... to be parallel. Once you have defined yourself clearly - that 'I am this' - once you have become this, suddenly a great trembling arises in your being when you see that you can disappear, that you will die. How again misery settles in. First you create the ego, then the fear comes that the ego will disappear. If you don't create the ego there is no fear of death, it is not possible at all - because...

... if you are not, how can you die? If you are not, then there is no death. Death is always of the ego. Once ego is not there, how can you die? Just the other night I was reading a case, a very strange case. A child was born in Philadelphia. It was a premature birth, it was a miscarriage. But it was a rare phenomenon - the child was alive although it should not have been alive according to medical...

... possible. You are immortal but the ego cannot be immortal. The ego will have to die - not one but a thousand and one deaths. And the ego is very, very vulnerable, very delicate. If somebody insults it, there is a death, a small death. If your business goes bankrupt, there is a small death. If something goes wrong, a small thing, there is a death. Small things, and you die many times. The ego is always...

... ready to die because it is a false artefact, it is a pseudo phenomenon. And to keep it alive you will have to keep pushing the river. So first conflict, struggle, violence, aggression, are needed for the ego to exist. They are the fuel, the food for it. But they create misery. And the greater misery comes when ego has been created - then fear arises, the fear of death. So the ego simply suffers. The...

... real ways to become religious. Religion is basically an art: how to live and how to die; how to live and enjoy, and how to die and enjoy; how to live gracefully and how to die gracefully; how to make your whole life - death included - a celebration. Religion has nothing to do with the Bible, the Gita, the Koran; religion has something to do with an alchemical transformation of your being. So whenever...

... can disappear too. Anything that is, is going towards annihilation. The tree was there yesterday, now it is gone. The flower was there in the morning; in the evening it has gone, withered away. The child was alive and now the child is dead. Everywhere you see that birth is continuously followed by death. - Existence is surrounded by non-existence. Life seems to be always provoking death - they seem...

... certificate of birth. But the child was alive and the child lived for two days. For forty-eight hours the child lived. No birth certificate was issued.. And then the child died. Now, no death certificate could be issued because when the child was never born how can you certify that he is dead? But up to now things were simple. But then the hospital demanded money from the parents for forty-eight hours of...

.... First the child should have been given a birth certificate, then a death certificate - then money for those forty-eight hours of care would have been possible. Death is possible only if the ego is born. If the ego is not there, there cannot be any death. Then life is eternal. Then life has a different quality to it - a quality of eternity, of immortality. The ego wants to be immortal. That is not...

... they could not rebel against it. Not a single revolution has ever happened in India. People who believe in the immortality of the soul should be absolutely courageous; they can face death because they are not going to die. But the case is just the opposite. In fact, their belief in the immortality of the soul is nothing but a protection, is just an armour around their cowardice. They are afraid of...

... not get wet. You will be the sky, how can you get wet? Then if death comes, let it come - you will not be dying, because how can you die? You were never born. You don't exist as a thing, as an entity. Living in insecurity, one is secure. Trying to be secure, one remains insecure. This is the law of reverse effect. If you want something you will miss it - just because you want it. The more you want...

..., the more difficulties you create. And then there is a vicious circle. You want to be secure, you don't want to die. If you don't want to die, you will have to die a thousand and one deaths; you will have to die every day. If you don't want to die, then everything will become a death message; then you will be continuously trembling; and afraid. From everywhere you will see death coming. And if you...

... forget all about death, and you accept death, then even in death you will not die, even in death you will be a watcher. Death will come and go. You will see it coming, you will see it passing, and you will remain, you will abide. That which abides in you for ever and ever is not an entity - it is a consciousness. It is not a soul, it is awareness, it is pure awareness. And that awareness is part of the...

... asleep and you have started living in dreams. Another story: Zen student: "So, master, is the soul immortal or not? Do we survive our bodily death or do we get annihilated? Do we really reincarnate? Does our soul split up into com-ponent parts which get recycled, or do we as a single unit enter the body of a biological organism? And do we retain our memories or not? Or is the doctrine of...

.... People go on asking questions, AND getting answers, and they think that by asking a question and getting an answer they are doing something about their real problem. Answers that are given by others are not going to help you; they may help you only as consolations. You ask somebody, "Is there survival after death?" and he says, "Yes." And you are freed of a fear - the fear of death...

... death, hence they believe in the idea that the soul is immortal. They go on clinging to the idea - against death. They don't know. If you ask a Zen master, "Is the soul immortal?" he will not answer, because he knows it is your fear that is asking for the answer. Your fear wants to be calmed; you need a solace. You need somebody authoritative who can say, "Yes, don't be afraid."...

