The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A SILLY QUESTION. I AM NOT SURE THAT I WANT TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED. I AM SURPRISED TO SEE SO MANY PEOPLE AROUND WHO SEEM TO HAVE THAT DESIRE. I FEEL VERY MUCH ATTACHED TO MY COUNTRY AND I LOVE MY WORK THERE. STILL I WANT TO TAKE SANNYAS. IS THAT POSSIBLE? IS IT NOT A CONTRADICTION?

Goran Strandberg, all questions are silly and so are all answers. Questions come out of the mind like leaves come out of the trees. Questions are part of the mind that has to be dropped; questions keep the mind nourished.

A question is really a search for food. The answer is the food. The question is a groping: the mind is feeling hungry, it wants to be strengthened, it wants to be fed, it searches for food. Wherever it can find something satisfying... any answer that makes the mind knowledgeable, that gives the mind the feeling "Now I know," functions as a food. And the mind can go on and on asking, collecting answers, becoming knowledgeable.

The more knowledgeable the mind is, the more difficult it is to drop it. And it has to be dropped, because unless questioning ceases in you, you will never be silent. Unless questioning disappears totally, you will not find that space, that serenity, that stillness, which can make you aware of who you are, and of what this reality is.

Remember, reality is never going to come to you in the form of an answer. It has never happened that way, it is not going to happen that way. It CAN'T happen that way, it is not in the nature of things. Reality comes to you when there is no question left; reality comes to an unquestioning state of awareness.

So the first thing to be remembered is: all questions are silly, and all answers are too. Then you will be a little puzzled -- why do I go on answering your questions? If you look deep down into my answers you will see that they are not answers. They don't nourish your mind, they destroy your mind, they shatter you. They are meant to be shocks. The purpose of my answering is to hammer your mind -- it is hammering, it is not answering.

In the beginning, when you come here for the first time and you don't understand me and my purpose, you may think that I am answering you. The longer you are here, the deeper you become attuned with me, the more you know that my answering is not to give you answers. It is not to make you more knowledgeable -- just the opposite. It is to take your knowledge away, to make you unknowledgeable, to make you ignorant -- ignorant again, innocent again -- so that questioning disappears.

And when there is no questioning, there is a totally new quality to your consciousness. That quality is called wonder. Wondering is not questioning, it is feeling mystified by existence. Questioning is an effort to demystify existence; it is an effort not to accept the mystery of life. Hence we reduce every mystery to a question. The question means the mystery is only a problem to be solved, and once solved, there will be no mystery.

My effort in answering you is not to demystify existence but to mystify it more. Hence my contradictions. I cannot be consistent, I am not answering you. I cannot be consistent, because I am not here to make you more knowledgeable. If I am consistent, you will have a body of knowledge -- very satisfying to the mind, nourishing, strengthening, gratifying.

I am deliberately inconsistent, contradictory, so that you cannot make any body of knowledge out of me. So if one day you start gathering something, another day I take it away. I don't allow you to gather anything. Sooner or later, you are bound to be awakened to the fact that something totally different is transpiring here. It is not that I am giving you some dogma to be believed in, some philosophy to be lived by, no, not at all. I am utterly destructive, I am taking everything away from you.

Slowly slowly your mind will stop questioning. What is the point? When no answer answers, then what is the point? And the day you stop questioning is a day of great rejoicing, because then wondering starts. You have moved into a totally new dimension; you are again a child.

Jesus says, "Unless you are like small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God." He means unless you are ignorant again, innocent again, unquestioning and wondering, certainly.

Hence there is a difference between the question of a child and a grown-up person. The difference is of quality. The child asks, not to be answered; he is simply being articulate about his wonder. So if you don't answer the child he forgets about his question and he starts asking another question. His purpose is not to be answered, his purpose is simply that he is talking to himself. He is being articulate about his wonder, he is trying to figure out what it is -- the wonder, the mystery. He is not hankering for an answer, so no answer will satisfy him. If you give him an answer he will ask another question about the answer. His wondering continues.

When a grown-up person -- educated, sophisticated, well-read, informed -- asks a question, he asks it out of his knowledge, to gather more knowledge. The mind always hankers for more and more. If you have money, it hankers for more money; if you have prestige, it hankers for more prestige; if you have knowledge, it hankers for more knowledge. Mind lives in the "more."

And this is the way you go on and on avoiding reality. Reality is a mystery, it is not a question to be asked. It is a mystery to be lived, a mystery to be experienced, a mystery to be loved, a mystery to be dissolved in, to be drowned in.

I am answering you, not to answer but to simply destroy the question. I am not a teacher. The teacher teaches you; the master does not teach you, he helps you unlearn.

Goran Strandberg, you say: "This sounds like a silly question." Not only does it sound, it is. All questions are -- what can I do? What can you do?

