Seek nothing outside

Maneesha, I have to say something about my absence yesterday before I can enter into the discussion of Rinzai's statements. I could not come yesterday because Anando took all my clothes to some dry cleaner. First I thought the dry cleaner must be in Poona, but by the end of the evening it became clear that the dry cleaner was in Bombay. And in the night she phoned to say that she was going to Switzerland, with all the twelve suitcases of Avirbhava full of my clothes for dry cleaning!

Somehow she had to be persuaded to come back, because without clothes the government will have immediate reason to arrest me. Fortunately she has returned from Bombay. The whole credit of my being here today goes to her.

FOLLOWERS OF THE TAO, SAID RINZAI, THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VIEW DOES NOT DIFFER FROM THAT OF SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.

In fact he is saying that not only are his thoughts actually the same as Gautam Buddha's, all the buddhas, past and present and future, have the same insight, the same illumination. But he can say only about himself for the simple reason that this is his actual experience. Since the moment when his buddhahood became known to him, he has been watching that every action, every activity, every response is exactly that of Sakyamuni Gautam Buddha.

IN ALL THE VARIETY OF OUR DAILY ACTIVITIES, IS THEIR ANYTHING LACKING? THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT MANIFESTING THROUGH THE SIX SENSES ...

The six senses have to be noted down. Ordinarily we talk only of five senses; the sixth is dormant. The moment you turn in, the sixth sense starts working. Hence when the Buddhists talk about six senses it amazes people -- where is the sixth sense? It is not visible, it is when you close your eyes: suddenly you see a new sense penetrating in your interiority which you have never known before. It has always been there, but you have never turned inwards. So Buddha always talks about six senses.

THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT MANIFESTING THROUGH THE SIX SENSES HAS NEVER BEEN INTERRUPTED.

Now it should be made seven senses, for the simple reason ... Up until this century physiologists were not aware that in your ear there are two senses, not one. One is the sense of hearing and the other is the sense of balance. The drunkard wavers, wobbles as he walks, for the simple reason that the alcohol affects the sense of balance. He wants to put his foot in one place, and it goes to another. This sense that is hidden in the ear has never been mentioned in the past, because it is not as manifest as eyes, ears or hands. The poor drunkard suffers because of the sixth sense.

So I would like to change the order. The seventh sense is the buddha-sense, the buddha-eye. The sixth you all have. Somebody hits on your ear, and suddenly you feel the whole world moving -- that is the sixth sense.

A drunkard is trying hard to open the lock of his door. His wife had got tired of him; he won't listen, he will come home whenever he feels like it -- in the middle of the night ... So she said, "You keep the key and you silently open the door, go into the room, and sleep. And don't disturb me!"

He was in great trouble, and a policeman on the street was watching the difficulty of the poor man. He could not manage to enter the key into the lock; both his hands were wobbling.

You need a little balance to make the lock stand still, and you need also balance for your other hand which is holding the key.

The policeman, feeling for the old man, came by and asked him, "Can I help you?" He said, "You have to. Just hold my house while I open the door. Everything is trembling, it seems there is an earthquake going on." The policeman laughed, and he said, "This idea never entered in my mind."

At that very moment the wife, hearing some noise, opened the window on the second story and asked, "What is the matter? Is the key not working? Shall I throw down another key?" The man said, "The key is perfectly okay, you just send another lock so that I can open it."

Just, everything loses its sense of balance. One starts not only walking wobbly, one starts seeing things which are not there, avoiding things which are not there, and staggering against things which are there. There is a confusion. To follow a drunkard from the pub to his house is a great experience. How many great things happen on the way, you cannot believe.

So I would like for you to remember that there are seven senses. The sixth, that Rinzai says is the buddha-sense, I would like to call the seventh. About the sixth Rinzai is as traditional, conventional, as everybody else. It was not his fault, it was never thought that there needs to be a sense of balance. It was only the discovery of the deeper structure of the ear that made it clear to us that we have a certain sense of balance, too. From all these senses, Rinzai is saying, constantly a certain light is radiating.

