... you can see the forming of seeds and desires and drop them. If you can die without a seed ... If you die in a half-hearted way, not totally, with something incomplete, with something you wanted to do and death has come in between - then you cannot expect to disappear into the universal. Then the flame will take another home, according to your desires, your reincarnations. Meditation simply means to...

... OF FIREWOOD WITH OR WITHOUT BEFORE AND AFTER. ASH IS IN THE POSITION OF ASH WITH OR WITHOUT BEFORE AND AFTER. WE CAN NO MORE COME BACK TO LIFE AFTER OUR DEATH THAN FIREWOOD CAN BECOME FIREWOOD AGAIN AFTER HAVING BECOME ASH. IN BUDDHISM, THEREFORE, IT IS SAID THAT LIFE NEVER BECOMES DEATH; LIFE IS BEYOND THE CONCEPTION OF LIFE. IT SAYS THAT DEATH DOES NOT BECOME LIFE; DEATH IS BEYOND THAT OF DEATH...

.... LIFE AND DEATH ARE BOTH ONLY ONE STAGE OF TIME, JUST LIKE WINTER AND SPRING. LIKEWISE, WE MUST NOT THINK THAT WINTER BECOMES SPRING, OR SAY THAT SPRING BECOMES SUMMER. Maneesha, Dogen is basically concerned about the idea of reincarnation. Christianity does not accept it, Mohammedanism does not accept it, nor does Judaism accept it; it is only accepted by the religions that have been born in India...

.... They may differ on every aspect of life, but on one point they are absolutely in agreement. And it is not an agreement of one day - for thousands of years they have agreed on the idea of reincarnation. In Christianity or Mohammedanism or Judaism your life span is very short, just between the cradle and the grave - maybe seventy years or eighty years. With death you are finished. But in the Eastern...

... experience, with death you only change your form. You are not finished, you continue. Your continuity is eternal. You will take many forms ... many experiences, many ways of being. This whole universe is conceived of in the East as a teaching period. The trees are learning to be trees, the birds are learning to be birds. This whole universe is exactly a great university, an opportunity to learn one form...

... ... you can move so deeply that you will start touching not only your birth, your nine months in the womb, but also the death of the previous form. It is a tremendous experience to know that you have been here before, because that gives another dimension to your consciousness; if you have been here in the past, you will be here in the future. The past and future both are in balance - the present moment...

... you started the journey. That bus stop you cannot find. You have always been moving, traveling. So the beginning cannot be found, it is not there. But the end can be found. You will be surprised to think about it - that the ordinary death is not a death because the consciousness moves into another form. A bird becomes a tree, a tree becomes an animal, an animal becomes a human being. But if your...

... experience of all your past lives suddenly flashes you to the idea that you are eternal, that very moment you are disidentified with the body-mind structure. And this disidentification is the real death. Now you will not take another form, you will enter into the formless. It is called the great death. But to have a great death you need to have a great life. Ordinary living is so lukewarm that ordinary...

... death cannot change much; it can only change the outer garb, the paper bag in which you have been living. To burst forth out of all form - a tremendous awareness, intensity, totality ... you pull all of yourself to a single point - and suddenly all forms disappear. Just like a breeze, invisible, you enter into the formless. This has to be remembered before I talk about Dogen, because that is exactly...

... natural that you are creating your other form already without doing it consciously. If you are man you will be born as woman. And this is a vicious circle, because when you die, you die unconsciously; when you are born you are born unconsciously. So you don't know from where you are coming, or what was the reason for your taking this form. The whole foundation of meditation is to make you so alert that...

... drop, slowly slowly, all your desires. And when death comes, celebrate it; celebrate it because everything is complete and you are ready. This readiness and completeness will give you the ultimate freedom of formlessness. That formlessness is nirvana. All these buddhas, like Dogen, are pointing towards that formlessness. First, he is talking about relativity: WHEN WE LOOK BACK AT THE SHORE FROM OUR...

..., invisible to the eyes, untouchable by the hands, but still the very heart of our being, the very throb of our being. Once you have known it all fear of death disappears. And a new courage - so fresh like a morning rose, still with dewdrops shining on it in the sun - a new courage to rebel against all that is traditionally accepted, that may be rationally accepted but is not based on the actual experience...

... to the experience ... from the dewdrop to the ocean. Unless you experience 'oceanic' yourself, spreading in all ten directions, in absolute freedom, you have not used the great opportunity of life. Dogen is saying, WE CAN NO MORE COME BACK TO LIFE AFTER OUR DEATH THAN FIREWOOD CAN BECOME FIREWOOD AGAIN AFTER HAVING BECOME ASH. IN BUDDHISM, THEREFORE, IT IS SAID THAT LIFE NEVER BECOMES DEATH; LIFE...

... IS BEYOND THE CONCEPTION OF LIFE. IT SAYS THAT DEATH DOES NOT BECOME LIFE; DEATH IS BEYOND THAT OF DEATH. LIFE AND DEATH ARE BOTH ONLY ONE STAGE OF TIME, JUST LIKE WINTER AND SPRING. LIKEWISE, WE MUST NOT THINK THAT WINTER BECOMES SPRING, OR SAY THAT SPRING BECOMES SUMMER. Dogen is saying that forms don't change into other forms. Winter remains winter, summer remains summer, but something inner...

... moves on from one climate to another climate ... which is beyond birth and beyond death, which is beyond life, which simply is. You can give it any shape, any form, but you cannot take away its isness. This isness is the greatest discovery of the East, the West has missed it completely. A haiku by Hokushi runs: THE MOON ON THE PINE; I KEEP HANGING IT - TAKING IT OFF AND GAZING EACH TIME. I have told...

... SAY THAT IF WE COULD RECALL OUR DEATHS WE MIGHT LOSE OUR FEAR OF DEATH AND THUS BE ABLE TO LIVE A FEARLESS LIFE? Maneesha, this is certainly one of our great investments in forgetting the past, the previous life. Because if you remember it, you will not be able to be so foolish as to repeat the same game again. You have done it so many times; you have fallen in love, you have fallen out of love, so...

... is always somebody else who dies, you never die. Obviously - you see every day, you hear every day that somebody has died; but you never hear that you have died. Except in this Buddha Hall where you hear every day, "Now die and don't hold anything back, die completely." People from the outside will think, "This is a madhouse. People who are fully alive suddenly die and then don't...

... before .... In the East the world is called sansara. Sansara means the great wheel of life and death. It goes on moving, the same wheel, and you are clinging to the wheel and you go on moving with the wheel from one death to another, from one life to another. The investment is that unless you learn the lesson, you cannot come out of this vicious circle of life and death. But you can come out. Every...

... night we try; you jump a little ... it is old habit; when you come back you just try to find out where the wheel is. Soon you have forgotten about the center which was beyond life and death - suddenly you remember, "Where is the canteen?" One naturally feels hungry after such a strenuous experience of dying and coming back, becoming a buddha ... knowing perfectly well that anybody may be a...

... remember it. Naturally if you are not doing something people think you are wasting your life. The reality is that when you are not doing anything, when you are just being, you are finding the path towards your ultimate destiny. Before we die and become buddhas ... one time more, because one never knows about tomorrow, so better become tonight .... Just a few small laughs, because Sardar Gurudayal Singh...

..., you are not your head, you are not even your heart, you are this beyondness, this silence. Even if for a single moment you can experience it your whole life will have a transformation. To make it more clear, Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) Relax..let go ... die. Die to the world, die to the body, die to the mind, so that only the eternal remains in you. This formless eternal brings you a new birth. You have...

...: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: OSHO, YOU HAVE SAID BEFORE THAT IF A SEEKER IN HIS EXPERIMENT SHOULD MAKE AN INTENSE RESOLVE THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO DIE, THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO RETURN TO HIS OWN CENTER, IN A FEW DAYS HIS LIFE ENERGY WILL BEGIN TO CONTRACT FROM WITHIN AND THE SEEKER WILL BE ABLE TO SEE HIS BODY AS DEAD - FIRST FROM WITHIN, AND THEN FROM WITHOUT. CONSEQUENTLY, HIS FEAR OF DEATH WILL...

.... You can't be forced into something if you are fully conscious. But there is no need for one to be under such compulsion. Dying voluntarily, one can see death even while being alive. Watching such a death is a fascinating experience - far more fascinating than the experience of ordinary death, because this death is seen of your own free will. You may ask, however, "How can one die voluntarily...

