Question 1:
Puja Kavina, it is not a paradox, it only appears so. The world is certainly preparing for a global suicide; about that there are not two opinions - it is becoming every day more and more certain.
Naturally you think you have to do something to prevent it. It is beyond your doing; whatever you do will bring it closer.
What can you do? The power is not in your hands; the power is in hands which are absolutely stubborn, and they don"t care a bit what happens to humanity. Their ego is their supreme value, the only value. Even though it means their own destruction, they will take the risk; they will destroy whoever they think is their enemy.
In the beginning, when this kind of war material was in the hands of two countries, the Soviet Union and America, there was some possibility that they may come to some negotiation. Now with the power of nuclear weapons in five countries, the possibility of negotiation has become more difficult, more complicated. And by the end of this century, the power will be in twenty-five countries" hands.
Then the question of negotiation does not arise.
My suggestion is: time is certainly very short, but it is enough to become enlightened, and it is enough to spread an enlightened atmosphere around the world. That is the only possibility.
If we can make the people of the world ... not the politicians, leave them aside; they have the power but without the consent of the people of the world, their power is not of much use. If armies simply say, "No, we are not going to use nuclear weapons," if the scientists simply say, "No, we are not going to produce any more nuclear weapons," if the whole intelligentsia of the world unanimously creates a great uproar: "It is not a question of war; wars we have seen in thousands - they have been destructive, but they have not destroyed all life. This is not war, this is simple suicide!"
But these people: the scientists, the armies, the intelligentsia, the poets, the musicians, the mystics, the painters, the actors - the people who have a certain impact on the masses, although they don"t have any power except their individuality and their creativity - if they join hands together, this global suicide can be avoided. Not only suicide can be avoided, but with the same energy that was going to destroy all life, the planet can be turned into a paradise.
Energy is neutral - it can destroy, it can create. Nobody has thought: What can be the creative use of atomic energy? What can be the creative use of nuclear weapons? If the destructive power is so great, the power for creation will be equally great. Hence, I say not only can global suicide be avoided, but we can bring into existence a new dawn, a new man, a new humanity.
Perhaps for the first time there can be an authentic civilization which loves peace, which is compassionate, which is creative, which drops all discriminations of nations, religions, races, and makes this whole globe one family.
Once there are no discriminations of religions, races, nations, war becomes impossible.
We have to avoid the suicide that is oncoming and we have to change the whole structure of the world so that war itself becomes impossible. All our efforts, all our energies ... seventy-five percent of human energy is pouring into creating war material. We are living only on twenty-five percent of our energy. If that seventy-five percent is also released for living, there will be no poverty, there will be no sickness. Life can be prolonged. People can live young until their last breath; they need not become old.
All this is possible, and for this, there is enough time. But you have to understand perfectly well:
anything on your part as a protest is not going to help. You will be simply crushed, ignored ....
Pacifists have existed for centuries; they have not been able to avoid any war.
In fact I have seen so many processions of protest and I have always wondered ... the people who were protesting were all violent: their slogans were violent, their gestures were violent. If they had power in their hands, they would start killing those people whom they think are warmongers. They are doing the same thing, they are not peaceful people; they may be pacifist in ideology, but they don"t know what peace is.
I want my people to know the peace, to know the silence, to know the beauty of their inner being, the blissfulness and love and light, and spread it. And spreading it is not going to be a missionary thing - you are not to convert anybody. Just your very presence, just your loving eyes, your peaceful existence - the charisma that arises with enlightenment, a certain different wavelength that the enlightened man starts radiating around him, changes people"s hearts without their knowing.
It is not a question of convincing them intellectually; for that, time is certainly very short. We have not been convinced for centuries, intellectually, although great efforts have been made that there should be no war, there should be no government, there should be no nations. Great intellectuals have been trying - like Bakunin, Bokharin, Leo Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell - but it has not created any visible effect anywhere.
My understanding is that these people themselves were not peaceful people. They have not known anything of the eternal joy of their own interiority, the dance of their own being. They have not tasted from the springs of nectar that are at their very center. Once you have tasted your own immortality, you start spreading an invisible fire ... no intellectual argument, but people will be immensely touched by your very presence, by your aroma, by your fragrance, by your love.
We need in the world more love to balance war.
