... death situation; any moment the disciple could die. If he had remained there just a single moment, had not escaped, the mind would have disappeared. Nothing to do - facing death, mind disappears. This situation comes to everybody that enters into deep meditation: a moment comes when the axe comes just over your head, and it is always sharp. A moment comes, when you go deeper - you face death. That is...

...? He says: Before death overtakes you, you overtake death. Why wait for it? Waiting, you will be a victim. Going through it - you become a conqueror, because one who is ready to die suddenly realizes that death is impossible. One who is ready to die suddenly realizes: the mind will die, the body will die, the ego will die, but the being, the being has been before the mind came in. The being has been...

... it. You simply jump without a second thought, because if you have a second thought about it, by that time the snake may have attacked you. You simply jump, realizing the fact that the snake is there; death is there, you simply simply jump out of it. The house is on fire. You don't ask: What will I gain if I run out of it? You simply run out of it without a second thought. You think about it when...

... this street. So that if some brahmin is ready to go out of his house or something, he can stop, because an untouchable is passing through the street. The whole street is dirty at that moment. And if an untouchable passes and his shadow falls on a brahmin it is a crime against him. He can be punished for it - punished; even sentenced to death! They have killed many people in the past. The crime was...

... the boundary between the ego and your inner being, where you face death inside. Because when you go deeper, a moment comes when the boundary of the ego has to be crossed - you go beyond it. And you are so identified with the ego, that you feel it like a death. My own disciples come to me and they say: Now, it is difficult. We have come to a terrain inside where it feels like death, and we have come...

... here to know life, not to die; we have come to be more alive, not to be dead; we have come in search of life abundant, not to disappear. But you have to disappear. Only then, life in abundance happens to you. A moment comes inside when a meditation is really growing - you will feel like you are dying. Don't escape in dismay. There, my axe is over your head, and it is very sharp. If you escape from...

... securities from you - all the earth beneath your feet, I have to take it away. I have to throw you into the abyss. Only in falling into that abyss, will your ego disappear. And for the first time, through insecurity, you will attain to the eternal security - but the path goes through insecurity. The path towards life goes through death. Dying, you will achieve. Clinging to life, you will miss. What does...

... this story say? - it says that Nansen created a death situation. And whenever there is a death situation, you escape; you say it is insecure. Mind is always afraid of dying. It clings - it clings to anything. In India, they say that a dying man clings even to a straw. He knows well that it cannot save. He knows well that a straw cannot become a boat - there is no safety in it, but just clinging...

.... 'Maybe some miracle will happen and I may be saved.' When you cling to money, you are clinging to a straw. When you cling to power and prestige, you are clinging to a straw. When you cling to name, family, bank balance, you are clinging to a straw, because nothing can save you. Death is coming. Death is rushing towards you. Whatsoever you do is useless - it will not save you. And what does a Master do...

... before the body came in. The being has been before your birth, and the being will be after your death. When in meditation the axe is raised over your head and you feel a death moment, don't escape. Let the axe fall on you. It is sharp, it is good - it is good that it is sharp. Let your head be chopped completely. Once you are headless.... And that is the meaning of being nobody, because the ego exists...

... tale, the myth, it was arranged this way by the deities because otherwise Buddha would never feel suffering and if suffering is not felt, then you cannot attain that inner harmony that is bliss. Dukkha means this knowledge: that whatever appears to be living is going to die; whatever appears to be blissful, is not so. Ordinary life is going to end in death; it is JUSt a progression toward death. So...

... is no suffering because then there is no possibility of death. You cannot die because you are not; the whole is. The whole bas always bees and the whole will always be. Then you are not in fear. You will always be part of the whole. If you are a drop, you will become lost in the ocean, but you will still be part of the ocean. Then there is no fear of death there is no problem about the meaning of...

... bless the child and instead you are weeping. Is something going to be wrong with the child?" The wise old man said, "No, nothing is going to be wrong with the child. I was weeping for myself. The child is going to be a Buddha, an enlightened one, but I will not be here to see it. I am going to die this year, my course is completed. My whole life I was seeking and seeking for a man who is...

... possibilities. If he can be prevented from becoming aware of suffering only then can you hold him back. Otherwise he is going to be a sannyasin. So don't let him know suffering, don't let him know DUKKHA." But the father could not understand how it was possible to prevent someone from knowing dukkha. He again asked for advice. The wise men advised him that Siddharth should never be allowed to see death...

.... If there is death then life becomes meaningless, so he should not become aware of death. He should not know at all that death exists, that life is going to end. Secondly, he should not be allowed to become aware that old age comes. Otherwise, youth will become meaningless. And thirdly. he should never see a sannyasin. If he sees a dancing, laughing, blissful sannyasin, his life will become...

... old man passed by. Nor was he ever allowed to become aware of death, or ever allowed to see a sannyasin. But how can you prevent it forever? One day there was going to be a youth festival. Siddharth was invited to preside over it. Young men and young women had come from all over the kingdom. As he was moving on his chariot, an old man passed by. He asked his driver, "What has happened to that...

