The language of suddenness

Maneesha, before I speak on the sutras of Hyakujo, I have to say a few words as a preface.

Hyakujo was the direct heir of Ma Tzu and became most well known for his establishment of the first truly Zen monasteries and his treatise on sudden enlightenment.

To understand Hyakujo, the first thing is to understand that enlightenment can only be sudden.

The preparation can be gradual, but the illumination is going to be sudden. You can prepare the ground for the seeds, but the sprouts will come suddenly one day in the morning; they don't come gradually. Existence believes in suddenness. Nothing is gradual here, although everything appears to be gradual; that is our illusion.

In the past science used to think that everything was gradual: a child gradually becomes young; the young man gradually is becoming older... Now, we know that is not the case because of Albert Einstein and his discoveries about atomic energy. He himself was puzzled when he saw for the first time that the particles of an atom don't go from one place to another place the way you go from your house to the market. They simply jump. And their jump is so tremendous that Einstein had to find a new word for it: 'quanta', the quantum jump. It means that the particle was in one place, A, and then suddenly you see it in another place, B. The path between has never been traveled.

A strange jump that you cannot see the particle between the two points. That gave him an idea that in existence everything is jumping, and because the jump is so subtle, you cannot see it.

Every moment you are jumping towards old age. It is not a gradual thing. It is happening every moment that you are growing older, and there is no way that you can find to rest in between the jumps. The jumps are so close, but you can prepare - and particularly for enlightenment, which is the ultimate quantum leap. You can meditate; you can go as deep as you can; you can find your center. And the moment you find your center, suddenly, there will be a jump as if out of nowhere the buddha has appeared - a buddha of pure flames.

This appearance is not going to be gradual, not partial. Hyakujo's great contribution was the sudden enlightenment, because it is so illogical. If you go from here to the market, you have to go - not like the monkey god of Hindus, flying in the sky, carrying a mountain, jumping from one mountain to another mountain... You will have to go step by step. You will have to move gradually. You cannot simply disappear from Buddha Auditorium and find yourself in the M.G Road marketplace.

In our actual life we never come across anything sudden: you never see the bud of a rose suddenly becoming a flower; it opens gradually. In the morning it was a bud, in the evening it becomes the flower. Because of the continuous experience of gradualness, the major masters of Zen belonged to the gradual school. To them it was absolutely absurd that you can become a buddha instantaneously, just now.

Everything needs time. If you want to prepare a house, a garden, a painting, a poem, it will take time.

There is only one thing that does not take time, because it is beyond time, that is your buddhahood.

You simply jump out of time and you find yourself as you have been always and will be always - your intrinsic nature.

Hyakujo introduced another thing: Zen monasteries. Before him there were Zen temples - small groups of people living in those temples, meditating, reading scriptures. But he introduced a new thing, the monastery, where people were absolutely devoted to a single-pointed goal: to become the buddha. No scriptures, no rituals... the whole energy has to be poured into a single direction:

to discovering your intrinsic nature. And why monasteries? When there are thousands of people together, going into the unknown, it is easier for you, because you know that although you are going alone into your own space, thousands of others are also going into the same space on their own.

You are not absolutely alone. Secondly, a monastery creates a certain atmosphere. That was the greatest contribution of Hyakujo.

A monastery is a climate. Its every fiber, every wave... every leaf of the trees is soaked with only one longing: a great urgency to become the buddha. And when ten thousand people, for years, continuously go on working, it creates an energy field. In that energy field you can be caught and you can easily slip out of your mind. Alone, it is a little difficult. Alone it can happen, it has happened too, but that is not the rule.

Hyakujo's great insight of introducing monasteries, simply means introducing an energy field which is not visible to you. When ten thousand sannyasins here enter into their inner being, in a way they are alone, but in a way ten thousand people are with them. The experiment is not being done in their cells alone, but in the open, under the sky, with thousands of other people on the same track, creating vibrations, ripples of energy.

