... entry into life has also been my decision. The other pole must be consistent. If I am responsible for my suffering then no one else can be responsible for my bliss. If I can be responsible for my death then I am also responsible for my birth. That is what religion says: It is your freedom to be born, to live, or to die. When someone is dying, to us he appears to be dying. But if you penetrate a dying...

... will be no more births for him. If some desire is left unfulfilled, the mind will endeavor to fulfill it: that will become the choice for a new birth. We know that when someone is born he has to die, but we do not know the other side of it - that when someone dies he has to be born again. If birth leads to death, then death will lead to birth again unless you die totally. That total death is samadhi...

.... That total death is the highest peak of being a soul - the soul has been purified completely. There is no more desire for the future, because future means birth; no more desire for tomorrow, because tomorrow means birth; no more desire for the next moment, because the next moment means birth. In this moment, if you can die totally - with no future, with no tomorrow, with no desire, with nothing...

... your choice to come. Sartre feels that only in one dimension does man seem to be free, and that is suicide. You are not responsible for your birth, but you can be responsible for your death: you can commit suicide. This is illogical! If one pole is free, the opposite pole cannot be otherwise. If I can commit suicide - if I can end my life by my own decision - then, whether I remember it or not, my...

... remaining unfulfilled - then there is no more birth. It is your choice to be born again even though it is a very unconscious choice. If you become more conscious you will not choose, or you will choose differently. Buddha was dying. Someone asked him, "Where will you be after death?" Buddha said, "Nowhere. Enough! I have been in so many bodies for so many lives - it is enough. This time I...

... will help you to be more aware. Escape will only create unconsciousness, unawareness, lethargy and sleep. Question 5: DOES THE SOUL LEAVE THE BODY WHEN YOU DIE? WHERE DOES IT GO? This whole way of thinking - that something remains and something leaves - is fallacious. The gross body that we know is just a seed, the outer mask. There are also subtle bodies which continue to surround your soul even...

... point is the disturbance. If that point dissolves and there is no ego to look from, then you cannot say that when you die you have gone somewhere. You have been. You will continue to be. Even though everything dissolves, nothing really dissolves; nothing ends. But that is possible only when there is no ego to say, "This is me." We think that we are the center of the universe, just as mankind...

... don't convert. Transpire but don't convert. Let them become acquainted with the laughter that is happening here, with the silence, with the meditation. But remember that it is not a religion and we are not here to destroy somebody's dignity and to make him part of a cult. You will have to be very aware, because old habits die hard. Our education, our society, our civilization ... everything has...

... him, "If somebody else dies, you can come back. At least for one hour I am here." He looked at me very much surprised, but he could not resist either. After ten minutes he came: "You were right. My mother died." I said, "I knew. I knew somebody else would die. In these sixty minutes, almost your whole family is going to die!" He said, "Why are you saying it like...

... first place, people don't give anything. They simply say, 'Go away! Ask somebody else. We have nothing to do with your father. If he has died, he has died. Why should we be bothered?' And you are killing my whole family, and you are giving me the rupee in advance!" I said, "You go and look at your family. If somebody is still alive, come back, because all are going to die. Sometimes a few...

... people die - one time, two times, three times... People are unbelievable; for example, by the time you are back here your father may have become alive again." He said, "Are you mad? My father alive? He is dead." I said, "He will become alive. All will become alive. You just go home." He said, "If you say, I will go and see." I said, "You see and come back...

..., because they will die any moment - if not today then tomorrow - and I will not be here." After a few minutes he came with those ten rupees and he said, "You take these back." I said, "Why? Have they all become alive?" He said, "Don't humiliate me! They have always been alive. Nobody has died. As far as begging is concerned, every day I have to say that somebody has died...

... educated?" He said, "That is true: I can't count much." I said, "I can come with you. This train cannot leave without me. The driver is my friend; I will tell him, 'Wait. Let me first go to this man's house and see how many people have died and how many are going to die.' And in fact, in this world, whoever is born is going to die, so why not take the advance?" He sat on the...

... floor in the compartment with tears. He said, "I have never returned money to anybody; ten rupees I am returning. And you are ready to come with me to count whether they are dead or alive! And you are ready to give an advance for those who are alive because they will die...!" I said, "One thing is certain; don't take ten if you are feeling hurt. Take at least one - for you!" He...

... said, "But I am alive." I said, "You are alive; everybody is alive - but you will die! And at that time it will be difficult for me to find out who you are, where you live, why you lived and why you have died - too many troublesome problems. You just take one rupee and leave me." He said, "No, I cannot take anything from you. The train is full of people. I will manage from...

