The first question
Question 1:
Swatantra Sarjano,
WORDS HAVE THEIR OWN MAGIC, and the poets, the singers, live in the magical world of words, not of realities. They are skillful, very skillful and efficient, as far as the delicate, subtle waves of words, imagination, dreams is concerned, but all that they go on doing is utterly unconscious.
John Lennon on the one hand sings:
"LOVE IS THE ANSWER, AND YOU KNOW THAT'S FOR SURE."
He himself does not know it. He says:
"LOVE IS THE FLOWER, YOU GOT TO LET IT GROW."
But to know it you have to be absolutely awakened, because love is the ultimate peak of consciousness. The poet can imagine about it, the singer can sing about it, the painter can paint about it, but they have seen only reflections of the moon in the lake; they have not seen the moon itself. And, of course, the moon reflected in the lake is just made of the same stuff as dreams are made of. The poets, the singers, are dreamers, they are not seers. So he says:
"YES IS SURRENDER AND YOU GOT TO LET IT GROW..."
His words sound true, but they are only reflections of the moon in the lake. If you dive in the lake you will not find the moon there. In fact, the moment you jump into the water, the reflection will disappear, will be broken into thousands of pieces. It will spread all over the lake; you will not be able to catch hold of it. The reflection IS beautiful, but one has not to forget that it is only a reflection and it cannot transform your being.
So he sings: "LOVE IS THE ANSWER... LOVE IS THE FLOWER... YES IS THE ANSWER... YES IS SURRENDER... AND YOU KNOW THAT'S FOR SURE" - but he himself is absolutely unaware of it; he has not experienced it. A beautiful man, but still lost in dreams and imagination.
The poet lives unconsciously, the seer livers consciously. Sometimes their words are exactly the same - don't be deceived by the words. If you really want to know whether those words represent reality or just empty wishes you have to look into the life of the man.
Kahlil Gibran has written tremendously beautiful words. They come so close to Christ, to Zarathustra, to Lao Tzu, to Gautam the Buddha, and there is every possibility many people will think that Kahlil Gibran is enlightened. He may even surpass Lao Tzu and Buddha and Christ as far as expression is concerned; his expression may be far more beautiful because he is a skilled poet, a very skilled painter. He has the sensitiveness to appreciate beauty, but howsoever he is appreciating it is unconscious.
Buddha may not say things so beautifully because he is not a poet in the ordinary sense, but whatsoever he says is the truth. His words may fall short of it... in fact, words always fall short of the truth; they are never adequate enough. So don't decide by words.
Sarjano, you are deciding by words. That's why you say:
I CAN FEEL THIS CONNECTION MYSELF.
Sarjano himself has the quality of a poet, has the sensibility of a creative person. That's why I have given him the name Sarjano; SARJANO means creativity.
But Kahlil Gibran or John Lennon have to be watched to know whether their truths are really truths or only fabrications of dream, fantasy, imagination; whether they have really experienced those things or they are only empty wishes. You have to watch the Buddha....
Buddha is reported to have said: "Don't be too bothered about what I say, rather look at me, rather watch me, rather feel me. Let the words disappear. Don't let the words stand between me and you.
Experience my silence, feel the energy that surrounds me, resonate with me - only then will you be able to understand what I am saying."
If you want to understand a Buddha, his words, you have to watch his life.
Buddha has also said, very poignantly: "Don't follow my words, rather, follow what I am doing, follow what I am being."
Sarjano, I can see these words are beautiful:
"WE'RE PLAYING THESE MIND-GAMES TOGETHER PUSHING THE BARRIER, PLANTING SEEDS."
But there is no need to go on playing them forever. There have been people who stopped all those mind-games, but the only way to stop those mind-games is meditation; there has never been any other way. Meditation means entering into a state of no-mind.
If he was really in love with me, then there was nothing to prevent him from coming here. To be in love with me means to be in love with meditation, but he must have been afraid of meditation.