... love with someone, but his love was not returned. Now he wants to end his life. Had his love been reciprocated, there would have been no need for him to embrace death. In fact, this man who is contemplating suicide is not doing so with any readiness to die really. He is willing to live only on one condition. Since the condition has not been fulfilled, hence the denial of life. The man is not...

... when the thought of death crosses our mind. There is hardly a person in the world who has not wished to die at least a few times during his life. Of course, that he didn't die is a different matter. The fact is, such moments do come when a man wishes to die. But then he takes a cup of tea and forgets the whole thing. The wife gets fed up with her husband and contemplates hanging herself. Then the...

... so on. But about death we can certainly decide how we are going to die, where we are going to die, why we are going to die. We can definitely determine the way we want to die. So Mahavira had given permission to follow the discipline of death for this reason also, that one who will die applying this method will automatically become the determiner of his next birth as well, because one who has...

... managed to choose his death, who has arranged to die voluntarily, for him nature provides an opportunity to choose his next birth too. This is the other side of it. If one exits from the gate of life with dignity and grandeur, in full knowledge, then the other gates will become wide open and welcome him with high regard and honor too. So those who wish to determine their next lives should first go...

... walking. This is a much more subtle resolution, a supreme resolution indeed. Tathata, suchness, is the suprememost resolution; it's the ultimate resolve. There is no determination higher than this. Even the resolve to enter death voluntarily is not so great a resolve really. Tathata means accepting things as they are. In a way, even the resolve to die voluntarily has its roots somewhere in nonacceptance...

.... That is, we want to know what death is; we want to verify whether death actually occurs or not. Tathata means, if death appears we will die; if life remains we'll continue to live. Neither are we concerned with life, nor with death. If darkness falls we'll stay in the dark; if the light appears we'll settle with light. If something good comes to us we'll receive it; if something bad befalls us we'll...

... is the very source of our death. That's why so much importance is given to the will. If you have ever witnessed an experiment in hypnosis, there are a few things about it worth keeping in mind. A hypnotized person is simply one whose conscious mind is asleep and whose unconscious mind is awake. When the conscious mind goes to sleep, the person stops doubting, because all doubts and misgivings are...

..., what I am explaining to you will become clear. I have already mentioned to you that as long as one has not entered death voluntarily, he cannot be free from the fear of death. Someday death will come, of course, but then you won't be entering into it voluntarily - you will be compelled to face it. It wouldn't be surprising if you closed your eyes and became unconscious when forced to go somewhere...

... and see death?" This also needs to be understood. Two kinds of mechanisms are working in your life, in your body - one is voluntary, the other is involuntary. There are some parts in your body which move only with your willingness. For example, my hand moves only when I want it to; it won't move if I don't want it to move. But the blood inside this hand does not flow according to my desire; it...

... poison and retain it in his stomach for half an hour, after which he would throw it out of his system. However, this experiment finally caused his death later on. Many X-rays were taken while the poison was still inside his stomach. No gastric juices, no blood released and mixed with the poison. They remained separate until he allowed them to mix. The man died in Rangoon. After having performed the act...

... practice was limited to thirty minutes only. He crossed that limit. For the next fifteen minutes the poison was able to penetrate the limits of his will and mix into his internal system. There is no part in our body which cannot be brought within the power of our will, and there is no part which cannot go outside this power either. Both things can happen. Entering death voluntarily is a deeper experiment...

... willpower can be effective. Entering death voluntarily is the most profound of all experiments in exercising one's will. Ordinarily it is not difficult to make a resolve in favor of life - we indeed want to live. But it is very difficult to make use of will for the sake of experiencing death. Those who really want to know the full meaning of life should have an experience of death at least once. Without...

... having seen what death is like, they can never really know what life is worth. That's the only way to realize that they have something of immense value - the elixir of life - which they can know only by passing through the experience of death. One who cannot go through this experience remains sadly deprived, because if he could see once on his own what death is like, the fear of death would no longer...

... exist for him; then there is no death at all. Simply using your total willpower you can draw your consciousness inside from all parts of your body. You close your eyes and feel that the consciousness is shrinking inward. You feel the energy moving away from your hands and feet towards the inside. You see the energy moving down from your head. The energy begins to converge upon the center from where it...

.... Once that happens, your subtle body can easily get out of the physical body and get back in. If the seeker goes through this experience once, his entire life is transformed instantly. Then what he had known as life until that moment, he will no longer be able to call it the same. Similarly, he will not look upon death the way he did until then. He will find it a little difficult to run after the...

... bigger decisions, then go ahead and make a little higher resolutions. The final resolution a seeker should find worth making is that of meeting death voluntarily. The day you feel you can, go ahead and do it. Having determined, the day you see your body lying like a corpse, you will know all that there is to know. Then no scripture in the world, no guru will have anything new to add to it. Question 2...

...: ONE WHO COMMITS SUICIDE ALSO TRIES TO KILL HIMSELF VOLUNTARILY. AND UNTIL HE IS DEAD COMPLETELY, HE REMAINS AWARE OF THE PROCESS OF DYING TOO: THAT THE BODY IS BECOMING COLD, OR THE LIFE ENERGY IS SHRINKING, AND SO ON. BUT HE CANNOT COME BACK IN THE BODY AFTER HAVING REACHED THE FINAL STATE. ISN'T SUICIDE SIMILAR TO THE EXPERIMENT IN VOLUNTARY DEATH? Suicide can be used as an experiment in willpower...

...: "Forget the person you loved before, love someone else." But the man didn't have the guts. Life tells someone, "You were rich until yesterday, today you are bankrupt. Nevertheless, live!" He doesn't have the courage. He is not able to make a determination and live. He sees only one way out: self-destruction. He does this in order to avoid making firm resolves. Meeting death like...

... tree, in a way he also uses his will. But that won't necessarily make him a man of will, because after all, he is running away, he is escaping. A suicidal tendency is essentially an escapist tendency. There is no resolve in it. Death can be used, of course, for the purpose of exercising willpower - but that's a different matter. For example, in the Jaina tradition death has also been used to...

... strengthen willpower. Mahavira is the only person in the world who allowed if any seeker wished to use death for this purpose. No one else has given such permission. Only Mahavira has said one can use death as a spiritual discipline - but not the kind of instantaneous death which occurs by taking poison. One can't build his willpower in one instant; it requires a long span of time. Mahavira says, "Go...

... on a fast, and die of hunger." It takes ninety days for a normal, healthy man to die of hunger. If he is weak in his resolve - even a little bit - the desire for food will return the very next day. By the third day he will begin cursing at having created such a nuisance for himself, and will start finding ways to get out of it. It is very difficult to maintain the desire to stay hungry for...

... ninety days. When Mahavira said, "Stay hungry and die," there was no room for anyone to create any deception, because in ninety days... anyone who has even the slightest lack of will would escape much earlier in the process. So there is no way to deceive. If Mahavira had given the permission to die by taking poison, drowning in a river, jumping off a mountain, it would have been a matter of...

... instant death. Of course, we all manage to make a resolve good enough for one moment. But a warrior good for showing only a moment's bravery is of no use on the battlefield, because he will become a coward the next moment. He will turn out to be a coward with as much resolve as he was brave a moment ago. So Mahavira has given permission to commit santhara, causing death to oneself as a spiritual...

... discipline. If anyone wished to put himself through a final test, even if it meant meeting death voluntarily, Mahavira had given permission for it. This is truly very significant and worth giving a thought. Mahavira is the first person on this earth who has authorized that a seeker can follow this discipline. There are a couple of reasons for it. For one thing, Mahavira was fully assured that no one dies...

... really. Hence he felt there was no need to worry so much about death, and he found no harm in a seeker pursuing this discipline. Secondly, besides being experienced himself, Mahavira was also confident that if a man were to seek death unwaveringly for fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, or a hundred days, the very greatness of that event is bound to transform him. We all experience a moment or two...

... really. The idea comes to us because there is some problem in our life. We think of ending our lives because we lack resolution. Just a little trouble, a little difficulty, and one rushes to end it all. One who wants to meet death because he can't face the problems of life is not a man of will. However, if a man sets out to have a direct, positive experience of death, if he is on his way to know what...

... death is with a positive attitude, if he has no conflict with life, if he is not against life, then even in death this man is searching for life. This is a totally different thing. There is yet another significant factor involved in this matter. Ordinarily, we cannot determine our birth. Although ultimately we do influence birth, but our determination of it happens through our unconscious state. We...