Not to become a buddha in such a climate, you would have to struggle against the whole energy field, you would have to swim upstream. But if you want to become a buddha, you simply go with the stream. A deep let-go is possible in that atmosphere. Hyakujo introduced a very scientific concept of monasteries.

Born in 724, Hyakujo was also known as Pai Chang. As a young boy Hyakujo was taken to a temple by his mother, and upon entering, she bowed to the Buddhist statue. Pointing to the statue, Hyakujo asked his mother, "What is that?"

His mother replied, "That is a buddha."

Hyakujo said, "He looks like a man. I want to become a buddha afterwards."

This small incident of his childhood has great implications. Buddha never wanted to be in any way extraordinary or special for the simple reason that if he was special and extraordinary, that would discourage people to become buddhas because they know they are ordinary, they are not special; they are not incarnations of God, they don't have divine miraculous powers. They cannot walk on water; they cannot bring a dead Lazarus back to life... Just look at Jesus and Buddha and you will find that Buddha is absolutely ordinary, simple, humble; he can mix with the crowd. Jesus will stand far away... because you cannot walk on water.

I have heard, only once, that a bishop had come to the holy land of Israel. He had two friends, two old rabbis, and he asked them to take him to all the holy places which were visited by Jesus. So finally, they went to Lake Galilee where Jesus had walked on water. They took a boat to show him the exact place where he had walked. The bishop said to the rabbis, "Jesus was a Jew, your last prophet and our first founder. Can you also walk on water?"

The rabbi said, "Easy."

The bishop could not believe it. He said, "I want to see."

So one rabbi got out from the left side of the boat and walked on water for a few feet and came back.

The bishop could not even blink his eyes when he saw the man walking on water. He said, "We used to think that it was only Jesus, but it seems to be a Jewish quality."

The old rabbis said to the bishop, "We don't follow Jesus and we don't accept him as our prophet.

We have crucified him for the crime of being a fraud, propounding himself to be our last prophet. But you are a follower of Jesus, so just take the name of Jesus and you try walking on the water."

Now it was a great challenge....

But the bishop was sitting on the right side, so he got out from the right side and went down into the water and started shouting, "Help! Help!"

Those two rabbis took him out, and the older rabbi asked the younger, "Shall we tell this idiot what the secret is?"

The secret was that there were stones in the water, just below the water, but they were on the left side, not on the right side. Jesus must have walked on those stones - there is no question about it.

I have heard that an American Christian, a very rich man but very miserly, went to Israel. And every visitor is bound to go to Lake Galilee which is the holiest place - where Jesus lived for most of his life. And he asked the boatman, "How much will it cost to take me to the place where Jesus walked on water?"

He said, "It will cost ten dollars."

The American said, "That explains everything about how Jesus walked on water. Ten dollars? Forget about it. I am not in a mood to walk on water."

You will not find in Buddha anything that is not possible for you. He is as human a being as you are.

He does not proclaim himself to be anything special. That is his grandeur. That is his greatness.

In this incident, Hyakujo is asking his mother, pointing to the statue of Buddha, "What is that?"

The mother said, "That is a buddha."

Hyakujo said, "He looks like a man."

He never tried to look like anything else, he simply wanted to look like man so that every man can be encouraged - that you don't have to walk on water, you don't have to turn water into whiskey....

You can be a buddha without any difficulty because it is your inner nature. It does not depend on miracles. Religion is not magic. It is a very simple and humble effort to search within yourself for the deepest point where you are joined with the universe. That joining point is the buddha.

Hyakujo said, even though he was a small child, "He looks like a man. I want to become a buddha afterwards. If this man could become a buddha, I am also a man. Right now I am too small, but later on, I am going to become a buddha."

Hyakujo became a monk afterwards, when he was twenty years old. He joined a monastery at Yueh Chou, and his first master was called Tao-chih. Tao-chih gave him his first spiritual name which was Hui Hai meaning, Ocean of Wisdom.

Hyakujo was not a monk for long before he heard about the great master, Ma Tzu, and went to him at Chiang-si.

