Your Urge must become Urgent

Maneesha, a little note:

The governor has made a very important statement. If there is only one source of everything, then there can be no right, no wrong, no good, no bad, no God, no Devil. And this is exactly the case; all our rights and wrongs are judgements of the mind which knows nothing of the source.

Our conceptions are moralistic, they are not religious. They are not based on the experience of the original source, from where everything arises and finally disappears also in the same source, just like waves arising in the ocean and falling back into the ocean.

But to live this insight in your life needs tremendous courage; it needs a non-judging mind. And we have been brought up with every single thing being judged: this is right, that is wrong.

A small boy was asked in the school, "What is your name?"

He said, "Don't!"

The teacher said, "Don't? I have never heard such a name."

He said, "Whatever I do, wherever I want to go they always say 'Don't!' So I think this is my name."

But actually this is the case with everyone. What are your criteria of right and wrong? Who has given you the criteria? How do you decide, how do you judge? All our moralities are man-made conveniences. Whatever is convenient to society becomes moral.

For example, by nature, for every one hundred boys born, eighty-four girls will be born. By the time they are of marriageable age, the numbers will be equal. More boys die, girls are more resistant.

People think of strength only in the muscular way, but there are other ways to think of strength.

Women have more resistance to disease; they don't get sick so soon. And on average sixteen boys will pop off by the time they are fourteen. By fourteen there is an equal number of girls and boys.

Obviously then it is convenient to create the idea of monogamy; otherwise there will be very much inconvenience. One man one woman: this becomes what is right, but it is simply a convenience.

To give you a contrast: in Mohammed's time, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the people were barbarous, continuously fighting and killing. Caravans loaded with goods from one country to another were looted and men were killed. In Saudi Arabia at that time, there was no other way to survive; killing was the profession. So more men than women were killed because men were doing the killing and fighting. The proportion between man and woman became so different, that there were four women to one man. That created very much restlessness, so Mohammed in the Koran had to make it a moral concept to marry at least four women. He himself married nine women; of course, he is the leader, and he is propounding the moral concept, he has to follow it to the very end.

Today it has become foolish, because these judgements are dependent on causes and time. Now the situation is not the same. But Mohammedans insist... even in this country they forced the Indian government to have in the constitution that Mohammedans are allowed to have four women.

Now the whole thing is stupid! The number of women and men among Mohammedans is equal; from where can men get four women? This now gives them an opportunity to steal women from other people. Hindus and Jainas are very puritan: if a woman has been in a Mohammedan's house for one night, forcibly, nobody is going to accept her back, neither the husband, nor her children, nor her parents. The whole society rejects her; she is no more part of them. She has to go back and beg the Mohammedan to keep her.

Now a judgement based on convenience has become a crime. And it has given birth to many crimes. All moral judgements are somehow based on the convenience of the society; they have no fundamental value. If man's nature is looked at, neither is man monogamous, nor woman; both are polygamous and it is absolutely natural.

If we look at nature, then we must create a more flexible society where people can at least exchange their wives or husbands with their friends once in a while, for the weekend. That will create a happier, satisfied, contented society.

But that goes against all the moral concepts that the past has given to us. It is absolutely simple to understand that everybody gets fed-up with one thing continuously. It is not unnatural; it says nothing about the person. However beautiful and good your wife is... she may look beautiful to the whole world and good to everybody, but think of the poor husband! How long can he go on thinking her beautiful? Perhaps by the time the honeymoon ends, she has become obvious, taken for granted.

And to go on loving with the same intensity becomes every day more and more difficult.

The husband is bored by the wife, howsoever beautiful she is. The wife is bored by the husband, howsoever great a man he may be. This boredom is expressed in every activity of life; all their actions are dominated by this boredom. Their life seems to be the life of a prisoner: if they change partners, the whole society is against them, they lose their respectability, they may lose their jobs, they may become outcasts. So they go on clinging to each other, but they both go on creating misery also for each other.

