Chapter #4

the only way to honour existence is to rejoice in it no prayer can be real honour because prayer is basically a demand in fact deep down it is a complaint you are asking for something more it is not gratitude it is just the opposite of gratitude hence, what goes on in the churches and the temples and the mosques and the synagogues is not honour

for existence the real honour can be only one to rejoice in existence’s absolute ordinariness in the small things because there are no great things eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, sitting looking at the stars or at the trees just small things

life consists of all these small things but if you know how to rejoice then the ordinary becomes extraordinary then you know the magic of transformation then the mundane is no more mundane it becomes sacred and to make the mundane sacred is the whole philosophy of sannyas

there is only one real marriage and that is marriage to bliss in fact all other marriages are indirect ways of reaching bliss but when there is a direct route why unnecessarily go by an indirect route? and the experience of thousands of years is that the people who go through the indirect never reach

there are a thousand and one obstacles they get distracted they search for bliss but they attain only misery they hope for heaven but what they gain is only hell

existence has to be approached directly not via anything, no mediator is needed and the direct approach to existence is what i call meditation without any mediator without anybody standing between you and existence when you encounter existence in its tremendous beauty bliss starts showering and it goes on showering it knows no end

there is only one marriage worthwhile and that is being wedded to bliss directly

sannyas can be defined as a marriage to bliss avoiding all other husbands and wives and when you have avoided all in between the philosophies, the religions, the dogmas it is so close that there is not even a single inch’s difference the difference is created by the indirect approach the distance is created by people who are standing between you and the whole

there is no need for anybody no messenger, no prophet is needed god is yours existence is yours as much as anybody else’s

one should take an immediate plunge yes one hesitates a little before one plunges into the ultimate depths of life that hesitation is natural but one has to put that hesitation aside one has to be courageous and it is a single moment’s courage that does the magic

it is just like jumping into cold water if you go on standing on the bank you can go on standing for lives it is only a question of a single moment of courage and risk throw off your clothes and jump in yes it is cold… but only for a moment and then it has tremendous beauty and tremendous freshness aliveness

the false aristocrat is an aristocrat because of birth which is not much, which has no significance birth is the same whether you are born in an emperor’s home or in a beggar’s home the womb is the same the queen’s womb or the beggar woman’s womb it makes no difference at all

the real aristocracy comes from a second birth that is the meaning of sujato

when you become blissful when you become silent when you become loving when you become aware when a second birth happens which is the birth of your consciousness

of your real being not of the body, but of the being and then one has a certain aristocracy

such a person may not have anything he may be a beggar but you will see the grace of the emperor in him you will see him surrounded by a subtle aura of the beyond he is really born others are only half-born they are in a kind of limbo. physically born but psychologically still waiting for birth socrates says, i am a midwife that s exactly the function of a master to help you attain the second birth in india, when a person becomes awakened we call him twice-born, dwija one who has been born again

the first birth brings you out of the physical womb the second birth brings you out of the psychological womb the first birth brings you out of the physical womb into the psychological it creates mind the second birth takes you out of the psychological and brings you to the spiritual it gives you being

and being is immortality, deathlessness

the only criterion that the second birth has happened is total blissfulness in all situations unaffected, untouched by whatsoever happens around failure or success, richness or poverty youth or old age, life or death the wheel of the opposites goes on moving but the man who knows bliss remains centred, unmoved he is the unmoving centre of a moving wheel the centre of the cyclone

there are many kinds of beauties there is the physical beauty which is only momentary it may be there today and tomorrow it is gone in fact it is bound to in fact it is already going down the drain slipping out of your hands every moment

the second layer of beauty is psychological it is of intellect, of aesthetic sensibility the man who has a musical ear or the man who has the sensitivity of a painter in his eyes

his beauty is far deeper than the physical sometimes it happens that the person may be physiologically ugly for example socrates was very ugly, snub-nosed but psychologically, a man of immense beauty if one saw him from far away he was repulsive but if one came in close contact then one would enter into a totally different kind of man because he had such a keen intelligence rarely surpassed and such sensibility such aesthetic transparency that once you looked into his psyche you would completely forget his body

the same seems to be true about jesus physiologically he was not beautiful but psychologically one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth

but there is still a third the ultimate layer of beauty that is of being, is absolutely of your interiority to understand that seeing the body is not enough experiencing the person’s intelligence and sensitivity is not enough

for that only a disciple one who is absolutely surrendered open, vulnerable, is needed

that’s what sannyas is all about being in tune with the master at the deepest level of beauty by-passing the physiological, the psychological just going like an arrow not being stuck at the physiological or the psychological but hitting deep down into the very core of the master only then do you know the ultimate beauty and there resides bliss

the physiological beauty may give you pleasure the psychological can give you happiness but only the spiritual can give you bliss it opens the doors of the kingdom of bliss so one can do two things

either one discovers one’s being and in that very discovery one becomes blissful or one starts becoming blissful and in becoming blissful one discovers one’s being both are the same different aspects of the same phenomenon