If he said that he was not ready to become a disciple he must have been afraid of meditation, of surrender, of saying yes, of falling in love. Why? - because the poets, the singers, the painters, the sculptors, the musicians, are the most egoistic people in the world. They talk about egolessness, saying yes and surrendering and love, but that is MERE talk.
They are very egoistic people, in fact they far surpass even the politicians and the priests, for the simple reason that they are TALENTED people. The politicians are not talented people - they are third-rate, they belong to the world of the mediocres. But poets, singers, musicians, painters, they are talented people. They really have something which they can brag about - they have got something. Their ego has a solid support. The politician is making his house on shifting sands, but the poet - ANY kind of creative person - is making his ego on solid ground, on rocklike ground.
His foundation is concrete; it is not made of just shifting sands. Hence he has every reason to feel egoistic, but then the danger is even far greater: he will be the last person to surrender, and his whole life he will talk about surrender and about egolessness and about love.
Kahlil Gibran talked about love, surrender, saying yes, but his whole life was quarrelsome. The people he loved, he always fought with them. He was talking about compassion, but he was a very angry man. He would go into childish tantrums for small reasons - any excuse would do. He would throw things, he would break things - he would go mad! The people who lived with him were always afraid of him, the women who loved him were continuously in misery.
And this is the man who wrote the great book, THE PROPHET. It stands as one of the ten great books of the whole world and it will remain one of the greatest ever; there is no possibility for somebody to surpass it. And this is coming from a man who was very angry, very violent, very jealous, very egoistic.
Wilhelm Reich has written about how to get rid of jealousy - because jealousy is THE poison for love, it destroys the roots of love. And Wilhelm Reich is one of the greatest creative psychoanalysts after Sigmund Freud. But his wife writes something else - she writes about him: "I have never seen such a jealous person in my life. He was taking all kinds of freedom, he was moving with many women!" - because he was talking about freedom and that relationship should not be any kind of bondage, but about his wife he was very jealous. Almost twenty-four hours a day he was detecting, spying on where she was, with whom she was, what she was doing, was she looking happy with the man. When he went out of the town he would tell his friends to keep watch....
Finally his wife had to divorce him - it was too much of a torture. He was taking every kind of freedom - he was moving with many women - and his wife was not even allowed to have friends, not to mention lovers.
You have to look into the LIFE of the person, because only that is decisive.
Now, Lennon was continuously fighting with his own woman - many times they separated and many times they got together again - and he is talking about mind-games, and he was playing those mind-games himself!
Sarjano, the words are beautiful: LOVE IS THE ANSWER. I also say love is the answer, but I MEAN it! He does not mean it, he is simply saying beautiful words. Beautiful words have their own hypnotic quality. They catch the mind of the singers and the poets and the musicians; they fall in love with beautiful words. He must be in love with the word'love' - and remember, the word'love' is not love, the word'God' is not God, the word'yes' is not yes.
Yes is a totally different existential experience. To say yes means to drop your ego entirely. Surrender means disappearing into the whole. He was a nice man, but as unconscious, Sarjano, as you are.
That's why you say:
I CAN FEEL THIS CONNECTION MYSELF.
You must be feeling it!
Now the poor man is dead. Somebody played the game - the mind-game - killed him. Many questions have come to me asking that I should say something about his death. To me, birth and death have no significance at all. There are many ways to die, and the best way is to be killed - at least you are not responsible! The worst is to die in your bed and ninety-nine percent of people choose to die in their beds. Beware of the bed, because that is the MOST dangerous place in the world! All the accidents happen there: birth happens there, love happens there, death happens there. If you can simply renounce the bed you are enlightened!
He died a good death - somebody killed him. One has to die anyway; when one HAS to die one should choose a good way. I don't think he chose it and I don't think the person who killed him chose it either. People are living - all people are living - in utter unconsciousness.
A patient lying on the operating table started screaming, "I don't want to be cut open! You'll kill me!
I don't want to die!"
The surgeon tried to calm the patient.
"Just take it easy, sir," he said. "Look at my long white beard. I've done thousands of operations and nothing has ever gone wrong."
"Oh, doctor, you're right! I know I can trust you!" replied the patient.