... never know why we will be born, where we will be born, and for what purpose we will be born. But death, in a way, is something which can be determined by us. Death is a very unusual event in life, it's a very decisive happening. Nothing can be clearly determined by us as far as birth is concerned - that is, where to take birth, the purpose of taking birth, the circumstances surrounding the birth, and...

... through death with their own willingness. This was also the reason why Mahavira gave his permission. So the point is, an ordinary man wanting to commit suicide is not a man of will. Question 3: YOU HAVE TALKED ABOUT HOW THE SUBTLE BODY CAN BE SEPARATED FROM THE PHYSICAL BODY USING ONE'S WILLPOWER. CAN THE SUBTLE BODY OF A SEEKER WHO FOLLOWS THE DISCIPLINE OF WITNESSING, OR THAT OF A SEEKER WHO FOLLOWS...

... using the word 'just'; otherwise, why would you have added 'just' before consciousness? Question 7: CAN WE SAY: ONLY AWARENESS? Yes, saying "only awareness" will do, but again, there is no need to add 'only' before it. 'Awareness' is enough - then there is no problem. Question 8: YOU HAVE SAID THAT BY RESOLVING CONSCIOUSLY TO WITHDRAW INSIDE, OR AT THE TIME OF DEATH, THE ENTIRE LIFE ENERGY...

... SHRINKS AND RETURNS TO THE CENTER FOR THE PURPOSE OF TURNING INTO A SEED ONCE AGAIN. AT WHICH CENTER DOES THE ENERGY SHRINK? DOES IT CONCENTRATE AT THE AGYA CHAKRA, AT THE NAVEL, OR AT SOME OTHER POINT? WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHAKRA, AND WHY? This requires a little consideration. The whole energy will of course shrink before death occurs. Before one embarks on a new journey, the energy which is...

... body too leaves behind seeds before it meets death. What we call sperm or ova are the seeds left by the body at the time of death. These are the seeds released prior to death, in anticipation of death. The sperm contains the entire built-in program of your body, it contains the exact replica of your body. As the body gets ready to depart, it leaves behind the tiny seed. This phenomenon occurs at one...

... level - the physical. Similarly, consciousness, on a different level, gathers itself and becomes a seed in order to enter the seed present in some other body. All journeys begin with the seed and end with the seed. Remember, that which is the beginning is also the end. The journey's cycle ends where it started. We begin from a seed, we end up again as a seed. So the question is: at the moment of death...

... whole life obsessed with sex, if he knew nothing beyond sex, if sex was all he lived for - he earned wealth to enjoy sex, he went after a high position in the pursuit of sex, he wanted to have good health so that he could indulge more into sex - if sex was the most predominant center functioning in his life, then that is where the entire energy will converge at the moment of death. Then his new...

... used for exiting the dying body. The soul will enter the new cell in a mother's womb through the same door from which it came out at the previous death - that's the only door it knows. Therefore, the mental condition of the father and the mother, as well as their state of consciousness at the time of intercourse, determine what kind of soul will enter the womb, because only that type of consciousness...

... death, the consciousness of man comes together totally. In that crystallized form it draws in all his conditionings, propensities, desires - the total essence, we may call it the perfume or the stench of his entire life - and moves on to its next journey. Mostly, this journey will be automatic - there won't be any element of choice in it. It will be as if you pour water and it moves into small hollows...

... alive. These are tricks - tricks to keep death away, to shut the doors, to forget all about death. A real humanity will not have any taboos: no taboo about sex, no taboo about death. Life should be lived in its totality, and death is part of life. One should live totally and one should die totally. And that's my message to my sannyasins, Chinmayo. You ask: WHY AM I SO MUCH AFRAID OF DEATH? Because you...

... hundred languages. Meditation gets you into a space where mind is left behind with all its knowledge. Suddenly you start functioning from a state of not-knowing, from innocence. And that innocence is beautiful and that innocence is fragrant. That innocence is the essential religion. The fifth question: OSHO, WHY AM I SO MUCH AFRAID OF DEATH? Chinmayo, ONE IS AFRAID OF DEATH because one is unaware of...

... what life is. If you know what life is, the fear of death disappears of its own accord. The question is not of death at all, the question is of life. Because we don't know what life is, hence we are afraid that it is going to end one day. We have not even lived. How can you live without knowing what it is? You have neither lived nor loved; you have simply been dragging, vegetating. And you know that...

... one thing is certain: death is coming closer every day, every moment, hence the fear. The fear is natural because death will close the door forever. And without ever knowing what life was you will be taken away. You were given an opportunity, a great opportunity, and you missed it. You go on postponing for tomorrow. You say, "Tomorrow I am going to live." But simultaneously, side by side...

..., there is a fear: you know, "Tomorrow, who knows? Tomorrow maybe death will come, then what?" And you have postponed life for tomorrow and there is no more tomorrow - then what? Then fear arises. And you don't know how to live right now. Nobody tells you how to live right now. The preachers, the politicians, the parents, they all tell you about the tomorrows. When you are a child they tell...

..., so you start saying the same things to your children. If you love your children, if you love your younger brothers, sisters, never tell lies to them. And your whole religion consists of lies! Be truthful, tell them, "I don't know and I am searching." Don't postpone it for tomorrow. Our whole life is a postponement, hence the fear of death: "I have not known yet and death is coming...

...." It is not you alone, Chinmayo, who is afraid of death. You ask: WHY AM I SO MUCH AFRAID OF DEATH? Everybody is afraid of death for the simple reason that we have not tasted of life yet. The man who knows what life is is never afraid of death; he welcomes death. Whenever death comes he hugs death, he embraces death, he welcomes death, he receives death as a guest. To the man who has not known...

... what life is, death is an enemy; and to the man who knows what life is, death is the ultimate crescendo of life. But everybody is afraid of death; that too is contagious. Your parents are afraid of death, your neighbors are afraid of death. Small children start getting infected by this constant fear all around. Everybody is afraid of death. People don't even want to talk about death. There have been...

... only two taboos in the world: sex and death. It is very strange why sex and death have been the two taboos not to be talked about, to be avoided. They are deeply connected. Sex represents life because all life arises out of sex, and death represents the end. And both have been taboo - don't talk about sex and don't talk about death. And there have been only two types of cultures in the world. One...

... category consists of the cultures for whom sex is taboo. They can talk about death, in fact they talk too much about death. For example, in India, listen to the mahatmas, to the saints, and you will find it. Nobody talks about sex, everybody talks about death - to frighten you, to create fear in you, because out of fear you can be enslaved, out of fear you can be forced to be religious, out of fear you...

... exists, fear disappears; and where fear exists, love has no possibility to grow. In a society like India, death is not taboo. Indian scriptures are full of very detailed descriptions of death. They describe with gusto how ugly death is. They describe your body in such ugly, disgusting ways that you will be surprised at these people - why are they so interested, so obsessed with all that is disgusting...

... and nauseating? - for the simple reason that they want you to become so afraid of life, so antagonistic to life, so negative to life.... They destroy your love for life, your affirmation of life by talking about death, by making death as big as possible and as dark as possible by depicting death in all the ugliest colors. And then there are societies.... For example, Christianity for centuries has...

... can even make a man pregnant! Anything is possible; with the Holy Ghost nothing is impossible. Sex is a taboo for Christianity: "Don't talk about sex!" Now, after Sigmund Freud, the first taboo is broken; sex is no more a taboo. We have shifted to another taboo; now death has become the taboo. Now don't talk about death. It seems as if man needs some taboo or other. The Victorian society...

... was a society rooted in the taboo of sex. Now the modern society, Western society, is rooted in the taboo of death. Don't talk about death at all, forget all about death as if it does not happen - at least it does not happen to you, at least it has not happened to you up to now, so why bother about it? Forget all about it. When a man dies in the West now, there are experts to decorate the man. He...

... may never have looked so beautiful as he looks after death-painted and his cheeks so red as if he had just come from a three months vacation in Florida! And so healthy, as if he had just been exercising and were now doing shravasan - the death posture - not really dead. The pretension has to be created that he is not dead. And even on the gravestone it is written: "He is not dead, he is only...

... are not yet living totally. Live totally and the fear of death will disappear. And you are not alone; everybody is in the same boat. It was a typical British Men's Club: pipe smoke hanging in the air, thick leather chairs, carved oak panels. The old retired colonel was recounting his daring exploits in Africa. "Nearly lost me life to a black- maned lion once!" "Oh, really, sir?"...

..., he degraded himself into being a mortal, into someone who is going to die. Although the life within you and the consciousness within you is eternal and immortal, still you go on being afraid of death because you see somebody dying every day. And everybody's death reminds you of your own death. The poet sings, "Never ask for whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee." In Christian...

