Послания любви. 365 писем Ошо - Бхагаван Раджниш (Ошо)

but into the unknowable also.

307. Love.

Meditation cannot be taught directly

because it is not a mechanical technique,

but a living art.

Dogo had a disciple called Soshin.

Soshin waited long with his master

to be taught the art of meditation.

He expected lessons the way a schoolboy

is taught at school,

but there no special lessons were forthcoming,

and this bewildered and disappointed the disciple.

One day he said to the master:

It is a long time since I came here

but not a word has been given to me

regarding the essence of meditation.

Dogo laughed at this heartily and said:

What are you saying, my boy?

Since your arrival I have continually

been giving you lessons on the matter!

At this the poor disciple was even more bewildered

and for some time he could not think what to say.

Then one day he gathered courage and asked again:

What kind of lesson could it have been, sir?

Dogo said:

When you bring me a cup of tea in the morning, I take it;

when you serve me a meal, I accept it

and when you bow to me I return it with a nod.

How else do you expect to be taught in meditation?

Soshin hung his head

and began to think about the

puzzling words of the master,

but at this the master said again:

If you want to see, see, right at once,

because when you begin to think

you miss the point altogether.

308. Love.

Meditate, pray and wait.

Do not will anything,

for in you there is strength

greater than any strength of your own.

But it works only when your will is at rest.

309. Love.

Be free at the center;

let the center relax and die:

be only a circumference –

and this is the only renunciation I know.

No man is free until he is free at the center.

When he lets go then he is really free –

and then life is not anguish

and then life is not agony

because no hell can exist without the self, the center.

310. Love.

Do you hear me?

Do you see me?

I stand at the door and knock,

and I knock because of a promise made

in another life and another age.

311. Love.

Be in the crowd as if you are alone

and vice versa.

Receive a guest with the same attitude

you have when alone,

and when alone

maintain the same attitude you have in receiving guests.

In this way the drop drops into the ocean.

On retiring, sleep as if you have entered your last sleep,

and upon awakening be reborn again.

In this way the ocean drops into the drop.

312. Love.

Emptiness is not really emptiness:

rather, it is the all.

It is not negative:

rather, it is positivity itself.

It is out of it that everything is born

and to it everything returns.

It is the source and ground of all existence.

So whenever I say emptiness

I never mean just emptiness!

To me emptiness is not the absence of anything

but the presence of emptiness itself.

And now you can understand it

because you yourself are in it,

and it is in you.

Once a student asked Joshu: Sir, you teach that

we must empty our minds,

but I have nothing in my mind;

now what shall I do?

The old master laughed and said:

Throw it out!

But I have nothing. How can I throw it out?

If you can’t throw it out, carry it out!

Drive it out!

Empty it out!

But don’t stand there in front of me with nothing

in your mind!

313. Love.

Come here whenever it is possible.

You will always be welcomed.

And stay with me a little longer,

and let me help.

It will be difficult for you

because you will have to let go of yourself completely.

But it is not impossible –

and for you especially

because I have seen in you the great potential

that is awaiting its opportunity.

With you much that is impossible is possible.

There is a seed which is longing to explode.

Its very longing is the source of your search,

its longing is the tension that you are today

and its longing will be the freedom

that you will be tomorrow.

The essence is there and

the existence will follow if you so wish.

Please follow its call to the conclusion.

Go on doing meditation.

Do not seek results,

they will come by themselves when the time is ripe.

And the time is ripe

but you still are not.

Let meditation ripen you.

314. Love.

Life is non-fragmentary,

but mind makes it appear fragmentary;

and this fragmentation creates all the problems.

Beware of fragments

and always look beyond them

and below them

and through them –

then you will be able to see the ocean

in spite of all the waves.

The waves are in the ocean

but the waves are not the ocean.

The ocean can be without the waves

but the waves cannot be without the ocean.

315. Love.

Mind means duality

and meditation, oneness.

In Zen they call it – The One Sword.

Kusunoki Masashige came to a Zen monastery

when he was about to meet the oncoming army

of Ashikaga Takanji, and asked the master:

When a man is at the parting of the ways

between life and death, how should he behave?

The master answered: Cut off your dualism

and let the one sword stand serenely by itself

against the sky!

316. Love.

The real thing is

not to fight with your thoughts or desires or instincts

because that is negative

and the negative cannot help.

The real thing is

to grow in awareness, in meditation,

because then one wins without any fight whatsoever.

And to win through conflict is not a real victory

because that which has been suppressed

will have to be suppressed again and again.

Through conflict there is no end to conflict

and through fight only more fight is born.

But there is a victory

without any conflict, fight or suppression.

That victory comes through positive growth in awareness.

Do not fight with yourself

but grow in awareness and understanding and silence,

and all that is negative and diseased

will have withered away by itself.

Suzuki tells a story:

Chi Hsing Tzu was raising a fighting cock for his lord.

Ten days passed and the lord asked:

Is he ready? Chi answered:

No sir, he is not ready.

He is still vain and flushed with rage.

Another ten days passed and the prince asked

about the cock.

Chi said: Not yet, sir.

He is on the alert whenever he sees the shadow

of another cock

or hears its crowing.

Still another ten days passed

and when the inquiry came from the prince, Chi replied:

Not quite yet, sir.

His sense of fighting is still smoldering within him

ready to be awakened.

