The hidden road

Maneesha, the Western approach and the Eastern approach to the understanding of reality have been diametrically opposite. The West has believed in the body, in the outside world, in matter.

Therefore a great science has arisen out of it, with all its branches: physics, chemistry, medicine.

But the basic thing is that it denies the inner reality of man.

And the East is focused, totally and unconditionally, on the search for the inner: "Who is residing within me?" The body has always been taken just as a house, or like the clothes you wear. You are not your clothes and you are not your body, you are not even your mind. What is left? - an utter silence. In this silence have arisen heights of consciousness like that of Gautam Buddha, and these heights are not unavailable to others. They are available to you and to everybody else, whoever is ready enough to take just a little turn - from the outside to the inside. These anecdotes are concerned with this turning point.

ONE DAY, UNGO DOYO WENT UP INTO THE HALL AND QUOTED TOZAN'S OLD SAYING, "HELL IS NOT REALLY PAINFUL. WEARING THIS ROBE, TO FAIL TO UNDERSTAND THE GREAT MATTER - THAT LOSS IS MOST PAINFUL."

Now you have to understand the symbols and the metaphors of Zen. HELL IS NOT REALLY PAINFUL because there is no hell other than being outside yourself, and there is no heaven other than being within yourself. Hell and heaven are both just metaphors; they do not denote any reality.

All the religions have made much fuss about them. Their whole exploitation of man depends on two things: fear of hell and greed for heaven. It is such a contradiction that all these religions go on teaching against fear, against greed, but underneath, their whole teaching is based on the fear of hell. If you are not virtuous, if you are not a believer, you will fall into eternal hell; you will be tortured for eternity. If you are a believer, a faithful, virtuous, respectable person, then the doors of heaven are open for you.

It is a contradiction because hell is only a metaphor for fear, and heaven is another metaphor for greed, for lust. Zen does not consider them to be of any significance at all.

That's why Tozan says, "HELL IS NOT REALLY PAINFUL." Don't be bothered about hell. The real pain is that you are wearing the robe of a monk, a sannyasin; you have declared yourself as a seeker of truth, but still you are not going withinwards, you have not yet found the way. And your inner world is not very far away.

This turning in is called 'the great matter'. "WEARING THIS ROBE, TO FAIL TO UNDERSTAND THE GREAT MATTER ...." Science is only trying to understand matter - what about the great matter?

What about the scientist himself? Albert Einstein may have discovered great things about matter, but what about himself? He knows nothing at all. He has never even thought that there is another universe waiting to be explored - and it is the real universe. The outer will be lost with your death, but the inner will continue. The inner is your ultimate pilgrimage. Hence it is right to call it the great matter - the great and ultimate concern.

This is the most painful thing, according to Tozan: that your paradise is so close and yet you go on missing it. Your buddhahood is just a question of opening your eyes. If you can become just a little more alert than you are, a little more conscious, you will enter into the timeless reality of existence.

Its splendor is great - it has no beginning and no end.

This is the most painful part for anyone who has realized his own self - he can see millions of people in suffering. What is there in the world except suffering, except misery, except pain? Every pleasure turns into pain and all your joy is so superficial - it is not even skin deep. It can be disturbed by a single word uttered against you - that is the depth of your joy.

What are your riches? They will all be taken away. What are your possessions? You have come into the world naked, and naked you will have to go out of it. If you don't search for who it is who comes and goes, but just become involved in the non-essentials of life - this is the greatest pain possible.

To live and yet to miss the source of life; to live only superficially, never going into the depths of your being or the heights of your consciousness; to just remain mundane - this is the most painful thing according to the Eastern approach. And I absolutely agree with it.

ADDRESSING HIS MONKS, DOYO SAID, "YOU ARE ALREADY WITHIN THIS TRADITION. A HUNDRED PERCENT IS NOT FAR FROM NINETY PERCENT."

You are already ninety percent a buddha; and a hundred percent is not far away. But remember one thing - that even ninety-nine percent will not be close enough. Even ninety-nine-point-nine percent will still be distant. You have to be a hundred percent here and now at the very center of your being, and suddenly there arises within you a new, fresh, eternal consciousness that knows nothing of pain, nothing of death; it knows no beginning and no end. Your potential has blossomed into a lotus.

