... be. Suicide seems to be a unique phenomenon: only you can die for yourself, nobody else can die for you. Your death will be your death, nobody else's. Death is unique! Look at the phenomenon: death is unique - it defines you as an individual, it gives you individuality. The society has taken your individuality; you are just a cog in the wheel, replaceable. If you die nobody will miss you, you will...

... examination twice, or thrice; compare my second marriage with my first, and so on and so forth. I die only once. I can get married as many times as I like, I can change my jobs as many times as I like, I can change my town as many times as I like... but I die only once. Death is so challenging because it is at once certain and uncertain. That it will come is certain, when it will do so is uncertain. Hence...

... moment to the past knows how to die, and that is the greatest skill and art. So when death comes to such a man, he dances with it, he embraces it! - it is a friend, it is not the enemy. It is God coming to you in the form of death. It is total relaxation into existence. It is becoming again the whole, becoming one again with the whole. So don't call this perversion. You say: "I come from a family...

... deep into it. See, who is there to die? - and you will not find any ego there. Then there is no possibility of death. Only the idea of ego creates the fear of death. When there is no ego there is no death. You are utter silence, deathlessness, eternity - not as you, but as an open sky, uncontaminated by any idea of 'I', of self - unbounded, undefined. Then there is no fear. Fear comes because there...

... Available: N.A. Length: N.A. The first question: Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, I COME FROM A FAMILY WHERE THERE ARE FOUR SUICIDES ON THE MATERNAL SIDE, INCLUDING MY GRANDMOTHER. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ONE'S DEATH? WHAT HELPS TO OVERCOME THIS PERVERSION OF DEATH WHICH RUNS AS A THEME THROUGH THE FAMILY? The phenomenon of death is one of the most mysterious and so is the phenomenon of suicide. Don't decide from...

... strange that in India the suicide rate is the lowest in the world. Logically it should be the highest, because people are suffering, people are miserable, starving. But this strange phenomenon happens everywhere: poor people don't commit suicide. They have nothing to live for, they have nothing to die for. Because they are starved they are occupied with their food, shelter, money, things like that. They...

.... Death, at least, is unique. And suicide is more unique than death. Why? - because death comes, and suicide is something that you do. Death is beyond you: when it will come, it will come. But suicide you can manage, you are not a victim. Suicide you can manage. With death you will be a victim, with suicide you will be in control. Birth has already happened - now you cannot do anything about it, and you...

... had not done anything before you were born - it was an accident. There are three things in life which are vital: birth, love, and death. Birth has happened; there is nothing to do about it. You were not even asked whether you wanted to be born or not. You are a victim. Love also happens; you cannot do anything about it, you are helpless. One day you fall in love with somebody, you cannot do anything...

... about it. If you want to fall in love with somebody you cannot manage, it is impossible. And when you fall in love with somebody, if you don't want - if you want to pull yourself away - that too seems to be difficult. Birth is a happening, so is love. Now only death is left about which something can be done: you can be a victim or you can decide on your own. A suicide is one who decides, who says...

..., "Let me at least do one thing in this existence where I was almost accidental: I will commit suicide. At least there is one thing I can do!" Birth is impossible to do; love cannot be created if it is not there; but death... death has an alternative. Either you can be a victim or you can be decisive. This society has taken all dignity from you. That's why people commit suicide - because their...

... those who are more intelligent than the intelligent people - they take sannyas. They start creating a meaning, they start creating a significance, they start living. Why miss this opportunity? Heidegger has said: "Death isolates me and makes of me an individual." It is my death, not that of the multitude to which I belong. Each of us dies his own death; death cannot be repeated. I can sit an...

... there is great curiosity about death, about what it is. One wants to know about it. And there is nothing morbid about this contemplation of death. Accusations of that kind are merely the device of the impersonal 'they' - the crowd - to prevent one escaping its tyranny and becoming individuals. What is necessary is to see our life as a being towards death. Once this point has been reached, there is a...

... possibility of deliverance from the banality of everyday life and its servitude to anonymous powers. He who has so confronted his death is stabbed awake thereby. He perceives himself now as an individual distinct from the mass, and is prepared to take over responsibility for his own life. In this way, we decide for authentic against inauthentic existence. We emerge from the mass and become ourselves at last...

.... Even to contemplate death gives you an individuality, a form, a shape, a definition - because it is your death. It is the only thing left in the world that is unique. And when you think about suicide it becomes even more personal; it is your decision. And remember, I am not saying that you should go and commit suicide. I am saying that your life, as it is, is leading you towards suicide. Change it...

.... And contemplate death. It can come any moment, so don't think that it is morbid to think about death. It is not, because death is the culmination of life, the very crescendo of life. You have to take note of it. It is coming - whether you commit suicide or it comes ... but it is coming. It has to happen. You have to prepare for it, and the only way to prepare for death - the right way - is not to...

... commit suicide; the right way is to die each moment to the past. That's the right way. That's what a sannyasin is supposed to do: die each moment to the past, never carry the past for a single moment. Each moment, die to the past and be born in the present. That will keep you fresh, young, vibrant, radiant; that will keep you alive, throbbing, excited, ecstatic. And a man who knows how to die each...

... where there are four suicides on the maternal side, including my grandmother." Don't condemn those poor people, and don't think for a moment that they were perverts. "How does this affect one's death? What helps to overcome this perversion of death which runs as a theme through the family?" Don't call it a perversion; it is not. Those people were simply victims. They could not cope with...

..., they must have seen the hell of life. One never decides easily for death, because to survive is a natural instinct. One goes on surviving in all kinds of situations and conditions. One goes on compromising - just to survive. When somebody drops his life that simply shows it is beyond his capacity to compromise; the demand is too much. The demand is so much that it is not worth it; then only one...

... intact. When society demands slavery and goes on destroying your freedom and crippling you from every side and paralyzing your soul and deadening your heart... one comes to feel it is better to die than to compromise. Don't call them perverts. Have compassion for them; they suffered a lot, they were victims. And try to understand what happened to them; that will give you an insight into your own life...

... place do you want to possess? Be nonpossessive, and then there is no fear. And when there is no fear, much of your energy that gets involved, caught up, locked up in fear, is available, and that energy can become your creativity. It can become a dance, a celebration. You are afraid to die? Buddha says: You cannot die, because in the first place, you are not. How can you die? Look into your being, go...

... PAUSE BETWEEN TWO NOTES THAT FALL INTO A REAL ACCORDANCE SCARCE AT ALL FOR DEATH'S NOTE TENDS TO DOMINATE... Life has happened, birth has happened, now death is going to happen. So our life is predominated too much by death -- hence everybody is in search of security, safety, insurance: how to avoid death? How to prolong life a little longer? How to be here a little more? How not to die? How to escape...

... you die too. Or -- you die, that's why you live. A crucifixion and a resurrection... AND THE SONG REMAINS IMMACULATE. Unless you have known what love is, you have not known what melody is. It is the meeting, orgasmic meeting, of death and life. Unless love is known, you have missed. You were born, you lived, and you died -- but you missed. You missed tremendously, you missed utterly, you missed...

