The golden key

Question 1:

David, man is born with death in his heart. As he grows, death also grows. Life and death are almost like two wings. The day life has reached to its peak, death also reaches its peak; hence the unknown fear, and the desire to be protected.

But there is only one way to unlock - only one key. This desire to be protected can disappear only when you understand that the life that you have known is not the eternal life. The dewdrop has to die; there is no way of protecting it.

But in the death of the dewdrop is a new beginning. It is not an end; it is the beginning of the very ocean. The dewdrop becomes the ocean. Then all fears - of insecurity, of death, of disease, of old age - they all disappear together.

But man goes on doing just the opposite. Seeing that there is a desire to be protected, he tries to find all kinds of protection - in money, in power, in respectability. But the longing is simply the same: somehow I should be so powerful and so secure that the fear of the unknown, of death, can be forgotten.

But there is no way to forget it. You can get busy with thousands of things, but it is always there like an undercurrent - because it is a natural phenomenon. Death is not something that is going to come from outside.

I have always loved an old parable: A king was very much afraid of death. He had conquered many lands, he was a great warrior, he was adequately safe, secure - there was no need to be afraid. But the problem is: death does not come from outside - it grows within you. You bring it with your birth.

But nobody told him this; on the contrary, his advisers told him, "You should make a palace in which there should be no windows, no doors - just one door, and on that door there should be seven-fold security. One guard - but who can trust? - then another guard to guard the first guard, and so on.

Seven lines of guards... you will be absolutely protected."

He made the palace. The idea looked logical; but all that is logical is not realistic - logic is not equivalent to life. The palace was made. The king was very happy, the guarding system was so secure. There was only one door; no enemy could enter from anywhere.

One of his friends, another king, heard about the palace and came to see it. He was immensely impressed. It was a piece of art inside, was made all of marble, and everything for the king's pleasure was there: beautiful fountains, waterfalls - but everything was inside the palace. The friend said, "I would like a palace just like this in my own kingdom. It feels so secure."

As he was leaving, the host king came out, and the friend thanked him again. As he was getting into his golden chariot he said, "I am immensely grateful, because you have made something which is really secure. Just help me with your architects and the stonecutters; I want to make exactly the same palace in my kingdom."

Just then a beggar sitting in the street started laughing. Both the kings felt embarrassed, and the host asked the beggar, "Why are you laughing?"

He said, "Once I used to be a king myself, but just to find security I became a beggar. Since I have become a beggar, nobody is interested in killing me. I sleep in the street without any fear. I have one suggestion to make to you - and I am older than both of you, and my kingdom was far bigger than your kingdoms.

"My suggestion is that there is a flaw in your palace. I have been sitting here and watching - but nobody has bothered about the flaw."

The king said, "What flaw?"

The beggar said, "There is one door. The best security will be for you to get in and let your stonecutters close the door. Instead of a door there should be a beautiful marble wall. Then nobody can enter there.

"Even these seven lines of guards can conspire - it is not inconceivable - to acquire the whole kingdom. You are in the hands of these seven men. If they join together, they can kill you and divide your whole kingdom. And it is such a simple thing it that is bound to come into their minds. You think you are secure - you are more insecure than ever; you are just in the hands of seven people."

The king said, "Your idea is right - but what is the point of living if there is no door to come out?"

And the beggar laughed again. He said, "You need not come out. Death can enter without a door - because in fact it does not enter from the outside; it is sitting within you, just like a seed."

You may not be very conscious, David, nobody is very conscious - that you are dying every day, inch by inch. And one day the process is complete. Death is not an incident, but a process: it has the same length as your life. If you are going to live seventy or eighty years, your death also has eighty years to live with you.

This life - what we understand as life - is in the hands of death, and there is no way of protection.

But I know a golden key, which is to find in yourself a deeper layer of life, deeper than this life and deeper than this death. That deepest layer is eternal. There is no need to protect it; it is protected by the whole of existence itself. There is a lock, and that is your mind, which prevents your going in.

And there is a key: I call it meditation.

Before meditation, the mind disappears. Not that the lock is opened... but the lock simply disappears, and you enter into your kingdom of eternity. And only then does one feel secure.

Even if death comes, and it is bound to come, you will be watching it: you will not be dying. Your body will be dying, your mind will be dying, but before death you have already abandoned them. You have gone deeper than both the superficial layers.

Except through meditation, nobody has come to know about eternity, about immortality, about the timelessness of our being. Therefore to me religion simply means meditation. Anything else is superfluous, nonessential.

This is the miracle of meditation: that it does not divide people. There is no Christian meditation, there is no Hindu meditation, there is no Mohammedan meditation, and there is no Jewish meditation.

Meditation is a science.

