OSHO : Tao The Three Treasures, Volume 4, Chapter 9
Lao Tzu says:
There is nothing weaker than water but
none is superior to it in overcoming the hard, for which there is no
substitute. That weakness overcomes strength and gentleness overcomes
rigidity, no one does not know; no one can put into practice.
Therefore the sage says: Who receives unto himself
the calumny of the world is the preserver of the state. Who bears
himself the sins of the world is the king of the world.
Straight words seem crooked.
It is said that God created Adam but Adam was dead. Then God breathed in him and he became alive.
The same story is told in many creation myths all over the world: Christian, Hindu, Jewish and many others.
The story seems to be very significant. The meaning is that when you breathe,
you
don't breathe, God breathes in you. The whole breathes in you. This
has to be understood very deeply because the whole method of Tao, the
whole science of Yoga, depends on breath.
Because
this is going to be the last lecture on Lao Tzu I would like to tell
you everything about the system so that if you want you can move into
it; not only think about it but become one with it.
The breath is the most important thing. With it
life starts and with it life ends. It is the most mysterious thing;
without it there is no possibility of life.
Life seems just a shadow of breath. When breath
disappears, life disappears. So this phenomenon of breathing has to
be understood.
Every child born is not really alive until he
breathes. He has just a few moments left. If he breathes after the
birth, in those few moments life enters. If he does not breathe he
will remain dead.
Those first few moments of life are the most
important. The doctors, the parents, all become concerned when a child
is born. Will he breathe? Will he cry and start breathing? Or will he
remain dead? Again, as in all the myths created, in every man Adam is
born again.
The child cannot breathe on his own. To expect
that is impossible because the child does not know how to breathe,
nobody has taught him. This is going to be his first act, so this
cannot be
his act.
Let me repeat it: This is going to be his first
and the most significant act -- that's why it cannot be his act. If
God does it -- okay; if God is not willing -- finished.
The whole has to breathe in him, that's why
those few moments are full with suspense, doubt, apprehension, fear --
because both possibilities are still open. The child can remain dead.
Then nothing can be done. The child cannot do anything, the parents
cannot do anything, the doctors cannot do anything; humanity is
helpless. It is up to the whole.
Only prayer can be done. We can only wait in
deep prayer. If the whole moves into the child, the child becomes
alive, otherwise not.
This first breath is taken by the whole. And if
the first breath is taken by the whole then everything else which
depends on breathing cannot be your act. If you think you are
breathing then you have taken a very wrong step. And because of this
wrong step ego will be created. Ego is accumulated ignorance.
You missed. You have not been breathing, the whole has breathed into you, but you have taken it as if you are breathing.
The first act of breath bridges you with the
whole, makes you one with the whole, and all that follows will not be
your activity; all that is going to happen after this first breath
till you die, till the last breath, is going to be the activity of the
whole. The whole will live within you.
You can think that you are doing all those
things -- then you live in ignorance. If you become aware that the
whole is doing everything, you are being possessed by the whole,
breathed by it, you are just a hollow bamboo, a flute, the sound comes
from the whole, the whole life comes from it -- then you live a life
of enlightenment.
This is the only difference between ignorance and enlightenment.
One step in error, that: "I have done it!" --
and the whole journey goes wrong. One step right, that: "The whole has
been doing it in me, I am not the doer, I am just the field of his
play, a flute of his songs, a reed, nothing more, an emptiness in
which he flows, moves, lives!" -- then you live a totally different
life, a life of light and bliss.
This is the first act, this breath. Many more things have to be understood about it.
If life starts
with breath, and death also, and everything is between these two, then
yoga, Tao, tantra, and all sciences of inner alchemy, cannot neglect
breathing.
Yoga calls it
prana. That word is beautiful. Yoga calls breathing
prana.
Prana means the
elan vital, the very vitality of your being.
It is not just air coming and going through
your lungs. Yoga says the air is just the outer layer of it. Hidden
deep in that layer is vitality.
So breathing has two parts. One: the body of
breathing, made up of oxygen, nitrogen and so on, and, two: the spirit
of breathing, made up of vitality, God himself.
It is like your body is there, and you, your
consciousness, is hidden deep down in your body. The body is a
protection, a vehicle. The body is the visible vehicle for the
non-visible you. And the same is the case with every breath. The
breath itself is just the outer layer; hidden deep in it is life itself.
Once you discover that God himself is hidden in
breath, you have come to know yourself. That's why there is so much
insistence and so much search in yoga, Tao and tantra about breathing.
If you simply go on breathing and thinking that this is just air
coming in and going out you will never be able to penetrate the
mystery of it. And you will remain completely oblivious of yourself.
Then you will remain rooted in the body. You will never be able to
know that which goes beyond the body, that which is within but yet
beyond, that which is hidden in the body but not obstructed by the
body, not limited by the body. A beyond within.
In each breath that life has to be discovered.
Yoga calls those methods
pranayama. The word
pranayama means expansion of life. One has to expand life to infinity in each breath.
