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WALKING IN ZEN, SITTING IN ZEN
Chapter 11: The Law Of Grace
Question 3
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen
The third question
Question 3
OSHO,
PLEASE TALK ABOUT SURRENDER AND OBEDIENCE.
Mahasatva,
ON THE SURFACE they appear alike, but they are polar opposites. One who is surrendered need not be obedient; obedience is needed only if there is no surrender. You will be a little puzzled because you have been told and taught and conditioned that obedience and surrender are synonymous. Obedience means you are not surrendered, so you are forced to be obedient -- there is ego inside you which you are repressing, hence obedience is needed. In the army obedience is needed, obedience has to be enforced. Those who are obedient have to be rewarded and those who are not obedient have to be punished. Slowly slowly everybody becomes obedient.
This is just a conditioned reflex. This is what they do with rats in psychology labs, this is how they train the rats. Psychologists don't think there is any difference between rats and man, and about ninety-nine point nine percent of people they are right, there is not much difference.
Only once in a while a Socrates, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Buddha may not fit their idea, but they never come across such people. And even if they do come across a Buddha they will not be able to persuade Buddha to come to their lab so that they can experiment on him. They can get hold of rats, they can get hold of monkeys, they can purchase ordinary human beings who are ready to be experimented upon if they are paid well. And anything can be taught to you.
For example, now Skinner and company propose that there is no need to tell people that smoking is bad or dangerous to their health, there is no need to tell them that it is a sin, immoral; all that is needed is to give them a few electric shocks. Whenever the urge to smoke arises in them, the moment they take out a cigarette from the packet, give them an electric shock so that a shiver goes down their spine. Soon just the idea of smoking a cigarette will be enough -- there will be no need to give them electric shocks -- they will get the shock; the cigarette will drop from their hands. Slowly slowly even the urge will disappear.
They say, "We can condition a man in whatsoever way you want. There is no need to follow these very long, old, rotten tracks of moral preaching and teaching which still have no effect. Nobody is afraid of them." Who is afraid of hell now? Maybe in the beginning it was like an electric shock, but now people have become accustomed to it, they have become adjusted to the shock, now hell is not a shock at all. If somebody says to you, "Don't smoke cigarettes -- you will go to hell!" it is no shock to you. But five thousand years ago it was enough to give you a shock. The idea was the same: make people frightened.
Modern technology makes it easier; they have found short cuts. And they think that there is no difference between rats and man because rats learn the same way. Punish them and they will stop doing a certain thing, reward them and they will start doing it again and again. That is the way to create obedience. That's how it is created in the army, that's how it is created in the scouts, that's how it is created in the police. That's how it is imposed on the whole society.
Surrender is a totally different phenomenon. Surrender means you are in deep love and a great trust has arisen in you -- such trust that there is no question of repressing yourself.
You are sannyasins here. I have nothing to reward you with; in fact, you have to go through all kinds of difficulties here. You come from far better, far more advanced countries, you have had beautiful homes, you have lived more comfortably, with all the luxuries, with all the gadgets that science has made available. You would have never thought that you would have to suffer this nightmare in Poona -- this heat, mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches. In the West many things have disappeared, but here you have to live in very primitive conditions. You have to live almost two thousand years back.
I am not offering you any reward, I am not promising you any paradise either, because I say drop the very idea of the future, live in the moment. And to live in the moment and in Poona... it is arduous, it is difficult.
Then why are you here? I don't promise you anything at all. You are here just out of sheer love -- you have fallen in love with me. It is not a question of obedience. You are not drilled to be obedient, you are not conditioned in any way to be obedient.
Just the other day Prem Zareen asked a question: "Osho, you say,'I give freedom to my sannyasins.' Is this applicable to sannyas, too?"
She means: is she free to drop sannyas? Yes, Zareen, I give you total freedom. Total means total, without any exception.
If you have taken sannyas out of love, then there is no question of dropping it. If sannyas has really happened, then how can you drop it? It is not something that you have put upon yourself, it is something that has grown in you. Just as you cannot drop your heart, how can you drop your sannyas? If it is your heart you cannot drop it. From my side yes, absolutely yes. I give you total freedom -- there is no question about it -- you are free to drop sannyas. It was your freedom to be a sannyasin, it is your freedom not to be a sannyasin. But the whole question hangs on something very deep: if sannyas has happened out of a love affair then it is impossible to drop it even though the freedom is available. But if you have taken sannyas for some other, ulterior motives then of course it can be dropped. And then it is better to drop it because it has not happened in the first place. Why carry an unnecessary burden?
