To create a few more rainbows

My Beloved Ones, I have been too long away from you. But this "awayness" was just like the glasses I'm wearing. Although you cannot see me, I can see you.

I used to hear your "Yaa-Hoo." And each time I heard it stars showered over my small hut.

These few days and nights have been days and nights of a certain purification. The poison that has been delivered to me by President Ronald Reagan and his staff... from all over the world experts in poison said that amongst all the poisons this is the one which cannot be detected in any way. And it has been the practice of the CIA in America to give this poison, because there is no way to find it out. And if you cannot find it you cannot give any antidotes. Death has been almost certain.

These long days and nights I have taken the challenge of the poison, just witnessing. The poison was a constant torture on every joint of the bones, but a miracle has happened. Slowly slowly, from all joints it has disappeared. The last were the two arms. Today I am free from that too.

I have a strong feeling that although I was not physically present here, you have felt me in the air. You have felt me more closely than ever before. And in your songs, I was present. In your meditations, remember, I was more present than physical presence allows.

I had to come out today for a special reason.

A few months ago in Bombay, Govind Siddharth had a vision that Gautam Buddha's soul has been searching for a body. And he saw in his vision that my body has become a vehicle for Gautam Buddha.

He was right. But this is the misfortune of man: that you can go wrong even though you had touched upon a point of rightness. Because I declared him to be enlightened, he has disappeared.

Since then I have not seen him. Perhaps he thinks, "Now, what is the use? I was searching for enlightenment and I have found it."

Enlightenment is only the beginning, not the end. He came very close and has gone very far away.

But I was waiting for the recognition from a Zen source that Gautam the Buddha is trying to use my words and my silences, my heartbeats and my inner sky to create a few more rainbows, to spread a few more flowers in the world. That recognition has come from a very famous seeress and prophetess from Japan.

One of our sannyasins was there. He could see the sincerity of the woman. She never praises anyone; her insight is clear. He was afraid to ask about me, but finally he decided to ask and without any hesitation she said, "I was waiting for a messenger. You have come at the right time. Gautam Buddha is using Osho's body.

"Right now take these twenty-one very precious real pearls as a present to Osho with my congratulations that a soul that has been wandering around in search of a vehicle has found it."

The sannyasin was a little doubtful, because he said, "Osho's body has been poisoned in America.

Will Gautam Buddha accept a vehicle which has been poisoned?"

The sincerity of the woman reminds me of Almitra of Kahlil Gibran's PROPHET. She said, "Have you ever heard that a Satan or a devil has been poisoned? It has been the destiny of the Buddhas. Don't think that the body has become impure by poisoning. This has been a fire test, and Osho has come out of it. You take these pearls and my message, and I will be coming myself to pay my respects."

By the way, I have been calling myself "Bhagwan" just as a challenge to this country, to the Christians, to the Mohammedans, to the Hindus. They have condemned me, but none has been courageous enough to explain the condemnation. From faraway sources there have been articles and letters sent to me saying, "Why do you call yourself Bhagwan?" And I have laughed, because why does Ram call himself Bhagwan? Is he appointed by a committee? And a Bhagwan appointed by a committee will not be much of a Bhagwan, because the committee does not consist of Bhagwans. What right have they?

Is Krishna elected by the people as Bhagwan? Is it an election matter? Who has appointed these people? No Hindu has the answer. And a man like Krishna has stolen sixteen thousand women from different people - they were mothers, they were married, unmarried - with no discrimination, and yet no Hindu has the courage to object that a man with such a character has no right to be called Bhagwan.

They can call Kalki, a white horse, "Bhagwan." Strange people! And they ask me why I call myself Bhagwan. I don't have any respect for the word. In fact I have every condemnation of it. It is not a beautiful word - although I have tried in my own way to transform the word, but the stupid Hindus won't allow it. I have tried to give it a new name, a new meaning, a new significance. I have said that it means the Blessed One, a man with a blessed being, although it was my invention.

The word 'bhagwan' is a very ugly word. But the Hindus are not even aware of it. They think that it is something very special. Its root meaning - bhag means a woman's genital organs. And wan means a man's genital organs. The meaning of the word 'bhagwan' is symbolically that he brings about in the feminine energy of existence, through his male chauvinistic energy, the creation.

I hate the word! I have been waiting for some Hindu idiot to come forward, but they think that it is something very dignified and I have no right to call myself Bhagwan. Today I say absolutely, "Yes, but I have every right to denounce the word." Nobody can prevent me. I don't want to be called Bhagwan again. Enough is enough! The joke is over!