All that is nonessential in religions divides people; and the non-essential becomes so big, so heavy, that the small key of meditation is lost or forgotten.

People feel offended with me, annoyed with me, irritated, because I want them not to be Hindus, not to be Christians, not to be Jainas - but only to be meditators... because meditation is the only essential religion that can join you to your real self.

The word "religion" has to be understood. It means "bringing together." You have gone far away from yourself. To bring you back together with your reality is the only religion there is.

Question 2:

Anand Premartha, it is both. Sitting here in silence, being showered by my silence, my serenity, everything in you becomes fresh, young. Silence is such a shower of the soul.

Listening to the music - not only listening, but participating, almost dancing with joy - you forget your ordinary worries and the world, the tensions and anxieties; those are the layers of dust on your eyes.

And just being with me here, something that is not visible to the eyes transpires between me and you. Some energy, which can only be called divine, passes from heart to heart. I can see that there are moments when you all disappear, and only one consciousness remains. You forget your individuality, your separateness. And this is such a rejuvenation, such a refreshment, such a rebirth, that when you go out - things are the same - but the green looks greener; the people look softer and more loving. The song of the birds, although meaningless, starts having a significance of its own. All your senses are at their maximum sensitivity. The light passing through the trees fills you with wonder. The wind passing through the trees whispers unknown secrets to you.

So on the one hand you are ready, available, fresh, rested, relaxed, and silent; and on the other hand you are part of existence. Existence rejoices with you. It is not only that your eyes are fresh and your mind is silent, that the trees are greener - that is only one part of the story.

The other part is that because of your silence, because of your dance, because of your music, they really are greener - just for you, a special gift.

It is said that whenever Gautam Buddha passed by any path, even if it was not the time for the trees to blossom, they blossomed. Buddhists have not been able to explain it; no scientific explanation is possible. Only a mystic can understand it; only a meditator can understand what it means - that trees which were without leaves immediately started growing leaves and foliage, preparing a little shadow for the tired Buddha to rest under.

That is what you are experiencing: existence certainly rejoices when you are blissful. Existence is almost an echo of your being. If you are in anxiety, everything around you becomes tense; and if you are silent, everything around you becomes a silent music, a silent dance.

Remember that you are not separate from existence; so when you are happy, all these trees are also happy. Happiness is contagious. When you are dancing, these trees are also moving in rhythm with you.

When you are full of love whoever meets you - he may be a very primitive, crude man, but your love is more powerful than any crudeness, any primitiveness... with you, suddenly he feels he is becoming soft.

You have known this experience in many other ways. There are people with whom you become sad.

They have not done anything to you and they have not said anything to you, but their sadness is so heavy and so powerful. We are continuously broadcasting our hearts all around us.

If a sad man passes by, his sadness is going to touch your heart too, unless your joyfulness is bigger than his sadness; then he will be touched. And you know about people with whom you suddenly become joyous for no reason at all, just being with them it feels as if a certain joy, a certain happiness has entered into you.

But listening to me is nothing but a meditation. This is my simplest device, in which you have not to do anything at all. I tell you to meditate, but I cannot leave it to you. You may think, "Yes, I will meditate," and you go on postponing. That is why every morning and evening I speak to you. It does not matter what I say. I am not an orator, neither am I a preacher, nor am I giving you a doctrine or a philosophy. This is a device: because you want to listen to me, you are bound to be silent. Without your knowing, you are falling deeper and deeper into your being.

So when you go out, you have not gone out of a lecture hall. This Chuang Tzu hall is not a lecture hall, it is a place - a temple - of meditation. That's why I always go on leaving gaps for you: in those gaps there is every possibility you may touch your innermost core.

So don't say after "listening" to me, say after "meditating" with me, when you go out all your senses are more sensitive. And the whole of existence rejoices because you have a totally different fragrance, a different presence. You carry something of me with you every day.

Slowly, slowly you will be able to sit by yourself alone, doing nothing, sitting silently. And in that silence, you will know all the mysteries of existence.

This is one of the mysteries: that everything is interconnected. Your joy is felt by the trees - your sadness too. Your silence is experienced by the birds - your dance, your music too.

Question 3:

Prem Kaveesha, I can understand your anguish about the whole of humanity, about this planet earth; because every day we are coming closer and closer to a disaster.

It is because the disaster is coming very close; even with your buffers you cannot forget it - and it hurts. And it hurts more because you feel you cannot help; you cannot do anything. It is simply beyond the capacity of any individual to prevent this calamity, this disaster, this global suicide that seems to be almost certain. But I have a way of my own.

You feel helpless because you think in terms of helping other people to understand, and that is an impossible job. The world is so big, and people are so full of violence that it seems the calamity is not coming from outside, but it is the accumulated violence in people themselves that is going to explode this earth.

