Sanity is just boring

Question 1:

Premda, the evolution of consciousness goes through many ups and downs. It is a hilly track.

Nothing has gone wrong with you - it is just that you are not acquainted with how the path moves.

Many times it goes down just to go higher than before. It passes through valleys to reach to the peaks, and each peak is just a beginning of a new pilgrimage because a higher peak is ahead of you. But to reach to the higher peak, you will have to go down again. Once you have understood that it is natural, all your misery, all your clouds will simply disperse.

You have been doing perfectly well. So the first thing to be remembered is, never be worried when days of down-going come; keep your eyes always on the faraway stars. Those valleys are parts of the mountains. You cannot take the valleys away and leave the mountains alone. Once this sinks deep into you, you will pass through the valleys dancing and singing, knowing perfectly well that a higher peak is waiting for you. And there is no end to this pilgrimage. Just as every day is followed by night, every height is followed by a down-going.

One has to learn not only to rejoice in the day but to rejoice in the night too - it has its own beauty.

The peaks have their glory, the valleys have their richness. But if you become addicted to the peaks only, you have started choosing, and any consciousness that starts choosing gets into trouble.

Remain choiceless, and whatever comes, enjoy it as a part of natural growth.

The night may become even darker, but the darker the night becomes, the closer is the dawn. So rejoice in the darkening night, and learn to see the beauty of darkness, of the stars, because in the day you will not find those stars. And never compare what has been, and what should be, and what is.

What is has to be rejoiced.

Now you are going away from me - this will give you a new experience, because you may be going away from me but I am not going away from you. You will find me in your joyful moments and you will find me in your sad moments. A life which knows no sadness, no tears, remains poor. Life has to know all the varieties of experiences to be rich. The more you know different aspects of existence, and still keep yourself together and centered, the more your life will find itself becoming richer and richer every moment, every day.

Going away is just a means of coming back again. How can you come back if you don't go away?

Always look at life as a dialectical process.

Here, night brings the day.

Here, death brings a new life.

Here, sadness brings a new rejoicing.

Here, emptiness brings a new fulfillment.

Everything is connected together ... it is part of one organic whole. We create problems by dividing things. Learn the art - not to divide, but simply to remain alert, watchful, enjoying whatsoever life provides.

You are here with me; you will be in Germany with me because my being with you is not a physical affair. It is a love affair which knows no distances of time, no distances of space. Wherever you are, you will find me. In whatever situation you are, you will find me. Just remember one thing: accept everything that life gives to you. If it gives you darkness, enjoy it - dance under the stars in the dark night, remembering that every night is nothing but a womb for a new dawn, and every day is going to rest again in the darkness of the night.

When it is fall and the trees become naked, and all the foliage falls down, just watch the old leaves flying in the wind in the forest, almost dancing. And the naked trees have a beauty of their own against the sky, but they are not going to remain naked forever. The old leaves have fallen just to give place for new leaves, new flowers.

Existence goes on renewing itself every moment. You should keep in tune with existence, never ask otherwise. That is the root cause of misery: when it is night, you cry for the day; when it is day, you cry for the rest of the night. Then life becomes a misery, a hell. You can make it a paradise by just accepting whatever is given to you with a grateful heart. Don't judge whether it is good or bad. Your gratefulness will transform everything into a beautiful experience, and will deepen your awareness, will heighten your love, will make you a beautiful flower with great fragrance.

Just learn the art of total acceptance.

Gautam Buddha calls this the philosophy of thusness: whatever is, accept it as the nature of reality.

Don't even imagine to go against it. Never go against the current; just follow the river wherever it leads.

Two tramps sat with their backs against a tree. "You know, Jim," the first tramp mused, "this business of tramping your way through life is not what it is cracked up to be - wandering, unwanted everywhere, sneered at by your fellow man."

"Well," observed the second tramp, "if that"s the way you feel about it, why don't you go and find yourself a job?"

"What?" exclaimed his friend, "and admit that I"m a failure?"

Never admit that you are a failure. The secret of thusness, the secret of total acceptance, is the secret of absolute success; you cannot fail. There is no power anywhere that can make you a failure, because even in failure you will be dancing and rejoicing. Transform every opportunity into something creative and beautiful.

