... them as factories, not as human beings - because nine children out of ten used to die; so if you want two or three children, the woman has to produce two or three dozen children. That means that for her whole sexual life, while she is capable of giving birth to life, she becomes pregnant again and again; and pregnancy is a suffering. She has never been in favor of sex. She has suffered it, she has...

... it was very simple to avoid it. The Eastern woman looks more contented because she is not aware of what she is missing. She is more graceful because she has not even started thinking of any liberation. The East, as a whole, has lived under the conditioning of contentment - man and woman both - in poverty, in slavery, in sickness, in death. The idea of revolution was impossible in the Eastern mind...

... in any other woman, the woman cannot laugh with another man. They become prisoners of each other; life becomes a boredom, a routine. Who wants to live such a life? The will to live becomes weakened. This brings sicknesses, diseases - because their resistance against death is not there. In fact, they start thinking how to finish this whole vicious circle sooner; they start asking deep down in their...

... hearts for death. A will to death arises. Sigmund Freud was the first man to discover that there is, in the unconscious of man, a will to death. But I have my disagreements with Sigmund Freud. This will to death is not a natural phenomenon - it is a by-product of marriage, it is a by-product of a bored life. When one starts feeling that living is no longer an adventure, there are no new spaces, no new...

... pastures, then why go on unnecessarily living? Then an eternal sleep in a grave seems to be far more comfortable, far more luxurious, far more joyous. In no animal does the will to death exist. In the wild, no animal commits suicide. But strangely, in a zoo it has been found that animals commit suicide. And if Sigmund Freud had been studying only zoo animals, he would have concluded that there is a will...

... to death, just as there is a will to life. But the zoo animals are not real animals; and a marriage makes everybody a zoo animal - confined, chained in a thousand and one subtle ways. Sigmund Freud had no idea of wild animals, or wild human beings. I want human beings to have something of the wild in them. That is my rebel. He is not going to be part of a zoo, he is going to remain natural. And he...

... die - nobody dies in your place. Your death will be absolutely individual. Death proves only one thing, that each individual is individual. And death is going to be yours, so how can life be of somebody else? You cannot live a borrowed life; you have to live your own life. Death will be yours - nobody will die for you. So you have to live for yourself; you are not to live a pseudo-life, a...

... a thing and the whole world says 'beautiful' it is meaningless, because you will never enjoy your life. It is your life - and who knows? tomorrow you may die. So enjoy it while you are alive! It is nobody else's business - neither the parents nor the society's nor anybody else's. It is your life. And when you die the society will continue, so don't bother about the society. When you die, only you...

... still go on. Death is going to happen - because your whole personality has to die; but the innermost being is not part of your personality. Your ego has to die. In the death of your ego is the resurrection of your soul. The moment you die, God is born. Death is the price to be paid. So I will keep my promise. You have not to forget your promise - given to yourself, not to me. It is totally your...

... gardener, because the gardener is going to remain the same; there is going to be no growth, spiritual or unspiritual. The growth is going to happen to the seed, and if the seed is too patient it will die; it will lose the very longing to live, the zest for living. Long months have to pass before the rains will come. If it becomes too patient, it will die before even being born. It needs a certain...

... promising you. Any flame can promise the moth, "Darling, come on!" The problem is with the moth - that as it comes closer to the flame, it becomes hotter and hotter and hotter... and there is every desire to escape, not to go nearer - because it seems it is going to consume you. Remember my promise - and you have also promised to yourself that you will not escape; even if death happens, you will...

... untouchables have killed Gandhi." Ambedkar tried as long as possible, and finally gave up, seeing that perhaps if Gandhi does die... Although this is no argument. If I was in Ambedkar's place, I would have told Gandhi, "You can die because your death is not an argument. It is as stupid a story as I have heard." A very ugly man wanted to marry a beautiful girl -- and he was the age of the...

... curse to this country. He has taken all humanity from millions of people; they are living like animals. Ambedkar was absolutely logical and right in saying that they should be given a separate vote, but Gandhi started a fast unto death for Ambedkar to take back his movement; otherwise, Gandhi will not eat until he dies. Now this is absolutely illogical. Because you convince people by fasting, it does...