But don't think in terms of helping. Then you will not feel helpless and you will not feel tense. I don't feel helpless, I don't feel tense, I don't feel any anguish - and I am more aware of it than you can be - because my approach is not of helping anybody, but just for you to raise your own consciousness to the highest peak possible... of which you are perfectly capable.

If we can create only two hundred enlightened people in the world, the world can be saved.

Kaveesha was born in a Jewish family, hence she will understand a beautiful story. In the OLD TESTAMENT it is mentioned that there were two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and both became sexually perverted. In Gomorrah, homosexuality was so prevalent, and in Sodom people had fallen even lower in their perversion: they were making love to animals. Hence, the English word "sodomy"

- it comes from the city of Sodom. And God decided to destroy those two cities completely.

He destroyed those two cities completely - and it is very strange that those two cities had the same population as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by man, but the OLD TESTAMENT story is that God destroyed those two sexually perverted cities. What I am going to tell you is a Hassidic story based on the OLD TESTAMENT version of the destruction by God of two sexually perverted cities.

Judaism has blossomed in its totality in Hassidism. Hassidism is a rebellious, and essentially religious, phenomenon. All the religions have given to the world something beautiful - although those religions were against that something beautiful - except Christianity.

Mohammedanism has given Sufism, although Mohammedans have killed Sufis. Buddhism has given Zen, although Buddhists don't accept Zen as an authentic teaching of Gautam Buddham.

Hinduism has given Tantra, but Hindus are very much against Tantra - and that is their very truth. It is a very strange thing... and the same is the situation with Judaism.

Hassidism is a small, rebellious phenomenon within the world of Judaism. The man who founded Hassidism was Baal Shemtov. He also relates the story and you can see the beauty and the difference. Somebody asked him, "What do you think about Sodom and Gomorrah?"

And Baal Shem said, "That story is not written in its completion. I will tell you the whole story."

And he said, "When God declared that he was going to destroy these two cities, one Hassid, a mystic, approached God and asked him, ?If in these cities there are one hundred people who have experienced you, what will you do with these one hundred people? Are you going to destroy them too, with the whole cities?' "For a moment God was silent and then he said, ?No. If there were one hundred awakened souls in these two cities, because of those one hundred people these two cities would be saved; I would not destroy them.' "The Hassid mystic said, ?If there were only fifty, not a hundred? Will you destroy these cities, and those fifty awakened people?' "Now God saw that he had been caught by the mystic. He said, ?No, I cannot destroy fifty awakened people.' And the Hassid said, ?I want you to know that there is only one man who is awakened; six months he lives in Sodom and six months he lives in Gomorrah. What do you say about it? - Will you destroy the cities?' "God said, ?You are a very cunning fellow. Who is this man?' He said of course, ?I am.' "And God could not deny him because it is not a question of quantity, it is a question of quality: one awakened person or one hundred awakened persons. The awakened person cannot be destroyed by existence, because the awakened person is the longest dream of existence itself, the deepest longing of existence itself - to reach to the stars." And Baal Shem said that Sodom and Gomorrah were never destroyed.

Jews are angry about Baal Shem, that he is just inventing this story; the whole story is written in the OLD TESTAMENT. The Jews don't accept the Hassids as authentic Jews. In the same way, everywhere the really religious person will be condemned by the so-called religious.

Whether Baal Shem invented the story or whether he was telling the true story, I am with him. In the first place a God who believes in destruction is not a God. A God who cannot transform people from their perversions is not a God. Baal Shem is not only saving those two cities, he is also saving God's godliness: his compassion, his love, his understanding.

Kaveesha, forget all about the world. You become the one Hassid, the one mystic. And if we can create around the world just two hundred enlightened people.... That number is also exactly like Baal Shem's Hassid. When he started talking with God, negotiating, it was only a question of two cities.

The world has become big and it is a question of the whole world - so I am starting negotiating with two hundred. But I want to tell you that even two enlightened people will be enough, and the world will be saved; because existence cannot destroy its own ultimate flowering.

So you forget about the world; otherwise it will create unnecessary anxiety and will destroy your own awakening, which is the only possibility to save the world.

Anybody who wants to help the world should forget about the world and concentrate upon himself.

Raise your consciousness to such a height that existence has to think a second time whether to destroy this world or to save it.

The masses as they are don't matter; existence will not care about them. In fact, existence would like this whole humanity - this rotten humanity - to be destroyed, so that evolution can start from scratch again. Something has gone wrong....