We need in the world more creativity to balance the destructive forces. We need in the world more enlightened people to balance the blind politicians. For this there is still time enough, because enlightenment can happen within a second. It does not need time; it needs only a total longing for it, a longing as if your life is at risk.
Kavina, I can understand why you are feeling a paradox. You would like to do something, but things have gone beyond your doing. What can you do to prevent the Soviet Union or to prevent Ronald Reagan? And soon nuclear weapons will be in twenty-five countries, with pygmy politicians. What can you do?
The only thing possible is: forget doing.
Think of being.
You can be more joyful, you can be more loving - that is within your capacity. No Ronald Reagan can prevent you. No nuclear weapons can prevent you. People have never thought this way. They have always tried to protest against wars - nobody has listened to them.
I am suggesting a totally new solution. And in the circumstances, that is the only alternative possible:
forget doing, grow into your being. And the growth of your being is contagious; it will help many people to light their unlit torches from your life fire.
If we have people around the world who know the beauty of life, of creativity, of poetry, of music, of painting, of dancing, of love, then nobody - no politician - will have the guts to force humanity into a war. So rather than going against war, you create the balancing force - which is in your hands.
If the warmongers have nuclear weapons, then you have to create something equivalent, or more powerful - and enlightenment is certainly more powerful than any nuclear weapon.
In the Old Testament, there is a beautiful story of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. God became very angry with these two cities, because in both people were practicing perverted sex. In Sodom people were making love to animals; hence "sodomy" has become the word for making love with animals. In Gomorrah people had become homosexuals, and all kinds of perversions ... God finally decided to destroy both those cities completely, and in the Old Testament he did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
It does not look right of God, but the Jewish God is an angry God. That is our projection: it is not a question of whether God is angry or not. God is a hypothesis - you can make anything out of it, whatever you want. God declares in the Jewish scriptures, "I am a very angry God, very jealous. I will never forgive you if you go against me; I am not your uncle, I am not a nice man."
But in Judaism there is a rebellious stream, a very small minority stream of Hassidic mystics. The orthodox Jews don"t accept them as religious at all, but as I understand it, they are the only religious people in the whole Judaic tradition. They are people who dance, sing, love, play music. They are very joyous people and they have interpreted Judaism according to their own joy and blissfulness.
They cannot tolerate such a thing, that God destroyed ... and a God who is omnipotent, all powerful, he could have changed them - if he can create the whole world, can"t he change two cities and their sexual perversions? Has he to resort to destruction and death? He is the father of those two cities also, and when he has all the powers ... this whole universe was created by him and he could not manage to change those two cities?
Hassids have changed that story and I love it, although that change is not in the Jewish scriptures.
Jews will never accept that change, but I, for one, accept it. It makes a tremendous impact on anyone who can understand.
The Jewish story is: When God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, a Hassidic mystic went to him and asked, "Have you decided?" God said, "I am absolutely certain; I am going to destroy these people completely."
The Hassidic mystic said, "But I have a question to ask: If there are two hundred people, one hundred in each city, who are good people, who are authentically religious, who are awakened, will you still destroy those two cities? Those two hundred people will be destroyed with them. It seems you are taking too much care about the perverted and you are not taking any interest in the awakened."
God had to think it over; the argument was significant. How can he destroy the awakened people, the spiritual people, the good people? He said, "If you can prove that there are two hundred people in those cities who are awakened, enlightened, then I will not destroy them. How can I destroy them?"
The Hassid - they are very beautiful people with a great sense of humor - the Hassid mystic said, "If I cannot prove two hundred but only twenty, are you going to destroy the twenty enlightened people in those two cities? Do numbers matter so much? Are you thinking of quality or of quantity?"
God was at a loss to argue with this man. He said, "Okay, you prove twenty."
The Hassid said, "And if I can prove only two?"
Now God was perfectly aware that the question of quality and quantity ... it does not matter whether there are two enlightened people or two hundred enlightened people, they cannot be destroyed. To destroy them is to destroy the whole base, the whole foundation of religion. God said, "Okay, okay, you prove two persons!"
The Hassid said, "In fact there is only one - but he lives six months in one city and six months in the other city. What do you think about it?" From two hundred he has come down to one.
God said, "I have understood your logic. You bring that man before me."
