I am nothing but pure champagne

Question 1:

Helen, it happens almost always to newcomers; one comes with fixed ideas, expectations. And those ideas and prejudices are given to you by the world; they are all based on lies. You would have been very happy if your prejudices and ideas had been fulfilled. If you had found this place exactly what you were expecting, there would have been no sadness. The sadness is arising in you because all your negativity has to disappear.

This is not the kind of place that.... All over the world religions, governments and news media are conspiring against us. They are spreading all kinds of lies without any foundation - this place is just the opposite of what they are propagating. But they have the power. We have only love.

It is a struggle between power and love. Ultimately love is going to win, but on the way, power may have a few battles - but a battle is not decisive. Those who have never come here, those who have never come in contact with me or my people, can go on living with their prejudices. And their prejudices are not going to make them happy or joyful or blissful; their prejudices are not going to make them blossom, sing and dance and enjoy all the fruits God has given to you.

They are all against me for the simple reason that I am for God, and not for the priests. The priest is the enemy of God, because he is selling God in the marketplace - and God is not for sale. You can surrender to God and he will be yours forever, but you cannot possess God - that is the way to kill him.

When I use the word "god", I mean life, existence. I am not a theologian and I don't believe in any God as a person sitting in heaven creating the world. Just look at this world: look at the madness of humanity. In three thousand years it has fought five thousand wars. If God has created this humanity then he must be mad, because a tree is known by the fruit. You can know everything about God by knowing the highest flowering and fruition of human consciousness.

But the priests are not concerned with life or existence; they are professionals. Their whole effort is how to make you more and more guilty, how to make you feel more and more degraded, humiliated; how to prove to you that you are sinners, you are born in sin. The more your pride and your dignity are taken away, the more you become vulnerable to their exploitation.

You say, "I arrived here a few days ago with so many fixed attitudes of cynicism on the one hand, and so much hope on the other. All expectations and negativity have vanished, and I feel I am empty of all but a great sadness."

This sadness is very significant. It is one of the most important things to understand about human psychology, that even if your misery disappears, you will feel sad. You have become so accustomed to misery, it has been such a good companion for years, that you will feel empty because the old misery is gone - the old pain, the old anguish is no longer there. You have remained engaged with your miserable past. Suddenly you find yourself empty, and a sadness... the same sadness which you feel when a friend departs from you.

Once you understand this, you can move through a transformation. This is not the moment to feel empty; this is the moment to feel spacious - -and that's what you are calling empty. The old friends are gone, old prejudices, old negativity, old fixed ideas... you are spacious, and to be spacious feels strange in the beginning. But as you become accustomed to it, spaciousness becomes the temple of God. Don't call it empty; words mean much, and whatever you call it, you will start feeling that way.

It happened a few years ago in the Himalayas: There is a beautiful animal which looks like a cow; it is called a blue cow because it has a bluish color. It is a wild animal, and its population grew so much that there was not enough pasture for the animal to remain in the mountains. It started coming to the fields and the gardens on the plains in thousands, and the problem for the Hindus was that they could not kill it because its name is blue cow.

It is not a cow; it just looks like a cow. But the very word cow to the Hindu mind means "the mother."

They have worshiped the cow for thousands of years and the prejudice has gone so deep - they can kill the bull, who is logically their father, if the cow is their mother.... They kill the bulls; they save only a few to create more cows and more bulls. The bulls are of no use; they are wild and so strong...

they castrate their own fathers, and then the bull becomes just a bullock.

In the Indian parliament there was great controversy; something had to be decided. Those blue cows were coming in thousands and destroying people's crops, and all over India, Hindus were writing slogans that those cows should not be killed. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, was an intelligent man; he simply changed the name of those animals. In parliament an act was passed that the "blue horses" should be killed - and no Hindu objected. If it is a horse, then who bothers? It is the same poor animal; and the animal knows nothing about whether she is a blue cow or a blue horse - those names are given by us. The Indian parliament passed the resolution, no Hindu objected, and thousands of blue cows were killed. But if the name had remained blue cow, then there would have been riots all over the country, and thousands of people would have been massacred.

