At the maximum you disappear

Question 1:

Zareen, existence is so generous, life is so bountiful that one need not deserve, need not be worthy to receive its gifts. On the contrary, one has to be absolutely humble, a nobody -- receptive, available, with all the doors of the heart open, trusting -- and existence showers on him flowers, like rain. The experience deepens one's humbleness and creates a new quality in one's being, of which one is generally not aware -- that of gratefulness, gratefulness to all, gratefulness to the whole.

Do we deserve life? Do we deserve love? The very idea of deserving has been implanted in us by the marketplace. What do these trees deserve? But the sun comes every day and the stars come every night, and the trees are constantly in silent meditation. They are also waiting.

And waiting is not greed, waiting is simply our nature, waiting means that our doors are open and we are ready to welcome the guest whenever he comes.

A beautiful poem by Rabindranath Tagore, "The King of the Night"... There used to be a very huge temple, so huge that there were one hundred priests to worship the statues of gods in the temple. One night the chief priest dreamt, and the dream was such that it made him wake up -- he could not believe it, but he could not disbelieve it either.

In the dream he saw God himself saying to him, "Tomorrow is the fullmoon night. Clean the whole temple, get ready -- I may come any moment. For thousands of years this temple has been calling me, but the call was professional; hence it was not heard. Your call is not professional. You are the first chief priest in this temple whose heart is full of longing, full of prayer, full of waiting. You are not simply doing the rituals, your whole life is in it. So don't forget: tomorrow I am coming and I am giving you an advance notice, so that the temple is ready to receive the guest for which it was made many, many centuries before."

It was difficult to believe that God would speak to him -- he is nobody, he does not deserve it. On the contrary, he has so many weaknesses, so many frailties which every human being is prone to... but on the other hand, how to disbelieve? The dream was truer than our so-called true life.

At the maximum you disappear He was worried about what he was going to say to the other priests, because they will make him a laughingstock. The temple has been there for centuries and God has never come.

But even if it looks awkward, embarrassing, he has to tell them, because he alone cannot clean the whole temple; it is so big, so huge...

He woke up all the priests and said, "Forgive me for disturbing your sleep. I am in a dilemma: I have seen this dream..." And all the priests laughed -- because priests are the only people who don't believe in God. They know perfectly well that God is a strategy to exploit people.

They said, "It was just a dream, go back to sleep." But the chief priest could not sleep. In the morning he said, "It may have been just a dream, but who knows? If God comes and finds us unprepared, it will be such a shame. So I order you, as the chief priest, to clean the temple, to decorate the temple with flowers, with candles. Make it fragrant with incense, and let us wait. Even if it was only a dream, and God does not turn up, there is no harm. The temple needs cleaning, and it is a good opportunity."

The whole day the temple was cleaned, decorated. Delicious food was made for God, but the whole day passed and there was no sign. And the chief priest was standing at the door, looking far away where the sky seems to meet the earth -- the temple was in a very lonely place -- but the road remained empty; nobody came.

The day disappeared into night. They were all hungry because they were waiting: first God should be served. And then all the other priests said, "We had told you, a dream is just a dream. Who has ever heard of God coming to the temples? You are very naive, very simple, very innocent. Now let us eat -- we are feeling hungry and tired -- and go to sleep."

So they closed the doors, and ate the food that they had made for God. And because they were tired from the whole day's cleaning and decoration and preparation, they immediately fell asleep.

In the middle of the night a golden chariot came on the road leading to the temple. The sound of the chariot coming... and the chief priest was deep down still feeling that God cannot be so deceptive, particularly to a man who has never done any harm to him. He heard the sound of the chariot. He woke up the priests, and he said, "He is coming! I have just heard the sound of the chariot, listen."

And they were half asleep and they said, "Just go to sleep! You are going mad, just because of a dream. This is not a chariot, this is just the clouds thundering." He was alone.

They silenced him.

The chariot came to the door. God stepped onto the long steps reaching up to the temple.

He knocked on the door. Again the chief priest said, "I have heard somebody knocking on the door! Perhaps God has come." And now it was too much. Annoying them in the middle of the night... utterly tired and exhausted priests. Somebody shouted at him and said, "You shut up and just go to sleep! It is nothing but the breeze hitting the doors. No God has come and no chariot has come; it has never happened." They again silenced him.