HE WHO IS ABLE TO PERCEIVE IT, IN THIS MANNER, CAN BE AN UNCONCERNED MAN FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

VIRTUOUS ONES, THERE IS NO PEACE IN THE THREE WORLDS WHICH ARE LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE.

This is the experience of all the buddhas. There is no peace anywhere. Everything is as if it is on fire, and all that you need to do is to jump out of this fire. Your jealousy is fire, your anger is fire, your fear is fire, your love is fire -- all that you are living is nothing but a house on fire. Every moment there is anxiety, every moment there is anguish.

VIRTUOUS ONES, THERE IS NO PEACE IN THE THREE WORLDS WHICH ARE LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE. IT IS NOT A PLACE FOR A LONG STAY BECAUSE THE MURDEROUS DEMON OF IMPERMANENCE WILL, IN AN INSTANT, MAKE NO CHOICE BETWEEN THE NOBLE AND THE HUMBLE, AND BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE YOUNG. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO DIFFER FROM THE PATRIARCH AND THE BUDDHA, IT WILL SUFFICE FOR YOU TO SEEK NOTHING OUTSIDE.

That is the essence of the message: nothing to seek outside. Seeking for something outside is entering into a house which is on fire. However much you try ... You may even become comfortable in an uncomfortable situation, just by saying to yourself, "This is what life is."

But this is not so. You may settle with your sadness, your misery -- everybody has settled with things believing that, what else can one do? Anger comes, love comes, hate comes, and they all possess you like demons.

The only way to avoid this vicious circle -- from one prison to another prison, from one fire to another fire -- the only way is to seek nothing outside and turn inwards. There is no seeking inwards, you simply find. Outside you seek and you never find anything; inside you do not seek, it is already there.

IF, IN THE TIME OF A THOUGHT, YOUR PURE AND CLEAN NO-MIND SHINES, THIS IS YOUR OWN DHARMAKAYA BUDDHA.

Buddha has made categories. Dharmakaya means the body of religiousness. If in the time of a thought, your mind is clear, clean, no-mind shines, this is your dharmakaya Buddha. You are entering into a realm of your inner space which can be said to be the very body of religiousness.

IF, IN THE TIME OF A THOUGHT, YOUR PASSIONLESS NO-MIND SHINES, THIS IS YOUR OWN SAMBHOGAKAYA BUDDHA.

No-mind shining itself is meditation. That's what is called samadhi. Buddha has called it sambhogakaya -- the body of blissfulness.

IF IN THE TIME OF A THOUGHT, YOUR NON-DIFFERENTIATING NO-MIND SHINES, THIS IS YOUR OWN NIRMANAKAYA BUDDHA.

Perhaps Buddha is the only person in the past who has given any credit to creativeness.

Nirmanakaya means the body of creativeness. Nirman means creativeness.

If no-mind shines without any differentiating, your whole energy itself spontaneously starts creating. It does not matter what it creates; you may be a potter, or you may be a musician, or you may be a poet. Whoever you are and whatever you are doing -- you may be just a housewife -- your work will take the quality of creativeness. Your work will take the quality of love, of silence, of peace.

THIS THREEFOLD BODY IS THE ONE WHO IS NOW LISTENING TO MY EXPOUNDING OF THE DHARMA.

Rinzai says, "You are all these three bodies, although you are not aware of them. You are aware of only one body, the skin body, which is just a skeleton. Hidden behind it are treasures." Buddha has divided them into three: Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya.

THIS THREEFOLD BODY IS THE ONE WHO IS NOW LISTENING TO MY EXPOUNDING OF THE DHARMA. THIS CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED IF NOTHING IS SOUGHT FROM WITHOUT.

If you do not seek anything from without, you are complete, you are entire, you are perfect.

The moment you start desiring something from outside, trouble starts. You have already descended from the throne of an emperor and become a beggar. And once you are a beggar, it will be very difficult to find the throne again.

The world is vast and desires take you far away. Whole lives are devoted to fulfill childish desires.