Our minds function through words. Always remember to use the right words. Emptiness is not the right word - it has a negative connotation to it, and to call it spaciousness changes the whole attitude. Spaciousness has a positive feeling about it: the sky is not empty; it is spacious. The word "empty" will make you sad.

The word "spaciousness" will make you glad that at last the rotten furniture of your mind has been thrown out - now you can rearrange your inner house. And in fact, spaciousness has a silence about it - naturally, because there is nothing to create noise. Silence can be misinterpreted as sadness....

There are very delicate lines that one has to understand. Language can be a great problem.

Silence and sadness have something in common - the depth, the peace - but sadness is empty, and silence is spaciousness; and to be spacious is one of the great achievements. Because now you can invite the guest, the unknown, the unknowable: you have become a temple.

There is a temple in Japan which is absolutely empty - not even a statue of Buddha inside. But emptiness in Buddhism does not have a negative connotation; it is a spaciousness. That temple attracts pilgrims from thousands of miles away, and there is nothing in the temple. But just to sit in that spaciousness helps you to become part of it - it becomes a meditation.

So change your words. Don't call it great sadness; call it great spaciousness. For the first time you have entered your inner sky; those barriers of prejudices and negativity are all gone.

You say, "I have been touched by Your great love and the compassion of Your sannyasins." Don't just be touched, drown in it! You are not going to lose anything by drowning in love, and compassion, and joy, and song and dance. Your spaciousness will become alive.

You say, "But still I keep fighting again and again." Don't fight, because if you fight you are giving energy to the enemy. Jesus is right when he says, "Love your enemies" - that is a great alchemical secret. If you don't fight, you don't nourish the enemy. If you fight, two things happen: you nourish the enemy, and you have to remain at the same level as the enemy.

I have been telling my people: You can have friendship with anyone, but if you want to have enemies, choose very well. Choose some enemy who is higher than you, better than you, holier than you.

Just by becoming his enemy you will have to attain all these qualities - because you cannot fight with an enemy who is on the housetop, while you are crawling on the ground; you will have to come up to the same level.

But I can understand your problem, Helen. It is not your personal problem; it is the problem of the mind as such. The mind has a function if you are miserable, but if you are blissful the mind has no function. The mind has a function if you are full of negative attitudes, but if you are full of affirmations, trust, love, ecstasy, the mind has no function.

The mind is basically the very source of all your negativities. When the negativities disappear, the mind also disappears, and one feels afraid. The mind tries hard to remain in its position; it has been your master for so long that it is not easy for it to leave you alone. It will come back again and again; and if you fight with it, you are still giving it recognition.

Let it come... ignore it. That is the key to getting rid of it: ignore it. Let it come, don't take any note of it; don't nourish it by giving it attention. And once the mind comes to know that you have become absolutely inattentive towards it, slowly, slowly, and chunk by chunk, it starts disappearing.

The greatest moment in life comes when the mind has gone forever. This state of mindlessness brings you to your inner being. Mind was keeping you engaged and not allowing you to enter into your interiority. It is always afraid that the moment you go deeper into yourself it will become useless.

I used to stay in Calcutta in the house of the chief justice of the Calcutta high court. His wife told me two things. She said, "I cannot say these things to anybody. But my husband loves you so much, and respects you so much, that perhaps he may listen to you."

I said, "You need not feel embarrassed; you can simply say whatever is the case."

She said, "The problem with him is that even in bed with me, he remains the chief justice. It is good he should be chief justice in the court, but the children are afraid. The moment his car enters the gate, a sadness falls over the house. The children - who were just laughing and enjoying and dancing - stop; I myself become fearful, because he treats everybody as if they are criminals. He cannot forget that he is the chief justice. So please do something, because our whole family is tortured by his being the chief justice."

I talked to the man. At first he felt very much offended that his wife should say this to me, but I said, "Don't feel offended, because she knows you love me, and you will be able to listen to me. Your being chief justice has become a disease for the whole family. The children cannot laugh, nobody can talk, people start whispering; even your wife has said that in bed, while making love, she is not making love to her husband - she is making love to the chief justice of Calcutta high court!"

He was very shocked. He told the chauffeur to inform the court that he was not coming in that day.