You say: "I am not sure that I want to become enlightened."

That shows how the mind functions, it is never sure of anything. Mind is always unsure; it lives in unsureness. Mind lives in confusion, it can never have any clarity. Clarity is not part of the mind at all; clarity is the absence of the mind, confusion is the presence of the mind. Confusion and mind are synonymous.

You can't have a clear mind. If you have clarity, you cannot have the mind; if you have the mind, you can't have clarity. The mind is always divided against itself, it lives in conflict. Divisibility is its nature. Hence those who live in the mind never become individuals, indivisibles. They remain divided: one part wants this, another part wants that.

Mind is a crowd of many desires; it is not a single desire. Mind is multi-psychic, and all the fragments are falling apart in different directions. It is a miracle how we go on keeping ourselves together; it is a hard struggle to keep oneself together. Somehow we manage, but that togetherness remains only on the surface. Deep down there is turmoil.

You fall in love with a woman: are you sure that you are in love? Really sure? I have never come across a lover who is really sure. You may even get married, but were you sure? You may have children, but were you sure that you really wanted to have children?

That's how you are living: nothing is sure. But one has to do something or other to keep oneself occupied, so you go on keeping yourself occupied. But surety is not of the mind, it cannot be. And the same problem will arise on every level. The same problem is facing you again.

You say: "I am not sure that I want to become enlightened."

But there must be a certain desire, otherwise why the question? A part of your mind must be saying, "Strandberg, become enlightened" -- just a part. Another part must be saying, "Are you mad? Have you lost your senses? You have a wife at home, and children, and work, and you love your country -- and you are trying to become enlightened? You must have become a victim of mass hypnosis: so many people in orange, it is dangerous to live with such mad people. So many mad people, enjoying and laughing and loving and looking so happy! Strandberg, keep on remembering: you have a wife, children, a job. Keep alert!"

But again and again the desire will come. When so many people are interested in enlightenment, there must be something in it. You can deceive one, you can deceive two, but how can you deceive so many? Thousands of people interested in enlightenment? It can't be all bullshit. So a desire arises: have a little taste of it. And fear is there too.

But this is the situation; always it is so, in everything it is so. You want to purchase a car, and it is the same: whether to purchase a Chevrolet or a Ford or a Benz? If your wife is not there to help you, you will never purchase any car! Women are more decisive; they are still less in the mind than men. They function out of the heart, their feeling side is still alive. Fortunately they are not yet so civilized; they are still primitive, a little wild, leaning towards the intuitive and not towards the intellect, still capable and courageous enough to act decisively, to act intuitively, to act illogically.

All decisions come from the heart. The mind is never decisive, it cannot be. If you want to decide through the mind, you never can. And I am not talking about great things like enlightenment and the existence of God or the existence of life after death. I am not talking about great things, just small things -- whether to purchase this soap or that, or which toothpaste -- and you will find the same difficulty. Mind is fragmentary, divided. Hence my consistent insistence that you get out of the mind and start living. The mind only thinks and never lives. It thinks beautiful thoughts, but they are thoughts all the same, just dreams.

Get out of the mind if you want to live. Get out of the mind if you want to live this moment. The mind cannot live in this moment, because first it has to decide, and the moment is lost in thinking. And by the time the mind has decided -- if it ever decides -- that moment is gone already. You are always lagging behind. Mind is always running after life, and lagging behind and missing it continuously.

Many of you must have dreamed something like this: Anand Maitreya continuously dreams that he is going to catch a train, and in the dream he always misses it. Many people, I think almost everybody, has dreams of that kind -- that you are just going to make it, just going to make it... and you miss it. By the time you reach the platform, the train has left. You see it leaving, but it is too late; you cannot get on it.

Anand Maitreya's dream is a very significant dream and a very universal one. This is simply how the mind functions; this dream symbolizes the mind: it is always missing the train. It is bound to be so, because mind takes time to think, and time cannot stop for you; it goes on and on slipping out of your hands.

You never have two moments together in your hands, only one single moment. It is such a small moment that there is no space for thinking to move, no space for thoughts to exist. Either you can live it, or you can think. To live it is to be enlightened, to think is to miss.

Enlightenment is not a goal, Strandberg, that you have to decide whether to accept it or not. It is not a goal. Enlightenment is the realization that we have only the present moment to live. The next moment is not certain -- it may come, it may not come.

In fact, the tomorrow never comes. It is always arriving and arriving, but never arrives. And the mind lives in the tomorrows... and life is possible only in the present.

Jesus says to his disciples, "Look at the lilies in the field, how beautiful they are! Even the great Solomon was not so beautiful attired in all his grandeur as these poor lily flowers." And what is the secret? The secret is that they think not of the morrow. They live now, they live here.