In the morning when the chief priest... he could not sleep; the waiting kept him awake, the longing kept him awake. He got up early and opened the door -- "My god!" he said, "He has come" -- because on the road there were signs of a chariot coming up to the door, and on the steps he could see the signs of someone reaching the door. He looked carefully... because dust had gathered on the steps and there were perfect impressions of the feet. It was no one other

At the maximum you disappear than God, because the impressions in the dust were exactly the same as had been described in the ancient scriptures; exactly how the feet of God would make an impression.

With tears in his eyes, he ran inside and made all the priests wake up. And he said "You did not listen to me -- it was not clouds thundering in the sky, it was the chariot of God. And it was not the wind knocking at the doors it was God himself who knocked. But now it is too late."

This beautiful poem has immense significance. God comes to every heart -- because that is the temple, the only temple -- and knocks on the heart. But you go on rationalizing, and your doors are closed.

Zareen, you are asking, "As I walk to discourse each morning, this thought comes before me -- what have I done to deserve this blissful experience of sitting at your feet?" Just to be, and just to be nobody is all that one needs, to deserve. No other virtues, no other qualities but just a simple and loving heart -- a heart that is open and ready to receive the guest.

"... Joyfully, sometimes tearfully, awaiting your glance upon me, and then longing for the next day to dawn and bring with it yet one more opportunity of being in your presence...

Beloved Master, is this not also a type of greed?" No. Greed is violent, greed is demanding.

It is simply a loving, longing, waiting. And how can one avoid the waiting and longing?

The difference between greed and longing is very clear: greed is aggressive, it has to be so; it is a demand and an expectation, and then it becomes ugly. But if your heart is simply waiting, with no demand, then there is no question of greed.

The people who know the secret of the open heart, the secret of being nobody, are the most deserving of all that is beautiful, of all that is divine, of all that transcends our mundane existence. Nothing else is needed... just that you should be absent, a pure space, and you are ready to receive the guest.

But man has believed in God in as ugly a way as possible, because his God is nothing but all his desires, all his demands. It is not a humble prayer, a humble invitation.

A man is sight-seeing in the mountains and is marveling at the wondrous beauty of nature.

At one point he gets so absorbed in the beautiful view of the mountains that he forgets what he is doing and walks over the cliff. As he is falling, he sees a branch sticking out from the wall of the cliff. He reaches out and manages to grab the branch. As he hangs there he begins to pray, "Oh, Lord, please help me. I'm losing my strength and I can't hold on much longer.

Please God, save me."

Suddenly the heavens part, and a voice comes booming down, "I am the Lord!"

"Oh Lord," cries the man, "please save me!"

"I will save you," booms the voice. "All you have to do is prove your faith in me by letting go of the branch."

The man looks down at the two-hundred-foot drop below him, thinks for a moment, then says, "Is there anybody else up there I can talk to?"

Our so-called idea of God is just a means to serve us. You may not have ever thought about it, that your God is nothing but a servant. He has to do this, he has to do that. The true religious man is a servant to God; he has no demand. He has only one longing: that God may use him for His purposes. He wants to become nothing but a hollow bamboo flute, so God can

At the maximum you disappear sing His song through him. He simply wants not to obstruct but to remain absolutely empty, so God can make of his emptiness whatsoever He wants.

This is trust.

And there is no value higher than trust, because trust is the purest form of love.

Zareen, your tears are tears of love, and your waiting for tomorrow is just a longing of the heart -- but not desire, because there is no demand.

Just become more and more humble, more and more nobody, more and more spacious -- because when I see you, I am not there; I have departed from myself long ago. I have allowed God to take possession of me. I have allowed him to do whatsoever he wants to do with me. I don't know even what the next word is going to be, because it is not coming from me -- it is coming only through me.

Just look at my eyes... somebody else is looking through my eyes.

Look at my gestures... they are not mine.

Look at my signatures... they are not mine.

I have lost track of myself so long ago that even if I meet myself, I don't think I will be able to recognize him. And just being a vehicle of God, a vehicle of existence, has been such a fulfillment, such a contentment, such a benediction, that I don't think there can be anything more, deeper, higher.

I am absolutely blessed.

I was also not the deserving one.

I have never practiced any religion, I have never been part of any religious organization, I have never entered temples, churches, or mosques. One thing from the very beginning was clear to me: that there is no way for me to find God, because I don't know his address, I don't know his home. In this vast universe, where am I going to find him? All that I can do is create a longing, a thirst, in every cell of my body and being, and wait.

If God wants to find me, he will find me.

Only he can find me; I cannot find him.