.... You can simply close your eyes and look inside. But fear arises, great fear arises in looking inside - because that emptiness overwhelms you. You start disappearing; you start feeling as if you are going to die. You rush back. You start thinking a thousand and one things. Have you not observed? Whenever you sit silently and look inside, the mind creates so many thoughts immediately. Why? It is your...

.... There is nobody to prevent them." This is a totally different vision - this is the natural man. And they said, "But you have been telling us that only the body dies, then why are you crying and weeping for the master's dead body? Only the body has died and the body was just material. It was going to die - dust unto dust." And he said, "What are you talking about? I am not crying...

... AWARE AND ALONE, OR TO DIE INTO THE FLAME. IN JOY, IN AGONY, IT GOES ON AND ON... Madhuri, die! because to die in love is to be reborn. It is not death, it is the beginning of true life. To die without love is death. To live without love is death. To be in love is to know something of God, because as Jesus says, "God is love." I have even improved upon it: I say love is God. Die, Madhuri...

... how to die. And to know how to die in love, in ecstasy, dancing, is to know how to be reborn on a higher plane. And each time you die a higher plane is reached. When you can die ultimately and utterly, not holding back even a little bit of yourself, then that very death takes you into God. That is resurrection. The third question: Question 3: WHY ARE YOU NOT CONSISTENT IN YOUR STATEMENTS? I cannot...

.... Therapy, the so-called therapy, is in the service of the established society. It is in the service of death, of the past. Prayer serves nobody. Prayer is freedom. Prayer is a way to commune with the whole, and to commune with the whole is to be holy. You say, "While in therapy myself, I spent much time praying. Over the years I felt better. I never knew whether it was the therapy or the prayer...

..., die. Utterly. Abandon yourself. Be lost. There is no need to protect yourself against love, because love is not the enemy. Love is the only friend. Don't protect yourself. Don't hide from love. Don't be afraid of love. When love calls, go with it. Wherever it leads, go with it, go in trust. Yes, there will be moments of agony, because they are always there when there are moments of ecstasy. They...

... precedent is a form of death, and destroys all potential to grow into understanding. Remember, what is consistency? It means my today has to be obedient to my yesterday - that is consistency. My present has to be obedient with my past - that is consistency. But then how am I going to grow? Then how am I going to move? If I remain consistent with the past, then there is no growth possible. Growth means...

... inconsistency. Your today has to go beyond your yesterday, has to be inconsistent with it, has to use it as a stepping-stone, has not to be confined by it. And your tomorrow has to go beyond your today. If you go on moving away from your past each day, you will be growing, you will be reaching higher peaks. Consistent people are stupid people. Their life is stagnant. They stink of death. They are like corpses...

... committed to change. Change is my God, because that is the only unchanging phenomenon in life. Hence I call it God. Everything else changes: life changes, death changes - only change remains. I worship change. I am in love with it. I cannot define myself once and forever. I have to define myself each moment of my life; and one never knows what each next moment is going to bring. To be with me is to be in...

.... The knower has gone, disappeared. The dewdrop has slipped into the ocean, or... the ocean has slipped into the dewdrop. I am not burdened by my yesterday. It has already been changed by today. I live in the present because there is no other way to live. All other ways are ways of death. So please, don't ask about consistency. You have to learn, you have to understand my inconsistency. You have to...

... friendly, but about this question of God we immediately start quarreling. And we have quarreled the whole life. Now you are here: give us a definite answer so this quarrel can be stopped, and we can at least die in ease." I asked them, "If it is proved definitely that God is, how is it going to change your life?" They shrugged their shoulders. They said, "We will live as we are living...

... any difference, my no-God does not make any difference." Then I said, "This is a futile question." Which question is futile? One whose answer is not going to make a change in your life. It is useless. People ask, "Who created the world?" How is it going to change your life? Anybody - A, B, C, D, - anybody; how is it going to change your life? "Is there life after death...

... knows he is leaving the existence behind with a little more poetry in it, with a little more awareness in it, with a little more prayer in it. Remember that when you leave the world, you can die in contentment only if you have made this world a little more worth living in, a little more meaningful, a little more dancing, celebrating. If you have added a little festivity to it, a little laughter, a...

... little sense of humor; if you have been able to light a small lamp of light, and you have been able to disperse a little darkness from the world, you will die in utter joy. You are fulfilled. Your life has been of fruition and flowering. Otherwise people die in misery. Jean-Paul Sartre is right for the majority of the people, but that majority is living in ignorance, unconsciousness. That majority is...

... sorrow. The real sannyasa is born of bliss and hope. 168. Life is now here itself, and today. Tomorrow is far off. Tomorrow is at an infinite distance. That is exactly why it never comes. Will it not be proper that we live today itself? He who really lives, always lives today. Life is today, and tomorrow is death. If you have to live, live today. Well, if you have only to die, tomorrow also can be...

