Zen Without Writing

BELOVED OSHO,

THE ZEN MASTER MU-NAN HAD ONLY ONE SUCCESSOR. HIS NAME WAS SHOJU.

AFTER SHOJU HAD COMPLETED HIS STUDY OF ZEN, MU-NAN CALLED HIM
INTO HIS ROOM AND SAID, "I AM GETTING OLD, AND AS FAR AS I KNOW
YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL CARRY ON THIS TEACHING. HERE IS A
BOOK. IT HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN FROM MASTER TO MASTER FOR SEVEN
GENERATIONS, AND I HAVE ALSO ADDED MANY POINTS ACCORDING TO
MY UNDERSTANDING. THIS BOOK IS VERY PRECIOUS, AND I AM GIVING IT
TO YOU TO REPRESENT YOUR SUCCESSORSHIP."

SHOJU REPLIED, "PLEASE KEEP THE BOOK. I RECEIVED YOUR ZEN
WITHOUT WRITING, AND I WAS VERY HAPPY WITH IT, THANK YOU."

MU-NAN REPLIED, "I KNOW THAT, BUT THIS GREAT WORK HAS BEEN
CARRIED FROM MASTER TO MASTER FOR SEVEN GENERATIONS, AND IT
WILL BE A SYMBOL OF YOUR LEARNING. HERE, TAKE THE BOOK." THE
TWO WERE TALKING IN FRONT OF A FIRE, AND THE INSTANT SHOJU FELT
THE BOOK IN HIS HANDS HE THRUST IT INTO THE FLAMES.

MU-NAN, WHO HAD NEVER IN HIS LIFE BEEN ANGRY BEFORE, SHOUTED,
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

AND SHOJU SHOUTED BACK, "AND WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?"

All books are dead, and that is how it should be; they cannot be alive. All scriptures are graveyards, they cannot be anything else. A word, the moment it is uttered, goes wrong. Unuttered, it is okay; uttered, it is falsified by the very utterance.

Truth cannot be said, cannot be written, cannot be indicated in any way. If it can be said, you will attain to truth just by hearing it; if it can be written, you will attain to truth just by reading it; if it can be indicated, you will attain to truth by mere indication. This is not possible, there is no way to transfer truth to you; there exists no bridge. It cannot be given, it cannot be communicated.

But people become addicted to scriptures, books, words, theories, because for the mind it is easy to understand a theory, it is easy to read a book, it is easy to carry a tradition. With anything dead the mind is always the master; with anything alive the mind becomes the slave.

So the mind is always afraid of life; it is the dead part in you. Just as I said that hairs and nails are dead parts of your body, the parts that have died already and that the body is throwing out, so the mind is the dead part of your consciousness. It is the part that has already become dead, and the consciousness wants to get rid of it.

What is the mind? It is the past, the memory, the accumulated experience. But the moment you have experienced the thing, it is dead. Experiencing is in the present, experience is in the past.

Why are you listening to me? Just in the moment, just here and now, it is an experiencing, it is an alive process, but the moment you say, "I have heard," it has become dead, it has become an experience. While listening to me the mind is not there, you are there. The moment the mind comes in it says, "I have understood, I have heard, I know." What do you mean? You mean the mind has taken possession. The word can be possessed by the mind -- anything dead can be possessed by the mind; and only dead things can be possessed. If you try to possess a live thing there are only two ways: either you will not be able to possess it, or you will have to kill it first and then you can possess it. So wherever there is possession, there is murdering, killing.

If you love a person, love in itself is an experiencing, a moment-to-moment flow with no past being carried; the river remains fresh. But the mind says, "Possess this woman, possess this man, because who knows about the future? Possess! She may escape, she may go to somebody else, she may fall in love with someone else. Possess her and block all the ways of escape, close all the doors so she remains always yours." The mind has entered and now this woman will be killed, now this man will be murdered. There will be a husband, there will be a wife, but there will not be two live persons.

And this is the mischief the mind goes on doing everywhere. The moment you say, "I love," it has become an experience, it is already dead. Loving is something else; it is a process. Why when in love can you not say, "I love?" That would be profane. How can you say, "I love?" In love you are not, the possessor is not, so how can you say, "I love?" In love there is no 'I'; love is there of course but you are not.

While an experience is alive, experiencing, there is no ego. The process is there and you can say love is there, but you cannot say, "I love." In that love you have dissolved, you have merged and melted. Anything live, alive, is greater than you; anything dead and the mind can jump, just like a cat jumps on a mouse and catches hold of it.

Truth cannot be delivered, there is no way to deliver it. Once delivered it is dead, it has already become untrue.

Lao Tzu insisted on not saying anything about the truth his whole life. Whenever someone asked about truth he would say many things, but he would not say anything about the truth; he would avoid it. In the end he was forced to say something. Disciples, lovers, said he should write because he had known something which was rarely known, he had become something which was unique -- there would be no Lao Tzu again. So he wrote a small book, Tao Te Ching, but the first thing he said in it was, "Tao cannot be said, Truth cannot be uttered. And the moment you utter it, it is already false." And then he said, "Now I can write at ease. I have declared the basic fact: uttered, truth becomes false; written, it has already gone wrong."

Why is the word false? One thing: it always belongs to the past. Another thing: the word in itself cannot carry the experience to you. I say I am silent. You hear the words; the word in itself cannot carry the experience to you. I say I am silent. You hear the words -- the word silent is heard, but what do you understand? If you have never been silent, if you have never tasted it, if it has never stirred your heart, if it has never overwhelmed you, overpowered you, how can you understand? And if it has overpowered you, if there has been a gap when you disappeared and silence was there, there will be no need for me to talk about silence. The moment you see me, you will know; the moment you come near me, you will feel. The word will not be needed.

The word is needed because you don't know, this is the problem. Because you don't know, the word is needed, so how can the word express? That which you don't know, the word cannot say to you. The word may be heard, you may memorize it, you may understand the meaning written in the dictionary -- what silence means is written in the dictionary, and you know it already -- but that is not the meaning.

When I say I am silent, the silence that I am here is not written in the dictionary, cannot be written in the dictionary, cannot be written there. If you are silent you will understand, but then there is no need to say. If you are not silent whatsoever you understand will be wrong -- but then there is need to say.

I have heard a story. Once a villager entered a big bank; many people were coming and going and much business was going on. Suddenly the villager cried, shouted at the top of his voice, "Did somebody drop a wad of notes with a rubber band around it?" Many people cried, "Yes, I did," and they ran towards him. A crowd gathered and everybody was claiming the money. The villager said, "I have found the rubber band."

Whenever I say truth, whenever I say silence, you will only find the rubber band; the notes will be missing. The word will reach you but not with the weight of the notes. Those notes will be left behind -- they are in my heart; the word will reach but it is just a rubber band. It may have been around the notes, but still it is just a rubber band.

Truth is incommunicable, but then what have masters been doing? They seem to be involved in an absurd activity. Yes, that is right: they are trying to say something which cannot be said, and they are indicating something which cannot be indicated. They are trying to communicate something which has never been communicated and never will be communicated. Then what are they doing? Their whole effort is absurd, but still there is something in their effort -- their compassion.

Knowing well that I cannot say that which I want to say, the easiest course is that I should remain silent, because if I know it cannot be said then why bother? You cannot understand my words, but will you be able to understand my silence? So it is a trial between two evils.

It is better I remain silent; that would be more consistent. It cannot be said therefore I should remain silent. But will you be able to understand my silence? The word you may not be able to understand but you can hear it, and some possibility is open. Hearing it continuously, you may become aware of something which has not been said in the word. Listening to me, by and by, you may become aware of me, not of what I am saying. The word will help, just as a bait -- you may be caught in the net. But if I am silent, you will pass by my side. You will not even become aware that I am there, and even that possibility will be lost.

So when masters speak, they don't speak to tell the truth that cannot be told. They have a choice: either they can remain silent or they can talk. With silence you will miss them completely. With words a possibility opens, not a certainty because everything depends on you, but a possibility opens. Listening continuously to a buddha you will someday become silent, because just being near a buddha is being near a pool of silence, an energy, a tremendous energy which has become silent. This is what Indians call satsang -- to be near the truth. It is not a question of communication. Just to be near the truth can be infectious -- just as you come near a river and the breeze becomes cooler. You may not see the river; it may still be far away, but the breeze carries the message and you feel a coolness coming.

When you come near a buddha the words are carrying just such a coolness -- buddha is somewhere near. You may start groping for him; you may be lost in his words. Then you are lost in the forest and the river is missed. But if you are alert, intelligent, then, by and by, you will feel from where this wind is blowing, from where these words are coming. And these words carry a silence around them. It may be just a rubber band, but that rubber band has been in deep contact with the notes. It carries something, something of the sound from where this breeze is coming. If you can follow intelligently sooner or later you will reach the source.

The words of a buddha may not be able to communicate the truth, but they can communicate the music, the music that exists in one who is enlightened. They carry the melody, something of the source, a tiny part, a very tiny part, but something of the source. It should be so, because when a word comes out of a buddha it carries something of the buddha. It has to be so. The word has been vibrating in his being, it has been in touch with buddha's heartbeat, it has passed through the buddha's silence, it has been in the womb, the womb of the buddha. It carries the scent, the fragrance. It is a very far off cry, but still....

You may be lost in the words -- then you miss the buddha -- but if you are aware that the word cannot carry the truth, then you will always put aside the word and follow the perfume, put aside the word and follow the music, put aside the word and follow the presence. If I suddenly say, "Hey!" you look at me. The word is meaningless, but the look.... Suddenly you become aware of me. That awareness has to be followed, so then, words can become a help. They may not tell the truth but they can become a help, a step towards the truth.