When the patient awoke after the operation, he looked around and saw the same white beard and said, "Oh, thank you, doctor! You are a saint!"
"It's okay, son, you don't have to thank me. I am not your doctor - my name is St. Peter!"
So what can I say about his death? It is perfectly okay! Everything is okay. Just... if he had really come here he would have died a totally different kind of death. He would have died celebrating, he would have died rejoicing. He would have died without any regrets, without any complaints. He would have died in love, in surrender, in yes. That he has missed this time - I hope next time he does not miss it.
The second question
Question 2:
OSHO:
Holger,
LOVE HAS NOTHING TO DO with what others do with you. Love is not a response to a certain positive situation. You are born with love - love is the very stuff you are made of. You can go on giving it... it is a question of giving, not of getting. Of course, when you give it comes back - it comes back millions of times more because the whole existence responds. But the basic idea, Holger, is not to get but to give.
The world is so loveless and full of hate for the simple reason that everybody wants to get love first - that is their condition for giving. And if everybody wants love first, then who is going to give it? And because nobody gets it - the first basic condition is not fulfilled - then nobody ever thinks of giving it.
And remember, love is alive only when you give it. If you don't give it, it goes sour, it becomes dead, it becomes a dead weight on you. It becomes hatred - it turns into its very opposite. It becomes fear, it becomes jealousy, it becomes possessiveness. Once your love is not alive then it turns into hundreds of monsters in you. And when you start giving those wrong vibes, naturally the whole existence reflects them back to you. Then one is in a vicious circle.
First you don't GIVE love - love goes wrong, sour, bitter, becomes poisonous - and then you give it:
you give anger, you give violence, you give hatred. For that you don't make any condition! You give those things unconditionally. Any small excuse is enough, and if there are no excuses you invent excuses. Then more and more hatred rebounds, and when hatred rebounds on you, of course you have every right to give more hatred. Then love is completely lost.
You ask me:
OSHO, SUPPOSE...
I never suppose anything! Philosophy begins with suppositions - I am not a philosopher. I am a very down-to-earth man, very pragmatic. I never suppose anything.
You say:
SUPPOSE YOU HAD EXPERIENCED ONLY NEGATIVE REACTIONS FROM OTHERS...
In fact, that's what I have experienced - and STILL I go on experiencing the negative emotions. In fact, it will be difficult to find you another man on the earth who receives so many negative reactions from others. But I enjoy it! I love it! By their negativity they are showing they are interested in me, by their negativity they are showing that they are not able to ignore me. By their negativity they are taking a certain standpoint about me. And if they are negative they can be positive too; by being negative they have given the indication that they are related to me.
Only the person who is neutral cannot be changed, cannot be transformed. Negativity can easily turn into positivity, hate can easily turn into love, just as love can turn into hate, but a person who is absolutely neutral neither hateful nor loving, is beyond any change - he is rocklike.
So I immensely enjoy people's negativity and I take it as a challenge - a challenge to my love. If I can still love them, only then do I know what love is. If I can love only people who love me, then it is business, a bargain. If I can even love people who don't love me, who certainly are hateful towards me, who would like to destroy me, then it is true love, it is unconditional love - it makes no demands on them.
I have experienced as much negativity, Holger, as one can ever experience, and from my very childhood because my attitude has been that of a rebel. I have been disobedient, rebellious. I have annoyed almost everybody: my relatives, the people of my village, my teachers, my professors.
I have annoyed everybody - I enjoyed it! - but I have never hated anybody. Even the people I annoyed, the people who took every kind of revenge on me... I have been expelled from colleges, from universities, but I have never hated anybody. Even the people who were the cause of my expulsion, my love for them has remained the same.
And they were puzzled by it, they were very much at a loss, because they were expecting that I would be angry. But I was never angry - rebellious certainly, but angry never; disobedient certainly, but disrespectful never. With all my respects I disobeyed! I remained always'humbly yours' - rebelling, fighting, annoying them, doing every kind of thing that they would not like, but always'sincerely yours'.