In short, if sannyas has happened you cannot drop it; if you can drop it, it had not happened in the very first place and then you must drop it. Not only do I give you freedom to drop it, I will help you to drop it because I am not in favor of you being burdened by anything that is not growing in you.
You are already too burdened, Zareen. A thousand and one things have been imposed upon you. I will be the last person to make your life more of a burden.
Sannyas is not like an arranged marriage, it is a love affair. In a love affair there is no question of divorce because we are never married, so the question of divorce does not arise at all. And if love is authentic, if love is really there, it is forever, there is no end to it. It begins but it never ends. Hence I can give you total freedom because I am not imposing any obedience on you. Where obedience is imposed freedom cannot be given, because if you give freedom then obedience will disappear.
Here trust is happening, surrender is happening, love is happening. From your side, trust, surrender; from my side, freedom. From the disciple's side, surrender, and from the Master's side, freedom. Where this freedom and surrender meet there is communion, there is satsang. It is not a question of obedience.
When I say something to you and you do it, you do it out of your love, not because it is an order and you have to do it. There is no question of forcing yourself to do it. In obedience you are doing it even against yourself, even in spite of yourself. In surrender the ego is no longer there to resist; the ego is absent.
When I move my hand, what is happening? Is the hand obeying me or is the hand totally surrendered to me? The hand is totally surrendered to me; there is no question of obeying me. The hand no longer exists as a separate entity.
Zareen, in sannyas the disciple disappears, becomes part of the Master. He becomes his hands, his eyes.
Ramakrishna was dying. He had cancer of the throat, and in his last days it became impossible for him even to drink water.
Vivekananda said to him, "Bhagwan, can't you ask God to do you just a little favor? If you simply ask God that at least you should be allowed to eat and drink it is bound to happen. It is becoming too great a suffering for your body -- and not only for your body but for us all. We cannot eat because we know you cannot eat. It has become impossible for us to drink because we know you cannot drink. How can we drink? So if you don't care about yourself, okay, but think of us -- we are also suffering. Just for our sake close your eyes and say to God,'Do me just a small favor.'"
Ramakrishna closed his eyes, opened them and started laughing. He said, "You fool! If I listen to your advice God will laugh at me. I asked him...." That was his way. He had not asked -- there is nobody to ask -- that was his way. He would not hurt Vivekananda. He closed his eyes, he may have even moved his lips to show Vivekananda that he was praying to God. And then he opened his eyes and he said, "God laughed at me and he said,'Ramakrishna, you are listening to these fools? You follow their advice? Are they your disciples or are you their disciple? Who is who? You have eaten with this throat for so many years -- can't you now eat and drink with the throats of your disciples?' " And Ramakrishna said, "Vivekananda, his argument appeals to me. So stop torturing yourself, suffering, because now that I have lost my throat, I have to depend on your throats. Eat as much as you can -- a little more than usual, because a part of it has to go to me. Drink a little more than usual because there will be my share, too. So eat, drink and rejoice, because God has said,'Ramakrishna, you can eat through your disciples' bodies. Why depend on this body? And this body is gone and rotten!' "
There is a certain invisible unity, an organic unity, between the Master and the disciple.
Zareen, one is free, absolutely free with me. If one wants to drop sannyas one should not think twice, one should simply drop it and forget all about it. If it can be dropped it should be dropped; if it cannot be dropped, only then is it worthwhile. I give you total freedom. But if surrender is there, there is not going to be any difference; in fact, total freedom will make your surrender easier. When there is somebody to impose something upon you, a natural resistance arises. It is very natural. If I am here to impose something upon you and to make you obedient, then you will resist; then it is just human. But I am not imposing anything.
That is the beauty of this commune. That is something unique that is not happening anywhere else in the world. Everywhere obedience is being imposed in subtle ways or not even in such subtle ways, either directly or indirectly: "Do this, don't do that." People are being treated like slaves, with no respect.
I respect you. I love you far more than you can ever love me, I respect you far more than you can ever respect me, because whatsoever you can do will be limited and whatsoever I can do will be unlimited.