But if there are a few enlightened people, they are far weightier than billions and billions of people on the earth. Existence cannot destroy the world - not only because of those few people who are enlightened; but because of their enlightenment, the unconscious masses also become valuable, because it is from these unconscious masses that those Himalayan peaks have arisen. They were also unconscious yesterday, today they are conscious. And existence is very patient: if it sees that unconscious people can become fully conscious, then this great mass of people, which is absolutely unconscious, also has a possibility.

I depend on the individuals, not on the collectivity. The collectivity is so rotten that it will be an act of compassion to destroy it. But we have to prove that out of this unconscious, almost dead humanity, a few lotuses can blossom. Then, just given time, perhaps more lotuses will be coming. Some may be just buds, some may be just in the seed; but even if there is one man who is enlightened, with him the whole of humanity becomes valuable, because that man shows the hope that every man is capable of the same miracle.

So, Kaveesha, forget about helping. You cannot help; nobody can help. But you can become a mystic, a Hassid, and you can argue with God, that "I am here; are you going to destroy me? And these people who are somnambulists, walking in their sleep - I was also one of them. That is my yesterday. These people should be given their tomorrows. There is every possibility that every human being can become a Gautam Buddha."

This is the only way to save this beautiful planet earth.

Question 4:

Prem Turiya, you have heard many people, you have read many people; but hearing me or reading me is a totally different experience, for the simple reason that I am not a speaker, an orator, a lecturer.

Your questions may be the same, but my answers cannot be the same for two reasons. First, I have forgotten your questions and my answers - I cannot repeat, I am not a gramophone record.

Secondly, your questions may be the same, but the questioners are different - and I answer the questioner, not the question.

Naturally, words will be repeated. Somebody has counted that I have answered fifteen thousand questions, and I am not a learned man; my vocabulary is very limited. But because I am not answering the question, even though the words may be the same, the answer has a different nuance every time. Not that I am making an effort not to repeat myself... I don't remember at all, I have never read any of my books.

Each time when I am answering you, I am never prepared for it. I don't know myself what is going to be my next sentence. It is not ordinary speaking; it is a communion, not only communication. I have nothing to communicate. I am not trying to convince you about something - because if I am trying to convince you, then the only way is to repeat the same thing again and again and again so it becomes a conditioning in your mind.

My words are not important. What is important is your silent listening. What is important is that my words are not coming from the mind, but from my deepest silence. Although they cannot contain silence, when they come from the deepest silence something of that silence surrounds them. They cannot contain it, but something of the silence surrounds them. It is as if you have taken a bath in a lake; you cannot contain the lake, but when you come out of it, something of the lake - the freshness, the coolness - comes with you. The lake is left behind, but some quality of the lake is carried with you.

You are listening in silence; I am speaking in silence. My words reach to you with some freshness, with some fragrance; and because you are silent, that fragrance, that silence, deepens your silence - makes it fragrant.

It is very difficult for intellectuals to understand what is happening. It is a very non-intellectual, heart-to-heart communion. Words are only excuses.

I would love to sit silently with you, but then you cannot be silent. If I am silent, then your mind will go on: yakkety-yak, yakkety-yak. Just to save you from trouble, I have to speak, and because I am speaking, your mind becomes engaged in listening. It forgets its own yakkety-yak, or postpones it.

It is certainly a miracle. And these are authentic miracles, not miracles like Jesus walking on the water.

I have heard a story: Two rabbis and one bishop were very great friends. All three had gone fishing on the same lake where Jesus used to walk - Lake Galilee.

The bishop was an American; those two rabbis were local Jews. Talking about Jesus, one rabbi said, "You Christians make too much of small things. Here, everybody knows how to walk on water."

The bishop said, "Everybody...? You can walk on water?"

The rabbi said, "Of course," and he stepped over the side of the boat and walked on water.

The bishop could not believe his eyes.... He is a Jew, he does not even believe in Christ! These are the people who crucified Jesus. This is absolutely unfair of God - that even rabbis should be allowed to do miracles.

The first rabbi came back. The bishop asked the second rabbi, "Can you also walk?"

He said, "Everybody can walk. You have unnecessarily made too much fuss about Jesus - that he walked on water. In Israel, everybody walks on water."

The bishop said, "This is a new thing; I have never heard of it. Just show me that you can also walk on water." And the second rabbi stepped out of the boat and walked on water. The bishop looked with unblinking eyes - he even forgot to breathe.

And the second rabbi came back, and both of them said, "Now, you are a follower of Jesus; you can try. Do you trust Jesus?"

The bishop said, "Absolutely."

Then they said, "You can try."

So the bishop stepped out on his side - this was the other side of the boat - and started drowning.

One rabbi said, "What do you think, should we tell that American idiot where the stones are?"

Local people know where the rocks are. These are not miracles. The real miracle happens almost invisibly. Your being silent here... just listening to the birds: tweet, toot, toot - it is a miracle.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.