I don't want you to get the illusory idea of remaining permanently in the same state of mind; that is possible only if you are dead. If you are alive, climates will change, seasons will change; and you have to learn through winters, through summers, through rains. You have to pass through all these seasons with a dance in your heart, knowing perfectly well that existence is never against you. So whatever it gives, it may be bitter, but it is a medicine. It may not taste sweet to you in the beginning, but finally you will find it has given you something which just one state of mind could not have given.

So whatever is happening is good ... take it easy. This will not stay, this will also change; but don't make any effort to change it. Leave it up to existence. This is what I call trust. Existence is wiser than you and will provide you with all the opportunities needed for your growth.

Question 2:

Shanti Vikalpa, everything is absolutely okay with you. That"s what I was telling Premda. He is feeling something has gone wrong. The only thing is that somewhere in the corner of your mind there is still a question mark; otherwise the question would not have arisen. Everything is perfectly good except the last sentence when you ask, "Is everything okay with me, Osho?" That sentence is not right; otherwise, everything is perfectly okay.

But I can understand when it happens for the first time ... it is so vast, so enormous, so inconceivable to you that you cannot believe it is happening to you. And when you look at others ... and just because of old habit, you compare; then the question arises - it is not happening to everybody, it is happening only to me. Am I right or have I gone crazy? In fact, you have gone crazy - that"s why you are right.

I teach nothing but craziness.

This whole existence is crazy. Here, sanity is sickness. Here, wildness ... a beautiful madness, a state beyond mind is the way to know the greatest blessings and the purest joy, the secret-most truth.

Look at all the trees, the birds, the stars, the ocean, the mountains - do you think all these people are sane? If they were sane, they would have been praying in churches, reading the HOLY BIBLE or SHRIMAD BHAGAVADGITA or the holy KORAN, praying in some synagogue, listening to some stupid rabbi. But these crazy people all over the vast universe don't care a bit about any religion, about any philosophy; they simply go on singing their song, dancing their dance.

Do you think these birds who go on chitchatting ever bother whether they are right or wrong? Spring comes and trees are burdened with flowers and fruits. Do they brag? Their acceptance is so total that in their acceptance and totality, no question arises at all. This is their beautiful craziness.

Craziness has something tremendously interesting.

Sanity is just boring. If by some misfortune you happen to be with some sane person for a few hours, he will start driving you insane.

I have a story: When India and Pakistan were divided, there was a big madhouse just on the border.

Nobody was interested in the madhouse, whether it goes to Pakistan or to India, but it had to go somewhere. And because no politicians were interested, finally the superintendent gathered all the mad inmates and asked them, "Do you want to go to India or to Pakistan?" They said, "We are perfectly happy here. We don't want to go anywhere."

The superintendent tried hard to explain to them that, "You will not have to go anywhere. You will remain here, but just tell me where you want to go - to India, or to Pakistan?" Those crazy people said, "Have you gone crazy? You are saying, "You will remain here." And still you are asking, "Where are you going - to India or to Pakistan?" We don't want to go anywhere. We are perfectly happy here."

The superintendent tried in every way, but he himself started feeling a little dizzy because what they were saying seemed to be absolutely right: if they don't have to go anywhere, then what is the problem? They are perfectly happy.

Finally it was decided ... because they could not be convinced, they could not even be explained to; they were all laughing and enjoying the whole thing - what kind of stupidity is this? So finally the superintendent decided to divide the madhouse into two parts.

A big wall was raised in the middle; those who were living on the other side became citizens of Pakistan and those who were living on this side became citizens of India. And I have heard that still those madmen climb up the wall and talk to each other, and they say, "This is strange. We are where we used to be always, and now you have gone to Pakistan and we have gone to India. It seems the whole world has gone insane. By great fortune, it is good that we are inside and not outside; outside it seems everything has gone insane."

They are still meeting on the wall, laughing and enjoying, that this is a wonderful experience.

Everything is as it used to be, everybody is in his own room - just a wall has been added in the middle. Those mad people seem to be certainly more sane than the people outside in the world.

