Osho –
Dhammapada: The Way of The Buddha (Volume 7)
Chapter 4. A
real man is unpredictable
Question 1:
Beloved Master,
When the moment comes the leaf lets go its
tender hold and greets its dying with inner grace. Is it then that the way is
open for life to embrace its own e'er the leaf touches down?
Yes, Amitabh, that's the secret
of life and death both, the secret of the secrets: how to allow existence to
pass through you totally unhindered, unobstructed, how to be in a state of
absolute nonresistance. Buddha calls it tathata
- suchness.
The ego is resistance. Let-go
means disappearance of the ego. When you are just a hollow bamboo, existence
sings millions of songs through you. It transforms you into a beautiful flute.
But you have to be a hollow bamboo, utterly empty, so there is nothing to
obstruct the flow.
A total yes is sannyas, an
unconditional yes: yes to all, to life and to death - because death is not
against life but is life's ultimate culmination, its highest peak. Yes to joy
and yes to sadness too, because joy cannot exist without sadness. Joy is
possible only if sadness creates the background. They are joined together so
intrinsically that they are inseparable. And man's whole effort is to separate
them. Man goes on trying to do the impossible - he wants to live without death.
Now that is utter stupidity! Life implies death; death is at the very core of
life. The only way to deny death is to deny life too.
So the people who have tried to
deny death have died; before death has come they are no longer there. They have
not lived at all. In denying death they had to deny life too, because the more
you live the more you become available to death. When life is at the peak,
death is the closest. Avoid death and you will have to avoid the peaks of life.
You will have to live in a lukewarm way, neither dead nor alive, which is far
worse than death itself.
And so is the case with all the
polar opposites: destroy one and the other is automatically destroyed. You
cannot save the other; they are like two aspects of the same coin.
Seeing it, Amitabh, a great
understanding arises. One relaxes. One says yes, to life, to death, to
darkness, to light, to sadness, to joy, to all that is without any choice. That
choiceless understanding is enlightenment, is buddhahood.
You say, "When that moment
comes the leaf lets go its tender hold and greets its dying with inner grace..."
That's how you have to learn to
die. The way of the leaf is the way of the sannyasin too. And your hold has to
be tender; otherwise it will be difficult to let go. Your hold has to be almost
not a hold at all. Your hold cannot be a clinging. Only those people cling who
don't understand this polar game of existence, and their clinging destroys all.
They have to die, but their
death becomes graceless. They have to die, as everybody else, but their death
becomes agony.
The word 'agony' comes from agon - agon means struggle. Agony means
struggle.
They die fighting. The whole
fight is an exercise in futility: they are not going to win, but still they go
on trying. Millions of people have tried and failed; still we are such fools,
we go on repeating the same pattern. We still hope that "Maybe I am the
exception, maybe I can manage somehow."
Nobody has been able to manage,
not because they have not tried enough, not because they have not tried
strongly, but because it is not possible in the very nature of things.
They have done all that can be
done, nothing has been left undone, but death is bound to happen - in fact it
has already happened in your very birth. To be born is one pole; the other pole
is hidden in it.
One starts dying the moment one
starts breathing. The first moment of birth is also the first moment of death.
Yes, it takes seventy, eighty years to complete the process. Death does not
come suddenly after eighty years; it grows, it grows every moment. It is
growing now... Life is one wing, death is another wing, and both wings are
yours. And you are trying to fly with one wing? This is how you create misery
for yourself, failure and frustration. Accept both.
Let your hold be tender, so
tender that it can be dropped at any moment and there will be no struggle in
dropping it, not even a moment's delay - because even a moment's delay is
enough to miss the point, to miss the grace of it.
My work here consists of
teaching you how to live and how to die, how to be joyous and how to be sad,
how to enjoy your youth and how to enjoy your old age, how to enjoy your health
and how to enjoy your illness. If I teach you only how to enjoy your health,
your joy, your life, and the other part is neglected, then I am teaching you
something which is going to create a division in you, a split in you.
I teach you the totality of
existence. Don't possess, don't hold anything, don't cling. Let things come and
pass. Allow things to pass through you, and you remain always vulnerable,
available. And then there is great beauty, great grace, great ecstasy. Your
sadness will also bring a depth to you, as much as your joy. Your death will
bring great gifts to you, as many as life itself. Then a man knows that this
whole existence is his: nights and days, summers and winters, all are yours.