..., national flags down everywhere in respect. I don't want to die just like any ordinary man. I am not afraid of death," that old man said to me, "but I am afraid that while I am sick, my colleagues - who deep down are all my enemies - must be trying to pull my legs; and while I am not able to fight with them, somebody may try to take over the chief ministership." His deputy chief minister...

... minister. His sons had been my colleagues in the university, and because of them I had become acquainted with the old man. He was an old freedom fighter and he told me one day... he was very sick, and there was a danger that he might die. Doctors were not certain whether he would survive or not. But the old man said, "Make sure that whether I am sick or healthy, that I remain the chief minister. I...

... want to die as chief minister. It will be too hard for me to die if my chief ministership is gone." I said, "What does it matter to a man who is going to die whether he is chief minister or not?" He said, "It matters, it matters much. My whole life I have struggled to reach this post, and I want to die at the highest peak of my success, with government honors, seven-day holidays...

... manipulate the situation. How to convince the president of the country that the old chief minister is too old and too sick, and the deputy chief minister is a far more intelligent politician, a better organizer, and he should be given the chance immediately. I told the deputy chief minister, "That old man is almost on the verge of death, and I want you just to wait at least one week - not more than...

... that. I have talked to his doctor; he says, 'I cannot say it to them, but I don't think he will survive more than a week.' And his only desire, his last desire, is to die as the chief minister. So what? And you have always been a colleague, a friend, a follower of that old man. He has appointed you as the deputy chief minister. Just wait for seven days. You will not lose anything, but his last wish...

... will be fulfilled." He thought for a moment, and said, "Okay. Then seven days - exactly." I said, "Do you mean I have to kill him in seven days? I will try. But you should not be so ugly and so harsh with your own boss. Just one day more or one day less, but he is going to die - that much is certain. Now don't force me to kill him to stay just within the seven days exactly. If he...

... carrying him?" And the gods within spoke, "My lord, this happens to everybody. Everybody is here to die. Life is only a prelude, a preface to death." Great transformation was happening in the mind of Buddha. And then suddenly he saw a sannyasin. He said, "Why is he wearing orange clothes? I have never seen anybody wearing orange clothes." And the gods spoke again, "This man...

... would not be born again. Enlightenment means ultimate death. You will not have another imprisonment in a body, in desires, in jealousies, in all kinds of uglinesses. You will be here, but a pure breeze, merged into the whole. He said, "I am not going to be born again, and Gautam Buddha has just been born. He will become, one day, the greatest enlightened one. I want to touch his feet because our...

...;This happens to everybody. This life is nothing but a death every moment, and he has reached the last stage. Ahead of it is the graveyard." Buddha said, "Nobody told me anything about death. I have never heard about it." And the gods had managed for a small funeral procession to pass by the side of the chariot. And Buddha again asked, "What has happened to this man? Why are people...

... is in search of something deathless before death comes. This man wants to avoid death. This man wants to know not this ephemeral life but the real life, the authentic life which has no beginning, no end. He wants to know the existential, not this life which is made of the same stuff as dreams are made of." A great turning point. Buddha said to Chhanak, "Turn back, I am not going to...

... inaugurate the youth festival. I am no longer young. If youth is going, old age is coming, death is the only certainty in life. Then before time is lost I want to seek and search for the truth." That very night he escaped. And while he was escaping, he saw the beautiful women sleeping: somebody's saliva was flowing, somebody had one eye open... For the first time he saw that these women and men were...

... point, now, of piling up more and more nuclear weapons? There is only one incidence - Jesus - of someone who resurrected and may have needed a second killing. But ordinarily people die only once. And the fact is, Jesus was not resurrected; he never died on the cross. He was taken off the cross before he could have died. The Jewish cross is such that it takes forty-eight hours to kill a person, because...

... believe. You can believe you are the father of God! Just a little imagination... He had not done anything wrong, he was just a little crazy and took things literally, but he was not a criminal. So this arrangement was made: Jesus was brought down after six hours - and in six hours, nobody can die on a Jewish cross - and he was put into a cave; the guards were Romans. In the night he was removed. As he...

... storage system for information. Intelligence is a constant revolution, a transformation. Intellect consists of information, intelligence consists of transformation, a moment-to-moment transformation. Each moment one has to die to the past and one has to be born anew. Intelligence has the freshness of dewdrops in the early morning in the rising sun - dewdrops on a lotus petal, shining so fresh, so...