We go on drawing lines dividing countries, making new countries, fighting for new countries - and we are where we are.

You are perfectly right. Just don't listen to the insane people of the world, and don't compare; otherwise, this question will become a persistent visitor to you. Except the last line, your whole question is a beautiful statement of how a sannyasin should be. Just drop the last line; I don't think it will be very difficult to drop.

Two Irishmen are driving to a pub with a bomb in the back of their car and evil plans in their minds.

One turns to the other and says, "What if the bomb goes off before we get there?"

"Don't worry," the other replies, "I have got a spare in the boot."

Just enjoy the insanity all around.

Of course they will call you crazy; there is no need to argue. There is nothing wrong in being crazy.

They have always called the people who were different from them crazy. They have called Socrates a madman, they have called Jesus a madman, they have called Mansoor a madman, they have called Sarmad a madman. And this is their strategy: first, they call these people mad; then they have found a right excuse to kill them. But they don't know they are killing their highest peaks of consciousness, their greatest sons. They are destroying their own glory.

Socrates is reported to have said to the chief judge who ordered his death sentence by poison, "Remember one thing: your names will be remembered only because of me; otherwise you would have been forgotten. You will remain obliged forever to the man you are sending to death because I am going to become an immortal, and your names will be remembered only because you did this stupid thing." And certainly, it is true; who would have remembered those judges? But because of Socrates, those names are remembered.

Who would have remembered Pontius Pilate? It is because Jesus was ordered to be crucified by him; otherwise Judea was such a small country of no significance, and there have been many governor generals before Pontius Pilate and after him ...

nobody remembers their names. There is nothing in Pontius Pilate for which he should be remembered. He is remembered only because he killed a man who was unique and different from the masses.

I have heard ... In a small school the teacher was telling the students, small boys and girls, about the trinity of Christian theology: God, the son Jesus Christ, and the holy ghost. These three are equivalent to the Hindu trimurti, the three faces of God - Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh.

After explaining everything about the concept of the trinity, she asked the students, "Can you draw a picture of all three according to your own idea?"

They all tried, but she was struck by a small little boy because he had made an airplane with four windows. And from each window, one face was looking out. The teacher said, "I have been telling you for one hour continuously that God consists of the trinity."

The boy said, "That"s what I have made: this is God in the first window, in the second window is his son, Jesus Christ, and in the third window is the holy ghost."

And the teacher said, "Why is this fourth window there? Who is this fellow?"

He said, "In an airplane, without Pontius the pilot who will fly the airplane?"

A pilot is absolutely needed. Even small children remember according to their own idea. Pontius Pilate becomes Pontius the pilot.

Don't be worried what people say about you. Remember only one thing:

If you are feeling blissful, you are right.

To me, that is the criterion of being right. If you are feeling ecstatic, you have super-sanity, because that is the only criterion of an authentic intelligence and a sane person.

Always look within yourself, not outside at what people are saying. They will call you all kinds of names; they will try to prove that you are mad, you are insane. It does not matter what they say. It is their problem if they think that you are insane; it is not your problem. You should look within yourself.

If there is light, beauty, peace, silence, and if flowers are blossoming in your consciousness, then you can stand against the whole world without ever doubting, because the inner experience has an intrinsic certainty, absolute and categorical.

Question 3:

Divyam Mayo, your question needs great consideration for the simple reason that it is going to arise for many sannyasins at different stages, but it has to be divided so that you can understand clearly what is happening.

First you say, "When I look inside myself, I catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning." This will happen to everybody because everybody has been conditioned for centuries.

You are forgetting just one thing - which is often forgotten by seekers of their inner world, and this is most important to remember, not to forget.

You are saying, "When I look inside, I catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning."

One thing is certain: that you are not part of the conditioning, you are the watcher. When you go in, you see centuries of conditioning around your consciousness. But you are not part of the conditioning, and that is the only ray of hope.