This story is beautiful. A master is on his dying bed, and soon he has to leave this earth and its vehicle, the body, and he would like to have a successor who can carry the flame that he has kindled, one who will be able to continue the work that he has started. He chooses a disciple, calls him near, and says to him, "You are the most capable of those around me and you are going to be my successor. You will have to continue this work. For seven generations a book has been passed from the master to the disciple who is going to be the successor. I received this book from my master and I give it to you. It is a very precious, a unique treasury. Seven enlightened persons have noted down their experiences of truth in it, and I have also added a few of my own understandings.

Preserve it. Don't lose it; don't let it be lost."

The disciple said, "But I have achieved the experience without any book, and I am happy and blissful. I am not even a little bit dissatisfied, so why add this burden to me, why give an unnecessary responsibility to me? I have already experienced the truth and the book was not needed. It is unnecessary."

The master still insisted, "Much that is valuable is written in it. It is no ordinary book, it isthe book, The Bible. So don't be sacrilegious, pay respect to this book, keep it and hand it over to your successor. By giving this book to you I certify this book is a representation that you are my successor."

The master gave the book to the disciple. It must have been a cold night because the fire was burning. In one hand the disciple received the book, and in the same instant he thrust it into the fire. The master, who had never been angry in his life, shouted, "What are you doing?"

And the disciple shouted, even louder than the master, "What are you saying?" This is beautiful, the master must have died peacefully. This was the right man. The book had to be thrust into the fire or the disciple would have missed. If he had kept the book he would have missed, and then he would not have been the successor. You keep the book only when the thing has not happened to you. Who is bothered about words when the truth is with you? Who is bothered about a book when the real thing has happened within? Who is bothered about explanations when the experience is there? Explanations are precious because the experience is lacking; theories are significant because there is no knowledge. When you know, you can throw theories -- they are rubber bands. And when the notes are with you, you can throw the rubber band. Preserving a rubber band shows foolishness.

This book was not precious -- no book is precious -- and the master was playing a game, the same that his master must have played with him. Nobody knows what was written in the book, but I tell you nothing was written in it. It was empty. Had the disciple preserved it, when the master died he would have opened it, and then he would have cried. Nothing was written in the book. It was just a game, an old game. Every master tries to test the experience of a disciple, whether he knows. And if he knows, he will not be addicted to the book. Why? -- there is no point in it. That is why the disciple said, "What are you saying? To preserve the book when I have achieved without it, when I have already achieved? What are you saying?

The master provoked a situation, and in that situation the disciple proved his mettle. He proved that he knew. Even a slight inclination to preserve and he would have missed, he would not have been the successor. He didn't even look in the book to see what was there. He was not even curious, because only ignorance is curious. If you know, you know. What is curiosity? What would have happened to you? The first thing the mind would have said was: At least look in it, see what is there. But that gesture would have been enough to prove that you had not achieved. Curiosity means ignorance. Wisdom is not curious. Curiosity asks questions; wisdom has no questions to ask.

What would you have done? The first thing that comes to the mind: At least see what is there. If my master insists that this precious book has to be preserved, handed down from one generation to another with seven enlightened persons having written in it, and with my own master having added his own understanding to it, at least have a look before you throw it in the fire.

But I tell you -- if he had looked, he would have been thrown out of the house with the book: Get out, and never come back again! He acted out of a deep understanding. How can the master who knows insist that the book is precious? There must be some game. The master had never been angry, never in his life, and suddenly he was angry and said, "What are you doing?" He created the whole situation.

In the anger the disciple may have yielded, may have said, "I have done something wrong, forgive me. This is how the mind functions. The mind might have come in and thought, "I have done something wrong. The master may not appoint me as successor now. If my master is so angry, it means I have done something wrong, and I may miss being the successor. I was going to be the chief, I was going to be the master of the monastery and millions would have followed me. Thousands would have been my disciples, and now I have done something wrong. A man who has never been angry is angry, shouting."

If you had been there, you would have touched the feet of the master and said, "Forgive me, but appoint me." But the disciple said, "And what are you saying?" If the master can play at anger the disciple can also play. but this can happen only when both know. He answered in the right coin. He answered correctly and the master was satisfied: This is the man. He became the successor, he was the successor.

But this has been done by every religion: they preserve books and do nothing else. Christians preserve their Bible, Mohammedans preserve their Koran, Hindus preserve their Gita -- and they have missed. They are not the successors. Mohammedans do not belong to Mohammed; they cannot belong. The Koran must be in the fire before they can belong. Christians don't know anything about Christ because they preserve The Bible, and Hindus have no understanding of Krishna because of the Gita -- they go on carrying the burden. All the Vedas, and all the Bibles, and all the Korans are for those who don't understand. They carry the burden and the burden becomes so much that they are crushed under it, they are not freed through it, they become slaves to it.

A religious person is always beyond the book; a religious consciousness is never addicted to words and the verbal. The whole thing is childish. A religious man is in search of authentic experience, not borrowed words, not experiences of others. Unless he knows -- buddhas may have existed, but they are useless. Unless he knows, there is no truth because truth can only be his experience. Only then is it there. The whole world may say there is light and there is a rainbow in the sky and the sun is rising, but if my eyes are closed what does it mean to me? The rainbow, the colors, the sunrise, the whole thing is nonexistential to me. My eyes are closed, I am blind. And if I listen to them too much, and if I start believing in them too much, and if I borrow their words and I also start talking about the rainbow that I have not seen, about colors which I cannot see, about the sunrise which is not my experience, I may be lost in the forest of words.

It is better to say, "I am blind. I don't know any color and I don't know any light, and unless my eyes open, there is no sun and there can be no sunrise." Insist, so that you can work upon your eyes. Don't carry the books; they talk about rainbows seen by others, they talk about sunrises experienced by others. Don't carry the borrowed God when you can encounter him directly, immediately. Why create barriers of books between you and him? Burn the books! -- that is the message -- throw them in the fire.

That doesn't mean go and throw your Gita in the fire -- that will not be of much help, because if a Gita cannot help towards truth how can burning a Gita be helpful? That is not the point. You can throw away all the books and you can remain addicted to theories, doctrines. When I say burn the books, I say: Burn the mind, drop the mind. Don't be verbal. Seek authentic experience. But your inquiry may have arisen out of the books -- that is the problem -- your questions may have arisen out of books. If your questioning is itself bookish, your whole inquiry has started in a wrong direction.

People come to me and ask, "What is God?" And I ask them, "Did this question come out of your own life or have you read some book which talks about God and so you have become curious? If your curiosity has arisen out of learning it is useless. It is not your question. And if the question is not yours, no answer can be of any help. When the basic thing is borrowed, when even the question is borrowed, you will go on borrowing the answers. Seek your authentic question. What is your question?"

I have heard about a philosopher who entered a London car showroom. He looked around and became fascinated with a beautiful car, a streamlined sports car. The salesman became alert because he was looking so interested. He came nearer and asked, "Are you interested in this car?"

The man said, "Yes, I am interested. Is it fast?"

The salesman said, "Fast? You cannot find a faster car than this. If you get in it right now, by tomorrow morning at three o'clock, you will be in Aberdeen. Are you really interested in buying it?"

The philosopher said, "I will think about it."

The next day he came and said, "No, I don't want to purchase that car. The whole night I couldn't sleep. I remained awake thinking and thinking and thinking, and I could not find any reason why I should like to be in Aberdeen at three o'clock in the morning." Whenever you read a book, ask, inquire, for what reason you would like to be in Aberdeen at three o'clock in the morning.

You read a book. You read something about God, you read something about moksha, you read something about the soul, you read something about bliss -- you become fascinated - - words of those who know are really fascinating -- but you forget completely for what reason you would like to encounter God. Just by reading a book, just by reading a man -- for example, reading Jesus -- you will become fascinated, because this man is drunk with God, his every word is alcoholic. If you hear him, you will feel drunk. But close the Bible, escape from this Jesus, brood over whether this is your inquiry or whether this man has sold his inquiry to you. With another's inquiry your own search becomes false. The first thing to remember is: your question must be yours. Then the second thing to remember is: the answer must be yours. Books supply both. That's why I said: Burn the books and be authentic. Come out of the jungle of words and feel what you want, what your desire is, and follow it wheresoever it leads. Sooner or later you will come to the divine. It may take a little longer, but the search will be real.

If all books were burnt, the world would be more religious. There are so many books and readymade answers that everybody knows the question, the answer. It has become a game; it is not your life. The world should be freed of books, should be freed of all ideals, should be freed of all borrowed inquiries. Every man should start feeling his own heartbeat, his own pulse -- where it leads, what it desires, what his question is. If you can find your question, the answer is waiting just nearby. It may be that in finding the question you have already found the answer, because the answer lies in authenticity. If the question is authentic, if you have become authentic in questioning, fifty percent of the problem is already solved. Just a little more effort, going a little deeper, and the question always hides the answer behind it.

Questioning is just one aspect of the coin. The other aspect is the answer. Just behind questioning, the answer is lying waiting for you. But if you have not come to your question, how can you come to your answer? And only the answer that is yours will free you, will make you free.

Jesus says truth liberates. Yes, truth liberates, but never borrowed truth. Jesus' truth will not liberate you. But Christians believe that Jesus' truth will liberate them. Not only that, they think that just by Jesus' crucifixion humanity is already liberated. This is being blind, absolutely blind. Nothing is liberated, nobody is liberated; salvation has not happened. Jesus was crucified, that's okay, but through Jesus' crucifixion Jesus was liberated, not you. The whole thing seems to be a trick. Jesus died on the cross and humanity, particularly Christianity, is liberated; one who is a Christian is already liberated.

This is how the mind thinks: it goes on throwing responsibility onto somebody else. If you are a sinner you are a sinner because Adam sinned and was thrown out of heaven, and now you are liberated because Jesus has again entered the kingdom of God. So Adam and Jesus are the authentic persons; you are just shadows. Adam sins, and you have become a sinner -- so who are you? You are a shadow. Adam is thrown out of heaven, therefore you are thrown out. This can happen only to a shadow, not to a real person. If I am thrown out of this house, only my shadow will be thrown with me, nothing else. And if I enter the kingdom of God, only my shadow will enter with me; you cannot enter.