... become aware that life is meaningless... Death is awaiting you. Nothing leads anywhere, everything just ends. Your whole life, your whole effort, just leads to the grave, you come to an end. This suffering is dukkha - the awareness of it - is the point from where you can take a jump into another realm, into another dimension. It is not that you will find meaning in life, it is not that now there will...

... be no death, but once the boundary of the mind is crossed, you became aware of this inner suffering, this meaninglessness. This feeling of meaninglessness is bound with your past. You have always been purposeful, you have never conceived of existence as meaningless. That is why this suffering comes to you. But once you take the jump, you cannot go back. There is no way to go back. Once you have...

... come to the end limit of the mind, you have come to a point of no return. You cannot go back: for you, there is only meaninglessness and death. But if you can stay in it, if you can be courageous enough to be in it, to be a witness to it, then there is an explosion. Then, the suffering is lost. Then there is no suffering, there is no longing for meaning, there is no desire for immortality. Then...

... seriousness has gone. You become playful. Everything changes into a new dimension: the dimension of play, the dimension of leela. Harmony is regained between you and the cosmic, between you and the existence. Then there is no barrier, because there is no mind. The mind is a search for meaning and a search for immortality. The ego is in fear of death and if there is no meaning then the ego has no foothold to...

... stand on This gap - where you recognize the meaninglessness of life - is a spiritual abyss. From the mind, from the boundary of the mind, you will become aware of the spiritual agony, the meaningless of everything. Death is the only goal. But if you jump into the abyss then everything is negated. There is no suffering - you become blissful. Then there will never again be any suffering at all because...

... alienated from the cosmic spirit because of your body and your mind. Within these two boundaries, you become alien - a stranger, uprooted from the cosmic existence. You feel suffering. When these two barriers are not there, you have become one with the existence. Then there is no question for you of life having any meaning. You are not, only the cosmic is. Now you cannot die because you are not. The...

... cosmic is - you are just a wave in the ocean now. Even if the wave disappears in the ocean, the ocean remains. You have realized that you yourself are the ocean so there is no fear of death. Death is not. As far as your cosmic being is concerned, there is no death; but as far as your individual being, your ego, is concerned, there is death. All the meanings that we look for, search for, desire for, are...

... is anand: bliss, ecstasy. Dukkha is a retarded flowering, a flower that couldn't flower into the whole, that remained aloof, that uprooted itself from the earth. It will suffer; it is bound to happen. It will suffer, and there will only be death for it, no life. Western science has conditioned man to be egoistic, alone. The eastern concept of knowledge, of knowing, is very different. It is 'to be...

... was a possibility to transcend and, now, because we have denied God, that possibility is no longer there. That's why the anguish is more intense, more frustrating. Now it can no longer be used as a means for transcendence. The whole art of religion is concerned with how to transform darkness into light, how to transform death in to deathlessness, how to transform your suffering into bliss. The whole...

... lines, the same technological, scientific lines, as the West. If a Buddha comes to the East today, he will not be welcome. The East can welcome an Einstein but not a Buddha. Day by day, the East is going to become more materialistic. It will become communistic. And in the West... If people become open, if some people become so concerned with meditation that it becomes a matter of life and death to...

... -- because you have never died. How can you die? You are not born either. You are God! You are divine energy! You have been here forever, and you will be here forever. Birth and death are only of the body and the mind, and between the body and the mind exists the ego. It is a creation, a conspiracy of body/mind: When the ego disappears your death disappears too. Once the ego is gone, you will be surprised...

... that you are eternal, that you have been here always and always, and you will be here always and always. You are part of the truth which cannot die. Marita, you are coming close to something immensely valuable. But your mind is creating a problem; it is saying to you that it is fear of death. It is not fear of death, it is fear of ego disappearing. Allow it to go. I say to you: This is how it has...

... carpenter, and the finger jumped back upon the hand and healed itself. "Fuck's sake!" exclaimed the Vicar. The third question Question 3: OSHO, ONCE SOMEONE ASKED ME THE MEANING OF THE CHRISTIAN GOD, AND I ANSWERED SPONTANEOUSLY, "LOVE, TRUST, FEAR OF DEATH." AT THAT TIME, AFTER YEARS OF A WELL-CONDITIONED OUTSIDE LIFE AND A REPRESSED INNER WORLD, LOVE AND TRUST HAPPENED TO ME AS AN...

... INTENSE INNER OPENING AND AN OVERFLOWING OF ENERGY. IT HAPPENED JUST WHEN I HEARD OF YOU AND STARTED DOING THE MEDITATIONS. FROM THE OUTSIDE IT SEEMED LIKE MADNESS, BUT IN ALL THE CRAZINESS I GOT A CLEAR, STRONG FEELING OF AN ENERGY WHICH MOVES ME SOMEWHERE I HAVE SEARCHED FOR ALL THE TIME. ON THE OTHER SIDE, GREAT FEAR CAME UP. FEAR OF DEATH, CONNECTED WITH A CHILDHOOD PICTURE OF AN ANCIENT GOD WHO HAD...

... THE POWER TO PUNISH HUMAN BEINGS WITH DEATH AND ETERNAL DARKNESS. THIS FEELING OF FEAR STILL CREATES A CERTAIN HEAVINESS IN MY MIND AND STOPS THE NATURAL FLOW OF ENERGY. OSHO, CAN YOU SPEAK ABOUT FEAR AND DEATH. Anand Marita, THE ORDINARY GOD is nothing but a projection of your fear. It is not love, it is not trust -- because love knows nothing of fear, and trust knows nothing of fear. Just as light...

