Thursday 28 February 2013

Man of serenity


The man of serenity is not disturbed by anything because he accepts. Sadness comes, he accepts it. Joy comes, he accepts it. He has no preference, he has no choice. He lives in a choiceless consciousness: whatsoever happens happens, whatsoever is is, and he is totally open to it. He drinks it, he absorbs it. He has no likes and dislikes, no preferences, no choices. He is not against sadness, he is not against anger, he is not against sex, he is not against love. He is neither against nor for, he is simply serene.

If you choose, immediately you are disturbed. Watch it: whenever you choose you will be disturbed. Choice brings disturbance, because choice means alternatives: to be this or to be that, to be or not to be. Choice means you are standing at a crossroad: now which road to follow? If you go to the right, who knows? It may just lead you into a cul-de-sac. Maybe the left was the right choice. Who knows? How to decide?

The moment you choose, you become disturbed. And you always choose against yourself, against a part of yourself. One part says, “Choose this,” another part says, “Choose that.” Now you have to decide, and in that decision you will be divided. The part that was saying, “Don’t choose this,” has been denied, has been rejected. That rejected, denied part will take revenge. Sooner or later it will say, “Now see what happened: now repent. I told you beforehand not to choose this, that this was wrong, but you didn’t listen to me.”

And the same would have happened if you had chosen the other. The man who chooses remains disturbed. Serenity means a state of choicelessness. Just like a mirror, it simply reflects, with no choice. An ugly man comes, it reflects. A beautiful man comes, it reflects. It has no choice; there is no question of choice. Just reflecting.

Sadness comes, and the man of serenity says, “I am sadness. This moment, this is how I am. This moment, this is my reality.” He does not compare either: “The last moment was better, I was joyous. Now I am sad.” He never compares two moments, he never hankers for something else in the future. Whatsoever is, he is totally relaxed with it. This is serenity — and out of serenity comes real knowing.

Source – Osho Book “Unio Mystica, Vol1″


You have wings - Learn to use them and fly!


"You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You were not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly!"

- Rumi 




Eternity


He who binds himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.

William Blake




No self


When thoughts cease, who are you? An utter emptiness, nothingness, no-thingness. It is because of this that Buddha has used a strange word. Nobody has ever done such a concept before, or since. The mystics have always used the word “self” for the interior-most core of your being. Buddha uses the word “no-self.” And I perfectly agree with him. He is far more accurate, closer to truth. To use the word “self” - even if you use it with a capital “S,” does not make much difference. It continues to give you the sense of the ego. And with a capital “S,” it may give you an even bigger ego. 

Buddha does not use the words atma, atta - “self.” He uses just the opposite words: “no-self” - anatma, anatta. He says that when mind ceases, there is no self left. You have become universal, you have overflowed the boundaries of the ego. You are pure space, uncontaminated by anything. You are just a mirror reflecting nothing.

Osho


Relaxation


When you start relaxing, start from the circumference – that is where we are. We can start only from where we are. Relax the circumference of your being - relax your body, relax your behavior, relax your acts. Walk in a relaxed way, eat in a relaxed way, talk, listen in a relaxed way. Slow down every process. Don´t be in a hurry and don´t be in haste. Move as if all eternity is available to you - in fact, it is available to you. We have always been here and we will be here always. Forms go on changing, but not the substance. Garments go on changing, but not the soul. 

The first step in relaxing is relaxing the body. And you will be surprised that if you approach any part of your body, it listens, it follows you - it is your body! With closed eyes, go inside the body from the toe to the head searching for any place where there is a tension. And then talk to that part as you talk to a friend. Let there be a dialogue between you and your body. Tell it to relax, and tell it, "There is nothing to fear. Don´t be afraid. I am here to take care - you can relax." Slowly slowly, you will learn the knack of it.

Osho




Awareness of attachment


Experiments with being aware of attachments

The Meditation Second for now:
Becoming aware of what I want to hold on to

Benefits:
This meditation can go very deep. Being friendly and unattached while looking at attachments... Observing obvious and subtle things I want to hold on to. It can be people, thoughts, emotions, the body, the feeling of "I"...? It is alright to find many things, the technique is about becoming aware, no judgement necessary. Then, the realization of who is aware...

Osho on attachment to the body

Toss attachment for body aside,
realizing I am everywhere.
One who is everywhere is joyous.

Sutra from the Book of Secrets

The body, a companion for life times
"There is a deep attachment to the body – bound to be, it is natural. You have been living in the body for many, many lives, from the very beginning. Bodies have changed, but you were always with a body, you were always embodied.
Who are you without the body?
There have been certain moments and times when you were not embodied, but then you were not conscious. When you die from one body, you die in unconsciousness and then you remain unconscious. Then you are born again in a new body, but then too you are unconscious. The gap between one death and another birth is unconscious, so you don’t know how you will feel when not embodied. You don’t know who you are when you are not in a body. You know only one phenomenon, and that is of embodiment; you have always known yourself in the body.