About that even THEY were certain - that I was sincerely respectful.
I have experienced all kinds of negative reactions from others; that has not destroyed my love. In fact, on the contrary, it has made my love more integrated; it has made my love so centered and grounded that now I can say nothing can shake it, nothing can change it. Even if somebody ki]ls me I will die loving him.
You say:
SUPPOSE YOU HAD EXPERIENCED ONLY NEGATIVE REACTIONS FROM OTHERS AND HAD RECEIVED NO LOVE IN YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU STILL BE SUCH A LOVING, HAPPY MAN?
Yes, I would be still the same. Whatsoever I am is not dependent on anybody else, it is my independence. It is the way I love to be, I enjoy to be; it has nothing to do with others. What others are doing with me or have done with me has nothing to do with what I am - they have not created me. I have DISCOVERED myself, nobody has created me. And a love that is created by others can be taken back. If it is only possible in a certain situation, the moment the situation changes your love will wither away. My love cannot wither away - because you have not created it.
Yes, I have received much love, but that has happened only because I loved, not before it. It was not a condition for the arousal of my love, it was only a response of existence.
All my sannyasins who have gathered around me from all over the world love me immensely, but that is not the cause of my love for them. Just the opposite is the case: because I have loved they have come to me; it is my love that has brought them to me. Now you will see me surrounded by so many loving people, but they have come to me because a certain magnetic love is in existence here; they are pulled by it. They are ready to do anything. I never ASK them to do anything for me, but they are ready to do anything. They will be ready to die for me, although I would not like ANYBODY to die for me. All that I would like is for them to LIVE for me. Love cannot ask anyone to die, love can only ask: live in celebration!
But I have experienced and I go on experiencing all kinds of negativities. Millions of people would like me to be destroyed immediately, but that does not make any difference to my love. Love is something eternal, it is not temporal. It has nothing to do with time, nothing to do with others.
You say:
DOES HAPPINESS REQUIRE A CERTAIN RESONANCE AND RESPONSE FROM OTHERS OR FROM GOD?
No, not at all. If it is dependent on others, then it is only pleasure and very momentary. And soon you will be frustrated by it because it will destroy your freedom; you will become dependent.
And remember: freedom is a higher value - higher than love. If love helps freedom only then is it of any value; if it destroys freedom then soon you will be tired of it, it will become a burden on you. If love becomes an imprisonment, howsoever beautiful, cozy, secure, comfortable, still you would not like to live in that prison. You would like to live under the sky, in the open, you would like to live in the unknown, you would like to live dangerously, because there you will have the ecstasy of freedom - the freedom of the bird on the wing, the freedom of the flowers.
Love is valuable only if it is in tune with freedom, but it can be in tune with freedom only if it is not given by others - not even by God - because if it is given by others it makes you a slave. And not only that: if it is given by others to you, you start CLINGING to others, you start expecting it, and every expectation brings a thousand and one frustrations. And that's what happened to Jesus Christ.
You say:
According to me, up to this moment when Jesus cries to God, "Why have you forsaken me?" he is only Jesus not Christ. He became Christ only in the last moment. That's why Christianity has been a dead religion from the very beginning, because Christ became a Christ only on the cross, at the last moment. He had no time to give his message, no time to sow the seeds, no time to help people to become enlightened.
Buddha lived for forty-two years after his enlightenment; naturally he managed to help thousands of people. He was the most fortunate Master up TO NOW - underline it! - because hundreds of his disciples became enlightened before he left the world. He didn't die unhappily, he died fulfilled - fulfilled he was because he was enlightened and also fulfilled as a Master.
Krishnamurti is fulfilled as an enlightened man but is very much frustrated as a Master, and as his death is coming closer and closer and he is becoming older he is becoming more and more annoyed - annoyed because nothing is happening. Not a single human being has become enlightened.
If Buddha up to now is the most fortunate enlightened man, then J. Krishnamurti is the most unfortunate!