You must have seen Gautam Buddha's statues: he is sitting on a lotus. That lotus is symbolic of the blossoming of consciousness to its ultimate possibility and potentiality.

"A HUNDRED PERCENT IS NOT FAR FROM NINETY PERCENT. YOU SHOULD EXERT A LITTLE MORE ENERGY. THEN YOU ELDERS WILL NOT TIRE OF YOUR PERPETUAL JOURNEY AND YET WILL NOT TURN AWAY FROM THE MONASTERY."

There is a Tibetan saying, that a hundred persons start to seek the truth, and perhaps only one reaches it. Ninety-nine get lost somewhere on the way. They either become involved in some other business or they go astray. There are thousands of ways of going astray and there is only one way of going into yourself.

Just a single inch's difference and you are lost; you will not find yourself. Every thought is trying to take you astray. Every feeling, every sentiment - all the qualities of your mind are enemies as far as the discovery of your center is concerned, because they are all pushing you forward, outward:

"Become a success, become prestigious, be more powerful." And your inner being remains starving.

You go on pouring your energy into the outside world, which is not really your home, and your real being is starving inside, waiting, for hundreds of lives. It is hoping that one day you will turn back, wondering how long you can go on missing.

I am reminded of a great king who was a lover of archery. He himself was an adept, a master of archery. He was passing through a village and he saw, on every tree, an arrow stuck exactly in the middle of a circle. He could not believe his eyes, that in this village lives such a great archer.

He stopped his chariot and asked the people, "Who is this master archer?" They laughed and said, "Don't bother about him; he is the village idiot."

The king said, "Whoever he is, he is a great archer."

The villagers said, "You don't understand his strategy. First he shoots the arrow and then he makes a circle round it." Obviously, he is a hundred percent successful; he never fails.

In the inside world, you cannot deceive anyone in such a way. You know your center and then you simply become radiant and fragrant, a dance unto yourself. If you don't know it, you may pretend that you are happy, but it is all hypocrisy.

Have you ever thought about all the stories that end up with the marriage of the hero and the heroine, with the sentence, "Afterwards they lived happily"? Afterwards! In every story ... you cannot find a single story in which this "afterwards they lived happily" does not appear; but it is because afterwards is the hell, it is better not to talk about it. All the pleasure is before the marriage; by the time the honeymoon ends, everything is finished. You will be fortunate if your love can survive the honeymoon - two weeks is too much! Two weeks together, just exploring the same geography ....

(SARDAR GURUDAYAL SINGH GIVES A HEARTY LAUGH, THEN EVERYONE ELSE LAUGHS.) Look! You cannot defeat Sardar. He is really a nice fellow. He has lived many honeymoons; he is not laughing out of ignorance - he knows it!

One becomes fed up. Just to ask human beings to be together more than two weeks is absolutely inhuman, because then comes misery and suffering; and this misery and suffering is perpetuated by all the churches and the religions. Because if there is no misery and no suffering, who is going to go to the churches? The fellows you find in churches are those who are suffering and asking God, "Why you are so hard on me? Could not you give this woman to somebody else?"

An old Jew was dying on the road after an accident. A Catholic priest, passing by, went near to the old man out of great Catholic mercy, and said, "Remember God, his only begotten son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost."

The Jew opened his eyes and said, "At least at the time of my death, don't give me any riddle. Death is enough - now don't torture me with riddles. God, the only begotten son, and the Holy Ghost ...?"

But the priest said, "You were praying - I saw your lips moving."

He said, "Yes, I am praying. I am saying, 'God, for four thousand years we have been your chosen people and we have suffered enough. Now you should choose somebody else.'"

Everybody is suffering more from his friends than from his enemies, because nobody marries enemies. Marriage is a contract between potential enemies. Within two weeks everything will be clear. But then the religions force people to remain together: "Suffer, be miserable, and pray to God."

But by the way, God exists not, so all your prayers are just going into the empty sky - there is no one to respond.

But everybody in the world is living in all kinds of miseries; and they have chosen those miseries.