He went with me to a garden, sat there silently and finally said, "You are right. I am not enjoying it either, because I never see my wife happy, I never see my children playing. The moment I enter the house it seems as if death has entered; everything suddenly becomes sad. And I know this is not the truth, because the neighbors have told me the moment I go out of the house, it is full of joy. The children are dancing, singing, playing; my wife is a good singer and poet - she plays many musical instruments - but in front of me she becomes almost a corpse. And I was puzzled: I am not doing anything to anybody, so what is the problem? I am sorry that I felt offended, but you have shown me the problem."

I said, "Come with me to your home. Apologize to everybody - the servants, the chauffeur, the gardener, the children, your wife, your parents - individually. Tell them that from today you will be chief justice only in your high court, and you will leave your chief justice-hood in the court when you come back home."

He said, "Is that necessary? Can I not change silently?"

I said, "They will not understand; they will continue with their old idea. You have to do something.

You have harmed them; you have been wounding them continually for years. You owe them at least an apology."

He went with me. With tears in his eyes he touched the feet of his mother and father, and asked, "Just forgive me. I had completely forgotten that being chief justice is only my function, it is not my being. It is just the job that I do - I need not continue to be tense in the house. It is not only that you are all suffering, I am also suffering. I have almost become a foreigner in my own family; even my own children tremble before me. And now, retrospectively, I wonder why I was clinging to this chief justice-hood."

It gave you the mastery. And once you have tasted the poison of being a master, it is very difficult to drop the idea. That's why you are fighting again and again... against whom? It is your mind that goes on coming back - your prejudices, your negativities, your cynicism, your expectations. Say goodbye to them forever, because they are not going to give you any meaning, any significance, any celebration.

Let this be the criterion always: Anything that makes you festive, anything that gives you celebration, anything that makes you dance and sing to such an extent that you disappear in your dancing, in your singing, in your celebration... is the only true religion I know of. No God is needed, no heaven and hell are needed. All that is needed is a simple understanding that mind is the source of negativities - because those negativities make it the master, and you become a slave. And once the mind has been on the throne for so many years - perhaps for so many lives - it is very natural that it should come back again and again.

I have heard: a man's dog died; he had loved the dog very much - and the dog was very understanding and very loving and very beautiful. He could not live without that dog; the death of that dog had left an empty space within him. He went to purchase another dog, and he told the pet shop owner, "I want something special."

The pet shop owner said, "I have got a very special dog; and the strange thing is that he's the cheapest dog in my shop."

The man said, "This is strange. I would like to see the dog."

The pet shop owner took him inside the house; he had put the dog in a special place. The dog was really great... and the man said, "Why are you selling him so cheap?"

He said, "You will know tomorrow."

The man could not understand what kind of puzzle this was. There were many dogs - very costly - which bore no comparison with this beautiful dog. He purchased it, and went home.

The next day he found out why the dog was sold at such a cheap price. The dog had disappeared!

He went back to the pet shop owner, and said, "The dog has disappeared."

The pet shop owner said, "Do you see now why I sell him at such a cheap price? He always comes back. I have sold him thousands of times, but he is such an intelligent dog, he manages to come back. You can have him again if you want!"

The man said, "But what is the point if he is going to come back again tomorrow? Can I ask why he comes back again?"

The pet shop owner said, "I have given him a special room, and I give him the most delicious food, the best meat. There are two servants to take care of him. Nobody can afford all these comforts and all these luxuries - and nobody even imagines that he needs all these comforts and luxuries. When he sees that his old comforts and luxuries have disappeared, he escapes, he comes back. That dog has given me so much business that just the one dog is enough: even if nothing else is sold, there is no problem."

Your mind has lived within you as the master. You have given it all your respect; you have listened to it against your heart; you have followed it against your nature. It is only natural that it will go on coming back. You will have to learn the art of ignoring it.

And whenever you see something like love, blissfulness, ecstasy, then don't stand apart - be in the midst of those who are dancing. It is contagious. You may not have danced, you may not have sung, you may never have been blissful; don't just be touched by it, but have a good dip in the pool of energy that so many sannyasins create. Then you will not feel isolated amongst friends; you will feel one with them, you will feel a heart-to-heart communion with them.