Jesus solved everything. He entered the kingdom of God, and all humanity entered with him. Nobody has entered, nobody can enter in such an easy way. You have to pay the cost, you have to carry your own cross, you have to be crucified through suffering -- your suffering, remember. Neither Jesus' suffering, nor anybody else's will open the doors. They are closed, and you cannot enter just following Jesus. Nobody can enter that way. The doors open for the individual, because the individual is the authentic reality. The disciple said, "I have already entered, master, so why are you giving this map to me? A map is needed for one who is lost -- but I have reached the goal, so why this map?" And the master said, "The map is very precious. All the paths are indicated on it."

Would the disciple hesitate for a single moment? The master's penetrating eyes were searching his heart to see if he would hesitate, if he would say, "Okay, maybe the master is right and the map is precious...." But what does a man need a map for when he has reached the goal? So he threw the book in the fire, he threw away the map. I have heard: A man driving his car on a lonely road suspected that he had missed the path, suspected that he was moving in a wrong direction. He saw a beggar walking, so he stopped the car and asked the beggar, "Does this road lead to Delhi?"

The beggar said, "I don't know."

So the man asked, "Does this road lead to Agra?"

The beggar said, "I don't know."

The man, who was already irritated, became more irritated, and said to the beggar in anger, "So you don't know much." The beggar laughed and said, "But I am not lost." So the question is not of knowledge. The question is whether you are lost or not. The beggar said, "But I am not lost. Whether I know or not is not the point." When you are lost a map is needed, knowledge is needed, a book is needed. When you are not lost, what is the point of carrying a book, a map? And an enlightened person is at the goal everywhere. Wherever he is, is the goal. Once you become aware that you are the goal you cannot be lost.

The beggar is not lost. Why? -- because he is not going to Delhi, he is not going to Agra, he is not going anywhere. Wherever he reaches, that is the goal. He is not lost because he is not moving in any direction; he is not lost because there is no desired goal.

This disciple threw away the map because there is no goal. He is the goal now. Wherever he is, he is at peace, at home. There is no desire and no motivation. The future has disappeared, this moment is enough.

Throw away all the maps because you are the goal. Maps can help if the goal is somewhere else; maps cannot help if you are the goal. They may even distract you, because when you look at a map you cannot look at yourself Books cannot help, because you are the truth and there is no book in which you are written. The book is you, no other book. Here you are, written in this book, which is you. You have to be deciphered, and if you are wrong all books that you carry will go wrong. All maps that you carry will be wrong and will indicate wrongly, because who will read those books and who will follow the instructions indicated in the map?

I have heard: A man was driving and his wife was looking at the map. Suddenly the wife cried out in panic and said, "We are lost -- because this map is upside down. The map is upside down. We are lost!"

The map can be put right side up; no map is upside down by itself. But the wife must have been upside down. If you are upside down all the books you read will turn upside down. If you are disturbed it will be reflected in your Koran, in your Bible, in your Gita; if you are mad your interpretations of the Vedas will be mad; if you are afraid you will meet fear wherever you go. Whatsoever you do your doing will come out of you; your interpretations will come out of you and you will be wrong.

So a master is not interested in giving you a right book. There are none. No right book exists, only right people and wrong people, right persons and wrong persons. A real master is interested in putting you right side up. A master is interested in changing you, the person; he is not interested in giving you a book.

That's why the disciple said, "What are you saying? Such a nonsensical thing you have never said before. You have gone mad saying: Keep, preserve the book, it is precious!" No book is precious. Only the person is precious. But when you don't know your value you think the book is precious. When you don't know the precious value of your being, then every type of theory becomes valuable. Words are valuable because you have not known the value of the being.

Anything more?

Question 1

BELOVED OSHO,
THERE WILL BE A PRECIOUS VALUE TO THIS BOOK WHEN IT COMES OUT,
BECAUSE IT CAN TELL PEOPLE THAT THERE IS A BUDDHA AVAILABLE
NOW, AND THAT HE HAS METHODS SUITABLE TO THE TIME AND TO US.
BUT ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WHICH HAS ARISEN HERE AND WILL
CERTAINLY ARISE IN THE WEST IS: HOW DO I KNOW I NEED A MASTER?

Yes, this book is going to be very precious. Keep, preserve it. Seven generations of masters have given it to me and I have given it to you. Now it depends on what you do. I have added my understanding to it, but as far as I'm concerned I am giving you this book just to throw in the fire. The day you can throw it in the fire will be the day you have understood it. If you go on preserving it you have missed.

But the book is needed, because if it is not there what will you throw in the fire? It is needed. Try to preserve it -- it is very precious -- and when you understand you will throw it in the fire.

So I am not saying give only the Koran to the fire; give my books to the fire also, because they can be more dangerous than the Koran and Gita and Bible which have become out of date in a sense. You are very, very far away from Mohammed, even further away from Krishna. Their voices have become very, very distant, dim things. My voice is nearer to you. It is immediate; it is direct. It may become a greater prison for you, because it is more alive right now. It can capture you; it can become more of a burden. If a living master can free you, a living master can become more of a prison also. It depends.

There are directions in the book. It is a map, a map into the world of consciousness, a map of how to get roots into the earth, a map of how to get wings into the sky. But trees don't need it. If I tell them how to get roots into the earth they will say, "Don't disturb us, we have already got roots into the earth" If I tell them how to get wings into the sky they will say, "Don't disturb the silence. We are always standing in the sky, swaying in the sky." And if I tell them to preserve this book they will laugh, and if they can find a fire they will throw the book in it.

So what am I saying? I am saying to you: Get roots and throw away the maps; get wings and throw away the maps. Don't get fixed on what I say, don't be obsessed with what I say. Put the words aside and look at me. And what I hope is that one day, if I say, "Preserve this book," you will be able to shout at me and say, "What are you saying? Have you gone mad?" You can say that without reaching the point where it becomes meaningful -- but you cannot deceive me. You can throw the book into the fire without throwing the attachment. Then you are imitating. Imitation won't help. Buddhas have existed on the earth, disciples have existed; everything has happened that can happen and everything is written. You may decide you can imitate, but imitation won't help.

It happened once that a man came to a Zen master. He had read all the scriptures, memorized them, and had become a great philosopher because he was very efficient at using words, logic. And this Zen master was just a villager, just like the beggar who said, "I am not lost." He had never read the Lotus Sutra, one of the greatest Buddhist scriptures, worth preserving, always keeping near. Just as there are bedside books, so the Lotus Sutra is a heartside book; it is concerned with the heart. The lotus is the symbol for the heart: fully bloomed, in full bloom, it is the heart. And Buddhists think there is nothing comparable to the Lotus Sutra.

This man had memorized the whole Lotus Sutra. He could repeat it from anywhere. Ask any question and immediately he would answer -- like a computer, very efficiently. So he asked the Zen master, "Have you read the Lotus Sutra?"

The Zen master said, "Lotus Sutra? Never heard of it."

The man, the pundit, the scholar, said, "Never heard of it? And people think you are enlightened!"

The Zen master said, "People must be wrong. I am an ignorant man, how can I be enlightened?"

The scholar was at ease now, so he said, "Now I will repeat the Lotus Sutra. Can you read?"

The monk said, "I can't read."

So the man said, "Okay, then listen to me and I will explain anything you want to ask." He had come to seek a master but now he had become a master. The ego never wants to be a disciple, it is always in search of being a master. How the buddha must have laughed at the situation! The master became the disciple, and the disciple became the master and said, "Listen."

The master started listening. The disciple said, "Okay." He began to repeat the Lotus Sutra.

In the Lotus Sutra, it is said everything is emptiness -- this world is empty, hell is empty, heaven is empty, God is empty, everything is emptiness. Emptiness is the nature of all things, nothingness, so be attuned to nothingness and you will achieve.

Suddenly the master jumped and hit the pundit on the head. The pundit became mad. He started shouting and said, "Not only are you not enlightened, not only are you ignorant, you seem to be neurotic also. What are you doing?"

The master sat again and said, "If everything is nothingness, from where does this anger come? The world is emptiness, heaven is emptiness, hell is emptiness, the nature of things is nothingness. From where does this anger come?"

The pundit was puzzled. He said, "It is not written in the Lotus Sutra. You ask foolish questions. It is not written in the Lotus Sutra. The whole Sutra I have memorized -- and this is no way of asking a question, hitting me is no way of asking a question."

But this is the only way. Theories are not of much help. You can say that everything is nothingness, but just a little hit and anger arises out of nothingness; a woman passes and sex arises out of nothingness; you look at a beautiful house and the desire to possess arises out of nothingness. When Buddha said everything is nothingness, he was saying: If you can understand this, nothing will arise. How can anything arise out of nothingness? Nothingness is a meditation, not a theory; it is a falling into the abyss. Then anger cannot arise and sex cannot arise -- how can they?

There are two types of persons: one, those who are in search of theories -- and please don't be that type, because that is the most stupid type; and the other type is the wise type, those in search of experience, not of theories.

This book and whatsoever I say can become a theory for you; then you miss. It can become a thirst, a hunger, a deep urge to experience; then you have got the point. But don't be addicted to the words; don't carry the container, remember the content. When the disciple threw the book into the fire he was throwing away the container; the content was preserved in his heart. And the master was happy that this man had understood: the container has to be thrown away and the content preserved.

Whatsoever I say, throw it in the fire. But whatsoever happens to you in my presence, that is the content. Preserve it, it is precious. But there is no need to preserve it: if it happens, you will preserve it; if you know, it is preserved, and then there is no way to throw it in the fire. Only books can be thrown in the fire, truth cannot.

That's why the disciple shouted, "What are you saying? Can a precious thing be thrown into the fire? Can a precious thing be burned in the fire? If the fire can burn your book, what type of preciousness is it? What type of truth is this? If the fire can burn the truth, it is not worth preserving."