One of the richest men of his time, in 1940 ... I was a small child and my father was sick, so I was with my father in the hospital. This rich man, Sir Seth Hukumchand, had created a really great hospital in Indore. He used to come, and by chance we became friends. He was an old man but he used to come every day and I used to wait for him at the gate. I asked him, "You have so much ..." Almost three-fourths of the houses of Indore were his property. And Indore is the next most beautiful and rich place to Bombay.

He said, "You are asking a strange question. Nobody ever asked me."

I had asked him, "Why are you still creating new industries, creating new palaces? And you are becoming old. How is all this going to be of any help at the time of death?"

He said, "I know, everything will remain here and I will be gone. But just a desire to be the most successful, rich man in the country keeps driving me. For no other reason, just that everything I have must be the best."

He has the only Rolls Royce in the whole world made of solid gold. It was never driven, it was just for show, standing in front of his beautiful palace. He has the best horses in the world that you can imagine. I have never seen such beautiful horses. He had a whole palace filled with all kinds of exotic things. And the reason was that he wanted to be the only owner of a certain thing. It was his absolute condition: whenever he purchases a thing, that thing should not be produced again; he should be the only owner. And he was ready to pay any money for it.

His only desire was -- because Indore in those days was a state -- to purchase all the houses in the state, even the palace of the king. And he almost succeeded -- seventy-five percent of the houses of Indore belonged to him. Even the king had to borrow money from him, and he was giving to him very generously in order to finally settle that the whole of Indore ..."He may be the king but it is my property."

I asked him, "What will it do to you? What peace will it bring? You are always anxious, tense, coming to the hospital, asking the psychiatrist about your troubles. These houses cannot solve your troubles and this money cannot solve your troubles."

And finally a time came when he captured all the gold of India, he became the gold king of India. He purchased all the gold, wherever it was possible. And once you have all the gold in your hands, you have the whole country in your hands. If you start selling it, the prices will go down. He kept the whole market dependent on him just because he was holding the gold.

And I asked him, "What enjoyment are you getting out of it?"

He said, "I don't know, just there is a tremendous desire to be the richest, to be the most powerful."

The inward journey begins only when you understand it clearly that anything outside is not going to give you contentment.

Takuan wrote:

INVITED BY OUR PARENTS, WE CAME HERE AS TEMPORARY GUESTS, AND WITHOUT REMAINING MIND, WE GO BACK TO OUR NATIVE PLACE.

In a small haiku he is describing the whole of life. A child comes invited by the parents as a guest in the world, stays here some time, and again moves into the unknown universality, just as a wave arises and disappears in the ocean. This much is our so-called life.

If you understand it, you become humble, you become utterly peaceful. You know that you are just a guest here; there is no need to possess anything, there is no need to cling to anything.

Everything will be left behind and you will be gone. The tidal wave of death will be coming and will clean the shore of all the signatures that you have been making.

Hotei, another Zen master's haiku:

MAITREYA! MAITREYA!

FOREVER DIVIDING HIMSELF, HE IS HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE -- YET SCARCELY NOTICED.

This haiku is particularly important for us, because Maitreya is lying here. Hotei was not aware where Maitreya is. He used to sit here in the front row, and he has been missed. I can provoke him ...

(SARDARJI GIVES A LOUD BELLY LAUGH FROM THE BACK OF THE HALL.) You see, Sardar Gurudayal Singh ... he will have to go and provoke him, that is the problem. Because Maitreya won't listen to anybody, he will have to be dragged out. And once in a while he comes, still knocks on doors in Lao Tzu House. For a few days Anando was very much terrified because he was knocking on her door every night. He used to be her neighbor.

He is being missed tremendously, but anyway he is here in the trees, in the air.

MAITREYA! MAITREYA!

HE IS HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE -- YET SCARCELY NOTICED.

Maitreya is Buddha's other name. 'The friend' is the meaning of the word 'maitreya'.

Question 1 A question by Maneesha:

OUR

WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT NIRVANA, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT OUR MINDS DO NOT KNOW, IT IS EASY ENOUGH TO LISTEN WITHOUT THE MIND -- JUST ALLOWING YOUR WORDS TO FILTER THROUGH OUR CONSCIOUSNESS, TO USE YOUR WORDS TO MEDITATE. HOWEVER, WHEN YOU SPEAK ON AN ISSUE THAT MIGHT AFFECT OUR DAILY LIFE, IT IS MORE DIFFICULT TO LISTEN WITHOUT ENGAGING THE MIND.