... is the only alchemy, I say, because it changes the baser metal into gold. Without love, life is a dull affair, grey -- with no colors, with no songs, with no celebrations. One can drag and one can hope only for death: death will come and relieve you of your dragging long affair. Love brings color: the grey suddenly becomes a rainbow, explodes into a thousand and one colors, and the drab and the...

... to rise to the divine, the same seeking, the same inquiry, the same throbbing heart, the same agony, the same ecstasy. This love is waiting in you. There is no necessity; it can wait and you can die. Birth is beyond you. You are already born -- nobody had asked, your permission was not taken at all, you were not even asked where you wanted to be born and what you wanted to become. You always find...

... yourself in the middle of life; you are already here. Birth is no choice for you... nor is death. One day suddenly death will come, without even giving you any warning. And not for a single moment will death wait. Birth happens, death happens -- they are beyond you; you cannot do anything about them. Between birth and death there is only one thing you can do something about, and that is love. These are...

... the three great things of life: life, love, death. Life has already happened. Death is going to happen -- it is a certainty. In a way, it has already happened with birth: you have already taken one step into the grave. The day you are born, half the journey is complete; the remaining half will take a little time... or a little more. With life, death has also penetrated you: now only one thing...

... -- hence the fear, the trembling, the anguish, the anxiety: will I be able to make it? will I be able to move into love? will I be able to flow into love? But side by side with this agony there is an ecstasy -- that one is free. It is because of freedom that the fear exists. If love was also predestined, as life and death are, then there would have been no fear, but then there would have been no ecstasy...

... DOMINATE. BOTH THOUGH ARE RECONCILED IN THE DARK INTERVAL TREMBLINGLY AND THE SONG REMAINS IMMACULATE. Lines of tremendous significance. I AM THE PAUSE BETWEEN TWO NOTES... death and birth. These are the two notes played on you by the unknown. And I AM THE PAUSE BETWEEN THE TWO NOTES -- you are the pause, the interval, the gap, between birth and death. Very subtle. I AM THE PAUSE BETWEEN TWO NOTES THAT...

... FALL INTO A REAL ACCORDANCE SCARCE AT ALL... It is very rare. Only in a Buddha or in a Christ, death and life fall into real accord... and the melody is born -- in a Kabir, in a Mahavira. SCARCE AT ALL -- very rare is the phenomenon when life and death come to an inner harmony: the conflict ceases, the rift is bridged, and both become part of one melody -- not in conflict but in cooperation. I AM THE...

... from death? Death predominates -- hence money becomes so important. Remember, the importance of money is the importance of death, because money gives you a false sense of security -- that you have money, that you have the physicians, that you have the medicine, that you have the bank balance, that you have the life insurance, that you have friends, that you have a good house, that if there is some...

... trouble you are protected. So a person becomes obsessed too much with money: have more and more money, create big China Walls of money around you, so death cannot penetrate. But nothing can prevent death. Your effort to prevent it simply destroys the opportunity which could have been a great experience, which could have flowered into love. There are only two types of people in the world: death-oriented...

..., but not a single temple dedicated to Brahma, who has CREATED the world. What type of gratitude is this? But who bothers about life? -- it has already happened. Birth is not the question. You will find Shiva worshipped everywhere; the most worshipped god is Shiva. Millions of temples are dedicated to Shiva: he is the god of death. Number two is Vishnu, who maintains life. People worship Vishnu; but...

... even people who worship Vishnu, when they are in danger they immediately run to Shiva's temple -- because he is the ultimate god. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva: three are the gods. Shiva is called "the great god" -- MAHADEVA; the other two are lesser gods. Death predominates. I AM THE PAUSE BETWEEN THE TWO NOTES THAT FALL INTO A REAL ACCORDANCE SCARCE AT ALL FOR DEATH'S NOTE TENDS TO DOMINATE. BOTH...

... THOUGH ARE RECONCILED IN THE DARK INTERVAL TREMBLINGLY... And that dark interval is love -- where death and life meet, where death and life embrace each other, where life and death have a love affair, where life and death come ton orgasm. Hence, there is tremendous attraction in love, because it is life... and fear also, because it is death too. When you make love to a woman or a man, you never go...

... totally into it. You go so far, because it is life -- then you start hesitating, then you don't go any further, because then death is also there. It is the pause between the two notes, and it is dark -- the dark interval between the two. Why does Rilke call it dark? Love IS dark. It is not just a coincidence that people have chosen the night to make love -- it is not just coincidence: there is some...

... in it, because it has depth. Darkness is always deep, light is shallow. Remember, howsoever much light is there, light is always shallow. Look: the day is shallow -- night is so deep, infinite. Love is like the dark... deep rest... falling into tremendous depth. Death is also dark: all over the world, death has been painted as dark. Love is dark, death is also dark -- there is an affinity between...

... love and death too. Many people come to me and they say, "Why are we so much afraid of love? Why? We hanker for it, and yet we are afraid, and when the opportunity arises we are stuck; we cannot let go." Because love is half death and half life -- that is the dilemma. It is THE PAUSE BETWEEN TWO NOTES... BOTH THOUGH ARE RECONCILED IN THE DARK INTERVAL TREMBLINGLY... You live in love, and...

... loved in the past. And there are others who love in the future -- that too cannot be done. These are ways to avoid love: the past and the future are the ways to avoid love. So either you love in the past, or you love in the future -- and love is possible only in the present, because only n this moment death and life are meeting... in the dark interval that is within you. That dark interval is always...

... in this state, who don't know what heart means. They think heart is just a pump. Their whole concentration is in the head. Head is an extremity; it is needed, it is a good instrument, but it has to be used as a slave. It should not be the master. Once the head becomes the master and the heart os left behind, you will live, you will die, but you will not know what God is because you will not know...

.... The more you share, the more will be arising from your innermost core -- it is infinite: more will be welling up. Draw water from a well, and more water comes running fresh into the well. Don't draw the water, close the well, become a miser, and no more springs will function. By and by, spring will become dead, blocked; and the water that is in the well will die, will become stale, dirty. The...

...: MY LAND IS A SORROWLESS LAND. Love knows no sorrow. If you still know sorrow, you don't know love. Love knows no sorrow, no sadness. How can love know sorrow? It is impossible -- because love is a transcendence if life and death, both. It is going beyond life and death, both. It is the pause between two notes. It is higher than life, it is higher than death... how can there be sorrow? And it is a...

.... Close your eyes and you are on the other shore, open your eyes and you are on the other shore. The other shore is not something far away, or after death: the other shore is here between life and death. Each moment it is here -- between past and future it is here: between past and future the little gap, just a little gap, a split-second, and it is there. The present is the presence of God... SO LIVE...

... celibacy, it was nothing worthwhile. You carry the quality within. If you are really alive, full of energy, you can die happily. Only weaklings die unhappily - because they have never lived. They have never tasted the cup of life. They have always been hoping and hoping and hoping, and life never happened to them. That's why they are scared of death. One who has lived is always ready to die. One who has...

... something wrong. For trivial things! Death seems so easy and at hand! These samurais created Zen, the greatest DHYAN tradition in the world. These samurais meditated deeply. This is my feeling, that unless you are ready to die you cannot be ready to meditate. War and meditation are synonymous in a deep sense. Wherever there is the possibility of your being destroyed, in that moment your flame of life...

