Darshan 12 April 1976

[A sannyasin said she had been having very frightening dreams, since childhood, in which she was being cut into.]

This will go... this will go. You have to do one thing - do it consciously. It will be difficult, but you have to do it consciously. Whatever one avoids in the day, comes in the night. The night is just a completion of something that has been left incomplete in the day. The mind tends to complete things - it is a perfectionist.

Do one thing about this nightmare. Every day - the evening will be good - for half an hour sit in your room, close the door, and imagine all sorts of things that come into the nightmare. Create a nightmare consciously. And not just so-so; make it as intense as possible. Give it as much energy as possible and let the imagination have full play. Make it so real that you yourself almost forget that it is imagination. Only then will it disappear.

And don't say that this is imagination, silly. Then again it will come back. If you can live it every day for half an hour, you will exhaust the source. It will soon disappear in the night and the nights will become calm and quiet. So continue it until it disappears in the night completely, then tell me. It may take two, three or four weeks, but still continue. Even if you feel that it is silly, you have to continue.

If it is not coming you have to force it to come.

If it has remained there since childhood it must have deep roots. They have to be pulled out. And do it well. If you cannot do it well, I will have to tell Pujari to bring the snake!

[The snake that Osho was referring to is used in the Tathata group as a tool to help people get into and overcome any phobia they may have about snakes. He is actually a rather harmless-looking snake (see 'Nothing To Lose But Your Head').]

Then he will put it on you! So if you want to avoid this (chuckling), make it real! Otherwise, Pujari has a good snake. Have you seen it? And he does things!

[The Soma group, which was present tonight. A group assistant says that some problems came up which would be better dealt with in Encounter or other groups.]

They will be solved. And if they are not solved by the end of the group, you can suggest to the person to do Encounter or Primal or whatsoever you feel.

In fact this should be made a point to all the groupleaders - that if they feel the person needs some other group, after the group they should suggest that to the person. But there is no need to suggest it in the middle of the group because the problem may disappear.

This is going to be so because everything is so interlinked. The same will happen in the Encounter group; they will feel that a problem can be solved in the Soma group. Every group has its limitations, and no group can be total, because if it is total it will be too long. It will be almost as long as life (laughter). Only then it can be total; otherwise not. There are problems which can be solved only in life; no group can solve them.

So don't expect the impossible. Whatsoever can be done under the limits, you have to do. And don't be too worried about too many problems. Because this is my observation - that if you wait just a little, ninety-five percent of problems disappear on their own. Nothing is to be done; they disappear on their own. It is just as they say about the common cold. If you treat it, it takes seven days. If you don't treat it, it goes in one week - but it goes! (laughter) More problems are like that. They are momentary.

It happens every day - somebody has a problem and he goes to the office for an appointment. After two days the appointment is given. By the time he comes, he says the problem is gone! Just time.

The mind is so momentary that whenever something arises, it takes it and becomes excited about it.

There is a very old sufi story. A king called his wise men and said, 'I would like some advice from you. In just one simple sentence, give me a sutra which can be used in all situations of life, and which is to solve all the problems of life - a masterkey.'

The wise men were very much afraid. What to do? They couldn't begin to think about it. How to make just one small maxim which is going to solve everything? They asked for time. The king waited months and then said, 'What are you doing? Bring that advice!'

In this time they had been searching for somebody who could help, and they found a sufi master.

The sufi master told them, 'No need to say anything. This is the advice.' He wrote it on a piece of paper, put it in a locket, and gave it to the wise men. He told them to give it to the king and to tell him not to open it unless he felt it was absolutely necessary. 'If it is not absolutely necessary, if he can tackle it by some other means, then don't use it. This is a masterkey. It is very valuable. Don't use it on ordinary locks which can be opened by other means.'

The king was very happy. He waited for an opportunity but it never came. He waited and waited, but whatsoever problems came, he would think, 'This is not absolutely necessary. I can tackle it.' And as time passed, he could tackle it.

He became very curious about the locket. What advice was there? But he had made a promise. He had promised that he would not open it unless it was an almost life-and-death problem. Then came the time.