Now I will not call this a morality based on clear perception; it is a morality based on ordinary convenience. I know it will be very inconvenient if people go on changing wives. Children won't know who is the father and who is the uncle. But what is the problem in that? In fact it will be a good chance for the children to know many fathers; it will be a preparation for their own life, and many mothers... it will be a great preparation for their own life. In the future, if society continues to exist after the year two thousand, there is going to be an immense revolution in the man-woman relationship. The whole concept of right and wrong is going to change.

The governor has asked a really fundamental question; if the source is the same then what is the difference between right and wrong? Every moment it has to be decided by a clear conception without any prejudice, without any pre-arranged idea. I'm against morality for the simple reason that it gives you prejudices, superficial prejudices. Anything going against it you immediately take the idea that it is wrong, it is right.

It happened to Lao Tzu, the source of Taoism, that he was made the chief justice of the Supreme Court of China. He begged the emperor, "You are committing a mistake; I'm not the right man. You will repent."

But the emperor knew that he was the wisest man alive, and he was, there was no doubt about it.

He said, "Why should I repent? You are the wisest man."

Lao Tzu said, "That is the problem. My judgement will come from my wisdom. And your judgements will never be adjustable with my judgements."

But the emperor was stubborn; he said, "Let us see."

So the first case came: a thief was caught red-handed in the richest man's house. Lao Tzu listened to the whole story.

The thief himself confessed that, "In front of you, I cannot lie. If there was another judge, it would be a different matter, but I have always respected you and loved you. So I say there is no need for any witnesses. I have been stealing, not only this time but from this same man's house I have stolen many times. This time I have been caught. Whatever judgement you feel right, I will not complain."

Lao Tzu waited for a moment and then said, "Both of you, you and the man whose house you have been stealing from, are criminals."

"Both?" the rich man asked. "Are you in your senses?"

Lao Tzu said, "You have collected so much money, that almost fifty percent of the wealth of the city is in your hands, with the other fifty percent in the whole city's hands. This situation creates the possibility of stealing. This man is a victim; in fact you are the criminal. But I will be very equal: six months jail for both."

The rich man said, "My God! I have never heard that when somebody steals from your house you are jailed!" He said, "I want first to see the emperor! Even the emperor owes money to me. Whenever he wants, I have been giving money to him."

And he went to the emperor and said what had happened. "And I have come to remind you that soon you will be in jail also! If this man is going to remain the supreme judge of the empire, you cannot remain out of jail long. We are small criminals according to him. You are the biggest criminal."

The emperor said, "Perhaps he was right that I would repent. Don't be worried, I will release him from the service immediately."

He called Lao Tzu and said, "This is a very strange judgement."

Lao Tzu said, "It is not. If people were living in harmony with nature, if people were compassionate to each other, if they felt a certain brotherhood with each other, then how could there be rich people and poor people? There should only be people. And there is enough." At least in those times it was perfectly true, there was enough for everybody to live comfortably.

At that time when Lao Tzu said that, in India the population was only two million. Now the population is nine hundred million, and by the end of this century, if humanity survives - the chances are very slim - India will have one thousand million. For the first time India will be the most populated country; up to now China has remained the first and India number two. In the race India is going to win within ten years.

In those days when the country had only two million people, nature was abundant. There was no need for anybody to be rich or poor. Things could be easily, comfortably enjoyed by all. But it was not the case, neither in India nor in China nor anywhere else. Now it has become absolutely impossible.

But Lao Tzu was right when he said, "A man who collects so much wealth that thousands of people become undernourished - they don't have houses, they don't have jobs, they don't have enough to eat... What do you want? Should they steal or not? Their stealing is not a crime; this rich man is the criminal. What is the point of collecting all this wealth? Your wealth is simply the blood of the people. You should be happy that I'm sending you to jail only for six months. In fact if I'm to be just, that man could go for six months, but you would have to go for your whole life! Less than that would not be justified."

The emperor said, "I understand. I release you. You were right that I would repent; you are a dangerous fellow."