You feel you are the body
This has been so long, so continuous, that you have forgotten that you are different from it. This is a forgetfulness – natural, bound to happen in the circumstances – hence the attachment. You feel you are the body – this is the attachment. You feel that you are not anything other than the body, not anything more than the body. You may not agree with me at this point, because many times you think that you are not the body, you are the soul, the self. But this is not your knowing; this is simply what you have heard, what you have read, and what you have believed without knowing."
Osho, excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 57

Osho: You don't know what attachment is

You will jump out of hell if you know
"Your attachment has not proved a hell yet. Whatsoever Buddha says and Mahavira says is irrelevant. They may go on saying that attachment is hell, but this is not your feeling. That’s why you again and again ask how to be detached, how to be not attached, how to go beyond attachment. You go on asking this “how” only because you don’t know what attachment is. If you know what attachment is, you will simply jump out of it. You will not ask “how.”"
Osho, excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 57

Becoming courageous

Falling within
"You go on clinging to the surface, afraid that if you leave the surface you will be lost. Really, clinging to the surface you are lost. But deep down there is darkness and you cannot see any ground; you cannot see anything else than the surface. All these techniques are to make you courageous, strong, adventurous, so that you can stop the holding on and fall within yourself. That which looks like an abyss, dark, bottomless, is the very ground of your being. Once you leave the surface, the periphery, you will be centered. This centering is the aim.

Doing is the problem
You are always tense, that is the holding, the clinging. You are never relaxed, never in a state of let-go. You are always doing something: that doing is the problem. You are never in a state of non-doing, when things are happening and you are just there not doing anything. Breath comes in and goes out, the blood circulates, the body is alive and throbbing, the breeze blows, the world goes on spinning around – and you are not doing anything. You are not a doer. You are simply relaxed and things are happening. When things are happening and you are not a doer, you are totally relaxed. When you are a doer and things are not happening but are being manipulated by you, you are tense."

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 71






Being true to myself


Being true

Experiments with being true and undivided

The Meditation Second for now:
Being true to myself

Benefits:
We live in a world of illusions, being divided in many parts and even the senses cannot tell what is real and what is not. Finding out the undivided self is liberation. A complete turn towards oneself is the chance for a fulfilled life.


Osho on how to get out of illusions

Illusions deceive, 
colors circumscribe,
even divisibles are indivisible.

Sutra from the Book of Secrets

Everything is illusory
"This is a rare technique, one not much used, but one of the greatest teachers in India, Shankara, has used it, and Shankara has based his whole philosophy on this technique. You know his philosophy of maya – illusion. Shankara says everything is illusory. Whatsoever you are seeing, hearing, feeling, all is illusion. It is not real because the real cannot be contacted by senses.

Everchanging world
This whole world is maya, a confusion. You cannot decide; you cannot be decisive about it. It is always escaping you, always changing, turning into something else. It is fantasy, a dreamlike thing. This technique is concerned with this philosophy. Illusions deceive or, that which deceives is illusion – colors circumscribe, even divisibles are indivisible. In this world of illusion nothing is certain. This whole world is like rainbows. They appear to be, but they are not. If you are far away they are, but if you come nearer they dissolve. The nearer you come, the more they are not. If you reach to a point where you were seeing a rainbow, it is no more there.

The world - a rainbow
The whole world is like rainbow colors, and it is so. When you are far away everything is hopeful; when you come nearer the hope disappears. And when you reach the goal, only ashes are there – just a dead rainbow. The colors have disappeared, and things as they appeared are not. As you feel them to be, they are not.

Everything is uncertain
Even divisibles are indivisible. Your whole mathematics, your whole calculating system, all your concepts, all your philosophy, just become futile. If you try to understand this illusion, your very effort confuses you more. Nothing is certain there; everything is uncertain – a flux, a flux of change, with no possibility for you to decide whether this or that is true or false. What will happen? If you take this attitude, what will happen? If you really go deep in this attitude that everything which cannot be decided is illusory, you will automatically, spontaneously turn to yourself. Then the only point where you can have a center is in your own being. That is certain."

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 35

To be real is to be undivided

Becoming real again
"Civilization is a training in how to become unreal. Tantra is the reverse process – how to prevent yourself from becoming unreal, and if you have already become unreal, how to touch the reality which is hidden within you, how to contact it again, how to be again real. The first thing to be understood is how we go on becoming unreal, and once this process is understood many things change immediately. The very understanding becomes mutation.

Man is an individual body-mind
Man is born undivided. He is neither a body nor a mind. He is born undivided, as one individual. He is both body and mind. Even to say that he is both is wrong. He is body-mind. Body and mind are two aspects of his being, not two divisions – two polarities of something which we may call life, energy or anything – XYZ – but body and mind are not two things.

Being real is being undivided
The very process of civilization, education, culture, conditioning, starts with the division. Everyone is taught that he is two, not one, and then, of course, one begins to be identified with the mind and not with the body. The very thinking process becomes your center and the thinking process is just a periphery. It is not the center because you can exist without thinking. Once you existed without thinking: thinking is not a necessity to exist. If you go deep in meditation you will be, and there will be no thinking..."

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 35


Meditation on the tip of the nose


Meditation on the tip of the nose

Experiments with being aware of the nose

The Meditation Second for now:
In daily life be aware 
of the tip of the nose

Benefits:
Try becoming aware of your nose tip while reading this sentence - and you will get a feeling of this meditation technique. It seems to be simple and yet it can reveal many insights. Play with this meditation now, and find out its centering effects.


Osho on looking at the tip of the nose

A Hindu meditation technique
"Hindus have a method of looking at the tip of the nose: just sit silently and look at the tip of the nose and do nothing. People laugh because: “What foolishness! What will happen out of it?” But the meaning is missed. Hindus are saying it is just in front of you, just like the tip of your nose. Be silent and look at the tip of your nose and don’t get entangled in any thinking. And suddenly it is there – just like the tip of the nose, always in front of you.

The nose is always in front
And this is the beauty of the tip of your nose: wherever you move it is always in front of you. You go right, it is there; you go wrong, it is there. Be a sinner, it is in front; be a saint, it is in front. Whatsoever you do – stand in a reverse posture, in shirshasan – it is there in front of you. Fall asleep, it is there; be awake, it is there.