A neighbouring kingdom defeated him. He escaped into the forest, into the hills, with the enemy following. He could hear their footsteps of the horses coming closer and closer and closer. He came to a precipice - now there was no go. He could not go back and the enemy was coming. They would be there within seconds. And he would die if he jumped. Now was the moment.

He couldn't find any solution, so he opened the locket. There was a simple sentence: 'This too will pass.' Just this much was written on it.

He said, 'What type of person is that old man, befooling me? There is nothing in it, and I was thinking that it was a great secret - This too will pass.' But it happened that while he was reading it, suddenly he became aware that the horses seemed to be going further away, not coming closer. They had missed the path - and they went away.

He folded the paper and put it back into the locket. After two days he was saved by his friends, and they recaptured their kingdom. There was great jubilation and ceremony and he was received in the capital. Flowers were being thrown and the whole path was decorated with flowers.

The king became so happy, so exalted - as if he would burst with happiness. Suddenly he felt again that he was in danger. The happiness was too much. He looked at the sutra again, the same sutra:

This too will pass.

When he came to his palace he enquired who had given this advice. He went to the sufi master and became an initiate; he dropped his kingdom. He said, 'The man who has given such great advice is the. man to be followed. I surrender myself to you. I have understood. Everything is going to pass - even this life is going to pass - so I have come in search of that which is not going to pass. Show me that.'

So this happens. Almost ninety-five percent of problems will pass; they just need a little time. Don't be worried about them. Then five percent are left. Four percent can be solved by methods. They are like diseases which can be cured by allopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy - anything. They just need the attention of the therapist.

So it doesn't matter what type of medicine is being used. If the doctor knows how to tackle the patient, how to give attention to him, how to be caring about him, these four percent will be solved - even by placebos, by false medicines. That's why so many pseudo-gurus exist in the world. They cannot exist unless they are helping some way. How can pseudo-gurus exist so long? And so many of them! These pseudo-gurus are placebos.

Placebo is a medical term for a false medicine which is not medicine but sugar pills. You say that this is aspirin and the person believes that it is. It helps... the belief helps, not the aspirin. In fact

many experiments have been done and sugar pills have been shown to help as much as aspirin; just the same percentage. If five percent of headaches are cured by aspirin, five percent are cured by sugar pills. Aspirin is a sugar pill.

That's why whenever a new medicine is invented it cures many people. But by and by, as time passes, it doesn't cure so many. By and by it relapses - and again a new medicine is needed.

Whenever a new medicine comes into existence, everybody is so hopeful - the panacea has been found. This hope helps so many people.

But then there are pessimists in the world, hopeless people. You give them any medicine and nothing works on them. Then they say, 'I have taken this panacea; this is nonsense.' They create disbelief in others, and then the medicine by and by disappears.

Many times, millions of times, panaceas have been discovered and lost again and again. After each two years, something is invented - penicillin or something, erythromycin - and the whole world is agog, ready to receive it. Now the last thing has come! But those pessimists are dangerous people.

They will fail every medicine and every doctor! But they keep balance. They don't allow you to go too far into your belief; they bring you back.

So four percent of problems will be solved by any method. Even by no-method, by Zen, they can be solved. It is not a method at all. If you just tell the person to sit facing a wall, they will be solved.

So ninety-five percent just need time - 'This too will pass.' Four percent need the care of the therapist, of the doctor, of the guru, the nurse, the wife, the husband - some care, somebody to pay attention to you and sympathise and give you hope and confidence. Then they will go. And one percent never goes.

That one percent is the real problem. That' goes only when understanding arises. Nobody can help that, nobody. That one percent goes only when you try to understand, when you rise in awareness, when you become so understanding that you don't create that problem. Otherwise it remains, it continues. This has to be understood. So if you are a therapist, never be worried. You cannot do anything about that one percent, sq forget all about it.

So for ninety-five percent just give time, and for the four percent, pay attention, be careful. Be careful and loving - this is the whole science of medicine. But it is needed because people are not alert, aware, conscious. If they are conscious, then there is no problem, mm? Good.