FOR EXAMPLE, APPARENTLY, THE OTHER NIGHT SOME OF US HEARD YOU ENDORSE DRUGS; SOME OF US HEARD YOU SAY THEY WERE OF NO HELP FOR SEEKERS.

IF WE USE OUR MIND AT ALL IN LISTENING TO YOU, HAVE WE MISSED THE POINT OF SITTING HERE?

Maneesha, your question is significant because it may be the question of many, and it arises because you are not listening. What I said the other night was neither that I want any kind of drugs, nor that I don't want them. What I said was a third thing: I said that for centuries humanity has struggled to stop drugs, but has failed. The only way to get rid of drugs is to purify drugs. And it is possible because they are chemical -- we can change their composition. And we can make them so useful that they don't destroy or harm anybody, but just give him a restful, peaceful moment to look beyond his ordinary life. That may help him to inquire more deeply, that small incident may become a search for meditation.

Unless drugs can be used as a step towards meditation they are dangerous. As they are today they are all dangerous, and no government has been able to prevent them. All kinds of measures ... millions of people are in jail -- particularly young people, who have been utterly destroyed by those drugs. And a simple solution ... I have always wondered why the people who are in power always go for something that is impossible and don't try that which is very simple. The simplest thing is that no factories should produce any drug that destroys anything in people's minds. The drug should be a nourishment and creative of an urge towards meditation. But nobody has even proposed that.

The situation is the same with all our difficulties. Those who are in power are in power only because most of the humanity is sick. Either they are sick because of undernourishment, or they are sick because of wrong nourishment. Either they are suffering from drugs, or they are suffering from anxieties and other anguishes.

It seems the elite, the powerful, want people to remain as they are. Nobody wants that everybody should become a buddha. And every opportunity should be provided -- by education, by parents, by neighbors -- every opportunity to help the person to meditate.

My understanding is that there is nothing in the world to be denied. I am absolutely in affirmation of everything, because even poison can be used to cure something. So nothing has to be denied, only you have to find how to use it in an affirmative way so that life becomes richer. Now, you say a few people heard that I endorse drugs. In a way, yes; however, not the drugs that are available, but the drugs that can be created, which will not be the same as marijuana or hashish or LSD. They will have a different composition of chemicals, helping your body and mind in all the possible ways. So they heard rightly, but they may interpret it wrongly.

They may think, "My god, I have been thinking Osho is against drugs." And they may have rushed after the meeting, thinking, "Enough of the buddha, now find someone who is selling all kinds of drugs." But they misinterpreted me, they did injustice to me. I am not for these drugs.

And you say, "Some of us heard you say they were of no use for seekers." That was also wrong. As they are, they are of no use for seekers, they are hindrances. But it is in our hands to change them.

Man can reach to the moon, and he cannot transform a drug with its negative, harmful aspects to have life affirmative, life enhancing qualities. It is simply a surprise. Nobody is trying in that direction just because the religious leaders are afraid: if people become satisfied with drugs, who is going to go to the church? Who is going to go to the temples? People will simply be enjoying drugs, and without any bad effects so you cannot even speak against them.

The governments will be afraid of such drugs, because soldiers will be taking them and then you cannot convince them that they have to go to war. They will become so peaceful.

They have to be kept in such a state that they are ready any moment to kill anybody. But if such drugs are available then there will be such peace in the soldiers. The general may order, "Turn left!" and nobody will turn left.

I have told you the story of the professor in the second world war who was enrolled because more soldiers were needed, and from every profession. He was a professor of philosophy. He said again and again, "I am not the type one needs to become a soldier. I am a professor of philosophy," but nobody heard him -- everybody was finding excuses not to go to the front. He was forced.

The first day he stood in line at the morning parade and the orders were given: "Turn left, turn right. Go forward, come back." He remained standing.