And now, I can say it with absolute authority -- that whenever God has happened to anybody, it was not the person's search for God; it was simply the person's waiting and longing. And when the thirst became so much that it was impossible for God to go on hiding...

this is the only quality that makes a really religious person deserving. He is a silent waiting, a silent prayer, and a peaceful spaciousness. God comes.

Just don't rationalize when he comes, that it may be the thunder of the clouds, or it may be the wind striking against the doors. Keep the doors open. Keep your eyes open, keep your heart open. He comes. He comes surely, because he has been coming to thousands of people in the whole history of humanity.

And I don't remember a single mystic saying, "I found God because I deserved." The very idea of deserving is of the ego. All the mystics are agreed on the point that God found them, because they cried too much, they longed too much.

Their longing was heard; their tears reached God.

Prayers may not reach, but tears certainly reach.

Question 2:

Prem Bhagvato, there is no possibility that the feeling of being can be too much. The being is so infinite... your being is not your being, your being is the being of the whole universe. So your feeling of it is always too little; it can never be too much.

Can you love too much? Can you be blissful too much? Can your ecstasy be too much?

Those words -- love, ecstasy, blissfulness -- are just aspects of your being, and it has many more aspects to it.

You cannot feel it too much; that is a misunderstanding. You are asking, "Whenever my energy is overflowing, which happens very often, most of the time people give me the feeling of being too much." Who are the people? Perhaps it appears to them too much because they have not even experienced as much as you are experiencing.

You must have heard the old parable of Aesop. A frog from the ocean was on a religious pilgrimage. On the way he came near a well -- he was feeling thirsty. He looked inside the well; there was another frog inside. He said, "I am very thirsty, can I come in?"

He was allowed. The frog in the well asked the stranger, "From where are you coming?"

The stranger said, "It will be very difficult for you to conceive from where I am coming."

The frog of the well laughed, and he said, "You have some nerve. Is your place bigger than this well?" He hopped across one third of the well and he said, "Is your place this much?"

The frog from the ocean was in immense difficulty -- what to say to this poor frog? He said, "No, it is bigger."

He jumped two thirds and said, "This much?" The frog from the ocean said, "Forgive me, it is very big."

The frog of the well jumped across the whole well, from one side to the other side, and he said, "What do you say now? Is it still bigger?" The stranger said, "I am sorry to offend you, but your well cannot be a means of measuring the place from where I am coming. It is too big."

And the frog who had never left his well laughed and said, "You seem to be mad! Just get out of here. I have seen many frogs, but I have never seen such a mad one. They come to the well -- and I am always happy to have a visitor, just to have news about the world. I have been so generous to you, and you are behaving so uncourteously."

The stranger said, "You just forgive me, perhaps I am mad. But I invite you to my place, because that is the only way you can be convinced. Unless you see the ocean, you cannot believe... and I can understand why you are annoyed with me and thinking that I am mad. I must look mad to you; I can think of myself in your place."

At the maximum you disappear So the people you must be meeting, Prem Bhagvato, don't have energy as such. Or maybe they have their energy at the minimum, so when you start overflowing with energy, they start feeling afraid. And their saying to you that you are sometimes "too much" is a condemnation.

They are annoyed with you; you have touched their weakest point.

They are living just as survival, and my people are making every effort to live at the maximum.

Why live at the minimum? When life gives you the opportunity to live at the maximum, then sing and dance with total abandon.

Still, I say to you: whatever you do, it is never "the feeling of being too much." That is simply not possible. Your well can become bigger and bigger and bigger, but still, it can never become the ocean. And unless you become oceanic, you don't know what it means to be too much.

But the problem is, the moment you become oceanic, you are no more -- only pure energy, vibrating all over the existence.

As long as you are, you are always falling short of your maximum.

At the maximum, you disappear.

Then it is only a pure dance of energy.

And the pure dance of energy brings all your potentialities to their fullest expression. Only then can you say the spring has come, because you are blossoming in every dimension of your being.

So don't be bothered by the people who say that your energy, your being, your feeling is too much. It is comparative. Just tell them, "You are poor, you are living at the survival level.

You have not known love and you have not known dance and you have not known celebration. You have not known life as such; you are simply vegetating, from cradle to grave, just dragging yourself somehow."

A teacher, standing in front of her class, asks, "Children, what part of the human anatomy expands twelve times when it is directly stimulated?"

Little Susie, in the front row, starts giggling and laughing, trying to cover her mouth with her hand. In the back row, Johnny raises his hand. The teacher says, "Yes, Johnny?"