To live now is to be enlightened, to live here is to be enlightened, to be a lily is to be enlightened this very moment! Don't think about what I am saying. Don't think about it, just be here. This is the taste of enlightenment. And once you have tasted it, you will want to taste it more and more.

Don't make a goal out of it; it is not a goal, it is the most ordinary state of consciousness. It is nothing extraordinary, it is nothing special. Trees are enlightened, and the birds are enlightened, and rocks are enlightened, and the sun and the moon are enlightened. Only man is not, because only man thinks and goes on missing.

The moment you realize that you are missing because you are brooding too much, then small glimpses start happening. Small gaps in the traffic of the mind, small gaps when there is no traffic: those are the moments of meditation. They can happen anywhere....

Yes, Strandberg, in your country too! So, no need to be worried -- you need not be in India. India has no copyright on enlightenment; it is not patented yet, it cannot be patented. You can be enlightened anywhere. You can be enlightened remaining a husband, a father, a mother, a wife. You can be enlightened as an engineer, as a doctor, as a carpenter, as a vagabond -- even as a hippy. You can be enlightened anywhere.

Enlightenment is not something you have to work for, to strive for. It is something that you have to relax for -- not strive, but relax. Relax, and this moment you are enlightened. Many times you will become enlightened, and many times you will become unenlightened again, just because of the old habit.

You say: "I am surprised to see so many people around who seem to have that desire."

If they have that desire, they will never become enlightened. Either you can have the desire, or you can have enlightenment; you can't have both. Either you can eat the cake, or you can have it; you can't do both. If you have a desire for enlightenment, then enlightenment is never going to happen to you -- never, never. Because desiring is what prevents it, so enlightenment cannot be desired; that will be a contradiction in terms.

Either you are enlightened or you are not, it is as simple as that. And enlightenment is not caused by anything, it is your nature. So it is not a question of making a great endeavor. It is not an enterprise; you need not plan for it. It is already the case!

That is Atisha's first preliminary: Truth is.

Enlightenment is: it is as much as the sunlight showering all around. But you can remain with closed eyes, and you are in a dark night although the sun is showering everywhere. Open your eyes and the night disappears and there is no darkness. Even when you were thinking there was darkness, there was not. It was a very private affair, idiotic; it was something eccentric that you were doing.

To be unenlightened is something that you have earned; great effort has been invested in being unenlightened. And continuously you have to go on making an effort to remain unenlightened. Just drop making any more efforts to remain unenlightened, and you are enlightened. Enlightenment is your natural state; it is what you are.

So please don't misunderstand my people. Newcomers are certainly desirous; they have come out of desire, in search of something. But those who have been here with me a little longer are no more in any desire. They are living moment to moment, enjoying the extraordinary ordinariness of life. Small things -- sipping hot tea in the morning: you can sip it in an enlightened way, and you can sip it in an unenlightened way. If, sipping hot tea early in the morning, you are not in the moment but thinking of something else -- that you have to go to the morning discourse -- you are unenlightened. You missed an enlightened cup of tea. And remember, if that is your habit, you will miss the discourse too -- because this again is nothing but a cup of tea. Then in the discourse you will be thinking, "I have to do the Sufi meditation, I have to rush to do this and that and then come back."

It is not a question of one moment, it is a question of your pattern, your gestalt. If this is your gestalt, that you are always rushing ahead of time, thinking of the next moment, then you remain unenlightened. And this is your effort, this is something that you are doing.

For enlightenment nothing is needed to be done, only this understanding... "Why should I go on keeping myself unenlightened?"

That's what I decided one day: "Enough is enough. I have lived so many lives in an unenlightened way." And since then I have lived in an enlightened way. This is simply an understanding, it is not a desire.

You say: "I feel very much attached to my country and love my work there."

Perfectly good! Love your work, love your country, go back -- but live there in such a simple moment-to-moment way that you remain enlightened. Don't lag behind, don't rush ahead. Just be herenow, wherever you are, whatsoever you are doing.

"Still," you say, "I want to take sannyas. Is that possible? Is it not a contradiction?"

It is a contradiction. But you are living in contradictions, and this is the last contradiction. Before you can come out of your contradictory life, your life of conflict, you have to close the doors of that life. Sannyas is nothing but closing the doors -- the last thing. It is simply a declaration that "I have lived in the mind for so long, and nothing but misery has been my experience. Now I am taking a jump out of the mind into the unknown. I am going into a totally different kind of life."

Sannyas is just a gesture from your side that yes, understanding has dawned, and you would like to come closer to me to see what it actually is.