... when he was dead. And somebody asked: When he was alive, why were you not weeping? They said: It seemed so absurd. Looking at his face, looking at his eyes, it appeared as if he was going to a higher realm of being, as if death was just a door to the divine, as if he was not going to die, rather as if he was being reborn. And he was not an old man; if you looked in his eyes, he was a child - his body...

..., London and New York feel the thrill when they go to the Himalayas. People living in the Himalayas, when they can come to Bombay, New York or London, then feel how beautiful the world is. The opposite is needed to feel - it becomes a contrast. The day is beautiful because there is night. Life has such joy because there is death. Love becomes an inner dance because there is hate. Love leads you to a high...

... really lived is ready every moment to accept death. The word accept is not good. It would be better if we say to welcome death, to receive it happily, joyfully. Then death is an adventure. It SHOULD be if you have really lived. Then death is not the enemy, death is the friend. A deeper life allows death, a shallow life avoids it. This is so in every sphere of life. If you have known what friendship is...

... Chinese say: yin and yang, they are part of one movement, part of one wheel - they are not two. They appear two because we have not looked deep down. It is because of our shallow eyes, non-penetrating minds, superficial consciousnesses - that's why they look like opposites, otherwise they are not. Life and death are friends. They exist through each other, they contribute to the other. Without the other...

..., they would not be there at all. Can life exist without death? Man has been dreaming for ever and ever how to destroy death. This is the attitude of the mind, the linear mind, the logical mind - how to destroy death. The logical mind says: If there is no death, there will be life in abundance - simple logic! Even a child can understand the arithmetic: if there is no death, there will be more life. But...

... I say to you: If there is no death, there will be no life. That's why simple logic is always fallacious. Apparently it looks so right: if there is no enemy, the whole world will be your friend. You are wrong. If there is no enemy, there will be no possibility of friendship. Logic says: If there is no hatred, love and love and more love will be there. So logicians have been trying to destroy the...

.... Dialectics says something quite the contrary, and dialectics is truer to life. Dialectics says: If you want more life, then be more ready for death. You may not be aware but this happens. When you are driving a car and you gain more and more speed, you get involved in the speed. A point comes when any moment death can happen. Then you are alive, then the flame of life burns fast, sharp. That's why speed is...

... so attractive and magnetic - because speed brings you nearer death. When you are nearer death, life is more; it grows in proportion. That's why there is so much attraction for war, because in war death is at close quarters, always near you. You may think that soldiers fighting in the field must be very miserable. You are wrong, otherwise no one would fight. They are NOT miserable. The real thing is...

... quite the opposite: when they come back to the ordinary world they are miserable. When they are in the field, fighting on the front, they are not miserable. All misery disappears. They are SO near death that they feel for the first time alive, and their aliveness becomes more and more the nearer death comes. When all around there is bombardment, shells are passing from here to there and any moment...

... they can drop dead, at that moment they feel an ecstasy. They are in touch, in deepest touch with life. When death kisses you, it is also a kiss of life. That's why there is so much attraction to adventure, courage. If you are afraid, you will not gain life. I tell you that meditation is the greatest courage and the greatest adventure, because even on a warfield you are not so near death. Even if you...

... feel you are near death, it is only physical death. Physical death means a superficial death - of the shell, of the body. Your house is near death, not you; your shelter is going to be destroyed, not you. But in meditation you are going to be destroyed - not only the shelter, but the host, not only the house, but the host. The ego is to be destroyed. So the greatest warriors are always interested in...

.... All the twenty-four TIRTHANKARAS of the Jainas are warriors. This seems strange - why? In Japan, samurais have existed, warriors, the greatest warriors the world has ever known. The samurai is the peak, the ultimate possibility of being a warrior. In every moment, the samurai is ready to die. For such trivial things he is ready to die - you cannot imagine. I have heard about one historical fact that...

... act. With people, acting; for yourself, be madly ecstatic. What do I mean? I mean if somebody has died in the neighborhood, what will you do? Be madly ecstatic there? Then you will be beaten. Weep and cry, act beautifully - because that is what is needed in that whole pathological situation where death is not accepted, where death is evil. Don't create any trouble for anybody. If you are wise, act...

... no way to think about it. The mind stops because the mind can only move in the vicious circle of the known, and the unknown has entered so suddenly that the mind is absolutely incapable of figuring it out, what is happening. In a deep shock the mind stops; for a moment there is a glimpse of the no-mind. Sanjay Gandhi died in a better death than millions of people who die in their beds after a long...

.... He was always interested into adventure. He could not fit in any school, he could not fit in any conventional pattern of life. I loved the man. We need many more people who can die in adventures. Their death raises the spirit of the people. If they live they bring new quality, new perfume to people's life; if they die, their death also brings a new fragrance. Hence I am not sad about him. I am...

... separate from existence." And out of this illusion arises the second illusion - the illusion of death. You are not separate from existence, hence how can you die? The wave is not separate from the ocean; it cannot die either. Yes, sometimes it manifests and sometimes it rests and goes into unmanifestation. There is no death, Anand Arun, remember it. But I am not saying to believe in me; I would like...

... Available: N.A. Length: N.A. The first question: Question 1: OSHO, PLEASE SAY A FEW WORDS ABOUT SANJAY GANDHI AND HIS DEATH. HE RESPECTED AND LOVED YOU AND HAD SAID TO LAXMI JUST A WEEK BEFORE HIS DEATH THAT SOON HE WILL BE COMING TO VISIT THE ASHRAM AND TO SEE YOU. Anand Arun, Sanjay Gandhi was a beautiful person, a man of immense integrity, individuality, adventure. He lived adventurously and he died...

... adventurously. in fact, that's how one should live and one should die. He lived dangerously. the only way to live is the way to live in danger, because it is only in moments of tremendous danger that one transcends lower planes of being. It has been reported in the newspapers and when Vivek read she asked me how it was possible - because dying in a plane crash his whole body was just a mess. All his bones...

... were broken, his skull was broken, his brain had come out of the skull - but on his face there was great peace. She was puzzled. After such a horrible death, how one's face can be peaceful? But there is a secret in it worth understanding. When one dies on a deathbed after a prolonged disease, continuously thinking and worrying about death, the face cannot be calm and quiet; the worry, the tension...

..., the clinging to life will be there. But when one dies suddenly, when death comes like a surprise, suddenly the mind stops. I have been in many accidents myself and the people who have been with me in those accidents have all experienced that in the moment when the accident is actually happening the mind disappears, because the mind cannot THINK about it. There is nothing to think about it, there is...

..., long disease, because they cannot use the opportunity of death. He may not have experienced meditation while he was alive, but he must have tasted just a drop of the nectar of meditation while he was dying. Death came with such immediacy, giving no time for the mind to think about it. Such a death is a beautiful death. Many questions have been asked to me for the past week, since he died. I had not...

... answered them for the simple reason because people who have not meditated. people who have not been here, who have not been my sannyasins will not be able to understand what I am saying. Vinoba Bhave said on Sanjay Gandhi's death that he died an immature death. That is absolutely wrong. He was far more mature than Morarji Desai. Chronologically he was very young, only thirty- three, but chronological age...