Buddha has called his own methods of discovering the innermost core of breath
anapana-sati
yoga: the yoga, the science, of incoming and outgoing breath; and
Buddha has said no other yoga is needed. If you can deeply watch your
own breathing, and watch so meditatively that anything that is hidden in
the breath does not remain hidden but becomes revealed, you will come
to know all.
That looks simple, but it is difficult.
Buddha said to his monks: "Sitting, walking,
standing, whatsoever you are doing, go on doing these things, but let
your consciousness be aware of the breath coming in, going out. Go on
looking at your own breath -- one day with the very continuous
hammering on the breath, the temple opens."
The God is hidden in the temple of the breath.
Suddenly one day you become aware that it is not just air. If for you
it is just air, you have a scientific mind but you don't have the
awareness which can reveal the innermost core of it. Then you can
analyze and come to know how much oxygen is needed, how much hydrogen,
how much nitrogen, how much carbon dioxide, and you can go on playing
with the body of the breath -- but you missed the innermost
real phenomenon.
That's why, if a man is dead, you can give him, pump into him, the right proportion of oxygen, but he will not be alive.
Unless God breathes in it, unless it contains
the innermost consciousness of the whole, it is a dead breath. Oxygen
will pass through the lungs -- nothing will happen.
Breath is the first action -- and it is not your action.
The second action is thirst. That too is not
your action. What do you do to feel thirsty? If it happens, it
happens; if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Can you
try
to feel thirsty? That is impossible! It happens deep inside you. God
breathes in you, God feels thirsty in you -- or the whole does; when I
say God I mean the whole. The part is just a part.
After the child has taken his first breath the
second phenomenon will arise in him -- and now there is going to be a
chain, and the whole chain has to be understood.
Thirst will arise. Then hunger will arise. Then
there will be a need for physical activity. Then sex will arise. Then
there will be a need for mental activity. Then love will arise. Then
there will be a need for aesthetic activity: poetry, painting,
music.... These are eight activities. And then the ninth, the last,
arises: the need for spiritual activity -- meditation,
samadhi.
And this is the beauty of the whole phenomenon
-- that the ninth is again the first, because the ninth again pays
attention to breath. The circle is complete. First is breath, ninth is
again breath; that's why no spiritual science can neglect breathing.
Even God can be neglected -- Buddhism does not believe in God, does
not believe in soul -- that can be neglected; but breathing cannot be
neglected.
Mohammedans and Christians may be having
different conceptions of God, Hindus again different, Jains...but
nobody can neglect breathing. Breathing is first and breathing is
going to be last. Spiritual activity is coming back again to the first
breath, to the original purity.
Now I would like to discuss all these phenomena, because that is your whole life.
First is breath, second thirst, third hunger.
There are people who finish at the third, who think: eat, drink, be
merry is all. Their life is not complete; they cannot feel fulfillment
because the circle is not complete. Fulfillment means that you have
completed the circle, the last has joined with the first -- then there
is fulfillment.
People who you find fulfilled are a circle, not
a line. A line is always incomplete. All desires move in a line,
that's why no desire can ever be complete, because no desire moves in a
circle. It is linear. It always moves, but is always incomplete.
Wherever you stop -- ten thousand rupees or ten
million rupees, it makes no difference; wherever you stop, you are
hanging. The thing is not complete; something is missing. You can
become rich, you can become very powerful, but it will not be
contentment. Contentment is only when your life energy becomes a
circle.
Have you watched how the whole existence moves
in a circle? The seasons move in a circle, the stars move in a circle,
suns and planets move in a circle, the whole moves circularly, as a
wheel? In life, in existence, nothing is linear. Everything is
circular. And if you want to live a life of the whole you have to
follow the ways of the whole: move like seasons, move like stars. Become
a circle. When I say become a circle I mean come back to the original
source.
Breath,
thirst, hunger -- these are the first three steps. If you move only up
to the third you have not entered the temple, you will be on the
steps.
The fourth is physical activity. There are
people who go up to the fourth. To them, physical activity becomes a
sort of meditation.
In fact everything can become a sort of
meditation, because in everything there are two dimensions -- just as
there are in the first breath: the outer and the inner.
That's why fasting has been used. To fast is to
try to discover in hunger the other dimension. Fasting means an
effort to move into the desire of hunger and to come to know that; the
divine. That's why fasting became so important in so many religions.
It can give you a glimpse.
If you fast long the glimpse is possible. But I
am not in support of it because you are not making the whole circle.
You are jumping, not moving gracefully. From the third, hunger, you
are trying to reach the first. It will be a small circle, not the
whole compass of life. It will not be very comprehensive. It will not
be very rich.
That's why
people who have attained to any spirituality by fasting you will
always find a little stupid. Moving among Jaina monks for many years I
was suddenly surprised: I had never come across a really intelligent
man. They all looked stupid.
The reason is deep. The reason is: they have
been depending on fasting. They are trying to find a short-cut. Beware
of short-cuts. Life doesn't like short-cuts because then you can move
to the source without growing. You bribe, you don't grow. From hunger
you can jump -- that means without knowing the whole complexity of
life, the life of sex, love, aesthetic activity. You remain
impoverished.