... not mean that you are right. It is blackmail, it is threatening: "I will commit suicide if you don't agree with me." Naturally, the whole country was pressurizing Ambedkar: "Take back your movement; otherwise Gandhi's death will prove very dangerous to you and to the untouchables. They will be burned alive. Their villages will be burned; the Hindus will take revenge because the...

... girl's father. And he tried the Gandhian methodology: he took his mattress, lay down in front of the house of the girl and declared a fast unto death unless her father agreed to give his daughter in marriage to him. Now everybody was in sympathy with the poor man: "He is dying... what a great lover! We have only heard about these lovers in stories, and he's actually a Majnu, a Farhad, a Mahival...

...." The father was in great distress; the girl was in great fear. The whole day, the house was crowded and they were shouting: "His death will be dangerous for you. The man is not being violent: he is being nonviolent, a religious man, fasting." Somebody suggested to the father of the girl, "You go to some old Gandhian to find out what to do." The Gandhian said, "There is...

... no problem. There is one ugly prostitute, very old... You just give her a hundred rupees and she also takes her mattress and lies down by the side of the man, saying, 'I will fast unto death unless you marry me.'" In the night, the man rolled up his mattress and escaped! These are not arguments... But Ambedkar was forced to take back his movement, and went to Gandhi with a glass of orange...

... it means crucifixion. The religious man is not afraid of being crucified, for the simple reason that he knows there is no death. At the most they can destroy his body -- but his consciousness, his soul, his god within, will go on living. Religion should have a higher status, and religious people should be listened to. Parliament should continually invite religious people to give them some ideas on...

... as he has observed through his life, one conclusion seems absolutely certain - that people cannot live without lies. Truth is dangerously. Lies are very sweet, but unreal. Delicious... you go on saying sweet nothings to your lover, and he goes on whispering in your ear sweet - but - nothings. And meanwhile life goes on slipping out of your hands, and everybody is coming closer and closer to death...

.... Before death comes, remember one thing - that love has to be lived before death happens. Otherwise you live in vain, and the whole of your life will be futile - a desert. Before death comes, make it a certainty that love has happened. But that is possible only with the truth. So be true. Risk everything for truth, and never risk truth for anything else. Let this be the fundamental law - even if I have...

..., because that is the race that has suffered most. Through their jokes they are protecting themselves. Even in the concentration camps of Adolf Hitler, Jews were transferring jokes and laughing! People who have been watching and observing Jews in the concentration camps were simply surprised; they could not believe it. Where death is hanging on the head every moment, and every morning a few people have...

... must have been a little suicidal in your risks. People enjoy that too, because it gives a thrill, an excitement. If people are suicidal and they are driving a car, they will tend to go beyond sixty, seventy miles per hour, because there is a thrill. Just facing death, they feel very sharp, young, and that they are giving a good fight against death. But this is foolish. Out of a group experience...

... be more alone if you move with people. Your aloneness will have a depth and a richness if you move with people. You earn it. [Osho went on to compare the rhythm of aloneness and togetherness with fasting and eating, saying that if you do either to excess, you will go mad or you will die.... ] The same rhythm has to be followed in all the layers of life. Move... people are beautiful. You can learn...

... fact. What can one lose? This body is going to be lost one day. This mind is not reliable - it changes every moment. Death can come tomorrow or the next moment, so what is there to be lost? Everything is bound to go on its own accord, so why not try the adventure? Before death comes, if you voluntarily die within yourself, you will come to know something which is deathless. And death is going to come...

... something there to cling to - there is nothing. You will disappear completely. At the centre, god is - you are not. It is a death and yet a beginning of a new life - crucifixion and resurrection both. So your fear is right, but because of the fear, don't stop! Go in spite of the fear.... Because there is nothing to lose. Even if all is lost, there is nothing to lose, because you don't have anything in...

... anyway. But if you have known something death-less within you, then death comes and you remain untouched, you remain beyond. I don't think that there is any reason to be afraid. Go into it... and I am with you. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

... ANSWERED, "IF A CLOUD DOES NOT HANG OVER THE MOUNTAIN, THE MOONLIGHT WILL PENETRATE THE WAVES OF THE LAKE." JIMYO LOOKED AT HIS FORMER PUPIL IN ANGER. HE SAID, "YOU ARE GETTING OLD! YOUR HAIR HAS TURNED WHITE, AND YOUR TEETH ARE SPARSE, YET YOU STILL HAVE SUCH AN IDEA OF ZEN. HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE BIRTH AND DEATH?" TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE AS HE BENT HIS HEAD. AFTER A FEW MINUTES HE...