There is an ancient parable in India about a very rich man, very successful; he was so rich that even the king had to borrow money from him. He had everything that was possible, but he was always very sad and miserable, always a long face. A young man used to come every day to give him massage, who was always happy. He had nothing to be happy about - and that was the problem for the rich man. The poor fellow got one rupee per day. In those days, a rupee was really a rupee. The word 'rupee' means 'gold'. One rupee was enough for one day, to live happily. That poor man was not poor - he was living so joyously, and playing on his flute in the middle of the night.

The rich man was worried because this fellow had nothing except one rupee every day. "Why is he always so happy, so smiling, so laughing, playing on his flute, singing, dancing?" The poor man lived close by, in a small room that the rich man had provided for him.

The rich man asked his friend, who was as rich as he was, "What could be the reason for this poor fellow's being so happy?"

His friend said, "I will give you the answer." And that night, suddenly, the poor fellow woke up.

Somebody had thrown a bag from the roof containing ninety-nine rupees. That was the last day of his happiness. Now he started to think, "How can I save some money and make it at least a hundred?" He had never bothered - one rupee per day was enough to live as richly as he wanted.

But now he had more than he could use for the day; he had to save. When it became one hundred, the desire jumped up, flared up. If he went on collecting, soon he would have two hundred, three hundred, four hundred. And as more and more money started accumulating, he became more and more miserable, continuously thinking of money. The song disappeared, the dance disappeared; the flute was heard no more.

One day when the rich man was being massaged, he asked him, "What has happened to you? You don't look happy any more. Has some calamity happened?"

He said, "Yes, a calamity has happened. Somebody threw ninety-nine rupees into my house, and since that day I have not slept well, because the desire to have more and more has been aroused."

Once you have the desire for more of anything, life is misery. It may be knowledge, it may be money, it may be power; you may start desiring anything, but you will become more and more sad. It is such a difficult world ....

The prime minister of the country was visiting a psychiatric hospital, and the superintendent of the hospital was explaining to him about every inmate. One man was just crying and crying and beating his head against the wall.

The prime minister asked, "What is the matter? What happened to this poor fellow?"

He said, "He used to love a woman but could not get married to her. His suffering is intense."

And in the next room, another man was doing the same act - beating his head, tearing his hair. The prime minister said, "What happened to him?"

The superintendent laughed. He said, "He married that same woman."

Misery is bound to be there whether you marry the woman or you don't marry the woman, or the man; whether you go into this profession or into that profession. Everywhere you will find yourself miserable, because always you want more, and life is fleeting. Moment to moment, death is coming closer, and you have not achieved your goal.

Outside there is nothing but misery. We can try to put on masks, we can try to smile, but in fact we want to weep.

Friedrich Nietzsche has written exactly that sentence: "Don't be fooled by my smiles; I smile only when I want to hide my tears. I don't want to expose my wounds to anyone - it is so humiliating."

And it becomes even more painful to see how close is the door of your paradise - you are carrying it. A Sufi story makes it clear:

Mulla Nasruddin was carrying the door of his house. Somebody asked, "What are you doing?"

He said, "I am going into another town for some work."

They said, "You can go, but why are you carrying this door?"

He said, "You are absolutely unintelligent. If there is no door to my house, how can any thief enter?

I always take my door with me."

It is a Sufi way of saying that the door of your paradise is not somewhere beyond the clouds; it is right within you. And except you, nobody else can enter into it.

HE CONTINUED: "AN ANCIENT HAS SAID, 'IF YOU WISH TO BE ABLE TO BEAR THIS MATTER, YOU MUST GO AND STAND ATOP THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN, AND WALK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEPEST SEA. ONLY THEN HAVE YOU SOME POWER.'"

It looks contradictory: how can you manage to be on the highest top of a mountain, and at the same time at the deepest depth of the ocean? But inside it is not a contradiction, because on the inside the highest point of your consciousness is also the deepest point. It is as high as any Everest, and it is as deep as any Pacific; it is both together. And unless you have found this, you don't have any power - you are just a miserable creature. You don't have even yourself, what to say about power?

DOYO SAID, "IF YOU HAVE NOT YET TAKEN CARE OF THE GREAT MATTER, FOR NOW YOU MUST TREAD THE HIDDEN ROAD."