What the nose and truth have in common
This is the meaning of looking at the tip of the nose, because whatsoever you do, you cannot put it anywhere else than in the front. The moment you move, it has already moved. Just looking at the tip of your nose you will understand that the truth is just in front of you. Wherever you move, it moves with you; wherever you go, it goes with you. You cannot miss it, so there is no question of finding it. To understand that you have not missed it, look. Ordinarily you never look at the tip of your nose, because you are looking at other things, you are interested in other things. You never look at the tip of your nose."

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Nothing: Hsin Hsin Ming, Chapter 6

Osho: Attaining truth by looking at the tip of the nose

Big effects with a small technique
"Whenever a person can look at the tip of his nose, he will die to this world. A new birth, because he has looked in front of himself with clarity. This world disappears, this life disappears. He is dead as far as his old being was concerned. He is a new being, it is a rebirth. Now there is no coming and no going.

Neither easy nor difficult
He has attained – just by looking at the tip of the nose? Yes, because the whole question is: how to look in front and not sideways – because the truth is in front of you, it cannot be otherwise. It is neither easy nor difficult.

A question of awakening
It is not a question of effort, so how can it be easy or difficult? It is a question of awakening, not a question of effort. It is not a question of doing something. Doing, you will lose it, because you will become engrossed in doing. If you do something, it will be easy or difficult. It is a question of non-doing. How can non-doing be easy or difficult? Non-doing is completely beyond the world of doing. It is just being! How can being be difficult or easy? Being simply is. That is the great way. The whole effort is to come to know and see the tip of your nose, just to look with clear eyes in front of you."

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Nothing: Hsin Hsin Ming


Trust


"A man just got married and was returning home with his wife. They were crossing a lake in a boat when suddenly a great storm arose. The man was a warrior, but the woman became very much afraid because it seemed almost hopeless -- THE BOAT WAS SMALL AND THE STORM WAS REALLY HUGE, AND ANY MOMENT THEY WERE GOING TO BE DROWNED. But the man sat silently, calm and quiet, as if nothing was happening.

The woman was trembling and she said, "Are you not afraid? This may be our last moment of life! IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH THE OTHER SHORE. Only some miracle can save us, otherwise death is certain. Are you not afraid? Are you mad or something? Are you a stone or something?"

THE MAN LAUGHED AND TOOK THE SWORD OUT OF ITS SHEATH. The woman was even more puzzled -- what he is doing? Then he brought the naked sword close to the woman's neck -- so close that just a small gap was there, it was almost touching her neck.

He said, "ARE YOU AFRAID?"

She started to giggle and laugh and said, "WHY SHOULD I BE AFRAID? If the sword is in your hands, why should I be afraid? I know you love me."

He put the sword back and said, "This is my answer. I know God loves me, and the sword is in His hands, and the storm is in His hands -- so WHATSOEVER IS GOING TO HAPPEN IS GOING TO BE GOOD. If we survive, good; if we don't survive, good -- because EVERYTHING IS IN HIS HANDS, AND HE CANNOT DO ANYTHING WRONG."

This is the trust one needs to imbibe. SUCH TREMENDOUS TRUST IS CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING YOUR WHOLE LIFE! And ONLY such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your life -- less than that won't do."

~ Osho


One Heart


Look at the birds. Even flying
is born
out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open
at either end of day.
The work of wings
was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.


Li-Young Lee







Going Beyond Desire


Striving to leave the wilderness
You become part of what's wild.
Striving to cease grasping
Is, itself, grasping.
So how do you gain control and get beyond desire?
Open those eyes... the ones that were born in your own skull.

Hsu Yun


Freedom


Freedom from is ordinary, mundane. Man has always tried to be free from things. It is not creative. It is the negative aspect of freedom. 

Freedom for is creativity. You have a certain vision that you would like to materialize and you want freedom for it. 

Freedom from is always from the past, and freedom for is always for the future. 

Freedom for is a spiritual dimension because you are moving into the unknown and perhaps, one day, into the unknowable. It will give you wings. 


Osho, Excerpted from: The Transmission of the Lamp


Tantra Spirit


When we move into the arena of personal development and meditation, we seek how to melt stagnant patterns, how to unify fragmentation and find wholeness. To be whole is to be healthy and at peace within.

The Tantra map for attaining wholeness is very simple. Our instinctual sexual nature is welcomed with a loving open heart. It is spirit that guides our life, but if our instinctual nature is repressed and our heart protected, we cannot hear the messages and guidance of our soul and spirit.

There is a saying from Osho, “Tune in, turn on and go beyond.” This simple message indicates that the path to truth is not long and arduous, but is easily accessible. 

True fulfilment happens when our body heart and soul are all dancing together in harmony. Tantra is a lifestyle which helps us free up our ecstatic potential and breathe each moment in loving awareness, whether alone or with a partner.


Osho on catharsis and chaotic meditations


Osho – For sixty minutes every day, just forget about the world. Let the world disappear from you, and you disappear from the world. Take an about-turn, a one hundred and eighty degree turn, and just look inside. In the beginning, you will see only clouds. Don’t be worried about them; those clouds are created by your repressions. You will come across anger, hatred, greed, and all kinds of black holes. You have repressed them, so they are there. And your so-called religions have taught you to repress them, so they are there like wounds. You have been hiding them. That’s why my emphasis is first on catharsis.

Unless you go through great catharsis you will have to pass through many clouds. It will be tiring, and you may be so impatient that you may turn back into the world. And you will say, “There is nothing. There is no lotus and no fragrance, there is only stink, rubbish.”