To be close to a master, to be related to a master, to be intimate with a master, is nothing but an approach towards your own ultimate understanding, your own enlightenment. Your mind will make you very much frightened of the unknown, it will drag you back. And it is always safer to live with the known; it is familiar, you are efficient in living with it. To move into the unknown, you will need a guide -- a guide who has moved into the unknown, who lives in the unknown, who lives in innocence. Just to imbibe the spirit you need the guide -- not for any guidance, but just to imbibe the spirit of the unknown, the joy of the unknown, the celebration of the unknown.

Once you start drinking something of the master, you will not go back to the old ways of the mind. That's what sannyas is all about.

Yes, Strandberg, you can take sannyas. In the beginning it is bound to be the same conflict again: whether to take it or not, whether to go into it or not. It is natural, because that's how you have functioned for many lives. This has become your second nature.

I persuade you, I seduce you into sannyas. Great persuasion is needed, great seduction is needed. And that's why I have created sannyas. Otherwise there was no need; you could have come here, listened to me, and gone. You would have listened to me, but you would not have come close to me. This is a bridge. You would have heard me, but you would not have tasted of my silence. You would have known what I say about love, but you would not have known my love.

Sannyas makes it possible. It is an energy-field, it is a buddhafield. It is communion: nonverbal, heart-to-heart, and, one day, being-to-being.

The second question:

DEAR OSHO,

TODAY I SAW AND HEARD YOU IN THE FLESH AND I FOUND MYSELF IN ACCORD WITH AND MOVED AND INSPIRED BY YOU SO MUCH THAT I FEEL I MUST ASK YOU TWO QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH IT AND ANOTHER NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED.

WHY ARE YOU SO MUCH AGAINST THE MIND? SURELY WE ALL USE IT AND NEED IT, AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT IT IS ONLY WHEN WE ABUSE IT -- THAT IS TO SAY, USING IT AS A DEFENSE AGAINST FEELING TOO DEEPLY AND AGAINST TRANSCENDING ITSELF -- THAT WE ARE ENTITLED TO CRITICIZE.

THE OTHER QUESTION IS CONCERNED MORE WITH MY PROBLEM, ALTHOUGH NO DOUBT THERE ARE OTHERS WHO FEEL AS I DO:

WHY DO YOU FIND IT SO NECESSARY, SO IMPORTANT, FOR SANNYASINS TO WEAR ORANGE AND A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOURSELF -- IN FACT A SORT OF UNIFORM AND AN ICON? IF I LEAVE HERE WITH A FEELING OF LOVE AND DEEP RESPECT FOR A WISE MAN, A HEALER, I SHALL NOT NEED TO CARRY HIS PHOTO AROUND WITH ME. HIS IMAGE WILL BE TOO DEEPLY ENTRENCHED IN MY INNER SELF, AND IF I NEED TO CONSULT HIM IN MY MIND, I SHALL "CONJURE HIM UP" AND SEE HIM MUCH MORE VIVIDLY THAN IF I LOOK AT A PHOTO. I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO TAKE SANNYAS, BUT BECAUSE OF THIS LAST QUESTION YOU MAY NOT ACCEPT ME.

 Joyce Brandt, dear lady, please excuse me. It must have been just coincidence that you felt in accord with me; it can only be a coincidence, otherwise it is impossible to feel in accord with me.

And don't decide so soon. You have heard me only once: just be here a little longer, and you will see so many contradictions! Wait a little, give me a little more time, and you will not feel in accord with me at all. In fact this time too, it was not you feeling in accord with me, but me somehow appearing in accord with you.

You already have great ideas, you are very knowledgeable. Your question is not out of innocence, it is out of knowledge.

So many people are here: I cannot say things which will shatter everybody's mind. If I say something and it shatters one person's mind, it may be in accord with somebody else's mind. For him I will work tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. But sooner or later the hammer comes down on everybody -- and then you will not feel so inspired. In fact, answering your question, I will make you very much uninspired. Wait!

What do you mean by "inspiration"? It seems you already know something; otherwise, what do you mean by "inspiration"? What do you mean by "accord"? You already know something, and you say "Yes, this man is talking sense" -- sense, because this is what you have always believed in.

I am not here to support your belief: I have to take your beliefs away. I am not here to inspire you, because all inspiration creates slavery. If you are inspired by me, you will become a slave to me, you will become dependent on me. I don't inspire you, I simply go on shattering, shocking you. Sooner or later, I am here, you are here, and we are tremendously connected, but there is no slavery, no dependence. We relate, but there is no question of inspiration, because one who inspires you automatically becomes important for you -- so much so that you start feeling dependent.

You are searching for a father-figure who can inspire you, who can put a little fire in your dull and dead life. But if somebody else puts fire into your life, he becomes powerful over you.

I am not here to put any fire into you, I am just here to help you to see your own fire. Be a light unto yourself. Inspiration means you will follow somebody else, you will imitate them; you will become a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. Sannyas is a declaration that you are no longer a Hindu, no longer a Christian, no longer a Mohammedan, that you don't belong to any creed or any dogma. I have no creed, no dogma. Becoming a sannyasin simply means that you have declared your freedom.