In remaining vulnerable, open,
relaxed, you become a master. That's a strange phenomenon, very paradoxical: in
remaining surrendered to existence you become victorious. And these moments
will be coming to you again and again. My whole effort is to bring more and
more of such moments, such penetrating moments, for you. Don't behave stupidly,
don't go on repeating old strategies, old patterns of your mind. Learn new ways
of being.
And the greatest thing to learn
is not to hold onto anything: to your love, to your joy, to your body, to your
health. Enjoy everything - your health, your body, your love, your woman, your
man - but don't cling. Keep your hands open - don't become a fist. If you
become a fist you become closed - closed to the winds and the rains and the sun
and the moon, closed to God himself. And that is the ugliest way to live; it is
creating a grave around yourself. Then your existence is windowless. You go on
suffocating inside and you are suffocating because you think you are creating
safety and security for yourself.
I have heard an ancient Sufi
parable:
A king was very much afraid of
death, as everyone is - and the more you have, the more, of course, you are
afraid. A poor man is not as much afraid of death. What has he got to lose?
What has life given to him? He remains unconcerned.
That's why in poor countries
you will see again and again a great indifference about death, poverty,
starvation. The reason is, people have lived in such poverty for so long that
now they are not so worried about death. Death comes to them as a relief -
relief from all the miseries and anxieties, relief from starvation, suffering,
poverty.
People coming from richer
countries think, "Why are they so indifferent to death?" The reason
is simple: there is nothing to cling to. Their life has not given anything to
them.
Their life is so poor that
death can't take anything away from them; it can't make them poorer than they
already are. But the more you have, the more you become afraid of death. The
richer the society, the more fear of death.
In poor societies the taboo is
sex, and in richer societies the taboo is death. That is an indication whether
the society is rich or poor - you can just look at what their taboo is.
If they are very much against
sex that means they are poor; if they are very much against death, even afraid
to mention it, that simply means they are rich. Hence it is a very difficult
encounter between poor countries and richer countries - their taboos clash.
This is happening every day
here, because my people have come from all over the world and the poor Indian
society has the taboo against sex. Sex is their problem, sex is their fear.
Birth is their fear, not death. They think of how to stop birth, they ponder
over birth control methods. In richer countries the scientists go on searching
how to postpone death. In poor countries the problem is how to postpone birth.
So the king was very much
afraid, naturally. He had so much and death would take everything away; and he
had wasted his whole life in accumulating. How to protect himself? And in
accumulating so much wealth he had created many enemies and they were always in
search of an opportunity to cut off his head, to shoot him.
He took advice from old, wise
people of his country. They told him to make a castle with only one door - no
windows, no other doors, just a single door to enter into and to come out of.
He would be safe. And on the door he could place a one-thousand-strong security
force so it would be impossible for anybody to enter.
The idea was appealing. He made
a big castle with no windows, no doors, except the one door which was guarded
by one thousand warriors.
The neighboring king, his
friend, was also afraid of death. He heard about this castle and he came to
see. He was very much impressed. He said, "I will immediately start
working, I will immediately create a castle for myself - this is so safe and so
secure!"
When his friend was departing -
the king had come out of the castle to say goodbye to him - he again
appreciated the castle. While he was appreciating the castle, a beggar sitting
by the side of the road started laughing loudly. Both the kings were shocked
and they asked him, "Why are you laughing? Have you gone mad? And don't
you know how to behave in the presence of kings?"
The beggar said, "I could
not control myself. Excuse me! But I used to be a king myself, and let me tell
you the truth of why I am laughing. I have been watching, because I beg here on
this road. I have been watching... the castle is being built, but I am puzzled:
I say to you, there is only one mistake, one error, which is going to prove
fatal."
The king said, "What is
that mistake? You tell us, we will correct it." The king was ready to
listen, and not only to listen but to correct it.
The beggar said, "You do
one thing: you go inside and tell your people to close the door also, forever,
because this door is going to prove dangerous. Death will enter from here!
These one thousand warriors
will not be able to prevent death, they will not even be able to see it. So
close the door completely. Instead make a wall, and you be inside the castle
and you will be safe forever! Nobody can kill you, not even death can enter
in."
But the king said, "That
means I will be already dead! If I cannot come out, what is the point of
living?"