... decision. Moreover, death is the completion of life. Precisely for that reason, by choosing how to live, I choose how to die also. Hence death becomes the index of life. What is sown in life grows into flowers in their fullness during death. 185. A friend had been ill. Somebody had brought a bunch of flowers for him fresh from the garden. After handing over the flowers, he returned. I realized that the...

... understand when I sink into silence. Artists make use of the black background to heighten the effects of a brighter hue. I too use the same device. I am speaking to enable you to understand the language of silence. Words are meaningful inasmuch as they represent the gestures of silence. Speech is meaningful when it leads on to quiescence. Life is fruitful if it prepares the individual to face Death. 164...

... departed from this bank and shoal of life, and that too very early in age. He was young but his life was pure, beautiful, quiet and melodious. Somebody remarked, "What a tragic calamity! Death at this young age?" I said, "No. Do not say so. It is possible that a long life may not be auspicious, but life that is pure and auspicious, is profound, extensive and immense. Well, it may not be...

... conduct. In fact daring does to the edifice of life what the foundation-stone does to a building. 182. Have you ever seen good men dying or bad men living? Just as bad men never live, so also good men never die. 183. My friend, it is possible that you cannot become a rose-flower. But, on that score, it is not necessary that you should become a thorn. And it is possible that you cannot become the...

... twinkling star in the sky. But on that score, is it necessary that you should become the dark cloud that covers up the stars? In the end I disclose a secret to you. He who does not become a thorn becomes a flower and he who does not become a cloud becomes the twinkling star. 184. It does not lie in my hands how to die. It is not left to my choice. But how I should live is certainly dependent on my...

... fragrance of the flowers still lingered in his hands. The experience repeated itself many times and became the very life itself. Whatever we give, its fragrance or its foul smell always lingers behind. Those who wish to live in fragrance, always give out only fragrance. 186. 1 had a dream in which I saw some of my dead acquaintances. They were clad in the same garments as at the time of death. They were...

... obsessed with the same thoughts, prejudices, and ideas as they had at the time of death. In life everything had changed but they had not changed at all. I made a mention of this to them. But they began to laugh and said, "We the dead never change. We remain staunch in our beliefs. There is no change in the world of the dead. Our principles are eternal. It is only life that is affected and afflicted...

... alive here." Well in life such a thing can happen because many people are dead before their actual death. 187. Do not build up life round the centre of futurity because life is present existence. It is in the present that all futurities are hidden and he who loses today loses all tomorrows. Do not all the flowers of all tomorrows lie asleep in the seed of today? 188. Did you say that life is...

... creations of our mind. Truth is simple, but we are not. Our belief, our recognized values and our convictions have complicated everything. He who breaks the web of these complications finds that Truth stands before him, It had been before him for ever. Only the eyes were not free to see it. 192. It is very easy to die, but very difficult to live, for the sake of religion. Actually, it is always easy to...

... die for any cause. What is required for dying is just a sort of madness. And then dying takes place in a moment. Madness of this single moment is enough for it. But for living, alertness and wakefulness are essential. Hence I say only those who live for religion are able to know religion, not those who die for it. 193. What is religion? If you wish to know this you will have to forget religions at...

... and jerks. Their life, therefore, does not become sentient idols. This is the misery of life, the affliction and the distress. This alone, I say, is living death. 198. There is a friend whom I have known for years. Formerly he ran the race for money; now he is in the race for religion. The race is the same, but whereas formerly he was a householder, now he is an ascetic who has renounced everything...

.... Life is neither in "I" nor in "you". It is a current that flows incessantly between the two. It is a commerce with the universal. But we have converted it into a debate, a conflict. This accounts for our misery, affliction, worry, death! All this is the result of our imprisoning the consciousness in the islets of the ego. On account of this, life has become impeded, insentient and...

.... In his desire to protect himself, an Emperor built a mansion that had no doors. The passage through which he entered was later on closed. Hidden thus, he could not be harassed or harmed by an enemy. He was well protected in his doorless mansion. But the moment it was wholly closed he knew that it provided little security, for it was as good as death itself. The mansion itself became his grave...

.... Similarly our concern for security gives rise to doorless egotism and eventually it becomes our death. Life consists not in remaining aloof from but in merging with the universe. Hence I say, that, if you wish to realize life and the bliss of liberation, give up this madness after security because that alone is the base of that vicious circle which eventually snatches off life itself in the name of...

... protecting it. Life is insecurity. There is life only in insecurity. Security is sluggishness. What can security mean if not death? He who is ready to remain insecure, can break open the shell of egotism. The young sprout of life within him can shoot forth towards the unknown, towards the Supreme Soul. 207. A religious, virtuous life is not an impossibility. But the Truth of religion can be known only to...