... certain fact that people die, animals die, trees die, birds die. How can you avoid the fact that you are also going to die -- maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow? It is only a question of time. But still, those who are aware of their being know that nobody dies. Death is an illusion. You have seen people die; have you ever seen yourself dying? And when you see somebody dying, are you really...

... front of such a man, death is defeated. Death is defeated only by those who are ready to die any moment, without any reluctance. They become the immortals, they become the buddhas. A MOMENT'S HESITATION WHEN DEATH COMES AND YOU WILL BE UNDER THE SPELL OF DEVILS. YOUR REAL BODY, your real being IS PURE AND IMPERVIOUS. BUT BECAUSE OF DELUSIONS, YOU ARE UNAWARE OF IT. AND BECAUSE OF THIS, YOU SUFFER IN...

... WAY. THE WAY IS WORDLESS. WORDS ARE ILLUSIONS. THEY'RE NO DIFFERENT FROM THINGS THAT APPEAR IN YOUR DREAMS AT NIGHT, BE THEY PALACES OR CARRIAGES .... DON'T CONCEIVE ANY DELIGHT FOR SUCH THINGS. THEY'RE ALL CRADLES OF REBIRTH. KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN YOU APPROACH DEATH. DON'T CLING TO APPEARANCES, AND YOU'LL BREAK THROUGH ALL BARRIERS. A MOMENT'S HESITATION AND YOU'LL BE UNDER THE SPELL OF DEVILS...

... convey to you. Every death is symbolic. It shows that you are standing in the same queue and the queue is becoming shorter and shorter. Every day you are coming closer and closer to death. In fact the day you were born was not the day of your birth; it was the day you started dying. And since then you have been dying every day. Every birthday, your death has come one year closer. It is an absolutely...

...-five, he died for the third time. People were very suspicious because two times before he had played the trick; he died. Diagnosed by the doctors as dead, certified as dead, he woke up, opened his eyes and started laughing. So when he died this time, people were very cautious. Doctors were very cautious, but there was every certainty of his death; there was no question. They said, "Perhaps...

... before he may have deceived you, but this time he is certainly dead. As far as medical science can know, he fulfills every requirement of a dead man." And the moment the certificate was signed by three doctors, the man opened his eyes, started laughing and said, "Listen, next time when I am going to die, I am going to REALLY die. I just thought one time more ...." That part of Kashmir...

... very young child, not more than seven or eight years old, he came in contact with a Sufi mystic who told him that death is an illusion. And he was so innocent that he accepted it. The Sufi mystic said to him, "There is a very simple way to slip out of your body. Just watch it from inside; watch the body and suddenly there will come more and more distance between you and your body. Soon the body...

... stop watching. Become identified with the body. Say, 'I am the body, I am the mind, I am the breathing, I am the heart beating.' Immediately the distance will disappear. You will come closer and soon you will slip back into the body." Identifying yourself with the body, you become the body. Then you are a mortal. Then there is fear of death. Non-identifying with the body, you are just a watcher...

..., you are just a pure consciousness, a no-mind. And there is no death and there is no disease and there is no old age. As far as your witnessing is concerned, it is eternal and it is always fresh and young and the same. The authentic religion does not teach you to worship. The authentic religion teaches you to discover your immortality, to discover the god within you. And that's what Bodhidharma is...

... YOUR DREAMS AT NIGHT, BE THEY PALACES OR CARRIAGES .... DON'T CONCEIVE ANY DELIGHT FOR SUCH THINGS. THEY ARE ALL CRADLES OF REBIRTH. KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN YOU APPROACH DEATH. DON'T CLING TO APPEARANCES, AND YOU WILL BREAK THROUGH ALL BARRIERS. This is a great statement to be remembered because everybody is going to pass through the gates of death someday. If you can remember that you are only pure...

... consciousness -- not the body, not the mind, not the heart, not your money, not your prestige, not your power, not your house, but just pure consciousness -- then you can pass through the barrier of death unscratched. Then death cannot make even a dent in you. Death has power over you only if you are attached. You are not afraid of death. The basic psychology is you are afraid of death because it will take...

... you away from all your attachments. If it were possible that you could take your wife and your children and your house and your money and your power and everything that you think belongs to you, with yourself when you are dying, I don't think you would be afraid. You would rejoice; a great adventure -- going with the whole caravan. But death cuts everything away from you, leaves you utterly naked...

... -- only as a consciousness .... In the UPANISHADS there is an ancient story that I have always loved. A great king named Yayati became one hundred years old. Now it was enough; he had lived tremendously. He had enjoyed all that life could make available. He was one of the greatest kings of his time. But the story is beautiful .... Death came and said to Yayati, "Get ready. It is time for you, and I...

... have come to take you." Yayati saw Death, and he was a great warrior and he had won many wars. Yayati started trembling, and said, "But it is too early." Death said, "Too early! You have been alive for one hundred years. Even your children have become old. Your eldest son is eighty years old. What more do you want?" Yayati had one hundred sons because he had one hundred wives...

.... He asked Death, "Can you do a favor for me? I know you have to take someone. If I can persuade one of my sons, can you leave me for one hundred years more and take one of my sons?" Death said, "That is perfectly okay if somebody else is ready to go. But I don't think .... If you are not ready, and you are the father and you have lived more and you have enjoyed everything, why should...

... your son be ready?" Yayati called his one hundred sons. The older sons remained silent. There was great silence, nobody was saying anything. Only one, the youngest son who was only sixteen years of age, stood up and he said, "I am ready." Even Death felt sorry for the boy and said to the young man, "Perhaps you are too innocent. Can't you see your ninety-nine brothers are...

... even if I live one hundred years, I will not be satisfied either. So it doesn't matter whether I go today or after ninety years. You just take me." Death took the boy. And after one hundred years he came back. And Yayati was in the same position. And he said, "These hundred years passed so soon. All my old sons have died, but I have another regiment. I can give you some son. Just have mercy...

... on me." It went on -- the story goes on to say -- for one thousand years. Ten times Death came. And nine times he took some son and Yayati lived one hundred years more. The tenth time Yayati said, "Although I am still as unsatisfied as I was when you came for the first time, now -- although unwillingly, reluctantly -- I will go, because I cannot go on asking for favors. It is too much...

.... And one thing has become certain to me, that if one thousand years cannot help me to be contented, then even ten thousand will not do." It is the attachment. You can go on living but as the idea of death strikes you, you will start trembling. But if you are not attached to anything, death can come this very moment and you will be in a very welcoming mood. You will be absolutely ready to go. In...

... VAIN. WHEREVER YOU FIND DELIGHT, YOU FIND BONDAGE. BUT ONCE YOU AWAKEN TO YOUR ORIGINAL BEING AND no-MIND, YOU ARE NO LONGER BOUND BY ATTACHMENTS. This freedom is the goal of all religious search. Freedom from attachment is freedom from death. Freedom from attachment is freedom from the wheel of birth and death. Freedom from attachment makes you capable of entering into the universal light and...

... as a signature on the sand; winds will come and you will be forgotten. There will not be left a single trace of you," it shocked the whole spiritual world, because all the religions and all the spiritual traditions at least agree on one thing, that the soul is immortal. You have it whether you know it or not and it can never die. Death happens to the body, not to the soul. It is simply a...

..., every hotel, every possible place was completely filled. He went around ... finally he collapsed before a hotel manager. He said, "I will die. The whole day I have been searching for somewhere to stay and I have not been able to find a place. You have to help me; otherwise my death will be on your head." The manager said, "It is very difficult. Every room is full, just ... I am a little...

... to the root of life-and-death. Do you know you have roots? You know perfectly well any tree uprooted is going to die. Roots are hidden underneath the ground. Just because you don't have roots in the ground, because you walk here and there ... Have you heard about trees in Africa which walk? Not very fast, no traffic rule is needed, but they go on moving towards the sources where more water is...

... ROOT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH. From where this life is arising, from the same place death will arise. To be more accurate, life and death both are walking together. They are two wings, or two legs -- side by side. Every day you live, every day you die. It is not that after seventy years, one day suddenly you die. It is not possible so suddenly, for no reason -- just lying in your bed and you die. And what...

... support you, the roots no longer nourish you; you shrink, you close your eyes and you die. All the meditations are in fact in the search for the roots from where the life has arisen and to where the life goes back -- to where? If we can find the roots, we can find from where it is getting its nourishment. And to know the universal life as your nourishment, you have gone beyond life-and-death. This is...