That which cannot be burned, that which cannot be dead, even through fire it becomes more alive, more pure -- that is the truth. That's why I said throw The Bible into the fire: not that I am against The Bible, I am against the container. The content cannot be thrown. The container is the Lotus Sutra. The content is in your lotus, and that is your heart.

Anything more?

Question 2

BELOVED OSHO,
A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THEY CAN'T REALLY LET THEMSELVES GO IN
MEDITATION BECAUSE OF THE PHYSICAL PAIN, BECAUSE OF BUMPING
INTO EACH OTHER AND FALLING DOWN. THEY FEEL THIS MAY BE SOME
SORT OF EXCUSE FOR NOT REALLY LETTING GO.
COULD YOU TALK TO US ABOUT THIS PHYSICAL ASPECT?

A child can fall but he will not feel hurt. A drunkard, walking in the street, falls, but his body is preserved, his bones are not fractured. What is happening? The real thing is not the other bumping into you, the real thing is your resistance. You are afraid the other may bump into you, so you are resisting the whole time. Somebody may not bump into you, but you are afraid. Fear closes you, you become stiff, and if somebody then bumps into you that stiffness is hurt, not you. But you feel that you are hurt, and then your mind says, "You were right to be afraid from the very beginning, and it was good to be alert so that nobody would bump into you."

The mind is a vicious circle. It gives you an idea, and because of that idea certain things happen. Then that idea becomes more fixed, you become more afraid, and then you are constantly in fear. How will you do meditation?

In Japan they have a science of wrestling -- they call it judo or ju-jitsu -- and the whole science consists of a very meditative thing: the judo wrestler learns how not to resist. When somebody attacks you, you have to absorb his energy, not resist, as if he is giving energy to you. Absorb his energy; don't resist. He is not the enemy, he is the friend coming to you; and when he hits you with his hand or his fist much energy is released.

Soon he will be exhausted, so absorb the energy that is released from his fist. When he is exhausted, just by absorbing his energy you will feel stronger, stronger than ever. But you resist, you shrink, you become stiff so that you may not be hurt. Then his energy and your energy clash, and in that clash pain happens. It is you.

In meditation, remember this: if somebody bumps into you, absorb his energy. And here is a meditative person bumping into you -- you are lucky. He is releasing beautiful energy. A meditative energy is coming out of him; absorb it. Feel happy, feel thankful, and start jumping again. Don't be stiff, don't resist, because he was sharing his energy with you, unknowingly. Share it and soon you will come to know a different quality -- that of nonresistance. The whole body and mind then behave in a different way. You know a secret.

You fall on the ground suddenly: fall as if the ground, the earth, is your mother. Make it a rest, not a clash. Fall down but don't be stiff. If you are stiff you may get a fracture; the fracture will happen because you were stiff and there was a fight between you and the earth. And the earth is, of course, greater than you so you will be a loser. Fall down just like a drunkard. You see them falling every day on the street, but by the morning they are back, completely okay. Every night they fall down and their bones are never fractured.

These drunkards know a certain secret that you don't know. What do they know? They fall without any consciousness on their part, without any ego there. They just fall. There is nobody to fight with the earth. The earth absorbs them and they absorb the earth.

Be a drunkard: fall without the ego. Enjoy the fall and feel friendly, intimate, with the earth. Soon you will be back on your feet with more energy than ever, and once you know the knack there will be no disturbance. You are hurt because you are in a fight, a continuous fight; you are hurt because you are always resisting. Consciously, unconsciously, you are always ready to resist. And when so many people are doing meditation you become afraid that somebody may hit you -- but if there is this fear, how will you meditate?

Rather than being in fear, be in love. With so many persons meditating much divine energy is released. This is a celebration, so why be in fear? Be in love. Enjoy this group consciousness, so many people dancing. Become part, lose your ego, be one with this collective force and energy. It will be difficult in the beginning because many lives have been lived with a fixed attitude of resistance. But someday you will become aware; someday a gap will be cleared and you will see. One experience will do. If you someday fall on the earth and there is no hurt and you feel beautiful, you have come to know a secret, you have stumbled upon the key. Now this key can be used on many locks. It is a master key.

Whenever someone comes to fight you, absorb him; when someone insults you, absorb him and see -- his insult becomes a flower. He is releasing energy. When someone insults you, he is giving away energy. He is foolish, stupid, so you absorb his energy, thank him, and go back and see what happens. When someone is ready to fight, simply allow him to hit you. Be as if you are not there and he is fighting an emptiness. Allow him, don't resist, and you will come to know. There is no other way; just listening to me will not do.

This is an art, it is not a science. Science can be explained, art has to be experienced. It is just like swimming. If you tell a non-swimmer, "There is nothing to it, you just take a jump and start throwing your arms around," he will say, "What are you saying? This will be suicide." How can you explain to a non-swimmer that swimming is beautiful, the most beautiful experience of any that the body can give to you? It is such a flowing experience, such a oneness with the river. The whole body, every fiber of it, every cell, is alive. The water is life -- because all life arises out of the water. Water is vital. In your body you are eighty-five percent water, so eighty-five percent water, liquid, is meeting with a big river, or the ocean. You have come to the original source of vitality.

But you cannot explain to anyone who is a non-swimmer. It is not a science. You have to take him step by step -- in the beginning shallow water so he becomes confident, then by and by deeper and deeper water. In the beginning he will be awkward, he will be afraid, he will be fighting with the river, afraid that it might drown him. He will feel the river as being antagonistic, but soon he will realize that the river is not antagonistic, that it enjoys him swimming there, that it feels happy that one of its parts has come back. It is a celebrating moment for the river. A river with no one swimming in it is sad, but where many people dance and swim and enjoy, the river is happy. Soon he will feel that the river is helping him, that he is unnecessarily fighting, and by and by he will drop his movements and activity. When a swimmer becomes perfect he simply floats on the river. No activity is needed; the river does everything and the swimmer simply floats on the river.

In old yoga traditions there is a particular meditation -- just float on the river and feel one with it. Don't make any movement, don't move the body, let the river do the work. And if the river is doing the work and you are simply floating, nondoing, you will have the feeling of the whole existence. This is how existence floats. You are unnecessarily fighting.

In meditation you are entering a river of consciousness. So many people around you creates a tremendous force, a stream. Enter into it like a swimmer, not fighting, just floating, and see what happens. It is an art.

I cannot tell you, I can just indicate, and you have to experience. You have to wait until the experience happens to you, a single moment of experience that nobody is against you, nobody is going to harm you. The existence is whole, there will be no hurt.

And I say: Even if your bone is broken there will be no pain, there will be no hurt. If you fall down and you die, even then there will be no pain. If you are just falling back to mother earth there will be no pain. You are simply absorbed.

And who knows? -- in meditation, just someone bumping into you may become your first glimpse of an enlightenment, because it is a shock -- a sudden awareness comes to you. Who knows? -- just falling on the ground and breaking a bone may become your first satori, your first enlightenment. Nobody knows -- life is mysterious. Enlightenment has happened in such different ways. Nobody knows.

Do it in love. Feel at home and allow things. If somebody bumps into you, let him bump. And let him pass through you. Don't be a wall; don't come in his way. Allow him to pass. Be porous.

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The Miracle of Ordinariness

BELOVED OSHO,

BANKEI WAS PREACHING QUIETLY TO HIS FOLLOWERS ONE DAY WHEN
HIS TALKING WAS INTERRUPTED BY A PRIEST FROM ANOTHER SECT. THIS
SECT BELIEVED IN THE POWER OF MIRACLES, AND THOUGHT THAT
SALVATION CAME FROM REPEATING HOLY WORDS.

BANKEI STOPPED TALKING, AND ASKED THE PRIEST WHAT HE WANTED
TO SAY.

THE PRIEST BOASTED THAT THE FOUNDER OF HIS RELIGION COULD
STAND ON ONE BANK OF THE RIVER WITH A BRUSH IN HIS HAND AND
WRITE A HOLY NAME ON A PIECE OF PAPER HELD BY AN ASSISTANT ON
THE OPPOSITE BANK OF THE RIVER. THE PRIEST ASKED, "WHAT MIRACLES
CAN YOU DO?"

BANKEI REPLIED,"ONLY ONE. WHEN I AM HUNGRY I EAT, AND WHEN I AM
THIRSTY I DRINK."

The only miracle, the impossible miracle, is to be just ordinary. The longing of the mind is to be extraordinary. The ego thirsts and hungers for the recognition that you are somebody. Somebody achieves that dream through wealth, somebody else achieves that dream through power, politics, somebody else can achieve that dream through miracles, jugglery, but the dream remains the same: I cannot tolerate being nobody.

And this is a miracle -- when you accept your nobodiness, when you are just as ordinary as anybody else, when you don't ask for any recognition, when you can exist as if you are not existing. To be absent is the miracle.

This story is beautiful, one of the most beautiful Zen anecdotes, and Bankei is one of the superb masters. But Bankei was an ordinary man.

Once it happened that Bankei was working in his garden. Somebody came, a seeker, a man in search of a master, and he asked Bankei, "Gardener, where is the master?" Bankei laughed and said, "Wait. Come from that door, inside you will find the master." So the man went round and came inside. He saw Bankei sitting on a throne, the same man who was the gardener outside. The seeker said, "Are you kidding? Get down from this throne. This is sacrilegious, you don't pay any respect to the master."

Bankei got down, sat on the ground, and said, "Now then, it is difficult. Now you will not find the master here because I am the master."

It was difficult for that man to see that a great master could work in the garden, could be just ordinary. He left. He couldn't believe that this man was the master; he missed. We are all in search of the extraordinary. But why are you in search of the extraordinary? It is because you also long to be extraordinary. With an ordinary master, how can you become extraordinary, exceptional?