... is not the real age. He had far more perceptiveness, he had far more intelligence, he had far more clarity. He lived totally, he lived each moment of his life. And it was a very natural death to him; it belonged to his very style of life. That's why I have kept complete silence about it. Now all the people who had to say something have said, I can say my word, which is going to be absolutely...

... different. I don't feel sad about his death. Yes, the country will miss him, but as far as he is concerned he died beautifully. The country has lost a great opportunity in him because he was a promise, a great hope, because he had the guts to go against the traditional, orthodox mind of this country. He was a man of steel - he could have fought against conventions, and he was learning how to fight. And he...

... was succeeding. Slowly slowly his grip on the events was growing better every day. The country has certainly lost an immense opportunity of becoming contemporary. He was a contemporary man; he had no hangovers from the past, he did not believe in the past. But as far as he himself is concerned he could not have died in a better way. This death is a logical conclusion to his whole life. If dying at...

... the age of thirty-three inevitably means immature death, then Adi Shankaracharya also died an immature death - he was exactly thirty-three. Then Jesus also died an immature death; he was exactly thirty-three. Then Vivekananda also died an immature death; he was also exactly thirty-three. Just living long means nothing; length has no meaning. Meaning comes from intensity. It is not a question of...

... quantity but of quality. How long you live makes no difference. HOW you live, how deeply, how totally, how intensely, how passionately - everything depends on that. And he certainly lived totally, intensely, passionately - and he risked everything for it; he was not in any way a coward. People like Sanjay Gandhi are bound to die in some strange way. This country needs more people like Sanjay Gandhi. For...

... certainly sad about the country. It is really a misfortune for the country, a great calamity, far more greater than the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sanjay Gandhi's grandfather, because Jawaharlal had lived his life, he had done whatsoever he wanted to do. There was nothing else that he could have done even if he had lived ten years more; he had blossomed. He was a poet, not a politician; he was also...

... adventurous. Something of him has entered into Indira Gandhi, his daughter, and something of him was very much in the bones and the blood and the marrow of Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay Gandhi's death is far bigger a calamity to the country because he had yet to contribute much. He had just begun to open his petals; he had yet to become a flower. He was still a potential. Certainly he would have been a great prime...

... river. It was dangerous, certainly dangerous; it was prohibited. There was always a policeman standing on the railway bridge because that was the place from where people used to commit suicide. We had to bribe the policeman, that "We are not committing suicide, we have just come to enjoy the jump!" And slowly slowly he became aware that these are the same people - they don't die or anything...

... difficult. Sanjay Gandhi died beautifully. He will be born on a far higher plane because he died in a moment when the mind was no more functioning. He died the death of a meditator without knowing what is happening. Of course it was not a conscious meditation, but still there was something of meditativeness in it. His next life will be of a higher quality. Maybe his next life will become more concerned...

... extrovert. But this sudden death will bring a transformation into him: he will become an introvert in his next life, and that is something of immense value. Indira Gandhi must be in great pain. She cannot understand how we celebrate death here. She also wants to come, has been thinking for many days to come. Now she has settled that in August she will be coming, but now the death of Sanjay may again...

... young men should die climbing the mountains, flying in the sky, diving deep in the ocean, exploring the unknown - first outwardly and then inwardly too. My work is totally different - it is inner - but on the fundamentals Sanjay Gandhi would have absolutely agreed with me. I believe in adventure. Of course I am not interested that my sannyasins should go climbing the mountains because I know of far...

... people, and I love all those who are courageous enough to live in insecurity - and he lived in insecurity - and of course, in insecurity you are always living with death. That's what insecurity means: that each moment of life is also a moment of death. Anand Arun, you ask me to say few words on Sanjay Gandhi and his death. Death is an illusion, death never happens - only the form changes. And because...

... we become too much identified with the form, that's why we feel so miserable. To know that you are not the body, not the mind, is to know that there is no death, that you are eternal. Everybody is part of eternity. There are only two illusions in the world, and they are not really two but two aspects of the same illusion. One is ego, which is false; it gives you the false idea that, "I am...

... you to experience it. There is no death. There is only life and life eternal. The second question: Question 2: OSHO, I WAS BORN A CHRISTIAN BUT BECAME CONVINCED THAT HINDUISM IS THE RIGHT RELIGION, SO I BECAME A HINDU. I WAS INITIATED INTO HINDUISM BY THE FOUNDER OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT HIMSELF AND GIVEN A NEW NAME. BUT LISTENING TO YOU I HAVE BECOME VERY MUCH CONFUSED. PLEASE GUIDE ME AS...

... that fragment and from there we will start changing you - not converting you into another religion but simply making you aware that religion has nothing to do with beliefs, Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. Religion is a revolution - a revolution from mind to no-mind, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Religion is a radical change of your inner gestalt. What you did was just substituting...

... more available to all aspects of religiousness. Krishna has something beautiful - the flute, the song, the celebration - which is missing in Jesus. But Jesus also has something immensely significant - the cross, the sacrifice, the readiness to die so willingly, with a prayer on his lips that, "Forgive, father, all these people, because they know not what they are doing," with such...

... death because death can become meaningful only to the 'I', to the ego. When you have a conception that you are separate, immediately the problem arises whether you are going to be here forever or whether you will die. The trees are immortal. Not that they do not die - they die but they have no awareness of death. The animals are immortal. Not that death is not going to be there - death will be there...

... but they are not aware of it. They have no egos, so how can they feel they are going to die? 'I' must be there before I can feel that I will die. Death is part of the ego. So now let me tell you: death arises out of disease, illness; and death is the last thing, the climax, where ego ends. Ego creates death around you and the fear - and this is the paradox: the more fearful you feel about death, the...

... before death because it will make you impotent again. All the glory and all the power will go and you will die like any beggar. Death is absolutely communistic: it equalizes all. The lowest, naturally, cannot be much afraid. The highest will be afraid because he will be pulled down. Death will take your presidentship, your prime-ministership, and death will take from the beggar his beggary. The...

... because you were not yet an ego. You had not tasted the fruit of knowledge; you had not come to know yourself as separate. With separation problems arise: you become anxious. With separation, death arises. It is said in the biblical story that death didn't exist before. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, death came into existence. Before that they were immortal. Every child is immortal. He is not aware of...

... more you try to be powerful. Because you think that if you are powerful, then you can do something about death. At least you can postpone it; you can push it away a little. But the more powerful you grow, the more death becomes significant. The more powerful you grow, the more you become afraid of death, because with the power grows the ego. If you are rich, politically powerful, you will be more...

... afraid of death. If you are poor, with no power, you will not be so afraid of death. Western people, when they come to the East, simply cannot understand why people in the East are so indifferent to death. They are so powerless. They do not have very fixed and solid egos so they cannot be so much afraid. You become more afraid. You become afraid in proportion to what death is going to take away from...

... you. If you do not have anything, what can death take away from you? A poor man is not so afraid of death. Really, death cannot take anything away from him. He may attain something through death, but he cannot lose. The richer you grow, the more afraid you are because all your riches will be taken away. Whatsoever is achieved will be taken away. The more power you have, the more you feel powerless...

... president and the beggar will become equal in death. Of course, the president will be more afraid. He has a deeper fear than a beggar can have. The West has become very much afraid of death. It has become an obsession. This is bound to be because now the West is more powerful; they have something to lose. And when they see the indifference in the East, they cannot understand why people are so indifferent...