When another ten days elapsed

Chi replied in response to the inquiry:

He is almost ready.

Even when he hears another crowing he shows

no excitement.

He has now become positive.

He has grown in subtle inner awareness.

Now he resembles one made of wood,

he is so quiet and silent.

His qualities are integrated.

No cock is his match

and to win he will not have to fight

because other cocks will run away from him immediately.

They cannot face him now.

And really it proved so.

He won fights without fighting at all.

And I say that you can do likewise with yourself:

learn the secret from Chi Hsing Tzu’s cock!

317. Love.

Everything has happened as it should happen.

And l was surprised not because you ran away from here

but because I never thought you could be

so predictable!

It is not from here that you have escaped,

it is only a vain effort to escape from yourself –

which is impossible.

How can one escape from oneself?

But in meditation a moment comes,

necessarily comes, when the mind tries the impossible –

for the mind this is the last defensive act.

Meditation is ultimately suicidal to the mind.

And of course the mind must be given a chance –

and you have given it!

Meditation is encountering yourself

directly and in your total nakedness.

This creates fear and the futile effort to escape.

The effort is futile because

whatsoever is known once is known forever

and you cannot be the old ignorant person again.

There is no way to go back

and there is no bridge.

This escape will make you more mature too

and you will come back strengthened

through it and because of it.

Now relax there under the sky and beside the sea

and I will be there.

Whenever you are relaxed you will feel my presence.

And when you feel like coming, come back –

and soon you will feel this.

I will be waiting here for you as ever.

Come and continue the arduous journey

towards your self.

318. Love.

I know that the apprenticeship

is very hard but worth it.

So keep on. It is arduous,

but one has to pay for everything,

and in no other way can you get to the great treasure.

You have longed for it for lives and lives

and now when the time is ripe

and the key is being given to you

do not lose courage.

Access to the treasure is difficult

because it is hidden

in our own unconscious layers of the mind.

It will be easy if you approach that threshold

when the diurnal tide is favorable,

that is when you are passing from sleep to waking

or from waking to sleep.

So evening and morning

are probably the best times for meditation.

You might have noticed that when the mind

is recovering from sleep it takes at least fifteen minutes

to close one aperture and fully open the other.

That is why dreams

cannot last longer than that

in your memory after waking.

When the mind is approaching sleep

it again passes the same threshold.

Be aware of this threshold

because it is very significant

for those who are in search of the inner treasure.

This threshold is the gate to the unknown.

This threshold,

this gap between waking and sleep,

must be used for meditation.

Be aware of the gap,

be a witness of the interval,

and you will be transformed.

319. Love.

I know what is happening to you –

nothingness is descending, emptiness is increasing.

Welcome it, and rejoice in its coming.

Dance in ecstasy because

there is no other way to welcome it.

And the more you dance, the more you will die.

And when you are completely dead you will be reborn.

And the moment is near, very near – just by the corner.

You have passed through the entrance-explosion and now

be ready for the ultimate.

Look at yourself once more

as the river looks at itself before falling into the ocean,

because after falling into the ocean

there will be no one to look, and no one to be looked at!

320. Love.

What is meditation?

Hsu Yun says: Meditation lies in laying down.

But laying down what?

Laying down yourself – because nothing less will do.

Have you ever been at the bedside of a dead man?

If you try to scold him he will not be excited,

and even if you hit him with a staff he will not hit back.

He also indulged once in the same things everyone indulges in.

He also longed for reputation and wealth.

But now he is without any longing whatsoever.

Now he does not make any distinctions

and lays down everything.

If you can be in this laying down state – alive,

you are in meditation.

321. Love.

Leave the grasping of things and thoughts.

Open your fist completely

because grasping is suffering.

Stop! cries Buddha.

But the mad mind does not stop.

If it stops, it is Enlightenment!

322. Love.

Love to be alone.

Solitude is the temple of the divine,

and remember that there is no other temple.

323. Love.

Do not be closed to the universe.

Open all your doors and windows

and let everything pass freely in and out, out and in,

because only then will you be able to receive the truth.

324. Love.

Ego plays a subtle role everywhere –

not only in men but in mice also!

An arrogant elephant

looked down contemptuously at a mouse

and said: You are just about

the skinniest little creature I have ever seen.

I am not always like this, squeaked the mouse.

I’ve been sick!

325. Love.

The whole of Yoga has gone dead because of imitation.

One cannot imitate anything that is real.

The real is always spontaneous:

one can jump into it but one cannot practice it.

Any practice is of the mind and by the mind –

and the mind is the past, the dead.

The mind is the thing one has to jump out of.

Out of the mind is the explosion,

so be aware of the mind and its tricks!

Mamiya went to a great teacher to learn meditation.

The teacher told him to concentrate on the famous koan:

What is the sound of one hand?

Mamiya went away

and came back a week later shaking his head.

He could not get it.

Get out! said the master. You are not trying hard enough.

You still think of money and food and pleasure.

It would be better if you died,

then you might learn the answer.

The next week Mamiya came back again.

When the master asked him:

Well, what is the sound of one hand? –

he clutched at his heart, groaned

and fell down as if dead.

Well, you have taken my advice and died,

said the master,

but what about the sound?

Mamiya opened one eye:

I have not solved that yet, he said.

Dead men don’t speak, said the master.

Get up and get out!

326. Love.

We settle down where no settling is possible.