Maneesha has asked:

WHEN HYAKUJO FIRST ARRIVED AT CHIANG-SI TO PAY HIS RESPECTS TO MA TZU, MA TZU INQUIRED, "FROM WHERE HAVE YOU COME?"

These are Zen questions. They don't mean what they appear to mean. When he says, "From where have you come?" he means: From where in the eternity have you come here? Are you aware of your eternal nature? - that you are coming here from utter emptiness?

But Hyakujo could not understand at that point. He simply thought that Ma Tzu was asking an ordinary question.

"FROM THE GREAT CLOUD MONASTERY AT YUEH CHOU," ANSWERED HYAKUJO.

"AND WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GAIN BY COMING HERE?" ASKED MA TZU.

HYAKUJO REPLIED, "I HAVE COME SEEKING THE BUDDHA-DHARMA."

TO THIS MA TZU REPLIED, "INSTEAD OF LOOKING TO THE TREASURE HOUSE WHICH IS YOUR VERY OWN, YOU HAVE LEFT HOME AND GONE WANDERING FAR AWAY. WHAT FOR?

I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HERE AT ALL. WHAT IS THIS BUDDHA-DHARMA THAT YOU SEEK?"

WHEREUPON HYAKUJO PROSTRATED HIMSELF AND ASKED, "PLEASE TELL ME TO WHAT YOU ALLUDED WHEN YOU SPOKE OF A TREASURE HOUSE OF MY VERY OWN."

Now he has asked the right question.

MA TZU REPLIED, "THAT WHICH ASKED THE QUESTION IS YOUR TREASURE HOUSE."

Your consciousness, your being - who asked the question? Don't look for the answer. Look from where the question is coming, then you will have to look inside. The question is coming from your innermost core.

"THAT WHICH ASKED THE QUESTION IS YOUR TREASURE HOUSE. IT CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND LACKS NOTHING AT ALL. IT IS THERE FOR YOU TO USE FREELY, SO WHY THIS VAIN SEARCH FOR SOMETHING OUTSIDE YOURSELF?"

NO SOONER WERE THESE WORDS SPOKEN THAN HYAKUJO RECEIVED A GREAT ILLUMINATION AND RECOGNIZED HIS OWN NO-MIND. BESIDE HIMSELF WITH JOY, HE BOWED IN DEEP GRATITUDE.

HYAKUJO SPENT THE NEXT SIX YEARS IN ATTENDANCE UPON MA TZU...

This has stopped happening in the world because we have forgotten the language of suddenness.

We believe only in gradual growth. Suddenness seems to be irrational, illogical, impossible but it is true about everything. If you want anything, it will be gradual. There is only one exception; that is you. You are already there. So it is only a question of just turning your eyes in, just looking inwards with absolute urgency and in a single moment everything is transformed.

When Ma Tzu told him, "That which asked the question is your treasure house," he must have immediately looked within - from where the question had arisen. "IT CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND LACKS NOTHING. IT IS THERE FOR YOU TO USE FREELY, SO WHY THIS VAIN SEARCH FOR SOMETHING OUTSIDE YOURSELF?"

Just as he went down from where the question had arisen, he must have reached to the great illumination instantly. Nowadays people ask a question to get an answer. About everything else it is okay, but about yourself, never ask a question. Rather, look within from where the question is arising, and in a single moment, the great enlightenment is possible.

NO SOONER WERE THESE WORDS SPOKEN THAN HYAKUJO RECEIVED A GREAT ILLUMINATION AND RECOGNIZED HIS OWN NO-MIND. BESIDE HIMSELF WITH JOY, HE BOWED IN DEEP GRATITUDE.

HYAKUJO SPENT THE NEXT SIX YEARS IN ATTENDANCE UPON MA TZU. BUT AS TAO-CHIH, HIS FIRST TEACHER, WAS GROWING OLD, HE WANTED TO RETURN TO LOOK AFTER HIM.