... BIRTH AND DEATH?" Escaping from birth and death is a way of describing the entrance into the transcendental which is never born and never dies. TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE AS HE BENT HIS HEAD. AFTER A FEW MINUTES HE ASKED, "PLEASE TELL ME THE SUMMARY OF BUDDHISM." The master said, "IF A CLOUD DOES NOT HANG OVER THE MOUNTAIN, THE MOONLIGHT WILL PENETRATE THE WAVES OF THE LAKE."...

...! For centuries Hinduism has been forcing women, when their husbands die, to jump into the funeral pyres, alive, to be burned and die. This is called sati. The word sati comes from sat, 'the truth'. Calling a woman sati because she has jumped into the funeral pyre of her husband is saying that she has attained the truth. If this is true, then why has not a single man in the whole of history jumped...

... time that Suigan should understand the essential, existential experience that makes a man a buddha. That he was still a parrot made him angry. So he asked, "HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE BIRTH AND DEATH?" A very essential point to be remembered: what words could not do, tears did. TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE. He could see the compassion of the master through the anger. And he could see that he himself...

... it was some protein, some vitamin, or some other chemical. After his death his brain was examined thoroughly. It was the first time anybody's brain had been examined so thoroughly. He certainly had a few things more than ordinary people - some chemicals, twenty-six percent more. He was the most intelligent human being - yet, unenlightened. Intelligence has nothing to do with enlightenment...

..., because at least for these two days I am booked. I am going to be here. It remains open, but for the next two days I am certainly going to be here. I was saying that after one year we had left that state and that village. I have told you before that on the way my grandfather died. That was my first encounter with death, and it was a beautiful encounter. It was not in any way ugly, as it more or less...

... happens for almost every child around the world. Fortunately I was together with my dying grandfather for hours, and he died slowly... by and by. I could feel death happening to him, and I could see the great silence of it. I was also fortunate that my Nani was present. Perhaps without her I may have missed the beauty of death, because love and death are so similar, perhaps the same. She loved me. She...

... showered her love upon me, and death was there, slowly happening. A bullock cart... I can still hear its sound... the rattling of its wheels on the stones... Bhoora continuously shouting to the bullocks... the sound of his whip hitting them.... I can hear it all still. It is so deeply-rooted in my experience that I don't think even my death will erase it. Even while dying I may again hear the sound of...

... actually means slow suicide. Whenever a man goes on santhara, he becomes immediately a great saint. Santhara is a fast unto death -- no food, and in the end no water. For a healthy man to die it takes almost ninety days, and those ninety days are of immense self-torture. Jainism is simply making conscious that which every religion has as an implication. What have all the saints of the world been doing...

... disappear, because all thoughts are either of the past or of the future. No thought is of the present. The present is so pure, so clean, so clear, just an opening into the cosmos. This is Zen, and this is the key to enter into life eternal. The very feel of life eternal takes all tensions, anxieties of old age, of sickness, of death, and birth away from you. You have never been born and you will never die...

... WE SPEAK OF THEM AS BEING BORN OR AS PASSING AWAY?" You are never born, you have always been here. You have always been in the space, in the time, here and now; you will never die. Death and birth, are both superficial episodes in a long eternal life -- small things; they don't matter. "WHEN YOU COME TO THIS UNDERSTANDING YOU WILL BE FURNISHED WITH ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE IN NEED OF."...

... there is a moment to die. But your essential being simply goes from action to no-action. And again when it has gathered energy, it is rejuvenated, it becomes fresh; it comes back again from a new womb. Only a buddha never comes back. His death is final because he has no desire left. It is the desiring mind that takes you into another womb. Buddha, a man who has realized his no- mind, is completely...

... includes another part: "God is dead, therefore man is free." God was the slavery of man, he was the bondage. He was the prison that did not allow humanity to rise to its ultimate heights. He was keeping the whole of humanity reduced to subhuman beings, sinners. His death is a great moment to celebrate. His death means man has come of age. He is no longer a child and he does not need a father...