You know it. When you close your eyes and you start moving in, what do you come across? You don’t come across those beautiful lands Buddhas talk about. You come across hells, agonies, repressed there, waiting for you. Anger of many lives accumulating. It is all a mess there, so one wants to remain outside. One wants to go to the movie, to the club, to meet people and gossip. One wants to remain occupied till one is tired and falls asleep. That’s the way you are living, that’s your style of life.

So when one starts looking in, naturally one is very much puzzled. Buddhas say that there is great benediction, great fragrance, you come across lotus flowers blooming – and such fragrance that it is eternal. And the colour of the flowers remains the same; it is not a changing phenomenon. They talk about this paradise, they talk about this kingdom of God that is within you. And when you go in, you only come across hell. You see not Buddhalands but Adolf Hitler concentration camps. Naturally, you start thinking that this is all nonsense, it is better to remain outside. And why go on playing with your wounds? – it hurts too. And pus starts oozing out of the wounds and it is dirty.

But catharsis helps. If you cathart, if you go through chaotic meditations, you throw all these clouds outside, all these darknesses outside, then mindfulness becomes easier. That is my reason why I emphasize first chaotic meditations and then silent meditations, first active meditations, then passive meditations. You can move into passivity only when all that is there like junk has been thrown out. Anger has been thrown out, greed has been thrown out … layer upon layer, these things are there. But once you have thrown them out, you can easily slip in. There is nothing to hinder. And suddenly the bright light of the Buddhaland. And suddenly you are in a totally different world – the world of the Lotus Law, the world of Dhamma, the world of Tao.

Source: Osho - Orange book of meditation


Look! See! Feel! Touch! — you will be nearer. But don’t think.

Existence has no language… and if you depend on language there can be no communication with existence. Existence is a mystery, you cannot interpret it. If you interpret, you miss. Existence can be lived, but not thought about. It is more like poetry, less like philosophy. It is a sign, it is a door. It shows, but it says nothing.

That’s why, through mind, there is no approach to existence. If you think about it, you can go on thinking and thinking, about and about, but you will never reach it — because it is precisely thinking that is the barrier.
Look! See! Feel! Touch! — you will be nearer. But don’t think. The moment thinking enters, you are thrown off the track — then you live in a private world. Thinking is a private world; it belongs to you. Then you are enclosed, encapsulated, imprisoned within yourself. Nonthinking, you are no more, you are enclosed no more. Nonthinking, you open, you become porous; existence flows in you and you flow into existence.
But the tendency of the mind is to interpret. Before you see something you have already interpreted it. You hear me: even before I have said anything you are already thinking about it. That’s how listening becomes impossible. You will have to learn to listen. Listening means you are open, vulnerable, receptive, but you are not in any way thinking. Thinking is a positive action. Listening is passivity: you become like a valley and receive; you become like a womb and you receive. If you can listen, then nature speaks — but it is not a language.
Nature doesn’t use words. Then what does nature use? Says Heraclitus, it uses signs. A flower is there: what is the sign in it? It is not saying anything, but can you say it is not saying anything really? It is saying much, but it is not using any words — a wordless message. To hear the wordless you will have to become wordless, because only the same can hear the same, only the same can relate to the same.
Sitting by a flower, don’t be a man, be a flower. Sitting by the tree, don’t be a man, be a tree. Taking a bath in a river, don’t be a man, be a river. And then millions of signs are given to you. And it is not a communication — it is a communion. Then nature speaks, speaks in thousands of tongues, but not in language. It speaks through millions of directions, but you cannot consult a dictionary about it and you cannot ask a philosopher what it means. The moment you start thinking what it means you are already on the path of going astray.
Somebody who had come to visit Picasso, a very learned man, a critic, he looked at Picasso’s paintings and then he said, “They look beautiful, but what do they mean? For example this painting” — the painting just before which they were standing — “what does it mean?”
Picasso shrugged his shoulders and said, “Look outside the window — what does this tree mean? And that bird who is singing? And what is the meaning of the sun rising? And if this whole exists without meaning anything, why can’t my painting exist without any meaning?”
Why do you ask what it means? You want to interpret it. You want to give it a linguistic pattern. You want to communicate, not commune. No, it doesn’t mean anything. It is there in its total glory. It is a meaning but it doesn’t mean anything. The meaning is existential. Look, watch, feel, move into it; allow it to move into you — but don’t ask questions. If you ask questions, enter a university — you cannot enter the universe. If you want to enter the universe, don’t ask… there is nobody to reply to you. You will have a totally different quality of being; only then will you be in contact with it.
It is reported of a Zen master — a very rare phenomenon, unbelievable because the mind boggles — that he had done a painting in the king’s palace, and the king was asking again and again, “Is it complete?” And he would say, “Wait a little more, wait a little more.”
Years passed and the king said, “It is taking too much time. You don’t allow me even to enter the room” — because he would lock the room and then paint — “and I am getting old. And I am getting more and more excited as to what you are doing inside the room. Is not the painting ready yet?” The master said, “The painting is ready, but I am watching for you — you are not ready. The painting was ready long ago, but that is not the point. Unless YOU are ready, to whom will I show it?”
Existence is there, always waiting, ready. At every moment, at every turn of the road, just by the corner, it is always and always waiting. It is an infinite patience, waiting — but you are not ready. Then it is said that the king became ready and the painter said, “Okay, the time has come.”
They entered the room — nobody else was allowed in the room. The painting was really wonderful. It was difficult to say that it was a painting — it looked real. The painter had done a painting of hills, valleys, and they looked almost three-dimensional, as if they existed. And by the hills there was a small path going somewhere inside. Now comes the most difficult part of the story. The king asked, “Where does this road lead?”
The painter said, “I have not myself traveled yet on this road, but you wait, I will go and see.” And he entered the path, and disappeared beyond the hills, and never came back. This is what a mystery means. It says many things without saying anything.
If you move into nature to find where it leads, don’t stand outside it and ask because then nothing can be done; you have to move into it. If you move you will never come back, because the very movement into existence… and you are losing your ego, you are disappearing. You will reach to the goal, but you will never come back to relate the story about it. The painter never came back. Nobody comes back. Nobody can come back, because the more existential you become, the more you are lost.
Existence opens millions of doors for you, but you stand outside and you would like to know something about it from the outside. There is no outside in nature. I would like to repeat these words: there is no outside to nature, everything is inside… because how can anything exist outside nature? The whole is the inner. And the mind is trying the impossible; it is trying to stand outside, to watch, to see what it means. No, you have to participate. You have to move into it and become one, and disperse like a cloud — whereabouts unknown.