But certainly the question arises: Why the orange, the mala and the photograph? Why?

This is a device, dear lady, to keep unwanted people out. This is not for the crowds, it is not for the mob, it is only for the chosen few. The ultimate -- call it God, enlightenment -- is only for those who are really courageous, immensely courageous, because the ultimate becomes available only to those who can drop the mind and move into the immediate. The immediate is the door to the ultimate. And to drop the mind needs great courage -- it is not for everybody.

This is just a device. Orange is as good as any other color, or no color. It has nothing special about it. I could have chosen any -- green, black, that would have done. But its purpose is that it is a device. It is for people who are ready to do a few mad things -- because later on, bigger and bigger mad things are waiting. If you cannot do such a simple, silly thing as wearing orange, a locket and a mala, if you can't gather enough courage to look foolish, a laughing-stock wherever you go, and feel absurd and ridiculous -- if you cannot do this much, then this place is not for you, because bigger and bigger things will have to be done.

As you move deeper into intimacy with me, I will demand more and more illogical things, because only through those demands can the mind disappear; there is no other way. Those demands are like electric shocks. Only then can your cultivated mind, cultivated for centuries, be shaken to the foundations.

This is just a simple device to help freak out people who are not meant to be here. They simply escape. Seeing such a mad crowd, seeing people in orange, they become afraid and they escape.

This is deliberately done. I could have made it easier for you to be here, to gather more knowledge and be inspired, and things like that. But this is not Christian Science. I am not Billy Graham, I am not here to inspire you. This is a totally different phenomenon. In fact I am not even religious; I am not spiritual at all. All these labels are utterly irrelevant. This is just a device to choose those who are ready to go with me, who are ready to go with me to absurd limits.

But you are more clever. You say, "I can have you in my heart, entrenched deep in my being" -- as if you know what being is and what depth is. You are cunning and clever. You say, "I can conjure you up." But whatsoever you conjure up will be your own mind, a figment of your own mind; it will not be me, it cannot be me.

You can have me only if you move with me unconditionally. No condition from your side can be accepted. And sometimes I demand things which are patently absurd, and I know that they are absurd.

My people slowly slowly start understanding that if you can do something absurd, that helps you become a little loose, out from your mind. Once you are unconditionally with me, then if I say, "Go and move naked in the streets," you say, "Okay".... If you can say that, simply and innocently, I am not going to send you to move naked in the streets; the purpose is fulfilled. If you hesitate, if you say, "What do you mean?" then you will have to go.

These are small devices. And sometimes small devices work very deeply, because you cannot detect them. Big devices you can detect -- they are so big, any stupid person can see them.

Just the other day, Krishna Prem wrote a letter to me saying that he remembers that in many many past lives he has been related to Divyananda, with whom he is in love. In the past life, he was the mother and Divyananda was the son. And he could not fulfill all the motherly duties in that life, so that's why he is in love with Divyananda now. "But now it seems that the debts are paid, and Divyananda is hurting me in many ways, so should I finish the relationship?"

I sent him a message: "Go and talk to Teertha." He was very much hurt, naturally. He was talking about such big things: he must have been waiting for me to say, "Krishna Prem, you have arrived. Remembering your past lives, this is great! This is your first satori, Krishna Prem." Deep down, he must have waited for this.

Rather than saying anything about his great experience, I told him to go to Teertha and talk. That must have hurt him deeply because I am not directly answering him, I am sending him to Teertha. And who is this Teertha, anyhow? Krishna Prem being sent to Teertha? Krishna Prem is as highly evolved as Teertha, so why? Or maybe he is even higher and holier. Why? Why to Teertha?

For two days he lived in great despair. Now, such a small thing, and he could not detect it. It took forty-eight hours for him to detect it, then he understood: "This is just a shock to my ego." And then immediately, in that understanding, all despair disappeared. In that understanding, just that moment, all darkness was gone and he was light, happy, and back to his natural being again. But it took him forty-eight hours to detect it.

Now there is no need: Krishna Prem, you need not go to Teertha. Now I will find something else!

Small, very small things are more difficult to detect, for the simple reason that they are small. Big things you can see. When there are mountains you can see them, but just a small grain of sand is undetectable.

Joyce Brandt, if you want to be here, if you really want to relate with me, you will have to learn a totally different way of relating. I am not a teacher, so if you are only a student here to be inspired, and all that.... I am not a missionary, either; I am not here to convert you to some philosophy.