... innocent, ready to evaporate. When the sun rises they will evaporate and disappear; they will not leave even a trace behind. Intelligence is always ready to die to the past because that is the only way to live in the present. There is no other way; there never has been, there will never be. And that's the problem with scholars. He is certainly a noted scholar. I have loved his books, particularly on the...

... else. But how can you deceive yourself? Deep down you know all the time that you have missed knowing, that light has not dawned upon you, that your inner being is absolutely dark. And as death starts coming closer, the knowledgeable person becomes more and more shaky. When Pandit Satyavrata came to me I could see that trembling. He was trying to hide it, he was trying to pretend that he was not...

... are absolutely against me. He will lose his leadership, and at the age of eighty-two it becomes more and more difficult to risk; one loses all courage. Death is knocking on the doors, how can you be courageous? So of course he admires me, but he can only admire me secretly. You say, Ajai Krishna Lakhanpal: HE TOLD ME THAT HE DOESn't KNOW WHETHER THERE IS ANY SUCH THING AS SELF-REALIZATION... He may...

... your so-called scholarship and your learnedness; all will be taken away by death. It is better to drop it on your own - that's what meditation is - rather than to allow death to snatch it away. Then it hurts. If you drop it on your own it does not hurt at all, it becomes a flowering. When death takes it away it leaves a wound behind. When you drop it there is grace, there is freedom; an immense...

... death. If he learns meditation, then he will have some riches that cannot be destroyed by death. Otherwise power, prestige, money, respectability, scholarship, all will be burnt in the funeral pyre, and you will be going naked, empty- handed. I can help you to become so over-full with the inner, with the transcendental, that death will be absolutely incapable of destroying it. You say: HE LOVES YOUR...

... is the total opposite of it. The real face is repressed and the unreal one is praised, decorated, worshipped. This creates a deep split, this creates schizophrenia. Indian culture is schizophrenic, it is insane, but beautifully rationalized, beautifully covered. And the greatest problem, the greatest taboo in India has been sex. Just as in the West today the taboo is death, in India it has been sex...

.... These two things have to be understood because these are the two fundamental taboos. Either a society creates a taboo around sex or it moves to the other extreme and creates a taboo around death. Both are deeply related - two extremes of the same phenomenon. Sex is birth, sex is the beginning, and death is the end. A few people are trying to hide the fact of birth and a few other people are trying to...

... hide the fact of death. The culture which makes sex a taboo will accept death, and vice versa: the culture that creates a taboo about death will accept sex. Humanity needs freedom from all taboos, freedom from all extremist ideologies, because to be an extremist is to be insane. The sane person is balanced: he is exactly in the middle, he follows the golden mean. And to be in the middle is to...

... transcend duality, is to transcend the extreme polarity. Man needs a new kind of understanding which accepts both birth and death as part of life, with no fear. The moment you accept both, the moment you can celebrate both, you go beyond both. If you create a taboo around the energy called sex then the woman is condemned. The condemnation of the woman, the slavery of the woman, is simply a condemnation of...

.... The whole past is heavy, a Himalayan weight, but it can be drop-ped. Once you become conscious of it there is no problem in dropping it. It is our own creation; we can immediately get out of it. But then you will have to be aware that unless you die totally to the past you cannot be reborn. One has to die to the past to be born anew, and India has forgotten how to die, hence it has forgotten how to...

... it. Even if it means death, go with it; that's the only way to know god. Sometimes god comes as a great love, sometimes god comes as a great death.... [The new sannyasin says: It's going to be hard, and I need you.] Yes, that's right. I am there now with you; it won't be hard. There will be troubles, but each trouble when overcome becomes a blessing. And only troubles become blessings, only curses...

... small note in a great orchestra, helps tremendously. Then you don't fight with the whole, you are with the whole. The ego disappears, and in the disappearance of the ego is the appearance of god. The moment you die, the moment you utterly disappear as a separate-entity, god is felt, god is experienced. So become a small note in the eternal symphony of sounds. Prem means love, taruna means youth. Love...

... is always young, that is the only phenomenon that knows no aging. Even in death it is young. Youth is intrinsic to love; it is not an accidental attribute, it is its innermost quality. One who loves always remains young, and for one who loves the whole existence remains always young, full of mystery and awe. Only to the eyes of a lover is the world miraculous, otherwise it is stale and dull and...

... dusty. In fact those who don't know how to be in love, don't know how to be alive. They only die, they only grow old; they never grow up, they only grow old. They never become mature, because it is the fire of love that makes a person mature, ripe. [A sannyasin says: During the last camp it was really intense, there was a tremendous power opening my chest but it's still stuck there. Osho checks his...

