help only very few. New devices are needed. You can become a master only when you are able to create new devices and be inventive and creative.

It is not that enlightenment and the secret keys of its knowledge are delivered to only one. They are delivered to many but to only one as a master who will be capable of delivering the key on further.

Now, because this will be the last meeting, I would like to say something to you before you leave the campus. Firstly, this has been my observation -- that ninety percent of you, and this is a very great number, have been doing meditation very intensely. This is very hopeful but the intensity was more or less dependent on the group. It may be difficult for you to be so intense back at home.

So do one thing: when you do the meditation at home, close your eyes first, feel me present just before you as I am here. Visualize me, visualize the group around you and then start meditation as you have been doing with the group. That will be very helpful. If you have a tape-recording, then put it on so that the whole atmosphere is created and you are not alone. It is very difficult to do it so intensely individually. The group soul possesses you.

Back home you will even feel, you will even wonder, that for three times every day you were making such strenuous effort. You may not be able even to imagine how you could do that. The group soul grips you. Then you are just in a current; then you are just moving in a flood; then the whole group pushes you on.

Many people come to me and say, "In the camp it is wonderful but when we go back it is lost." Even back home remember the group, visualize the group, feel the group, and the group will be there. At least I will be there.

And if you are a sannyasin, then just take the locket in your hand and exhale deeply three times. Do not inhale. Exhale deeply and allow the body to inhale: you do not inhale. Just exhale three times, remember me, and start -- and I will be there.

Space and time do not really matter. If your intensity is such that you can feel me, I will be there. The space disappears, time disappears, and ninety percent of you will be capable of doing the same as you are doing here. And it is good to do it alone. It is good to start in a group but it is not good to become dependent on the group forever.

But do not leave a gap. The day you are back home start immediately. Do not say, "Let me rest for a week and then I will start." Then you will never start; that is a trick of the mind. Immediately you are home, start it. It will be happening to you there. And once it can happen to you individually, you have become independent. Meditation can be started in a group but it must end in independence. You must become independent of the group.

The second thing: many of you will feel afraid of your neighbors, of your family. They will think you have gone mad. Here it is no problem because everyone is more mad than you... so you are not afraid. No one is going to say that you are mad. The whole atmosphere, the milieu, is different. It is cooperative here. But back home the whole atmosphere will be against you. That creates a barrier. So it will be good to tell your family, "I am experimenting with this method and this is a mad method." Go around to your neighbors and tell them, "In the morning for one hour I will be doing this method -- and this is absolutely mad, but do not get disturbed."

Tell them this rather than hiding because if you hide you cannot do it rightly; you will always go on suppressing something. Just go around and tell them by yourself. And only for a few days, three or four days, will people be interested in you. Then they will forget because no one has the time to go on thinking about you, that you have become mad. After three or four days they get adjusted and they know that you are doing something.

And if you continue it for three months, they will start asking you what you are doing because now something will be happening to you -- so apparently, so obviously. It will be coming on your face, in your eyes, in your movements. The way you will behave, everything, will change. You will take on a new grace. A new silence will follow you and a subtle joy not caused by anything. Just because you are alive, a subtle joy will be there with you and everyone will be able to feel the difference. Then they will start asking you. Then they will never think you mad.

So if you can persist in this madness, no one will think you a madman. But persistence is needed -- and in the beginning, a little courage. If you are a coward, then of course you cannot continue it. Do not try to rationalize it; do not say others will be disturbed. No one is disturbed. You can even invite your whole family to look at you. They will enjoy it. No one will be disturbed; it will be a free entertainment for them!

Invite the neighbors. Tell them that you have come from a meditation camp where you have learned a technique and you want to show it to them. In the beginning they will laugh but they cannot laugh for long. They will get serious about it. But your change will prove its effect; nothing else can prove it. You cannot argue about it.