Bankei was talking, lecturing, and one man stood and asked about miracles. He belonged to some other sect, a sect which worked through mantras, holy names. Remember that a mantra is a secret technique to achieve more power. A mantra is not spiritual, it is political, but the politics are of the inner space, not of the outer.

The mind can become powerful if you narrow it down; narrowing is the method. The more narrow the mind, the more powerful it becomes. It is just like the sun's rays falling to the ground. If you focus those waves, those rays, through a lens, fire can be created. Those rays were falling all spread out but now they have been narrowed down through the lens. They have become one-pointed, concentrated; now fire is possible.

The mind is energy, in fact, the same energy that comes through the sun, the same subtle rays. Ask the physicists. They say the mind has a voltage of electricity, that it is electrical.

If you can focus the mind through a lens, the mantra is a lens, and you go on repeating Ram, Ram, Ram, or Om, Om, Om, or anything, just one word -- if you go repeating and repeating and repeating it, and the mind's whole energy is centered in that one word -- it becomes a lens. Now all the rays are passing through that lens. Narrowed to one point it becomes powerful, you can do miracles. Just by thinking you can do miracles.

But remember, those miracles are not spiritual.Power is never spiritual. Powerlessness, helplessness, to be nothing, is spiritual;.power is never spiritual. This is the difference between magic and religion; magic is after power, religion is after nothingness.

A mantra is a part of magic not of religion at all, but everything is a big mess, mixed up. People who are doing miracles are magicians, not spiritual in any way. They are even anti-spiritual because they are spreading magic in the name of religion, which is very dangerous.

Through a mantra the mind is narrowed; it is more narrowed, more powerful, and then anything can be done. There is only one thing you will miss -- you will miss yourself. All miracles will be possible, the ultimate miracle you will miss. You will miss yourself because through narrowing down you can achieve an object. The more the mind is narrowed, the more it becomes fixed to an object; it becomes objective. You are hidden behind and the object is outside.

So if you are a man of mantras you can say to this tree, "Die," and the tree will die; you can say to a man, "Be healthy," and the disease will disappear, or, "Be unhealthy," and the disease will enter -- many things you can do. You can become somebody, and people will recognize you as a man of power but never a man of God.

A man of God is born when the mind is not narrowed at all, when the mind is not flowing in one direction but is overflowing in all directions. There is no lens, no mantra, just the energy flowing in all dimensions everywhere. That flowing energy, that energy overflowing everywhere, will make you alert about yourself because then there is no object. Only you, only subjectivity exists, and through you, you will become aware of God, not through any power.

This man asked Bankei, "What type of miracles can you do? My master, through mantra, through the holy name, can do miracles. He will stand on one bank of the river, and disciples will stand on the other bank with a paper in their hands, a half-mile distant, and he will write from here and the words will come on the paper on the other bank. This our master can do. What can you do?"

And Bankei said, "We know only one miracle here, and that is when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel sleepy I sleep. Only this much." Not much of a miracle. Your mind will say, "What type of a miracle is this? It is nothing to be proud of." But I say to you Bankei has said the real thing. That's what a Buddha can do, that's what a Mahavira is doing, that's what a Jesus is to do. Only then is he a Christ, otherwise not. What he is saying is such a simple thing. He says, "When I am hungry I eat." Is it so difficult that he calls it a miracle? I say it is difficult for you; for the mind it is the most difficult thing -- not to interfere. When you feel hungry the mind says, "No, this is a religious day and I am on a fast." When you don't feel hungry the mind says, "Eat, because this is the time every day that you eat." And when the stomach is overfilled the mind says, "Go on eating, the food is delicious." Your mind interferes.

What is Bankei saying? He is saying, "My mind has stopped interfering. When I feel hungry I eat, when I don't feel hungry I don't eat. Eating has become a spontaneous thing; the mind is not a continuous interference.

When I feel sleepy I go to sleep." No, you are not doing this. You go to sleep as a ritual, not when you feel sleepy. You get up as a ritual because it is brahmamuhurta, and you are a Hindu and you must get up before sunrise. Because you are a Hindu, you get up. Who is this Hindu? It is the mind. You cannot be a Hindu, you cannot be a Mohammedan; there is no sect for you but the mind. The mind says, "You are a Hindu, you must get up," so you get up.

When the mind says, "Now it is time to go to sleep," you go to sleep. You follow the mind, not nature.

Bankei is saying, "I flow with nature; whatsoever my whole being feels, I do it. There is no fragmentary mind manipulating it, manipulation is the problem. You go on manipulating and this disturbance, interference, this manipulation from the mind is the problem.

Even in dreams you go on manipulating -- ask the psychologists; they say while awake, you continue manipulating. The mind doesn't allow you to see what is there, it projects; the mind doesn't allow you to hear what is being said to you, it interprets.

Even in dreams you are false because the mind goes on playing tricks on you. Freud discovered that our dreams are also false. You want to kill your father so in the dream you don't kill your father. You want to poison your wife but you don't poison your wife even in a dream, you poison some woman who somehow resembles your wife. The mind is interfering continuously.

I have heard that one man was saying to another, to his friend, "Did I dream last night! What a dream! I went to Coney Island -- What delicious ice cream, such a tasteful dinner.I have never eaten such a thing in my whole life."

The other man said,"You are kidding.You call that a wonderful dream? Last night I dreamt that on one side was Elizabeth Taylor, on the other side was Marilyn Monroe, both in the nude.

The other became excited and said, "Then why didn't you call me?" The man said: "I called you, but your wife said you had already left for Coney Island." Even in dreams the mind goes on creating the world -- Coney Islands, Elizabeth Taylors - - and you become jealous even about another's dream:Why didn't you call me?

Bankei is saying: "We know only one miracle. We allow nature to have its own course, we don't interfere." Through interference comes the ego: the more you interfere, the more you manipulate, the more you feel you are somebody.

Look at the ascetics -- their egos are so refined and subtle, so shiny. Why? It is because they have interfered the most; you have not interfered so much. They have killed their sex, they have destroyed their love, they have suppressed their anger, they have completely destroyed their hunger and the feeling of the body. They have reason to be egoists: they are somebodies. Look in their eyes, there is nothing except ego.

Their bodies may be almost dead but their egos are at the supreme-most peak. They have become Everests.

These monks and saints will not be able to understand what Bankei means.He says, "We know only one miracle -- to allow nature to have its own course.

We don't interfere." If you don't interfere, you will disappear. Fighting is the way to be there.

People come to me and ask how to drop the ego. I tell them, Who will drop it? If you try to drop it you will be the ego, and someday you will claim that you have dropped the ego. And who is this claimer, who is claiming it? This is the ego, and the most subtle ego always tries to pretend egolessness.

I also know only one miracle, to let nature have its course, to allow it. Whatsoever is happening, don't interfere, don't come in the way, and suddenly you will disappear. You cannot be there without resistance, fight, aggression, violence; the ego exists through resistance. This has to be understood very deeply -- the more you fight, the more you will be there.

Why do soldiers feel so happy fighting? Fighting is not such a beautiful thing, war is just ugly, but why do soldiers feel so happy fighting? If you have once been to a war you will never be happy again in peace because the ego comes to such a peak fighting. Why, in competition, do you feel so happy? It is because something, your ego, arises; fighting, you become stronger.

But fighting with another is never so ego-fulfilling because you may be defeated -- the possibility is there -- but fighting with yourself you cannot be defeated. You are always going to be the winner, "There is nobody else except you. Fighting with another there is fear, the fear of being a failure; fighting with yourself there is no fear, you are alone. You are going to win today or tomorrow, but finally you will win because there is nobody else.

The ascetic is fighting with himself; the soldier is fighting with others; the businessman, fighting with others; the monk, fighting with himself. The monk and the ascetic are more cunning, they have chosen a path where victory is inevitable. You are not so calculating, your path is hazardous. You may be a success, you may be a failure, and your success can turn into a failure any moment because there are so many fighters around you, and you are such a small, tiny existence -- you can be destroyed.

But fighting with yourself you are alone, there is no competition. So those who are very cunning escape from the world and start fighting with themselves. Those who are not so cunning, are more simple, are in the world and go on fighting with others. But the basic essential thing remains the same -- fighting.

Bankei is saying, "I am not a fighter; I don't fight at all. When I feel hungry I eat, when I feel sleepy I go to sleep; when I am alive I am alive, and when I die I will die. I don't come in the way." And he says,"This is the only miracle we know."

But why call it a miracle? Animals are doing it already, trees are doing it already, birds are doing it already; the whole existence is doing it already. Why call it a miracle? Man cannot do it.

The whole existence is a miracle except man. The Christian story seems to be very meaningful: that man has been turned out of the Garden of Eden seems to be very relevant, most significant. The whole existence is a continuous miracle, it is a continuum; miracles are happening every moment. Existence is miraculous but man has been turned out.

Why has man been turned out? The story says because he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge and God had forbidden it. God said, "don't eat the fruit of this tree, the tree of knowledge. All the trees are open to you except this one."

But the Devil persuaded. Of course he persuaded Eve first; the Devil always enters through the woman. Why? It is because woman is the weakest point of man, the weakest link from where the Devil can enter. To enter man directly is difficult because he will give a good fight, it will be difficult, but through woman the Devil can persuade man.

So the Devil said to woman, to Eve, "This is the only fruit worth eating, and that's why God has prohibited it. If you eat this fruit you will be like gods. You will be a god yourself."

Eve couldn't resist, the temptation was too much. She persuaded Adam. Adam tried to say it was not good because God had prohibited it, but when it is a problem of choosing between your wife and God, you will choose your wife.

Really, there is no real alternative because she will create such trouble, in twenty-four hours, such trouble... God cannot create so much trouble So finally Adam had to eat, and the moment he ate the fruit he became conscious of the ego; he became aware that "I am."Immediately he was thrown out of the Garden of Eden. It is a beautiful story; the story is really a key to all the secrets.