... arising. But at the same time you are feeling fear. This fear is totally different; it is not the fear created by the priests, because I don't create any fear in you. And it is not the fear of death either, because you don't know anything about death -- how can you be afraid of something you don t know at all? To be afraid you have to be at least acquainted a little bit -- you cannot be afraid of the...

... absolutely unknown, and death is absolutely unknown. It is not fear of death either. It is something else which you have not yet been able-to figure out -- it is the fear of a dying ego which appears like death. It is a death in a way, because you are so much identified with the ego, with the idea of 'I', that when the 'I' starts evaporating you feel as if you are dying -- obviously. Your identification is...

... disappearing, you are passing through an identity crisis. Don't cling to the ego, let it go -- because the death of the ego is not your death. The death of the ego, on the contrary, is your real birth. Marita, you are coming closer and closer to the birth, to the real birth. You will be reborn. But you can be reborn only when death is gone, when ego is gone. With ego, death also disappears, remember...

... happened to me. This is how it is happening to many of my people. This is how it has always happened to all the Buddhas, down the ages: the ego dies -- but everybody hesitates before the ego dies. We are so much identified with it that the death of the ego appears as if WE are dying. We are not dying. It is like when the child is getting ready to be born when nine months in the mother's womb are over...

... it to destroy things? -- because there is destruction too, and no creation is possible without destruction. Creation is possible only through destruction. God gives life -- and who gives death? Somebody has to be responsible for death too, but God cannot be responsible for death. Christians are so afraid; their God is partial. The Indian idea of God is more total: with one hand he creates, with the...

... other hand he destroys too. He is good and he is bad too; he is light and darkness both, life and death both. And if God is both, then only can God be transcendental. When you are both, you transcend both. You ask me: THE DEVIL SEEMS TO BE AS POPULAR AS MAO TSE TUNG THESE DAYS. WHY? WHY IS THE DEVIL SO ATTRACTIVE? It is because of a long long repression through Christianity. The Devil aspect of God...

... anything. Everything is good in its place. Salt is needed as much as sweetness. Even bitterness has its own place, its own joy, its own taste. The thorn on the rosebush has its own function; it is a bodyguard to the rose, it protects the rose. Don't deny it, don't prune all the thorns, otherwise the roses will die. Life exists through polar opposites. And this has been a fallacious step, that we have...

... chosen only one pole: God is only positive Then the negative has to be given to some entity, some fictitious entity, the Devil. The Devil does not exist. There is no hell, all is paradise. Yes, there are two situations: you can fall asleep in the paradise or you can be awake, but there is no hell. I deny hell absolutely. And if there is misery in life, it is part of life. If there is death, it is a...

... process of life, it is a renewal of life; it gives you a new body, a new model. The old rotten body is taken away and you are given a fresh new model. Death is not against life but in the service of life. Even what we know as bad is in the service of good. Yes, if you are wise enough you can transform poison into medicine. And if you are foolish even medicine can be dangerous, it can become poison. The...

... plastic flower. He is almost hopeless; his case is hopeless. This calamity has happened -- this Devil becoming too attractive -- because of the priests denying God all reality, making God an abstraction. God is not an abstraction, God is not a person; God is the total harmony of existence. And in that harmony, in that orchestra, all the instruments are involved -- the bad, the dark, the death, they also...

... seed contains the tree, but the seed can also kill the tree. If the seed becomes too egoistic, if the seed thinks, "I am enough," and if the seed becomes afraid of death, then the very container will become the prison; the very shell that was protecting the tree before it reached the right soil will become the prison - and then the tree will die in the seed. You are like seeds which have...

... the seed won't do, because you can die on a stone and then there will be no tree, there will be simple death. You have to find right soil, right earth - and that is the meaning of discipleship. It is a training. Discipleship is a training, a learning to become a tilled, right earth. The seed is there but the right earth has to be found. You have the tree within you; the master can only give you the...

... KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE A MUSTARD SEED.... You are the kingdom of heaven, you are like a mustard seed. Be ready to die, prepare for your death! Of course there will be trembling and fear and apprehension. The jump is going to be difficult. Many times you may come back, many times you will go to the very brink and turn back and escape, because there is an abyss. The seed can only know the abyss, the...

... never take the jump. You can float on the surface, but the depths are not for you. Of course, to go into the depths is dangerous - bound to be so, because on the surface you are very efficient. On the surface you can work like an automaton; no awareness is needed. But you will have to be more and more alert, the more you penetrate into the depths, because at every moment death is possible. Fear of...

... Freuds, your Jungs, your Adlers, are absolutely ill; not only ordinary psychiatrists, but the greatest of them are ill and pathological. I will tell you a few things so you can feel it. Whenever somebody mentioned anything about death, Freud would start trembling. Twice he even fainted and fell down from his chair just because somebody was talking about mummies in Egypt. He fainted! And another time...