BEFORE HYAKUJO LEFT MA TZU, HE WENT TO PAY HIS FINAL TRIBUTE TO HIM.

SEEING HIM COMING, MA TZU RAISED HIS HORSE WHISK STRAIGHT UP. HYAKUJO ASKED, "ARE YOU IN THE USE OF IT, OR APART FROM THE USE?"

MA TZU HUNG THE HORSE WHISK ON THE CORNER OF HIS CHAIR. AFTER A MINUTE OR SO, HE ASKED HYAKUJO, "HENCE FORWARD, HOW DO YOU OPEN THOSE TWO LEAVES OF YOUR MOUTH TO WORK FOR OTHERS?"

AT THIS, HYAKUJO TOOK THE HORSE WHISK AND RAISED IT STRAIGHT UP.

MA TZU SAID, "ARE YOU IN THE USE OF IT, OR APART FROM IT?"

HYAKUJO HUNG THE HORSE WHISK ON THE CORNER OF THE CHAIR.

JUST AT THAT MOMENT, A GREAT ROAR, LIKE HUNDREDS OF THUNDERBOLTS FALLING, RAINED ON HYAKUJO'S HEAD. MA TZU HAD GIVEN HIM A SHOUT WHICH, IT IS SAID, DEAFENED HIM FOR THREE DAYS.

For three days he could not hear anything else. What has transpired in this dialogue when Ma Tzu asked, "Are you in the use of it, or apart from it?" The same question both have asked each other.

First Hyakujo has asked, and the meaning should be understood clearly. The meaning is: are you a witness while you are using it? or do you become one with it and forget your witnessing?

When Ma Tzu asked, Hyakujo did the same, exactly as Ma Tzu has done. He hung the horse whisk on the corner of the chair showing that "I am also a witness; I am no longer the horse whisk. I am no object, I am always a subject and a witness."

Satisfied, Hyakujo gave a tremendous roar of joy that a disciple had ripened, that a disciple had arrived home, that a disciple's blindness had disappeared. But the roar was such: LIKE HUNDREDS OF THUNDERBOLTS FALLING, RAINED ON HYAKUJO'S HEAD. MA TZU HAD GIVEN A SHOUT WHICH, IT IS SAID, DEAFENED HYAKUJO FOR THREE DAYS.

This was a great roar of tremendous joy, of welcoming Hyakujo, that "after all, you have arrived."

A haiku by Basho:

I CLAP MY HANDS AND WITH THE ECHOES IT BEGINS THE DAWN - THE SUMMER MOON.

Basho is one of the greatest poets of the world, but he has written only haikus - very symbolic but very miraculous, very simple but very mysterious. They are all to be understood through visualization, because Zen does not believe in words. Visualize and perhaps you may have some understanding. "I clap my hands and with the echoes" - in the mountains - "it begins the dawn - the summer moon."

The summer moon is still hanging and the sun is going to rise. And I have clapped my hands, and the echoes are still resounding in the mountains. It is just a painting in words. A haiku has to be understood - a painting in words, not only a poetry in words - and it has to be visualized. Just visualize yourself surrounded by mountains. And you...(OSHO CLAPS HIS HANDS.)... clap your hands. The mountains go on echoing and the summer moon is still there and the dawn has come.

The sun will be arising soon.

Why should he write these small haikus? He used to live by the side of a lake surrounded by mountains, meditating in utter silence. Once in a while he would open his eyes and whatever he would see, he would note down. These haikus are not out of the mind. These haikus are reflections in a mirror, in a no-mind. In a silent heart the summer moon, the dawn very close and he claps his hands, and all the mountains resound with echoes.

A meditator, according to Basho, will go on searching deep within himself, but that does not mean that he should lose contact with the outside world. Once in a while he should open his eyes. With all his emptiness he should mirror the outside world. Those reflections are collected in these haikus.