Johnny stands up and says, "Teacher, the iris of the human eye expands twelve times when it is directly stimulated by light."

The teacher says, "Very good, Johnny. That is the correct answer. And Susie, you have a very dirty little mind, and when you grow up you are going to be very disappointed."

Question 3:

Deva Jagat, what happened to you was tremendously significant, rare and unique. It is one of the contributions of the East to the world: the understanding that between these two eyes, there is a third eye inside which normally remains dormant. One has to work hard, bring his whole sexual energy upwards, against gravitation, and when the energy reaches the third eye, it opens. Many methods have been tried, to do that, because when it opens there is suddenly a flash of light and things which have never been clear to you suddenly become clear.

For example, yoga has tried shirshasana, the headstand, standing on your head. The basic purpose was to use gravitation to bring your energy to the third eye. Perhaps even the so-called yoga teachers of today are not aware of it, because it is not written in any scripture. It was given as one of the secrets from the master to the disciple, whispered in his ear.

There have been other methods. When I emphasize watching, witnessing... that is the finest method to bring the third eye into action, because that watching is inside. These two eyes cannot be used, they can only look outward. They have to be closed. And when you try to watch inside, that certainly means there is something like an eye which sees. Who sees your thoughts? Not these eyes. Who sees that anger is arising in you? That place of seeing is called symbolically "the third eye."

Witnessing is the most refined method, because depending on the gravitation of the earth can prove dangerous. If the energy comes flowing too much, as a flood, it can destroy the very small nerves in your brain. And they are so delicate that even to imagine their delicacy is difficult. In your small skull there are millions of nerves, not visible to the eyes, and they are so delicate, so sensitive that if a flood of energy comes, many of them will be washed away, broken.

One day science is going to enter into this field. They have already begun work to discover why animals have not developed the brain. The reason is that the animal's body is horizontal to the earth, so the animal's energy flows all over his body in the same proportion. Those delicate brain cells cannot evolve.

It was all due to man standing on his two feet, because his brain is not so much affected by gravitation, and very little energy reaches there. It became the opportunity for the delicate cells to improve. And you can see it in your so-called yogis: you will never find a very sharp, intelligent man. They may be able to do many distortions of the body, but you will not see in their faces the aura of intelligence. They have not contributed to human consciousness in any way.

What has happened to them? They themselves are not aware. Each person has to find out the right time, how long he can stand on his head without destroying his brain system.

According to my findings, three seconds is more than enough. Less will be better -- just a little rush and you are back on your feet. Just a little rush will nourish your brain, will not destroy the delicate structure and will help to open your third eye.

At the maximum you disappear But it is dangerous. You know perfectly well: in the night when you go to sleep you need a pillow. Have you ever thought why? It is a protection for your brain, because if you lie down without a pillow, the energy flow will be horizontal, like the animals, and in eight hours of sleeping it can destroy your brain system completely. Even three seconds can be too much, it depends on how delicate a system you have. The idiot can stand on his head for three hours and nothing will happen, because there is nothing to destroy.

The more intelligent you are, the less time is needed. For a genius it is very dangerous to stand on the head, even for a single second. That's why I say I don't use that method.

Witnessing is the best: you close your eyes and you start watching. In that very watching, your third eye starts opening.

I used to touch people's third eyes with my fingers, but I had to stop it for the simple reason that I became aware that stimulating the third eye from the outside is good if the person continues to meditate, continues to watch -- then the first experience coming from the outside will soon become his inside experience. But such is the stupidity of man that when I can stimulate your third eye, you stop meditating. You rather start asking more and more for energy meetings with me, because you have not to do anything.

I also became aware that for different people, a different kind and different quantity of energy is needed from the outside -- which is very difficult to decide. Sometimes somebody falls completely into a coma; the shock is too much. And sometimes the man is so retarded that nothing happens.

Because you had seen on TV that by touching them with my finger on the third eye, people were going into some inner space, for these six years you must have been thinking to know that inner space yourself. So when you came here and I saw you for the first time, the experience happened without my even touching your third eye. You were almost ready, just on the verge of it.

To see you is also a way of touching you. It is a remote way of touching.

Psychologists have found through many, many experiments that if you look at someone for three seconds it is not offensive. It is casual -- you are passing on the road, you look at someone. But more than three seconds and it becomes offensive because your eyes start -- without your knowing, and without the knowledge of the other -- stimulating his third eye.

And if he has no idea of it, it feels as if something crazy is going on.