... universal, into the ultimate. There is no other way. It is not a technique, it is simply grabbing your original roots, from where you are coming. Naturally you have to dig deep -- and without any fear because nothing can be taken from you. The day you were born your destiny was decided, that you will die. Between birth and death, whatever you do is of no meaning. Only one thing can be meaningful: if you...

...Beyond life-and-death...

... Osho The Language of Existence: Beyond life-and-death Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho The Language of Existence   Next > Beyond life-and-death From: Osho Date: Fri, 2 September 1988 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Rinzai: Master of the Irrational Chapter #: 4 Location: pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A...

.... Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. OUR BELOVED MASTER, BUKKO SAID: THE WAY OUT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH IS NOT SOME SPECIAL TECHNIQUE; THE ESSENTIAL THING IS TO SEE THROUGH TO THE ROOT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH. THAT ROOT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT FELL FROM HEAVEN OR SPRANG UP FROM EARTH. IT IS AT THE CENTER OF THE FUNCTIONING OF EVERY MAN, LIVING WITH HIS LIFE, DYING WITH HIS DEATH, BECOMING A...

... MASS OF KNOWINGS AND PERCEIVINGS AND JUDGMENTS, THE TRUE SELF IS ALWAYS SO WRAPPED UP IN THE DISTINCTIONS AND EXCLUSIVITIES THAT IT DOES NOT EMERGE TO SHOW ITSELF AS IT IS. Maneesha, in the world of Zen, Bukko is something like George Gurdjieff. When George Gurdjieff for the first time said, "You all don't have souls. Unless you achieve a crystallization of your being, you will live and die just...

... earned. This was a very new idea, that you have to deserve it. Ordinarily you are just an empty bottle; inside there is nothing. You have to earn, you have to be worthy, you have to gather your consciousness in such a crystallized way that it can pass through death without dying. So according to George Gurdjieff, only a few people live eternally, most people are just experimental. They are born, they...

... do all kinds of stupid things, and the final stupidity -- they die. But they don't leave even a trace in the world of eternity. Only very few people, like Gautam Buddha, achieve to the eternal. And because of these few people, the fallacy has come into being that everybody has an eternal being: Buddha achieved it, Mahavira achieved it, Bukko achieved it. Gurdjieff's logic was, because these few...

...; there is no need. To create the need Gurdjieff and Bukko both insisted that as you are, you are really empty. You can be filled with fulfillment and contentment, with tremendous joy and celebration, but you will have to do something. BUKKO SAID: THE WAY OUT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH IS NOT SOME SPECIAL TECHNIQUE. To go beyond life-and-death there is no certain technique. The essential thing is to see through...

... are beyond ordinary material things. Then no sword can cut you and no fire can burn you. Now there is no life and no death, but a totally new phenomenon which is beyond. The other ordinary fallacy is that by being spiritual you will overcome death. But you don't understand that you can overcome death only if you overcome life also. They are both part of one coin, two sides; you cannot have a coin...

... which has only one side. The moment you transcend death, in the same moment you transcend life. Then what remains? All that we know is our mundane life ... and then one day people are carrying you towards the burning ghat. We don't know anything at all beyond life-and-death. Bukko's approach is: THE WAY OUT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH IS NOT SOME SPECIAL TECHNIQUE; THE ESSENTIAL THING IS TO SEE THROUGH TO THE...

... the authentic Zen experience. THAT ROOT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT FELL FROM HEAVEN OR SPRANG UP FROM EARTH. IT IS AT THE CENTER OF THE FUNCTIONING OF EVERY MAN, LIVING WITH HIS LIFE, DYING WITH HIS DEATH, BECOMING A BUDDHA, MAKING A PATRIARCH. Whatever you do, at the center of your being is the root that is connecting you with the universal life source. THESE ARE ALL IN DEPENDENCE OF IT, AND ONE WHO...

... can find the roots of birth and death. Then you can sit silently like a buddha, in utter peace, with no fear, in great ecstasy. Tokken wrote: SEVENTY-SIX YEARS, UNBORN, UNDYING: CLOUDS BREAK UP, MOON SAILS ON. Zen has such a beautiful way of saying things. SEVENTY-SIX YEARS, UNBORN, UNDYING: CLOUDS BREAK UP, MOON SAILS ON. He is giving you the idea how you have been moving. Clouds are there but the...

... moon goes on moving. Once you have got hold of the moon, it does not matter whether clouds are there or not -- they don't leave their marks on the moon. Issa wrote, on the death of his child: THIS DEWDROP WORLD -- IT MAY BE A DEWDROP, AND YET ... AND YET ... He loved his child very much -- the mother had died. He loved his small child and that child also died. On his death he wrote this small haiku...

... another, but death cannot do more than that -- just the changing of the house. To the non-meditator death is the end, to the meditator, a beginning. It is a new beginning, a fresh beginning, freed from the old rotten body, the old mind. It is a resurrection; every death is a resurrection. But if you don't know it, you will die unconsciously without experiencing the beauty of resurrection. If you can die...

... consciously, death is only a door into a new life on a higher plane. But to die consciously, one has to live consciously. You cannot manage to die consciously without a long, meditative, conscious life. Only a conscious life is rewarded with a conscious death -- it is a reward, but only to the conscious man. To the unconscious man, it is the end to all his efforts, ambitions, desires. There is only darkness...

... consciousness, death disappears just as darkness disappears when there is light brought in. Meditation brings the light in, and death is found to be the greatest fiction. It appears only from the outside that somebody is dying. From the inside nobody has ever died, and that is where your life source is. Chintan is taking his death very joyously, very peacefully. He will die consciously. He is giving every...

...: Yes Length: 74 mins Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, MY FRIEND, CHINTAN, IS JUST STARTING SIX MONTHS OF HEAVY CHEMOTHERAPY. YOU HAVE ALREADY SENT HIM SUCH BEAUTIFUL MESSAGES FOR HIS MEDITATION WHILE PASSING THROUGH THIS. NOW, OSHO, DO YOU HAVE SOME JOKES FOR HIM TOO? Prem Garima, Chintan is certainly passing through a difficult stage, but everybody has to finally pass through the difficult stage of death...

.... Only a meditator is capable of passing through it as if it is a joke. He can pass through it laughing and singing, because he knows that the fire cannot burn and the death cannot destroy him. There is no sword that can cut him. He belongs to the eternal life. Once a small glimpse of the eternity is achieved, there is no life which can be destroyed by anything. It can be removed from one form into...

... ahead, not a single light and no possibilities left. Death simply takes away the whole future. Naturally, the unconscious man is immensely afraid and deeply trembling, knowing that death is coming closer every day. Since your birth the only thing that has been certain is death; everything else is uncertain and accidental. Only death is not accidental; it is an absolute certainty. There is no way to...

... are a great king; it is an exception -- otherwise I never come to inform anybody. I come without any information." The king said, "But who are you?" The dark shadow laughed and said, "I am your death, and be prepared. Tomorrow, as the sun will be setting, I am going to come to you." Naturally, this nightmare woke him up. Even after he was awake, knowing well that it was only...

... a dream, he was trembling and perspiring. And his heart was beating so loudly he could hear it himself. He immediately called the council of all his wise men, and particularly the royal astrologers, prophets, and told them the dream. He asked them the meaning of it -- is it true that death is going to happen? The astrologers may be able to figure it out. The wise men, the philosophers, the...

.... This is the place destined for your death, and your horse has brought you right on time." Whether you run or you stay it doesn't matter death comes. Death has started coming closer to you from the very moment you were born. In what form it comes does not matter. Bertrand Russell has said that if there were no death in the world, there would have been no religion. He has some great insight there...

...: without death, who was going to bother about meditation? Without death, who was going to bother to know about the secret mysteries of life? One would have remained always concerned with the mundane and the worldly. Who would have turned inwards? There would have been no Gautam Buddha. So death is not just a calamity, it is a blessing in disguise. If you can understand, if you have this much intelligence...

... -- that after birth, death is approaching every moment closer - - you will not lose your time in trivia. Your priority will be to know what this life is before it ends: Who is living in me? What force? For every intelligent man and woman this is the priority. Everything else is secondary to knowing oneself. Once you know yourself, there is no death. Death was only in your ignorance. In your meditative...

... indication that death cannot make him unconscious, cannot knock him unconscious. He will retain his consciousness, and he will have a laugh as he will be dying, because the whole world is living in an illusion. Life is neither born nor dies. It has been before birth; it will be after death. Birth and death both are small episodes in the eternal stream of consciousness and light. Garima, you are asking for...