And the beggar said,
"That's why I am laughing. You are ninety-nine point nine percent dead!
Only one door is left, so only that much you are alive."
The more safe you are, the more
dead you are. And this is not a beautiful death, the graceful death of the
leaf, of the rose petal falling towards the ground, moving back to the source.
It is an ugly death, man's invention. A natural death is beautiful; man has
made it ugly. Man has made EVERYTHING ugly; whatsoever man touches becomes
ugly. If he touches gold it turns into dust.
Amitabh, let this understanding
penetrate as deeply as possible. Let this become your very core, your insight.
Yes, it is so. Don't possess, don't hold tight. Remain relaxed, remain nonpossessive.
If something is available, enjoy it; when it disappears, let it disappear with
gratitude - gratitude for all that it has done for you, with no grudge, with no
complaint. And you will know the greatest joys of life and death, light and
darkness, of being and nonbeing both.
Question 2:
Beloved Master,
In existence whenever an enlightened person
appears, both the bad and the good forces start functioning. As history
testifies, often the bad forces win. A jesus is crucified, a socrates is poisoned,
a mansoor is chopped, buddha, mahavira are stoned. As such, a large part of
humanity remains in utter darkness.
Beloved Master, will this state of affairs
remain as in the past? Will the same phenomenon continue after you leave?
Please throw some light.
Dharma Bhikkhu, the first thing
to understand is: don't divide existence into good and bad, into God and Devil,
into forces of good and forces of evil. That division is a wrong way to look at
reality. Existence is one. In existence Jesus and Judas are not separate, but
players in the same drama. Can you think of Jesus without Judas? You think
Christianity was founded by Jesus alone? Then you are utterly wrong - fifty
percent by Jesus, fifty percent by Judas. And in fact, Judas has played a more
important role than Jesus himself.
Hence I don't call Christianity
"Christianity"; I call it "Crossianity," because the cross
has become the symbol. And who is responsible for the cross? Judas is
responsible for the cross. Without Judas, the story of Jesus will lose all its
glory. Judas gives the contrast; he is the blackboard on which Jesus becomes a
silver line. He is the black cloud, and Jesus shines forth as a lightning
energy - but without the black cloud you will not be able to see the lightning
either.
Do you see stars during the
day? They are there, but you can't see them. To see them you will need the dark
night - the darker the night, the more shining are the stars. The night is more
starry because more and more stars appear as the darkness deepens. Will you say
that darkness is against the stars? It enhances them, it nourishes them.
So the first thing to remember,
Dharma Bhikkhu, is that existence is not divided into two camps. It is one
game, it is one play; we are all players in it, and the enemy is as much needed
as the friend.
It is not accidental that
before Jesus was caught he kissed Judas and washed his feet.
Christians think this is just
saintliness, holiness. My observation is: it is understanding; it has nothing
to do with saintliness or holiness. A tremendous understanding!
Jesus is saying, "Although
Judas is going to betray me, he has to fulfill his role and I have to fulfill
mine - and we are part of the same drama." This is the Eastern insight: that
the forces of light and the forces of darkness are not really separate, they
only appear so.
If Socrates was not poisoned
you would have forgotten him long ago. And he was going to die anyway, so the
people who poisoned him helped his work, they really served his cause. They
made his name immortal.
There have been many Sufi
mystics of the same status as al-Hillaj Mansoor, but how many names do you
remember? Do you remember even the name of the master of Mansoor? All names
have been forgotten. Mansoor has become an eternal light, for the simple reason
that he was killed, brutally killed - yes, chopped into parts. Jesus' death
compared to Mansoor's looks very human, compassionate. Mansoor was killed part
by part. First his legs were cut off, then his hands, then his eyes were taken
out, then his tongue was cut out, then his head was cut off - in parts, in
pieces.
But Mansoor became the most
precious name in the whole Sufi tradition; and the tradition is rich:
Bahauddin, Jalaluddin, Hassan, Rabiya, Mansoor's own master, Junnaid, and
thousands of others who have become enlightened.
These two traditions in the
world have created the most enlightened people: one is Zen, born out of
Buddha's insight, and another is Sufism, born out of Mohammed's insight.
These two traditions have
created the greatest light in the world. But you cannot find a single name in
Zen compared to Mansoor, for the simple reason that no Zen master was chopped
up, killed, crucified.