... figure. He can stand on his own feet. He is not a sheep, as all the religions have been telling him, and he does not need any shepherds. Jesus, Krishna, Mahavira, Mohammed, Moses ... no prophets are needed, no saviors are needed, no messengers of God are needed. They were all megalomaniacs, and in the name of God they have been pushing human consciousness to the lowest levels of existence. The death of...

... have been in existence from eternity to eternity. This is a glorious moment for those who can understand all the implications of God's death. They will immediately celebrate it, because it gives you a new sense of direction, a new uniqueness, a new destiny. It makes you a master of your own destiny. Nobody is there to guide you, and nobody is there to dominate you, and nobody is there to give...

... few years for you to die. One religion, Jainism -- unfortunately I have been born into that religion -- even supports the idea of suicide. Other religions unconsciously support it, but Jainism is clear about it. It preaches that if you want to commit suicide, commit it because this life is not worth living. This earth is not your home, your home is beyond the clouds. They call it santhara, but it...

... to moment -- not according to any scripture but according to everyone's consciousness. Freedom brings many fruits, and many flowers, and many gifts to you. The death of God is not something to be sorry and sad for. It is something to rejoice, something to dance, something to celebrate. At last man is free from guilt, man is free from a constant judgmental eye from the sky. It is strange that The...

... to be born? These three generations of one family killed one hundred million people, and they were never defeated. What kind of God allows President Truman to drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What kind of God is allowing all the stupid politicians of the world to pile up nuclear weapons which will only prove to be a global death? But as I told you, God is a sadist. He enjoys when you are...

... suffering. He enjoys when you are in pain. He enjoys when you are poor. He enjoys when you are starving to death. His enjoyment is simply sick! The word 'sadism' comes from a French count, de Sade; he used to torture women. He was a super-rich man, a count, and had a vast territory under his control. So any beautiful woman would be dragged to his torture chamber. You all have love chambers; he had a...

... -- everything stops. You forget all the worries, all the tensions. Have you ever heard of any man getting a heart attack while he was making love? It should have happened more often if the religions were true. God would be so angry, that at least he could give a heart attack. Hellfire will be after death; right now ... But no man has died while making love, because making love takes away your stress. It is...

... forty-two he will become aware that these pleasures were very momentary. And now death is approaching, he has to find something more eternal. These pleasures will have indicated the way to him, that if in a sexual orgasm, time and mind stop and you feel as if you are part of eternity ... you disappear as an ego and you become simply one with the whole. It happens only for a moment, but it can happen...

... .... Once God used to live just in the marketplace, but the whole day, even in the night people were knocking on the doors and complaining about everything: "This is not the right kind of world you have created. Why is there so much sickness? If you are the creator, then why do you create bodies which are sick? Why is there old age, and why is there death?" So people tortured him so much, the...

... old story says, that he called a council of his angels and asked them, "I will either die out of this constant torture, or I will have to commit suicide! Can you tell me what I should do? These people don't leave me for a single moment and their demands are such that I cannot fulfill them. One woman comes and she says, 'Tomorrow, remember, no rain because I am trying to dry my wheat.' And...

.... It is becoming poorer every moment. Scientists think that it will take at least four million years for the sun to die. But in the eternity of existence, four million years don't matter. Every day some suns are exhausted, become old, dead, finished. The physicists say they enter into black holes, they disappear. And every moment, as suns are disappearing, new suns are being born. Science has not yet...

... discovered white holes. I think if there are black holes there must be white holes. If black holes pull stars and planets and they disappear, they die, then perhaps on the other side is a white hole from which after some time of rest -- maybe nine months in the womb -- they come out, again born. But nothing in existence dies. Everything goes on, and everything gets tired. There is a moment to live and...

... empty of desires, ambitions. Now there is no need for him to enter into another womb and suffer nine months in a prison. Then getting out of the prison is not a pleasure either. And the whole life again starts, the whole round. The same journey, the same youth, the same romances, the same failures, the same frustrations ... and the old age, and the fear of death. The interest of Zen is how to help you...

... to get rid of this circle of birth and death. The only way is going beyond the mind. It is the mind that contains all your ambitions, desires, tensions, anguishes, anxieties, angst. If you get out of it, you are the awakened one. You have come to the point from where you can move into the cosmos directly. You become part of the whole, or more accurately, you become the whole. Question 3: Maneesha's...