The convenience of the emperor, the convenience of the vested interest, the richest, the super-rich, their convenience is the problem. Everything is right that fits with their convenience, and everything is wrong that does not fit with their convenience.

All our moralities are decided by the exploiting classes, the oppressors. The very people who are the cause of immorality in society are the decisive factors of morality.

Krishna had sixteen thousand wives, and no Hindu objects to it. He still remains God's perfect incarnation. Others are imperfect incarnations; he is the only one who is the perfect incarnation. But nobody thinks that this man married only one woman, the remainder he has taken from anywhere; he just sees any beautiful woman, and his soldiers take her to the palace. She has a husband, she has children, she has old parents, or her husband has old parents - no one cares.

And one can think that Krishna must be a sexomaniac. What will you do with sixteen thousand women? In a small life sixteen thousand women! You are treating women as cattle; you will not even know their names. Many will not have any chance to meet you.

But these are the people who make rules for society. For the society the rule is monogamy. Krishna is above rules, he is God's incarnation. So the oppressive society has been deciding rules for the oppressed. All moralities are criminal.

Only a man of deep meditation and silence can say anything, but he will not use the words 'right' or 'wrong'. And he will not decide it forever as a criterion; it can only be in that moment, a spontaneous response, not a reaction. He's not deciding the morality.

Looked at from another point of view, there is only one thing right and that is to be absolutely conscious, and only one thing wrong, to be absolutely unconscious. Out of unconsciousness whatever arises is going to be wrong. Out of consciousness whatever arises is going to be right. It is not a question of actions, it is a question of from where it arises.

But still it is relative in the ultimate sense. Whether it arises from unconsciousness or from consciousness does not matter, for everything is whatever it is. There is no question of right and wrong, because unconsciousness and consciousness both arise from the same source, the source of eternal life.

Hence it is said, the buddha goes beyond the ordinary rules: he lives according to his own responsibility. He does not take steps according to the preordained morality, he takes steps according to his awareness moment to moment.

Ordinary people who know nothing of consciousness obviously need a certain kind of morality, a certain system of rules. But this is unfortunate. It simply shows that man has not become conscious enough, hence he needs rules to keep him within bounds and limits. The day the whole society becomes more conscious, there will be no need of morality and no need of government, and no need of any courts. These are ugly things, these are insulting things to humanity. They are humiliations.

The day I entered America, the first question of the man who interviewed me for my entry visa was, "Are you an anarchist?" He must have been informed; he had a whole file.

I said, "I am something more."

He looked a little shocked, because for this there was no rule; he started looking in the file. In America an anarchist cannot enter. An anarchist is one who does not believe in government, who believes that every government is a slavery and unless we are free from all governments, man will go on living in slaveries, changing slaveries and thinking he is free, his idea of freedom being just a dream.

But when I said, "I am something more." He was at a loss what to do with me.

He said, "What do you mean by 'something more'?"

I said, "I mean that before governments can be dissolved, man's unconsciousness has to be dissolved. I am not an anarchist. But anarchism will be the by-product of my whole effort."

He said, "You seem to be very difficult."

And from that moment for five years continuously I was in a fight with the American government.

And we were not wrong. But their prejudices! I said to a jailer where I was jailed, "Do you consider that you are also a foreigner here?" No American is American; all are foreigners. The natives, the poor Red Indians, are the Americans. Americans have even changed their name; they are Red Indians and America belongs to them.

I said to the jailer - because he had become friendly during the three days I was in his jail - I said to him, "You or your father or your grandfather at the most must have come from outside America. And I at least have a valid passport. Your parents entered America without any passport. Your parents entered America as invaders; I have come just as a tourist.

"And you have killed almost ninety percent of the Red Indians. The ten percent that have remained alive you have left half-alive and half-dead. You have forced them into reservations, into deep forests, and you go on giving them pensions. For what? Because you don't want them to enter the society and work and be part of society. To separate them you go on giving them pensions without any work.