If Jesus has conquered almost
the whole world - because almost half of humanity is under his impact - what is
the reason? Is Mahavira in any way lagging behind in his enlightenment? Is
Kanad not capable of transforming the whole world? They are as capable as
Jesus, but they don't have their Judas - the cross is missing. They died in
their beds, they died in an ordinary way. As far as their inner being is
concerned they died in an extraordinary way, but who is going to see and
understand it? Jesus' death becomes such an historical phenomenon, so
significant, that history is divided at that point: before Jesus and after
Jesus. Jesus becomes the line of division. Nobody else has been so significant.
Why?
And you say, Dharma Bhikkhu,
"Often the bad forces win."
No, never. In the first place,
the good and the bad are not enemies - playing a game of hide-and-seek. And in
the second place, the good always wins because the good is bigger than the bad.
Jesus is far bigger than Judas, and Socrates is far bigger than the people who
poisoned him, and Mansoor is far bigger than the people who killed him.
Good is infinite; bad is just a
part in it, a small part - intrinsic, necessary, inevitable, but a small part.
It serves good.
No, by Jesus' crucifixion the
forces of evil have not won - they can't win, it is impossible. God is always
victorious. His ways are strange: sometimes he conquers you in such a strange
way that you can't see the point immediately. He conquers through Jesus by
crucifying Jesus - a strange method, a mysterious way, but such are the ways of
God.
And thirdly, it is always going
to remain the same; about that, there is going to be no change. And I don't
think that there is any need for any change either; it is perfectly right. It
is far more beautiful to die on the cross than to die in Sassoon Hospital!*
Just the idea of dying in Sassoon Hospital is frightening. I am not afraid of
death, but I am afraid of Sassoon Hospital!
Question 3:
Beloved Master,
I am a strong man, but I cannot find a
woman who truly loves me.
What is missing in me? I have come here to
find a soulmate. Can you help me?
Sudhiro, maybe... but before I
can help you to find a soulmate I will have to create a soul in you, which is
far more difficult! You may be physically strong; that does not mean that you
have a soul.
Soul is only a seed; you don't
have actual souls within you, just possibilities. And without a soul, people
start searching for a soulmate! Only a SOUL can attract another soul. If you
have a soul, then some soul is bound to be attracted towards you; you will find
the soulmate.
But one never thinks that way.
And the idea that you are a strong man may become an obstruction, because a
strong man ordinarily is one who is more animalistic. That's our idea of
strength: a man who looks more like an animal.
Whenever I see the pictures of
Mr. Universe I am simply puzzled - I can't see any beauty, they look utterly
ugly; all muscles and nothing else! They look more like animals than men.
And this is not health either,
because they all die early and they all die with dangerous diseases, for the
simple reason that they force their bodies in a certain mold. They don't love
their bodies; their bodies are tense. By the time these Mr. Universes are forty
they are on the verge of dying and they succumb to great illnesses, incurable,
because they themselves have created those illnesses. They have been forcing
their bodies, manipulating their bodies. They have succeeded, but at a great
cost.
Strength, in the ordinary mind,
means aggressiveness. And a woman needs a little more tenderness, not
aggressiveness. And who knows, Sudhiro? You may just be carrying this idea that
you are a strong man and you may not even be that. It may be just an ego idea,
a fantasy.
Moe and Sophie had been married
for twelve years. One night in bed Moe said, "Lift up your
nightgown."
Sophie did not answer.
Moe tried once again.
"Hey, be a good girl. Lift up your nightgown."
Sophie still did not reply.
Moe stormed out of the room,
slamming the door. Sophie got up and locked it. For half an hour Moe walked the
living room. Then he strode back to the bedroom, pushed on the door, and found
it was locked.
"Open the door," he
pleaded. "I am sorry I got sore. Open the door!"
Sophie did not answer.
"If you don't open the
door I will break it down!"
"Look at my athlete!"
shouted Sophie. "A nightgown he can't lift up, but a door he will break
down!"
So I don't know how strong you
are. Maybe you are able to break doors - that won't help. You will have to
learn the other art! And I don't know, Sudhiro, how old you are - because you
must have been searching long; otherwise you would not have reached here. And
if you have been failing for your whole life you must have become crystallized
into certain patterns. You may be aggressive, you may be a pretender, you may be
less interested in love and more in conquering a woman.