... remain devoid of activity. Let it be void and empty. That is to say, let it be disengaged, for the cessation of activity is the beginning of the stir of consciousness. The death of the mind heralds the life consciousness. 211. Why is life so purposeless, alienated, mechanical, and lonely? Why is it so insipid and boring? Because we have lost all sense of wonder; the power to marvel at things. Man has...

... murdered all wonder. His so-called knowledge has sounded the death-knell of the marvellous and the wonderful. We are under the illusion that we know everything. We think we have the key to every secret and miracle. Naturally, what can be a miracle to him who has a ready explanation for each and every phenomenon under the sun? Nothing remains unknown to a mind that is thus filled with knowledge. There is...

... of life is body, soul, nature and God. All these are the notes of that single melody. All is life. There is nothing dead or insentient. All is nectar and life, far removed from death. Waves come rolling and surging in life's ocean and eventually merge therein. They are there both when they rise as well as when they disappear. They exist in both these conditions because the ocean exists. Individuals...

... this much more, and then I am going to turn towards you." And it is always death that comes before your desires are fulfilled. Even if you live for a thousand years your desires are not going to be fulfilled. In India we have a very beautiful story. A great king, Yayati, was going to die. Death came.... It is an ancient story; in those days things were simple and the other world was not so far...

... with the past and clings with the future. It is not ready to renounce the past, it is not ready to die to the past, because it is in the past that it can have its roots. And it is not ready to renounce desiring, dreaming, because it is in desiring and dreaming that it can live. It needs space; it creates a very false space for itself: tomorrow, which never comes. Mind knows of yesterdays and...

... the mind - you are not thinking of the past and you are not thinking of the future. Time has stopped, the world has stopped. Stopping the world is the whole art of meditation. And to live in the moment is to live in eternity. To taste the moment with no idea, with no mind, is to taste immortality. Time is mind. Time is death. Going beyond time is going beyond mind and beyond death. But if you want...

...? We are carrying an idea given to us by others that emptiness is death. It is not! It is a false notion perpetuated by the society. Society has a deep investment in the idea, because if people are not greedy THIS society cannot exist. If people are not greedy then who is going to be mad after money, after power? Then the whole structure of this power-oriented society will collapse. If people are not...

...-entity, a nobody, reduced to nothingness. It will look like death. Hence people are in search of more and more attention. If you cannot get attention by being famous then at least you can get attention by becoming notorious. If you cannot get attention by being a saint you can get attention by being a murderer. And psychologists say that basically many murderers commit murder not for any reason other...

... away. Death came and knocked on the door. Yayati opened the door and he said, "What? I have lived for only a hundred years, and here you are - and with no notice! At least some time should be given. I have not fulfilled my real desires yet. I have been postponing: tomorrow, tomorrow; and now you are here, and there will be no tomorrow. This is cruel! Be kind!" Death said, "I have to...

... have said, 'Father, we can die for you.' Now the time has come to prove it!" But these things are always said; they are polite nothings. The sons started looking at each other. Somebody was seventy, somebody was seventy-five, somebody was sixty; they themselves were getting very old. The youngest was just twenty. The youngest son stood up and he said, "I am ready to go." Nobody could...

... believe it! His ninety-nine brothers could not believe it; they thought he was a fool. And he had not lived yet, not at all. He was only twenty, just on the threshold of the beginning. Even Death felt compassion. Death took the young man aside, whispered in his ear, "Are you a fool? Your older brothers are not ready, they have lived long. Seventy-five years somebody has lived - he is not ready. And...

... you are ready? Your father does not want to die. He is a hundred years old, and you are only twenty." The young man said something very beautiful, something of tremendous import. He said, "Seeing this, that my father has lived one hundred years and he has ALL that one can have, and he is still not satisfied, I see the futility of life. What is the point? I may live one hundred years and...

.... Again Death knocked. When Death knocked, only then did Yayati become aware again that one hundred years had passed. He said, "But I am not ready!" And this went on happening, and each time a son went with Death, and for one thousand years Yayati lived. This is really a symbolic story. After one thousand years Death came, and Death said, "What do you think now?" Yayati said, "I...

... Jaasus, dave woke de wrong bloody man up!" This is the situation. You are not yourself. You go on doing things - getting married, giving birth to children, bringing up children - and you are not yourself. You will do all the functions of your life and die - and you never lived, you never allowed yourself to live! Somebody else lived in your place, and somebody else will die. You came here and you...

... that is dawning on you. Now start searching for whip you are. You are NOT your faces. Now begin the search for the original face, the face that you had before you were born and the face that you will again have when you are dead. Between the two, birth and death, you have many faces which are not yours. Now the time has come to get out of others' expectations. Don't go on fulfilling others...