Naturally when you get money without any work what will you do? Then you will be into alcohol, drugs, gambling, prostitutes. What else will you do with your money?

"So those Red Indians have been completely destroyed. They cannot even fight for freedom because to fight for freedom means losing the pension. And it is so good to have a pension! Just create more children and you have more pensions. And enjoy the life, drink as much as you want, use drugs as much as you want, but don't go out of the reservation. Remain deep in the forest."

I told him, "What right have you got to prevent others entering America? It is not your motherland."

But they have made it theirs, and nobody in the world, not even their own thinkers, ever raised the question, "What about the freedom of America? When are we going to leave?"

"And you have become dispensers of morality, judgement, you have created courts of law and a constitution. And this country does not belong to you; you are barbarous invaders. If there is any greater crime you tell me!"

He said, "You are right, but now it is too late. We have been here for three hundred years, and what has happened has happened. Now we cannot go anywhere. There are Italians, and there are Germans, and there are English people, and there are Spanish, and there are Dutch; from all the countries of Europe there are people. They will not be taken back; their own countries will not accept them anymore."

So they have nowhere to go. And they are occupying a country of poor natives. You will be surprised to know how barbarous has been their behavior all through their history. The whole city of New York was purchased from the Red Indians by the so-called Americans for twenty-four silver dollars. Do you call that business? They were forced. The whole city of New York just for twenty-four dollars!

All rights and wrongs up to now have been decided by whoever is powerful; it is power that decides.

In India they have a proverb, 'Whoever has the staff will have the buffalo.' It does not matter to whom it belongs; the question is: whose staff is bigger, who is stronger? The stronger make the rules for the weaker, the richer make the rules for the poorer. Naturally those rules are in favor of the rich, of the powerful, they are against the poor and the weak. When I say I'm against morality, I say I am against this whole structure, this whole system of making rules by the powerful for the powerless.

Man has made rules for women because he is more muscular. The woman is more fragile, more dependent because she becomes pregnant. In her pregnancy she is absolutely dependent on the man for everything that she needs. Her pregnancy has become her slavery. If women want to be liberated from man, they should think about pregnancy first. They should insist on birth control, and they should insist that while they are pregnant society should take care of them, otherwise, they are not prepared to become pregnant. Pregnancy has made them handicapped; and man has exploited the situation very easily.

To the man of ultimate consciousness there is nothing right or wrong. Everything is as it is, there is no judgement.

The governor has asked something very important.

IF ALL THINGS HAVE COME FROM THE SAME SOURCE, THERE CAN BE NO RIGHT OR WRONG.

NANSEN POINTED TO A PATCH OF PEONIES IN THE GARDEN AND SAID, "GOVERNOR, WHEN PEOPLE OF THE PRESENT DAY SEE THESE BLOSSOMS, IT IS AS IF THEY SEE THEM IN A DREAM."

His answer is a little indirect. But what he is saying is that people are so unconscious that whatever they see is not more than a dream. In their dream they decide what is right, what is wrong. When they awaken, they will see everything is melting into each other: there are no opposites and there are no contradictions, existence is one organic unity.

But because people are unconscious, dreaming... What are your thoughts except dreams of the day, dreams with open eyes? And what are your dreams but thoughts of the night? How do you make decisions? You don't have consciousness enough to decide anything. You simply follow the old rules. But do you know that the people who have made those rules were as asleep as you are?

For example, the Hindus follow the rules of Manu. Five thousand years ago he made the Hindu morality. According to him, men are divided into four castes. The Brahmins are the highest: nobody can enter into Brahminism; you are born a Brahmin. Conversion is not possible, because your being a Brahmin depends on your past life's good deeds. Now where will you find your past life and do good deeds? That is gone.

The second class are the warriors, the third class are the business people, and the fourth class are the sudras, the 'untouchables'. They are so dirty that even if their shadow passes over you, you have to take a bath. They have not touched you, their shadow has touched you, but that is enough to make you dirty. The fourth class cannot be allowed to live in the city, they have to live outside the town. There are places where they cannot enter, for example in temples. They cannot read the scriptures, they cannot enter into schools, they cannot be educated.