... to death. This is the reason: they have not much to lose. They are existing on the lowest rung, so death cannot become a fall to them. They are already fallen; they are already existing in the grave. What I intend to say is: power gives you ego, ego creates lust for power and this becomes a vicious circle. And when you are powerful you become afraid of death. When you become afraid of death you...

... cannot enter the divine because the divine is a sort of death. Really, to enter the divine, to enter the whole, means to lose yourself as an individual - to become a child again. But this childhood, this second childhood, is qualitatively different from the first. The first childhood was animal-like; the second childhood is godlike. The first childhood was bound to be disturbed; the second childhood...

..., that "I breathe," then death would become impossible - because if you can go on breathing, what can death do? But you cannot go on breathing. If the breath goes out and doesn't come back, what can you do? You cannot do anything, because really, if the breath has gone out and doesn't come in, you are no more there to do anything. You do not exist; you are out of existence. Breathing is not...

..., death, love, all that is significant, is a happening. And if you move deeper, then even trivial things are happenings. You say, "I have made this house," but even birds are making their nests. Really, it is something that the life force is doing, not you. Do not think yourself very intelligent, very powerful, very clever, because you have made this house. Even birds are making such beautiful...

... because of you, or both are because of you. Decide and the ego will die. If you say, "Both are not because of me: a greater force is working and I am just a particle, an atomic thing, just a cell, just helpless. Things are happening to me - I am not a doer, so whether victory comes or defeat, both belong to the ultimate," your ego will dissolve. Or say, "Both belong to me, victory and...

... defeat, honor and dishonor" - then too your ego will disappear, because both are contradictory. They negate each other. Victory will give you a little ego and defeat will take that little ego away., You will be just without the ego. These are the two ways. Hindus have followed the first. They say victory and death and everything belongs to the divine, to the order of the cosmos. Jainas and...

... Buddhists have followed the second. They say that there is no God: "Everything belongs to me - the defeat and the victory, the loss and the gain, the birth and death, everything belongs to me." Then these two contradictory things negate each other and the ego is dissolved. In both cases the happening is the same. The ego can persist only if you go on giving all the victories to it and go on...

... consciously. And if you can die with total awareness, the whole being alert, not a single part unconscious, then you will not be born at all. Then there is no need, then you can simply discard this body and become bodiless. BEFORE ENTERING SAMADHI - that is, conscious, alert, aware of death.... And only the person who has attained the seventh stage can enter it. He will be born no more, he will be out of...

..., otherwise the man would die. And he was adamant. He said, "I can die, that is not much of a problem - but I don't want to be unconscious." He must have been thinking of this sutra, he must have known about this secret, that one should never die unconsciously. Death is not the problem, unconsciousness is the problem. So he said, "It is okay. If you cannot operate then let me be as I am. I...

... is again a stage, you are not one with it. If you are one with it you could not have been a child and you cannot grow old. You will pass through it also, it is a phase. So this is the definition of a stage: you come into it, you pass through it, you go beyond it - but you are not it. Then you will become old, that too is a stage. You will pass into death. Birth is a stage, death is a stage. One who...

... waited. The hare did not move and, tired from standing on three legs, many times the elephant thought, "Crush this hare and move." But then an idea came to his mind: "As I love my life this hare also loves his life. If I am escaping for my life and I am afraid of death this hare is also afraid of death." So he waited and died waiting there, because the fire came nearer and nearer...

... videhamukti. You are living in the body, but living in the body you are no longer the body; the body has become just an abode, a house or your clothes. You are no longer attached to it in any way. You use it, you live in it, you take care of it, but you are no longer concerned, no longer afraid that if the body dies you will die. Now you know you are deathless; only the body can die, never you. You are not...

... last secret. BEFORE ENTERING SAMADHI - that is, death with consciousness.... Samadhi means death with consciousness, dying fully alert. You have died many times but it was not samadhi, it was simple death, because whenever you died you were unconscious. Before death happens you are unconscious, it is just a surgical procedure. Because death will be so painful for you, you cannot be allowed to be...

... conscious - just as a surgeon gives you anesthetic, chloroform, before he operates on you, and then his operation is just nothing. Death's operation is so big because the whole being has to be taken out of your body with which it has become so attached, identified. It is not simply removing a bone, it is removing the whole body from you. So nature has a process: before you die you fall unconscious, fast...

... asleep, you are no longer in your senses, and then your being can be removed. This is not samadhi. And remember, if a person dies in unconsciousness he is born in unconsciousness, because the birth, the coming birth, will be the same, the same quality. If in this life you die unconsciously, in the next life you will be born unconscious in a womb. If you can die consciously then you can be born...

... entering death the seeker should try this. Many things. First, before you enter death ordinarily you cling to the body, you don't want to give it up. That is the ordinary reaction of the mind, to cling. Death is snatching everything and you cling, you start a fight with death. In this fight you will be defeated. This sutra says: Give up consciously. From the gross to the subtle to the self, give up...

... everything. Just say to death, "Take it. This is not me. Take this body, take this mind, take this self, this ego. I am not this." Don't cling, let your life be a gift to death. Don't create any fight and resistance. If you create fight you will become unconscious and you will miss an opportunity again. Give up. Give death whatsoever you have - from the gross to the subtle to the very self, go on...

... giving. Don't create any resistance. This is the foundational thing. Don't create resistance, don't fight with death. What will happen? If you can give up knowingly, consciously, blissfully, you will not fall unconscious, there is no need. Your clinging creates the problem. It happened just at the beginning of this century, the king of Benares was to undergo an appendix operation. He was a very...

... will die but I will die consciously. You give me chloroform, and if I die in the operation then who will be responsible? Can you take the responsibility? Can you give me a guarantee that I will not die through this operation?" Nobody could give such a guarantee. The case was serious and there was a possibility that he might die in the operation. So the doctors agreed, because there was no other...

... alternative. They said, "Let us try, there is no risk. The man is going to die within hours, so take the risk. Let us try, let him remain conscious." So no anesthetic was given. That was the first operation of this type in the whole history. And it was miraculous, because the king remained conscious. It was a long operation, almost two hours, and the whole stomach was opened and the appendix...

... removed. The surgeons could not believe that the man was conscious, that he remained conscious. They asked him later on how it happened. He said, "There is no secret about it. I was not resisting. I said, 'Okay death, take everything - this appendix, this body, this whatsoever I have been calling me - take everything. I am ready. There is no resistance.'" If there is no resistance there is no...

... problem. Resistance creates conflict, conflict creates problem. So at the moment of death the seeker should contemplate on aum. He should feel himself as the aum, the universe, the very life, the very existence, the very awareness. And subsequently he should surrender everything - FROM GROSS TO SUBTLE. And this is not only for the seeker, even an enlightened person who has achieved the seventh has to...

... ill, sometimes there was some other urgent thing to be done, sometimes there was some marriage going on - so I went on postponing. But now I have heard that he is going to die. There is no time to postpone now, and I must ask him. So allow me." They prevented him. They said, "It is impossible." Buddha came back from his retirement and he said, "Let it not be written in history...

