Saturday, July 16, 2005

I HAVE NO PHILOSOPHY AT ALL

I HEAR SO MANY STORIES ABOUT YOU,
ALL CONTRADICTING EACH OTHER.
EVEN ABOUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY,
NO TWO DISCIPLES OF YOURS SEEM TO AGREE.
WHY IS IT SO?


I HAVE NO PHILOSOPHY AT ALL. So how can my disciples agree on anything?

I have no dogma, no creed. My assertions are not philosophic, but poetic. My assertions are not about the truth, they are only devices to help you awake. For one disciple I create one device, for another another. How can they agree?

They will agree only when both have become awakened; their awakening will be the agreement. But when two persons are awakened they have nothing to say. They may laugh -- their laughters may agree. Or they may cry out of joy -- their tears may agree.

But statements can't agree.You must be new here. Don't be bothered by it. Because I have no philosophy, there can't be any agreement.Secondly, each disciple is personally related to me. My relationship is personal. It is not that you are following a certain philosophy -- you are being with a master, not with a philosophy.
While I am alive why bother about the philosophy?

Leave it for people who will come later on when I am gone. Then there will be much philosophical work -- research and Ph.D.'s and D. Lit.'s. Leave this for other stupid people; you need not bother about it.You are here with me: quench your thirst.

Why should you be asking my disciples about my philosophy? Even if you ask me, you will not find any consistency. One day I say one thing -- and another day is another day! And I have no commitment to the past. When I say something today, I am not thinking at all of all the yesterdays that have passed. I am not obliged in any way to be consistent with the past. And a man who is always consistent with the past is a dead man. In fact he should not live any more -- what is the point?

If he is just going to be consistent with his past, then it is better to close his life.I am still alive. What I will say tomorrow nobody knows, not even me. It is not decided yet; it will happen. You will be surprised by it and I will be surprised by it -- I am always surprised by my own statements.And then there are more than sixty thousand sannyasins now.

And only very intelligent people become interested in me. Mm? -- this is not a place for mediocres. Only very intelligent people gather courage enough to come close to me. Sixty thousand sannyasins means sixty thousand philosophies -- and each person has his own way of understanding what I am saying. And it is perfectly fine; it has to be so.

How can you understand that which I am saying? You can understand only that which YOU are hearing. And there is bound to be a great distance. I say something from my state of consciousness, you hear from your state of consciousness.Slowly slowly, the distance will become smaller and smaller. And one can hope that one day the distance disappears.

But then you will be SILENT.It happened: Mahakashyap was given the flower by Buddha, as a token "Whatsoever can be said has been given to others. And whatsoever cannot be said, I am giving it to you, Mahakashyap." People gathered. They asked Mahakashyap, "Now tell us, what happened?" And he laughed.In the Buddhist scriptures there is not a single statement made by Mahakashyap after this. Before, also, he has not been mentioned.

He suddenly comes to such prominence that all Buddha's other disciples just disappear, and Mahakashyap becomes the most prominent one. One fine morning, Buddha gives him the lotus flower and says, "This is the transmission of the lamp, or transfer of the message beyond scriptures. I have given to you, Mahakashyap, what I cannot give through words."Naturally, people were intrigued, interested. But no statement was made by Mahakashyap, except for a simple saying which has been reported.

And that simple saying is this: "My master is saying it so beautifully -- what is the point of my saying it in any other way? He is doing it perfectly well; I cannot improve upon it. Whatsoever I say will be degrading it, so I will keep quiet."

In old Taoist monasteries, it was an ancient rule: "Say something only if you can improve upon silence." It was written in all Taoist monasteries, on the main entrance gate: "Say something only if you can improve upon silence. Otherwise keep quiet." What is the point of saying something if you cannot improve upon silence?So when a disciple comes very close to me he will not have anything to say.

Meanwhile, he can say many things but they will only represent HIS state of consciousness.

Remember always -- have you read Buddhist scriptures? They always start with this statement: "I have heard such..." All Buddhist scriptures start with "I have heard." Why? It is a significant statement. This statement is made by Ananda, Buddha's great disciple who, when Buddha died, recounted all the stories that Buddha had told -- the parables, the answers, the sermons. But he always starts with "I have heard..."

The meaning is: "I don't know what Buddha said, I know only what I have heard. This is MY statement of what I have heard."Remember, when somebody asks you, "What does Osho say?" say it the way Ananda said it. Say: "I have heard..." Don't claim, "This is what HE says." The only claim, rightful claim, can be this: "This is what I have been hearing -- this may be so, this may not be so."

A story:A hillbilly boy from Nashville, Tennessee, announces to his folks: "I's a'goin to Knoxville, to fetch me a wife."
A few days later, he returns with a nubile young sweetheart called Mary Lou. S
he is introduced to all the family, cramped around the kitchen table of their tiny shack.
Come six o'clock, his father says, "Well, my boy, I guess you two deserve the family bedroom now. Your Maw and Paw can sleep down here."
So the happy couple go off upstairs. Half an hour later, a shotgun blast rattles the timbers. And then the son clambers slowly down the steps from above."Whatever happened?" inquired his mother."I shot her," said the son."Why?""She was a virgin."

The boy's grandpa, who had sat quietly through all these proceedings, was first to break the thunderstruck silence. "Son, I guess you did the right thing -- if she was no good to nobody in HER family, then she ain't no use to any of us!"

Or this second story: Thor came down from Mount Olympus to find, and make love to, a mortal woman. He was handsome and irresistible, so in a short time he found the woman and they jumped right into bed. Now, he was no ordinary lover -- he was the god, Thor -- and the love-making went on for a night and most of the next day.Mission accomplished, he left -- but then thought perhaps he wasn't being fair since he hadn't told the woman that she had been making love with a god. So he went back to her house and knocked on her door and said, "I just thought I should tell you that I am Thor.""You're thor!" she moaned. "I can't even walk!"

From: Take It Easy, Vol 2Chapter #11 9 May 1978 in Buddha Hall, Poona, India

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home