Darshan 20 October 1976

[A therapist, recently arrived back from the States, was at darshan tonight Osho suggested he begin to plan a new group, commencing with just a vague idea of what he wanted... ] .... There is no need to have a very fixed notion about it; just a hypothetical idea... just the direction, the line - like a vision - and then start working. It will start getting more and more solid and dear and defined. After two, three groups it will have arrived. Then you also will be surprised - because there are two different ways of working....

One is always to plan everything beforehand. Another is just to have a vague notion and to move into the act and let the activity itself determine the course. Both are totally different. The first is very efficient, but dead. The second is not so efficient, but very alive. And whenever there is a choice between efficiency and life, always choose life, because a machine can be efficient, so efficiency is not a very great value. In fact the machine is more efficient than man. Scientists go on thinking that they are going to make man too, but as I see it they can never make man because they cannot make such an inefficient machine - that's impossible! That's the beauty of man.

So if you plan everything from the beginning you don't allow the group to grow as an organic phenomenon. You have a fixed notion - you follow your notion. You don't give freedom - you impose the structure. I'm not saying that there should be no structure, because then you start moving in all directions. Then you are spread too thin.

It is as it a river is lost in a desert. A direction is needed - but just a direction, and very flexible like a river, not like the track of a railway line... every freedom for the river to move. Even if the river is going to the east, sometimes it starts going to the west. Again it takes a turn and starts moving towards the east. It takes a thousand turns; it has no fixed plan. It has no absolute blueprint with it.

It simply goes on groping - and then it is beautiful.

So just have a vague hypothesis, mm? like a dream. Move with that dream-like hypothesis and be ready to drop anything that doesn't fit with the dynamic process. And if something new arises, remain open. Don't say no because this is not in your plan, in your chart; never say no. Then within two, three groups you will see that things have settled. And this settlement is organic; it is not mechanical. Then too when everything is settled always remain open. Otherwise for the participants the group is always new because they are new, but for the leader, by and by it becomes old. So the participants are benefited but not the leader. By and by he starts repeating then it is no more help to him. I would like the leader also to be benefited as much as the participant.

So use every experience of the past group just like a jumping board. It has not to be repeated. If it repeats itself, that's another thing. Then too you will be surprised that it is repeating itself; that will be a new experience. You are not repeating it, but the consciousness of the group is moving in such a way that it is being repeated. Then even that repetition is very beautiful and unique because you will be surprised by it. You are not doing anything to force it into the past, into the past experience.

Maybe the past experience was very paying - still you are not forcing it.

Man's responsibility is not towards the past. Man's responsibility is towards the future. This should always be remembered - that we are responsible for the future... for the moment that is just dawning on the horizon, that is just coming into being... for the child that is yet to be born, for the generation that has to come.

All the old societies were past-oriented. They were very respectful about the heroes of the past and past glories and history and this and that The new humanity is not going to be so respectful towards the past. I am not saying to be disrespectful. I am saying that respect should flow towards the future because that's how nature moves. Nature is always in favour of the future. God goes on killing old people and goes on giving birth to new babies. It is very uneconomical because an old person is very efficient - a seventy, eighty-year-old has learned so much, and now suddenly he is gone. There comes to replace him a small baby with no experience, with no past - only with a future.

That's the definition of a child and an old man. The old man has a past and has no future, and the child has only a future and no past. If you can always remain responsible towards the future, you remain a child, as fresh as dew. Even at the moment of dying - you may be one hundred years old - but if your responsibility is towards the future you are young. Even in death you are young. You don't bother about life. When death is coming, you pay your respects to death.

So be faithful to the sun that is yet to rise and always remain available to new possibilities, to new doors. There are an infinity of doors and infinite are the possibilities. If you don't become too closed with your past, life never repeats itself. Even when you feel that it is repeating, it is not. It may be similar but it is never a repetition. Something new is always happening because God is in favour of the new, in favour of the baby, in favour of the vulnerable, the fragile; not in favour of the strong and the hard and the rock-like. He goes on destroying all hard-earned, experienced people, and goes on replacing them with absolutely inexperienced ignorant babies. His trust is with them because they bring the future into the world, because they bring the new into the world.

