All buddhas are gamblers

Question 1:

Waduda, man almost lives in lies, because they are comfortable, convenient. You don't have to make much effort to find a lie. The whole of society is ready to give you all kinds of lies - but truth is an individual search.

Lies are a social invention.

So whenever truth is discovered, there is trouble. You have lived all your life in lies - beautiful lies - and suddenly you find your whole life collapsing.

To choose truth, first you have to make an immense effort to find it. Second, when you find it, you suddenly also find that the whole of society is against you - the whole world is against you.

If you want to live according to your own truth, you have to face the whole world: your job may be lost, your wife may divorce you, your parents may abandon you; your priests will condemn you, your politicians will be against you. Suddenly you find yourself in an immense world, absolutely alone.

You have to depend on this society in a thousand and one ways, and this society wants you to live according to its lies - hence the trouble.

But it is only on the outside that finding the truth creates great turmoil in your life. As far as your inner world is concerned, when you find the truth for the first time you are at home, at ease, relaxed, strong - so strong that you alone are enough to face the whole world. Those troubles are trivial.

What you find with the truth is such a treasure, that once you have known it you cannot exchange it for lies.

So it is true that there is trouble. But it is only half true: it is only on the outside - and that too because you have not become accustomed to truth yourself. Once you see its strength, its power - then the whole world seems to be impotent. You can fight it, you can make your way, you can live your life according to your own light, and for you there is no trouble. For others there may be trouble.

This I am saying to you on my own authority: for me there is no trouble... and the whole world is in trouble. It is none of their business to get into trouble; I should be in trouble.

But the truth has such great strength, such tremendous power of its own, that there is no need to be worried about it. Why are other people worried? Why are they creating trouble? They are worried and creating trouble because your truth makes them aware of their own lies; and that they don't want. To know one's own lies and go on living them is the most torturous experience; they would like to remove you.

You have become a stranger, an outsider. You don't believe in their God, you don't believe in their heaven and hell; you don't believe in all kinds of superstitions which they think are of great value.

But before your truth, their lies start disappearing like darkness.

You have found the light: now the whole darkness of the world cannot do any harm to the light. Just a small flame of light is more powerful than all the darkness of the universe.

But certainly those who are living in darkness and have become accustomed to it, have molded their lives according to it, will find it too much of a revolution. And people don't want to change - because every change means learning to live again: each change is a new birth. They had become comfortable; they were living with the crowd with all its superstitions; they were respectable, honored.

Your truth certainly makes them aware that their whole life has been just a castle made of sand; just a little breeze of truth and it will collapse. To save their own sandcastles they will create every kind of trouble for you.

But the man of truth is able to accept all the troubles, because what he has got inside himself is so blissful, is so great, is so immortal... who cares about small troubles? The job may be lost, the wife may escape, the parents may disinherit... all that is of no meaning compared to what you have got within you.

Those people don't know what you have got within you - so there is trouble. But it is not for you.

Only in the beginning will you feel suddenly taken out of the comfort of society, the coziness of the crowd. But as you become more and more aware of your inner warmth, you don't need any crowd.

You alone are enough.

Truth is such a nourishment, such an ultimate achievement, that now you can lose your life very easily - sacrifice it, because you have found something greater than life; you have found the very source of life, from where all life arises.

So don't be worried about trouble. It is because of trouble that millions of people never think about truth. They feel it is better to go on following the crowd of sheep and never declare their lion's roar.

Question 2:

Kavisho, this dance, this song, this ecstasy, this fragrance, is certainly what I call an open secret.

But there is much more: it is only the beginning; and I can take you only to the beginning; from there you have to go deeper into yourself, absolutely alone.

But that aloneness is not lonely because you are surrounded with such beauty, such joy, such blissfulness, that you will never feel that you are lonely. Alone you are, but not lonely. And this aloneness also becomes a great joy, because it is freedom: freedom from the crowd, from the mob, from the church, from religions, from politics - from everything that has been part of your life before.

You have discovered yourself.

I call it an open secret because it is available to everybody - and yet everybody is unaware of it. It is so close that you have just to move your hand a little deeper inside yourself, and you will find it.

Yet people go on searching in the scriptures of ancient days, in philosophies... and what they find is mere words. Those words don't bring you a dance; those words bring you a kind of death. Those words don't bring you fragrance, but only the stink of the old scriptures - rotten. They can give you beautiful systems, but all without any foundation.

I call it an open secret because it has always been known that the kingdom of God is within you.

Still nobody searches for it there. Perhaps you are afraid to find God. Perhaps you are afraid to be ecstatic, afraid to be blissful, afraid to be loving - because these are dangerous ways of life. But because they are dangerous they have a thrill: your heart beats faster, your life-flame burns brighter; each of your moments becomes more total and more intense.