Jesus had no time. Up to this cry he was only Jesus, because this cry shows - you are right, Holger - that he died unhappily, but you are not aware that something after this cry happened, just a few seconds later. You are missing those few seconds; those few seconds transformed his whole being.
Up to this statement he is certainly a miserable man, and the misery is coming from expectations; otherwise why should he say, "Lord, Lord, why have you left me?"
He must have been hoping, expecting that some miracle would happen - that God would come down, something would save him at the last moment. The cross would suddenly change into a golden throne, hands from the sky would appear, and he would be saved. And at least one hundred thousand people had gathered to see the miracle.
There was no difference as far as expectations were concerned. Those people had gathered to see the miracle because they had heard so much about Jesus - that he walked on water, that he cured blind people, that he made the unhealthy healthy, that he had even raised a dead man, Lazarus, back to life. All that must have been sheer bullshit! Lazarus was his old friend - must have been pretending, may have been doing some yoga exercise, PRANAYAMA - holding the breath in. Yogis are known to do that very easily.
One yogi, Brahmayogi of South India, even gave demonstrations in Oxford, in Harvard, in Calcutta universities. For ten minutes even doctors had to certify that he was dead. He collected all those certificates from all the universities, from all the great experts who know when to declare a man dead, and he proved all of them wrong because after ten minutes he would start breathing again.
He had become capable of stopping the breath for ten minutes. There are PRANAYAMA exercises, breathing exercises: you can stop breathing for a certain period of time, and in those moments you are as dead as one can be.
Lazarus must have been a yogi - he did well!
Brahmayogi also used to do another thing: he used to drink any kind of poison and he was capable of surviving. But in Rangoon he died, because he was capable of containing the poison for only thirty minutes, not more than that. He had learnt the yoga strategy of not allowing the poison to mix with the bloodstream. There ARE methods.... Yoga is a ten-thousand-year-old science; it has made many discoveries within the body, and these things are possible. And this is not an old story - it happened only in 1920, just sixty years ago.
But in Rangoon... you know, the traffic in the East is very strange. How people manage to go to their offices and come back home every evening is a miracle - a far bigger miracle than walking on water!
You can see it in the Poona streets.... such crazy traffic that he got stuck. When he was coming back to his hotel from the university there was a traffic jam and he had to remain stuck in the traffic jam for more than thirty minutes. He came unconscious into the hotel and he died. The strategy was not workable for more than thirty minutes; that was as long as he was capable of containing the poison.
Lazarus must have been a friend indeed. And Jesus walking on the water must have known the rocks, where they were! In my own village I used to walk on water - I knew the rocks!
People had gathered to see: "How the greatest miracle ever will happen." I can forgive the people, but I cannot forgive Jesus - even HE was expecting, and nothing was happening. He was crucified and nothing happened, and everything was just going on without any miracle.
"Lord, Lord, why have you left me?"
Expectation brings frustration. This statement is enough proof that he was not yet a Buddha, not yet a man who has no expectations from life, no desires. He was still as unenlightened as the people who had gathered there - but he was certainly a very intelligent man. He immediately understood the point and immediately corrected it. He raised his eyes towards the sky and said, "Forgive me.
Let THY kingdom come, let THY will be done."
The moment he said, "Let THY will be done," he became Christ. Before that he was only Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, son of man. The moment he said, "Let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done," he surrendered his ego with all its expectations, his mind with all its desires. That YES, that total YES! And it could only be total at the last moment when he was dying. What was there to hold back? He totally surrendered; that was let-go. In that let-go he became Christ.
So, Holger, I will not say he died unhappily - he died blissfully. But you are right as far as it goes up to this statement, Matthew, Chapter 22; he is miserable, very miserable. But in the last moment the miracle happened - the REAL miracle - not that he was saved but that he surrendered. Resurrection IS NOT the miracle, surrender is the miracle "Thy will be done." The moment he said it totally there was no problem, no misery, no expectation, no frustration. He was at ease, at home. He was one with the universe. He attained to the fourth state, the TURIYA. He became awakened. He died an awakened man, but he could not give the message.
So Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus - which are bound to be faulty, which are bound to be erroneous, which are bound to carry many flaws. And now I have decided to tell you what flaws they have! After THIS moment there is no flaw, no error - but he did not say anything at all!
He died in absolute silence, blissfully.
That is the only moment which is precious in Jesus' life: for the first time he was absolutely free.
When there is no desire there is freedom. For the first time he was absolutely free, because when there is no ego there is freedom.
Freedom does not mean freedom of the self: freedom means freedom FROM the self. And it brings immense bliss and benediction.
The last question
Question 3:
Okay, Shahido, First:
One night a great storm was raging; the wind was lashing waves up against the rocks and a boat foundered near the lighthouse. There was only one survivor, a Rajneesh sannyasin. The sannyasin, after swimming and sinking and swimming and sinking and being thrown against the rocks, finally reached the lighthouse. He crawled his way onto the shore and, exhausted, he made it to the door of the lighthouse and knocked on the door.
The lighthouse-keeper opened his small window and called out, "What do you want?"
"Nothing!" gasped the bruised sannyasin. "I was just passing by and I saw your lights on!"
Second:
The big game hunter was telling about his adventures to a group of sannyasins. In describing some of his exciting experiences in Africa he said, "One night I remember being wakened by a great roaring noise. I jumped up and grabbed my gun, which I always kept loaded at the foot of my cot. I rushed out and killed a huge lion in my pajamas!"
At the close of his presentation he asked if there were any questions.
"Yes," said a sannyasin sitting in the front row. "How did the lion get into your pajamas!"
Third:
Three men broke into the studio of a famous sannyasin modernistic painter. They tied up the artist, forced open his wall safe and fled with all his money, tape recorder, TV, and all that they could put their hands upon. The next day the artist was found by other sannyasins and released. He immediately called the police.
"Would you be able to identify the robbers?" the detective said.
"Oh, certainly," the sannyasin said. "That's my business, remembering what things look like. I'll draw you a picture of them."
He drew the picture and gave it to the police. The next day they arrested a one-eyed go-go dancer, a buffalo, a garbage truck, and a Blue Diamond Hotel!
Fourth:
A sannyasin was swimming in a river when he heard shouts coming from a drowning man up the river. He swam to the man and managed to save him. Afterward the sannyasin found out that he had saved the Polack Pope.
"Now," said the Pope, "you can ask of me whatever you want."
The sannyasin was nervous, he looked about furtively and whispered to the Pope, "Just do me one favor - don't tell anyone that it was me who saved you."
Fifth:
The parents of a shapely teenaged sannyasin noticed that their daughter was starting to fool around with men.
One evening before she went off to a disco they warned her of the perils she might encounter.
"Darling you must realize that men always try the same game. First he invites you to dance, then he offers you a drink. Soon he invites you up to his flat to listen to his record collection... once there, he throws you onto the bed. Then you are dishonored, your mother is dishonored, your father is dishonored."
The daughter went off on her date and returned home very late, with reddened face and disheveled hair.
"What happened?" asked her parents nervously.
"Well, you were right," replied the daughter. "He asked me to dance, he bought me a drink and invited me to his place to listen to his record collection. But then... I threw him onto the bed! And now HE IS dishonored, his mother is dishonored and his father is dishonored!"
Sixth:
A woman had just received her final divorce decree from a sannyasin and was chatting with a friend about it.
"He was terrible," she said. "At first he seemed so loving and understanding and romantic with his songs, but he turned out to be a tyrant!"
"Well," said her friend, "I hate to say I told you so but I said time and again that you should not marry him. Everybody knows that Rajneesh sannyasins make the world's worst husbands."
Six months later the divorcee fell in love and married another sannyasin. The next day she received this message with a bouquet of roses from her former husband: "Congratulations and best wishes for a happy marriage - signed: the Frying Pan."
The last:
A young woman sannyasin went to the chemist and said to the man behind the counter, "I want twelve condoms, please."
"What size would you like?" asked the man.
"Oh, assorted sizes," replied the young woman. "I'm going to a prick-nick!"