The road, of course, is hidden, because it is not outside, like a highway; it is an absolutely private footpath inwards where nobody has ever traveled. You make it yourself at the same time as you move inside; it is not ready-made - because nobody else can enter within you, only you can go there. But it is a question only of a single step - the journey is not long. The moment you close your eyes and start looking inwards, suddenly you are amazed that this is what you have been seeking for many lives, and it is hidden just inside you. The road is hidden, but it is not long - just a single step.

A MONK THEN ASKED, "WHAT IS ESTEEMED BY AN ASCETIC?"

DOYO SAID, "WHERE MIND'S CONSCIOUSNESS DOES NOT REACH."

You must have heard the definition of an ascetic. In Zen they are not accepted, but in other religions the ascetic is one who tortures himself as a sacrifice to get God's blessings; he becomes a sacrificial lamb. He hungers, he starves himself, he beats his body; he remains naked in winter, in summer.

By an ascetic is meant somebody who sacrifices his body and bodily pleasures in search of God.

Zen has a totally different approach, because this kind of ascetic is simply a psychological case; it is nothing to do with religion. How, even if God is there, will he be made happy by your starvation? By torturing yourself you are simply proving that you are a masochist, that you enjoy torturing yourself.

It is said that the perfect marriage is between a masochist and a sadist. A sadist is one who loves to torture and the masochist is one who loves to be tortured; it is the perfect marriage. But it is very difficult to find any perfection in this world; just once in a while it happens.

All the religions have been teaching psychological sickness to people. Zen has nothing to do with any psychological sickness, because it is not an exploitation of your sickness - it is a sharing of joy and it brings you to your wholeness and health.

It even defines the word 'ascetic' as "WHERE MIND'S CONSCIOUSNESS DOES NOT REACH"

- that which is beyond mind, where no thought can reach, but only pure silence, serenity. In that silence, in that meditative state, you achieve your own innermost treasure.

ANOTHER MONK ASKED, "WHAT ARE THE GRADES OF BUDDHAS AND PATRIARCHS?"

Our mind always thinks in grades, in hierarchies, in bureaucracies: who is higher, who is lower. But the moment you transcend the mind you also transcend this tendency to categorize. Then whether you call the man who has gone beyond 'the buddha' or 'the enlightened one' or 'the awakened one' .... You can call him 'the master' or 'the patriarch' but there is no difference in their consciousnesses.

They have all done a single thing - they have left their mind and body behind and they have just centered their wholeness within, unmoving. This is the greatest blessing that is possible for a man.

In this moment you become a buddha, a god, yourself.

Remember the difference: other religions are trying to pray to God; Zen is trying to discover God in you.

There is no other God than your pure consciousness, and your pure consciousness is not yours; it is simply consciousness. It covers every other consciousness, it joins hands with the universal consciousness. You disappear like a dewdrop - the ocean remains. But this disappearance in the ocean is such a benediction, it is the only benediction there is.

A THIRD MONK ASKED, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE COMING OF BODHIDHARMA FROM THE WEST?"

These are traditional Zen questions.

DOYO SAID, "MEETING NO ONE ON THE ANCIENT ROAD."

These small questions had been answered thousands of times by different masters in different ways, but they always brought a new light to it. Now Doyo is bringing a tremendous new insight: that Bodhidharma came to China from India, but wanted to meet no one; he wanted to meet someone whose ego had died, who was no more a personality but just a presence, a fragrance. This is MEETING NO ONE ON THE ANCIENT ROAD. All the buddhas have been moving in search of those who are ready to disappear into the ocean.

This is what we are doing here: trying in every possible way to put aside the mind that is given by the society, and to bring our innocence - the gift of nature - and disappear into the silence of the sky and the trees.

If your thoughts stop, you stop; then what remains is the divine dance of consciousness.

Hakuin has written a small poem:

YOU NO SOONER ATTAIN THE GREAT VOID THAN BODY AND MIND ARE LOST TOGETHER.

HEAVEN AND HELL - A STRAW.

THE BUDDHA-REALM, PANDEMONIUM - SHAMBLES.