... also, Jung was talking about death, corpses, and suddenly Freud trembled and fell down, fainted, became unconscious. If death was such a fear to Freud, what about his disciples? And why should death be such a fear? Can you conceive of a buddha being afraid of death? Then he would no longer be a buddha. Jung has reported that many times he wanted to go to Rome to visit the Vatican and particularly the...

... are better than Jung, but just because you are more unaware. He was aware that in Rome his head would come down; the moment he looked at the ruins of all the great systems, a trembling, a fear of death - that, "What will happen to my system? What will happen to me?" - would take hold. He trembles and comes back, and in his memoirs he writes: "Then finally I dropped the whole project...

.... I am not going to Rome." The same thing happened to Freud many times. He also tried to go to Rome - so it does not seem to be just a coincidence - and he also was afraid. Why? Freud was as angry as you can be, Freud was as sexual as you can be, as scared of death as you can be, as neurotic in his behavior as you can be, so what is the difference? He may have been a more intelligent man, may...

...; visibly, he will become old and die one day. Invisibly, he is deathless. But you don't have the eyes to see that which is invisible, you don't have the capacity to feel the innermost, the unknown. That is why only trusting eyes, by and by, start to feel and become sensitive. When you trust, it means closing these two eyes. That is why trust is blind, just like love is blind - but trust is even more...

... - although it may be such a slow poison that you cannot feel it. One man was drinking and another was passing by, a friend. So the friend said, "What are you doing? That stuff is slow poison." The man said, "It's okay - I'm not in a hurry." Whatsoever you call life is a slow poison because finally it comes to death. It kills you, it never does anything else. You may not be in a hurry...

..., but that doesn't make any change in the quality of the poison. It may be slow, you may not be in a hurry, but still it will kill you. The kingdom of this world belongs to death, but the kingdom of heaven belongs to eternal life. So Jesus says: "Those who are ready, come to me. I will give you life abundant." Jesus was passing through a village. He was thirsty and he came to a well. A woman...

... morning, you awake and the seed has become a new thing, new sprouts are coming out of the earth. Now the seed is no longer a seed - it is becoming a tree, it is blooming. What happens when a seed becomes a tree? That too is part of the parable. The seed has to die - only then does it become a tree. God has died into this universe; he cannot remain aloof, he is in it, he is lost in it. That is why you...

... also have to become like a seed and die: and suddenly the tree is there - you are no more and God is there. You will never encounter God. If you are there, God is not there because the seed is there. When you disappear, God is there; so there is no encounter really. When you are not, God is there; emptiness in your hand, then God is there. When you are no more, then God is there. Again a paradox: the...

... right earth. He can till you, he can throw the weeds out, he can make the soil worthy to receive. He can make the soil rich with fertilizers - he is a gardener. You contain all, but still you will need a gardener; otherwise you will go on throwing the seeds anywhere. They may fall on a cement road and they will die there, or they will fall on a path and people will walk over them and they will die...

... many things are possible: a miscarriage may happen and the child may die before it is born. A master is needed to protect you, because the new sprout is very delicate, helpless - anything can happen to it. It is very dangerous. But if you trust - and trust is needed, there is no other way, for if you doubt then you will shrink and the seed will never die - but if you trust, the seed dies. The seed...

... cannot know the tree, that is the problem. The seed wants to be certain,"If I die I will become the tree." But how can you make the seed certain? This is the absurdity of faith. Faith is absurd. You want to be certain that, "I can become a sannyasin, I can renounce all, I am ready to die, but what is the guarantee that when the seed is no more, the tree will be there?" Who can give...

... seed cannot know the tree. There is no way that the seed can witness the sprouting tree - there is no way. The seed has to die and trust in the unknown - that it will happen. If you are ready to die, it happens. Go and sow seeds in the ground: when the tree has come, then dig the ground again and see where the seed is. It will have disappeared, it will not be there. Go and dig in a Buddha, in a Jesus...

... - you will not find the man, the seed. This is the meaning of Jesus being the son of God, no more the son of Joseph the carpenter - because the seed came from Joseph the carpenter and Mary, but now the seed has disappeared, the shell has disappeared. This tree never came from the visible, it is from the invisible. Look at Jesus: the seed is no longer there, only God is there. Be ready to die so that...

... create yourself, when you 'self-create' yourself. BUT WHEN IT FALLS ON THE TILLED EARTH.... Be ready to die! But before you are ready to take the jump, become 'the tilled earth' - become a disciple, become a learner, become humble; become as if you are not. Soon you really will not be - but get ready for it, behave as if you are not. Then: ... IT PRODUCES A LARGE TREE AND BECOMES SHELTER FOR ALL THE...

... KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE A MUSTARD SEED.... You are the seeds, you are the possibility of that kingdom. Get ready to die, because that is the only way to be reborn. Enough for today. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

...? Only then is it possible that when death comes... and death is a great shock! It shatters all that you have made. It takes away all that you have been clinging to; it dispossesses you of all your possessions. It simply leaves you utterly naked and alone. If death cannot wake you up, then you are not simply asleep -- you are in a coma. And that's how people are. Every day millions of people die. They...