They don't mean anything, they simply depict a picture.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, when I see you all, I don't see you the way you see yourself. I simply see possible buddhas. No master has dedicated his books to his disciples, because no master has that clarity which can see the future in the present, which can see the rose in the seed. I can see. So when I introduce you as buddhas, it is not symbolic, I mean it. It is not only love, but also respect. My own understanding is: unless a master respects the disciple, he does not deserve respect from the disciple. It is a communication, it is a give-and-take, it is a communion.

I am going to dedicate many books because I don't have anything else. I have just my words, my experiences, my silences, my songs to dedicate to all those disciples who are keeping me alive.

Without you I won't wake up next morning - because what will I do? I don't have anything else to do in the world. I have done everything long ago; in fact, I have overdone.

Now my life is in your hands. If you want me to be here, I can go on postponing the date of my departure. But the day I see that there is no need for me to postpone anymore, I will tell you to be ready for a great ceremony. But I feel right now, my garden is just a nursery.

The buddhas are getting ready to wake up. A few have looked with one eye open, a few have looked with both eyes open, but have taken another turn and pulled their blanket over themselves. It is a question of struggle between me and you. How long are you going to remain hidden in your blanket?

Sooner or later you will get tired. You cannot escape me, you have to become a buddha. Once you are a buddha, you are absolutely free to go around the world taking the fire, spreading it to all the nooks and corners of the world.

My existence has no purpose other than this, that the world should have as many buddhas as quickly as possible before the politicians manage to commit a global suicide. Only a large number of buddhas around the world can create the atmosphere of peace and love and compassion, where war becomes absolutely irrelevant. I am in a special situation that no other buddha ever has been.

This book is dedicated to Anando in spite of her reluctance. She has behaved very unconsciously for these two days. First, I am always worried about it that Maneesha is not allowed to take a holiday, migraine or no migraine, because if she is absent even for one evening - and I know she has this trouble of migraine for years - somebody else has to take her place. But just to take her place for one day is dangerous. The taste of it, and then one starts thinking, "Why should I not continue?" It is almost as if you are made the king for one day. It will be difficult for your whole life.

So first she freaked out because I still addressed Maneesha, care of Anando. I could see her face and I could see her response. She did not like it, she wanted to be addressed directly. But I knew it was better to be "care of," because tomorrow she would be gone. The same trouble happened with Vimal. For a few days he was sitting with almost tears in his eyes. Once he has tasted the joy of asking me the questions, and then he has to give back the place, his kingdom is taken away. Now he has come back to his right mind. I did not want to disturb him again. That's why I ask Anando.

And I have my own ways of working. In every way I try to find out some secret which needs to be revealed to the person. Anando may not be aware that she is never nice to anybody who is nice to her. She becomes nasty. It is her wrong upbringing from her childhood that she has carried.

Secondly, she is never happy to receive anything. It needs courage. Perhaps you may not be aware.

One loves to give, because by giving you are higher, but one has to learn to receive. At least when you are sitting at the feet of your master, you have to learn to receive. It hurts the ego that you are on the receiving end, not on the giving end.

I wanted to see how she would receive it. She missed the point. First she freaked out about Maneesha's question, because she thought that Maneesha had indicated in it, that the horse came a little early and disturbed my speech. Because she was one half of the horse, she thought Maneesha was trying to raise the question again before the whole assembly, although there was no question of Maneesha raising it.

Maneesha was asking something else. She was trying to inquire about me, what my response was to this suddenness. That's why Avirbhava was not disturbed. She was the main part of the horse; Anando was just the back part. Avirbhava proved to be more alert and conscious, seeing that the question did not have anything to do with the coming in early. In fact the early coming was very good: it surprised everybody except me. But I am crazy anyway.

Nothing surprises me....

For thirty-five years continuously I have been looking for something to surprise me. Nothing surprises me. Even when a man a few years ago threw a knife at me, it did not surprise me. I just looked at the knife and I continued what I was doing. The man must have been surprised. I did not even report the case. I did not go to the court. The court had to send their representative just to ask me had such a thing happened?