There are many people who go on
doing that: they go on counting how many women they have conquered. There are
women also - now only in the West but soon they will be in the East too - who
go on counting, as if love is a question of quantity!
A man was making love to a
woman and he asked her, "Am I the first man to make love to you?"
And a long silence followed.
The man asked, "Have you heard me or not?"
She said, "I have heard,
but I am counting."
There are people who keep
count: how many women they have conquered, how many men they have conquered. If
you are interested in conquest you are not interested in love. And when slowly
slowly, life starts slipping out of your hands, when death starts knocking on
your doors, you become frightened. Suddenly you become alert that you have
missed something beautiful.
Love is one of the greatest
experiences in life - and many miss it. They may reproduce children, they may
have married many times, but love is a totally different phenomenon. It needs a
great sensitivity, it needs a soul. And when time passes and energies starts
waning and death comes closer, you are in a panic.
That's exactly my feeling
reading your question, Sudhiro - that you are in a panic.
Two little old ladies were
chatting over the backyard fence. The first one boasted, "I went out with
old man Cain last night and I had to slap him twice."
"To stop him?" asked
her friend.
"No," she giggled,
"to start him!"
But it is good that you have
come here. If you cannot start, we can slap you! Something is always possible.
One thing that you need is: rather than searching for a soulmate, become a
soul, become more conscious.
When love is unconscious it is
only lust and nothing else - a beautiful name for an ugly thing. When love is
conscious, only then it is love. But how many people are conscious?
When love is meditative, only
then it is love.
And a meditative love will
attract a meditative love energy. You get only what you deserve, remember,
neither less nor more. You always get exactly that which you deserve. Existence
is very just and very fair. So if you are not getting a soulmate, it is not
going to help to frantically search for one. Rather look in. You are missing
something in you - you are missing love qualities. You are not tender, you are
not sensitive, you are not conscious. And you don't know how to give without
asking anything in return. Your love is a demand, there is a condition to it.
It is a kind of exploitation. You want to use the other's body, and no woman is
ever happy if she is used - she hates it.
Millions of women hate their
husbands for the simple reason that they feel used, as if they are just
machines for your sexual lust to be relieved so that you can have a good night's
sleep. No woman can ever respect you if she feels she is being used. Each being
is an end unto himself. Never use a woman, never use a man, never use anybody.
Nobody is a means for your
purposes. Respect - love is a sharing, it is not using the other, it is not
trying to snatch something from the other. On the contrary, it is giving
wholeheartedly for no reason at all, just for the sheer joy of giving.
And then suddenly you will find
one day you have found someone with whom your energies are in harmony, in
accord. And it is a beautiful experience even to find a single person with whom
you are in accord. And here you can find many persons with whom you are in
accord.
You can't imagine my ecstasy,
because I am in accord with all of my sannyasins, in deep accord, a tremendous
harmony. Then love reaches its highest peak. It is no more sexual, it is pure
prayer. And when love is prayer, you have found the soulmate.
But if your love is lust you
can't find a soulmate, you can only find some woman's body.
And the body is not going to
help fulfill your longing. You need attunement with the soul, with the inner
being, with the interiority of the woman or of the man. At least with one
person if it happens, great joy arises. And then when you know the art, it can
happen with many more people. And that's what friendship is.
My effort here is to create a
commune where thousands of souls are in such deep friendship, in such love, as
if they are all soulmates. We can release such great light into the world
through that energy field! We can start such a revolution in the world, we can
ignite such fire, that it will go on burning in the future, down the centuries,
helping people to be transformed, to be reborn.
Question 4:
Beloved Master,
I have come across a statement by R.D.
laing that madness is not breakdown, it is breakthrough. Our meditation camps,
whenever they are conducted, are seen as a breakdown, even by psychiatrists. Is
it justified and ethical for patients of depression to be given dynamic meditation?
Please advise. I am merely a surgeon.
Krishna Teertha Bharti, R.D.
Laing is bringing a radical change into the world of therapy. He is not an
ordinary psychiatrist, he is a revolutionary psychiatrist. He understands me
and what I am doing here. He goes on sending his books to me. He reads what is
happening here, what I am saying, what I am teaching. He has been meeting with
sannyasins in London - he is immensely interested. But he is a revolutionary
and his insight is great, and I agree with him in toto. He is right: madness is
not a breakdown, it is a breakthrough.