Source – Osho Book “The Hidden Harmony”

Lets understand soul…………………before we continue til soul mate

 


Osho, you have told us what happens to the Soul during that timeless interval between two Births. But some points remain unresolved, regarding the Bodiless Soul: in that bodiless state, does the Soul remain stationary or can it move about? And how does it recognize other Souls? In that state, is there any possibility of a dialogue between Souls?

Osho – In this connection, two or three things may be remembered. Firstly, neither is there any stationary condition nor any movement in that state. That is why it becomes even more difficult to understand. It is easy for us to understand that if there is no movement there must be a state of rest or vice versa. In our thinking, these are the only two possibilities for everything. We think that in the absence of one the other must prevail.
We are also under the impression that these two states are opposite to each other. So firstly, we should understand that movement and non-movement are not opposites, but different aspects of the same thing. When the movement is such that we are not able to see or grasp it, we call it non-movement.
Movement is, likewise, a state of non-movement which we are not able to comprehend. If something moves at a great speed, you will find that it appears stationary. If a fan is moved at a high speed, you will not be able to see the blades. At that speed, you will not be able even to tell how many blades the fan has, because the empty space between the three blades becomes filled before we can see it.

A fan can move so quickly that you cannot put anything through the spaces between the blades. Things can be moved in such a way that even if you touch them with your hand you will feel that they are not moving. That is why science says that all things that appear stationary to us are also moving, but the movement is very fast and at levels that are beyond the grasp of our senses. Therefore, movement and non-movement are not two things. They are different states of the same thing differing only in degree.
In the realm where there is no body, both these conditions will not be there because where there is no body there is neither time nor space. From what we have known thus far, it is not possible for us to conceive of a realm beyond time and space because we have not known anything that is beyond. What then shall we call that condition? We do not even have any word to express a condition where there is no time and space.