if you want to enter from the first door then meditate

then be silent and drown yourself deeper and deeper down to the very rock-bottom of your being there you will find yourself and bliss as a shadow or, if that is not your liking the feminine mind particularly does not like meditation very much it is natural

that’s why there have been very few women buddhas not that there is any intrinsic obstruction for a woman to become a buddha the only reason has been that all the male buddhas have been talking about meditation and meditation does not have much appeal for the woman she needs a totally different approach she will be more interested in blissfulness in something orgasmic in something which is closer to dance, music, poetry in something to which she can abandon herself totally not in something which is a question of self-remembering meditation means self-remembering and blissfulness means forgetting the self totally

when you begin they look opposite

remembering and forgetting are certainly opposites but when you reach closer to your being they become one remembering the self brings you to the real self the unreal self is dropped on the way and in forgetting the self from the very beginning you start dropping the false self a moment comes when the false self is abandoned and the real arises of its own accord

my effort here is to create a balance which has been lacking up to now religion has been dominated too much by the male mind it has been a calamity the woman has been unnecessarily deprived it is very difficult to find women of the calibre of buddha zarathustra, lao tzu difficult for the simple reason that the method they chose was male-oriented

so i am creating a synthesis here those who are male-oriented a few women are male-oriented it is not necessarily so that no woman will be interested in meditation there are a few women who will reach through meditation and there are a few men who will reach through blissfulness but those are exceptions and exceptions cannot be counted they only prove the rule

so for you my suggestion is be more blissful dance, sing, be a drunkard and then it will be easier once the door opens for the drunken people then thousands of women who have been waiting for millions of years to become buddhas and they are all arriving here this may be the first place where thousands of women will become buddhas

i count courage as being the most significant religious quality although in the past just the opposite has been the case cowards, only cowards out of fear, afraid of death hell, punishment, judgement day have been religious

out of fear they were praying doing all kinds of stupid rituals, following utter fools but their orientation was such that they could not be rebellious

they were afraid of rebellion, they had to be obedient obedience has been taught to them as the most fundamental religious quality it is not it may be a quality in an army but it is not a quality of a religious man it is a subtle method of regimentation

the religious person has to be courageous enough to explore because truth cannot be given by the scriptures it is untransferrable bliss cannot be transmitted to you by somebody else you have to seek and search and you have to travel alone and you have to go onto untravelled paths because there are not asphalt ways no superhighways where crowds can go and buses can go and tourists can go one has to go alone and one has to create one’s path oneself by walking on it the path is not already there, it is not readymade

buddha is reported to have said that the way of the true seeker is like a bird flying in the sky it leaves no footprints so no other bird can follow it because there are no footprints left there are no footprints at all existence always remains the same mystery many have experienced it but nobody has been able to demystify it nobody will ever be able to demystify it because when you experience it, it is inexpressible you cannot put it into words, into theories and if one is courageous bliss starts from the very beginning just the idea that you are going into the exploration of the unknown is enough to give the heart a new beat a fresh breeze, a new joy a rebirth, a resurrection truth, bliss, freedom, godliness, love

these are all aspects of one experience and that experience is available only to the courageous, to the rebellious be a rebel

sannyas is a rebellion a rebellion against all tradition a rebellion against all the rotten past a rebellion against all that is dead and a search for the living

a search which will need many many risks to be taken adventures to be accepted challenges to be encountered but it is a joy it is bliss all the way from the beginning to the end

one just has to learn the taste of exploration and then each moment becomes more and more alive more and more festive more and more celebrating and the ultimate celebration is when you have found that you are bliss that bliss is not something outside you that you are god that god is not something outside you that you are freedom, that you are liberation

in that moment the ultimate dance happens it simply explodes in that explosion you are lost and only that which is truth remains that truth is the longing of every heart

man has been told again and again to be perfect that is a wrong beginning to tell somebody to be perfect is to drive him nuts

that’s why the whole of humanity is almost living in a madhouse

perfection is not something that one can achieve it is a by-product of blissfulness remember the word by-product you cannot achieve it directly it comes as a shadow of blissfulness so i don’t say to you to be perfect i say to you to be blissful and perfection will follow of its own accord in its own time and who cares for perfection? if you have a need it is only the miserable person who cares for perfection the blissful person has no need for it and this is one of the fundamental laws of life if you are in need you will not get it existence functions almost on the same lines as banking

the bank is not going to give to you if you don’t have any need the bank is after you existence is always willing to give to you if you don’t need the needy person is a beggar and existence does not like beggars the person who is blissful is an emperor and existence loves emperors

so be blissful, rejoice and don t bother about perfection it comes it inevitably comes and when it comes on its own it has a tremendous beauty

my only discipline is to be blissful no other discipline is needed no moral commandments no shoulds, should-nots just a simple message to be blissful in whatsoever you can be, be blissful and if one can imbibe the spirit of bliss then many things follow