Conditionings may be of centuries, it does not matter. The moment you disidentify yourself with them, they lose all power. You become immediately free. Who is seeing the centuries of conditioning? Certainly the seer, the observer is separate from that which he is seeing. You go into the garden and you see all these trees, but you don't feel identified with those trees; you go inside and you find centuries of conditioning, but you are not the conditioning. Realizing this is the beginning of a revolution in your very idea about yourself.

You are consciousness.

Conditionings are just like dust which has gathered on the mirror; it can be washed away, and the mirror will come to its purity immediately. No dust can destroy the mirror, it can only hide it.

Conditionings can hide you, but they cannot destroy you. Just as dust can be removed from the mirror, conditionings can be removed as easily.

Secondly you say, "I feel that I certainly will not become enlightened, although others might." This certainty that you will not become enlightened is arising because of your misunderstanding about conditionings. Seeing so many conditionings, you have lost hope. You think you will never become enlightened - you are certain - "although others might." Do you think others are new people in the world? They are as old as you are. They have passed through all that you have passed through.

They have gathered as much dust as you have gathered. But your misunderstanding is giving you a certainty. Once your misunderstanding is dropped, you are enlightened in that very moment.

Only one thing is certain:

Nobody can prevent anybody from becoming enlightened.

There is no power in the world which can prevent anybody from becoming enlightened because enlightenment is your very nature. You are already enlightened - you just don't know it. You have forgotten it - it is a forgotten language. It has only to be remembered, and the way to remember is to disidentify with all the conditionings; they may be there, let them be there. Remember: "I am not one of them. I am the knower, I am the seer, I am the observer, I am the awareness." And the awareness cannot be touched by any conditioning.

The third thing: "Is this attitude a natural mistrust? Is this attitude a habit I have to break?"

Yes, it is a natural phenomenon. Everybody gets mixed up with their conditionings, and it is only a habit and nothing else. You can drop it without any effort, just by becoming aware of what I am saying to you.

And lastly, you are asking, "Will this attitude prevent me from becoming enlightened?" Certainly, if this attitude prevails ... it will not prevent, but it will go on postponing; it can go on postponing for centuries, which is almost like preventing. But if you drop this attitude, this very moment you are free. This very moment you can open your wings and fly into the sky.

And the last thing, Divyam Mayo: your whole question is intellectual. You have not been meditating.

You have been just thinking about things; hence, the question. If you had been meditating, then what I have said to you, you would have found yourself.

Mrs. Goldstein"s frustrated next door neighbor is trying to squeeze some affection out of little Hymie.

"Do you love me, darling?" the neighbor asked Hymie. Little Hymie nodded.

"Then put your arms around me, honey, and give me a great big kiss," she said. Hymie went on kicking his football.

"How much do you love me, precious?" the neighbor kept on. "Show me how you would cry if I died,"

she urged.

"Die first!" said Hymie running off.

Do something. Don't go on intellectualizing. Children are very clear about their perceptions. What is the point of thinking intellectually that "If I die, would you cry?" Hymie is absolutely right - "Die first!

And then we will see."

You have to stop thinking about these things. Thinking is not going to lead anywhere. Start meditating, becoming more aware, alert - and then you don't need my answer. The answer is within you. I am simply saying that which you will find arising within yourself.

Question 4:

Indradhanu, mind is a coward. Those who listen to it become utterly cowardly. Mind is not an adventurer, it is very cautious. It takes every step with long thinking and calculation until it is certain that there is no risk, till it has seen others taking the step and there has been no danger; hence, listening to the mind is the most disturbing phenomenon in your growth.

Everything is going good with you, but immediately the mind comes in and says, "Watch out!" Once and for all say to the mind, "Shut up! I am watching in; why should I watch out?"

Because you listen to it, "Fear arises and life looks dangerous, and I take only calculated steps." You stop living. Mind is a mechanism, dead. Do you know that the mind can be taken out of your skull and kept separately? Only oxygen and necessary nourishment has to be provided to it, and it will go on living. It does not need you. There are many minds under observation in scientific labs. They are functioning perfectly well; they don't need you. And perhaps in most of your life, you don't need them either.