... A VERY STRANGE STATEMENT. To those who know, life is night and death is the day. In life people remain asleep; it is death that wakes them up. In ordinary thinking, life is life and death is the end of life. To the Buddhas, to the awakened ones, death is far more valuable than life, far superior, far more precious, far more significant.Why? Because it is the crescendo of life, the ultimate...

... flowering. If life is the night, then death is the morn. Kabir says: THE NIGHT IS OVER... you are getting old, time is slipping by. Death is coming closer and closer every moment. THE NIGHT IS OVER -- DO YOU WANT TO LOSE THE DAY THE SAME WAY? You have lost the night; you could not wake up in the night. But it can be forgiven: it was night and you slept. But you cannot be forgiven when death is coming...

... closer -- now it is time to wake up! And if even death cannot wake you up, then what is going to wake you up? And if a person wakes up in death, then for him there is no more any birth, no more any death. But a person can wake up in death only if he has tried hard to wake up in life, if his whole life has been a consistent effort to find a center in his being, a persistent effort to know "Who am I...

... lived in darkness. they die in darkness. They lived dreaming, they die dreaming. They lived in a stupid way, they die in a stupid way. They miss all opportunities. And three are the great opportunities in life. The first is birth. Only once in a while is a man so intelligent that he uses that opportunity -- only very rarely. Maybe a Lao Tzu -- hence the story. It is said Lao Tzu lived in his mother's...

... history. It is poetry, pure poetry, and of tremendous power. It means that when Lao Tm was born he was already so mature, so ripe, that he used his first opportunity to wake up. Ordinarily it takes eighty-two years for a person to wake up, and even then, how many people wake up? People wake up at the time of death, but how many? -- that too is very rare. Lao Tzu must have been of immense intelligence...

..., must have carried the intelligence from his past lives -- maybe just a little bit was missing, just the last straw on the camel. He used the opportunity. The first opportunity is birth. It is as important as death. It is a death in a way, because the child in the mother's womb lives in one way, one kind of life, and then is simply thrown out, expelled. He wants to cling to his home where he has lived...

... for nine months, and so peacefully, so silently, without any worry, without any responsibility, in such warmth.... He clings to the womb, he does not want to go out. He feels it as a death, and it is natural -- because what does he know about what is going to happen? One thing is certain: his home is being shattered; he is being thrown out of all his comfort and security. He knows he is dying! Hence...

... the birth trauma -- because the birth enters into the child's consciousness as death. He dies and is reborn. Lao Tzu used his first opportunity. And the same is the case with Zarathustra, another beautiful story. It is said that Zarathustra is the only child in the whole history of man who laughed when he was born. Children cry, they don't laugh -- and Zarathustra laughed -- must have shocked his...

... death, but love can bring a little consciousness to your heart. Hence my insistence on love -- and Kabir's insistence is also on love, because this is the opportunity many many people can use and become awake. If you love, you will have to drop your ego -- and that will be the death, the death of the ego. If you love you will have to learn how to melt, merge, disappear. If you love you will have to...

... head. And if they don't listen to the head then the society will be at a loss; it will be impossible to dominate people who live through the heart. Only the head can be dominated only heads can be reduced to slaves. The heart is always the king, the master. And the third opportunity is death -- the last. If you have missed birth, if you have missed love, don't miss death. At least the last chance...

.... And all is vain, because death will take everything away. And you KNOW it! And still you go on clinging, because the idea in your head is: anything is better than nothing. You will have to change it -- you will have to change it diametrically. You will have to learn: nothing is better than anything -- because it is in nothing, in nothingness, in emptiness, in silence, that you become a womb so that...

... flower of love. YET I HAVE TO GIVE UP MY F EARS IF I WANT TO TAKE PART IN THIS LOVE. I HAVE TO LET GO THE PROTECTIVE CLOTHES... ... all the defence measures, all the armours that you are carrying around yourself. One has to be in utter trust. One has to be ready to die -- even if existence kills, it is okay. Only then will you be able to drop your armour. And everybody is carrying a great armour around...

... you doing, Nasrudin? What are you thinking? What is the problem? Why are you so worried?" The Mulla opened his eyes and said, "This is the ultimate problem. I am thinking about how one knows when one is dead. How does one know that one is dead? If I am to die, how will I recognize that I am dead? - because I have not known death. Recognition means you have known something before. "I...

... person who can become a death to the disciple - who can give death, who can help you to die so that you can be reborn. Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can I attain to the Kingdom of God?" Jesus said, "Unless you die first, nothing can be attained. Unless you are reborn, nothing can be attained." And this being reborn is not an event, it is a continuous process. One has to be reborn...

... every moment. It is not that you are reborn once and then it is okay and finished. Life is a continuous birth, and death is also continuous. You have to die once because you have not lived at all. If you live, then you will have to die every moment. Die every moment to the past whatsoever it has been, a heaven or a hell. Whatsoever - die to it, and be fresh and young and reborn into the moment...

... see you and recogniZe that you are A, or B or C, because I have known you. Death I have not known," said the Mulla. "And when it comes, how am I to recognize it? That is the problem, and I am very much worried. And when I am dead I cannot ask anyone else, so that door is also closed. I cannot refer to some scripture, no teacher can be of any help." The wife laughed and said, "You...