..., went on spreading. A buddha's mind is a fragrance, the condensed fragrance of such a great and pure and innocent life, it was felt. Then he surrendered his self. These three things surrendered, he died. This was mahaparinirvana, mahasamadhi. But it was a conscious surrender, death was given back everything that nature had given. This man will never be back again. Only such a conscious surrender can...

... become samadhi, the ultimate samadhi. Even if you have not attained the seventh stage, wherever you are, at any stage, when death approaches you try to be conscious, surrendering. Don't fight with death. If you fight with death, death will conquer. If you don't fight with death there is no possibility of conquering. This is the way with death, to be in a letgo. And this has been done even by buddhas...

... who have attained the seventh stage. So try it. For you it will be an effort, but worth doing. Even if you fail it is good to do, because doing it many times you will succeed. And once you succeed with death fear disappears, surrender becomes easy. This is the difficulty with surrender. Many people come to me - one girl was here just the other day and she said, "I feel very sad because...

... everybody else seems to be surrendered to you, trusting, in deep faith. I cannot surrender. Meditation is good, I feel good, but I cannot surrender." What is the problem in surrendering? Surrender is a death, you are afraid of dying. Whenever you think of surrender you feel, "Then I am no more, then I dissolve," and you want to persist. If you can surrender in death you can surrender in...

... love, you can surrender in trust, you can surrender in faith. And the reverse is also true, vice-versa is also true; if you can surrender in love, surrender in faith, you will be able to surrender in death. Surrender is the same, the same phenomenon - and surrender is the key. Learn to surrender in death, and if you cannot surrender in death you cannot surrender in life also. Those who are afraid of...

... death are always afraid of life. They miss everything. AND SUBSEQUENTLY HE SHOULD SURRENDER EVERYTHING, FROM GROSS TO SUBTLE TO THE CONSCIOUS SELF. TAKING THE CONSCIOUS SELF AS HIS OWN SELF, HE SHOULD CONSOLIDATE THIS FEELING: I AM ETERNAL.... While dying, or while in deep meditation, which is a sort of death, or while making love, which is a sort of death - wherever you feel a surrender, think: I AM...

... IGNORANCE, WITHOUT APPEARANCE, INEXPRESSIBLE IN WORDS, AND THAT HE IS BRAHMAN, THE ESSENCE OF KNOWLEDGE. THIS IS THE UPANISHADIC MYSTERY. What is the Upanishadic mystery? The art of dying is the Upanishadic mystery. And one who knows how to die knows how to live. One who knows how to surrender conquers the whole. Enough for today. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

... have died with their husband's death, jumping in the funeral pyre alive, and burning themselves to death. It was so respectable that any woman who could not do it had to live a very condemned life. She became almost an outcast; she was treated only as a servant in her own family. It was concluded that because she could not die with her husband, she was not loyal to him. In fact, just think of it the...

.... If you know that you are going to die today, all fear of death will disappear. What is the point of wasting time? You have one day to live: live as intensely as possible, live as totally as possible. It actually happened in a man's life.... His doctor told him, "You have only six months more to live, not a single day more, so if you want to finish anything, finish it. If you have wanted to do...

... still alive? How did you manage -- because the disease was such that you were going to die within six months." The man said, "Once it became certain that I was going to die, death was no longer a problem but a certainty. I had six months to live, so I wanted to live as multidimensionally as possible. And by living so totally and so intensely, perhaps I forgot to die at the right time."...

..., you start believing your own acting. Loyalty demands that you should be always, in life or in death, devoted to the person -- whether your heart is willing for it or not. It is a psychological way of enslavement. Love brings freedom. Loyalty brings slavery. On the surface, they both look alike; deep down, they are just the very opposite -- diametrically opposite. Loyalty is acting, you have been...

..., BUT THEN OFTEN THE FEAR OF DEATH COMES UP INTENSE AND STRONG AND THE FEAR OF HAVING TO LEAVE ALL THIS BEAUTY, THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND LOVE. YOU KEEP ON TELLING US LATELY THAT WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT BEFORE THIS WORLD FINISHES. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO RELAX IN THIS CERTAINTY OF DEATH? Sadhan, first it is possible to relax only when death is a certainty. Relaxing is difficult when things are uncertain...

... closed all his businesses. What was the need to keep them? For six months he had more than enough -- he could live like a king. He went around the world, visiting all the beautiful places, all the beautiful people of the world. In fact, he simply forgot to die. By the time he was back home, six months had passed a long time before. He went to the doctor to thank him. The doctor said, "Are you...

...; The doctor checked him -- his disease had disappeared. These six months had been of such relaxed, deep, joyful enjoyment that the disease had to disappear! So the first thing, Sadhan: The certainty of death is one of the most fortunate things. And death has never been so certain -- so certain for the whole humanity. In fact, people should stop creating war materials. Instead of fighting with their...

... certainty of a global death can bring a transformation. Perhaps you may find yourself in the same position as this man, that the world stops being divided into nations, being divided into religions, continuously fighting and we start, for the first time, enjoying this beautiful planet together. Death may not come. death cannot come to people who live very intensely and very totally. And even if it comes...

..., those people who have lived totally, welcome it because it is a great relief. They are tired of living, they lived so totally, so intensely, so death comes like a friend. Just as night comes after the whole day's hard work as a great relaxation, as a beautiful sleep, so does death. Death has nothing ugly about it; you cannot find anything cleaner. You are asking, "Lately I feel my life has come...

... highest peak, but don't make it the end of your journey. Make it the beginning of a new journey. Every peak has to be made the beginning of a new journey -- a search for a higher peak. "Living in Your presence is such a precious and delicious gift. Every moment is becoming so joyful and contented, but then often the fear of death comes up." That means your joy, your blissfulness, your...

... contentedness is not total -- it leaves spaces, loopholes, from which the fear of death comes in. The fear of death simply shows.... Dance a little faster, live a little faster. I have never forgotten... in Ahmedabad I used to stay at Jayantibhai's house. We had to cross a bridge, and as the bridge came near he would start driving faster, because there was a big board by the side of the bridge advertising...

... Gold Spot. It said, "Live a little hot, sip a Gold Spot." I asked Jayantibhai, "What is the matter? Suddenly, on this bridge, you start going fast." He said, "Looking at that board, `Live a little hot,' I start going fast!" If the fear of death comes in, that means there are a few loopholes which are not filled with living. So those fears of death are very indicative and...

... helpful -- show you that your dance has to go a little faster, that you have to burn the torch of your life from both ends together. Dance so fast that the dancer disappears, and only the dance remains. Then it is not possible for any fear of death to visit you. "And the fear of having to leave all this beauty, this friendship, and love." If you are totally herenow, who cares about tomorrow...

... have much time left before this world finishes. How is it possible to relax in this certainty of death?" In fact, my continuous emphasis that there is a possibility of this whole world being destroyed is to help you to live intensely right now because there may not be any tomorrow. You are in a very special position in the history of mankind. People have always had time to postpone -- you don't...

... me, perhaps the world may not end, perhaps we may continue. The old man may die and a totally new man with fresh values may arise to replace him. Okay, Maneesha? Yes, Osho. The Golden Future Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

...Transcendence of Death Through Acceptance...