He said, "I am that man. Can"t you see me? Can"t you look inside me? Are you going to destroy me? - because I live six months in Sodom and six months in Gomorrah." And God had to concede:
"In that case I will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah."
Jews will not be ready to accept it, because it is not in their scriptures, but it is in the Hassidic teachings. I have loved the story, because the Hassidic mystic has proved far more intelligent than the so-called God, far more loving and compassionate than the so-called God.
Even God cannot save the world from the hands of politicians. Now you will need mystics; only mystics can create the atmosphere around the world of love and peace, of silence and joy, of song and dance; they will make life so rich that it becomes impossible for people even to think of war.
Politicians will be left alone without any support from their armies, from their scientists, from their intelligentsia, from mystics, from poets. And against all this intelligence, all their nuclear weapons will become impotent. They can create war only if unconsciously we are ready to commit suicide, if in some way we are supportive to them. It is our support that has given them power. If we withdraw our support, their power disappears. They don"t have any power of their own.
What power does Richard Nixon have now? Once he is no longer the president, nobody even bothers whether he is alive or dead, what he is doing; otherwise if he had just a little cold it was headline news. Now if he wants his name to be in the newspapers again, the only way is to commit suicide. But he will not be able to see it; others will read it - and that too in a small corner on the third page of the papers. Who cares about people who are no longer presidents, no longer prime ministers? It is our support that gives them power.
There is time enough to withdraw our support; there is time enough to create a non-political humanity. And the times are such that it is possible. In ordinary times you cannot convince people to withdraw their cooperation from the politicians, but the times are abnormal and every day the war keeps coming closer. In this moment, people can choose very easily not to cooperate, because cooperation simply means committing suicide.
So one thing: make people"s lives more joyous so that even the unconscious desire for suicide disappears from their being. And second, make them aware the power is in your hands, and if the war happens and life disappears from the earth, you will be responsible, not the politicians. They are simply puppets. We give them power and then the puppets start behaving like masters. Withdraw the power and you will see that their size goes on becoming smaller and smaller and smaller, and they will disappear. They don"t have any power of their own; it is your power given to them.
Kavina, for that there is enough time. And it is a great challenge, a very adventurous time. When the world is facing suicide, the possibility is that the world can be convinced - not intellectually but through your growing hearts, your love - to let the old world die and a new world with new values be born.
You won"t have such an opportunity again. In the past there was never such an opportunity. It is not to be missed.
It is so simple a matter, but you have to begin with yourself. It is not that you have to do something. I am saying you have to be something: a force, a charisma, a magnet, which can pull people"s hearts towards you; a poetry, a song, such that people unknowingly start being influenced by it; a dance, so that people who had forgotten how to dance suddenly feel energy arising in their feet. They would like to join you in the dance.
So we are not to be against the politicians or against their nuclear weapons; we have to create a balancing force - more powerful. And once people have tasted life, which they have forgotten completely, they will automatically withdraw their support. It has already started happening.
In the Vietnam war thirty percent of the soldiers did not use their weapons. The American government was at a loss about what to do. The generals could not figure it out because such a thing had never happened - a soldier goes to war to kill. But in Vietnam it was so clear: America is doing something simply absurd - destroying poor people who have not done anything against America. And because it was the younger generation who had gone as soldiers, they could see the futility of it. Why should they be killed? Poor people working in their fields or in their orchards, small children, women - why should they be killed? They are not fighting; they are not a danger to America.
Thirty percent of the soldiers would go to the war front every day with their guns loaded and would come back in the evening without having used their guns at all. These thirty percent have shown the way. If it can happen to thirty percent, why can"t it happen to a hundred percent? - and the Vietnam war was not going to destroy all life.
Soldiers should be made aware ... in fact the whole atmosphere around the world will become a warning for everybody that politicians have gone mad and now they don"t need anybody"s support.
Just think of it: if armies simply march and meet the enemy armies and have a beautiful dance together, come home happily - and they go home happily - what can the politicians do? They could have court-martialed one soldier, but they cannot court-martial all the soldiers. And who is going to court-martial them? - because the generals will be part of the dance.
A great adventurous moment is coming close to us; there is nothing to be feared. You cannot do anything to prevent it, but you can be in such a way that your very being becomes a prevention.