... people usually live - hence I count my age to be three hundred and sixty years." Don't die a retarded person. And don't sacrifice yourself for beautiful names: love, duty, service, society. Your first duty is towards your being. Fulfill that first, and then all else will be fulfilled. My own observation is that a person who loves himself deeply becomes so blissful that his whole life becomes a...

... talks only of ANATTA, no-self, ultimate emptiness, absolute death of the ego. And when you have disappeared there is nothing more to happen. To whom is it going to happen? When you are no more, all has happened. All happening disappears. That state where nothing happens any more is called NIRVANA. NIRVANA IS a beautiful word. It means utter cessation; literally it means blowing out the candle. Just as...

... fear: the fear of death, the fear that, "One day I may have to disappear, one day I may have to die. I am, and the day is coming when I will not be" - that frightens, that is the fear. To avoid that fear we start moving in such a way so that we can live as long as possible. And we try to secure our lives - we start compromising, we start becoming more and more secure, safe, because of the...

... that moment if even death comes it will be a dance and a celebration, because that moment knows nothing but joy. That moment is joyous, it is blissful. Knowledge has to be negated - but not because I am saying so or because J. Krishnamurti says so or because Gautam Buddha has said so. If you negate because I am saying so, then you will negate your knowledge, and whatsoever I am saying will become...

.... In this nothingness, in this emptiness, in this selflessness, in this shunyata, there is complete security and stability. You will be surprised to know about this - complete security and stability when you are not. All fears disappear... because what is the basic fear? The basic fear is the fear of death. All other fears are just reflections of the basic fear. All other fears can be reduced to one...

... secure, there is no challenge. They are so secure, they need not be intelligent. They are so secure - for what do they need intelligence? Intelligence is needed when there is challenge, intelligence is provoked by challenge. So because of the fear of death we strive for security, for a bank balance, for insurance, for marriage, for a settled life, for a home; we become part of a country, we join a...

... least he can promise - that this will make you secure: "This will be your security. I can guarantee." The goods may never be delivered - that's another thing - but the promise... And the promise keeps people exploited, oppressed. The promise keeps people in bondage. Once you have known this inner emptiness then there is no fear, because death has already happened. In that emptiness it has...

... happened. In that emptiness you have disappeared. How can you be afraid anymore? About what? About whom? And who can be afraid? In this emptiness all fear disappears because death has already happened. Now there is no longer any death possible. You feel a kind of deathlessness, timelessness. Eternity has arrived. Now you don't look for security; there is no need. This is the state of a sannyasin. This is...

... fear. Nobody can kill you, you have already done that thing yourself. Nobody can take anything away from you; you have dropped all that which can be taken away from you. Now you are in nothingness, you are a nothingness. Hence the paradoxical phenomenon: that in this nothingness arises a great security, a great safety, a stability - because there is no more death possible. And with death, time...

... disappears. With death disappear all the problems that are created by death and by time. In the wake of all these disappearances, what is left is a pure sky. This pure sky is samadhi, nirvana. Buddha is talking about this. These sutras have been addressed to one of Buddha's greatest disciples, Sariputra. Why to Sariputra? The first day I told you that there are seven planes, seven rungs of the ladder. The...

... Aristotelian logic, in the linear logic, then homosexuality would have been the norm and heterosexuality would have been perversion. Then man would love man and woman would love woman. Then opposites could not meet. But God is dialectical. Everywhere, opposites are meeting. In you, birth and death are meeting. Everywhere, opposites are meeting - day and night, summer and winter. The thorn and the flower...

..., Sariputra, at the seventh rung of the ladder, in this state of no-mind, in this state of samadhi, in this state of nirvana, enlightenment - FORM IS EMPTINESS. Man is woman and woman is man, and life is death and death is life. Opposites are not opposites, Sariputra; they are interpenetrating each other, they exist through each other. To show this basic insight Buddha says: Form is formlessness, and...

... Sariputra? - because if you understand this your worries will disappear. Then there is no worry. Life is death, death is life. To be is a way towards not-to-be, and not-to-be is a way towards to be. It is the same game. Then there is no fear, then there is no problem. With this insight a great acceptance arises. HERE, O SARIPUTRA, ALL DHARMAS ARE MARKED WITH EMPTINESS; THEY ARE NOT PRODUCED OR STOPPED...

... is immensely powerful, it is very full, overflowing. The concept, the hypothesis of a black hole, is of immense value in understanding Buddha. A star exists for millions and trillions of years, but one day it has to die. Everything that is born has to die. Man exists for seventy years, then what happens? Exhausted, tired, he disappears, he falls back into the original unity. So it is going to...

... happened to it, what happened to the space travelers. This black hole is very, very like Buddha's concept of emptiness. All forms collapse and disappear into blackness, and then when they have rested for a long time, they bubble up - again a star is born. This goes on: life and death, life and death - this goes on. This is the way existence moves. First it becomes manifested, then becomes tired, goes...