When, during a religious experience, messages of such a state were received for the first time, difficulties arose regarding how to describe it. What is the name of that state? An embarrassment similar to this is also experienced by science when it has difficulty in naming a newly discovered phenomenon; when something happens which is different from and beyond all our pertinent knowledge, this becomes very difficult.
For example, some years ago, when the electron was first discovered, the question arose whether to call it a particle or a wave. We cannot call it a particle because matter is always static; nor can we call it a wave because a wave is always moving and is weightless. The electron is both simultaneously. Then difficulty arises – because in our understanding a thing can be only one of the two, but not both.
But the electron is both a particle as well as a wave. Sometimes we comprehend it as a particle, sometimes as a wave. There is no word in any language of the world to express this phenomenon. For the scientists who observed this, it seemed inconceivable. It became a mystery. When people asked Einstein why he was describing the electron as both a particle and a wave, they felt that his thinking was becoming illogical and mysterious.
Einstein, in reply, then asked them whether he should believe fact or logic. The fact is that the electron is both at the same time, but logic tells us that a thing can be only one at a time. A man is either standing or walking. Logic tells us that he can be one thing at a time; he cannot be both standing and walking simultaneously. Logic, therefore, will not agree. But the experience of the electron required that scientists should put aside logic and hold fast to facts. The electron is an example.
The experience of religious individuals tells us that during that interval between the leaving of one body and the taking of another, the bodiless soul is neither stationary nor in movement. This is beyond our understanding. That is why some religions say the bodiless soul is stationary and others say that it is in movement. But this is only due to the difficulty of explaining – because the boundaries of space and time within which movement or non-movement is observed do not exist during that interval.
For both movement or non-movement, a body is necessary. Without body, there can be neither movement nor non-movement. The body is the only medium through which these conditions can be observed. For example, this is my hand. I can either move it or keep it steady. Someone may ask, when I do not have this physical hand, whether or not my soul will be moving. The question itself is meaningless because without this hand the soul can neither move nor remain stationary.
Movement and nonmovement are both qualities of the body. Beyond body, the words movement and non-movement have no meaning. This is applicable to all dualities. Take, for example, the condition of speaking and the condition of remaining silent. Without the body, it is neither possible to speak nor to remain silent. Ordinarily, we can understand that it is not possible to speak without body, but it is difficult to understand that it is not possible even to be silent without body.
Through the medium which enables one to speak, one can express silence as well. Becoming silent is only a way of speaking, a state of speaking. Silence is not only a state of not speaking, but of speaking as well. For example, a man is blind. One may feel that perhaps he is only able to see darkness. This is illusion. Even to see darkness, eyes are necessary. Without eyes, it is not possible even to see darkness.
You may close your eyes and think that because you are seeing darkness it is possible, but you are making a mistake. While you close your eyes, your eyes do not cease to be there; you do not become blind. If you become blind after once having had eyes, then you will know what darkness is. But for the one who is blind since birth it is not possible to know what darkness is, because darkness is also an experience of eyes. You experience darkness with the same medium used to experience light. One who is blind since birth cannot know what darkness is.
You hear through your ears. In language, we may say that one who has no ears is not hearing. But that state of not hearing is also not known to those who are deaf. Ears are necessary even to know that you did not hear. It is just like eyes being necessary to know what darkness is. Non-movement is possible only through that sense in which there is movement. If there is no sense, there is no experience of non-movement.
In the bodiless state, the soul can neither speak nor remain silent. There is no instrument for speaking or for remaining silent. All experiences are dependent on the instrument – on the body, on the senses. But this does not mean that such a bodiless soul has reached liberation. The descriptions of a soul in liberation and one that is in the interval between life and rebirth may appear similar. What then is the difference between the liberated soul and the one that is in this interval? The difference is of potentiality, of seed existence.
During the bodiless existence, the interval between two bodies, the experiences and impressions of all previous births remain with the soul in seed form. As soon as the soul acquires a body, they will become active. For example, if we cut the feet of a person, his experiences of running will not disappear. Without feet he can neither run nor stop, because if he cannot run how can he stop? But if he acquires feet, all of his experiences and impressions will become active again and he will be able to run if he wants to.
It is like taking away a car from a person who has always been driving. Now he cannot drive a car or press an accelerator – because he has no car. Neither can he apply brakes to slow down. But his experiences of car driving remain with him. He is out of the car, but his experiences of driving remain with him in seed form. If he acquires a car after some years, he will be able to drive it as soon as he puts his foot on the accelerator.
The liberated soul becomes free of these impressions, whereas in the interval between two bodies the soul only becomes free of the senses, the instruments. In liberation, all experiences, impressions and desires are destroyed. In both conditions of the soul, there is one similarity – that there is no body. But there is one dissimilarity. In liberation there is neither body nor the chain of bodily experiences. In the interval between births, though there is no body, there is a great chain of body related experiences existing in seed form which can become active at any time upon acquisition of a body.
So whatever experiences one may have in this interval will be such as can be had without body. As I have said, these will be experiences of meditation. But the experiences of meditation are had only by very few persons. Out of millions of people, only one has that experience of meditation. What experiences can the remaining people have? Their experiences will be of a dream life. In a dream, no sense participates.
It is possible that if a person is in a dream, and if you can keep him in the dream and cut off his limbs, his dream may not be disturbed. But the chances are that his sleep will break. If it were possible to cut off his limbs one after the other without breaking his sleep, then his dream would continue undisturbed because none of the limbs of the body are necessary for the dream. The body is not at all active in a dream; there is no use of the body in it. Without the body the dream experience will remain. In fact, all experiences will remain in dream form.
If someone were to ask you whether you are stationary or in movement during a dream, you would find it difficult to reply. When you awake from the dream, you find that all along you were lying in the same place, but you were in a dream. Upon waking, you find that there have been long, deep happenings in the dream, but, remember, there was no movement at all in it. If you understand properly, you will find that you are not even a participant in a dream.
In a deep sense, you can only be a witness. That is why one can see oneself dying in a dream; one can see one’s own body lying dead. In a dream, if you see yourself walking, then the one whom you see walking is a dream phenomenon and you are but a witness. That is why religion has put forth the idea that if a person can view this world like a dream he will have the highest religious experience. From this only, the theological concept of calling this world maya – an illusion or a dream – has been put forth.