This knowledge has turned you out of the miraculous world that you are in. Before this Adam was like a child -- naked but not aware that he was naked; naked but not aware that there was some guilt in it. He loved Eve but the love was natural; he was never aware that something wrong was going on or that there was some sin.

There was no sin; before knowledge there is no sin. A child cannot commit sin; only an old man can be a sinner, so all sinners are old. A child cannot be a sinner. How can it be a sinner? A child is innocent because a child is not aware of himself, that he is.

Adam was like a child, Eve was like a child; they enjoyed but there was no one who was enjoying. They were part of this mystery, of the miracle. When they felt hungry they ate, when they felt sleepy they slept, when they felt like loving they loved. But everything was a natural phenomenon, the mind was not there as the manipulator. They were part of this universe -- flowing like rivers, flowering like trees, singing like birds -- they were not separate. Separation came with the knowledge that "I am."

The first thing Adam and Eve did was to try to hide their nakedness; the childhood was lost. Whenever a child begins to feel that he is naked, that is the point where Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden.

It has always been my feeling that the answer to the Christian story exists in Mahavira -- not in Jesus, but in Mahavira -- because if by eating the fruit of knowledge Adam became aware and felt guilty that he was naked, then the answer exists in Mahavira. The moment Mahavira became silent the first thing he did was to become naked.

And I say Mahavira entered the Garden of Eden again, he became a child again. The Christian story is half, the Jain story is the other half; they make the whole. The whole existence is a miracle; you have fallen out of it.

Bankei said, "We know only one miracle; we have entered in this great miracle again. We are no more separate as egos, we are not individuals. Hunger is there but there is no one who is hungry. Sleep comes but there is no one who is sleepy. The ego is not there to resist or to decide; we flow, we drift." Nothing is wrong and nothing is good. This is the beyondness, the transcendental attitude where no evil exists and no good. You have become innocent.

Your saints cannot be innocents because their goodness is forced too much; their goodness is already ugly. Their goodness is managed, controlled, cultivated, it is not innocent.

I have heard about one old woman. She served a buddhist monk for thirty years, did everything for that monk; she was just like a mother and a disciple both. And the buddhist monk meditated and meditated and meditated. The day the old woman was going to die she called a prostitute from the town and said, "Go to that monk's hut. Enter the hut, go near him, caress the monk, and just come and tell me how he reacts. This night I am going to die, and I want to be certain whether I was serving a man who is innocent. I am not certain."

The prostitute became afraid. She said, "He is such a good man, so saintly, we have never seen such a saintly man."

Even the prostitute felt guilty to go there and touch this man, but the old woman bribed her. She went, she opened the door. The monk was meditating. It was midnight; in that isolated part nobody was near. The monk opened his eyes, looked at the prostitute, jumped to his feet and said, "why are you coming in ? Get out!"

His whole body trembled. The prostitute went nearer. The monk jumped out of the hut and cried, "This woman is trying to seduce me!"

The prostitute returned, she told the whole thing and the old woman sent her servants to burn the hut of the monk. She said, "This man is of no use; he has not become innocent yet. He may be a saint but his saintliness is ugly, it is manipulated. Why should he see a prostitute so suddenly? A woman was entering not a prostitute; why should he think that she had come to seduce him? He should have been at least gentlemanly. He should have said, 'Come, sit, why have you come?' He should have at least shown a little compassion. And even if she had embraced him, why should he be afraid? He has been telling me for thirty years, 'I am not the body.'If he is not the body then why should he be so much afraid of the body? No, his saintliness is cultivated, it is a pose. It is not from the inner, it is from the outer. He has managed it all right, but inside he is not innocent, he is not childlike."

And unless saintliness becomes childlike, it is not saintliness at all, it is just a sinner hiding, hiding through a facade.

Bankei has said, "We know only one miracle." What is that miracle? It is to be childlike. Whenever a child feels hungry he starts crying -- he is hungry. Whenever he feels sleepy, he goes to sleep.

We try to manage even a child; we destroy him.In the West now there are books, guides for mothers. And what type of world is there going to be when a guide is needed even for a mother -- guidelines that say: After three hours give milk, never before, but each three hours, give. The child is crying, but that's not the point because the guidebook says after three hours. The mother is waiting, and when the three hours are completed she will feed the child.

Even motherhood is not enough, a guide is needed; and a child's authentic cry is not to be trusted, as if the child may be trying to deceive. Why should the child deceive? If he is hungry, he is crying.

But we are trying to destroy childhood. Sooner or later he will follow us, he will also look at the clock, and when the three hours are complete he will give a cry that he is hungry. This hunger will be false, and when hunger goes false everything goes false.

We go on forcing children to go to sleep when we think it is time. But sleep is not to be manipulated by time, sleep is something inner. When the child feels sleepy he will go to sleep, but mother and father go on forcing the child to go to sleep, as if sleep can be ordered.

Children must think that you are foolish, they think that something has gone wrong in your mind. How can a child force sleep? He can pretend, so when you are there he can close the eyes and when you have gone he can open the eyes, because sleep cannot be forced. Nobody, not even you, can force sleep. If you don't feel sleepy how can you go to sleep?

But this is how society destroys. That's how the Devil persuades, that's how we bring every child out of the Garden of Eden. Remember, not only were Adam and Eve born in the Garden, every child is born there because that is the birthplace, and then society brings the child out. So society is the Devil. Society persuades: Do this, do that, and bring the child out. Make him an ego, make him a manipulator.

And the only miracle that is possible is to enter this Garden of Eden again, to become childlike, to allow nature its flow. Don't block it, don't stand in the way, don't push it; just flow with it. You are nature, you are Tao; you are part of the continuous mystery that is happening. Bankei was right, it is difficult for us because we have become so much addicted to the mind and its manipulation. And even if I say to you, be natural, you will try to be natural and then you will miss. How can one try to be natural? If I say don't do anything you try not to do anything; if I say be inactive then you make every effort to be inactive, but the effort is the activity. So this has to be understood: no effort is needed. Any effort on your part and you will miss the miracle.

Then what is to be done? Nothing is to be done, just a simple feeling -- allow nature. In the beginning it will be difficult because you have always been jumping in the way, always interfering. In the beginning it will be difficult but for just three weeks allow nature. When you feel hungry, eat, when you feel sleepy, go to sleep.

When you don't feel hungry, don't eat. It is not a fast, remember, because a fast is from the mind, and you are feeling hungry but you are on a fast. There is no harm if you don't feel sleepy; there is no harm because the body doesn't need it, so don't force it. Stay awake, enjoy, go for a walk, have a little dance in the room or sing or meditate, but don't force sleep. When you feel sleepy, when the eyes say: Now go to sleep....

And don't force yourself in the morning to come out of bed; allow your inner being, give it a chance. It will give you the indication, the eyes will open by themselves.

For a few days there will be difficulty but within three weeks... and I say within three weeks if you don't interfere; if you interfere, then three lives are not enough. Don't interfere and just wait for things to happen, and allow them. Within three weeks you will fall into nature again, and suddenly you will see that you have been existing in the Garden of Eden and Adam has never been expelled -- he only thinks he has. That's what the knowledge of the fruit means.

You simply think that you have been expelled. Where can you be expelled to? The whole nature is the Garden of Eden -- where can you be expelled to? The whole house is God so where can you be expelled to? Bankei said, "I have entered the Garden again."

Bankei was going to die. The disciples were very worried and they asked, "What should we do? What should we do with your body? Should we preserve it? Should be burn it, as Hindus do, as Buddhists do? Should we bury it in the ground, as Mohammedans and Christians do? We don't know who you are, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Mohammedan? You have confused us too much we don't know who you are, so what should we do?"

Bankei said, "Wait, let me die first. Why are you in such a hurry? The mind always jumps ahead. Why are you in such a hurry? And you call yourselves my disciples? Let me die and do whatsoever you like, because Bankei will not be there. Whether you bury, whether you burn, or whether you preserve, it makes no difference to Bankei; Bankei will not be there. But let me die first then do whatsoever you like. It makes no difference but don't jump ahead. The mind has a tendency to jump ahead, always to jump ahead.

"One minister invited his congregation for a garden party. He forgot a little old lady. Just at the eleventh hour he remembered, so he phoned because that lady was dangerous, very religious, and very religious people are always dangerous. He was afraid that she might create trouble or mischief. She was one of the oldest members of his congregation and contributed to the church and everything. She could create trouble. So he phoned and told the old lady, "Come. Just by mistake I forgot, but forgive me and you must come." The old lady said, "It is too late now, I have already prayed for rain."

There was going to be a garden party and she had not been invited, and she had already prayed for rain so it was too late. See, it was no use; now, nothing could be done. The mind goes on jumping ahead, that is the way of the mind. Make jumps less and less, or if it is very difficult for you, then allow the mind to jog but don't jump ahead. Jogging is meditation, it is a jogging; you are jumping on the same ground and the mind is accustomed to jump ahead.

It may be difficult to stop it completely, so do half-half -- don't jump ahead, jump on the ground, jog. Half is cut. Then, by and by, slow down; then stand, then sit down. When you are here and now, sitting totally, not jumping ahead, the miracle has happened. To be in the moment is the miracle.

But I know Bankei will not appeal to you. Sai Baba can appeal to you because with Sai Baba your mind has a logic, a tuning. With Bankei your mind cannot be tuned, it has to be dropped -- only then can that tuning happen. With Sai Baba you can understand things -- with logic it is the same -- what your mind says is that a miracle is happening.

This is not religion at all, this is simply magic. And there is no difference between a Houdini and a Sai Baba. The only difference, if there is any, is that Houdini was more honest than Sai Baba because he simply said that he was a magician, that these were tricks. And all that Sai Baba can do, any magician can do, but you will not pay much respect to a magician because he is so sincere and honest that he says, "These are tricks." So you say, "Okay, so these are tricks; no miracle."

When somebody says, "These are not tricks, this is a miracle, divine power manifesting through me," then your mind starts jumping. Then you think, "If I can become a close disciple of this man then I also can become somebody, I can also do something."