But one thing I would like to
say: all madnesses are not breakthroughs. But every madness can be transformed
into a breakthrough - and that should be the work of the therapist. Even if the
madness is a breakdown, the function of the therapist is to help the breakdown
to be transformed into a breakthrough. Otherwise, what is your purpose? What
are you doing?
Up to now, the function of the
therapist has been to normalize the person, to bring him back to his old self.
And what was his old self in the first place? It is his old self that has
brought this state of madness. If you bring him back to the old self you are
simply postponing the same thing happening again. Sooner or later he will again
become mad.
Maybe you are helping him for
temporary relief. Unless his breakdown becomes a breakthrough you have not been
a real help to him.
My methods of meditation are
methods for future psychotherapy. The orthodox, the ordinary psychiatrists will
be against my methods, because they cling to the old idea.
They are afraid of the
breakdown - I am not afraid of the breakdown. Breakdown simply means the change
has started. Breakdown simply means all the old strategies, all the old securities,
have failed. Breakdown simply means that your old personality is of no use
anymore. You need a new being, a new birth.
When the child is born out of
the womb he must be thinking - if he can think - that this is a breakdown,
because his whole world is disappearing. The womb, its coziness, its warmth,
its safety, security - no worry, no responsibility - all that is disappearing.
And the child has to pass such a narrow passage, he must be feeling that he is
dying. And then he has to learn a new way of life from ABC. It takes
twenty-five years for us to educate him to function rightly in the society.
But our society is abnormal,
our society is neurotic. It has been dominated by neurotic politicians,
neurotic priests, for centuries. So we convert each child into a neurotic -
Hindu neurotics, Mohammedan neurotics, Christian neurotics. We change every
child into a fanatic, and the more fanatic he is the more we praise him. The
more he says, "Hinduism is the only religion, the only right religion, the
only true religion," Hindus will praise him.
That's how Ayatollah Khomeini
is being praised by foolish people in Iran. He is a lunatic - he needs a
breakdown! - but he is being praised as a great leader, a revolutionary leader.
Down the centuries, fanatics have been praised.
If somebody says, "India
is the greatest country in the world, the most religious, the most sacred
land," people will praise him. They will say, "Look how devoted he is
to the country." He is simply mad - he needs therapy!
Because we have praised these
kinds of neurotic attitudes, approaches, and we have condemned others... if
somebody does not praise Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Christianity, we think he is
a traitor. If somebody is not a great nationalist we think he is a traitor. We
have condemned the sane people and we have praised the insane.
Naturally, the crowd has
remained insane.
The whole world needs a
breakdown! But just a breakdown is not going to help. Before the world goes
through that breakdown - and the day is coming closer every day - methods and
devices have to be invented, innovated, which can transform the breakdown into
a breakthrough.
That's what my meditation
techniques are: a preparation for the future, a preparation, an absolutely
necessary preparation, for something which is going to happen.
Humanity is on the verge of a
breakdown - we have come to the very end of the tether.
Now there is no more, we cannot
go on any longer in this way. The old patterns have been outlived; they are all
outdated.
Your psychiatrists and your
psychoanalysts will be against me, because they serve the past and I have no
love for the past, not at all. I love the present, and through the present I
prepare for the future. The past is so ugly, it is not even worth looking at.
In a better future we will stop teaching people about past history, about
Alexanders, Genghis Khans, Nadirshahs, Tamerlanes, because even to mention them
to the children is wrong. Even to give them an idea that such people have
existed, that man can fall into such degradation, is poisoning their minds.
But your psychoanalysts,
psychiatrists, are in the service of the past; hence they will be against my
methods. Their whole effort is somehow to patch up people. If some hole appears
they simply patch it up, if some wound appears they cover it up. They keep you
functioning efficiently as a clerk in an office, as a deputy collector, as a
police inspector, as a stationmaster, etcetera. They are not interested in your
humanity. Their interest is only that you should remain a functioning member of
society, mechanically useful, that's all.
My purpose is totally
different: I want you to be a human being. I want you not only to be a human
being but to rise towards being divine.