Question 2:
Chidananda, what is happening to you is absolutely right. There is no need to create a problem out of it; you are not missing anything. In fact you fall into such harmony, in such deep communion, that it appears as if you have fallen asleep.
Whatever I am saying you may not be able to repeat in words, but it will be resounding in your heart, in your being, and it will do its work. It will change you. You will see the change in your actions, in your behavior, the way you respond in situations. That will be the proof - not that you remember what I have said.
And don"t force yourself to remain awake, because that means you are creating a disturbance in the harmony. Allow yourself to be overwhelmed completely and lost into it. It is not falling asleep, it is falling into samadhi.
Samadhi and sleep are very close; they appear almost the same. Because we are accustomed to and we know sleep, when for the first time samadhi starts happening we think it is sleep. Sleep is known, samadhi is unknown. The only difference is in sleep you have dreams; in samadhi you don"t have any dreams but just a silence, utter silence - a deep stillness as if you are no more.
In church, the priest did not allow anybody to leave in the middle of his sermon. His reason was that it wakes up people who are taking a beautiful morning nap.
I also prevent people from leaving in the middle, although for a different reason. There are a few people who are moving towards samadhi and if you simply leave, it creates a disturbance. You may disturb their state, their harmony; they may lose the track.
Whatever is happening, Chidananda, is perfectly beautiful; just accept it with great gratitude. This is what I want to happen to everybody.
That will be one of the happiest days for me; when everybody here is absent, is in a state of nothingness - in a sense present, perhaps for the first time in his life; present as a silence, and for the first time absent as a separate entity; when everybody becomes one with the whole and slowly slowly melts. The place is no longer so many people here, but just a lake of consciousness without any ripples.
Just to check whether you are in that state or not, my strategy is to use a joke; that gives you a jerk.
If I see that it is giving you a jerk, that means you were in the right space. And after the joke ... you have laughed and you go back again.
Chidananda, you don"t need anything but a joke.
A zebra managed to get loose from a zoo and wandered into the countryside. He came to a farm, where the first thing he saw was a sheep. "What do you do?" asked the zebra. "I grow wool," said the sheep.
Then he saw a cow. "What do you do?" asked the zebra. "I give milk," said the cow.
Next he saw a hen. "What do you do?" asked the zebra. "I lay eggs," said the hen.
Then he saw a bull. "What do you do?" asked the zebra.
"First take off those fancy pajamas and I will show you!"
So just a joke once in a while ... you wake up, you have a jerk and then again the silence.
You have heard Basho"s famous haiku:
An ancient pond, A frog jumps in, The sound and the silence again.
And the second silence is deeper than the first silence. The frog has disturbed it for a moment, but again the silence comes back and it is deeper than the first.
It is just like you are walking on a street in the night. It is dark. A car comes by and you see the light.
It passes by you and for a moment there is light, strong light, and then again there is darkness. You will be surprised: now the darkness is deeper than it was before. The experience of light has thrown you deeper into darkness.
Many times, not knowing how life grows, we start creating problems. Now, Chidananda is going perfectly well ... even that becomes a problem. One starts thinking something must be wrong:
nobody else is going perfectly well, and I am going perfectly well ... I am not normal. Everybody is fully awake, listening, and I am disappearing into a deep silence - and certainly you will not be able to recall what I have been saying.
But that is not needed, this is not a university where you have to be examined for your memory.
This is a mystery school where your test is your actions, your responses. Whether you have heard me or not will depend ... if it changes your behavior pattern then you have heard me. Whether you remember my words or not, that is irrelevant.
Question 3:
Sahabzadev Hasan, habit is not nature, it is nurture. You learn it by imitation. By seeing people doing things, you start doing them. By seeing what makes people successful, you follow them. It does not come out of your nature, it comes out of your surroundings. Yes, it can become so deep-rooted that in every language there is an expression: habit is second nature. It becomes so deep-rooted that you cannot even make the distinction whether it is habit or nature.
But habit is never nature. You did not bring it with you, and any day you want to drop it, you can drop it. Any day you want to change it you can change it.
Nature cannot be changed.
And instinct is part of nature. In you, nature is expressed in four layers. Instinct is the lowest. Then there is intellect, which is higher than instinct. Most people never know anything more than these two, and these two are always fighting for supremacy. All the religions have remained with intellect; that"s why they are against instinct.