... are unnecessarily worrying. When death comes, one knows immediately. When death comes to you, you will know because you will become just cold, ice-cold." Mulla was relieved. A certain sign, the key, was in his hand. After two or three months he was cutting wood in the forest. It was a winter morning and everything was cold. Suddenly he remembered, and he felt his hands - they were cold. He said...

..., "Okay! Now death is coming, and I am so far from my house that I cannot even inform anyone. Now what am I to do? I forgot to ask my wife. She told me how one will feel, but what is one to do when death comes? Now no one is here, and everything is going just cold." Then he remembered. He had seen many persons dead, so he thought, "It is good to lie down." That is all that he has...

... seen dead persons do, so he lies down. Of course, he becomes more cold, he feels more cold - death is upon him. His donkey is just resting by his side under the tree. Two wolves, thinking that Mulla is dead, attack his donkey. Mulla opens his eyes and sees, and he thinks, "Dead men cannot do anything. Had I been alive, wolves, you couldn't have taken such liberties with my donkey. But now I...

... experiences. No evaluation is possible; evaluation is possible only against past evaluations. No thinking is possible; thinking is possible only if the past is there, brought into the present. So what can you do? You can witness. In the old Sanskrit literature, the Teacher is defined as the death acharya mrityuh. The Teacher is defined as death! In the Katha Upanishad, Nachiketa is sent to Yama, the god of...

... death, to be taught. And when Yama, the death god, offers many, many allurements to Nachiketa - "Take this, take the kingdom, take so much wealth, so many horses, so many elephants, this and this," a long list of things - Nachiketa says, "I have come to learn what death is, because unless I know what death is I cannot know what life is." So a Teacher was known in the old days as a...

... you can die with this mind, burdened with this mind, without knowing the inner nature that you were born with. Witnessing, the effort towards it, means breaking this mind, creating a crack in this mind, to have a peek, a probe into nature - into your nature. You are born as an unknown witnessing energy. Then the society encrusts you, clothes you all around. That clothing is your mind, and if you are...

... identified with this clothing then you will never be able to know that which you are, that which you always have been. And one can die without knowing oneself. That capacity is there. But in a way it has a beauty of its own also. One has to throw the society from inside; one has to be free from society. And when I say that one has to be free from society, I don't mean to be free from the outside society...

... it. The sky remains virgin, pure, innocent. No cloud can corrupt it. Clouds come and go, but the sky is that which is always - unperturbed, untouched, just an inner space, an inner sky is there. That is called your nature. Societies will come and go. You will take birth and you will die and many lives will come and go, and many, many clouds will pass through you. But the inner sky - AKSHAT...

... are going away from death; a moment comes when you can see that death is nothing but changing clothes, or changing houses, changing forms -- nothing dies, nothing can die. Death is the greatest illusion there is. For growing up, just watch a tree. As the tree grows up, its roots are growing down, deeper. There is a balance: the higher the tree goes, the deeper the roots will go. You cannot have a...

... Available: Yes Length: 119 mins Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, YOU HAVE RECENTLY SAID THAT MOST OF HUMANITY IS VEGETATING, NOT LIVING. PLEASE EXPLAIN TO US THE ART OF LIVING SO THAT DEATH MAY BECOME ALSO A CELEBRATION. Suraj Prakash, man is born to achieve life, but it all depends on him. He can miss it. He can go on breathing, he can go on eating, he can go on growing old, he can go on moving towards the...

... grave -- but this is not life. This is gradual death from the cradle to the grave, a seventy-year-long gradual death. And because millions of people around you are dying in this gradual, slow death, you also start imitating them. Children learn everything from those who are around them, and we are surrounded by the dead. So first we have to understand what I mean by `life'. It must not be simply...

... growing old. It must be growing up. And these are two different things. Growing old, any animal is capable of. Growing up is the prerogative of human beings. Only a few claim the right. Growing up means moving every moment deeper into the principle of life; it means going farther away from death -- not towards death. The deeper you go into life, the more you understand the immortality within you. You...

... tree one hundred and fifty feet high with small roots; they could not support such a huge tree. In life, growing up means growing deep within yourself -- that's where your roots are. To me, the first principle of life is meditation. Everything else comes second. And childhood is the best time. As you grow older, it means you are coming closer to death, and it becomes more and more difficult to go...

... having in the office! In the office you were miserable -- just one day off, and you cling to misery too; you won't let it go. Make everything creative, make the best out of the worst -- that's what I call `the art'. And if a man has lived his whole life making every moment and every phase of it a beauty, a love, a joy, naturally his death is going to be the ultimate peak of his whole life's endeavor...

.... The last touches... his death is not going to be ugly as it ordinarily happens every day to everyone. If death is ugly, that means your whole life has been a wastage. Death should be a peaceful acceptance, a loving entry into the unknown, a joyful goodbye to old friends, to the old world. There should not be any tragedy in it. One Zen master, Lin Chi, was dying. Thousands of his disciples had...

... gathered to listen to the last sermon, but Lin Chi was simply lying down -- joyous, smiling, but not saying a single word. Seeing that he was going to die and he was not saying a single word, somebody reminded Lin Chi -- an old friend, a master in his own right.... He was not a disciple of Lin Chi. That's why he could say to him, "Lin Chi, have you forgotten that you have to say your last words? I...