So I call it open because it is known to everybody; and still I call it a secret, because nobody tries to find it. Those words are contradictory: "the open secret." But this is the whole history of human consciousness: you may not be conscious of the fact that you are afraid of things which you long for.

For example, everybody wants to love - but only to a certain extent. Beyond that, fear grips you...

because love is so overwhelming it seems if you go deeper into it there is no possibility of turning back. It is so overwhelming that it is going to evaporate your ego, your personality - which you have cultivated with such care; for which you have wasted your whole life.

People say they would like to experience ecstasy - but they don't understand the fact that you cannot experience ecstasy. Only when you disappear is ecstasy there - and very few people in the long, long history of humanity have been able to gamble. All Gautam Buddhas are gamblers, because they are gambling for something unknown, and staking something which is known to them.

The ordinary wisdom of humanity says that half a loaf in your hand is better than the whole loaf far away. But the wisdom of those who have really known says: Risk everything for the unknown and for the unknowable - because you don't know how much fragrance, and how much joy, and how much life is available to you. Only one step has to be taken, and that is to get ready to be drowned in it, to disappear in it.

And, Kavisho, I can see it happening to you. You are moving towards it... a little hesitant. I see sometimes you are just on the boundary of it and then you stop. Don't stop. You don't have anything to lose. Your personality has given you nothing but misery; your ego has given you nothing but pain; your mind has given you nothing but empty thoughts. So there is nothing to lose. Perhaps you may lose your bondage, your chains, your handcuffs, but they are not worth preserving - they are not your ornaments.

Put everything at stake.

I have been watching you, and I see you coming to a point very close to the open secret... and you stop or pull back. It is a natural fear, perhaps it is too much, and too sudden. But remember, nobody can be ready for it beforehand. Everybody has to go into it without any preparedness, and everybody has to take the jump one day, without thinking. You can think later on as much as you want.

The proverb goes: Think before acting. I would like to say to you: Act first, and then think whatever you want to think. You are absolutely free to think....

As one comes closer to the open secret, the mind creates a fear: Perhaps you may go mad. Wait...

to go more into it seems to be dangerous; you may lose your sanity. But what kind of sanity do you have? What flowers has it given to you? And what juice has it given to your life? And what light has it given to your eyes?

So don't think when you come to the boundary: Where does the world of the open secret begin?

Gather courage and jump.

In my childhood, just by the side of my village was a beautiful river, and this was my joy: to find the highest spots from which to jump into the river. And seeing me enjoying it so much, many of my friends would go with me, and they would see that I have jumped and I am still alive, and swimming in the river. They would make every effort....

Most of them were Hindus, and Hindus have a certain small book, HANUMAN CHALISA. You have seen the monkey god and his statues - it is in praise of the monkey god. It is thought that if you repeat the HANUMAN CHALISA, you become strong like the monkey god, who even carried a mountain in his hands.

I was surprised: they would repeat the HANUMAN CHALISA and they would gather courage and rush violently - and just on the brink they will stop, as if an invisible wall is there. I would say, "What happened?"

They said, "This is too deep... and unnecessarily one may get fractures or one may even die."

But I said, "You have seen me jumping...."

They said, "We always think of you as an exception."

I said, "That's strange. I have the same kind of body: why should I be an exception?"

This is what we have done with Buddha, Mahavira, Adinatha, Patanjali, Kabir: we have put them in a separate category. They are special people; we are ordinary people. But they were also ordinary before they took the jump. It is the jump that has made them extraordinary; not that they were extraordinary - hence they could jump. The reality is just vice-versa.

And slowly, slowly I persuaded those people.... A few of them jumped, and they said, "Really there is no problem. But it looked so fearsome... almost like death. But you are so persistent that we started feeling that we must be very cowardly, afraid, that we don't have any life in us. So we thought that at the most, death can happen - and who bothers once death has happened? There is no problem...

we will not be here."

But once they jumped... then they started jumping from even higher peaks. The railway bridge was the highest on the bank, and a policeman used to stand there twenty-four hours a day with his machine gun, because that place was used for committing suicide. After examinations, when people failed, they would commit suicide; somebody would go bankrupt and he would commit suicide.

When we had jumped from all the other heights, I went to the policeman and I said, "I am not committing suicide, so don't stop me. If you stop me, I will commit suicide!"

He said, "This is strange. Then what are you doing, if you are not committing suicide?"

I said, "I am simply enjoying the jump. This is the highest place... and I have brought my friends with me. You can see."