... there; then sleep is the deepest. In that deep sleep you are in a black hole, you are dead. For the time being you are in death, resting in death. And then in the morning you are again back, full of juice and gusto and life, again rejuvenated. If you have a really good, deep sleep without dreams, the morning is so fresh, so vital, so radiant, you are again young. If you know how to sleep deeply, you...

... the light disappears. Why bring this God in? And why give him such ugly work? And he will have to do it forever and forever: "Let there be light, let there be no light, let there be light... Now let this man be there, now let him die" - just think of him and his boredom! Buddha relieves him, he says it is unnecessary. It is just natural. Trees bring seeds, then seeds bring trees, and trees...

... without becoming a mother is an anguish, because you will leave no living trace behind you. Your death will be complete, not a shadow of yours will remain. The flow of your current will no longer be continued. Hindus say that unless you leave some offspring behind you when you die, you have not paid your debt to your father. It is a matter worth considering. Why is it that your debt to your father is...

...; there is no relationship whatsoever between willpower and peace. Out of concentration only a Durvasa, the notorious Hindu saint, famous for his fits of anger, can be born. Durvasa represents the last milestone on the highway of concentration, he is the ultimate in concentration; this is why if Durvasa curses you to death, there is no escape. You will die then and there, because Durvasa has...

... each night to watch his death-defying jump - the distance from one roof to the other was excitingly great! Thus it happened that one night people began cheering as the man made his roof-top leap. They cheered so loudly that their noise brought the man out of his sleep. Now he was not in danger, because he had already finished his first jump, but the moment he awoke he was flooded with fear. Finding...

... himself standing there on the roof, with the crowd below, and the noise, he was so terrified that in the return jump he fell to his death. The very thought that he had made such an impossible leap led him to his death. The jump that he had made so many times in his sleep was, to his conscious mind, impossible! Learning can take place in a sleeping state. To be asleep means to live a life in which...

... to gather material wealth is unrealistic: it can be stolen. But to gather knowledge was considered realistic because knowledge cannot be stolen. Wealth will betaken away by death, knowledge can survive death. Hence the old Indian saying, that the dignity of a pundit is all-pervading; wherever he goes he will be respected. All this is now obsolete. We have found the means to break even into this...

... rendered obedient. If soldiers are sent off to war, they can be rendered fearless. It is simply a matter of erasing their awareness of death, and they will act without fear, as if there is no death. Now the means exist to erase, change, steal or renew memory. But this is only possible because memory is also a commodity. There is only one phenomenon that cannot be annihilated by anybody, and that is...

..., nothing else transcends death. Not knowledge but meditation alone can be our friend in the moment of death. Meditation alone liberates. Because of this, Hindus have always said that there is no liberation other than meditation. All other phenomena are bonds, and we are bound from all sides. Our morality is a bond, our knowledge is a bond. Only meditation liberates. So when I said I am trying not to...

... dissatisfied. He does not leave you at rest, because rest is just death. He makes you more restless, and pushes you into an unknown journey of a mystical nature. He lights a fire in your being so that every pore of it can grow thirsty, every breath becomes dissatisfied, your whole life becomes transformed into a hunger. You become restless and perturbed until that hunger is satisfied. When you are around a...

..., Parshvanatha, Neminatha, Krishna, Rama, all come from kshatriya families. A kshatriya can afford to be a gambler; his is a different style of mathematics. He thinks not in terms of interest, but in terms of staking. For him, to live or to die islike a leap. No matter where he is in the world, the religious person is of a gambling nature. The gambler is a daredevil. The gambler is one who stakes what he has...

...;; but filled with awareness you will discover that it is not true. You are not living for your children, you are keeping them alive so that you can live on through them when you are dead. Your children are your desire; they are supposed to complete that which you were unable to do. You are trying to travel on their shoulders into the future. Through them you are seeking immortality - you may die, but...

... your son will remain. Something of you, that is, will remain, something of yours will survive to carry on in the world. People love to carve their names on stones: "This stone will remain, even though I am gone." If there is so much pleasure in carving one's name on stone, how much more in carving it on a living person? To die without becoming a father is considered a tragedy, to die...

... that they used to invite someone else to come and have intercourse with the wife if she and the husband had been unable to produce a child. This was not considered to be adultery. So important was it to have a son that the adultery was not seen as such. There was no immorality in it, because the paternal debt has to be paid. Man longs to escape from death, and he makes his attempts in numerous ways...

... too, knowing very well that speaking is just meaningless, that there is no point in it. But you are fish that would not come near without bait. To teach is like bait, and to awaken is the hook. It will hurt, it will make life difficult. It will bring an end to this life as you know it but will give birth to a new life. It is a rebirth. Every rebirth is preceded by death. In awakening, you will have...