..., screeching, running on the roof.... And he smiled and he died. But he has given his last message: don't make things small and big, trivial and important. Everything is important. At this moment, Lin Chi's death is as important as the two squirrels running on the roof, there is no difference. In existence it is all the same. That was his whole philosophy, his whole life's teaching -- that there is nothing...

... which is great and there is nothing which is small; it all depends on you, what you make out of it. Start with meditation, and things will go on growing in you -- silence, serenity, blissfulness, sensitivity. And whatever comes out of meditation, try to bring it out in life. Share it, because everything shared grows fast. And when you have reached the point of death, you will know there is no death...

... they are, then there is no need. So I say: There is no home, and the journey has to be continued. It has to be a dance. Take your guitars and go on, and never stop anywhere. That does not mean that you cannot rest for a while. There are caravanserais but no homes -- stay over for the night, but in the morning we have to go. This ongoing process is what life is. The moment it stops, it is death -- and...

... there is no death. And why do people hanker for the home? -- security, safety. But in the name of security and safety, they don't make homes, they make prisons -- and they are the jailed and they are the jailers, but because they have the keys in their own hands, they think they are free. They are not free. Only a constantly moving river... sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes falling from the...

... mountains, sometimes moving very slowly on the plains... but moving all the time.... Movement is life, change is life. Stay for a while if you feel tired, but stay only to regain enough energy so that tomorrow morning you can move again. The home is everywhere -- but that home is just a caravanserai. Never make anything in life stable. That's how things die, that's how things start stinking. Allow...

... 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...

... PROTECTION. OSHO, WOULD YOU SHOW ME THE KEY TO UNLOCK PROTECTION - OR IS THERE NO LOCK? 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...

... 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...

.... 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...

... feel liberation can be attained?" The sweet-spoken mystic said. "Only by means of death. " I said this to someone yesterday. He asked, "By death?" I said, "Yes, by death while living. Only one who dies to everything else, awakens and becomes alive to the divine." There is no art greater than learning to die while living. I call that art: meditation. One who lives as...

... dream, and the identity you find when you lose it is the truth. When it completely loses itself within the earth, the seed sprouts and becomes a tree. Beloved Sohan, One finds life only from knowing that which is inside one's being. One who doesn't know this is surrounded every moment by death and the fear of death. A sadhu was asked by his friends, "If wicked people attack you, what will you do...

... established in your being does the real acquaintance with life happen, because the periphery which is outside this center is created by death. Beloved Sohan, Man is born in slavery. We are born as slaves unto ourselves. We come into the world with chains of desire. Very subtle chains bind us. Slavery comes with birth. It is given by nature. We don't have to earn it. Man finds himself enslaved. But freedom...

... has to be earned. Only those who strive and struggle for it attain it. One has to pay the price for freedom. Whatever is valuable in life cannot be gotten free of cost. To acquire slavery from nature is not a misfortune. The misfortune is not to earn freedom. To be born a slave is not bad, but to die only as a slave is certainly bad. Nothing brings significance and fulfillment in life unless you...

... say to his disciples, "It was from a barber that I learned unselfish love and devotion." Even in the lowest, vast messages are hidden. One who knows how to uncover them, becomes wise. Move with awareness in life and every experience brings intelligence. One who remains unconscious, returns even the light that comes to his door. Beloved Sohan, If you want to attain the divine, Learn to die...

... dry and dead. But then in the long run the well itself will die, although it will do everything to save itself. In the very effort to save itself it will perish. Jesus has said, "He who will save himself will die, and he alone will be saved who will die voluntarily." So the question invariably arises in our minds, "Why go where I will die and disappear? Why go there at all, if death...

... is certain?" But if this death is a certainty, it is what it is. And how on earth will you save yourself through such self preserving efforts? If it is true that you will die on entering the ocean, how are you going to save yourself as a well, and for how long? If, in your view, becoming such a huge ocean amounts to dying, how are you going to survive as a tiny well and for how long? Soon its...

... a well. But even then the fear of death is going to grip it, because no sooner does it alienate itself from the sea, death draws closer and still closer. Joined with the ocean there is hope and life for the well; the well's life is inescapably linked with the ocean. Alienated from the ocean its death is certain. That is why we are all afraid of death; we are afraid lest we should die and disappear...

.... But there is no escape from death; it is certain. And there are only two ways of dying. One is that you take a jump into the ocean and die. This kind of death is very blissful, because you will not really die, you will become the ocean itself. And another kind of death happens when you stubbornly cling to the well, and die nonetheless. Then you stagnate and rot and die with tears in your eyes. Our...

... neighboring well, that has not yet visited the sea, which had said, "Where are you going, you fool? Why do you go where you will cease to be?" But the sea going well will say, "Who says it means to be nothing? It is true that I will die as a well, but I will be born as the ocean itself." The choice is always whether you want to re main a well or you want to become an ocean. The choice is...

... walls will crumble; soon its water will evaporate, and soon it will be covered with dirt and dust. When you are not to survive as a vast ocean, how will you survive as a petty well? And for how long? This is how the fear of death arises. This is the fear that pursues the well. The well does not want to go to the sea for fear of extinction. Therefore it keeps a distance from the sea and continues to be...