He said, "But remember, nobody should know. And I am worried - you may not be jumping to commit suicide, but suicide may happen. Even though I have been here for years, I could not think of jumping."

I said, "If you start by thinking... nobody can jump. This is the whole secret: we don't think first; first we jump, and then we think."

He said, "Then what is the use of thinking? When you have jumped, you have jumped."

So I told him, "You need not bother. And you need not use your machine gun - that may kill unnecessarily."

He became curious and he allowed me to jump. I jumped while the others were reciting the HANUMAN CHALISA and trembling, because this was the highest place. It was summertime, and the river had become shallower and the height had become greater. But when I jumped and the policeman looked and saw that I was perfectly happy, and I waved to him, he said, " My God! Then what happens to those people who commit suicide?" And he asked my other friends, "What are you doing?"

They said, "We are reciting the HANUMAN CHALISA! First we will invoke the HANUMAN CHALISA... because that guy is mad. We don't follow him; we have our own ritual: first we will do the HANUMAN CHALISA and pray to God to save us." And then one by one they jumped. And you will be surprised: when the last boy had jumped and the policeman saw that we were all alive, he put his gun away, recited the HANUMAN CHALISA, and jumped. And he said, "This is strange, nobody died. And I have seen people dying...."

I said, "... because they wanted to die. To us, it is a challenge of life; to them it was not."

The open secret is a subtle boundary. Everybody comes close to it and feels that if he goes one step further, madness is going to happen. I have seen Kavisho getting almost to the brink... and then holding herself back. Avirbhava goes to the brink immediately; then she tries to stop me. She shows me this... and no more. She closes her eyes... she wants to make me afraid by opening her big eyes - but I can also open my big eyes.

One day she was at such a brink: she became so much afraid now the moment has come, that she put her head between her legs and her hands under her legs - just to avoid me. She sometimes starts crying.... But I don't care at all; I go on doing my thing! Just to avoid me, sometimes she sits on this side; when she gathers courage, she sits on that side.

Yes, Kavisho, this is the open secret. Today, try to go into it. I am here; don't be worried. I have gone more deeply into it than anyone else: no madness happens, no insanity happens, no death happens. Just once you have to go into it, and then you are absolutely relaxed. Then you can move into it and out of it just like you move in and out of your house: you never wonder whether to go out or not, whether to go in or not.

Your inner being is your greater life. Death can happen outside, but not inside. Even when people die, they die only on the outside; the inside is immortality.

And madness happens through thinking; madness has never happened through non-thinking. So when the moment comes and the mind is empty, and all thoughts have disappeared and you see a deep tunnel into yourself, don't turn back. Slowly, slowly people go: inch by inch people go. Gather courage! Don't experience God in installments: don't be American.

Question 3:

Govindo, we are living in a very special time. There are not two hundred years available. If man does not understand my message now, there will be no man after two hundred years to understand.

Two hundred years is very long; even twenty years....

Mankind has never been at such a critical moment as it is today. There have been wars - thousands of wars - but they were not going to destroy all life. In the ancient days, wars were almost like football games.

The greatest war in India, Mahabharat, happened somewhere around five thousand years ago, and it gives the idea - because that is the only war in India which has been described in such minute detail. Just one family - two brothers: one brother who was sick, had five sons; the other brother was blind, but he had one hundred sons. He must have had many women - to manage one hundred sons from one woman is almost impossible.

Now the question was: who was going to succeed? The five brothers were very intelligent, courageous, trained in many martial arts. One of them was a great archer; another was a great wrestler; the eldest was a very intelligent man. But the hundred brothers were all what you would call "bad guys" - so everybody wanted the kingdom to go to the five brothers and not to these hundred rascals; even without power they were harassing the people so much. But they were not ready to agree so easily, so the final decision had to be made by war - whoever wins....

Now it was a family war, and they invited all their friends, all their relatives - and they were all interrelated. The grandfather, although he loved those five, had chosen to be with the one hundred, for the simple reason that those five were the sons of a sick man, and a sick man could not rule, because of his sickness. So the kingdom had gone into the hands of the brother with one hundred sons, and to give the kingdom back to the other party would be unfair; although he loved those five and he hated those hundred - still, he was fighting with them.

In the evening, as the sun was setting, the war would stop, and people would go into each other's camp. The whole day they were killing each other, and at night they were playing cards, and they were gossiping about the events of the day. That was a totally different kind of war. Man was directly involved, and only soldiers had to fight, not civilians. Thousands of wars of that kind we have survived.

But now we are in a very exceptional time. A nuclear war simply means total destruction - a global suicide. Nobody is going to be defeated; nobody is going to be victorious: all are going to be dead.