Only a few great thinkers like Acharya Bruhaspati in India and Epicurus in Greece have been in favor of instinct against intellect. These are very rare people; otherwise everybody has been in favor of intellect, because intellect has a higher position. It brings more respectability to you, more honor.
Instinct is almost like the animals. Intellect makes you superior to the animals - but instinct is juicy, intellect is dry. Hence the people who live with instinct are joyous, happy, loving, and the people who live with intellect are dry, quarreling.
In fact there is an old story that dogs must have been great intellectuals in their previous lives; that"s why they are continuously barking at each other. You cannot stop dogs from barking at each other, and you cannot stop intellectuals from barking at each other; there is a similarity. It can be either that dogs are born as intellectuals, or intellectuals are born as dogs - or perhaps there are both types.
Beyond your intellect is your feeling. Another name for your feeling is intuition, a more scientific name. But very few people reach to intuition, because to reach to intuition, you have to go beyond intellect, and meditation is the only way. But unfortunately meditation is not part of our education.
Education stops at intellect, creating a quarrel between your instinct and intellect, creating a split, a schizophrenia that you will suffer from your whole life.
If you meditate, something beyond intellect starts functioning. You can call it the heart, you can call it intuition. It has no arguments, but it has tremendous experiences. But it is not the end of your whole nature. There is, beyond this third, the fourth, which has not been named. In the East, it has simply been called turiya, and turiya means "the fourth." It has not been named because any name falls short of it. It is your ultimate nature, your very essential nature. It is where you meet with the universal nature, just like a dewdrop disappearing into the ocean.
Nature is a vast world - it begins with instinct and ends with the fourth, the turiya.
Habit is a nurture; you learn it from others.
For example, when I was a student and I wanted a scholarship for my post-graduate studies, my professor was absolutely confident: I had all the qualifications. There was just one great disqualification - that I might get into an argument with the vice-chancellor about something. So my professor, the head of the department of philosophy, went with me just to prevent me from quarreling. He went on telling me on the way, "Listen, everything depends on him. It is a special scholarship; it comes from the vice-chancellor"s special fund. Other scholarships are very small; this is the biggest scholarship, and you need it."
He knew that with whatever money I was getting from my home I was purchasing books. Even if I had to go hungry it was okay, but I could not resist ... if I saw in the university bookstall a new book, I had to purchase it. The head of my department supported me as much as he could. Knowing me - that I could go hungry, but I would purchase the book - he had arranged with the mess manager:
"I will pay his bills for food and everything that he needs, so don"t ask him." He wanted me to get the biggest scholarship, so I could purchase as many books as I wanted.
He was persuading me all the way while going towards the vice-chancellor"s office: "Just remember one thing, you have one disqualification. Don"t get into an argument with that old man; otherwise all your qualifications won"t do. It is simply in his hands." I remained silent, non-committal, and he said to me, "Why are you silent? - because I am afraid ..."
I said, "I cannot commit myself and I cannot promise. If he provokes me, then I don"t care about the scholarship. I will not miss the opportunity to have a good encounter."
He said, "You are mad, but I will be sitting by your side, and if you start some argument, I will start pulling your shirt. That is to remind you that you are forgetting."
I said, "You can do anything you want, but I am not promising anything to you."
He said, "You are stubborn."
I said, "I am not stubborn; if he does not provoke me, there is no question."
But as I entered the office, he provoked me immediately. He said to me, "Why are you growing your beard?"
The head of my department looked at me and thought, "Finished! That scholarship is gone!"
because I said to the vice-chancellor, "You are asking an absurd question. The beard is growing by itself. I"m not growing it, I"m not pulling out these hairs."
He said, "That"s right; but you can shave."
I said, "That brings up the question: I can ask you why you have been shaving your beard which nature has given you. You cannot ask the same question to me because I am not growing it, just as I am not growing my nose. And what can I say if somebody asks me, "Why don"t you cut off your nose?" Why are you shaving twice a day?"
He was an old professor of history from Oxford ... he was a professor in Oxford, and when he retired from there he was appointed here as vice-chancellor.
I said, "You have to give me an answer."
He said, "You are asking a question I have never thought about. And you seem to be right ... why did I start shaving my beard? The only thing I can think of is that because everybody else was shaving, I started shaving."