... Osho Gateless Gate: Transcendence of Death Through Acceptance Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Gateless Gate   Next > Transcendence of Death Through Acceptance From: Osho Date: Fri, 15 May 1971 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Osho - The Gateless Gate Chapter #: 26 Location: ??? Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A...

.... Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Beloved Dhyana Siddhi, Love. Fear cripples consciousness. And, fear is the source of unconsciousness. That is why without transcending fear, no one can attain to full consciousness. But what is fear? Fear is awareness of death without knowing what death is! Fear exists in the gap between you and your death. And if there is no gap, no space, then there is no fear. Do...

... not think death as something outside you. Because it is not. And do not think death as something in the future. Because it is not. Death is within you. Because death is the other side of life. Life cannot exist without death. They both belong to the same energy as positive and negative poles. So do not identify yourself with life, because you are both. The identification with life creates the gap...

.... And, death has nothing to do with future it is always here and now. Every moment it is. And, when one ceases to regard it as something outside oneself and, so to speak, draws it into his consciousness and assimilates the idea of it, one is completely changed. He is in all truth, born again. And, then, there is no fear. Because then there is no gap. 15-5-1971 (To: Ma Dhyana Siddhi, New York, U.S.A...

... always the other who dies. I never die." You must have seen many people dying, giving you a strong support, a rational background that it is always the other who dies. And when you die, you will not know, you will be unconscious - you will miss the opportunity of knowing death. Those who have known death are unanimous in their opinion that it is the greatest orgasmic experience of life. But people...

... die unconsciously. It is good that there are diseases which are predictable. Cancer means that you have known seven days before - or seven months, whatever the time may be - that death is coming closer each moment. These seven days are not allowed to everybody. Cancer seems to be something you must have earned in your past life - because J. Krishnamurti died of cancer, Raman Maharshi died of cancer...

... feel any energy, any life in me." Eknath said, "Now you get up, it is time. Take a good bath, eat well. Tomorrow you have a case in the court. Continue the business. And I have answered your question. Because since I have become aware that everybody has to die.... "And death can come tomorrow - you had seven days. I don't have even seven days; tomorrow I may not see the sunrise again...

... who know how to live automatically come to know how to die. Their death is a thing of beauty, because they only die outwardly; inwardly the life journey continues. Your coming to know that you have cancer certainly will be shocking, will bring sadness and despair. But you are my sannyasin; you have to make this opportunity into a great transformation of being. These few days that you will be here...

... should be the days of meditation, love, compassion, friendliness, playfulness, laughter; and if you can do that, you will be rewarded by a conscious death. That is the reward of a conscious life. An unconscious life comes to die unconsciously. A conscious life is rewarded by existence with a conscious death. And to die consciously is to know the ultimate orgasmic experience of life, and to know...

..., death comes and you cannot hear the footsteps, the sounds of death approaching you. That's why I said you are fortunate: death has knocked seven days before. Use these days in deep acceptance. Make these seven days as joyful as possible; make these seven days days of laughter. Die with a joke on your face - the smile, the thankfulness, the gratitude for all that life has given to you. And this I say...

... of death. Each moment you will be dying more and more. It is not that on a certain day, at seventy years old, death comes; it is not an event, it is a process that begins with the birth. It takes seventy years; it is mighty lazy, but it is a process, not an event. And I am emphasizing this fact so that I can make it clear to you that life and death are not two things. They become two if death is an...

... event which ends life. Then they become two; then they become antagonistic, enemies. When I say that death is a process beginning with birth, I am saying that life is also a process beginning with the same birth - and these are not two processes. It is one process: it begins with birth, it ends with death. But life and death are like two wings of a bird, or two hands, or two legs. Even your brain has...

... two hemispheres, separate, the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. You cannot exist without this dialectics. Life is a dialectics - and if you understand this, a tremendous acceptance of death naturally comes to you. It is not against you, it is part of you; without it you cannot be alive. It is just like the background of a blackboard on which you write with white chalk: the blackboard is not...

... instance supporting the sound of one hand clapping. The whole existence is two hands clapping: man and woman, day and night, life and death, love and hate. The deeper the disciple meditates... slowly slowly he becomes aware that in existence it is impossible to find anything. And the master asks everything - "Have you found it? Have you heard the sound of one hand clapping?" Many ideas come to...

... have not even said the answer and it has been rejected. "Now you can understand: it is not a question of this answer or that answer. All answers are wrong. Only silence - which is an existential presence, not an intellectual answer - is right." You are fortunate to know that within seven days you are going to die, that you have cancer. Everybody has cancer, just a few people are lazy! You...

... are speedy! American! Most people are Indians; even in dying, they will take time. They are always late, always missing the train. I say you are blessed to know - because everybody is going to die, but because it is unknown when, where, people go on living under the illusion that they are going to live forever. They always see others dying. That supports logically their standpoint that "It is...

..., Ramakrishna died of cancer. Strange... three enlightened people who are not mythological, who have lived just now died of cancer. It seems to be something spiritual! It certainly has a spiritual dimension.... I am not saying that all those who die of cancer are enlightened beings, but they can become enlightened beings more easily than anybody else because others go on living under the illusion that they...

... are going to live; there is no hurry. Meditation can be postponed - tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. What is the hurry? - and there are more urgent things which have to be done today. Meditation is never urgent because death is never urgent. For the man who comes to know that cancer is going to strike within seven days, everything in life becomes meaningless. All urgencies disappear. He was...

... sickness does not matter. Feeling well or not well is irrelevant. My lifeline is finished - only seven days. Today is Sunday; the next Sunday, as the sun is setting I will be gone. I am already gone!" The whole house was sad. Relatives started gathering, friends - because Eknath had never spoken a lie, he was a man of truth. If he has said it, death is certain. On the seventh day just before the sun...

... was simply a skeleton. Eknath shook him; he somehow tried to open his eyes. Eknath said, "I have come to say to you that you are not going to die. Your lifeline is still long enough. I said that you are going to die in seven days as an answer to your question. That was my answer." And the man jumped up. He said, "That was your answer? My God! You had already killed me. I was just...

.... I don't have time for stupid things, for stupid ambitions, for greed, for anger, for hate; I simply don't have time - because tomorrow I may not be here. "In this small span of life, if I can rejoice in the beauties of existence, the beauties of human beings; if I can share my love, if I can share my songs, perhaps death will not be hard on me." I have heard from the ancients that those...

... simultaneously that nothing dies, only forms change. You are moving into a new house - and of course a better house, on a higher level of consciousness. You use the opportunity to grow. And life is absolutely just, fair. Whatever you earn you never lose it, you are rewarded for it. Accept that death is just part of your life, and accept the fact that it is good that you have come to know beforehand. Otherwise...

... to you: death is fiction. There is no death because nothing dies, only things change. And if you are aware, you can make them change for the better. That's how evolution happens. That's how an unconscious man becomes a Gautam Buddha. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS COMING FROM MY OFFICE FOR YOUR DISCOURSE, I WAS FEELING VERY MUCH DEPRESSED, TIRED AND TENSE; BUT AFTER THE DISCOURSE I...

... death came over him. Such people die consciously. And because they die consciously they know that death is a reality only from the outside; as far as the inner experience is concerned, it is just a changing of the house. Life continues. Even in the mother's womb the man who is going to become enlightened shows indications of intelligence. This seems unbelievable, but the Buddhists, the Jainas - two...