... person like Jesus. Death happens to the unenlightened. Those who believe that they are the body, they die. How can those who have known that they are bodiless inside the body die? For them the cross too is the inception of a new life. For them the cross too is a throne. They do not die. They live in eternal nectar, they die in eternal nectar. Their nectar continues, the stream of nectar goes on flowing...

... Osho Death is Divine: Sadhana: the fruit of understanding Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Death is Divine   Next > Sadhana: the fruit of understanding From: Osho Date: Fri, 6 October 1978 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Osho - Death is Divine Chapter #: 6 Location: am in Buddha Hall Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio Available...

... before death comes. When such terrible preparations have been made for violence the old ideas of nations cannot work. Now it is dangerous. It is because of these same nations that armaments have accumulated. For their security... So the other doesn't somehow get ahead, we have to keep ahead of them. Eighty percent of humanity's ability goes into war. If this eighty percent ability went into farming...

... all, all belong to them. And this kind of person, a person like Gorakh, doesn't bother to talk about when he was born, or talk about which house he was born in, or talk about which town he was born in. These are useless things because Gorakh knows: I was never born and I will never die. These statements are of the body-minded. These statements are of those who are attracted and identified with the...

... body. A person like Gorakh has known that which is never born, that which never dies. That which cannot die, cannot be born. After knowing the unborn, the unbegun, the unending who will talk about birth? Who will he be talking about? This is why people like this don't talk about it. Naturally many stories will be left behind them but definite facts will not be left. And such people have such a vast...

... spread. Life became green there. A new upsurge of inner life came, a new grace rained down. Buddha is a shower of nectar. This is a poetic way of saying it. It is not more than this. Jesus was crucified and after crucifixion he came back to life. This coming back to life is not a historical event. This being resurrected is a profound symbol, it is poetry. It is just saying that death cannot happen to a...

...? What's the difference whether it was A or B or C? - whether he was black or white? - whether it happened in India or in Africa? What difference does it make where fire was first lit, who lit it? We know that fire is valuable in its own right. The methods of sadhana are just like this - they are fire, flaming fire. If you are courageous, take the jump. DIE, O YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING. DIE THAT...

... DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW. Leap into that fire that Gorakh lept into. You also be burnt to ash in that fire of no-thought. And from your ashes a new form will arise, a new light, a new life that is eternal. The second question: Question 2: IN A WORLDLY SENSE I AM COMPLETELY HAPPY. BUT STILL, I AM NOT HAPPY. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE REASON FOR MY UNHAPPINESS. COULD YOU INDICATE THE WAY? Only one who...

... without Ravana. The first day people will come, but the second day people will stop coming, thinking what's the use? The court is decorated, Ramachandra Ji is sitting. People will get up and start asking when will the Ram Leela begin? What's going on? The manifestation of life is dual. Life is dialectical. This is why there is light and darkness, there is birth and death, there is good and bad, there is...

... love is sunlight and shadow, Sometimes causing laughter, sometimes tears, It is beyond me! All is his. Sunlight is his, shadow is also his. Sorrow is his, joy is his. Life is given by him, death is also given by him. When all is his then equanimity is effortlessly achieved. Understand this secret. It may be that the questioner thought I would explain some technique for achieving equanimity. If you...

... achieve equanimity through some technique then it will remain superficial. The achiever has never gone inside, the achiever remains on the surface. If you just dye your clothes you will remain undyed. The achiever is on one layer - the outer layer - he doesn't touch the inner spaces. You touch the inner spaces when you understand. It is not a question of achieving, it is a question of understanding...

...Death is Divine...

..., keenly alive to the dangers that surround him every moment. And danger there is, always. No matter how many precautions we take, the danger remains. Death is present every moment, everywhere, and can descend on us at any moment. But we try to overlook it, to avoid this unavoidable fact. We believe that death is for others, not for us. We see others die, and not ourselves. Hence the feeling that it is...

... always someone else who dies. But those who die were under the same illusion. Death is all around us. Any moment, life's drama can come to an end. If a man points a dagger at you and says, "You have one moment to live. Think whatever you want to think," what will you think? All thinking will stop, for all your defence barriers will crumble before your eyes. That one moment is all you have...

... of the evening." If we set out to find consistency in Buddha's words we shall have to search deep. Then only will the consistency appear. On the surface there is nothing but inconsistency. We shall find one statement contradicting another. Only mediocre people are consistent. If you probe into them you will find that their views at the time of death are the same as they were born with. In...

..., death is standing before you. You become alert. Buddha always sent his bhikshus to the cremation ground because he used to say that unless and until a person realises the proximity of death, he cannot go into meditation. He ordered them to go and live there and see the bodies burning and the bones scattered about. When he gets up in the morning, he will see a body burning; in the afternoon yet another...