But I accept the Japanese Zen prophetess. And from now onwards I am Gautam the Buddha. You can call me "The Beloved Friend." Drop the word 'Bhagwan' completely. Even very intelligent people, people who respect me and love me...

Just the other day I received an appreciation of my book ZARATHUSTRA by an internationally famous journalist. He has praised it, and he has said that after Adi Shankara - the most famous Hindu philosopher - I am the second as far as intellectual, rational, spiritual authenticity is concerned.

But still he could not forget the word 'bhagwan', why I called myself Bhagwan. But does he know that he is comparing me with Adi Shankara who has been called for over a thousand years "Bhagwan Adi Shankara." And nobody asks the question why.

Anybody would be happy to be compared with Adi Shankara, but I am not. It is not a compliment to me, because Shankara is the reason that Buddhism, which was a higher flowering, was destroyed - by Shankara and the Hindu priesthood. I cannot accept that Shankara has any genius. He is orthodox, just trying to protect the investment of the Hindu priesthood, which is the world's worst, the ancientmost rotten priesthood.

I refuse to be compared with this man, particularly because he was the reason the roses were destroyed that Gautam Buddha had managed to grow in the soil of this land. In my eyes he is a criminal of the worst kind.

But as far as Gautam the Buddha is concerned, I welcome him in my very heart. I will give him my words, my silences, my meditations, my being, my wings. From today onwards you can look at me as Gautama the Buddha.

I will tell you about the Japanese Buddhist seeress - she has sent her picture:

"Katue Ishida, mystic of one of the biggest and most famous Shinto shrines in Japan, stated recently after seeing Osho's picture, that: 'This is the person that Maitreya the Buddha has entered. He is trying to create a utopia in the twenty-first century. Lots of destructive power is against Him, and some people call Him Satan. But I have never known Satan to be poisoned. He is usually the poisoner, not the poisoned. We must protect this man, Osho. Buddha has entered Him.'"

With great love and respect I accept Ishida's prophecy. She will be welcome here as one of my people, most loved. And by accepting Gautam the Buddha as my very soul, I go out of the Hindu fold completely; I go against the Jaina fold completely.

I have seen and condemned everything that was happening but was not in favor of the Hindu monks, Jaina monks. I have been consistently condemning celibacy as one of the most unnatural acts. Now two Jaina monks have come with their own autobiographies, renouncing the Jaina fold and declaring that behind celibacy all kinds of sexual perversions are prevalent.

Young women are persuaded to become nuns. The family feels fortunate that their daughter has been accepted as a nun, and also financially it is good. In India for a girl to be married is the worst calamity that can happen to a family. But if a girl is accepted as a nun the whole family becomes in a certain way holy. And these nuns are exploited sexually.

I have been in contact with nuns and monks, and they have in privacy accepted that, "You are right, but our problem is we are not educated. If we leave the monkhood the same people who touch our feet are going to kill us or at least are going to reduce us to beggars on the streets."

The Hindu Acharya Tulsi has been trying to get the government to prohibit these two books that have just been published, because he himself is implicated in homosexuality. In fact if the Indian government had any guts the first thing would be to require that all the monks - to whichever religion they belonged - should be examined thoroughly, because most probably their perversions of centuries have brought the AIDS positive. That seems to be their only positive contribution to the world!

Maneesha's sutra:

BELOVED BHAGWAN...

You will have to learn, Maneesha, not to call me by that ugly name again. I am just your friend.

That's what Gautam Buddha's prophecy was: "My name after twenty-five centuries, if I can find a vehicle, will be Maitreya Gautam Buddha." Maitreya means the friend. From now onwards you will have to change your old habit.

I am your Beloved Friend. You can call me "Beloved Buddha," which simply means the awakened one. But we have to spread around the earth that I have denounced "Bhagwan." I have in fact, just one day, taken it on myself to denounce it. I don't have any rights on it, but I have every right not to call myself Bhagwan.

The sutra:

These are special devices of Zen. Kyozan is provoking the monk by asking this question; he is asking whether he remembers the past, which is no more, the village of Yushu and the price of rice there. But the monk proved equal to Kyozan.

As Kyozan asked, "I would like to know something interesting about Yushu; what is the price of rice there?"...

This is an old, very ancient saying of Buddha, that when you pass a bridge, break it, because there is no way of going back.

Kyozan is saying, "Just find out if there are any bridges connecting you with the past and break them. Be independent of the past, just be here and now in this moment."

Except this there is no Zen, no Gautam the Buddha, no religion, no essential and existential experience of life, of love, of this tremendous cosmos. Just be disconnected from the past and be disconnected from the future. Being in this small and still moment you are also the buddha.