I said, "It was not much, just a rotten old knife, and it has not hurt anybody. So fundamentally, nothing has happened, except the sound of the knife falling on the ground. Do you call it a crime?"

The man said, "You are strange. The police are putting the case before the court, and I have come here as a representative of the court because you refused to come."

I said, "In any case I would not be there. If the knife had killed me, I would not be there in the court.

Now that the knife has not killed me, why should I be in the court?"

The man said, "What am I to say to the court?"

I said, "You just write down - I will sign it - that this case really happened: A man threw a knife; I heard the noise. For a moment I stopped speaking so that the hassle with the man and the police officers stopped. They took him away. I continued my work."

The horse coming as a surprise to everybody - I really enjoyed it. The real Kalki, the Hindu white horse which is going to come within twelve years, the coming twelve years - any time - will not give a warning to you. It will come as suddenly as Avirbhava's horse came. So it was absolutely proper - but Anando was hurt.

But I can understand Avirbhava's hurry. You should just imagine somebody inside a horse - one wants to get out as quickly as possible. And now she is going to bring elephants and crocodiles...

and she will have to be inside them! Obviously she was in a hurry because the horse might have broken in the middle. So as quickly as possible... It was a perfect performance.

Anando was not exactly disturbed by it; that was a very superficial thing. She was disturbed because I called Maneesha a better reporter, a better recorder than Ramakrishna had in Swami Vivekananda, or Socrates had in Plato. She became hurt because she is doing so much work. She is working hard on all the new books and their publication. She is in charge of the whole of publications and all of the construction that is going on in the ashram. Obviously she thought that Maneesha has been praised - and a subtle jealousy, and the female mind... I wanted them to be exposed.

And the next day when I said that this new series was going to be dedicated to her, Anando freaked out even more - so much so that she is suffering from a fever which is absolutely psychological, emotional. She was absolutely okay when she was sitting here, and just as she reached her room, she declared that she had a great cold coming. And immediately, because that is the time she comes to see me - when I am taking my supper, she comes to see me - she did not come. She really wanted to avoid me because I have seen something which she was hiding. Not only did she not come to me, but she even removed herself from Lao Tzu House to Krishna House, with an excuse that she was getting a cold. She phoned Nirvano to say that she was getting suspicious, and that by dedicating the new series to her, "Osho is trying to blackmail me."

This way you can see the difference between the disciples that Ma Tzu and Hyakujo had. Even if they were hit on their heads, they would bow down and touch the feet of the master. So much has changed in the world of consciousness. Man has fallen so low. For what should I blackmail? But just anger, the anger of being "care of," that anger became almost hysterical. Now whatever she is saying... again and again she has been phoning Nirvano asking, "What has Osho said about me?"

I have not said anything. I waited for this question from Maneesha. I cannot take my word back.

You remember Ma Tzu - he wouldn't remove his legs from the track. He allowed the disciple to run the cart over him and hurt his legs, but he would not move from this position. This book will be dedicated to Anando with the words, "In spite of herself." And I will be dedicating more books. I would love to dedicate books to all of you.

If time permits and existence allows, each buddha is going to have a book in his name as a respect and love from the master.

Now it is Anando's time.

Farmer O'Leary has two prize cows, Daisy and Buttercup.

One day, he borrows the neighbors' bull and puts it into the field with the cows. The bull does not show much interest in the cows - seems to be a swami! - and soon Farmer O'Leary gets bored and goes off for his lunch.

That afternoon, Father Fumble, the village priest, comes to the farmhouse for tea, so Farmer O'Leary calls his farmhand, Sean, and tells him to go out to the field and watch the bull. Sean is to let him know if the bull shows any interest in Daisy and Buttercup.

Mrs. O'Leary is just pouring Father Fumble a second cup of tea, when Sean comes bursting into the room and shouts, "The bull is screwing Daisy!"

Father Fumble almost chokes, and Farmer O'Leary drags Sean angrily into the kitchen.

"Listen here, you idiot!" snaps O'Leary. "You can't use language like that in front of the priest! Next time, say something like, 'The bull has surprised Daisy.' Now, get back outside!"