... is going to die. This immediacy of death should wake you up. Now there is no more time for you to fool around, no time for you to deceive yourself. Death is just there waiting for you, and you are fortunate that you know it. Knowing of your death can become a transformation. If you know you are going to die within two years, these two years can be devoted to meditation. Otherwise people are always...

... you always wanted to read, listen to the music that you always wanted to listen to but could not find the time, see the films.... Now you have enough time - two years! Nobody is so rich as to have a two-year period completely to himself! Meditate. Use these two years for deep meditation, so that when death comes, you die in silence, in peace, in joy, because you will be knowing the fruit of the...

... other tree - eternal life. You can die dancing, singing." Death is not a problem at all. What does it matter whether it comes from tuberculosis, or cancer, or AIDS? AIDS is the best, because there is no cure for it. But in the outside world, information is being repressed. No government wants to give the actual number of how many people are suffering from AIDS, because to give that information...

... Osho From Death to Deathlessness: Your aloneness cannot be destroyed Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho From Death to Deathlessness   Next > Your aloneness cannot be destroyed From: Osho Date: Fri, 31 August 1985 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: From Death to Deathlessness Chapter #: 26 Location: am in Rajneeshmandir Archive Code: N.A. Short...

... Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, AIDS CONFRONTS US WITH THE IMMEDIACY OF OUR DEATH. OUR SERIOUSNESS SEEMS TO CREATE MORE DISEASE AND PARANOIA. INSTEAD OF FEELING LIKE VICTIMS, HOW CAN WE RESPOND THROUGH CELEBRATION? Death is always there. You may be unaware of it, but it is always confronting you with immediacy. You cannot be certain of the...

... next moment. But we go on living - and nobody believes that he is going to die; it is always the other who dies. You have seen people dying, many people of all kinds - children, young people, old people - but you have never seen yourself dying. So obviously somewhere in your mind the idea persists that it is always the other who dies. But remember, those who are dead also had the same idea; for them...

... you are the other. And one day you will be dying, and the people who will take you to the graveyard will not feel at all the immediacy of death. It is always there - just like a shadow to you. From the very first moment of your birth you have been dying. It is a fallacy to think that death comes like an accident, suddenly when you are seventy, eighty, ninety. No. Death and life are together. The...

... moment you are born you start dying. But man is very clever in deceiving himself. Each of your birthdays is an effort to forget that it is not your birthday, it is your death day; you have died one year more. But with flowers and candles and cakes, one forgets the immediacy of death. It is always with you. Birth is the beginning of death. So AIDS in fact should not make you serious; on the contrary it...

... should make you more alert, more aware, because you are a rare person for whom death is a certainty, and you cannot deceive yourself anymore. Many who do not have AIDS will be dying before you, but their death will be coming without their knowing. And to know is always better than not to know. Something can be done when you know a fact is going to happen. The AIDS patient knows that within two years he...

... seen it. Your swords cannot cut it, even your nuclear weapons are unable to touch it. How are you going to kill time? But time is killing you every moment. AIDS should be understood as a great blessing. Now you can stop playing cards, you can stop fooling around. You can stop watching stupid football matches. Now all the time is yours, and the only thing left before death comes, is to know thyself...

.... And the death is so close that you cannot afford to remain ignorant about your own being. The very closeness of death makes it possible for you to understand the deathless which is within you. That's the whole art of meditation: to go within as deep as you can to the very center of your being. And you will be surprised, amazed that at the center of your being you are eternal. There is no death...

..., there has never been any death. Nothing dies in reality, it only changes forms. AIDS can destroy your body - but it is going to be destroyed anyway, there is not much problem. It is better that it is being destroyed by AIDS, because you cannot hope to survive; with AIDS your hope has also died. Now there is no cure, you have to face the fact. No help from the outside is available, you have to depend...

... on your inside. You are left alone. In fact everybody has always been alone. From birth to death, the whole journey is alone. You may be in the crowd, but your aloneness cannot be destroyed. It is there. You make every effort to camouflage your aloneness, but nobody has ever succeeded in it. A truth is a truth - you may postpone it a little bit.... AIDS destroys all postponement. Whatever has to be...

... about other poor human beings who are just born out of their father and mother, mortals? This book is holy? Then magazines like PLAYBOY, PLAYGIRL should start calling themselves holy magazines - of course, in color... glossy. You say, "AIDS confronts us with the immediacy of death...." It is good that you become aware that death is there, absolutely certain. Now is the time to find something...

... in you which is deathless, which is beyond death. You cannot find a better time for meditation, at least in my commune. And don't feel serious, because death is natural; what causes it is meaningless. Don't be in a paranoia. In fact, rejoice that you are the chosen few; everybody else is in darkness about his death, you are not. And the very fact that you know death is coming is bound to create...

... space for you to know yourself. This will not happen in the outside world where they are declaring homosexuality illegal. This will not happen in the outside world, because even if a person is found with AIDS, he will bribe the physicians to keep the information secret. Your wife may have told you, "I will die for you," but when she comes to know you have AIDS.... Your children, your parents...

... respectful to them, be loving to them. Do everything that the commune can do for them, because their death is certain. Help them to meditate. If before death they can manage to enter into their being, they will have tasted the fruit of the other tree which Adam and Eve missed. It is within you. And knowing your eternal being, knowing that you have been here always and you will be here always, is a...

...From Death to Deathlessness...

... FOR, MAKE MEN'S CONDUCT TO EVIL CHANGE. THEREFORE, THE SAGE SEEKS TO SATISFY (THE CRAVING OF) THE NAVEL, AND NOT THE (INSATIABLE LONGING OF THE) EYES. HE PUTS FROM HIM THE LATTER, AND PREFERS TO SEEK THE FORMER. The ultimate fruit of life can only be death. It can be said that we die each day in the name of living. Death does not come all of a sudden. Nothing happens accidentally or suddenly in this...

... within our understanding, we shall find that the process of death takes place every day, and in many forms. The eyes are impaired and finally destroyed by the act of seeing continuously. The ears lose their power of hearing by the continuous process of hearing. The same happens with the other senses. We die in the process of living. The very act of living is the arrangement for death. It wears us out...

... experience remains in the memory. Generally, for most people, the senses die before actual death. Therefore, there is no remembrance of death. It is interesting to note that ninety-nine per cent of those who remember their past lives are people who have died in their previous life as children or youths. Their lives came suddenly to a halt when their senses were as yet alert and fresh. The impact of death...

... taste is called nectar for two reasons. One is that there is no taste sweeter than nectar. The second is that on attaining this taste, we at once come to know that there is no death. I cannot die. My death is impossible. What dies is only the mechanism. I remain after death. But if we have used up all our energies in the outgoing senses and are completely spent, we can never know of the senses within...

... world. That which we call happenings are actually long processes. Death also does not descend unexpectedly, it develops day by day. It is not an event but a process. Death begins from the very moment of birth. On the day of death, the process is complete. Death is a development, it is not sudden. So it is not that death will take place sometime in the future. It happens continuously. It is happening...

... even now, as we sit here. If we sit for an hour here, we shall be dead by another hour; life will be emptied by one more hour. Another thing: death is not something that comes to you from without. We all think that death comes from outside, that the messenger of death draws out the life breath from within us. This is a wrong conception that arises out of our belief that all pain is inflicted on us by...

... the other. No one brings about death. It is an internal happening. It happens within you. You are gradually disintegrating within yourself. The mechanism that is you begins slowly to give way - and one day, death occurs So death is a long process that begins with life and ends with death. Another thing, it is not an outside happening. It develops internally - it is an internal process. If this comes...

... till ultimately the whole system breaks down. Lao Tzu says: "The various colours blind the eyes." We can never imagine that colour can impair vision. Colours, we think, are the life of vision. To enjoy the multi-coloured vista of nature is the function of the eyes. Colour and form are the nourishment of sight. But Lao Tzu declares that they are death to the eyes. This has a double meaning...

... to be retired. Seen in this context, we can say that the more the eyes see, the more they die; the more the ears hear, the more they go deaf; the more we touch, the less sensitive we become; and the more we taste, the lesser becomes the sense of taste. This means that each sense organ works towards its own destruction. Hence our whole life is suicidal. After seeing a movie, you feel your eyes are...

... capacity tires soon and dies. This is one meaning. Another interpretation is that Lao Tzu means to say that we can keep our senses live and fresh till the moment of death. A person who keeps his senses young an I fresh till his last hour can enjoy the taste of death; he can enjoy the colour of death; he can touch death; he can experience death. But alas, all our capacity to experience is destroyed long...