Nobody is a stranger if you allow a heart-to-heart communion; otherwise, if you remain hung up in your head and he remains hung up in his head, everybody is a stranger.

Your heads make you many.

Your hearts make you one.

Bring your whole energy to the heart.

All this singing and dancing, and meditations and silence are nothing but simple strategies to bring your energy from the head to the heart. Once the heart starts throbbing with joy, you will have a rejuvenation, a resurrection - and then the mind will never bother you. Once the mind knows you have found the heart, it will not come back.

You are asking me, "What can I do to be more accepting of Your love, and of those around me?"

You have not to do much. Just jump into this atmosphere of ecstasy. There is a saying: Think before jumping.... I have changed it; I say, jump before thinking - because thinking is of the head, and it will prevent you from jumping. Jump first! If so many people are not drowned, and they are so drunk...

you are not different from these people.

So first jump, and then you can think as long as you want - in fact, nobody thinks afterwards.

Drink the wine that is available here.

I am nothing but pure champagne.

Question 2:

Anand Maitreya, you are perfectly right: I know you much better than you know yourself. For example, even this idea that you are full of ill will against all is not right.

Perhaps you may be full of ill will towards a few people - out of five billion people - but I don't see that you are full of ill will against all living beings. Five billion human beings... and all living beings?

The birds and the animals and the insects... there are millions of species of living beings, and their population is far bigger than that of human beings. For example, you can find five billion mosquitoes in Poona alone - so never brag about your population... that you have a population of five billion.

The UNO is just about to celebrate.... It is strange, that on the one hand we are condemning the population growth, and on the other, the UNO is going to have a celebration one day because mankind has crossed the five billion mark, for the first time in history. Is this a day for celebration, or for crying and weeping? And if it is a day for celebration, then when it crosses six billion - more celebration; seven billion - more celebration. Your celebrations will lead to global suicide. What kind of idiots have gathered in the UNO? They should have declared this day a day of mourning, because it is the beginning of the death of this planet. But this is how man's mind is: on the one hand they are trying to stop the growth of population; on the other hand they are celebrating it.

You are quoting a sutra from SHRIMAD BHAGAVADGITA. This is a statement made by Krishna - a beautiful statement: "When a man reaches the state where he ceases to have ill will against all living beings, he attains clarity of vision. In that state, all directions of the world become joyful for him."

You are worried, and you think you are exposing yourself by saying, "I cannot deny that I am full of ill will against all living beings." Impossible - you don't even know all living beings.

But first try to understand the sutra....

I am reminded of a story about Gautam Buddha.

He used to say to his disciples - and ten thousand sannyasins used to move with him wherever he went - never to forget one thing: after meditation, when you are feeling silent, serene and joyful, shower the whole world with your blessings. Don't hold it within you. And when you have showered it all over the world, without any discrimination, only then is your meditation complete.

One man came to Buddha and he said, "I can follow your direction and guidance about meditation, but I just want one small exception: I will share my blessing, my joy, with the whole world, but I cannot do that with my neighbor. That is impossible."

Buddha said, "Even a single exception will destroy your whole meditation. In fact, your neighbor deserves it more than anybody else: first share with your neighbor, and then share with the whole world."

Neighbors are difficult. Even Jesus had to make two statements: love your enemy as yourself, and love your neighbor as yourself. Very strange statements... but as far as I understand it, they are the same people - the neighbors and the enemies.

The question is not that you have ill will towards a few people. The question is: are you not capable of giving water to an enemy who is thirsty and dying? Is your enmity far more important than his thirst and his death? What has he done to you, for you to have any ill will against him? Perhaps he has been angry; perhaps he has cheated you; perhaps he has been dishonest with you, lied to you - but these are very small things. If you can share your compassion and love... they are like floods - they will take away all the dirt that has gathered around you.

And Krishna is concerned with you; not with your enemies, or with people with whom you have a relationship of ill will. Having even a single enemy means your heart cannot blossom to its fullness.

At least one petal will remain missing.