If you are really to relate with a master -- who has no knowledge but who knows, who has knowing but no knowledge -- then you will have to relax a little. You will have to drop your ideas of how things should be. Remember always, many times it happens: you want to become a sannyasin, but you forget who is the master and who is the disciple, and deep down you start expecting things to be fulfilled by the master. He has to be according to you, then he is right.

But any master worth the name can never be according to you. People who are according to you are politicians. They know that you will follow them only if they are according to you: that is a mutual arrangement. They have to follow you to make followers out of you: that is a mutual exploitation. That's what political leaders are, followers of the followers. They go on looking at you, at what your expectations are, and they go on fulfilling them.

I offend in every way. I cannot fulfill your expectations. If I start fulfilling your expectations, I will not be of any use to you. Then really you will be the master and I will be the disciple.

Who is taking sannyas from whom? This has to be decided in the beginning. Am I taking sannyas from you, or are you taking sannyas from me? Let it be very clear. Many times you take sannyas and it is not clear, and you want me to be this way or that way, to live this way or to live that way. And if I am not according to you, then you are disappointed.

The real master will always disappoint you. He has to disappoint you. This is how, slowly slowly, chunks of your mind will be broken off and taken away from you. I have to continuously hammer you, and I have to be absolutely clear about it from the very beginning. The orange, the mala, the picture, have no other purpose. The purpose is that you have to know clearly that it is you who have to be unconditionally in accord with me, and that you have to drop all expectations of my being in accord with you. Only then can the work start. Those who are ready for it, sannyas is only for them. Those who are not ready for it, sannyas helps them to run away, to get lost.

You say: "Why are you so against the mind?"

I am not against the mind, I am simply stating the fact -- what the mind is. If you see what the mind is, you will drop it. When I say, "Drop the mind," I am not against the mind. I am simply making it clear to you what the mind is, what it has done to you, how it has become a bondage.

And it is not a question of using it or abusing it. Mind itself is the problem, not its use or abuse. And remember, you cannot use the mind till you know how to be without the mind. Only people who know how to be without the mind are capable of using the mind; otherwise the mind uses them. It is the mind that is using you. But mind is very clever, it goes on deceiving you. It goes on saying, "You are using me."

It is mind that is using you. You are being used; the mind has become the master of you, you are a slave. But the mind is very clever, it goes on buttressing you. It says, "I am just an instrument, you are the master." But watch, look into the mechanism of the mind, how it goes on using you. You think you are using it. You can use it only when you know that you are separate from it; otherwise how will you use it? You are identified with it.

If you say "I am a Christian," you are identified with the Christian mind. If you say "I am a Hindu," you are identified with the Hindu mind. If you say "I am German," you are identified with the German mind. This identification has to be broken. You have to know that you are not the mind. And only in moments when the mind is not functioning -- when you are unoccupied, when there is a gap, stillness, silence, when the mind has ceased -- will you be able to know who you are, to know yourself as consciousness. Then you can use the mind.

I am using the mind, Brandt, you are not using the mind. So how can I be against the mind? I am not against the mind. I may appear to be, but the whole effort is to disconnect you from the mind so that you can know your separation from it, your freedom. Once you know your freedom, you can use the mind. Then it is a beautiful instrument, one of the most beautiful instruments. Man has not yet been able to make something better. Even the biggest computer, the most efficient computer, is not yet capable of doing the things that the mind can do. A single mind can contain all the libraries of the world.

It is tremendous to think of the powers of the mind. But because those powers are great, there is danger also: they can overpower you. That's what has happened: because the mind is such a beautiful, powerful instrument, you have become possessed by it. You cannot use it any more. It uses you, it directs you, it gives you programs. It goes on goading you in directions which it has decided to follow. It does not allow you any freedom, it does not leave you any choice. Unless it is convinced, it won't allow you to move even a single inch.

So who is the master? You cannot be the master unless you have come to know that you are not identified with the mind.

The man who is identified with his car cannot drive it; the car will drive him, and then some accident is bound to happen. You have to be separate from the car; you have to know that you are separate, that the car is beautiful, a beautiful mechanism to be used, and it can perform many things. But you have to be separate.

You say: "Why are you so against the mind? Surely we all use it...."

No. All cannot use it. Only very rarely is there a person who uses the mind: a Buddha, a Jesus, an Atisha, a Tilopa -- only very rarely; and far and few between. Otherwise you are used by the mind. No, all are not using the mind; otherwise what will the difference be between a Buddha and you? There will be no difference. You use the mind and Buddha uses the mind: what is the difference? Buddha uses the mind, you are used by the mind -- that's the difference. And Buddha can use the mind because he knows he is utterly separate.

And remember, it is not a question of abuse. If you cannot use the mind, how can you abuse it? It is the mind: whether it uses you or abuses you, you cannot abuse it.