So in a group experience the leader has always to remain open. Move from the past experience but never be confined to it. Use all past experience but use it as a jumping board. That's what I would like to introduce into all the groups by and by. They should not become a dead dogma; they should

be more flowing. And even the leader should not be in such a situation that he can predict. When the leader can also be surprised the group is going perfectly beautifully.

And I am not interested much in the result I am more interested in the process. I am not a businessman. A businessman is interested in the result. I am interested in the process. If nothing results, nothing results; that is not relevant. If the process was enjoyed, it is enough - more than enough. If the people enjoyed the group while it was going on.... There may not be any visible outcome from it; they may not be able to pinpoint what they have gained out of it, but if they can say that they have enjoyed it tremendously - they don't know what has resulted from it, but while it lasted it was a beautiful experience.... If they can say that, the group has been a success.

That has to be learned about the whole of life. And for that, these groups are just training grounds.

By and by you stop thinking about results and you start living in the moment, in the process.

The result-oriented mind is a stupid mind. It goes on sacrificing the present for the future. Sacrificing!

- and the sacrifice is absolutely non-creative. It goes on postponing. This is not respect for the future - it is just a way to avoid the present. The result-oriented man always puts his hopes in the tomorrow.

He simply hopes - he never lives. He thinks he will live. Tomorrow he is going to live, or the day after tomorrow, or in old age; or after this life, in heaven, he will live some day.

And while he is thinking and dreaming and hoping, life is slipping by. He is not living it - he is indifferent to life itself. He lives in a sort of apathy... uninterested. His interest is in the future. His interest is in the goal, not in the journey, so he moves amidst beautiful scenes but he lives in apathy.

He cannot see the trees, he cannot see the birds. His whole mind is fixed somewhere beyond the hills. When he has arrived there he is going to relax and live and see the beauty of nature - and the beauty of nature is all around him! Right this moment a breeze is passing and touching him - but he is apathetic. A flower is calling - he has sent his message with the fragrance - but the man is dead to it. A bird is inviting, but he has not heard it. His whole mind is focused somewhere in the tomorrow.

Be respectful towards the future but never try to live in the future - live in the present In fact that's what I mean by being respectful towards the future.

And love the process so deeply that if there is no goal it doesn't matter.

For example, you are listening to me, I am talking to you. If nothing happens out of it, that is not the point. But I loved it while I talked to you. While I talked, only you existed for me in this whole world and everything else disappeared. While I talked to you I really talked to you. It was as if that were the very goal of my life. And if you listen to me also with that passion and intensity, then who bothers whether anything happens out of it or not? Not that it is not going to happen. If you have been so passionately in the moment something is bound to happen out of it because in that passion, seeds are sown in the heart. They will sprout one day or other, but that is not relevant in any way. One has not to think about it.

In Japan the zen people have a very beautiful saying. Somebody asked a zen master, 'What is the definition of a sage?'

The master said, 'A sage is one who hopes that the rains will come after the summer and that winter will follow the rains.'

The man was puzzled, because this is how it happens, so what is the point of saying it? He said, 'Are you in your senses? What are you saying? - "A sage is a person who hopes that summer will be followed by rains and rains will be followed by winter"?'

The master said, 'I am talking in my senses. Yes, That's exactly what I mean.'

And the man said, 'That's how it happens!'

The master laughed and he said, 'The sage is one who always hopes only for that which already happens. He never hopes against it He simply hopes that two and two will be four, so of course, all his hopes are fulfilled. How can you frustrate a sage? - because he only hopes for that to which life is already moving.'

So just have a vague idea and start. Good.

[In speaking to a sannyasin, recently arrived from London, Osho suggested he join the ashram's music group.... ] Music is very unwinding - and that's all that is needed. The mind needs an unwinding. We go on so feverishly in life that the mind gets no opportunity to unwind itself.