In Hindi, words are very significant because they have been coined very consciously. In Hindi, eyes are called lochan and the man who looks at somebody for more than three seconds is called luchcha -- that is from lochan. A man who looks at a thing critically is called aalochak; that is also from the same root, lochan. So it may have just been a coincidence: for six years it was lying like a seed, in your unconscious, and when you came here and I looked at you, suddenly there was a flash and you fell down. But it is a tremendously fortunate state; it means your third eye can function very easily.

Just try to watch with your eyes closed, and the third eye will become more and more active. And the experiences of the third eye are the door to higher spirituality.

The third eye is the sixth center, the seventh is the highest. Six is very close to the highest center of your experience; it prepares the ground for the seventh. At the seventh center you become not only a flash of light, but just light itself. That's why the person who reaches the seventh center... his experience we call "enlightenment." His whole being becomes just pure

At the maximum you disappear light, with no fuel -- because any light that needs fuel cannot be immortal. There is no fuel; hence the light has an eternity. It is the experience of your very being and the being of the universe.

The second thing you say: "Now sitting in front of you, closing my eyes I see a big, black spot. Inside this black spot there is a white one. This white spot comes nearer and nearer, whirling in a circle, but just before the black spot disappears totally, I open my eyes."

Why do you do that? Are you asking me, or should I ask you? That is the point when you should not open your eyes.

But sometimes it happens in spite of you. I have told my people to meditate with a blindfold on your eyes, so when in spite of you, your eyes want to open, they cannot open.

Let the black spot disappear completely, and you would have moved into a new consciousness, into a fresh space.

Deva Jagat, everything is going perfectly good, only you should not open your eyes.

Perhaps you become afraid: "My god, all darkness is disappearing! Just let me see, by opening eyes, what is happening." But by opening the eyes, you destroy the whole experience. That is the moment to resist the temptation of knowing what is happening. Let it happen, because you will know only when it has happened.

And once you have known the black spot disappearing... that black spot is you and that white spot is your consciousness. The black spot is your ego, and the white spot is your being.

Allow the being to spread and let the ego disappear.

Just a little courage... it may look like death, because you have been identified with the black spot and it is disappearing. And you have never been identified with the white spot, so something unfamiliar, unknown, is taking possession of you. These are the reasons why you open your eyes. Don't open your eyes.

Your mind may give any rationalization -- don't listen to the mind. When you have come to me, give me a chance; listen to what I am saying to you.

If your mind comes in between, put it aside.

Your mind is your misery, your mind is your bondage.

An old retired Jewish widow is strolling on the beach in Miami when she suddenly spies an old Jewish man lying alone in the sun. Excitedly she trots over in his direction, stops in front of him and says, "I have never seen you around here before. What is your name?"

"Max," he replies, "and you don't see me because I'm rarely around anywhere!"

"Why, what do you mean?" asks the widow.

"Because I just got out of jail -- that's what I mean!" he replies. "I was in for a year."

"Jail!" The old widow steps back a pace and surveys him critically. "What did you go to jail for?"

"Oh, just petty theft," the old man says, and shrugs.

"Ah, I see." The woman takes a step back to him. "That's a small crime, no big deal. All the same, you should be ashamed."

"Not nearly as ashamed as I was when I got the ten-year jail sentence," the old man sighs.

At the maximum you disappear "Ten years!" the widow, in alarm, stumbles back a few more paces. "God! what did you do to get ten years?"

"Oh -- just armed robbery." The old man shrugs and rolls over on his beach towel.

"Armed robbery! -- that is serious. I hope to God you are sorry for such a thing," the widow scolds him, while at the same time returning a little closer to get a better look at him.

"I was sorry alright -- I'd just finished twenty years in the slammer when I picked up that sentence. I had hardly seen the light of day!" The old man sighs heavily in remembrance.

"Twenty years! What kind of man are you?" The widow, panicking, leaps several yards away from him, ready to run. "What on earth did you do to get twenty years in jail?"

"I murdered my wife," the old man replies.

"You are single?" she says, as she unrolls her beach towel beside him.

Just a little courage... the moment you see the black disappearing completely, just a little courage. Keep your eyes closed, and it may bring you a great transformation that comes to people after lives of effort. That it is coming to you so easily can mean only one thing: in your past lives you must have worked. But the work has remained incomplete. This time, don't leave it incomplete. Let this life be your last life in the body.

When the whole universe can become our body, why should we be confined to the small body? It is imprisonment.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.