When scientists discovered atomic energy, do you think they used the mind or abused it? When the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Albert Einstein could not sleep the whole night; for days his nights were disturbed. He could not sleep, he could not rest, he was really terribly disturbed. He had been instrumental in creating the atom bomb. It was he who wrote the letter to the president of America saying that the atom bomb was possible.

Now the question arises: was Einstein consciously using his mind writing the letter to the president of America releasing this powerful information to the politicians? Was he aware of the consequences? Did he ever think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- that thousands of people, innocent civilians, would be burned within seconds, for no fault of their own. No, he had not thought about it, he was not conscious about it. In fact he was not even alert to what use atom bombs would be put. And before he died somebody asked him, "If you are born again, what would you like to be? A great mathematician again, a great physicist, a great scientist?"

He is reported to have said, "No, never! Rather, I would like to be a plumber. But now it is too late."

Einstein had one of the most beautiful minds. Did he abuse it? Do you think the scientists who have created great technology and destroyed the whole ecology of the earth have used their minds or abused them?

If one day this planet earth is going to die, it will be because of the great minds of the twentieth century -- because if in the whole history of humanity there have been a hundred scientists, ninety-nine happen to be alive in the twentieth century. In fact seventy-five percent of the great scientists of all the ages are alive now.

Mind has gathered such a great momentum. We have created great technology within the last hundred years, particularly within these last ten years, but that technology is going to destroy this earth. Who will be responsible? And what will you say? The scientists used the mind or abused it?

If you ask me, I will say they were not masters of their minds. They neither used nor abused the mind; the mind used them, abused them.

Science now needs great meditators, otherwise this earth is doomed. Science now needs people who can use their minds, who are masters of their being, who can use science in a conscious way. Otherwise we are on the verge of committing universal suicide.

Man cannot live for more than twenty-five years the way he has lived up to now, unless a drastic change is made. And the greatest thing that can be of help, which can help humanity to survive, and the earth to still go on living.... And this is a beautiful earth. Compared to this earth millions and millions of stars are just dead: no flowers bloom, no rivers flow, there are no birds, no animals, no people. This universe is almost a great desert. This earth is alive! Something tremendously important -- consciousness -- has happened here. But this consciousness is still not a master, it is a slave. It has to be freed.

That's my work here, my basic fundamental work: to help you be free of the mind so that you can use it. And if you are the master, you cannot abuse it; that is impossible. When you are alert, conscious, meditative, abuse is not possible.

If Einstein had also been a buddha, there would have been atomic energy but no atom bombs, and atomic energy would have become a blessing -- the greatest blessing ever. The earth would have become a paradise. But Albert Einstein is not a buddha; unfortunately he knows nothing of meditation -- a great mind, but the master is missing; a great mechanism, a great airplane without the pilot.

 I have heard that they made an airplane which could go to the farthest distances without any pilot -- pilotless, automatic. There was great thrill and enthusiasm, and on the first flight the automatic mechanism communicated to the people: "We are moving at such-and-such a height, at such-and-such a temperature, and at such-and-such a speed. Please be at ease, don't be worried. Nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong..." and it went on! It has already gone wrong. Think of those people, what must have happened to those people! Now, what to do?

Great science is there, a by-product of the mind, but it is in the hands of slaves. Buddhas are needed to take possession of humanity -- and one or two buddhas won't do. Many many buddhas are needed in every field, in every direction, in every dimension of life, so that the mind can be used. Otherwise the mind was never as efficient as it is now, and that is the danger. The mind was never as clever as it is now, never as powerful as it is now.

We have given atom bombs into the hands of children. If no accident happens, that will be a miracle. There is every possibility that an accident is bound to happen. Children are playing with atom bombs.

Politicians are the most immature minds in the world. Only third-rate minds become interested in politics; mediocre people and people who are suffering from an inferiority complex, they become politicians. And in these people's hands are atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, laser beams, and this and that.

You can cease at any moment! -- I may not be able to finish my discourse. Any moment... we are sitting on a pile of hydrogen bombs, and there are so many... it is unbelievable how stupid man can be. We have so many hydrogen bombs that we can destroy every single human being seven hundred times. Now, what stupidity! For what? A man simply dies a single time. If you want to be very cautious, twice will do -- but what is the point of seven hundred times?

And they are continuously creating more and more. The whole earth is full of hydrogen bombs; we can destroy seven hundred earths like this. And still, seventy percent of our energy is being put into war efforts. This whole earth seems to be a madhouse.

And you say, Brandt: "Surely we all use it and need it and it seems to me that it is only when we abuse it -- that is to say, using it as a defense against feeling too deeply and against transcending itself -- that we are entitled to criticize it."

I am not criticizing it. In fact, you will be able to appreciate it more if you understand what I am saying, you will be able to use it more if you understand what I am saying. If you become a transcendence of the mind, a witness to the mind, and you know that you are separate, and the mind no longer has any sway over you, you are no longer hypnotized by it, then you will be able to really appreciate it. I appreciate it. And you will also be able to use it, and you will never be able to abuse it. A conscious person cannot abuse anything.