a blissful person is bound to be loving you need not tell him love thy neighbour as thyself you need not tell him love thy enemy as thyself because when somebody tries to love their neighbour that love is false, the very effort makes it false when one tries to love one’s enemy one knows perfectly that he is the enemy otherwise, why should one try to love him? one knows he is the enemy but one has to try because jesus says so and that is the only way to reach paradise

so it has to be done somehow one pretends, one creates a pseudo kind of love and the pseudo kind of love is very saccharin It is not even sugar, it is not even sweet it is saccharin, it tastes a little bitter and because it is false the other person will immediately see it as false and will feel humiliated, insulted

friedrich nietzsche has said, and said rightly that jesus is not right when he says if somebody hits you on one of your cheeks give him the other too and i agree with nietzsche far more in that matter because he says this is very insulting to the other person it is humiliating you are trying to be superior and higher you are trying to be superhuman you are reducing the other person to a cockroach he is also a man, he needs equality you are trying to be superior

i agree with nietzsche if somebody hits you on one cheek give him a good hit on the other immediately that proves equality it does not give you the idea of holier-than-thou of look, you are hitting me

and i am giving you my other cheek you are just an ordinary human being i am a saint, a sage that is very egoistic

but this is bound to happen if you try to cultivate qualities love, compassion, mercy when cultivated become bogus, false, facades they should come out of your blissfulness

yes, if you are so blissful that you enjoyed one hit on the cheek give him the other also not because you are being superior but because you enjoyed it that’s a totally different approach you are telling him please, one more it brought me to my senses i loved it it made me a little awakened you will be obliged to the person because he has hit you you will not be condescending you will not be trying in any way to be superior if you are full of bliss, you will share your bliss that is natural but you will not be serving people you will be sharing

service is ugly, sharing is beautiful

when you serve somebody you hurt him you humiliate him all christian missionaries are humiliating they are searching for the cripples, for the widows what kind of people are these J if they don’t find any widows or any orphans or any cripples

they will be at a loss what to do? how to reach god? the whole ladder has disappeared they are stepping on these people’s heads they are making their way to god these are stepping stones, not people

a man of bliss shares it is not a question of whether the person needs it or not he simply shares because he has too much out of abundance he shares hence my only discipline is be blissful and everything else follows it

man has tried in many ways to be silent because the world is too noisy it is too much, it is very loud it creates great tension, anxiety, anguish

hence a natural idea arises in the mind of man about how to get rid of it how to hide yourself in some sanctuary monastery, mountain, in a desert where nobody disturbs you where you are left alone to yourself there is great need to be oneself to have one’s own space

this is a logical conclusion because the world is too heavy and sooner or later a person feels crowded overcrowded, crushed, from all sides suffocated because of this suffocation religion became an escape

the conclusion is logical but not real not existential you can escape from the world but you cannot escape from yourself and the real cause of noise is within you not in the world you will quarrel with the monks in the monastery nuns will compete and be jealous of each other even in the desert, sitting alone a crow will start disturbing you and that will be enough, in a desert that is enough in the marketplace you could have forgotten the crow but in the desert a single crow is enough

wherever you go you will carry your mind, your reactions and if there is nothing to worry about you will start worrying about nothing what am i doing here? is it right to be here? is it good to sit alone in the desert when the whole world is suffering? this is escapism and perhaps i am missing something who knows? life is a great opportunity and i am sitting in the desert doing nothing

you will become disturbed about it

you will create new kinds of problems for yourself mind grows problems just like trees grow leaves the conclusion is logical but not real not of real help

so i don’t suggest escapism, i suggest an alchemy to transform your inner being into a song your inner noise into a song because a song is nothing but a transformation of noise

what is music after all? just noise arranged in a beautiful way the same orchestra can drive you crazy just put together thirty crazy musicians who are not in tune with each other at all and that will be enough the same orchestra, the same instruments can create something celestial something of the beyond it is the same noise just a little different arrangement

escape is not needed but a different alchemy is needed

so i don’t say leave the world i say change your attitude, your approach rather than searching for an empty space somewhere search for a blissful song within create it all that is needed is available it just has to be put in the right combination every ingredient is already given you just have to mix it mix it artfully. intelligently and once you have created the song of bliss within you you will be surprised that the whole world has no more difficulties for you you go singing in the marketplace you can sit in the madhouse with absolute joy in fact you can enjoy the mad people i have been doing that for my whole life what do you think i am doing right now? collecting all kinds of crazies, cuckoos and enjoying it, really enjoying it they are beautiful people somebody just needs to know how to enjoy them somebody needs a certain insight

i used to visit the madhouses then finally i dropped it because i saw that the whole earth is a madhouse what is the point of going behind walls outside the walls is the same place

once you have an inner tune then nothing disturbs you then the whole existence becomes a song and a song that contains silence a silence that contains song when song and silence both meet together the ultimate is achieved the Sound of one hand Clapping

[!info] Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)