What I am saying is a fact -- you can go and
look at Jaina monks; they are pure people, but stupid. Nobody can say
anything against their purity. Pure they are, sincere they are,
serious they are, but they have chosen a short-cut. They have been
trying to bribe existence and reach home before their time. One can
reach, but one will reach without growing, without maturity. A certain
type of childishness you will find in them. Purity, but not
enlightenment.
The fourth is physical activity. You can move
from the fourth again -- from any point you can move to the source,
you can drop out of the journey of the total circle.
Physical activity has been used by hatha yoga.
Hatha yoga developed a total science out of it: how to move just by
physical activity, by sheer physical force, to the source.
Hatha yogis are powerful people, they have
control over their bodies -- nobody can claim that much control. They
can lie down underneath the earth for months, even for years.
One fakir in Egypt remained underground for
forty years. The people who had buried him all died. And he had told
them: "After forty years you should open my tomb, break the seal and
open the door of my underground chamber. And after forty years I'll be
coming back -- alive."
People who knew about him by and by died. In
fact, he was forgotten. It was just a coincidence that somebody was
doing some research work and was looking in old newspapers and there
he found the news.
He was buried in 1880. And in 1920 he was
discovered. The tomb was opened -- he was alive. And he lived three
years more after it; and he was perfectly healthy.
Many cases with fakirs and hatha yogis are
known: they can take any sort of poison and it will not mix in their
system. It will go in their stomach and they will throw it in the
urine, but it will not mix anywhere. X-rays have been taken and it
seems miraculous that the poison passes through not mixing with anything
in the body. There seems to be a subtle protection around the blood.
By sheer willpower, by sheer physical force,
hatha yogis have attained many things. But nothing of spirituality,
nothing of real growth. If you look in their faces you will find them
almost dead. If you look in their eyes you will not find the glimmer
of intelligence, understanding.
Physical activity can sometimes also give you a
feeling, a glimpse. Running fast, completely absorbed in running so
that the whole energy has become running, suddenly you can have
glimpses of the original being. Beautiful. That's why so many people
become attracted to athletics. It gives glimpses.
There are reports that people on the front in war sometimes attain to glimpses of the origin.
That may be one of the causes of the attraction
of war, because in violence, in deep violence, your physical capacity
is used to the utmost. And when the physical capacity is used to the
utmost suddenly you relax -- back to the first state. You become like a
child.
This has been my experience with many soldiers.
I have many followers in the army. They are innocent people -- more
innocent than people who are in the market, more innocent than
business men, a childlike quality is in them because they are doing so
much physical activity the whole energy is absorbed, they cannot be
cunning. Even generals are childish, simple. That's why soldiers can
follow any type of order -- even foolish orders. If you tell them to
jump and die, they will die, because they have been trained to follow;
they will not give a second thought to it. They are just like
children.
But again the circle is not complete. You have jumped from the middle.
After the fourth is the fifth, sex. If you really move deep in sex you will have glimpses of
satori, of
samadhi.
Just between physical activity and sex the half circle is complete --
that's why sex is so important. Between the physical activity and sex
the circle is half complete.
And there is more danger now because one can
take sex as the total, as the all, as the goal. It can give you a few
glimpses. If sex really happens if you allow it to happen if you
become possessed by it so you are not
doing it, you are
possessed by it, the energy is doing something, you are just a spectator
at the most, then there happens an orgasm, a deep blissful state.
That is dangerous because you can mistake it as the goal. Many people
have mistaken it for the goal.
Very few people are clinging to the second
stage -- thirst, very few people; there have been a few sects in the
world who have tried to remain thirsty for long periods, particularly
in deserts. There have been a few sects of monks who have tried to
remain thirsty, just like fasting, to bridge a direct line with the
original source, to fall back.
More often than that, hunger has been used. In all the religions of the world there are trends, sects which use fasting.
And physical activity is used even more often than hunger.
Just a few days ago I was reading about a new
training which every day is becoming more and more attractive in
America: EST. This man, the founder of EST, Erhardt, forces people for
four, five days to sit for hours together -- twelve hours, fourteen
hours, sixteen hours, you are not even allowed to go to the bathroom;
you have to sit; you are only allowed to go to the bathroom at
particular times -- six hours you will have been accumulating urine in
the bladder. It is sheer willpower, it is painful but you have been
holding it -- it is a sort of hatha yoga -- for up to ten hours,
twelve hours, and then suddenly you are allowed to go. The bladder
relaxes, and you have a beautiful pleasant feeling all around the body
inside and out. This is an old trick. Hatha yogis have been doing
many sorts of tricks like that. You can attain a glimpse.
If you fast you have to use will. With too much
physical activity you have to use will. Gurdjieff used physical
activity very much. He would say to people: Go on working for twelve
hours until you fall -- not that you stop, you fall down, you cannot
do anything more, you see yourself falling; you cannot do anything,
the legs won't move, they wobble, and you are just a watcher and you
cannot do anything because you have done whatsoever could be done and
you fall to the ground. That falling would give a beautiful glimpse.