LISTEN: A NIGHTINGALE STRAINS HER VOICE, SERENADING THE SNOW.

LOOK: A TORTOISE WEARING A SWORD CLIMBS THE LAMPSTAND.

SHOULD YOU DESIRE THE GREAT TRANQUILITY, PREPARE TO SWEAT WHITE BEADS.

These small poems stress a single point: that you have to be so receptive - with no obstruction to your eyes, to your ears, to your sensitivity - that the whole of life becomes a music, a poetry. Then everything starts looking different: the green is greener, the rose is rosier. It is the same song, but with a new meaning, a new significance; the same mirror, but there is no longer any dust gathered on it.

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, absolutely okay - not only for you, but for every buddha who is present here. These seven thousand buddhas are here just to be awakened, and to look into my awakening as a touchstone.

Before we enter into our inner doors, a little laughter will be helpful, just to dust and cleanse your mind.

Two madmen, Goonski and Nutzo, are standing in a field within the grounds of the asylum. They are gazing in silence at a beautiful sunset when Goonski says with delight, "Oh wow!"

"Oh yes," replies Nutzo. "Really wow, oh, wow!"

After a while, Nutzo turns to Goonski and says, "You know, for a show like this, these guys must have spent plenty of money; but they won't even give us three dollars to go and see the gorillas in the zoo!"

Henry and Morris are partners in a tailors shop in New York. One summer, Henry goes on his first hunting trip. When he gets back to the shop afterwards, Morris cannot wait to hear all about it.

"Well," begins Henry, "I go into the woods with the guide, but you know me, within five minutes I get lost. So I'm walking around in the woods, not knowing where I am, when all of a sudden I come face to face with the biggest goddamn bear you have ever seen. I turn around and run as fast as I can, but the bear is running faster.

"Just when I feel his hot breath on my neck, he slips and falls. I keep running, but the bear is catching up again. He is almost on top of me when he slips and falls again. Then I run into a clearing, with the bear close behind, and I see the other hunters and shout for help. Just then the bear slips and falls again, and the guide is able to shoot and kill him."

"Wow!" says Morris. "That is quite a story. You are a very brave man. If that had been me, I would have shit in my pants!"

"Use your brain, Morris," snaps Henry. "What do you think the bear was slipping on?"

The distraught young man is perched on the ledge, forty floors up, and he is threatening to jump.

The police are pleading with him to return to safety, but he seems determined to commit suicide. A priest is called from the nearby church, and he hurries to the scene.

"Think, my son," he intones to the young man. "Think of your mother and father who love you."

"They don't love me," shouts the man, "I'm jumping!"

"No, stop!" cries the priest. "Think of the woman who loves you!"

"Nobody loves me! I'm jumping!" he shouts back.

"But think," the priest begs, "think of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph who love you!"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph?" cries the man. "Who the hell are they?"

At which point the priest throws down his bible and screams back, "Jump, you Jew, jump!"

Now, Nivedano ... give a good beat and everybody goes crazy.

(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Be silent. Close your eyes.

Feel as if your body is frozen.

Gather your energy inwards.

Travel this ancient path to your own center.

Deeper, deeper, deeper; and as you go deep, you start feeling a totally different dimension opening within you.

This is the great matter; the door to the kingdom of God.

God is within you.

Other than this, there is no God anywhere.

To make it absolutely clear, Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Relax. Let go.

Completely die, as far as your body and mind is concerned.

Just feel the beyond; it is your home.

This beyond opens the lotus of your being.

This beyond makes you a buddha.

In a lightning moment, suddenly you are no more ordinary - you have become a sacred mountain.

Simultaneously at the top of a great mountain and in the depths of a great ocean ...

where these two meet, this is your very center.

This is the center of the cyclone.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Call all the buddhas back.

Sit down for a few moments to realize and recognize where you have been.

Recollect the joy, the blissfulness, the ecstasy, so that it becomes part of your being, twenty-four hours.

Whatever you are doing - carrying water from the well or chopping wood - you are a buddha.

To be a buddha is the destiny of every human being.

To miss it is really painful.

To get it is to be blessed.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Can we celebrate all the buddhas present here?

Yes, Osho.