So the question is not about the object of ill will; the question is of your growth. This is sheer foolishness - to destroy your growth just because there are a few people who have deceived you, or who have insulted you, or who have been destructive towards you.

You are being more destructive towards yourself than anybody else, because you are not allowing your own lotus to blossom in its fullness. Except yourself, there is nobody who is your enemy. They can harm your body, but they cannot harm your soul. But you can harm your soul.

Krishna is saying that having any anger, any enmity, any jealousy, any kind of ill will, is preventing your spiritual growth.

You cannot find another man in the world, who has been condemned, criticized, harassed, in every possible way, more than me. But strangely enough - sometimes I also feel amazed - I don't have any ill will against anybody. The whole world may think I am their enemy, but whatever I am doing, whatever I am saying, is just to help them come out of their sleep. And if in their sleep they shout, and they become angry, it is understandable. You cannot expect them not to be angry with you, when they are having beautiful dreams and you wake them up.

One night, Mulla Nasruddin told his wife, "Quick, bring my glasses - and don't ask any questions. In the morning I will explain."

The wife said, "Strange... what are you going to do with your glasses in the middle of the night?"

He said, "Don't waste time! Bring my glasses, immediately." So the wife brought his glasses, and he put them on. He said, "I was seeing such a beautiful woman, but because my eyesight is not good...."

And with his glasses on, he tried hard to persuade her, "Come back again. Don't be worried, there is nobody; my wife has gone to sleep again, she is snoring...." But nobody came.

Once a dream is broken, it is very difficult - almost impossible - to continue it. It is not like a novel:

that you stop reading, and the next day you start reading from the place you had stopped before.

But if somebody is dreaming of a beautiful woman, or of a beautiful man, or of a great treasure; or is thinking that he has reached paradise, and you wake him up - naturally he is going to throw tantrums.

Attempts on my life have been made; I have been harassed, imprisoned, treated as if I am a murderer; almost all the countries of the world have passed resolutions in their parliaments that I cannot enter their lands. Still, I only have a good laugh at the whole madness of humanity - but no ill will. They need all the compassion, all the love, all the sympathy they can get.

Basically it is a question of understanding: if somebody has insulted you, it is his problem, not your problem. It was his tongue, his words, his body. And he is free to use them, why should you be worried?

There is a story that I have been telling again and again, because it remains so fresh: Gautam Buddha passed by a village, and the villagers were against him - which was to be expected. They all gathered round and started abusing him, using ugly four-letter words. Even his most silent followers became so enraged, but because Buddha was present they could not say anything.

Buddha listened silently, very patiently, and then said, "If your conversation is complete, now it is time for me to go - because I have to reach to another village where people must be waiting. But if your conversation is not complete, I will come back by the same route, and I will have enough time for you."

One man said, "Conversation? Do you think it was conversation?"

Buddha said, "Yes. You expressed your feelings, you exposed yourselves; I never thought that the people of this village trusted me so much that they would expose their hearts without being afraid that it may look ugly. I will come back; then if something has remained, you can complete it. And before I go, I want to ask one question only: In the village before, people came with sweets and flowers, but we had taken our food - and we take food only one time a day, and we do not carry any with us - so we said, ?We are sorry, but we are grateful that you came with such beautiful food.' I want to ask you, what should they have done with the food, and the sweets and the flowers?"

Somebody in the crowd said, "What! They should have distributed them in the village. The villagers would have enjoyed it."

Buddha said, "You are very intelligent. Just do the same: I do not accept whatever you have brought - food or four-letter words; respect or insult. You have come a little late; you should have met me ten years ago - I would have cut off all of your heads. But at that time I was asleep, and now I am awake.

"I can understand that in your sleep you are shouting, crying, saying things; but these things don't offend me, unless I accept them. You can go on shouting, and these things will keep coming back to you. So now go back to the village, and distribute them to your friends, wives, children."

And Buddha moved on.

His chief disciple, Ananda, said, "This was too much" - they all came from the warrior race - and he said, "I had completely forgotten that I am a sannyasin. If you had not been in front of me, I would have killed a few of them. The were really nasty."

Buddha said, "Hearing them, I felt compassion; but hearing you, I feel sad. It is not expected of you; you are on the path of awakening. They are poor people, fast asleep."

