Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

BELOVED OSHO,

I HEARD YOU SAY DURING OUR MEDITATION THAT THE INTENSITY OF OUR EFFORT WOULD PULL US TOWARDS OUR CENTER. I HAVE ALSO HEARD YOU SAY THAT POTENTIAL DISCIPLES ARE PULLED MAGNETICALLY TOWARDS THE MASTER. IS THERE A SIMILARITY AND CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE TWO THINGS?

Maneesha, they are not two things. It is the same energy that brings you closer to the master, and it is the same energy that will bring you closer to yourself. In other words, to be closer to yourself is to be closer to the master. They are not two things. The master is at the center, and the moment you reach the center you are surprised: the buddha has reached there before you.

Every master is a buddha, and every disciple is a potential buddha. It is the same energy; somewhere it has become manifest, somewhere it is still dormant, but there is no qualitative difference.

Now it is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh. Poor fellow has to wait too long... and he does not become enlightened for fear that one never knows what jokes will be told when he is gone. These jokes are keeping him on this shore; otherwise he would have passed to the other shore long before. He is a very ancient man, retired from the army, but he is not going to leave as long as I continue telling jokes.

Wu, the old Chinese waiter at the Mye Long Dong Chinese Restaurant, is always being teased by Colonel Wimple and his cronies, whenever they come to eat.

Finally, one day, as Wu is serving the dessert and coffee, Colonel Wimple leans back in his chair, puffs on his big cigar, and announces in a loud voice, "Okay, Chink! We have been teasing you for a long time now. So I guess from now on we will stop playing jokes on you. What do you say?"

The wizened old waiter pauses for a moment, then says with a smile, "Okie Dokie! You no jokie, me no pee in the coffee!"

Katie the cannibal wanders out of the jungle and into town. She does a little shopping and then stops at the cannibal butcher's store.

"How much are brains today?" asks Katie.

"Well," replies Butch, the cannibal butcher, pointing to his display shelf, "the missionaries' brains are ten dollars a pound, the nuns' brains are twenty dollars, and the politicians' brains are two hundred dollars."

"TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?" screams Katie. "That's impossible! How can they be so expensive?"

"Well," explains Butch, looking quite hurt, "have you any idea how many politicians we have to catch to find one with a brain?"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

(Drumbeat)

Be silent; close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now, look inwards  --  with totality and great urgency, as if this is your last moment.

Deeper and deeper...

Take your consciousness like a spear, piercing to the very center of being.

This space is what we call the buddha; this silence is what we call the buddha.

Just be a witness, because a buddha is only a witness, only a mirror.

You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are just the pure witness.

At the very center of your being... utterly empty silence.

To make it clear, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax, and watch silently your transcendence of everything  --  the body, the mind, the world.

You are beyond.

You are the beyond,

the transcendental consciousness.

Rejoice! Those thousands of flowers have started showering on you.

This beautiful evening has become a very mysterious and miraculous evening. Ten thousand buddhas are merged into an oceanic consciousness. This Buddha Auditorium has become a lake of consciousness, without any ripples.

Gather as much of this experience as you can, because soon Nivedano will call you back. You have to bring the buddha to the circumference, into your ordinary activities, in your day-to-day work.

We are not renouncers of the world; we are going to be in the world and yet not allow the world in us.

This is possible only if you are a witness.

Live like a buddha.

The only thing to remember is:

just be a witness.

The witness is the master key.

Thousands of masters have come to the same conclusion: that to be at the center, just a witness, is to become a buddha, the awakened one.

Then, slowly slowly persuade the buddha to come to your ordinary life. From the hidden sources, bring him to your extrovert activities.

When the inner and the outer become one,

the miracle has happened.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but come back like a buddha  --  with the grace, with the silence, with the beauty, with the gratitude.

Sit silently for a few moments, rejoicing this miraculous evening, remembering the path that you have followed to the center and back. This path has to be followed again and again. Slowly slowly, that which is at the center will also spread all over your circumference.

That day is the great day of celebration.

Okay, Maneesha?