If you have come in search of such a miracle from me you have come to the wrong person. I am Bankei reborn. I know only one miracle -- to be here and now: when feeling hungry, to eat; when feeling sleepy, to sleep; just to be ordinary and just to be part of the cosmos.

If you are in search of such a miracle much can happen near me, but if you are not in such a search nothing will happen near me. And remember, you will be responsible for it because your whole search is wrong, and then there can be no tuning with me. So decide clearly in your mind, come to an understanding of what type of miracle you are searching for.

I can make you most ordinary, I can make you simple human beings, I can make you like trees and birds. There is no magic around here, only religion, but if you can see, this is the greatest miracle.

Anything more?

Question 1

OUR BELOVED MASTER,
YOU WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT FOOD, AND NOW IN THE WEST FOOD IS A
BIG CULT. IT'S ONE OF THE THINGS COMING IN AS A BASIS OF
SPIRITUALITY.

YOU SAID IF WE'RE NATURAL, WE'LL KNOW WHAT TO EAT AND WHEN TO
EAT, BUT NOW WE ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH OUR CHILDLIKE NATURE.
ALSO, MANY RELIGIONS SAY THAT THE FOOD YOU EAT DOES MAKE A
DIFFERENCE TO ONE'S SPIRITUAL PATH.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT FOOD AS A GUIDE FOR THE WEST?

It is the other way round: food cannot make you spiritual, but if you are spiritual your food habits will change.

Eating anything will not make much difference. You can be a vegetarian and cruel to the extreme, and violent; you can be a non-vegetarian and kind and loving. Food will not make much difference.

In India there are communities who have lived totally with vegetarian food; many Brahmins have lived totally with vegetarian food. They are non-violent but they are not spiritual.

And Jains are the most materialistic community in India, the most attracted by possessions, accumulation; that's why they have become the wealthiest. They are the Jews in India. But a non-vegetarian world in the West is not in any way different from these vegetarian communities in India.

Rather, on the contrary, a very important thing has to be remembered: if you are violent and your food is vegetarian, then your violence will have to find some other way of expression. It is natural, because eating non-vegetarian food gives release to your violence.

So if you know some hunters you may have come to realize that hunters are the most loving people. Their whole violence is released in hunting, they are most friendly, loving. But a businessman vegetarian has no way for his violence to be released so his whole violence becomes a search for wealth and power; it becomes narrowed down.

But it happens the other way round. It happened to Mahavira. Mahavira came from a warrior family, he was a Kshatriya. Violence must have been easy for him, and then a deep meditative effort, a twelve-year-long silence changed his inner essence. When the essence changed the expression changed; when the innermost being changed, his character changed. But that character change was not basic, it was a consequence. So I say to you, if you become more meditative you will become more and more vegetarian automatically. You need not bother about it.

And only if this happens, that through meditation vegetarian food comes into you not through mind manipulation, it is good.But manipulating by the mind, argument, reasoning that vegetarian food is good, that it will help you to gain spirituality, is not going to help anything. Your clothes, your food, your habits of life, your style, everything will change; but this change is not basic. The basic change is going to be in you and then everything else follows.

If you meditate long enough, deep enough, it is impossible for you to hurt anybody for food; it is impossible. It is not a question of argument, it is not a question of scriptures, it is not who says what, it is not a question of calculating that if you take vegetarian food you will become spiritual; it is automatic. It is not a question of cunningness, you simply become spiritual. The whole thing seems so absurd. Just for food, killing animals, birds, seems so absurd, it falls down.

Your clothes change automatically; by and by you like looser and looser clothes. The more relaxed you are inside -- loose clothes. Automatically I say; there will be no decision on your part. By and by, if you use tight clothes you will feel uneasy. Tight clothes belong to a tense mind, loose clothes belong to a relaxed mind.

But the inner change is the first thing and everything else is just a consequence. If you reverse the order you will miss then you will become a food addict.

One man came to me. He was just lean and thin and pale, and any moment he could die, and he said, "I want to live only on water because everything else is a hindrance to spirituality. Now I want to live on pure water."

This man is going to die. There have been a few people who have lived on pure water but that happened to them naturally, it cannot be practised. They were freaks, accidents; their body mechanism and chemistry worked differently. It has happened -- somebody can survive on water but nobody can practise it.

Someday science may be able to find the basic chemical change and then everybody will be able to survive on water; then science will change your body chemistry and you will survive just on air. It is possible but you cannot practise it. And the whole effort is meaningless and the whole suffering is unnecessary, but there are mad people who try things like that. It has never happened by effort.

There was one woman in Bengal -- she lived forty years without food, but it simply happened. Her husband died and she couldn't eat for a few days.just out of misery, out of sorrow, she couldn't eat. But suddenly she realized that without eating she was feeling better than ever. Then she realized that in the past whenever she was eating, she was always ill, and suddenly she became healthy as she never was. Then she lived for forty years without eating anything, just the air was the food. And this has happened in many cases.

There was one woman in Europe -- for thirty years she lived without eating. She became a saint because Christians thought it a miracle. They examined her with every scientific instrument to see what was happening and they couldn't find out anything; then it seemed a miracle. It was not a miracle.

Yoga says there is a possibility of a body change, of a body chemistry change. Right now you are doing the same just by an intermediary. You cannot eat sunrays directly because your body chemistry is not in such a state; the mechanism is not such that it can absorb sunrays directly. So first the fruit of the tree absorbs the sunrays, it becomes vitamin B in the fruit, then you eat the fruit, then the vitamin B goes into your body. The fruit is just an intermediary; the fruit is working just as your agent to absorb the sunrays and then give them to you. You can absorb them through the fruit, not directly.

But if the fruit can absorb directly, why not you? So someday there is going to be a scientific discovery that some body changes will help you to absorb directly, and then fruit will not be needed. In the future -- and I think not very long, fifty years -- science is bound to discover it.It has to be discovered, otherwise humanity is going to die because food will not be possible. And birth control is not helping, nothing is helping; the population goes on growing. Some way has to be found so food can be dropped and direct absorption of cosmic rays becomes possible. It has happened in individual cases but it was by accident. If it can happen to one individual, it can happen to every individual but not as an accident; it will happen as a scientific change.

But don't try such things, they are not spiritual. Even if you eat sunrays directly there is nothing spiritual. What is spiritual? Just by dropping the intermediary of fruit you become spiritual? If you live only on water, nothing is spiritual.

What you eat makes no difference; what you are is a totally different phenomenon. And when that changes, everything will change; but that change will not be from the mind, it will be from the innermost being. Then things will change automatically.

Sex will disappear by and by. So I don't say be a brahamachari, be a celibate. That is foolish, because if you force celibacy you will become more and more sexual in the mind and your whole mind will become ugly and dirty; you will think only of sex and nothing else. That is not the way. you will go crazy and insane. Freud says that ninety percent of madmen are mad because of repressed sexuality.

I don't say change sex, I don't say change food; I say change your being and then things will start changing.

Why is so much sex needed? Because you are tense, sex becomes a release. Your tensions are released through it -- you feel relaxed, you can go to sleep; if you repress it, you remain tense. And if you repress sex -- the only release, the only possibility of release -- what will happen? You will go mad. Where will you release your tensions then?

You eat food; it is needed by the body, and the body rejects only things which are not needed. Whatsoever you are eating is somehow needed by the body. If you are taking animal food, if you are taking non-vegetarian food, your mind, your body, your whole being is violent. And it is needed. don't change it otherwise your violence will have to find another channel.

Change yourself and food will change, clothes will change, sex will change. But change should come from the innermost core, it should not come from the periphery. And all turmoil is on the periphery; deep down there is no turmoil. You are just like the sea -- go and watch the sea. All the turmoil, all the waves clashing, is just on the surface; deep, the deeper you go, there is more and more calm. At the deepest part in the sea there is no turmoil, not a single wave.

First go deeper into your sea so you achieve a calm crystallization, so you achieve the point where no disturbance ever reaches. Stand there. From there every change comes, every transformation comes. Once you are there you have become a master; Now whatsoever is unnecessary can be dropped, and can be dropped without any struggle and fight.

Whenever you drop something by fight, it is never dropped. You can drop smoking by fighting, and then you will start doing something else which will become a substitute. You may start chewing gum, it is the same; You may start chewing pan, it is the same, there is no difference. You need something to do with your mouth -- smoking, chewing, anything. When your mouth goes on working, you feel at ease because through the mouth tensions are released. So whenever a man feels tense he starts smoking. Why is it that through smoking or chewing gum or tobacco tensions are released?

Just look at a small child. Whenever he feels tense he will put his hand in his mouth, he will start chewing his own hand. This is his substitute for smoking. And why does he feel good when his thumb is in his mouth? Why does the child feel good and go to sleep? This is the way of almost all children. Whenever they feel sleep is not coming they will put the thumb inside the mouth, feel at ease, and fall asleep. Why? The thumb becomes a substitute for the mother's breast, and food is relaxing. You cannot go to sleep on a hungry stomach, it is difficult to get sleep. When the stomach is full you feel sleepy, the body needs rest. So whenever the child takes the breast in his mouth, food is flowing, warmth, love. He is relaxed, he need not worry; tensions are relaxed. The thumb is just a substitute for the breast; it is not giving milk, it is a false thing, but still it gives the feeling.

When this child grows, if he takes his thumb in public you will think he is foolish, so he takes a cigarette. A cigarette is not foolish, it is accepted. It is just the thumb, and more harmful than the thumb. It is better if you smoke your thumb, go on smoking to your grave; it is not harmful, it is better. No harm is done but then people think you are childish, juvenile, then people think what you are doing is stupid. But there is a need so it has to be substituted.

And in countries where breast-feeding has stopped, more smoking will automatically be there. That's why the West smokes more than the East -- because no mother is ready to give her breast to the child because the shape is lost. So in the West smoking is increasing more and more; even small children are smoking.

