Darshan 15 October 1976

[A visitor says: : I feel very close to you. I've been on the spiritual path for about twenty years... I've had many masters. When I first read the first few words of 'My Way: The Way of the White Clouds' I knew it was for me!] (a chuckle) Good, very good. One has to learn from many sources, and one should never be closed to any possibility. One should trust in life itself, and in many forms you will be helped. All the forms are of the divine, so never make any conflict between masters. One comes across many masters, and each master has to function in his role in your growth, then he departs. But he prepares you for another; it is a chain.

Howsoever diverse the paths may look, they lead to the same goal. And once that understanding arises, then you are not close to one master - you are close to all the masters: past, present and even future. Just being close to one master one becomes close to all, because they are the windows of the same palace. Different windows and different views of course, but all are windows of the same palace, of the same temple.

Once you have looked into the temple from any window then all the windows are yours. Then it is never a question of either/or; that question never arises for a true seeker. If it arises, the seeker is not yet religious; he is yet a politician. In politics the question is always of conflict - one against the other; it is always a tug-of-war, and it is always to choose one against the other. Politics is conflict.

In religion when you come close to one master, you have come close to all. If you understand Jesus, you have understood Buddha and you have understood Lao Tzu.

A christian monk visited a zen monastery - he was one of the early Christians who visited Japan. He went to a zen master and he started reading from the new testament 'The Sermon On The Mount'.

The zen master listened, and when he said, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek, because they shall inherit the earth,' the zen master said, 'Stop! Whosoever said that is a Buddha.'

He had never heard about Jesus; he had never read anything. 'Whosoever said it' - you need not even mention the name. That is the true affinity.

So, good. All the masters have prepared you to come to me - that's very good! And much is possible. One should never be satisfied in the search. Be absolutely contented with the world but never be contented with yourself, because the more you grow, the more you know there is. When you reach one peak, suddenly higher peaks confront you and greater challenges. It is a non-ending, eternal process. One is always arriving but never arrives, and it is good that one never arrives, otherwise after that there will be only boredom and nothing else. So God in fact is not the goal but the journey.

And if some seeker starts loving the very journey, the very joy of it, then he has arrived. He will go on seeking - and he has arrived. Then the very journey is such a delight; who bothers about the goal?

And each step is so tremendously beautiful, so incomparably beautiful, that there is no comparison with any past experience. It is so unique. And there is no comparison with any future possibility, it is so unique. Each experience and each moment and each step is a glory unto itself. When one starts loving the seeking itself, one has arrived.

So never be satisfied as far as the inner journey is concerned. There is always much more to happen, and we go on unfolding.

So be here and enjoy!

[A sannyasin says: A couple of times some strange things happened in my body. It feels like raining...

as if rain is coming up from somewhere inside. I feel very good but I feel like crying. I want to really freak out. I feel very grateful but when it happens to me I can't allow it. I want to totally freak out, and of course it's difficult.

Osho checks his energy.] Good, mm.... Something beautiful is ready to happen, but you are not to freak out. You have to contain it, hold it, so that is your work now. Whenever you feel that something is happening, some energy is arising - whatsoever form it takes but anything which is not day-to-day; anything you feel is extraordinary - become absolutely quiet. Breathing should be made as slow as possible, and if possible, no movement of the body. Simply hold it there in the belly, just below the navel, two inches below the navel. You can even put your hand two inches below the navel and feel that the energy is going there.

If it feels like rain - and it can feel like that when energy enters you - then absorb it. Let the raindrops fall in the belly below the navel. That's the hara centre. That is the only place where energy can be contained, nowhere else. Anywhere else you will feel like freaking out because the energy will become like a tension, a restlessness. You will feel good but you will feel like doing something so you can be relieved of the burden of it. It will be too much and you will start shrieking because of it.

You will want to do something so that you are relieved of this new energy that has suddenly entered in you, but releasing it is not going to be of any use. It will be a wastage.