For five thousand years nobody has revolted against it. You are forcing a person to be a shoemaker just because he is born in the family of a shoemaker. He may have the qualities of an Albert Einstein, but that door is closed, he cannot even enter the school. He may have the qualities of Gautam Buddha but all doors are closed, he is allowed only to make shoes. For five thousand years all his ancestors have been making shoes, so he has to make shoes.

Very strict divisions and no mobility, no movement from one profession to another profession. Manu was a Brahmin, so obviously Brahmins are the best. They are the decisive factors, they will decide what is right and what is wrong.

And the situation is the same all around the earth; people are living in absolute unconsciousness.

All these so-called religious people are against me, obviously, because I am saying to them that all their moralities are of the same stuff as dreams are made of. The only possibility to know the right is first to be fully conscious. And when a man is fully conscious, things change.

For example, Gautam Buddha dropped the idea of castes immediately; when he became enlightened his first step was to say, "There are no castes; everybody has to be free to do whatever he wants, to be whatever he wants; birth cannot decide his destiny."

Buddha's teaching could not survive in India because the Brahmins' whole profession was at stake.

If Buddha's message had spread, the Brahmins would have lost the power that they had, the warriors would have lost the power they had, and the sudras would have entered into every place, they would have had the freedom which has never been given to them.

Buddha can see in his silence, in his peace that this is a stupid idea. In the name of morality, in the name of religion it is imposed on people; it should be taken away. Freedom is the base, the fundamental base of all humanity. Anything that goes against freedom goes against humanity.

Maneesha has asked:

ON ONE OCCASION, THE GOVERNOR SAID TO NANSEN, "THERE IS A PIECE OF STONE IN MY HOUSE. SOMETIMES IT STANDS UP AND SOMETIMES IT LIES DOWN. NOW CAN IT BE CARVED INTO THE IMAGE OF BUDDHA?"

"YES," SAID NANSEN, "IT IS POSSIBLE."

"BUT IT IS ALSO IMPOSSIBLE?" COUNTERED THE GOVERNOR.

"IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!" DECLARED NANSEN. "YES, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

A strange dialogue. First you have to understand that the governor is speaking in metaphors. When he says that THERE IS A PIECE OF STONE IN MY HOUSE he is talking about himself. He is saying, "What am I more than a stone? Sometimes I get up and sometimes I lie down. I am as unconscious as a stone." Do you think he was asking Nansen if stone could be carved into a buddha? It is not about a stone, it is about himself. Stones don't stand and don't lie down, they don't get tired so soon.

He is talking about himself.

"YES," SAID NANSEN, "IT IS POSSIBLE." He does not say that it is inevitable. He simply says, "IT IS POSSIBLE." If an urge arises in the stone, everything is possible: the stone can become a buddha.

The governor said, "BUT IT IS ALSO IMPOSSIBLE?" Seeing that the governor cannot understand that even a stone, if an urge, a longing arises in it, can become a seed, and finally a buddha, seeing the governor cannot understand that possibility because he says, "BUT IT IS ALSO IMPOSSIBLE, very difficult?", Nansen also said, "Yes, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE." He repeated again, "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

If you yourself think it is impossible, then there is no way. The first thing is to see and perceive your potentiality and possibility. If you yourself say it is impossible, then nobody can do it for you. It is not something that somebody else has to do, you have to grow into a buddha. If you say it is impossible then the project can be dropped.

What he is saying to you in this anecdote is that your very urge to become a buddha ultimately discovers the buddha in you. The buddha is not somewhere far away that you have to go in search of. It is hidden behind you. If your urge becomes urgent, the hidden opens its doors. If you go inwards with a tremendous force to reach to the very source and the center of your being you will find the buddha.

But if you think it is impossible, then you have yourself closed the doors of your potentiality. Nobody can make you a buddha. But it is possible; if you have the passion, if you have the longing, if you turn in, dropping all mundane things of the outside, it is possible.