I have heard that one mother said to her child, "I don't want neighbors to tell me that you have started smoking. Be truthful and whenever you start smoking, tell me." The child said, "Don't bother Mom, I have already stopped. It is one year now, that I have stopped smoking. It is one year now so don't you bother, don't you get worried about it."

Small children smoking, and the mother is not aware that it is because the breast has been taken away.

In all primitive communities a seven-year-old child, or even an eight or nine-year-old child, will continue breast-feeding. Then there is a satisfaction and smoking will not be so necessary. That's why in primitive communities men are not so much interested in women's breasts; there is no problem that somebody will attack them. Nobody looks at the breasts.

If you had been given the breast for ten years continuously, you would get fed up and bored, you would say, "Stop now!" But every child has been taken away from the breast prematurely, and that remains a wound. So all civilized countries are obsessed with breasts. Even an old man, dying, is obsessed with breasts, goes on searching for breasts. This seems mad, and it is, but the basic cause is there -- children should be given the breast otherwise they will become addicted to it, the whole life they will be in search of it.

You cannot stop smoking directly because it has many related things, implications. You are tense, and if you stop smoking you will start something else and the other may be more harmful. Don't go on escaping problems, face them. The problem is that you are tense, so the goal should be how to be non-tense, not, smoking or not smoking.

Meditate. Relax your tensions without any object into the sky, allow catharsis to happen. When you are non-tense these things will become absurd, foolish, and they will drop. Food will change, your styles of living will change.

But my insistence is on you. Character is secondary, behavior is secondary, the essential you is the primary thing. Don't pay too much attention to what you do, pay much attention to what you are; being should become the focus, and doing should be left to itself. When being changes, doing follows.

Anything more?

Question 2

OUR BELOVED OSHO,
WHENEVER YOU SPEAK OF OUR FAILINGS, YOU USUALLY MENTION
ANGER, SEX AND JEALOUSY. ANGER AND SEX SEEM FAIRLY
STRAIGHTFORWARD, BUT THERE'S SOME CONFUSION ABOUT EXACTLY
WHAT JEALOUSY IS, AND IT'S HARDER TO GET TO THE CORE.
WOULD YOU TELL US ABOUT JEALOUSY?

Yes, I make more mention of anger, sex, and less of jealousy, because jealousy is not a primary thing. It is secondary, it is a secondary part of sex.

Whenever you have a sexual urge in your mind, a sexual happening in your being, whenever you feel sexually attracted and related to somebody, jealousy enters because you are not in love. If you are in love, jealousy never enters.

Try to understand the whole thing. Whenever you are sexually related you are afraid, because sex is really not a relationship, it is an exploitation. If you are attached to a woman or man sexually, you are always afraid that this woman may go to somebody else, this man may move to somebody else. There is no relationship really, it is just mutual exploitation. You are exploiting each other, but you don't love and you know it, so you are afraid.

This fear becomes jealousy so you may not allow things, you will guard; you will make every security arrangement so this man cannot look at another woman. Even looking will be a danger signal. This man should not talk to another woman because talking.... and you feel afraid he may leave. So you will close all the paths, all the ways of this man going to another woman, of this woman going to another man; you will close all the ways, all the doors.

But then a problem arises. When all the doors are closed, the man becomes dead, the woman becomes dead, a prisoner, a slave, and you cannot love a dead thing. You cannot love one who is not free because love is beautiful only when it is given freely, when it is not taken and demanded and forced.

First you make security arrangements, then the person becomes dead, becomes like an object. A beloved may be a person, a wife becomes an object; a beloved may be a person, a husband becomes an object to be guarded, possessed, controlled. But the more you control, the more you are killing, because freedom is lost. And the other person may be there for other reasons, but not for love, because how can you love a person who possesses you? He looks like an enemy.

Sex creates jealousy but it is a secondary thing. So it is not a question of how to drop jealousy; you cannot drop it because you cannot drop sex. The question is how to transform sex into love, then jealousy disappears.

If you love a person, the very love is enough guarantee, the very love is enough security. If you love a person, you know he cannot go to anybody else. And if he goes, he goes; nothing can be done. What can you do? You can kill the person, but a dead person will not be of much use.

When you love a person you trust that he cannot go to anybody. If he goes, there is no love and nothing can be done. Love brings this understanding. There is no jealousy. So if jealousy is there, know well there is no love. You are playing a game, you are hiding sex behind love. Love is just a painted word, the reality is sex.

In India, because love is not allowed much, not allowed at all -- marriage is arranged -- tremendous jealousy exists. A husband is always afraid. He has never loved so he knows -- and the wife is always afraid because she has never loved, so she knows -- that this has been an arrangement. The parents arranged, astrologers arranged, society arranged; the wife and husband were never asked. In many cases they never knew each other, they had never seen each other. So fear exists. The wife is afraid, the husband is afraid, and both are spying on each other. The very possibility is lost.

How can love grow in fear? They can live together, but that living together is also not living together; they only tolerate together, they somehow carry on together. It is just utilitarian, and out of utility you may manage, but ecstasy is not possible. You cannot celebrate it, it cannot become festive; it will be a burdensome affair.

So a husband is dead before death, and a wife is dead before death. It is two dead persons taking revenge on each other, because each thinks that one has killed the other. Taking revenge, angry, jealous -- the whole thing becomes so ugly.

But in the West a different type of phenomenon is happening which is the same on the other extreme. They dropped arranged marriage and it is good, that institution is not worth keeping, but by dropping it, love has not arisen, only sex has become free. And when sex is free you are always afraid, because it is always a temporary arrangement. You are with this girl tonight, tomorrow she will be with somebody else, and yesterday she was with somebody else. Yesterday the girl was with somebody else, tomorrow she will again be with somebody else; only tonight she is with you.

How can this be very intimate and deep? It can only be a meeting of the surfaces. You cannot penetrate each other because penetration needs seasoning, it needs time, it needs depth, intimacy, living together, being together. A long time is needed then depth opens - - depths talking to each other....

This is just acquaintance. It may not even be acquaintance -- in the West you can meet a woman on the train and make love, and at midnight you drop her at some station. She never bothers that she may never know you again; she may not even have asked your name.

If sex becomes such a trivial thing -- just a bodily affair where surfaces meet and separate -- your depth remains untouched. You are again missing something -- something great, something very mysterious -- because you become aware of your own depth only when somebody else touches it. Only through the other do you become aware of your inner being; only in deep relationship does somebody's love resound in you and bring your depth into being. Only through somebody else do you discover yourself.

There are two ways of discovery. One is meditation -- without the other you search for the depth; another is love -- with the other you search for the depth. He becomes a root to reach to yourself. The other creates a circle, and both lovers help each other. The deeper love goes, the deeper they feel they are; their inner-beings are revealed. But then there is no jealousy. Love cannot be jealous, it is impossible. Love is always trusting, and if something happens that breaks your trust you have to accept it; nothing can be done about it because whatsoever you do will destroy the other.

Trust cannot be forced; jealousy tries to force it. Jealousy tries, makes you make every effort so that trust can be maintained, but trust is not something to be maintained. It is there, or it is not there, and I say that nothing can be done about it. If it is there, you go through it; if it is not there, better separate.

But don't fight for it because you are wasting time, life. If you love someone and your depth speaks to the other's depth -- you have a meeting in being -- it is okay, beautiful; if it is not happening, separate. But don't create any conflict, struggle or fight for it, because it cannot be achieved through fight, and time is lost -- and not only time, your capacity will be damaged. You may start again with another person repeating the whole pattern.

If there is no trust, separate -- the sooner, the better -- so you are not destroyed, so you are not damaged, so your capacity to love remains fresh and you can love somebody else. This is not the place, this is not the man, this is not the woman for you. Move, but don't destroy each other.

Life is very short and capacities are very delicate. They can be destroyed, and once damaged there is no possibility of repairing them.

I have heard that once it happened that Winston Churchill was invited to speak in a small club of friends. Everybody knew that Churchill was a drunkard and loved alcohol very much, and the man who introduced him, the president of the club, said, "Sir Winston has drunk so much wine up to now, that if we pour all the wine into this hall the level will come up to my head." It was a big hall, and he was just joking.

Winston Churchill stood, looked at the imaginary line, looked at the ceiling -- the ceiling was high -- became very sad, and he said, "So much still to be done, and so little time left to do it."

As far as love is concerned, so much is to be done for everyone and so little time is left to do it. Don't waste your energy in fighting, jealousy, conflict; move, and move in a friendly way.

Search somewhere else for the person who exists who will love you. Don't get fixed with someone who is wrong, not for you. Don't be angry, there is no point in it, and don't try to force trust; nobody can force it, it never happens. You will miss the time, you will miss the energy, and you may only become aware when nothing can be done. Move. Either trust or move.

Love always trusts, or if it finds that the trust is not possible it simply moves in a friendly way; there is no conflict and fight. Sex creates jealousy; find, discover love. Don't make sex the basic thing -- it is not.

India missed with arranged marriage; the West is missing with free love. India missed love because parents were too calculating and cunning. They would not allow falling in love: that is dangerous, nobody knows where it will lead. They were too clever, and through cleverness India missed all possibility of love.

In the West they are too rebellious, too young; not clever -- too young, too childish. They have made sex a free thing, available everywhere: no need to go so deep to discover love, enjoy sex and be finished.

Through sex, the West is missing: through marriage, the East has missed. But if you are alert you need not be Eastern, you need not be Western. Love is neither Eastern nor Western.

Go on discovering love within you. And if you love, sooner or later the person will happen to you, because a loving heart, sooner or later, comes to a loving heart -- it always happens. You will find the right person. But if you are jealous you will not find, if you are simply for sex you will not find, if you live only for security you will not find. Love is a dangerous path and only those who have courage can travel it. And I say to you it is the same, just like meditation -- only for those who are courageous. And there are only two ways to reach the divine: either meditation or love. Find out which is your way, which can be your destiny.

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