... shattered cup added, "It was time for your cup to die." He has made an accident into a profound experience. By bringing death into it, first he has stopped the mouth of the teacher - now he cannot say anything. If everything has its time and then it has to die, he has to accept that the precious cup has died. But it is not just a story. Ikkyu, when he himself became a master, used to tell about...

... alone won't do. Just waiting is a state which is not alive; there has to be tremendous longing, a thirst from every pore of your being. Unless God becomes a question of your life and death, the meeting is not possible. Almost everybody will be prepared to wait - that means on your laundry list, God is the last item, when you have done everything of the world. And that is not possible, even in eternity...

....... When any animal dies, even the dead animal has some utility. It is only man who dies, and all that you can do is either burn him or bury him - just to get rid of him. Rather than bringing some money to you after death he withdraws ome money from your pocket. So there is no need to be afraid if you are lost, drowned, because in the temple of God only one can exist - either you or he. Duality is not...

... hypothesis, it is my experience. I have passed through that death and I have found that it appears to be death from one side, but from the other side it is resurrection. You disappear as a small creature and become a vast creativity. You don't lose anything and you gain everything. But the organized religions don't want you to be aware of this fact, because their whole business depends on an outside God...

... CLEVER EVEN AS A BOY. HIS TEACHER HAD A PRECIOUS TEACUP, A RARE ANTIQUE. IKKYU HAPPENED TO BREAK THIS CUP AND WAS GREATLY PERPLEXED. HEARING THE FOOTSTEPS OF HIS TEACHER, HE HELD THE PIECES OF THE CUP BEHIND HIM. WHEN THE MASTER APPEARED, IKKYU ASKED, "WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE?" "THIS IS NATURAL," EXPLAINED THE OLDER MAN, "EVERYTHING HAS TO DIE, AND HAS JUST SO LONG TO LIVE...

...." IKKYU, PRODUCING THE SHATTERED CUP, ADDED, "IT WAS TIME FOR YOUR CUP TO DIE." Gayan, Ikkyu is one of the most important Zen masters of Japan. There are many stories about him which can open new doors for you to contemplate and meditate. This is the first story about his childhood, when he was not a master yet but used to serve another master. He was doing small little things for him...

... this life, gives her again and again the dream of a white elephant. Upon that, the Buddhists agree, the Jainas agree - because they both have worked hard to find what kind of indications the conscious death of a person will bring to the mother into whose womb he has entered. There are many other dreams upon which they have agreed - because they have been repeated so many times, and it has been only...

... cups are very fragile. Hearing the footsteps of the teacher he held the pieces of the cup behind him. When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked, "Why do people have to die?" This is not cleverness, this is great intelligence. Why do people have to die? "This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and has just so long to live." Ikkyu, producing the...

... this incident many times - that death is a natural phenomenon, that one should not be worried about it, and one should not be sad about it. Anything that one can be sad about is a life unlived. You go on dragging yourself without living - that is unfortunate. You are vegetating; you are not singing the songs that you have come to sing, you are not dancing the dance that is lying in your potential...

... were using their intelligence to its full, the world would be a totally different place - far more alive, far more rich, far more beautiful. The only thing that one should be sad about is that you are not living, but just passing time. Death is not something to be sad about - if it comes to a fulfilled life, if it comes to a life as a crescendo, its climax, it has a beauty of its own. I want my...

... people to live totally, and to live intensely, to burn their life's torch from both ends together. If they can manage to live a total and intense life in each of their acts, their death will be something of a greater beauty than their life has ever been - because death is the highest peak, the last touches of the painter on the painting. That's why I have been saying that death should be celebrated...

... just as life should be celebrated. Both are natural, both are gifts. Life is tiring; a time comes when you are spent. Death comes as a great help. It is nothing but relaxation, a deep relaxation. And it is not the end, it is only the beginning of a new life. If you think of it as an end, you will feel miserable - think of it as a beginning of a new life. Just a little difference of emphasis, and your...

... whole experience changes its color, its beauty. Where there was sadness there will be joy, and where there were tears of misery, pain, anguish, there will be tears of fulfillment, contentment, blissfulness. The same tears with a new meaning, the same tears with a new music; the same death, but with a totally different taste. When Ikkyu died himself, he collected all his disciples and asked them,"...

...; Just tell me some new way of dying, because I am not interested in imitation. People die on their beds; I don't want to die on the bed." The bed is the most dangerous thing - 99.9 percent of people die there, beware! So whenever you go to bed, remember: This place is very close to the graveyard. His disciples knew that he was a crazy man - now, whoever has ever bothered about how one dies...

...? People simply die.... Ikkyu asked, "Has somebody a suggestion?" One man said, "You can die sitting in the lotus posture." Ikkyu said, "That is not new. Many other masters have died in that posture. Suggest something new, novel!" One man said, "You can die standing." Ikkyu said, "That looks a little better." But a disciple objected; he said, "...

...;Although it is not well known, I know one Zen master who has died standing. So you will be number two." Ikkyu said, "Then reject it. Suggest something new. I want to be first!" One of his disciples suggested, "Then there is only one way. You die standing on your head, in a head stand, shirshan. Nobody has ever tried it." Ikkyu said, "That is right. That suits me! I am so...

... sister came, and she was very angry. She came and she said, "Ikkyu, you have been your whole life mischievous; at least in death, behave! Just lie down on the bed!" And Ikkyu jumped up and lay down on the bed and died. And the sister simply went out. She did not bother that he had died. In the East it is not thought good to not follow the order of your elders, and particularly at such a...

... moment. The disciples were amazed, because they had tried everything - the heart was not beating, the pulse was not there, they had moved a mirror in front of his nose, and there was no shadow of vapor. What had happened? As the sister shouted at him, he immediately jumped, and just like an obedient child lay down on the bed and died! Even death is a game. And the sister did not even wait for the...

... funeral. To those who know that life is eternal, death means nothing. It is the death only of your physical body, not of your consciousness. And particularly a man like Ikkyu is not going to be reborn; he will not be again encaged in another body. He will be moving into the eternity, into the ocean of the consciousness of the whole existence. It is a moment of celebration. Question 3: BELOVED OSHO, I...

.... And many others who had come afterwards had become enlightened. So he was crying, sitting by the side of Buddha, saying, "You are leaving us." Buddha declared, "I am going to die today. As the sun sets, I will withdraw my consciousness from my body and dissolve into the universal." Ananda burst into tears. He said, "What will happen to me? I have been with you for forty-two...

... years and I am yet unenlightened; and now you are going. And you are going forever, you are not going to return in any other body, so there is no question of meeting you again." Buddha said, "That is the barrier. You think I can make you enlightened - that's why these forty-two years have gone by and you have not attained. Perhaps after my death, within twenty-four hours you may become...

... need not do anything. But the death of Buddha came as such a shock that his whole mind stopped. The other disciples were worried that he may go mad. He had loved Gautam Buddha so much, and he was an elder cousin-brother to Gautam Buddha. And he had followed him, serving him... he may go mad. And the way he was sitting - almost frozen, like a statue. They thought that it was intolerable for him to see...