Sekiso wrote:

PEOPLE'S ABUSE HAS MELTED WHAT WAS GOLDEN AND IT HAS GONE FROM THE WORLD.

FORTUNE AND MISFORTUNE BOTH BELONG TO THE LAND OF DREAMS.

DON'T LOOK BACK TO THIS WORLD, YOUR OLD HOLE IN THE CELLAR.

FROM THE BEGINNING THE FLYING BIRDS HAVE LEFT NO FOOTPRINTS ON THE BLUE SKY.

Sekiso is a great poet. He is saying PEOPLE'S ABUSE HAS MELTED WHAT WAS GOLDEN. We have left a golden age behind, we misused it.

I am reminded of a very significant incident. In the Himalayan mountain range there are a few tribes, very ancient tribes which have followed a rule, very male-chauvinistic, that if you become a guest in their house they will offer you everything. And in the night they will offer you their wife too. A guest has to be given everything.

When the Britishers came to India, they exploited these poor people so much, that in the areas of Manali and Kulu almost ninety percent of the people are suffering from syphilis.

The British were responsible. When they heard that these people offer their wives, they would go hunting in the mountains and then in the night they would knock on some door. And those poor people offered them everything: food, shelter, their wives.

They could not think that these people had come just to exploit them, to prostitute their wives. And they spread syphilis all over the area in the whole tribe; even children were born with syphilis, and the British did not take responsibility for the children, which were born out of their lovemaking to those poor people's wives.

So you can understand what Sekiso is saying, PEOPLE'S ABUSE HAS MELTED WHAT WAS GOLDEN. There was certainly a more trusting world, more loving people.

I remember even in my childhood, in my village and the surrounding villages you could not purchase milk. You could get as much milk as you wanted, but nobody would sell milk. You have a nourishment, somebody is hungry and you exploit his hunger! So milk was available to anybody.

Now in the same village you will not find pure milk at any cost - half water, half milk.

In the university where I was studying, a man was supplying the milk to the students. He was a very good man, a very nice man, a very wise old man. And people had started calling him santji, a saint.

And he used to come with buckets of milk, with his son carrying another bucket, to the hostel. And people would ask, "Santji, is it true that you don't mix water into the milk?"

He would put his hand on his boy's head, and he would say, "In my whole life, I have never mixed water into milk. If I have ever done that, my child would die."

I heard it. I thought that this seemed strange, because the milk certainly was fifty percent water.

Already milk, pure milk is eighty percent water, and when you mix more water into it, fifty percent, it becomes so clear.

So my first day in the university when I heard him, I called him aside and I said , "Tell me the truth, because certainly your milk is full of water. And if you don't tell me the truth I will take you to the vice-chancellor and the milk will be sent for scientific analysis. And if water is found in it, your whole business is finished."

He said, "You are the first person to create so much trouble for me. I will tell you the truth, but don't do anything and don't tell others."

I said, "You tell me the truth; what is the truth?"

He said, "The truth is I never mix water into milk, I always mix milk into water. That's why I can say it without any fear, but don't send it for scientific analysis. I will provide you water and milk free of charge. If you want it without water, I will stop the water in your milk, but then you have to send somebody to my place. But don't tell anybody; I have told you the secret."

There was a world, as far back as we can go where we find a certain quality of trust, which was the golden age of humanity.

Sekiso says: AND IT HAS GONE FROM THE WORLD. FORTUNE AND MISFORTUNE BOTH BELONG TO THE LAND OF DREAMS. DON'T LOOK BACK TO THIS WORLD, YOUR OLD HOLE IN THE CELLAR. FROM THE BEGINNING THE FLYING BIRDS HAVE LEFT NO FOOTPRINTS ON THE BLUE SKY. This is a saying of Gautam Buddha. He used to say, "You have to follow a path which is not already made. You have to make it and walk it. You have to make it by walking it.