And not only man - birds, animals, trees, all that is living on the earth will be dead.

And both the great powers - America and the Soviet Union - go on piling up more and more nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union has proved more sensible. Seeing the fact that right now we have so many nuclear weapons that every man can be killed seven times - although there is no need to kill any man seven times, once is always enough - the Soviet Union has proved far more intelligent than Ronald Reagan. First they tried hard to negotiate that we should stop this piling up of nuclear weapons - it is pointless now, wasting money on it - but Reagan is not willing. So, of their own accord, the Soviet Union for many months has not created any nuclear weapons. They have stopped, but America goes on piling up....

The danger is so great that if man can survive this century, it will be a great miracle. So there is not that much time, Govindo. For the first time the future is very short. It always used to be eternal; now it is at the most twenty years.

So in the lifetime of each of you, the decisive moment is going to come: either man commits suicide or, seeing that this is an absolute absurdity, man changes his consciousness. It often happens that under pressure people change - and there will never be again a greater pressure than is present today.

It is most probable that man will go through a transformation. In that sense my message is exactly at the right time: that nations should disappear, because it is nations who fight; religions should disappear, because it is religions who fight. The idea of races - of superiority and inferiority - should disappear, because that has been one of the causes of wars.

It is a time either to destroy the whole earth or to destroy all these arbitrary conceptions of nation, race, religion, and make the whole earth one humanity.

But I do not agree on one point with you. You say, "Have not You chosen to come precisely now, before these chaotic times the world is facing?"

I have not chosen anything. Perhaps existence has chosen me to be a vehicle to give you the message - but I have not chosen. I have disappeared long ago... and existence can speak through you only when you are not.

It is hoping against hope - but I still hope that the danger of global death will be the shock which awakens humanity. If man survives after this century, it will be a new man and a new humanity. One thing is certain:

Either man has to die or man has to change.

I cannot think that man will choose to die. The longing for life is so great... just to think that the earth has become dead - no trees, no humanity, no birds, no animals, no sea animals.... It is such a great crisis, because in the whole universe - it is only an assumption of the scientists that there may be life on fifty thousand planets, but there is no absolute evidence. It is just a mathematical and logical conclusion, but there is no scientific proof.

As far as we know, only this earth is green, only this earth has flowers, only this earth has love; only this earth has produced people like Gautam Buddha; only this earth has birds which sing, people who dance, people who love. This is the only place in the whole universe where people search and seek for truth. To destroy it - for no particular reason at all - is such utter stupidity that I don't think that the third world war is going to happen.

And if the third world war does not happen, that will mean a great change, a tidal change in human consciousness. We will see a new man, who is not Christian, not Hindu, who is not a Jew, who is not a Chinese, who is not an American. If all these trees can exist without being Christians and without being Hindus; if all these birds can exist without any boundaries of nations... and when a bird passes the boundary of India and enters into Pakistan, he does not need any entry visa, does not need even any passport....

Except for mankind, the earth is one. And it is only a question of raising human consciousness....

Nations can disappear, religions can disappear, discriminations can disappear; and with that, much crap will disappear. Politicians will not be of any use; priests will not be of any use; churches and temples and mosques will not be of any use. There are millions of people who don't have homes, and God - who is just a lie - has millions of houses for himself.

We have lived in an insane way, and now it is a choice between insanity and sanity. If insanity wins, there will be no life at all. If sanity wins, life will become for the first time free from all superstitions, all boundaries, all divisions - one humanity, one earth; freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom to choose where you want to live.

It is our earth.

Question 4:

Prashantam, your whole problem is a will-to-power.

In your work you want to be powerful. You are a therapist; in your therapy groups you want to be powerful. Even in your love, you want to be powerful over the woman you love. Reduced to a single point, will-to-power is your problem, is your tension.

It is good that you exposed it, because any wound exposed starts healing. If you understand it - that will-to-power is your problem - then there is nothing to be worried about. Then you have to look into it - why will-to-power arises in the first place. It arises out of an inferiority complex. You must be always comparing yourself with others: somebody is superior and I am inferior.

This has been the teaching over the centuries: that there are superior people and there are inferior people; and the whole teaching is a lie. There are only unique individuals - nobody is superior, nobody is inferior. I am not saying that everybody is equal. So let me emphasize the fact:

I don't believe in equality, I believe in uniqueness.

Equality is a very poor idea, a very dull idea. "Everybody is equal" gives a feeling of flatness. No, the marigold and the rose and the lotus are not equal; neither are the peacocks and the cuckoos equal - but they are all unique.