I have heard about a politician who was having a brain operation. His mind had collected so much junk inside that the doctors thought that it would be easier, far easier to clean it if they took it out completely; otherwise, it would take many hours. So they left the politician in the operating theater and took his mind to the next room to clean it. And naturally a politician"s mind needs great cleaning ... almost dry cleaning.

While they were cleaning his mind, a man came running. Knowing nothing about what was happening, he shook the politician, who opened his eyes. And the man said, "What are you doing here? You have been chosen to be the president of the country."

So the politician got up, and as he was leaving the hospital, the doctors saw him. They said, "My God! His brain is still in the lab." They rushed out and told him, "Wait! Your brain is still being cleaned."

He said, "Now I don't need it; I have become the president. You keep it - after five years if I"m not chosen again, perhaps I may need it; you can preserve it. What do I need a brain for now that I"m the president?"

In a strange way, the meditator also does not need the mind - but in a very different context. A meditator goes beyond the mind. The mind becomes slowly, slowly silent, calm and quiet. And more efficient, of course - whenever the meditator wants to use it, he can use it better than anybody else.

Whenever he does not need to use it, he is enjoying his inner spaces, ecstasies, blessings. The mind remains silent, it does not disturb.

That"s the whole art of meditation: to keep the mind completely quiet, and make it understand that it is not supposed to comment on any experience that is beyond it.

Meditation is beyond the mind.

You say, "Life is so exciting when I am open to each moment, and not asking where it is going to take me next." That"s what I call being in a let-go, being relaxed with existence.

"The problems disappear and nothing can harm me. The moment my mind comes in saying, "Watch out!" the fear arises, and life looks dangerous, and I take only calculated steps. How can I remain with the relaxed, joyful, and trusting experience?" You will just have to teach the mind: "It is not your territory; you are not supposed to interfere or say anything."

It is just an old habit that the mind goes on making commentary on whatever is happening, goes on giving its opinion and advice, whether asked for or not. It is simply a habit, a habit of thousands of lives. So it takes a little time, Indradhanu, and a little patience, but you are going perfectly well. Just whenever the mind says, "Watch out!" tell him, "I am watching in, you watch out. I"m not watching television."

Don't take the mind in any way seriously about your interior experiences, about your trust with existence, about your love with each moment.

Little Hymie arrived home from school with two black eyes.

"Fighting again," said his mother. "Haven"t I told you when you are angry to count to a hundred before you do anything?"

"Yes, I know," replied Hymie, "but the other boy"s mother told him only to count to fifty."

Calculated steps won"t work.

Life is not a calculation.

Mathematics is only a purely fictitious science, totally created by man"s mind. It has nothing in the objective world. That"s why it is perfect; only a fiction can be perfect.

Reality is always imperfect because reality is always growing, changing. Reality is always moving towards perfection but never becomes perfect, because to be perfect means nothing but ultimate death.

Just drop the habit. The mind will try in every way to keep its old control. But you are the real master, and however much the mind tries to control, it cannot succeed if you are determined to put it into its place as a servant. Your consciousness, you, are the master.

It is a struggle only in the beginning. Once the mind understands that you have started reclaiming your mastery, he becomes just like a dog wagging his tail, ready to follow your orders and never interfere in your work - particularly in the work which is not his territory at all.

Mind cannot understand ecstasy, cannot understand trust, cannot understand moment-to-moment living, cannot understand the blissfulness that arises out of this living.

So it will be sheer stupidity, Indradhanu, to listen to the mind - who is absolutely inadequate, incompetent as far as the inner world, your interiority, your subjectivity, is concerned. Your ecstasy is far beyond the reach of the mind. So teach the mind, train the mind not to interfere - and don't listen. It may go on just out of old habit saying, "Watch out! Take calculated steps!" Just ignore it.

That word "ignore" reminds me of Gautam Buddha. His suggestion to his disciples was, "As far as meditation is concerned, ignore the mind." His word for ignoring is upeksha, which is a very beautiful word. "Just bypass it; let it go on saying whatever it wants; don't pay any attention to it." Soon the mind understands where he can be listened to and where he is absolutely unwelcome.

The day the mind understands where it is unwelcome, it stops saying anything about that. And it has to be stopped from interfering in your inner growth.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.