You have to arrange your pathway. You cannot follow anybody, it is just like the sky. "THE FLYING BIRDS HAVE LEFT NO FOOTPRINTS ON THE BLUE SKY.

The same is true about the inner sky, the buddhas have not left their footprints. So you cannot follow any buddha, you have to find your path on your own, alone. This is your dignity. This is a great freedom. If there were ready-made paths, superhighways, then truckloads of people would be becoming buddhas everyday. Buses would be going. But because in the inner world you cannot take your trucks, you cannot take even your rickshaw, or the rented bicycle, it will be very difficult; riding on the bicycle you can go anywhere except inside.

Inside you have to go not with your legs, you have to go with your vision, you have to turn your eyes in. There are no footpaths. The sky inside is absolutely untrodden. But the distance to the goal is not very big, only one step.

As you look inside urgently, you can see as if you are looking into a waterhole the water deep down, or as if you are seeing in a tunnel, far away, the opening to the sky. There is only one step that you have to take to reach to the buddha. Just courage and some energy for adventure, for inquiring, for exploration is needed. But remember this tremendously beautiful statement: THE FLYING BIRDS HAVE LEFT NO FOOTPRINTS ON THE BLUE SKY. There is no possibility of being a follower.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, this Buddha Auditorium is not part of your so-called world. It is an island in itself where only buddhas dwell. For you as meditators time does not matter. The deeper you go, the more contemporary you become to Gautam Buddha, to Lao Tzu, to Chuang Tzu, to all those who have experienced the ultimate. You meet them at the very source of your being. It is the same taste, it is the same flavor, it is the same goal.

You are right and you are wrong. Right, because here in this Buddha Auditorium you are so urgently, so passionately searching for the buddha. You are bringing a golden age into existence.

But outside the gate there is a vast world where even the idea of looking inwards does not occur to people. If you tell the idea of becoming a buddha to those people outside the gate they will laugh, they will say, "Are you mad?" They will look at you with suspicion: "This man must be on heroin, under the influence of opium or some other drug; he is thinking to become Buddha. Buddha died twenty-five centuries ago."

People in the ordinary world never think that they have a different destiny - to be not just a business man, or a clerk, or a stationmaster, or a teacher. These are not your destinies, these are your professions. Good for survival in the body, but not good enough to find the buddha.

You have to do something else, you have to enter into yourself, which is not part of the education or the morality of society. People will laugh at you because you enter in. They will say, "You are mad, how can you enter in? We don't see any door, any window, where do you enter from? And what can you find there? Just a skeleton! Don't do that, otherwise you will become afraid of yourself, seeing a skeleton inside, a skull and all the blood vessels and the intestines. Just avoid this going in! It is a very dangerous thing that you are doing, and if you really are interested, just wait until you die. In your grave you can look inside because there will be no outside anymore. Then watch your skeleton; you will have enough time, no other work!"

You are right that here we are exactly trying to bring the golden age back. Those who want to join in this great venture, they are welcome. But in the world, Maneesha, that golden age has certainly disappeared. What is happening in the outside world you can find out from these jokes.

Chester Cheese is on a long sales trip when his car breaks down. He walks up to a nearby farmhouse and knocks on the door.

"Excuse me," says Chester to the farmer, "but my car has broken down. Can I stay here for the night?"

"Well, I guess so," says the old man. "But the only available bed belongs to my sixteen-year-old daughter, Lucy. You will have to sleep with her."

"Really?" smiles Chester. And he is shown to Lucy's room.

Later that night, lying next to Lucy, Chester puts his hand on her soft thigh.

"Stop that!" cries Lucy. "Or I will call my father." But then she moves a little closer to Chester.

A little while later, Chester tries again. "Stop that!" cries Lucy. "Or I will call my father." But then she moves even closer to Chester.

On the third try, Lucy jumps on top of Chester, and they have a great time.

A little while later, Lucy whispers, "Mister, can we do it again?"

Chester agrees, and they go for it again. Five minutes later, Lucy is tugging again on Chester's deflated machinery. "Mister, can we do it again?" she asks.