... to die. You cannot continue, you will come to an end. And who is ready to die easily? But in learning, your continuity is unbroken. You remain the same - maybe even improved, sharpened, cleaner. It is making you more sophisticated. The more you learn, the more cultured, civilized, educated, sabhya you seem to be. Sabhya is a very sweet word. It means a man who is fit to sit in a sabha, a meeting...

... concentrated his mind to such a degree that whatever he says will enter into your unconsciousness like an arrow, and once there it will become a suggestion. It will take root there, like a seed. If Durvasa cursed you to die, you cannot continue to live. You will have to obey him; so intense is his power of concentration that you will have to submit to it, and you will wither under his gaze. In the face of a...

... unblinking eyes, and his concentration, accumulated for years, would arouse fear in you. Wherever he looked he created difficulty - this much was certain. It was just through the power of his eyes that he had gained his place behind the czar's throne. The czar's young son was a hemophiliac; just a little cut, and he could bleed to death; a small wound, and nothing could stop the blood oozing away. But if...

... forecast: he predicted that the power of the czar would cease to exist very soon after his - Rasputin's - death. Now, he made this statement of course so that the czar should protect him, and the czar indeed did his best. But within a year and a half of Rasputin's death, the three-hundred year old czarist empire came to an end. As I understand it, Rasputin's words must have reached deep into the czar's...

... nobody wants to die. And whosoever does not want to die knows for certain that he will have to die - that is the reason why the feeling arises in the first place that he does not want to die. The knower wants to die, the ignorant does not want to die. The knower wants to die because he knows that nothing dies on death. A knower wants to enter death because he knows that on entering death he will have...

...? Impossible! Because whenever a small thorn pierces the foot, it pierces you; if the hand is burned, you feel you are burned, so when your whole body will be burning, it is an impossible hope that you will feel that you are not burning. When even the slightest hurt, even a small abuse pierces you and affects you, then you cannot think that when death penetrates you you will remain unaffected, untouched. You...

... have no experience that you are anything other than the body; your only experience is that you are the body. Yes, you may believe that you are the soul and that you will not die, but that is only your belief - and a belief that is very deceptive and a belief that is part of our ignorance. Every man likes to believe that he will not die. Nobody wants to die. Take note of this simple thing - that...

... the purest experience of deathlessness. Where the opposite is present, the experiencing becomes easier. You draw a white line on a blackboard: it shines more clearly. When there are dark clouds and the lightning flashes, it is seen more clearly. Let it flash in white clouds during the day - you may not even see it. A knower wants to enter death - insistently, blissfully and celebratingly - so that...

... that white line of deathlessness that is hidden within can flash clearly against the backdrop of the dark clouds of death that come to surround it, and for the experience to become very clear that death happens always around one and never within one. The ignorant man fears going into death, because he is convinced that death means an end of everything, that nothing will remain. Now this is a very...

... interesting thing: an ignorant person believes that the soul is immortal so that he may not be annihilated completely. This belief is not because of his knowing but because of his fear. This is the reason a young man does not believe very much in the matters of the soul, etcetera. But as he grows older he begins to believe in it more and more, because as death comes nearer the fear grows bigger. A person...

... lying on his death bed normally becomes religious. Whosoever remains irreligious even on his death bed is a man of some courage. Even the greatest atheist becomes a little shaky at the time of death as he realizes that he does not know what reality is, and then comes the fear of death, of entering into that darkness. Out of fear he falls back to all the old beliefs and doctrines. You also believe that...

... only in India, that the whole country believes in the soul and yet everybody is afraid of moving into darkness. They believe strongly in the existence of a soul. Their whole being trembles for fear of death and yet they have a firm belief in the existence of the soul. This country of believers in the soul remained in slavery for a thousand years. Over this race of believers in the soul any small...

.... He feels, "I am also right to a great extent. The difference between me and the knower is very small, and that is that I have taken my body to be the soul." And the ignorant also wants that he should not understand the body to be the soul, because the body does not give anything but suffering. And the body also has to die. So he also wants to search and know that which is not the body so...

... death. And the more you make life safer and secure, the more it becomes dry and a desert. Insecurity means you have to remain awake, alert to all the dangers. And life is always passing on a razor"s edge. The idea of being secure and safe is very dangerous, because then you don't need to be alert and conscious. In fact, to avoid alertness and consciousness you want security and safety. Live...

... the next moment; this moment is all joy, all peace. Everything is green and everything is juicy. I can understand that you have grown in age. And as one grows in age ... in other words, he is saying that death is coming closer. But there is no way to prevent it. And if you cannot prevent death - and nobody has ever been able to prevent death - then it is better not to be bothered by it. What has to...