The deeper meaning of this is that if one can view the world as if in a dream, then one becomes a witness. In a dream, one is always a witness and no one is a participant. In no circumstances are you ever an actor. Though you may see yourself as an actor, you are always the spectator, the seer, the one who is seeing.
Therefore, all bodiless experiences will be like dreams – seed-like. Those whose experiences have created misery for them will see nightmares and dreams of hell. Those whose experiences have brought them happiness will dream of heaven and will be happy in their dreams. But these are all dreamlike experiences. Sometimes different types of events may also happen, but these kinds of experiences will differ.
Occasionally, it may so happen that souls which are neither stationary nor in movement will enter other bodies. But to say that the souls will enter is a linguistic fallacy. It would be better to say that some body may behave in such a way that it will cause a soul to enter into it. The world of such souls is not different from ours. That world exists also beside us, close by. We are all residing in the same world. Every inch of space that is here is filled with souls. The space right here which appears empty to us is also full.
There are two types of bodies which are in a state of deep receptivity. One is of those that are in great fear. Those who are in great fear cause their souls to contract within their bodies – so much so that they vacate some parts of the body completely. Some nearby souls drift into these empty parts like water entering a ditch. At such times, these souls experience things that only a soul with a body can experience.
Secondly, a soul can enter a body when it is in a deep prayerful moment. In such prayerful moments also, the soul contracts. But during fearful moments, only such souls drift in which are in great misery and agony, that see only nightmares. Those are the ones whom we call evil spirits. Because a frightened person happens to be in an ugly and dirty state, no higher soul can enter him. A fearful person is like a ditch: only downward moving souls can enter.
A prayerful person is like a peak: only upward moving souls can enter. A prayerful person becomes filled with so much inner fragrance and so much inner beauty that only the highest souls take interest in him. And such higher souls will enter only by what we call invocation, invitation or prayer. Both these types of experiences by souls are such as could be had only with body. Thus, there is a complete science for invoking devatas – gods. These devatas do not descend from some heaven, nor do those whom we call evil spirits come from hell or some devil’s world. They are all present right here, coexisting with us.
Actually, in the same space, there is a multidimensional existence. For example, this room where we are sitting is full of air. If someone burns some incense, some aromatic substance, the room will become filled with fragrance. If someone sings a melodious song, sound waves will also fill the room. But the smoke of the incense will not clash with the waves of the song.
This room can be filled with music as well as with light, but no light wave will clash with any sound wave. Nor will the light waves have to leave to make room for the entry of sound waves. In fact, this very space is filled in one dimension by sound waves, in another by light waves and in a third dimension by the air waves. Likewise, hundreds of things fill this room in hundreds of different dimensions. They do not in any way hinder one another, nor does any one thing have to move out of the way for something else. Therefore, all this space is multidimensional.
For example, in this place we have a table, but we cannot keep another table in the same place because tables are of the same dimension. But an existence of another dimension will not find the table to be a barrier. All these souls are very much near us; any time there can be an entry. When the souls enter, then they will have a bodily type of experience, and these experiences are such as can be had only through body.
Another factor concerns the way in which these souls that enter living bodies communicate. Communication is possible only between the soul entering and the soul existing in the body. That is why, so far on this earth, no spirit, evil or godly, has been able to communicate directly with us, right before our very eyes. But it is not true there has not been any communication. Communication takes place.
Information that we have about heaven and hell is not something out of people’s imaginations, but it has been communicated by such souls through mediums. Thus, in olden times, there was a system. For example, with the Vedas of the Hindus, none of the rishis of the Vedas would ever say that he was the writer of such and such a Veda; in fact, he was not a writer at all. It is not out of humility or modesty that the rishis did not claim to be the writers.
It is a fact that what they had written down was, in a sense, heard by them. This is a very clear experience: when some soul enters into you and speaks, the experience is so clear that you know full well you are sitting aside while someone else and not you is speaking. You too are the listener and not the speaker. This is not easy to know from outside, but if observed with proper attention it is possible.
For example, the manner and style of speech will be different, the tone will differ, the diction and the language will also differ. To the original owner of the body, everything will be crystal clear from inside. If some evil spirit has entered, then the person will perhaps be so much afraid that he will become unconscious. But if a celestial soul has entered, then he will be aware and awakened such as he never was before.
Then the situation will be crystal clear to him. So those in whom the evil spirits enter will be very clear about the fact that someone had entered into them only after such evil spirits leave the body – because they become so fearful that they faint and fall unconscious. But those in whom celestial souls enter will be able to say at the very moment that ”what is being spoken is by someone else, not by me.”
Just as two persons may use only one microphone, both these voices will use the same instrument. One will stop speaking while the other will start. When the senses of the body can be so used, it is possible for bodiless souls to communicate. That is how whatever is known to this world about devas and evil spirits becomes communicated. There is no other way to know about these things. For all this, complete sciences have been evolved.
Once a science is evolved, things become easier to understand. Then these things can be made use of with full understanding. When these kinds of events happened in the past, scientific principles were derived from them. For example, if accidentally and suddenly some celestial soul had entered into someone, then from the study of that happening certain principles regarding the conditions conducive for such a phenomenon would be evolved. Then it could be said that if such conditions can be created again, then again such souls will enter.
For example, Mohammedans will burn lobhan and benzoin. This is a method of inviting good spirits by creating a specific fragrant atmosphere. Hindus also burn incense, and they light a flame made from ghee. These things appear to be ritualistic formalities today, but at one time they had a deep meaning. Hindus will chant a specific mantra which becomes an invocation. It is not necessary that there should be a meaning to the mantra.
Ordinarily there is none, because mantras with meaning become distorted with the passage of time. But meaningless mantras do not become distorted. With a meaningless mantra nothing extraneous can enter with the passage of time. That is why all mantras of depth are meaningless. They have no meaning, so they remain changeless.
They are only sounds. There are methods for the chanting of these sounds. If there is a specified beat, intensity and rhythm, the soul that is invoked will enter instantly. And if the soul for whom the mantra was devised is dissolved into nirvana, another soul of similar purity will enter. All the religions of the world have certain mantras. The Jainas have Namokar.
Source : from Osho Book “Dimensions Beyond the Known”