Ten minutes later, Sean comes bursting into the room in a high state of excitement.

"Farmer O'Leary!" he stammers. "The bull, er... the bull's, ah....!" But he cannot finish his sentence.

"Do you mean," says O'Leary, with a knowing look, "that the bull has surprised Buttercup?"

"I'll say he has surprised Buttercup!" shouts Sean. "He is screwing Daisy again!"

Paddy has been training his horse, Kalki, for the big race. He has been giving it lots of exercise and plenty of good food, but on the day of the race, Paddy is still worried that Kalki will not run fast enough.

Just before the horses go to the start, Paddy quietly gives Kalki a couple of pep pills. Father Murphy, who has been watching this, goes up to Paddy.

"I hope you are not giving your horse any illegal drugs?" says the old priest.

"Certainly not, Father, I was just giving him a vitamin C," says Paddy, popping one of the pills into his own mouth. "Here, try one yourself."

Father Murphy swallows one of the pep pills, thinking that it is a vitamin, and walks off, apparently satisfied.

Paddy turns to Seamus, who is going to ride Kalki in the race.

"Don't worry, Seamus, you are going to win for sure!" says Paddy, confidently. "Nothing can pass you in this race, except me or Father Murphy!"

George Grope is fifty years old, and has spent the best years of his life with a woman whose constant nagging and criticism has driven him mad.

Now, in poor health, and with his business on the verge of collapse, he makes up his mind. He goes to the dining room, gets up on a chair, fastens his tie around the chandelier, and is just about to end it all. At that moment his wife enters the room.

"George!" she cries in shock at the scene before her. "You idiot! That is your best tie!"

Chester Cheese is walking through the forest one day, with his teenage kid, Charlie.

They are enjoying the stroll very much, when suddenly Charlie sees a pair of black satin panties lying on the path.

"Hey, Dad," exclaims Charlie. "Look! A young girl's panties!"

"Well, son," says Chester, in a fatherly voice. "I'd say those probably belong to an older woman, not a young girl."

"Come on, Dad, " replies Charlie. "For sure these are a young girl's panties!"

"I don't think so, Charlie," says Chester, stiffly.

Just then Father Finger walks up.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," he says. "But I couldn't help overhearing your discussion. Perhaps I can settle the matter for you."

Then Father Finger raises his eyebrows, takes the panties, examines them closely, this way and that way.

"Well," says Father Finger, popping the panties into his pocket, "I don't know which of you is right, but I do know one thing. She is not a member of my church!"

Okay, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano...

Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inward with tremendous urgency as if this is the last moment of your life. Only with this urgency can you reach to the source of your life. And at the source of your life you are a buddha.

From there on, opens the whole universe, your own space, unlimited.

The buddha is the door.

You have to go beyond it.

But first reach to the door... deeper and deeper....

This is a beautiful evening. The rain has stopped just to give you absolute silence. And the silence of ten thousand buddhas is a tremendous energy field. Don't miss this moment.

To make it clear, Anando...

(Drumbeat) Just watch your body, your mind, separate from you. You are the watcher. In this witnessing you become the buddha. You have always been the buddha. You discover it. So much dust has gathered on it. Remove the dust. Let it become a pure mirror. This is your ultimate nature.

The evening has become more juicy and more beautiful. The time has stopped - you are floating in space like a cloud in absolute freedom.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat) Come back, silently, peacefully, with a grace and sit down like a buddha just for a few moments recollecting the experience.

You have to live this experience for your whole twenty-four hours, just like breathing - doing anything you go on continuously breathing. This remembrance of being a buddha has to become just like an undercurrent. It is always there whether you are sitting, walking, waking or sleeping - in action, in inaction, in speaking, in silence, but one thing remains continuously in you - the remembrance of your ultimate nature.

Before the celebration I have to remind Nivedano that I called Anando. That is the name of your drum.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Can we celebrate the ten thousand buddhas?

Yes, Osho!