TANGEN MADE NO REPLY.

Tangen making no reply is a way of accepting a failure. Kyozan is washing his clothes, neither in the past nor in the future, just herenow; there is no Kyozan, there is only washing of the clothes.

AT ANOTHER TIME KYOZAN SAW A SNOWMAN AND, POINTING TO IT, SAID TO THE GROUP OF MONKS AROUND HIM, "IS THERE ANYTHING WHITER THAN THAT?"

HIS MONKS WERE UNRESPONSIVE.

They could not understand that what Kyozan is asking has nothing to do with snowmen; they are all imaginary. But he is saying, "If there is a snowman" - he must be pure white, snow white - "is there anything whiter?"

There is! Your very being. Nothing can be whiter, more luminous than your own very existence.

Issa wrote:

This whole cosmos consists of everything. If you find human beings you will find flies. Issa is saying, "To find buddhas amongst you is as simple as finding flies." Buddha does not put himself in any superiority game. Buddha breaks down all the games that have been invented by all the traditions and the religions - the games around God, the games around hell, the games around virtue, the games around sin, all are simply man-made games. Buddha simply wants you to be completely free from man-made projections.

Just be simple and here. Let the stars shower on you and let the lotuses blossom in your being. You are not beggars, you are carrying all the splendor of existence within you; you have just not looked in.

Buddha has brought religion to its very essential simplicity. That's his contribution; against all traditions, against all stupid superstitions, he has rebelled.

If I am accepting him, to use my hands as his gestures, it is only because of his rebelliousness. Of course I am going to refine his rebelliousness - in twenty-five centuries, too much dust has gathered.

Behind the dust the mirror is absolutely clean.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked:

No, Maneesha. Being sick is enough. To talk about it is being more sick. And remember, my body can be sick, I am never sick. I watch everything, whatever happens. I will watch my death as I watched my life, and that's my simple teaching to you.

Before Sardar Gurudayal Singh...

These glasses are for great Avirbhava.

(HE HOLDS OUT HIS GLASSES AND MOTIONS AVIRBHAVA TO THE PODIUM. TOTALLY SURPRISED, AND CHARACTERISTICALLY OVERCOME, HER FLUSTERED RESPONSE DELIGHTS THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY INTO LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE.)

Yes, great, put them on! Everybody wants to see.

Judy comes back from her honeymoon and is gossiping with her friend, Diane.

"Well?" Diane inquires. "How was your honeymoon night?"

"Oh, Diane!" Judy exclaims. "It was horrible. All night - up and down, in and out, up and down, in and out. Never get a room next to the elevator!"

Edgar and Louisa Snodgrass are Christian missionaries in Africa. They have been taken prisoner by the local cannibal tribe and are standing in a huge cauldron filled with water. Both are frightened beyond belief. Suddenly, Edgar starts giggling.

"What on earth are you laughing about at a time like this?" Louisa asks with a shocked expression.

"Those bastards don't know it yet," Edgar snickers, "but I just pissed in their soup!"

A Smutz Beer official is naming the winner of the Smutz Beer slogan contest on national television.

"And the winner is Herbert Fine, for his winning slogan: 'Smutz Beer - like love in a canoe.'"

Fine walks up to the stage and receives the ten thousand dollar bill. The official shakes Fine's hand and says, "That's a wonderful slogan, Mr. Fine. Please, tell our national audience why you feel that Smutz Beer is like love in a canoe."

"Sure," says Fine. "It is like love in a canoe because it is fucking close to water!"

Now, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards with your total consciousness and with an urgency as if this is the last moment of your life.

The totality of consciousness and such urgency is bound to bring you to the very source of your being.

Suddenly you have disappeared from the circumference and you are sitting deep at the center like Gautam the Buddha.

Flowers are showering,

a new breeze,

a fresh fragrance,

an open sky full of stars,

a sense of eternity.

To know this is all there is to know.

To make it clear,

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. Just be a witness of the body and the mind. You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are just a pure watcher, a witness. This witnessing is the very essence of existential religion.

This is not a mere teaching, this is Gautam Buddha's sharing, his own experience of the eternal, giving you freedom from the body and the mind. The Buddha Auditorium suddenly has become a lake of consciousness; personalities have disappeared, there is not even a single ripple in the lake.

Collect as much oceanic experience as possible. You have to bring the buddha back with you. You have to live the buddha in your everyday experience.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but come back like buddhas, with the same grace, with the same joy. Just sit for a few minutes to recollect where you have been, who in fact you are.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Buddha.