I said, "It is only a habit. And you are living in a habit blindly - not even alert about why you are shaving your own beard twice a day, wasting time. And the imitation of others does not show much intelligence; you should have asked why they are shaving. And you would have found that their answer is the same: they are imitating others."
I told him, "You just think of one possibility: if women start growing beards ... which is possible. Just by giving a woman certain injections, hormones which man has and the woman does not have, she will start growing a beard and a mustache. Do you think she will look beautiful?"
He said, "My God! She cannot, she will look awful."
I said, "The same is the situation with you. You look awful without a beard, which is a natural phenomenon."
When I said, "You look awful," my professor started hectically pulling my shirt, hitting my leg with his.
I said to him, "Professor S.S. Roy, you have not come with me to pull my shirt, or to hit my leg with your leg."
I told the vice-chancellor, "You have to interfere. He is disturbing our conversation."
Even today, I can remember Professor S.S. Roy"s face! He could not believe that I would do that to him.
The vice-chancellor said, "Professor S.S. Roy, that"s not right."
I said, "I have been telling him all the way, but he is greedy about me getting the scholarship, so he wants me not to argue with you. But I don"t care about the scholarship; I care about whatever is the truth, scholarship or no scholarship."
The vice-chancellor looked at me and he said, "Don"t be worried about your scholarship." He did not ask anything about my qualifications ... whether I qualify for the scholarship or not. He simply signed. He said, "I loved you. No student has ever dared to say in front of me, "You look awful." And I cannot answer it! Perhaps you are right, because it is unnatural what I am doing, and what you are doing is natural. And I would love once in a while, passing by the office ... you are always welcome, you can come just for a chitchat. I enjoyed just this small talk with you."
My professor was amazed. Coming back, he was absolutely silent. I said, "What is the matter? You are very silent."
He said, "I am wondering what kind of man you are. You managed so quickly, and you said to him, to his face, "You look awful." And we know that he is a very angry man and very revengeful. And he has invited you: "Whenever you want ... there is no need for any appointment. You can come directly in." What did you do? It was almost like magic - within a minute. And you made me into such a fool. I could not even raise my eyes. I was looking down ... What to say? I have done those things; I cannot deny it."
People don"t think what they are doing: what kind of dress they are using, whether it is comfortable or not; what kind of houses they are living in, whether they are aesthetic or not. They are simply imitating others.
A life of imitation is not a true life. It is not sincere. One should live naturally on all the four steps:
Instinct is of the body.
Intellect is of the mind.
Intuition is of the heart.
And the fourth, turiya, is of the being.
If you can live all these four in harmony, you are the perfect man. Nothing should be denied in favor of anything else. All four have to be together in a harmony. And if you can avoid habits, if you can allow your nature to be your whole life, no space for habits at all .... All habits take you away from your nature; all habits prove you to be mediocre.
Live naturally and you are as natural as a roseflower; live through habits and you are made of something plastic, dead, meaningless. Then you feel miserable, and nobody else is responsible for it. You allowed imitation to enter in your authenticity and it has poisoned everything. Just follow your inner voice.
Your body has its own wisdom - use it.
Your mind can grow into a great giant as far as intelligence is concerned; use it, but don"t be used by it.
Your heart has so much love, so much beauty; it can fill the whole universe, it is oceanic. Allow it to spread and expand, and share it with people.
And the fourth is the ultimate. That is your eternal life with all conceivable blissfulness, ecstasy, joy, fearlessness, deathlessness.
If one lives simply according to his nature on each of these four rungs, he is a true man; he does not have any habit. Habits destroy your truth and impose things on you which were never intended by nature to be your destiny.
An American, an Englishman and an Irishman were all facing a firing squad. "Listen," said the American to the other two, "one at a time we will think of a means to distract the fire; then when the firing squad turn their backs, the one who creates the distraction runs over the hill. I will go first and show you."
The squad lined up and took aim. Quickly the American shouted, "Tornado!" The squad turned round to look and the American ran over the hill.
The squad started to line up again and the Englishman yelled, "Flash flood!" Again the squad turned, expecting to see a tidal wave of water.
For the third time the squad lined up to take aim. The Irishman, thinking quickly, yelled out, "Fire!"
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.