The general came to him and asked, "What is the matter, man? Why don't you do what you are told?"

He said, "What is the point? Finally everybody has to come here where I am standing. All this exercise ... can you tell me the point of it, where they are going? Because finally they fall in, in the line. So I am already standing here. Nothing new is going to happen out of this left and right -- I am watching."

The general said, "You are a very strange person. Who has recruited you into the army?"

He said, "I have said beforehand that I am not the type. All these idiots -- you included -- are unnecessarily doing things. I don't see any enemy here."

So he was taken to the man who had brought him -- he was the manager of the mess. He was asked, "What to do with this man? He does not listen to the orders; on the contrary, he argues. And he is dangerous because others laugh, and his arguments may spread around, others may start saying the same things. He is a very dangerous person; I don't want him in my regiment. He called me an idiot before everybody else. And in fact I cannot refute him, it is idiotic. So he was right, but I cannot have him, you put him to some other work."

The manager said, "I will put him in the mess."

There was a pile of peas, and he told him, "Sit down and sort out the peas -- the bigger ones on this side, and the smaller ones on this side." He said, "At least this I can do."

After one hour when the manager came, nothing had happened. The professor was simply sitting there, almost meditating. The manager said, "My god, what happened? You have not done anything, you have not even touched a single pea."

He said, "I am a man who never takes a single step without comprehending all the implications."

The manager had never heard the word 'implications'. He said, "Implications? It was such a simple task."

He said, "It is not simple. You don't understand the theory of relativity."

The manager said, "We don't need Albert Einstein here. Anybody can do that -- bigger ones on one side, smaller ones on the other side."

The professor said, "And what about those which are in the middle? That is the problem I've been meditating on -- where to put them? They have no place, and you never told me where to put the middle ones. And this is a very complicated problem because some are bigger, some are smaller, some are even smaller, and some are even smaller than that. If I do it accurately then I will have to make a line out of the peas, which will go for miles. If you want me to do that I can do it, but I don't see in what way it serves the country.

"I thought you were a sensible man, but it seems the whole company here is of idiots. The first idiot was saying, 'Left, right!' And you are telling me to do a thing that is almost impossible. The line will go for miles, and who will take care? -- I will be going with the line.

So without comprehending all the implications, I cannot touch anything. I had told you beforehand that my profession is philosophy."

It is a trouble. Either you hear and then interpret it wrongly, or you don't hear and then you think that drugs cannot help. Both are wrong, because both are thinking of the present day drugs. And I am saying that something that has not been solved for centuries and has disturbed millions of people's lives ... It is time that somebody points out to the scientists and to the governments of the world that they are unnecessarily torturing millions of people in jails. The simple thing will be to change the composition of the drugs and make the drugs healthier.

But the trouble is, the government is interested in violent people, not silent people. And the priest is interested in tense, anxiety ridden, miserable people. Otherwise, who is going to pray for whom? This is the basic reason why nothing has been done; otherwise it is a simple matter, nothing can be more simple. And the same is the situation with other matters.

And, Maneesha, I understand that you can listen about nirvana or anything else that your minds do not know. Do you want me to talk only about things which you don't know? That will simply mean that I do not talk. Because in fact I have talked so much about nirvana that you know about it already as much as you know about drugs -- perhaps more about nirvana than about drugs.

And don't you want me to talk about your practical life? You simply want me to talk about things you have nothing to do with -- just have an entertainment and move towards the canteen.

No, I will talk about your practical life and I will talk about the beyond together, because half is not possible. If you only talk about the beyond then your actual life remains the same and the beyond cannot be reached; it can never become your experience.

I have to talk about the beyond so that slowly, slowly it sinks into every fiber of your being. And I have to talk about your practical life so that you can start changing that according to your life beyond. They have to become one. But right now nirvana has no meaning to you -- it is just a word.

People like to talk about things which make no difference in their life. But I am not interested in that kind of gathering. If you are not interested in transforming your life, you are wasting your time here unnecessarily.

Your practical life and your life beyond are one single whole; they both have to be discussed. And you have to learn not to interpret, but to listen clearly to what I am saying.