... before death! Therefore, in spite of the fact that we have died several times, we have no experience of death. There is a reason for this. We have died several times, but if we ask a person what death is, he will say he has no idea of what death is like. This is because we remember nothing at the time of death. Remembrance can only happen if the senses are alert. Then they can experience, and that...

... alert and fresh every moment. Then alone can he experience death - and also life. It is a noteworthy fact that those who see colours constantly not only lose their sight but also their taste and experience of colours. The stream gets dried up and only the hollow remains. That is why the world is never so colourful in later life as it appears to a child's eye. The thrill a child experiences when he...

... order to get some sensation. Those that progress further in their sadhana need to keep bigger and more poisonous snakes, ones that would cause instant death in ordinary human beings. It is possible to kill one's senses so much. In fact, we all have killed our senses to some extent. This is why we never experience dictates, gentle, subtle experiences. We need to have sharp experiences. If the strains...

... of the veena are very gentle, they do not register on us. A sharp vigil is required for this. We are jolted into feeling and experiencing only when there is tumult and uproar. Then only are we conscious that some sound is going on. Everything within us is dead. Lao Tzu says: "Colour kills our eyes, sound kills the ears and taste kills the ability to taste." This death of our senses...

... encases us in a coffin long before our death. Then we continue to live within our coffins, dragging our corpses along. This has doubly ill-effects on us. The first is that the experience of life becomes weaker and weaker, and the perception of existence is restrained and hindered - and then we are deprived of the great experience of death which we ought to undergo. He who does not experience death also...

... deprives himself of the experience of life and cannot realise the reality of life. He has known only the frustrations and anxieties of life and not its supreme relaxation. He experiences the tumult, but not the peace and tranquillity of relaxation. He remains a stranger to death. This, however, is a very superficial ill-effect. The second ill-effect is more profound. All our senses are two-faced. There...

...! Sleep is bound to come. Thank God you have at least that much energy left to fall off to sleep! Scientists, especially in the East, say that if a man lives till he is eighty years old, it is difficult for him to die. Dying requires a certain amount of energy also. An eighty year old man will be bed-ridden and filled with a thousand ailments but he does not die. Those around him wait for him to die...

... every day; but the last flicker is very necessary before the flame goes off. He does not have this last spurt of energy. He subsists on the most minimum of energy. It is an astounding fact, but true, that a healthy man dies in his very first illness; but those who are habitually ill, develop the art of sustaining themselves on a minimum of energy. They do not have enough strength even to die. They...

... enlightenment possible until this 'I' is dissolved? This 'I' is the wall between oneself and God. Until this wall falls, how can God be experienced? This journey is a journey of death. The seeker has set out to die. But only through dying is the ultimate life attained; only by losing oneself is one found. Because of this, mind is afraid... so it creates illusions and substitutes. Understand well this law of...

... my death takes place, because separateness both has to be born and has to die also. But if I am not separate, then I was before my birth ; only my forms may have been different. I will remain after my death; my form can be any but there is no way to perish. If I am one with the whole, then life is eternal, with no beginnings and no ends, from infinity to infinity. The fear disappears, and then...

... when I am not will death cease to be, because the whole never dies; the vast existence never perishes. Waves come and go, but the ocean remains. As long as I am a wave I am going to die; once I am the ocean there is no way to die. In this sutra, Rama symbolizes this vast ocean. It has no relation with the Hindu or the Christian or the Mohammedan. For Hindus, Rama is a very sweet word indicative of...

... death for it. The one who will set out in search of God will lose himself. But in referring to a dictionary there is no worry about losing oneself, in reciting the scriptures there is no question of losing oneself. But one who seeks enlightenment will disappear, because no enlightenment, no liberation, is possible without disappearance. Basically, it is the 'I' who is the bondage. Then how is...

... is the end of one's own will. The man who is full of what we call willpower will find this statement quite meaningless because he feels that, "I am my own power. My power comes from me; my success comes from me; wealth, position, prestige, all come because of me. I am the source of power; I will create wealth, expand the empire, increase my power; I will fight even death and will one day...

... nothing but an idea. I can be only if I can manage to remain separate from this whole existence. But if I have no air to breathe even for a few moments, I will come to an end; no sunrise and I will soon die. In this vast network of existence, even if a single little thing slips from somewhere - all the bricks of the house, the house called me collapses. Of this whole cosmos I am just a small part, and...

... not such as can be separated. The moment I become separate, I am not." Just think about it. Separate yourself from existence, and what are you? Immediately you disappear. Your life current flows from the whole, the totality. Your breathing comes out of the whole, and goes back to it. You are born out of it, and in death you return to it. Everything comes from it and returns to it. There is a...

... goes on worsening, only a few will survive - those who can afford pure air; all the rest will die. Even now, sitting here, just breathing we are in struggle. We are sitting, apparently peacefully, and there seems to be no struggle, no competition, but the competitor is there inside. Even friends are hidden enemies. If you maintain a separateness, this whole world is your enemy and you have to protect...

... your life by fighting it. Thinkers like Darwin could come up with theories like "survival of the fittest" because basically they consider everyone to be separate. Then life is a conflict, a chaos, and violence is its rule. Destroying others is the only way to survive. Your death is my life; my death is your life. In such a way of life, bliss is impossible. Where violence is the law, bliss...

... is impossible. Where violence is the law, celebration is impossible. Where violence is the law, peace is impossible. Where every moment is a fight for survival, there is no way to attain the enlightened state of life. Where there is battle for every breath and a need to become the other's death, how can there be opportunity and room for rejoicing and celebration, and for gratitude? If I am separate...

... breathing and breathe, in whose existence is included our existence. Try to understand this. If this is true, if this experience of the mystics is true, that we are part of the whole, then there can be no such thing as death for us, because it is only persons who disappear; the whole remains forever. It was when I was not, and it will be when I am no more. If I am separate, then my birth takes place and...

... arises celebration in life. How can fearful hearts dance? Death is omnipresent, casting its shadow from all sides, lurking round every corner, following wherever you go. The sense of separateness gives birth to death. If I am separate, then death is inevitable. If I am one with this vast oneness, death perishes. Or, to put it another way, the moment ego disappears, death disappears. As the will...

... dissolves, there is no death and the deathless is born. This is why the mystics say that surrender is deathlessness. People search for nectar.... In the West there is the long tradition of the alchemists. In the East - in India, in China - people have been experimenting with metals and chemical formulae, in the hope of finding nectar, something which makes man immortal. But no chemical research will ever...

... lead to nectar, because nectar is not a chemical; neither will it come from mercury, nor from gold dust, nor from pearls. No, none of these will help, because the very meaning of nectar is something else: it is not the product of a chemical process. Nectar means surrender. Nectar means the disappearance of death; it is the death of death itself. As it is, your inner existential state is death. You...

... may try to hide it and you may try to ignore it, but your inner existential state is death. Every moment you are shaken by death; every moment death is resonating within you. Your body is traveling fast towards its death. Each moment brings death a little nearer, and from all around death is watching you. You see an old man and you are reminded of death; you see a demolished house and the memory of...

... death stirs in you; a withered flower is sufficient to bring the fragrance of death; a fountain has run dry - again it is death looking at you. Look anywhere. Death prevails, and you are shaken by it. In this shaken state.... Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, was a great thinker of the West. He says that man's actual state is a trembling; man is shaken every moment. Some time or other just close...

... symptom of the warrior who is losing on the battlefield. Inside is an intense trembling. Death is standing in front of them! Frightened, man kneels and wrings his hands, begging to be saved. And this we have formalized into prayer: we face God afraid, and tell him of the death that is pursuing us; we pray for relief, and beg him to save us from death! I have heard, in Damascus there was a Sufi master...

.... One morning his servant came to him and asked him for his horse. "I have not much time," the servant said. "I was in the market buying vegetables for you, and somebody put his hand on my shoulder; he was shrouded in black. 'Who are you?' I asked. 'Your death! Be prepared this evening, for I am coming,' was his answer." The master laughed and said, "You may take my horse...

...." The servant left Damascus immediately, and fled to Samarra. When he had gone, the master went to the city and visited the marketplace. He saw Death lurking in the corner and asked him, "Why all this playing tricks? Why did you frighten my servant needlessly? If there was any message to be delivered, you should have brought it to me." "I did not mean to frighten him," said...