Just the other day I was reading about a man who was very much worried. His friend asked him, 'You look so worried - what is the matter?'

The man said, 'You don't know how worried I am! If something wrong happens today I will not have time to worry about it for at least one month!'

Things go on accumulating and the mind is never allowed any time to relax. The only time that it relaxes is in dreaming. Dreaming is nothing but an unwinding process. It tries hard to unwind the tensions that you accumulate in the day, but it is not enough.

The old idea was that if a man were not allowed to sleep for a few days he would go crazy. Now scientists have discovered that sleep is not the real thing. The real thing is dreaming. If a person is not allowed to dream for three weeks he will go crazy. You can disturb a person's sleep and he will not be affected. If you disturb his dreams he will be very much affected because in dream the mind is trying to cathart itself; throwing rubbish out, unburdening itself. I call dreaming an unwinding process. And dreams stop only when somebody has become enlightened, never before it, because then there is nothing to unwind. One simply lives so relaxedly that no tension accumulates. Then there is no dreaming, no fantasy.

But music is very helpful. And this is my experience - if you have nightmares and you start learning to play on some instrument or you start dancing, your nightmares immediately disappear and you start having sweeter dreams, because music unwinds very very deeply. And if one can be lost in music one will have less and less dreams and deeper and deeper sleep.

So we have a continuously on-going group for those who want to unwind themselves in music and dance. From tomorrow start doing that, mm? Good.

[A sannyasin says: About a month ago you gave me a meditation for raising the energy from my sex centre to my third eye point (see 'The Great Nothing' Wednesday Sept. 22). I've been doing that meditation, and now what I'm experiencing is a lot of pulsating energy at my third eye point...

particularly in your presence and in and in meditation. I'm here to ask if I should keep doing this meditation or do something else with it.

Osho checks his energy.] The method has done its work; there is no need to continue it The energy is flowing. You have to forget about it now.

This has to be understood - that energy works in two ways. First, you have to be actively working on it - pulling it up, forcing it to move - because the passage has not been used so it has many blocks.

Once the energy has started moving, the second step is to become completely forgetful about it.

It is just as when you eat: once you have swallowed it, you forget about it. If you continue to remember, 'Now where is my food? - in the stomach, in the intestines? What is happening there?

Are juices coming or not? Is it being absorbed or not? Am I digesting it rightly or not?'... If you become too concerned about the stomach, the stomach will get disturbed. You can try it; you will feel such a heavy stomach as you have never felt And you are not doing anything - you are just being too worried about it. The stomach needs to be left alone, so once the food is swallowed, you forget about it.

Now the energy has reached to the point where you can forget about it. You have swallowed it. Just as food goes down the throat, energy comes up the throat. Once it has passed the throat centre you need not be worried about it. If you become worried your third eye centre will start aching. That aching is not coming because of the energy but because you have become too conscious of the movement of the energy; that's natural. Now you have to forget about it. The energy is moving on its own and it will go on working.

The music group will be good for you too. Whenever you feel like singing, you can sing. If you feel like playing on some musical instrument, you can play. Do you like any instrument?

[The sannyasin says: I prefer singing.] That's very good. Then singing is the best. Just sitting silently, sing. For nobody - just an offering to God. But sing as prayerfully as possible. And there is no need to be in a hurry because you are not performing. You can go at ease, at your own pace. You can go very slow and you can enjoy every nuance of the sound. Start singing and forget about the energy.

When you are completely absorbed in singing and you have forgotten the body, the energy, the mind and everything, then the energy will work beautifully. Now the passage is open, energy is flowing.

If you remain concerned about it you will be the barrier and then the energy will start feeling sore; it can create a wound. If you become too concerned about the stomach you will start getting ulcers.

So it is good that you worked; and you did well. Now completely forget about it. Sing, dance. Lose yourself in anything that you love or like, mm? Good!