Stop that!" gasps Chester. "Or I will call your father!"

That is what is happening in the outside world!

Swami Deva Cleverhead, the group therapist, is walking out of the front gate one night.

"Hello, sir," says Black-Fat, the flower-seller. "Buy roses for your lovely wife?"

"I haven't got a wife," snaps Cleverhead, waving him away.

"Okay," says Black-Fat, "roses for your girlfriend?"

"No," screams Cleverhead. "I haven't got a girlfriend either!"

"Okay," says Black-Fat," then buy two bunches - to celebrate your good luck!"

Paddy and Seamus are sitting in Paddy's yard drinking a few beers.

"Hey," says Seamus. "How was your boat trip to Spain?"

"Fantastic!" says Paddy. "Imagine, I'm away from Maureen for the first time in fifteen years! Then, on the first night of my trip, I met this gorgeous girl, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. We chit-chatted for a while, and it was love at first sight. Soon, we were rolling in each other's arms, completely naked.

"But in the morning, as I held her in my arms, I found out she is the new wife of my best friend, Fergus. It came as such a tremendous shock that we both felt really guilty. And we both cried and cried and cried!"

"My God!" says Seamus. "That is really something! So how was the rest of your trip?"

"Well, you know," says Paddy. "After that, it was just crying and fucking, crying and fucking...!"

That is what is happening in the outside world!

Big Olga, Kowalski's overweight wife, is getting enormous. So she goes to Doctor Gasbag to see if she can get some advice.

"You need much more exercise," says Gasbag. "And you eat far too much. You must exercise every day."

"But doctor," complains Olga, "what exercise should I do?"

"It is easy," replies Gasbag. "Begin slowly. Just strip off, lie down on your bed, and try to sit up and touch your toes. Then lift your legs back over your shoulders. Keep doing this until you start sweating off those pounds."

That night, Olga decides to give it a try. Naked, lying on the bed, she can hardly see her toes. Still, she pushes forward, and tries to grab her feet. Then she lifts her legs back. But she gets stuck with her bum sticking out and her legs pushed back over her head.

At this point, Kowalski stumbles into the bedroom, utterly drunk.

"Jesus Christ, Olga!" he shouts in shock. "Comb your hair and put your teeth back in! You look like your mother!"

This is what is happening in the outside world!

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) (Drumbeat) Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards, with totality, with all your consciousness gathered as an arrow.

Go deeper and deeper. Remember, every moment can be the last moment of your life. Hence the urgency.

You are not to leave this body without realizing your buddhahood. It is possible. Even the stone can be carved into a buddha. What to say about consciousness? It is buddhahood itself.

Rejoice this moment. Very few people in the world are even trying to know who they are. That is what is making a mess of the world.

If you know consciously the source of your being, you become filled with contentment, joy, compassion, love. So many thousands of flowers blossom in you. You become a splendor.

This is your birthright. You can ignore it but you cannot destroy it. Any moment you want to remember it, it is available.

Just want it enough.

To make it clear, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat) Just watch. You are the witness, you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are only a witness - just a mirror.

This witnessing is the point of departure, the point from where transformation begins.

Drink deeply from the source. Get soaked, drenched, so that when you come back you bring buddha in your heart, in your breathing.

You have to live the buddha twenty-four hours.

The evening was beautiful in itself. But the presence of so many buddhas has made it tremendously beautiful.

Gather as much gold as possible. Soon, Nivedano will be calling you back. Bring it all with you: the fragrance, the silence, the blissfulness.

In this moment, there are not ten thousand buddhas but only one buddha nature, one ocean where you all have dissolved.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat) Come back, but slowly, gracefully.

Bring the buddha with you. Don't forget.

Sit down like buddha for a few moments. And remember the space you have been in, the path that you followed, and the same path you have come back on.

Remember it. You will have to go again and again on the same path to drink from the sources of eternal life.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Can we celebrate the gathering of the buddhas?

Yes, Osho.