... Death; "it was a surprise to me when my hand reached out on its own and placed itself on his shoulder. I wondered how he came to be strolling around here, when my appointment with him this evening is in Samarra, which is far away. It was my own surprise that placed my hand on his shoulder." The master laughed again. "But why do you laugh?" asked Death. "When he asked me for my...

... horse this morning, then too I laughed," replied the master, "and I felt sorry for him. I also felt that he must reach Samarra before nightfall, and walking all the way would wear him out, so I gave him my horse thinking that if he is going to Samarra his death is predestined there." Run anywhere you like, but even if your horse is the fastest - there is no escape. All the alchemists...

... be saved from death; and scientists claim that something can be done. This belief that man can overcome death has prevailed since the beginning of time. And certainly something can be done, but that has nothing to do with a laboratory; it is something that happens in the inner layers of one's being. As long as my own will remains, as long as I am there, death will surely be there. Only on the day...

... why except in man there is nowhere else any anguish; except in man there is nowhere else any insanity. The trees also are born and die, but no ego possesses them, so they are always in bliss. The birds too are born and die, but they are forever dancing and singing; nothing hinders their celebration! Man has gone astray, and he has the potential to go astray because he is conscious. The birds are...

.... There will be no struggles, no anxieties. As he can accept his own death, he can accept the death of his planet too. And this acceptance is not in any way a kind of helplessness but on the contrary, just seeing the suchness of things -- that everything is born, lives and has to die. This planet was not here four million years ago; then it was born. Perhaps it has lived its whole life. And anyway, even...

..., "That's what I was saying to you, that intellectual conviction is of no use." He did not die; he survived. After three, four days I went to see him. He was sitting in the garden and I said, "What about that evening?" He said, "Forget all about it. It was just a time of weakness, a fear of death that made me start repeating the name of God. Otherwise there is no God." I...

... to forget your aloneness -- somehow to create a family in which you feel you are not alone. But death exposes without fail. And this is only about small deaths; if the whole world is going to die, all your relationships will disappear before it. You will die alone, a stranger who has no name, no fame, no respectability, no power -- utterly helpless. But in this helplessness people will still behave...

... in my mind is, before I die, I should at least experience a total orgasm." He made love. In the middle of the night he again nudged the wife and said, "The morning is coming close. I will never be able to see you again. If I make love one more time, it won't harm you." So he made love a second time, and as he felt -- because he could not sleep; when death is going to knock on your...

... much trouble -- crying and weeping and all those things. You just go to sleep." Once you know the person is going to die, suddenly the small thread of relationship breaks down. The world disappearing into a black hole, in the ultimate death, perhaps may make people almost crazy, may bring out all their repressed sexuality, sensuality. But it will all depend on different individuals, how they...

... death -- they don't know the word "no." There is not going to be any resistance on their part; and they will be the only ones who will die consciously. And the one who dies consciously enters into the eternal flow of life; he does not die. Those who die unconsciously will be born on some other planet, in some other womb -- because life cannot be destroyed, even by nuclear weapons. It can...

... was very old, had lived his life -- there was no need to be worried about death. It was getting dark as the sun had set. The man opened his eyes and asked his wife who was sitting by his right side, "Where is my eldest son?" The wife said, "He is sitting just in front of me on the other side of the bed. Don't be worried about him; don't be worried about anything in this moment. Relax...

... and pray." But the man said, "And where is my second son?" The wife said, "He is sitting by the side of your eldest son." And the old man who was almost on the verge of death started to get up. The wife said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I am looking for my third son." And the wife and the sons all felt how much he loved them. The third son was sitting...

... just near his feet. He said, "I'm here pappa. You relax, we are all here." He said, "You are all here, and you want me to relax?. Who is tending the shop?" At the moment of death he is still concerned about the shop. It is very difficult to predict how different people's unconscious minds will react. Their whole life will be reflected in their reaction, that much is certain. But...

... everybody's life has moved through different paths, different experiences, and the culminating point is going to be different. Death brings to the surface your essential personality. Another old man was dying -- he was a very rich man. His whole family was gathered there. The eldest son said, "What should we do when he dies? We will have to rent a car to take him to the graveyard." The youngest...

...." The second son said, "Why are you being so extravagant? Anyway, a dead body only has to be carried. I know a person who has a truck -- it will be more comfortable, and cheaper also." The third son said, "I cannot tolerate all this nonsense. What is the need to be worried about Rolls Royces and Fords and trucks? Is he going to be married? He is going to die. We will just put him...

... outside the house where we put all our garbage. The municipal truck will take him automatically, no expense at all." At this moment the old man opened his eyes and said, "Where are my shoes?" They said, "What are you going to do with your shoes? You just rest." But he said, "I want my shoes." The eldest son said, "He is a stubborn man. Perhaps he wants to die with...

... his shoes on. Let him have his shoes." And the old man, as he was putting the shoes on, said, "You need not be worried about expenses. I still have a little life left; I will walk down to the graveyard. See you there! I will die exactly by the grave. It hurts me that you are all so extravagant; even in my life I only dreamt about a Rolls Royce, or some other beautiful car. Dreaming is...

... dying -- and the doctors have said I cannot survive more than half an hour -- just don't disturb me; let me repeat the name of God. Anyway, who knows? He may be. If there is no God, there is no harm in repeating his name. But if there is a God, and you don't die repeating his name, then you are on the blacklist. And I don't want to go to hell, I have suffered enough here on the earth." I said...

... said, "It means you need another experience of dying? This was your first heart attack: you survived -- the second will be coming soon. At the most you can survive the second, but the third you will not be able to survive. And remember what you were saying to me." He said, "Forget all that. I am absolutely certain there is no God." I said, "Just let death start approaching...

... into death, into a black hole, the relationships that you have created in life cannot remain intact. In fact, behind our relationships we are strangers. It makes one feel afraid, so one never looks into it. Otherwise, even when you are in the crowd, you are alone; even if your name is known to people, does that make any difference? You are still a stranger. And this can be seen... a husband and wife...

... in case something happens to his father and he is alive, he needs to know the number of the bus. The father was shocked that he was not concerned about him at all. Whatever happens to him happens -- his concern is to know the number of the bus. The very climate of death suddenly takes away all your masks, suddenly makes you aware that you are alone and all your relationships were deceptions, ways...

... before you bring it out from the kitchen." The young lady comes back, but when, after fifteen minutes, the soup has not been served, the old man calls the waiter over. "Where is our soup?" he demands. "It will be here in a few minutes," replies the waiter, "just as soon as the noodles lie down again." At the time of death, the most important subject in the minds of...

... people who are not conscious is going to be sex -- because sex and death are two sides of the same coin. Life is so full of mysteries: you will be surprised to know that when people are crucified, just as they are crucified they almost always ejaculate. Doctors have been thinking why, and they have come upon the explanation that those sperms, which are alive, seeing the situation -- that the body is...

... dead -- rush out of it. Their life out of the body is only two hours, but in two hours they may find some other body, some other center. First it was thought to be a very mysterious thing, that crucified people should ejaculate -- but it is just as though your house is on fire and you start escaping out of it. Your sperms are living beings, and you are dying -- why should they die with you? You have...

... one more time before death destroys everything. They have been repressing their whole life's libido, the sexual urge, according to the priests, according to the society and the culture -- and now it does not matter. Everything is going to disappear; they don't need any respectability, they don't care about religion. One man was told by his doctor that this would be the last night in his life. "...

... doors, how can you sleep? As the morning was very close he again nudged the wife and said, "Darling, just one time more." The wife said, "Listen, you never think of others. You don't realize the simple fact that in the morning I have to wake up. You will be gone, that's okay, but I have to wake up -- so just let me rest a little. And when you die there is going to be so much fuss, so...

... one side of the door, and the white hole is the other side of the door. From one side a planet or a star goes into the black hole and disappears from us, and from the other side, the white hole, a new star is born. Every day new stars are born and old stars are dying; life and death is a continuous circle. If life is the day, death is the night -- it is not against it; it is just rest, sleep, a time...

... earth to disappear, so there is not much possibility that you will be informed in advance. Get ready! Just the shock of hearing on your radios or on your television sets that within ten minutes the world is going to collapse, you may get simply frozen, paralyzed -- the shock will be so big and so unfamiliar. Perhaps most of the people will die from shock, not from nuclear weapons. Just hearing that...

... within ten minutes the whole world is going to die will be enough -- the shock will destroy their fragile existence. So how people will behave is going to be only hypothetical. Only about the enlightened ones I can say with absolute guarantee, on my own authority, that there will be no difference. If they are drinking tea, they will continue to drink tea; their hands will not even shake. If they are...