Question 2 Maneesha has asked another question:

OUR

SOMETIMES DURING MEDITATION THERE IS THE SENSATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS ARISING AND EXPANDING. IS THAT THE SAME PHENOMENON THAT IS INVOLVED IN WATCHING?

Maneesha, watching is the highest point. What arises in meditation is the beginning, it is just a dewdrop. When you will go farther and farther and farther and reach the ocean, then you will know the tremendous vastness and greatness and grandeur of watchfulness. Meditation is only a technique; watchfulness is your nature.

Meditation is a way to reach to watchfulness.

Now, something serious ...

Maggie Muldoon finally decides to go to see that infamous shrink, Doctor Feelgood.

"Doc," says Maggie, "my husband is unbearable. He drinks three bottles of whiskey a day, smokes five packs of cigarettes, and screams at me all day and all night to 'do this!' and 'do that!' He pushes me around, and he can't keep a job."

"Well," says Feelgood, putting down his notepad, "if he's as bad as all that, why on earth did you have fifteen children by him?"

"I was hoping," replies Maggie, "to lose him in the crowd."

Kowalski is brought to court for stealing a frozen chicken from the local supermarket.

Boris Babblebrain, the young lawyer, puts up an amazing defense for Kowalski and the Polack is found "not guilty".

"You are discharged," says Judge Rumcake. But Kowalski does not move, he only looks back, blankly.

"The judge says you can go," says Babblebrain, waving his arms at Kowalski and the door.

Suddenly, Kowalski's face lights up and he smiles at the judge. "Thank you, your honor," Kowalski says. "And does that mean I can keep the chicken?"

Polly gets religion -- it happens in Christianity; a few people get religion -- and when she leaves her profession in a whorehouse she starts a new life with Christ's Salvation Army. One night she is beating a drum on a street corner.

"I used to lay in the arms of men!" shouts Polly. "Boom!" goes the drum.

"White men!" shouts Polly. "Boom!"

"Black men!" shouts Polly. "Boom! Boom!"

"Chinamen!" shouts Polly. "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

"I used to lay in the arms of the devil himself!" she shouts. "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

"That's right, sister. Hallelujah!" comes a voice from the back of the crowd. "Screw them all!"

But this is a common phenomenon, when people get religion. It is a great contribution of Christianity to the world -- they get religion and also a drum! So they shout their sins and beat the drum to attract the attention of people, so they also can have religion. But it is such a stupid thing. Religion is not something that one gets -- one has it, nobody can give it to you. It is your very being.

Now, Nivedano ... Boom!

(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Be silent. Close your eyes.

Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Look inwards.

This is the way to your innermost being.

As your look centers, you become slowly aware of your real nature.

The real nature we have called the buddha.

In this moment you are all buddhas.

And this moment can be carried all around the day. Not as a tension, not as a thought, but just as a fragrance, as a remembrance, an undercurrent. It will show in your practical life.

The buddha is your beyond. It will show in your actions, in your responses, in everything that you do -- the buddha will be present.

And this is the greatest experience in the world, to have buddha present twenty-four hours inside you, like a burning torch radiating light all around, filling you with a deep contentment, making you aware of all the blessings of life that are continuously showered on you, but you have been blind.

To make it more sharp and clear, Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Relax, let go.

You are just a watcher.

The mind is there, the body is there, but you are not the body, neither are you the mind.

You are simply a watcher.

Just watching, you become more and more centered.

Just watching, you come closer and closer to the universal center.

Just watching, and you have got it:

the eternity of it, the immortality of it, the tremendous rejoicing of it.

A man who has experienced buddha within himself, his whole life becomes a festival, a festival of lights.

Each moment a ceremony, each moment a dance, each moment thousands of flowers blossom in the consciousness.

The deeper the watcher goes, the more hidden treasures open their doors.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat) Come back. But come back as a buddha, remembering the space in which you have been.

Bring that joy with you, that peace, that silence, all those flowers.

Sit for a few seconds just like a buddha.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.

Can we celebrate the meeting of the buddhas?

Yes, Beloved Master.