It is precious energy - it has to be contained in the hara. So just open your belly inside and let it fall there. Once you start feeling that it is coming below the navel, you will immediately feel that there is no need for any freaking. The grace is there, the happiness is there, but there is no need even to express it. And it has to be contained, so go on containing it, holding it. One day you will feel a totally new dimension of it. That is when the hara is so full that it starts over. flowing. But then it is not like freaking out. It is grace... it is fragrance. It is peace and silence. Then wherever you are, you will suddenly feel that people have become aware of your space. They will suddenly fall silent if they were talking. Or if they were quarrelling, suddenly in your presence they will stop. Somebody was angry - suddenly in your space he will be bewildered as to what to do; where is his anger? Your overflowing energy has changed it. But that is very subtle - it is not like freaking out.

It is like a flower opening so silently that it makes no sound, and yet the fragrance starts spreading to the winds... goes to the far away lands. In the beginning, if the energy has not reached to the hara centre, then anywhere else it will be like a hangover.

[The sannyasin answers: I've just allowed it to move to here (indicating his chest) because I've been really afraid to let it go deeper.] You have to allow it. If you are afraid it will not go. And the fear is natural, mm? because the hara centre is the death centre also. The word 'hara' means death. That's what Japanese call suicide, 'hara-kiri'. They commit death by hitting a knife into the hara centre. It is a death centre too; it has to be because it is the life centre.

So when this energy enters there, both things are stirred - your life and your death. Because of life being stirred you feel very good. Because of death being stirred you feel afraid and apprehensive.

So that's natural, but you have to understand it and let it go. Help it to go, guide it. By and by you will become alert that it is so beautiful. Once the energy makes contact with the hara, you will suddenly feel a transformation happening in you; you will never be the same again. And then freaking out simply disappears, because there is no need - you can contain so much.

One day there will again be a release of energy, but that will have a totally different quality to it. Then it is not freaking out. It has no violent expression. It is a very soft, subtle vibration. You lose nothing in that, and others who are around you simply gain. They become aflame and aglow. In the East that's what we call satsang. Whenever a person has too much energy in his hara centre, then just sitting by his side is enough. Just being in his presence is enough. You start flying... the gravitation no more affects you; you become weightless.

So this is something tremendously beautiful, and it is just on the verge so help it. Fear will be there - that's natural - and it will go only when the energy has touched the hara centre and you know that there is going to be nothing wrong in it, no harm in it. So from this moment, whenever you feel, just try to guide it, take it there.

[The sannyasin adds: how to work and do something which requires great effort on one hand, and yet to do it without any effort.] The problem arises because of the logical mind, because the mind says that these two things are contradictory. If you make effort, you make effort; how can you make it effortlessly? If you

become effortless, there is no effort; all effort disappears. So the mind divides these two - effort and effortlessness. But try to understand in a different way.

A child is playing and he is absolutely absorbed in his play - so much so that even if a neighbour's building falls and collapses he may not even hear the sound. He is absorbed... maybe making sandcastles, but he is absolutely absorbed. There is effort, tremendous effort - the child is perspiring - and yet there is no effort because the child is simply playing; there is no motive. Or a painter is painting.... You are a jeweller; you are making something. You are absolutely absorbed in it. Then effort is there and yet it is effortless. It is not a tension on you. It is not a duty that you have to do. You are delighted in doing it. You are making love to a woman you love. There is effort - you may start perspiring; your breathing may go berserk but still there is no effort. You love the woman.

You enjoy; you are absorbed in it. You are completely drowned in it. It is a play and there is no motivation in it. You are not doing it for any other reason; you are doing it for doing's sake. Then there is tremendous joy in it.

When we say effortless effort, we mean doing something with no other motive than the very pleasure of doing it. Then suddenly you will see that the contradiction has disappeared. For example I am talking to you. There is effort and there is no effort, because I am talking for no other purpose.

Talking is effort - but there is no effort because I love it, because I love you. I would like to share something with you. While I am talking I am complete4 lost in it. There is nobody standing behind; I am not talking with only one part of me. When I am talking, I am just the talking. The effort is there and yet there is no effort. The contradiction exists only for the logical mind, because the logical mind cannot understand play; it can understand only work. It can understand rest; it can understand work.

It cannot understand work which is rest too.

So whenever work becomes play the contradiction is gone. And when contradictions are not there a harmony arises in the contraries. You have something of the beyond penetrating you... a ray of light