Anand Maitreya, the first thing is you are not full of ill will for all living beings - that is impossible.

One would die if he was so full of ill will; that means he would be so full of poison. And certainly you are not a man who has even a few enemies; you have such a loving and nice heart.

I have given you the name Anand Maitreya, which means blissful friend - and I don't give a name without meaning. I have never seen you angry, violent; I have never heard from you a single word against anybody - and you have been with me for more than twenty years; you are one of the most advanced sannyasins on this campus.

So only one thing is right in your question: that I know more about you than you know.

Question 3:

Prem Azima, it is natural. Thousands of years are behind the fear that you may go beyond control, and you may not be able to come back. There is a very hidden fear of madness; but this is not the madness you are afraid of. This is divine madness. It is not that you are going into a nervous breakdown: it is a breakthrough, not a breakdown.

But everybody feels afraid. It is almost like learning to swim. You cannot jump immediately into deep waters - first you have to learn in shallow water, in a swimming-pool. And once you have learned swimming, which is not something difficult....

In fact the experts say that every child is born with the art of swimming; and one great expert in Japan has been experimenting for years. First he taught six-month-old babies to swim; then he taught three-month-old babies. You know perfectly well that if somebody dies in water, he will start floating on top of the water.

You are alive and you are afraid that you will be drowned: the man who is dead is no longer afraid - he is floating on top of the water. He knows something more than you know.

You are drowning because you go on struggling and fighting with the water. It just takes a little time, two or three days, to learn how to have a harmony between the water and your body.

In the beginning you have to start where you are certain that you cannot be drowned, where the water is shallow. Once you have learned, then you can go... it does not matter how deep the water is, because you are always on the top. It may be the five-miles-deep Pacific Ocean - it does not matter. Five feet or five miles are equal; you are always on the surface.

Mulla Nasruddin also wanted to learn to swim. He went to the teacher, who used to teach the boys of the school to swim. He said, "Although I am not a boy... I have always been afraid of water, and before I die, I want to learn to swim so that this fear can be dropped."

He said, "It will not be difficult. You come with me to the river." Afraid, inside he must have been trembling... and when they reached the river, he slipped, just on the ground; it was muddy and he slipped. He got up and ran away towards his house.

The teacher said, "What are you doing, Mulla Nasruddin? Don't you want to learn to swim?"

He said, "I will, but first I will practice."

The teacher said, "Where will you practice?"

He said, "First I will practice on my mattress: I will throw my hands and legs... and I will do everything.

When I have become an expert I will come; otherwise, I am not going to come close to water - it is dangerous."

You cannot learn swimming on your bed. If you try too much, you may even get some fractures or something, but you will not learn swimming.

It is perfectly right. Azima, you say,"Dancing with You in Chuang Tzu every day I find that I am becoming more and more mad." You are going very slowly. But there are people.... Some people are accustomed to purchasing things retail, and a few people purchase things wholesale - wholesale is cheaper and better. Don't go slowly, more and more mad - inch by inch. I assure you: Go totally mad, because for thirty years, I have pushed thousands of people into total madness; they never came back to complain, so you need not be worried.

Otherwise, you will continue to have this fear: "Still most of the time, I can clearly see a subtle line within me that is holding me back." Everybody is afraid of going mad. What will people say? But here, this is a communion of the mad people. Here, if you go slowly, people will laugh, "Look at that idiot, he is going so slowly."

You are not in the ordinary world. Here, things are done totally and wholesale. So today, you jump the line - and the line will disappear, and you will disappear. And you will not come to complain - that much I can assure you - because nobody has ever complained, "Osho, I have gone completely mad."

These slow-goers - these are the people who go on asking about fear, about a line to cross. Just close your eyes and take a jump; it has done no harm to anybody.

What appears to be insanity, you will find to be the greatest sanity in the world, because it is divine madness - this totality and intensity of dancing, singing and praying that makes you absolutely alert.

The ego disappears, the mind disappears, and all that is rubbish within you is burnt. Only the pure gold, twenty-four carat gold, remains. That is your authentic being, and that is the only present you can take as an offering to God.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.