...;WHAT IS NIRVANA?" "WHO GAVE YOU BIRTH AND DEATH?" They are fictions. Your birth is a fiction, your death is a fiction; your body is born, your body will die. But you have never been born; you are coming, passing through many bodies, many births, many deaths and you are going on and on from beginning to end - eternity to eternity. You are an eternal light. So what is the point of asking...

... be the richest man - you missed. You wanted a beautiful woman and you missed. Anything that is the last thing in you will take you into a new womb to fulfill your desire. Life is very merciful; existence is very compassionate. It gives you chance upon chance, opportunities upon opportunities. If you die meditatively without any desire, then there is no womb for you, no birth, no death. That's what...

...;WHO MADE YOU DIRTY?" THE MONK ASKED, "WHAT IS NIRVANA?" "WHO GAVE YOU BIRTH AND DEATH?" SEKITO REPLIED. THE ATTENDANT MONK CAME BACK TO NANGAKU AND REPORTED SEKITO'S ANSWERS. NANGAKU PUT BOTH HANDS TOGETHER AND MADE A GESTURE OF TOUCHING HIS FEET. AT THAT TIME, KENGO, RAN AND NANGAKU WERE THOUGHT TO BE THE THREE MASTERS IN THE COUNTRY, AND ALL THREE OF THEM SAID, "FROM...

... NOT BELIEVED IN GOD SINCE I WAS A CHILD, AND EVEN THEN I WAS NOT SO SURE." BUT THIS HABIT OF THE MIND TO TRY TO TURN THE MYSTERIES INTO SUPERSTITIONS IS VERY DEEP-ROOTED AND SLIPPERY. THE OTHER NIGHT WHEN YOU WERE SPEAKING I WAS REMINDED OF THE OCCASIONS WHEN I HAVE ATTRIBUTED THESE QUALITIES OF OMNIPOTENCE, OMNIPRESENCE, OMNISCIENCE TO YOU; OR WHEN THOUGHTS OF YOUR DEATH HAVE FILLED ME WITH...

... intellectually, convincing them intellectually, but he had no method, no meditation that people could experience deeper than feeling. People can go deeper than the heart. They can reach to their being and only then a tremendous light arises which is unwavering; whether death comes or a heart attack comes, it makes no difference. And he became okay. After a few days he came to see me and he said, "Don't...

... open. The hands will open by themselves, because closing is an effort, but opening is just effortless. You don't have to make any effort. That's why... Have you seen any man dying with closed fists? Can a dead man manage to keep his fist closed? Impossible, because the fist needs effort and the dead man cannot make any effort. So all people die with open hands; all people are born with closed fists...

..., "WHAT IS NIRVANA?" Nirvana simply means getting rid of birth and death; and birth and death are both fictions. Even to say 'getting rid of' is not right. What is right is just to look deeply into everything, into your bondage, and you will find it is your creation. Your idea that you are a sinner, dirty, is your idea. Perhaps you have borrowed it from others, the preachers, the priests, the...

... not understanding at all, because the first question is the last question. All these are repetitions of the same thing. Nirvana is nothing but liberation, liberation from all desires, liberation from all attachments, liberation from all bondage. What is nirvana? Liberation from birth, from death. And Sekito said, "WHO GAVE YOU BIRTH AND DEATH?" It is you, your desire. Just try a small...

... this example? Because the last thought and desire when you die will be the first desire to enter into a womb. If you die without a desire, without any thought, you will not enter into any womb. Nobody is forcing you into some womb. It is your desire, your last desire when you die. Some ambition, some unfulfillment, some frustration... You wanted to be the prime minister and you missed. You wanted to...

... Sekito is saying. Who has given you birth and death? You yourself. By your desires, by your ambitions you go on perpetuating the circle of birth and death. Stop desiring; that is nirvana, you move from death into the cosmos, not into another womb. To move into the cosmos, to become one with existence, is nirvana. It is also liberation, it is also freedom, it is also pure paradise - different names for...

... the buddha is. Buddha is just a symbol of pure existence, of ultimate liberation, of nirvana. One day, these three steps will be fulfilled in you. When the third step is fulfilled, you are awakened, enlightened. Then there is no birth for you, no death for you. You have become part of the ultimate cosmos. God is dead, and Zen is the only living truth. Okay, Maneesha? Yes, Beloved Master. Generated...