... connections between them. One, we carry within us the potential for both life and death. While the oxygen of breath represents our potential for life, carbon dioxide represents the potential for death. When your oxygen gradually diminishes and disappears and you are left with carbon dioxide alone, you will turn into a corpse. It is like we burn a piece of wood-it keeps burning so long as oxygen is available...

... have become the symbol of lethargy and inertia. And the sun- is the symbol of light and life and energy, because it brings life with it. At night everything becomes listless: flowers close their petals, leaves wither, and all living beings go to sleep. In a sense the whole earth in the night slides into a temporary kind of death. And with the advent of another morning, flowers bloom again, trees...

... begin to sway, leaves become alive, living beings wake up, birds are on their wings and the whole earth becomes festive. The temporary death of the night-time disappears and life returns to the earth. The same thing happens within you. When the quantity of oxygen in you goes up, your latent energies begin to awaken. For every kind of latent energy to wake up, oxygen is a must. We can keep a dying man...

... alive for a little while with the help of oxygen. He would be instantly dead if the oxygen tube is removed from his nostrils. But with oxygen he can be kept alive for a few days, a few months, even for a few years, because his utterly enfeebled life force is being revived by oxygen. We are keeping death itself at bay with the help of oxygen. Today thousands of people throughout Europe and America are...

... being kept alive with oxygen pumped into them from without. They would have been dead long ago but for the oxygen cylinders. Now euthanasia has been one of the most important issues in the countries of the West. Euthanasia means that a person should have the right to die when he must. With the help of oxygen and other modern devices the physicians can keep someone alive-although he may be as good as...

... dead-for long. So euthanasia has become a great issue. The physician's problem is that if he allows him to die he will be said to be guilty of homicide. It would be a kind of murder. So he will keep an eighty-year-old invalid alive with oxygen. If he does not do so he will be prosecuted for murder, so he will keep this ebbing energy alive by inserting an oxygen tube in the nostrils. What do breathing...

... it was not found again. It continues to be a mystery for the Christians how his dead body disappeared, and what happened to it. There is the story of his resurrection which says that Jesus was seen by some of his disciples a few days after his crucifixion. But the question remains: what happened to Jesus after he was resurrected and when did he die again? But it is mysterious that nothing is known...

... meditation. We are familiar with only two ways of breathing: a breath comes in and another goes out. But a moment comes, and it comes at the height of meditation, when breathing stops halfway between inhalation and exhalation. When such moments come you will feel that your breathing has ceased and that you are going to die. Certainly these moments will come. As you go deeper in meditation your breathing...

... whatsoever; everything is still and resting in existence. Not even a ripple arises in its placid, calm and tranquil sea. In that moment all the vibrations of your breath will come to a stop; breath itself will stop, because breath cannot enter this stillness, this emptiness. Let alone breath, even life cannot enter this space. Never. The beyond is beyond life too. Remember, that which is beyond death is...

... beyond life, too. Therefore we cannot say that God is alive; it would be absurd to say so. Since he is not subject to death, it is meaningless to call him alive. Life is relative to death; the one cannot be without the other. God has no life; he has existence-rather he is existence itself. Of course, we living beings are alive, we have life. When we come out of existence, we have life. And it is our...

... death when we return to existence again. For instance, it is life when a wave arises in an ocean. Before the wave arose there was only the ocean, there was no wave. Life begins when a wave arises; it is the wave's coming into being, into life. And when the wave disappears, it is the wave's death. Its rise is its life; its fall is its death. But the existence of the sea is without waves. The ocean was...

... and, further, to save seekers from death, many persons who know the thing are needed. The parivrajakas, in order to escape attachment, made it a rule that they would not stay at a place for a long period of time. But one who becomes a victim of attachment over a long period of time can become so even in a short time. The difference will be that of degree-his attachment will be a small one. It may be...

... some sick people have to be given oxygen through artificial means. They will just die if they are left to themselves. Health and sickness can be measured by the intake of oxygen. That is how running makes you healthy, because running brings you lots of oxygen. Every physical exercise is useful for this very reason. Any activity that adds to your stock of oxygen is conducive to your health. And what...

... length of telling you that you will suffocate, you will die if you pursue in your efforts any longer. Don't listen to the mind. Tell your mind, "It is blissful to suffocate and to die." It is another thing if breathing stops on its own, but you on your part should continue to strive. You should spare nothing from your side. Don't spare even a little bit, because sometimes even that little bit...

... going to be destroyed. And what are you going to do after saving them? Question 17 QUESTIONER: AFTER ALL, WE DON'T WANT TO DIE IN A STATE OF IGNORANCE. If you worry about your blood vessels, know for sure that you are going to die in a state of ignorance. What will you do after you have saved your blood vessels? Our difficulty is that we are always worrying about things that are of no consequence to...

... up and become husbands and wives, this and that, like you. And when you will die, you will leave them behind to worry about their blood vessels being dam aged. What else will you do? If we know that the life we are trying to save has nothing in it that is worth saving, then only can we stake our all; otherwise it is impossible. We should be very clear in our minds that what we are so strenuously...