... happen will happen, but why destroy your present moment for something which has not happened yet? Let it first happen, then you can worry about it. First let death happen, then in your grave you have eternity to worry about security, safety - you will not have anything else. For twenty-four hours a day you can toss and turn in your grave, it is absolutely private and secure - you cannot even get out of...

... below the age of thirty. And a strange phenomenon was happening, nobody has been observing it ... after thirty, where do those hippies disappear? After thirty they start becoming worried about safety and security. Half the life is gone, they enjoyed it to the fullest, but now old age will come and death will come. They forget all about the philosophy of the hippies - they suddenly become square! And I...

... have information from my friends that those hippies who were not taking a bath, who were not shaving, who were not brushing their teeth, are now behaving perfectly normally - taking a bath, shaving their beard, brushing their teeth. They are working, and working efficiently, in offices, in factories, but they all have disappeared. As one becomes older the shadow of the death starts falling on you...

...; that"s what is creating the fear. But as far as a sannyasin is concerned, there is no death. If you are feeling afraid of death and the dangers ahead, that only means you are not going deeper into your meditation, that meditation has been to you just a fashion. Now it is time, that you should sincerely and authentically enter into meditation, because that is the only space which can free you...

... from all fears of death, old age, sickness. It makes you aware that you are not the body and you are not the mind, and you are not only this life, you are eternal life. Death has happened many times and you are still alive, and death will happen many times and you will be still alive. Meditation"s ultimate conclusion is, live the moment to its totality, intensively, joyously, because there is...

... nothing to be feared - because even death is a fiction. There is no need for any security, for any safety. Live moment to moment, trusting the whole existence as the birds are trusting it, as the trees are trusting it. Don't separate yourself from existence, become part of it and existence will take care of you. It is already taking care of you. A traveling salesman, completing a trip earlier than...

...The Master - your death and your resurrection...

... Osho The Osho Upanishad: The Master - your death and your resurrection Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho The Osho Upanishad   Next > The Master - your death and your resurrection From: Osho Date: Fri, 13 September 1986 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: The Osho Upanishad Chapter #: 26 Location: pm in Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio...

..., and I need people who are innocent." In China, he worked for twenty years. Now he was very old, nearabout ninety years. And he said, "It is time for me to go back to the Himalayas, because there is no other place in the whole world which is better as far as death is concerned- so silent, so eternally silent that you can receive death lovingly, meditatively, consciously. But before I go, I...

.... The day you have become one, only then... but then there are no words left. Just gratitude, tears, a song, a dance - things which are thought crazy in the world of the intellect, but which are the only possible ways to express the inexpressible. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, WHEN I COME TO YOUR DARSHAN, I FEEL A FEAR, AS IF OF DEATH. BUT WITH YOUR PRESENCE, FEAR DISAPPEARS AND I FEEL LIFE. OSHO, WHAT IS...

... HAPPENING? The ancient seers have a very strange statement. I have asked shankaracharyas - because they are technically the representatives of those ancient seers - but none of them has been able to explain even a simple statement. The statement is that "The master is nothing but death." But it is only a half statement; the remaining half is that the master is a resurrection too. Coming to me...

..., you feel the fear of death. That is absolutely as it should be. I am going to be a death to you. My whole function is to kill you because whatever you are is not your reality. It has to be destroyed, dismantled, burned. So just like a phoenix bird - out of the tire which is burning your old personality, a new being is born. Hence, the master is also life. That's why when you are here you feel life...

.... And naturally a confusion arises: You were afraid of death, and here you feel more than anywhere else. Your life comes to its fullest expression; all the dust that you have gathered is gone, your mirror is absolutely clean. The master is also the beginning of a new life - the of an old, rotten personality and the beginning of a new, eternal individuality. That is the mystery of the master, his...

... their mystery schools came out with a new life, with an authentic life, with a joy that knows no ending, with a love that is eternal, with eyes which can only be called divine. And only then could they realize that what they had gotten is too much, and what they had lost was nothing but sickness, insanity, misery, death itself. Both your experiences are correct. Now it is up to you to choose. If you w...

... ant life, abundant life, then be ready to die. Dying each moment so that each moment you are reborn is the whole secret of all religion. Question 3: BELOVED OSHO, THE MORE I AM WITH YOU, THE LESS I CAN SAY I KNOW YOU. IT STRIKES ME THAT IN BEING WITH YOU THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP... JUST AN EXPERIENCE WHICH HAPPENS AFRESH EACH TIME I SIT AT YOUR FEET. OSHO, CAN YOU SPEAK OF THIS MYSTERY? There is no...

... you might get scared. You have to be persuaded to die and to be reborn, but the new life is unknown to you. The old life is the only life you know of. So at first I was speaking very indirectly. For example, I was speaking on Kabir, on Meera, on Thomas, on Heraclitus, on Pythagoras. And in between, whenever I found a chance to hit you I would do it, but basically I would keep you engaged with...