Yesterday I heard that my friend had died. Yet as I wept, I found myself giving thanks for the sweetness of life. Is there a place for mourning?

Yesterday I heard that my friend had died. Yet as I wept, I found myself giving thanks for the sweetness of life. Is there a place for mourning?


Question – Yesterday I heard that my friend had died. Yet as I wept, I found myself giving thanks for the sweetness of life. Is there a place for mourning? Osho – If you have loved somebody, really loved, and you didn’t miss an opportunity to love, then there is no place for mourning because then there is no repentance. You never postpone anything, death cannot destroy anything. If you postpone, then death destroys. For example: you love somebody but you say,’I will love tomorrow,’ and that’s what you go on saying. You go on imagining tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, You go on postponing: you fight today, you will love tomorrow. You are angry here-now, you will love tomorrow. You go on postponing. Then one day suddenly death comes, and it is always sudden. It gives no hint that it is coming. The foot sounds are never heard, the footsteps can never he guessed. It always comes suddenly, catches you unawares, and the friend is gone, the lover is gone, the beloved is gone; the mother, the father, the brother is gone. Then there is mourning because death destroys tomorrow, and you were depending on tomorrow. Now there will be no tomorrow. Now you cannot postpone, and the person is gone. Now you feel a deep repentance; out of that repentance mourning arises. You are not weeping for the friend who is gone, you are weeping for yourself, for the wasted opportunity. If you really love, and love here-now, death cannot take anything from you. I say to you: death may even become an opportunity, an opening, a new door. You loved the friend when he was visible, and you loved him so deeply that you started feeling, through your love, the invisibleness of him. Then death takes the body. Now in that gross element, body is no more there to hinder. Now love can flow totally. You may even feel thankful to death. You were already discovering the spiritual dimension of your beloved, lover, friend, and now death has taken the last obstacle. Now you can see through and through. Death has given you an opportunity to see whether you really loved or not, because if love’s eyes cannot penetrate that much so that you can see that which is not body, that which is beyond matter, that which is invisible, then it is not love. Then those eyes may be of something else, but not of love. Love always reveals the God in the other; that’s the definition of love. If it reveals the God in the other only then it is love, otherwise it is not. You will be crying and weeping and mourning, and will you be thinking that you are weeping for the friend who has gone? No, you are weeping for yourself, you are crying for yourself. I would like to tell a very famous story. King Pyrrhus of Epirus was asked by his friend Cyneas,’Sir, if you conquer Rome, what will you do next?’ Pyrrhus replied,’Sicily is nearby and will be easy to take.’ ‘And what will you do after Sicily?’ Cyneas asked. ‘Then we will pass over to Africa and plunder Carthage.’ ‘And after Carthage, sir?’ ‘Greece.’ Cyneas enquired,’And what do you expect as a reward from all these victories?’ ‘Then,’ said Pyrrhus,’we can sit down and enjoy ourselves.’ ‘Can we not,’ suggested Cyneas,’enjoy ourselves now?’ If you can enjoy yourself now, then there will be no mourning, ever. I am not saying that you will not become sad when a friend departs, but there will be no mourning., And that sadness will have a beauty of its own, a depth, a silence that always comes when you encounter death. That sadness will be very meditative. It will reveal something within you that life could not reveal. Life remains superficial; just like laughter, it remains superficial. Death is very deep, like sadness. But sadness is not mourning, sadness has its own delight; sadness is not sorrow, sadness is simply depth. Sadness means that thinking has stopped. How can you think in front of death? Thinking may be useful in life. Life may need your thinking because cunningness, cleverness is needed; but what is the point of thinking in front of death? If you are sad that simply means that suddenly, the thinking has stopped; the death has been a shock — you are stripped to your very depth. You cannot laugh, but there is a subtle delight in it, a silence, a sacred silence. The vulgarity of life is gone, and death has opened a new door; the door of the beyond. You will feel thankful towards death, but this is possible only if you live now. If this moment is lived in its total intensity, in its utter wholeness, only then is it possible. Don’t go on postponing. Tomorrow, tomorrow — drop that word from your vocabulary! Tomorrow does not exist, it CANNOT exist; it is not in the nature of things. Only this day exists. That is why Jesus says in his prayer, ‘God, give us our daily bread.’ The meaning is: today is enough, we don’t ask for tomorrow; give us our daily bread. It has nothing to do with bread, it has something to do with the present and how to live it: give us the capacity to live here and now. Then there is no mourning. Sadness will be there, but that is as it should be. When somebody departs you feel sad, but in that sadness soon you will discover a door: you have fallen to your own depth. This is what has happened. ‘Yesterday I heard that my friend had died, yet as I wept I found myself giving thanks for the sweetness of life. Is there a place for mourning?’ Don’t feel guilty. In fact, this is how it should be. If you have loved the friend you will feel deep thankfulness; not any complaint against death but just a gratefulness for life, for its sweetness. The very possibility is almost impossible: that one exists! Have you ever thought about it, that you exist? It seems so impossible; there is no reason why. But you don’t look at it because it has been given to you as a gift. You have not paid for it. That’s why you are unaware, oblivious of it: a tremendous richness, that you are, that this moment you are conscious and alive and you can see the flowers, and you can smell the fragrance, and you can listen to the songs, and you can even encounter a Jesus and a Buddha. The sheer impossibility of it! — just think of it. There is no reason why you are; it is just out of the blue. That is the meaning of the grace of God. If you were not here, there would be no way to be. If you were not here, you could not complain anywhere; there is no court of appeal. If you are not here, you are simply not here; you cannot do anything about it. You ARE, and you are conscious, and you are full of love, and you are wasting it — a great gift will b wasted. You are not using it, you are not using the opportunity to grow. The more you grow, the greater the gifts that can become available to you. This is just the beginning, this is just the alpha; and you don’t know what the omega is. Christ is the omega point. But if you go on living now, deeply committed to life, not postponing, going deeper and deeper and deeper every moment, living as wholly as possible, you will reach to the omega point. Even at the alpha point life is tremendously beautiful; what to say about the omega point? And you will never find any point for mourning. If you live it, life is always a deep gratitude. If you don’t live it, things go sour, things become bitter: one mourns, one complains, one loses the capacity for thankfulness. Prayer disappears and then you live an angry life or a sorrowful life — that simply means that you have missed. Nobody else is responsible, only you; ONLY YOU, nobody else is responsible. The responsibility is totally yours because you are free to choose — to die, or to commit a slow suicide. As I see it, millions of people go on simply committing slow suicide. They go on poisoning themselves. Through postponing, you poison yourself. Then, even that which is given to you will have to be taken away. And Jesus is perfectly true when he says this, and it is one of the most fundamental laws of life: that if you have, more will be given to you; if you don’t have, even that which you have will be taken away. That is mourning. Use! Be creative! Let life be a great adventure. The only sin there is, is if your life is not an adventure. Then, you are a sinner. Source – 

Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 4″

Temple of gladness


When my beloved returns to the house, I shall make my body into a Temple of gladness Offering this body as an altar of joy. My let-down hair will sweep it clean. Then my beloved will consecrate this temple.

Song of the Baul Mystics