... corpse burning; and he will fall to sleep at night seeing another corpse burning. Wherever he goes he confronts evidence of death; bones, ashes, flames. He experiences death all around him. When Moggalayan first went to Buddha, he first told him to go and meditate in a cremation ground. Moggalayan was surprised and said, "When you are with me, why should I go elsewhere? I will meditate here with...

... you. What is special about a burning ground?" Buddha said, "You will not be able to meditate as yet, for I also am a protection for you. You will always feel, 'What is there to fear when Buddha himself is with me?' Go and see death standing by your side; feel its presence near you and around you each moment. The day you find death by your side, you will find me also with you, and not...

... absolute certainty!" They lay stress on this certainty, feeling most uncertain within themselves. They are scared even when saying this. A woman once came to me. She was doing some research on the immortality of the soul, and life after death. I was a little puzzled when I noticed that while she talked about the immortality of the soul and life after death, her hands were trembling. I told her to...

... the soul was immortal: it is the body that dies. I asked her how she was inspired to carry out this research. Had she studied this subject, meditated on it, experienced it a little? She said, "No. But my mother died when I was a child. My father, and death, became a heavy burden on me." Then, in the same breath, she continued. "But death is only of the body; the soul never dies."...

...; Her fear is of death, but she clings to the immortality of the soul. This is a defence measure against death. She wants someone to assure her. So she has involved herself in this research, not to prove that the soul is immortal because only if it can be proven can she be rid of the fear of death that plagues her. Buddha said to Maudgalyan, "First experience death. Then only will you develop the...

... well. Lakshman refuses to leave Sita and go to Rama's aid, because Rama had ordered him not to leave her when he was gone. But Rama's cry for help goads her to say hard words to Lakshman, to whom Rama's word was law. She says "I know you wish your brother to die so that you can have me!" These are words that Sita could only have spoken if she was enacting the role of Sita; otherwise they...

... cannot move much. How can you move in a negative commandment? A negative commandment is like death. How can you meditate about death? You can start but you will be stuck at the very start. You can meditate about life, certainly. Life has so many things to meditate about - the flowers, the birds, the rivers, the stars, love, people, the beauty of it, the song of it. You can meditate about life...

... infinitely and you will never get stuck - because vast is life, infinite is life, the whole universe is life. In fact, when you meditate on life - meditating, meditating - one day you will come across death too because death is just a part of life. As other things are part of life - love, birth, joy, sadness, happiness - so is death. Death is not something against life, death is not something beyond life...

... - death happens in life, death is an intrinsic part of life. So if you meditate on life you will come to know death too, but if you meditate on death nothing will happen. What will you meditate on? You will simply feel darkness, and get stuck. How can you move in non-being? How can you think about nothing? You will go round and round and sooner or later you will wonder what you are doing. Chasing your...

... crucifixion comes through it, he is ready to go to the cross. The day that Jesus was ready to die on the cross he said that he was not a Jew in the ordinary sense. The Jews were puzzled. Why was this man so mad? Life is so beautiful, why be worried about things higher than life? Life is enough. Jews have lived in the merry-go-round of eat, drink and be merry - and, of course, sometimes go to the synagogue...

... ways, so that he becomes an instrument. Then he becomes a soldier in the army - kills and, is killed. Or he becomes a clerk in an office or a collector or a commissioner and wastes his whole life for something he cares nothing at all about and goes on doing things which he never wanted to do in the first place. The closer and closer death comes, the more and more afraid you become - and fear cripples...

.... And then you cannot change. It is very difficult for a person who is at the age of forty or forty-five to change, because now everything has settled - somehow. It has been a long struggle, things have settled, and now to change seems very difficult. Now one simply goes on waiting for death to relieve one. You say:.. .BUT FIRST HE MUST COMPLETE HIS GRADUATION STUDIES SO THAT HE CAN UNDERSTAND THE...

... look deep into me. Something has happened. And I have come just to show my gratitude to you, to show I am happy that I was born to you, that you gave me birth. I have attained and I have come hare my experience with you. In your old age I would like you also to attain - because death is coming. I can see your legs are shaking, you cannot stand rightly Death is coming. Before death comes, know what...

... truth is, know what life is. Before death comes, realise yourself.' The father looked. Certainly this was not the same man although he looked the same. This figure was luminous, a great light had happened to him. The father cooled down, he meditated over it, he thought about it again and again and he found that it was right. His reaction was just a reaction, an unconscious reaction. Finally he himself...