People have lived with the idea that either all are equal or they are unequal. I give you a new concept: Equality, inequality - both are two sides of the same coin. Throw that coin away completely.

Everybody has a unique personality of his own; he is neither superior nor is he inferior.

You have not been meditating. This has been one of the calamities that has happened to all the therapists. Because in their therapy groups they become mini-gurus, they start thinking that there is no need for them to meditate. They start solving other people's problems, and forget that their own problems are waiting to be solved. So start meditating; start becoming aware that you are an unique individual, just as others are. And once this idea of uniqueness settles in you, you will drop your judgmental attitude. What is there to judge? - people are unique.

The idea of judgment was part of the old philosophy which said that somebody is superior, somebody is inferior; somebody is a saint, somebody is a sinner. Then there was certainly a question of judgment: to call somebody a saint, you have judged; to call somebody a sinner, you have judged.

And this judgment is not going to be only about others; it will be about you, too.

When you see a saint, you will judge yourself: "I am far inferior." And feeling inferior, one wants to become powerful, to prove to oneself and to the world that "I am not inferior." With the idea of uniqueness all judgments disappear.

I am reminded of a very famous butcher. His fame was that for twenty years continually, he was cutting up animals for the king of China - but he never changed his weapons. Even after twenty years' use, the weapons were as fresh, as new, as they were on the first day. The king has become old, the butcher has become old....

One day the king was walking in the garden. He came around to the butcher's place and saw his weapons so fresh, so new, and he asked "How do you manage? You have not changed your weapons; you have not even polished them."

The butcher said, "There is no need - because when I am cutting the animal, it is a meditation for me. I am a disciple of a master, and I asked the master, ?Should I leave my profession of being a butcher?' He said, ?Why? Somebody else will have to do it, and nobody can do it better than you; so you continue.' "I was shocked that a master who teaches nonviolence is not stopping me from being a butcher.

On the contrary, he is saying, ?You are rare and unique; you continue - but make it a meditation.

Before killing the animal, say to him, ?Brother!...' While killing him, be full of reverence. Don't kill out of cruelty; be graceful.' "And because of his teachings - gracefulness, meditativeness, and a reverence for life - the animal who is being butchered does not struggle, does not fight, does not try to escape. He allows my weapons without any friction. That's why the weapons have remained as new, as fresh, as shiny as they were on the first day. I am killing certainly, but with a heart, with love."

There were other butchers in the palace, and they could not believe how he could manage. And they saw that first he would hug the animal, kiss the animal, talk to the animal; say to him, "Even if I don't kill you, somebody else will kill you. It is better I should kill you, because I can kill you with deep reverence, compassion, love, so it is not a fight between you and me. Allow it, so that you are not hurt. Don't try to escape."

This simple butcher became a great master later on. He used to say to people, "I don't know anything much. All I know is that if you love even an animal, he understands, and he is ready - because you love him - even to die at your hands, joyfully."

He had asked his master, "Don't you judge me, that I am doing something sinful?"

The master said, "Those who judge don't understand life. Somebody has to be a butcher; somebody has to chop the wood; somebody has to be a thief - because people go on gathering money."

The thief is nothing but a practical socialist.

A deep understanding will bring you a non-judgmental approach; then nobody is a sinner and nobody is a saint. Then the whole point is: if you are a sinner, be as totally and intensely a sinner as possible - because what ultimately counts is totality and intensity. If you are a saint, don't be half-hearted; be totally and be intensely, because that's what counts ultimately: not what you were doing, but how you were doing it - meditatively, silently.

Prashantam, you need not be afraid that a day may come when you will realize that it is too late.

It is never too late. Even if you realize at the last breath of your life - that's enough. A single moment of understanding is far weightier than a whole life of misunderstanding; a single moment of understanding erases a whole life of misunderstanding - so it is never too late.

And don't be worried that you may feel one day that you have failed me. You cannot fail me - nobody can because I don't have any expectations of you. I accept you as you are, and I will always accept you as you are. I have no judgments, so how you can fail me? But this is what for centuries you have been conditioned for: the father says to the son, "Don't fail me"; the master says to the disciple, "Don't fail me." They have expectations that you should be a certain way; that you should be successful.

Whatever you can do, do it totally, do it intensely.

But you cannot fail me, because I don't have any expectations; you cannot frustrate me. I have worked on so many people for years, and then our ways separated. I don't say to them that they betrayed me, I simply say that our ways separated - because there is no question of betrayal. I have never asked for loyalty, so how can I say they betrayed me? Life just brought us to a point where we could not be together.

My heart is still full of blessings for all those who have gone their own way. Wherever they are, my blessings will follow them like a shadow.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.