Your so-called gurus and your pseudo Masters all depend on your obedience; they force it upon you. And you are willing for the simple reason that when somebody is there to impose something upon you he becomes a father figure for you. He takes the responsibility -- you need not feel responsible for yourself. You need to depend on somebody and you have to pay the price for that Then they go on ordering you about as if you were small children.
A little boy went to the school for the first time and the teacher asked, "What is your name?"
He said, "Johnny Don't."
The teacher said, "I have never heard such a name before -- Johnny Don't?"
He said, "That's my name. Whatsoever I do, my mother shouts,'Johnny, don't!' my father shouts'Johnny, don't!' Wherever I go somebody or other immediately says,'Johnny, don't!' So I assume that this is my name. This must be my name."
And because from the very beginning your father, your mother, your parents, your teachers, your priests are all teaching you, "Do this, don't do that," they all create a certain obedience in you. You become addicted to obedience; it is a drug.
So when you come to me you would like.... People go on asking me -- I never answer their questions -- they go on asking me, "Give us detailed instructions what we should do and what we should not. We want clear instructions from you." I give you clarity not clear instructions, because my instructions may be right today and tomorrow they may not be right. My instructions may be a hindrance to your growth tomorrow because nobody knows about tomorrow -- it is unpredictable. So I give you clarity so that you can find your own way of life today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Wherever you are, if you have clarity, you will be able to find your way.
I give you total freedom. I share my light with you, I share my joy with you, I share my freedom with you. I don't want to become in any way a father figure for you. Always remember me only as a friend.
You ask me, Mahasatva: PLEASE TALK ABOUT SURRENDER AND OBEDIENCE.
Surrender happens through love, trust, egolessness; surrender means surrendering the ego. Obedience is a cultivation of the ego, of pruning the ego here and there, of bringing it into a certain shape, into a certain form so that it can co-exist with the society, so that it can coexist with the already established order of things. Obedience is in the service of the past, surrender is not in the service of anybody else.
Surrender is simply becoming free of your ego. And the moment you are free of the ego, your life starts growing wings. Ego is heavy; it is like a rock hanging around your neck. It goes on keeping you tethered to the earth, it gravitates towards the earth. Once the ego is dropped, suddenly you start rising upwards: your life becomes a tremendous upward movement, you are uplifted. Surrender makes you weightless; it allows you to go against gravitation. Another law of life starts functioning: the law of grace.
There are two laws. Science knows one law: the law of gravitation, that everything falls downwards. Religion knows another law: that everything rises upwards if you are ready to drop the ego.
It is said about a Hassid mystic, Zusya -- who could have been a Zen Master, who could have been a Sufi.... In fact, enlightened people don't belong to any tradition. They are born somewhere -- one has to be born somewhere, you cannot be born everywhere.... So it was a coincidence that he was born a Jew in the Hassidic tradition. But he was a strange Hassid. Hassids are strange, but he was the strangest; he was very unpredictable.
I at least come here and tell you a joke so that you can laugh. He was far more strange: he would simply come here and start laughing! Not even a joke! Hassids love beautiful jokes and stories.
So once he was asked, "Zusya, what kind of Hassid are you? At least tell some jokes, some stories. You simply come and start laughing!"
He said, "I am saving all my jokes for God because I don't have anything else. I don't know how to pray, I don't know any scriptures; I am saving some beautiful jokes for him. And when Zusya dies you will see!"
And it actually happened. When he died there was great thunder and people said, "He has arrived, and God is laughing!"
Zusya was staying in a house, in a disciple's house. The family was a little worried about the man because his ways were strange -- he might do anything. In the middle of the night he might start laughing, he might wake up the neighbors, he might create a scene. So they put him in the basement and locked the door for the night so that at least they could rest and the neighbors could rest.
In the middle of the night suddenly they heard laughter from the terrace! They could not believe it! They rushed out and Zusya was rolling about on the roof laughing! They said, "Zusya, what is the matter?"
He said, "That's why I am laughing! I was sleeping in the basement; suddenly I started rising upwards!"
But he was simply making it clear that there is another law which does not believe in locks and does not believe in falling downwards. His actual words were, "Suddenly I found myself rising upwards."
That is the law of grace: surrender, and suddenly you are in a totally different law; your gestalt changes, you start rising upwards. And there is great laughter in you and the whole existence laughs with you.
There is no question of obedience here. "Obedience" is an ugly word.
Next: Chapter 11: The Law Of Grace, Question 4
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen
| 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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