The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,

I HAVE NOTICED THAT WHEN I SEE A WOMAN WHO IS PARTICULARLY LOVELY, AND I AM TAKEN INTO THAT SWEET SILENCE, I FORGET ALL ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OR RELIGION, BUT I AM LOST AND FOUND ENTERING A MOMENT. I THINK ANIMALS ARE WISE BECAUSE GOD DOESN'T TROUBLE THEM WITH METAPHYSICS. STILL, I WANT TO THROW MY BOOKS OUT... BUT STILL I LIKE THEM.

David Light, a woman is metaphysics, philosophy, poetry. So is a man. Certainly one will forget metaphysics and philosophy when one comes across alive metaphysics, alive philosophy, alive poetry. That simply shows that you are still alive. To appreciate beauty, to be drowned and drunk with it, is something immensely valuable.

There would have been something wrong if, seeing a beautiful woman, you still remembered the Old Testament or the Bhagavad Gita or the Koran. That would have shown that something is wrong with you. This simply shows you are natural, human.

Let this sensitivity grow, and slowly slowly, as you become more and more sensitive, more and more sensuous, you will see more and more beauty around. The deeper your insight, the greater the beauty. And when you see this whole existence as a tremendous dance, a celebration, you are liberated by it.

It is celebration that liberates, it is love that liberates, it is beauty that liberates -- it is not metaphysics or philosophy.

But I am not saying that you have to throw your books out -- because there are beautiful books too; they are by-products of great experiences. Don't be lost in them, but to read something of Shakespeare or Kalidas or to read something from Buddha or Atisha is to move into the same world of beauty from a different door.

There are many doors to God's temple. Beauty is one, wisdom is another, love still another, and so on and so forth. Music can do it, poetry can do it, literature can do it. The flowers on the trees are beautiful -- what do you think of great poems? They are flowers of consciousness.

You need not throw away your books. In fact, by throwing away your books, you will simply be saying that you are still attached to them. Hate is nothing but love standing on its head, love doing SIRSHASAN, a headstand. Love and hate are not separate, they are one. In fact we should stop using these two words separately, we should make one word: lovehate. Not even a hyphen is needed between the two; they are simply one energy like hot and cold, summer and winter, life and death, darkness and light.

There is no need to throw away your books: enjoy them! And there is no need to stop enjoying the beautiful form of a woman, because that too is divine. Enjoy life in all its dimensions. Why this continuous obsession to become one-dimensional, either this or that? Why not both? Why live in either/or? Why not live in both/and? That's my approach: live in both/and, and drop living in either/or.

Soren Kierkegaard has written a book, Either/Or. He lived his whole life in either/or. He could not decide whether to marry the woman he loved -- and loved tremendously; he could not decide. That either/or continued for so long that finally the woman decided to go with somebody else. For years he could not decide.

His book became so famous, he himself became so famous, that when he used to walk in Copenhagen, urchins and children and people would shout behind him, "Either/or! Either/or! Here goes Either/or!" Even children had come to know that he used to stand at crossroads thinking, "Where to go? Either/or -- to move this way or that? Both roads lead to the same goal, both go to the station, but which one to follow?" And he would stand at the crossroads, thinking, for hours.

He lived only in thought; he was really a metaphysician. His father had left a heritage; he had enough money, so there was no need to work either. So the whole day, for twenty-four hours, he was thinking. And when he had drawn the last money from the bank, on the way home, he dropped dead. He did well -- otherwise he would have been in difficulty.

My feeling is that he must have been thinking, "To be or not to be? Either/or." Because now there was no money left. He must have suffered a heart attack between that either/or. That had been his whole way of life.

There is no need to choose. Why not live choicelessly? Why not live all that life makes available to you? Don't be a spiritualist and don't be a materialist: be both. Don't be a Zorba and don't be a Buddha; be both: Zorba the Buddha. Enjoy all that God has showered on you.

That's my message to my sannyasins. You are not yet my sannyasin, David Light. But if you start living in totality, accepting all, giving each moment its due, respecting all, and when a beautiful woman passes suddenly you are thrilled, that shows you are ALIVE, that you are not dead yet.

But this need not be just a sexual stirring in you -- that is very poor. It has to be something more; it can be a spiritual stirring too. I am not against sex, but to live only a sexual life is to live life at the minimum. Why not live the whole spectrum of it, from sex to samadhi?

When a really beautiful woman passes by, if only your sexuality is stirred, then the animal is alive but you are not. But if your spirituality is also stirred, then you are alive in your totality. And to be alive in totality is the way to God.

Enough for today.