Whenever -- and
this is the rule: whenever the whole takes possession of you and
your ego is no more functioning, the whole functions; then you have a
beautiful feeling; but these beautiful feelings are not the goals.
They are toys to play with, chocolates -- nothing more; chocolates on
the path of spirituality. Enjoy them but don't cling to them, they
cannot be food, they are not nourishing.
The fifth is the most dangerous because the most potential. Tantra has used the fifth to bridge the gap. From sex to
samadhi, the gap can be bridged very easily But still it is not complete.
If you move beyond sex then a different type of activity arises in you: intelligence.
A sort of genius is released. You can observe
this. People who are deeply intelligent you will always find
bachelors. The reason is their whole energy has been absorbed by their
mental activity. They attain to their orgasms through their minds.
That's why all over history people who have attained to great mental
activity you will find always bachelors. Or even if they are not
bachelors they are not much interested in sex.
But that too is lopsided. No need to drop sex. Use all that God has given to you. But go on. Make it a step to move further.
If you go beyond sex only then for the first
time your intelligence starts functioning well. You have great insight
into things. Many people cling to that state. They become
theologians, philosophers, thinkers, scientists, and they think the
goal is achieved. The goal is not yet achieved.
If you go
beyond the sixth, mental activity, then love is born. Then your heart
starts functioning. The same energy is moving. The same energy that
took the first breath, was hungry, thirsty, became sexual, became
mental now becomes the energy of the heart. Love arises. But love also
is not the goal.
You can remain in love, it is a beautiful
phenomenon, and you have gone far enough -- it is the seventh step.
Just a little more and the circle will be complete.
People who are of the heart will look to you to
be very evolved: St. Francis of Asissi, and others -- they will look
to you very very evolved, you will have a different feeling of their
being, their quality will be different. If you come near them you will
feel a magnetic force; they will have a field of energy, they can
pull you in. Near them your own heart starts functioning. Very evolved
people -- but still the evolution is not complete.
If you go
beyond love then real aesthetic activity starts. Then poetry arises in
your being. Then for the first time you have the capacity to feel
music. Then for the first time you look around and the beauty of
nature is revealed. Then you listen to the harmony of the universe, the
symphony of the stars. Then everything starts to become more and more
beautiful. Layers and layers of beauty are revealed. Your eyes have a
penetrating force. Wherever you look you go deep. Even in rocks you
feel flowers blossoming. But this too is not the end. Many cling to
this, and there is much temptation because this is just the last step.
The goal is just in front of you. And it always happens when the goal
is just in front of you one relaxes, feeling that one has arrived.
But unless
you become the goal you have not arrived. The
temple may be just in front of you but unless you have become one with
the god of the temple you have not arrived.
These people
, aesthetic people, become great mystics. They talk of the beauty of
God, they have become Bauls, madmen of God, Sufis.... That is the
last. One step more -- and that step is the spiritual.
This ninth step is again the first, the circle is complete. Again you start breathing but not like a child, like a sage.
A child breathes unconsciously. He does not
know what is happening. God has entered in him but he does not know,
he has not heard the footsteps; he was so fast asleep in the womb, so
deep in darkness, he has not seen anything. How could he see? He was
not even alive, he was unconscious.
A child
breathes in unconsciousness. A sage breathes consciously. He is again a
child, a rebirth has happened. Now he breathes but he is aware. This
is
anapansa-sati yoga Buddha.
This is the way of Tao: how to breathe consciously.
One observes. One relaxes into oneself and
looks, looks at the breathing, follows it, moment to moment: incoming,
outgoing; and there are beautiful happenings. When you follow the
breathing you immediately become calm and quiet. The tranquility is
such that you have never known before. Just watch. If you watch the
breathing even for a few seconds, you will feel you are settling
somewhere. A centering happens.
The breathing goes down. Then there is a gap
the breathing stops -- a very small interval. In that gap there is no
breathing only you are only the watcher is -- nothing to be watched.
In that moment suddenly you know yourself.
These are the techniques of
Vigyana Bhairava Tantra,
The Book of Secrets. They were told to Parvati.
Then when the breathing goes out you follow
again; when the breathing moves out of you, then again there is a gap,
a very subtle gap. Breathing stops. The object has disappeared. Only
consciousness. Only
you. Only the seer, the witness. Again
suddenly you are elated. This goes on. By and by breathing becomes an
outer phenomenon. You know that you are, Whether breathing goes on or
stops makes no difference. Then you come to know that you are eternal,
deathless.
Such a man while dying will see his breath has
left him and will be aware, watching it. He will die watchfully, and
one who dies watching, never dies. He has come to know the
deathlessness. Through breathing he has discovered the vital principle
of life. Breathing was just the outer layer of it, the outer shell,
now he has come to know the content. Breathing was just the container.
The circle is complete. And I am for the whole circle.
That's why many times I appear to be against
many religious people. Because they cling somewhere. Good as far as
they go, but one should go the whole way. One should go to the last
point from where no more going is possible.
Jesus says: "Unless you become like children
you will not enter my kingdom of God." I go on repeating it again and
again, in different meanings. People like Jesus have multi-meanings in
their words. Unless you become like a child again, unless you breathe
again in a totally different way, you will not be resurrected, you
will not be reborn. And this rebirth is the goal; the very meaning,
significance of life. Unless you attain to it you are missing something
tremendous -- and it is just by the corner.
And I am for the circle. Move to the very end.
Let the circle have a natural ending. Don't try to find any short-cut.
Then you will be rich -- rich like Lao Tzu, rich like Krishna, rich
like Buddha. Otherwise you can move somewhere from the middle -- but
then you will not be rich.
Don't be clever with life. You cannot be
cunning with life: all short-cuts are cunning. Let life have its own
natural course. You follow it, you don't force it.
And always remember that whatsoever is done is
done by the whole, you are not the doer. If you can remember that,
then breath is his thirst, is his hunger, is his sex, is his love, is
his whatsoever happens is his, death is his. And you remain completely
pure and innocent out of it.
The whole goes on doing, you are not the doer.
This is the surrender, surrendering the ego: I am not the doer. This
is the whole message of the
Gita: Let the whole do, don't you
come in because you are the only barrier. If you come in you commit
sin. This is my definition of sin: If you say: "I breathe," this is a
sin. If you say: "I love", this is a sin. If you say
he breathes this is virtue. If you say
he
loves, this is virtue. And this is not only a saying, you have to
feel it in its totality. Then you are unburdened. Then wings grow on
you, you can fly. Then the gravitation cannot affect you. The
gravitation can affect only the ego.
If
he is the doer, then why be
worried? Then you are not in any hurry to reach anywhere, then you
have no private goal, then his goal is yours, and wherever he is going
he is always right because there cannot be any wrong for the whole.
The whole alone is.
This is the circle of Tao: from breath, unconscious breath, to conscious breath.
And the emphasis of Lao Tzu is continuously
that you can relax. That's why he praises the weak not the strong,
because the strong cannot relax. That's why he goes on praising water
not rocks, because water is flowing, and water has no shape of its
own.
Whatsoever shape is given by the whole, the
water takes it. It does not carry its own mind. If you put it in a
glass it becomes of that shape. If you put it in a bottle it takes
that shape. It does not resist, it does not say: "I have my own shape,
what are you doing to me? Don't force me in this bottle!" Wherever
you put the water, it moves, takes the shape. It is non-resistant. It is
non-violent, non-aggressive. It has no mind of its own.
But a rock? A rock has a mind of its own. If
you want to force it, it will resist. You will have to fight, you will
have to cut it, fight it, much fight will be needed -- only then will
you be able to give it shape. It has its own mind. Water is mindless.
These are symbols.
Lao Tzu says: Be like water, don't be like a
rock, so that you can complete the circle. Move! If God is hungry
within you -- eat! If God feels sleepy within you -- sleep! If God
feels like loving -- love! Move with the God, you don't come in the
way. Let things, the whole, have its own course. You simply follow it.
Even to say follow it is not good because even a follower has some
resistance. That's why he says I am for the lower. You simply be one
with it.
Now the sutra.
There is nothing weaker than water but none is superior to it in overcoming the hard, for which there is no substitute.
He is tremendously in love with water. All the
qualities of water have very symbolic meanings for Lao Tzu; one: it is
soft, has no form of its own.
A man should be like water, with no form, no
mind, no ideology. If you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan you are like a
rock. If I ask you: "Who are you?" and you shrug your shoulders and
say: "I don't know, I don't know, how I can be a Hindu, or how I can
be a Mohammedan?" -- beautiful. That shrugging of the shoulders is
beautiful. You don't have any ideology, you are like water. If you are a
communist or a socialist or a fascist you are like a rock. People
with ideologies are dead. They have a certain belief -- a
form.
And they are resistant. A person who has no belief, no ideology, no
form, belongs to no church, is flowing -- like water. Wherever he
moves, whatsoever situation comes, he responds. He responds always in
the present. A man of ideology is never in the present: he has to look
to the ideology -- how to react? He reacts, he does not respond. He
has already a mind.
If you ask a communist any question the answer
is ready-made. It is already there. He has not to think about it. In
fact he is not answering
you at all. the answer was already
there before you talked to him. He is just giving a ready-made answer,
a cliché. He has learnt it by heart. It is not a conscious
phenomenon. He is not in this moment. He repeats like a parrot. He may
be repeating
Kapital or
Koran -- it makes no difference.
A man who is really alive is responsive. He has
no answers. When the question arises he responds to the question --
and the answer is created. In fact he is as much surprised by the
answer as you will be surprised. He never knew it! Because there was
no situation like this before. He is like water. Water is soft.
The second thing: Water is always flowing low,
"low-wards," finding, seeking low places, valleys. That too is very
very important for Lao Tzu. He says: Never try to go upwards, because
then there is fight, because all are going upwards. Never try to go to
New Delhi because everybody is going there; there is going to be
competition, jealousy, fight, struggle. Move to the valley where nobody
is going. Don't be like fire, be like water.
Fire moves upwards, water moves "low-wards," it
always goes towards the ocean, the lowest place in the world. It
seeks the low. If it can find a still lower place it immediately
starts moving. It is always for the lowest place. Why? Because the
lower you move, the less competition, the less violence, the less
aggression -- and you are not fighting with anybody;. and if you fight
with anybody one thing is certain: you cannot live yourself. The whole
energy becomes fight.
Politicians never live their lives. They don't
have any time, They don't have any space, they don't have any energy
to live their life. They are always fighting others. They end
fighting.
A man who wants to live, should never be a politician.
Water is very non-political.
Be like water. Move, find the lowest place
where nobody is to compete, because nobody wants to go there. Then you
can relax. Then you can be yourself. And that is the glory. If you
can be yourself you will become a god.
Because you are a god, it just has to be
discovered. You already have it within you, you just need time, space,
relaxation, leisure so you can relax on a beach, lie down naked under
the sun on the sands -- and not a worry in the world. Because you are
not a fighter, you are not in any competition. This is renunciation.
Not that you go to the Himalayas -- because
those who go to the Himalayas, they are seeking the peaks. And even in
the Himalayas there is much competition. Gurus are in much
competition: because somebody has more followers than you there is
trouble; or someone has made a bigger
ashram than you -- then there is trouble. Even in the Himalayas there is politics.
The
sannyasins, the old
sannyasins,
are really politicians of the spiritual. They are moving higher.
Their heaven is there, high in the skies! And Lao Tzu says: My heaven
is there -- low, the lowest place in the world, where I can be myself,
nobody bothers me and I don't bother anybody.
This is renunciation. You can live in the
world, then there is no problem, if you just know not to be a
competitor, because competition is for the ego. For the being, for
your real being, no competition is needed; you are already that, the
highest, so why bother for height?
Lao Tzu says this: Only inferior persons, people with inferiority complexes, try to reach the heights.
All politicians suffer from an inferiority
complex. They need treatment, psychological treatment. They need much
cleansing. They are inferior people -- deep down they suffer from
inferiority. To hide that inferiority they fight to go high. When they
reach, they become prime ministers and presidents, then they can say
to the world: "Who says that I am inferior? Look! If I was inferior then
how could I have attained to such heights? I am superior."
The longing for superiority belongs to the
inferior man. A superior man doesn't bother. A superior man can afford
to be inferior -- remember this. A superior man can afford to be
inferior because it makes no difference, he is so superior; he
is
superior, there is no point in becoming a president of a country.
That will not add anything to his stature; rather, it may degrade him.
Water has that quality of going low. And Lao Tzu says:
There is nothing weaker than water and yet none is superior to it in overcoming the hard.
Water overcomes. Go and see a waterfall. The
rocks are so hard and the water so soft but rocks have been
disappearing by and by. They have become sand already.
Scientists say that within seven thousand years
the fall of Niagara will disappear, because all the rocks will
disappear. The water is cutting the rocks continuously. Within seven
thousand years there will be no fall because there will be no rocks.
The whole hilly track will disappear. Rocks could not believe it --
how does it happen! Water, so weak -- and still it cuts deep.
Weakness also
has a subtle strength in it. And you also know this if you are a
little observant, you can see in life how it happens.
Woman is weak, man is hard, but always the
woman wins and the man is defeated. Always. And even a great man like
Napoleon, and people like that, they become like children before their
women.
Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, could not
believe how this man could win so many battles. She has written in a
letter: "It is simply unbelievable because this Napoleon is nothing!"
The last battle in which Napoleon was defeated, he was defeated
because of Josephine, because the moment he was leaving the house she
said: "No!" Just to see what he would do. And when the woman had said
no, how could Napoleon go? So he had to stay. He reached the front one
hour late. Because he always used to plan the whole war of the day,
that day he couldn't plan it, somebody else had to plan it -- and he
was defeated on that day. He was late -- he was never late in his
life, this was for the first time. In fact it was not Napoleon who was
defeated, it was a woman who had a victory that day. She said: "No, I
say, no!"
Why do women become so powerful? Weakness is
their secret, they are weak like water. In the beginning you say:
"What can they do?" You are like rocks. But in the end you know, you
have become like sand. All husbands by and by are converted to
henpecked husbands. It is natural! If it has not happened to you
something is wrong. And nothing is wrong in it.
It is said, it is an old story, that once Akbar
asked his wise man, Birbal: "What do you think? Sometimes I become
worried. All the people in my court look henpecked. Is there not even a
single brave man?" Birbal said: "Difficult, but we will try to find
one."
They were all brave men, they could put down
their life in a single moment if it was ordered. Their bravery was not
in any way suspected. Birbal made arrangements; he said: "Tomorrow,
come decided that you will assert the truth. Anybody who tells a lie
is going to the gallows. Think over it: the king wants to know the
truth, whether you are afraid of your wife or not."
They all came. The king asked: "Those who are
afraid of their wives should come to the right, and those who are not
afraid, only they should remain on the left." All moved except a
single tiny man. Even Akbar could not believe that this man whom he
had never thought could be a brave man.... But at least seeing that
one was there he said: "I am happy because I was thinking that not even a
single man would be there." That man said: "Wait! Don't be happy so
soon. When I was coming my wife said: 'Don't stand in the crowd!'
That's why I am standing here."
It is natural -- the feminine principle wins.
And Lao Tzu is all for the feminine principle. Why does the woman win?
She is so soft. In fact she never fights, she persuades. She does not
fight directly, her fight is very indirect and subtle. If she wants
to say "No," she will not say "no" directly, but in a thousand and one
ways her whole being will say "no." In the way she puts the plate
down she will say "No," in the way she moves -- her sari will make a
sound and say "no." She will not say "no," she will say "Yes," but her
whole being will assert the "No." And when it is so subtle how to
defeat it? If you love the woman you are defeated.
And it is good that the hard is defeated and the soft wins because that is the only possibility for God to win in the world.
The devil must be like rock. Hard. God must be
soft. In fact in the East we have never thought of God as father, we
have been thinking of God as mother. That insight is beautiful: God
should not be thought of as father because then -- the male principle
is hard. He should be thought of as mother, feminine.
God the mother seems better than God the father because his ways are also very subtle.
He persuades you to come towards him, he never
forces you. You never meet him anywhere and still you go on searching
for him. You never encounter him because that too will be too "hard."
To be just before your eyes like a rock, a Himalayan rock, no, that
won't be good. He follows you as a subtle aroma. You never encounter
him. You would never come face to face with him. You will find him
deep in the stirrings of your heart. You will not find him like a storm,
he comes like a subtle breeze. Only those who are very subtle will be
able to feel it. He comes like a flower.
In India we made the image of God in stone.
That should not be done. To compensate we go and put flowers before
it. A flower is more godlike than the stone. In fact stone images
should disappear from the world. A flower is enough! Put the flower
there -- and that becomes god. God is like a fragrance, not like a
French perfume, so strong and aggressive, no, but very subtle, silent,
non-aggressive. Only sometimes when you are tuned, you feel it; you
miss it again and again. It is the music of the silence.
There is nothing weaker than water
but none is superior to it in overcoming the hard, for which there is
no substitute. That weakness overcomes strength and gentleness
overcomes rigidity, no one does not know; no one can put into
practice.
It is very difficult to
know it. To
understand it is possible; to know it, difficult. Knowledge is too
gross. If you go to know it, you will miss it. But you can understand
it -- what I call a tacit understanding is possible. If you watch life
not in any way trying to know it....
There is a difference. If a scientist comes to
this garden he will move aggressively, not that he will be aggressive,
but he will move aggressively. His eyes will have aggression, he will
look at the flowers, at the trees, to penetrate their secret, to know
their nakedness, to know what they are. Science is like rape. It is
not like love. He will cut, dissect, he will try to penetrate
forcibly. to the secret.
Then comes a poet or a painter or a musician.
He moves, but his movement is totally different. He moves watchfully
of course -- it is holy ground, to be near a flower is to be near a
temple, to be near an alive tree is to be near God. It is holy ground
-- he moves very cautiously, he is watchful, alert, but he does not
rape, he does not jump and be aggressive on he waits, waits with deep
receptivity. If the plant has to give something he is ready, he will
receive it with deep gratitude; but if the plant is not willing, let it
be so. Then nothing can be done. A musician, a painter, a dancer, a
poet, waits in receptivity: If you have something to give to me, if
you feel that I am worthy of it, the plant, then I will receive it in
deep gratitude; but if you feel I am not worthy, that's okay. Nothing
can be done, I am helpless. He waits like a beggar. Not like Indian
beggars, because they are very aggressive, their begging is very
violent. No, he begs like a beggar if you call Buddha a beggar -- yes,
we have called him
bhikkhu, a beggar, Mahavir too, they were beggars of a totally different quality, of a totally different grandeur.
They were not aggressive -- they would come to
your house, they would stand before your house, if you give, it is
okay, they are grateful; if you don't give, then too they are
grateful. Their gratefulness does not differ by your giving or not
giving. They thank you, they pray for you, they move!
If you stand like that, like a
bhikkhu, his hands spread, his heart open, ready to receive -- but not to take, then nature reveals its mystery.
It is not knowledge, knowledge is too gross a
word. It is a tacit understanding. It is more like love than like
knowledge. You love a person, then you know a person. Loving becomes a
sort of knowing. Remember: "a sort of;" not exactly. It cannot be
scientific, it cannot be mathematical, it cannot be logical: "a sort
of, a kind of." You know deeply,
heart to heart, but you cannot say this is knowledge. That will be too imprudent a word. You know because you love.
Says Lao Tzu:
No one does not know; no one can put into practice.
No one
knows it, no one can practice
it, because to practice such a deep tacit understanding is impossible.
Practice is gross. You can live it, you cannot practice it. You can
know it as an understanding, you can live it, you cannot practice it. A
real man of understanding simply lives his understanding, he is not
practicing.
People ask me: "When do you meditate?" I don't
meditate. I cannot be so foolish! To meditate means to practice. How
can you practice it? You can be it, but you cannot practice it. People
ask me: "How do you pray?" I never pray. I live my prayers, I don't
pray. Prayer is my way of living, my way of living is my prayer. It is
not separate.
If you understand, you live it. If you know,
then you have to practice it, because knowledge does not transform.
You know something, then the mind asks: "How to do it now?"
All knowledge finally becomes technology,
that's why science has become technology in the West. All knowledge
finally becomes technology because just by knowing, nothing happens.
First you know, then you ask: "How to do it?"
For example, Einstein discovered the theory of
atomic energy somewhere in 1905. The theory was complete. But then
scientists started asking: "How to do it?" In abstraction it was
complete, the theory was absolutely logical and proved as a theory,
but how to practice it? It took forty years to create an atom bomb and
to destroy Nagasaki; then it became technology. It took knowledge
forty years to become technology. Many more things are known but they
will take time to become technology.
All science by and by is reduced to technology.
Religion never becomes a technology, cannot become one, because it is
not knowledge. You understand.... The very understanding is
transforming; you are transfigured, transmuted, you are no more the
same! You see, you watch, you understand a certain thing -- the very
thing has changed your quality of being. Now you live differently. No
practice is possible. Practice of little things is possible, great
things cannot be practiced. Prayer is a great thing. Love is a great
thing -- there can be no "Know-how" about it. Meditation is the last,
the pinnacle. God. How can you practice God? You can become, but you
cannot practice. And you can become because you already
are
-- just a little understanding.... You are standing in the dark; just a
little light, a little illumination, and everything changes.
Lao Tzu says you cannot know it, you cannot practice it, but, the sage says:
Who receives unto himself the calumny of the world is the preserver of the state.
Who moves lowest is the sage, and who takes on
himself the whole responsibility of the whole darkness of the world,
who becomes like a Jesus -- he preserves the world. The world is not
preserved by politicians, they are pretenders; the world is preserved
by very few people who may not even be known to you, because even to
know them is difficult, they live so ordinarily; they are lost deep in
the woods of the world, you may not be knowing them.
There is a story in the Bible, a beautiful
parable. There was a town called Sodom. From that town comes the word
"sodomy." The people had become very corrupt. All sorts of sexual
perversion were prevalent. People were homosexual, people were making
love to animals -- the whole town was perverted. God decided to
destroy the town. But there was one difficulty: there was one good man
in the town. Unless the good man could be persuaded to leave the town,
the town could not be destroyed.
Angels were sent to persuade the good man:
"Please, leave the town. Because of you the town cannot be destroyed."
But the good man was difficult to persuade. He said: "I am needed
here! Where should I go? These people are ill, these people are
perverted, their lives are miserable, they live in hell -- I am needed
here. And I am responsible for these people! Because they
don't know and I know -- that's why I am responsible. Look!" he said,
"because they don't know, how can you tell them they are responsible?
They are doing all sorts of things unknowingly. They are completely
oblivious, ignorant, not remembering what they are doing. They are as
if drunkards. I am the only one who knows what is happening, and if I
go, then who will save them? I am responsible for them."
So it is said the good man was persuaded in a
very cunning way. He was told: "There is another town, Gomorrah, where
people are even more corrupt. You please go there." So when the man
was going to Gomorrah, Gomorrah and Sodom were both destroyed. Because
he was just in the middle.
The world
is preserved by very few people, a few people of crystal purity, of
childlike innocence -- but they feel responsible. Because they are
aware.
It is said that when Buddha reached
nirvana,
the last ultimate home, the doors were opened, there was great
celebration, because centuries and centuries pass, then only one
person comes and enters in those gates. But Buddha would not enter. He
stood at the gate, his back towards the gate. They were worried, they
asked: "Why are you standing there? The door is open and we have been
waiting for you and there is much celebration and much jubilation --
Come in! Be a guest!"
The Buddha is reported to have said: "How can I
come in? The whole world is suffering. I will stand here until the
last man passes by, enters into the ultimate. I will have to wait -- I
will be the last, I feel responsible. I am aware, and they are not
aware so they cannot be responsible, but I am responsible."
The more aware you become the more responsible
you become, the more you feel, the more you become a help -- not that
you start serving people, but your whole life becomes a service. Not
that you are doing something for them out of any obligation. No, you
are simply fulfilling your own awareness.
Who bears himself the sins of the world is the king of the world.
Those are the real kings, who are not known to
history. History goes on talking about mock kings, false kings.
History has not yet become a really authentic phenomenon, otherwise it
would talk about Buddha, Lao Tzu, it would talk about Kabir and
Krishna and Christ, it would talk about Mohammed and Mahavir, it
wouldn't talk about Napoleon, Hitler, Mao Tse-tung, Stalin, it
wouldn't talk about these people.
These people are just mischievous, they are the
mischief-makers. They are like diseases, they have to be eliminated.
Because of them, the earth is a hell.
But history goes on talking about them, and
every child is corrupted by history: talking about foolish, stupid
people, mad, neurotic, perverted, and not talking about those who have
attained to themselves. They are the real kings of the world.
Strange words seem crooked.
And Lao Tzu says: these words are very strange. But they will look crooked to people because
they are crooked.
OSHO : Nothing Weaker Than Water, Volume 4, Chapter 9 