You ask me, Krishna Teertha
Bharti... He is a surgeon, a doctor; naturally this question has arisen in his
mind. You ask me, "Is it justified and ethical for patients of depression
to be given Dynamic Meditation?"
What else can be more justified
and more ethical - because to be a sufferer of depression simply means he has
repressed too much. Depression is nothing but repression. He is depressed so
much because he has not been allowed to express himself. Dynamic Meditation is
expression. In expressing himself, in catharting all that has been repressed in
his unconscious, he will be unburdened, he will become saner, healthier.
Two robbers broke into a bank
in a small town.
"Alright," said the
bigger man. "Line up! We are gonna rob all the men and rape all the
women!"
"Wait a second!"
snapped his partner. "Let us just grab the dough and beat it!"
"Shut up and mind your own
business," said the spinster from behind the counter. "The big fella
knows what he is doing!"
We have made everybody
repressed, pushing down all kinds of things. They are boiling within.
Before she left a friend's
house Aunt Emma was warned that a sex maniac was loose in the neighborhood.
That evening when she returned to her apartment, she cautiously looked under
her bed, in her closet and behind the draperies.
Then Emma switched on the light.
"Well, he is not here!" she sighed. "Damn it!"
Everybody who has been brought
up in our societies needs some methods to vomit anger, sex, greed, jealousies,
envies. You are sitting on a volcano... and the volcano can erupt at any
moment! If catharsis is allowed - and that's what Dynamic Meditation is all
about - the volcano will disappear. You will become saner.
I am not saying you will become
more normal, but I am saying you will become more sane. Now, the two may not
coincide; in fact they cannot - because by the normal we really don't mean the
normal but we mean the average. It is a wrong use of the word.
'Normal' should mean one who
lives according to the norm, one who lives according to the natural,
spontaneous - he is normal. But people are not allowed to live naturally and
spontaneously. They are forced to live an average life as others are living -
and the average is thought to be normal.
That's why I say I make people
saner. They will be normal really, but they may not coincide with your idea of
the normal. They will not be average, certainly - they will be higher than the
average. They will have more insight into life, more joy in their lives, more
freedom in their lives, more rebellion too - more freedom and more rebellion.
And the society and church are
against freedom. They don't want you to be free, they want you to be slaves.
Their whole vested interest is in your being always a slave.
Hence they are all against me.
I can understand, I am not at all surprised by their anger against me. Their
anger is natural, because whatsoever I am doing here is going to sabotage their
whole structure, and sometimes just a hole in the boat is enough to sink it.
And my effort is to make as many holes as possible!
Question 5:
Beloved Master,
Is man predictable?
Tosho, man is not predictable -
if he is a man. But very few men are really men - they are machines. Machines
are predictable. Man has freedom. You cannot predict Buddha, but you can
predict the so-called ordinary people. They are predictable - they go on doing
the same thing again and again. You know what they have been doing up to now
and according to that you can predict what they are going to do tomorrow.
Small children are not
predictable because they are not yet converted into machines.
Preparing to give a small boy
an aptitude test, a psychiatrist told his nurse to put a pitchfork, a wrench
and a hammer on the table.
"If he grabs the pitchfork
he will be a farmer. If he grabs the wrench he will be a mechanic. And if he
grabs the hammer he will be a carpenter," the doctor explained.
The boy fooled everyone - he
grabbed the nurse.
Man has become so mechanical
that even animals sometimes behave in a more unpredictable way than man.
Experimental psychologists like
to tell a story about a professor who investigated the ability of chimpanzees
to solve problems. A banana was suspended from the center of the ceiling, at a
height that the chimp could not reach by jumping. The room was bare of all
objects except several packing crates placed around the room at random. The
test was to see whether a lady chimp would think of first stacking the crates
in the center of the room and then of climbing on top of the crates to get the
banana.
The chimp sat quietly in a
corner, watching the psychologist arrange the crates. She waited patiently
until the professor crossed the middle of the room. When he was directly below
the fruit, the chimp suddenly jumped on his shoulder, then leaped into the air
and grabbed the banana.
Tosho, man - a real man - is
not predictable, because he lives moment to moment. He does not live out of the
past and he does not live out of any ideology for the future. He simply lives this
moment. He responds to the situation, he is responsible; hence he is not predictable.
My sannyasins have to become
unpredictable. The more unpredictable you are, the more you are human.
Enough for today.