[A group member said that she enjoyed the group, but since then she has felt out of touch with things; as if everything is a dream and she is very detached.]

Nothing is wrong... just a detached state of mind is arising - very very cool; and that's good. But it is always shattering because it is cool - it is not hot. And the whole western training is for being hot.

You don't know that emotions can exist in a cool state also. Then they are more beautiful than they ever are in a hot state, because when you are hot, you are feverish. When you are cool, you are collected... a tranquillity exists within you.

But it is difficult to conceive of a cool welcome. We say a 'warm welcome'. Somehow, all that is hot is thought to be alive; that's not true. There is a love which is cool, absolutely cool. The love of a buddha... you will feel the coolness of it. It is like a great tree, and you are sitting under the shade of it, and a cool breeze is blowing. Or you are under a cool shower... or in a small pool of cool water in the hilly... everything silent. And the coolness is not only outside. It has entered you... you have become one with it.

When this happens for the first time, one feels very much afraid, as if life is going out of one's hands, as if one will never be able to love again, never be able to be excited again. So one feels scared - but there is no need to be.

And in this state everything will look like a dream, far away. Nothing will look real - nothing is real.

Only the seer is real - everything seen is dream.

This is the goal of all meditation - to come to a realisation that everything is made of dream. When everything is a dream you need not be excited about it. Everything is good; good and bad lose their distinctions. One goes inwards more and more. Because there is no reality outside, the inner becomes the real. If the outer is real, you move in the outer and you forget the inner. The inner becomes dream.

So people who are outgoing, extroverts, always think introverts are dreamers - closing their eyes and watching their navels, 'lotus-eaters'... just dreaming. But people who have gone deep inside themselves, think others are just stupid; victims of hallucinations, illusions. Nothing is real... only the seer. Everything is a projection.

So this will come. Allow it, and allow it happily; don't get depressed. Otherwise you will start getting out of it; you will struggle against it. You will resist it as if you are slipping into death. Don't be worried - you are coming to terms with life as it is. Feel happy... feel coolly happy.

In the beginning it will be difficult. But soon when you have tasted it and you are drunk with it, you will not be ready to give it for anything whatsoever.

[One of the leaders said that they had prepared a meditation method during the course to show to Osho. The group made their way to the lower porch and knelt in a circular formation with their eyes closed.

The exercise, which is sufi-based, is set to music by Ravel, especially composed for this and other sufi exercises. The meditation begins by moving the arms upwards, heavenward, on the in breath, until one's body is completely extended upwards, palms and face, upturned.

After a minute's pause and holding of the breath, the body slowly comes down to the ground, foreheads making contact with the earth, and hands and arms outstretched - this with an exhalation of breath.]

It is a very good meditation - it can be done every day.

Just two or three things. When you bring your hands up, when you open them, let them be touched by everybody, they should not be separate. When they are spread, everybody touches. There is no need to hold - just touch. That will give tremendous energy.

And it should be done in a circle... in a closed circle, so that when you touch, the whole energy becomes a circle. Alone, you cannot go far, but together you can go any distance. The total is more than the total of the individuals. So touch hands.

When you come down on the earth, what do you do inside?

[The group assistant said: Just breathing right out.]

Breathing right out - nothing else? Because if you feel surrender, it will help. So breathe out and feel surrendered to God. Just like a wave rises and falls back to the ocean, so when you fall back into the earth, you are like a wave which is disappearing. Then again you rise as if a completely new wave arises. Feel new... totally new, fresh - then again, fall.

Soon you will have the feeling of a great oceanic energy surrounding you. You will become just waves coming up and falling down, coming up and falling down. You will almost hear the sound ...

and the feeling. And the last time when you fall, remain in that posture for at least five minutes. Don't be in a hurry. At least for five minutes remain relaxed, gone... disappear.

It is a very good meditation. It will be helpful. Make it a point to do it every day. It will be best to make it the last meditation every day, mm? Good!