The third thing: do not try to convince anybody about it; do not argue. It is useless; you simply waste your energy. There is only one argument which can prove anything and that is you. If YOU change, you become a very vital argument. If you do not change, just arguing is useless; you cannot convince anybody. Just reasoning never convinces; only your being convinces. So do not be argumentative about it.

This has been my feeling: when you learn something new, you become argumentative; you go on talking about it. And it is not that you are doing harm to anybody -- you may be simply thinking to help them. When something is so fresh to you and you have experienced something new, you want to share it. This is natural. It may be natural but it is not wise because the other is absolutely unacquainted with what you are talking about.

And my methods particularly are so mad that you cannot convince anybody! Do not try it because if you cannot convince anyone, it may have a harmful effect on you. Your failure will make you less confident. Then you will become hesitant within. You cannot convince anybody and others can convince you that you have gone mad -- that you are wrong. They can convince you because you have had a subtle experience which is inexpressible. How can you convey it? Unless someone is very welcoming and receptive, you cannot convey it. To say no to anything is very easy; to negate is very easy. To be positive, to say yes, is very difficult.

Chekhov has written a story. One man in a village was so idiotic, so stupid, that the whole village knew about it, that he was stupid. And he himself became so convinced that he was stupid that he became afraid even to talk, to utter a single word, because the moment he said anything someone would say, "What a stupid thing you are saying! What a silly thing."

He was so depressed, he went to a sage and asked him, "What to do? I am such a proved idiot that I cannot even utter a single word. Before I utter anything, they say, 'Be silent. Do not speak!' "

The sage said, "Do one thing: never say yes to anything from now on. Whatsoever you see, condemn it."

The idiot said, "But they will not listen to me."

The sage said, "Don't bother. If they say, 'This is a beautiful painting,' say, 'This painting beautiful? Such an ugly thing I have not seen before!' If they say, 'This novel is very original,' say, 'This is just a repetition. Thousands of times the same story has been written.' Do not bother to prove it. Simply say no to everything; make it your basic philosophy. If someone says that the night is beautiful, the moon is beautiful, say, 'You call this beauty?' And they cannot prove otherwise, remember. They cannot prove!"

The man went back to his village. He started saying no to everything. Within a week there was a rumor around the village: "We were wrong. That man is not an idiot. He is a great critic; he is a genius."

To say no needs no wisdom. If you want to become a great genius, say no, be a critic. Never bother to say yes to anything. Whatsoever anybody says, deny it flatly. And no one can prove it because to prove anything is very difficult. 'No' is the simplest trick.

When you are talking of higher experiences, anybody can say no to you. Any stupid man can say no and you cannot prove otherwise. So be alert. Do not talk about it unless you feel that a very sympathetic heart is there to listen, to receive. And do not argue. If something has happened to you, your being will become the argument. Do not waste any energy convincing anyone. Use all the energy that you have in transforming yourself. Your transformation will help many; your argument can help no one.

Once you are transformed, people will start falling in love with you. They will become receptive, inviting; they will become hosts. And whatsoever you say to them will be received as a seed; they will carry it in their hearts. But do not try to convince anyone; do not argue; do not be intellectual and rational about it. The whole phenomenon is so absurd, it is so paradoxical!

It is paradoxical because through being consciously mad you go beyond all madness. A person meditating with this technique cannot go mad. It is impossible because he is throwing out all madness, not accumulating it. And unless you accumulate, you cannot be mad.

You are daily cleansing yourself; you are daily passing through a catharsis. You are changing -- transforming your madness into meditation. Doing this method, apparently so mad, you will create the possibility where real sanity will happen to you. This is paradoxical; this is why I call it absurd.

Laugh, sing, dance, but do not argue. Your dance can become infectious, your singing can become infectious. Your laughter, coming deep from your heart, can penetrate others' hearts. Be more joyful, blissful, ecstatic, as if every moment is a blessing and every moment is a gratitude. And make every moment a celebration.

These are my last words for this camp: