OUR BELOVED MASTER
UNGAN REMAINED WITH
YAKUSAN FOR SOME TIME, THEN ONE DAY DECIDED TO LEAVE: HE EXPLAINED TO YAKUSAN THAT HE HAD
MADE A VOW TO STAY WITH HYAKUJO. YAKUSAN AGREED, AND UNGAN SET OFF DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, DOGO
ACCOMPANYING HIM A LITTLE WAY, AND THEN RETURNING TO YAKUSAN, WHO ASKED, "DID YOU SEE
YOUR BROTHER OFF?"
"YES, I
DID," REPLIED DOGO, AND THEN ADDED, "IS IT ALRIGHT FOR MY BROTHER TO LEAVE
YOU?"
"YOU DON'T
HAVE TO ASK SUCH A THING," SAID YAKUSAN. "WE HAVE BEEN VERY INTIMATE FOR SUCH A
LONG TIME -- WE CAN DO OR SAY WHATSOEVER WE WOULD LIKE TO. SO THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU TO
ASK ME."
"NO,
OSHO," SAID DOGO. "YOUR WORD CAN BECOME A REFERENCE FOR THE FUTURE, SO PLEASE
SAY SOMETHING."
"OKAY, I WILL
SAY ONE THING," REPLIED YAKUSAN. "THE EYES ARE ALRIGHT, ONLY THE DISCIPLINE IS
LACKING."
HEARING THIS, DOGO
IMMEDIATELY LEFT THE MONASTERY IN PURSUIT OF HIS BROTHER. WHEN HE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM THE
FOLLOWING DAY, DOGO TOLD UNGAN WHAT YAKUSAN HAD SAID. THE TWO BROTHERS TURNED AROUND AND
WENT BACK TO YAKUSAN, AND REMAINED WITH HIM TILL HIS DEATH.
Friends,
One of the would-be
sannyasins, Graeme McIntyre, has left his body in deep meditation in this Gautama the
Buddha Auditorium, amongst other meditators, in deep peace and silence. He had expressed
his desire to become a sannyasin that very evening.
Sannyas does not
need to be an outward thing, just the longing for it is enough. He died as a sannyasin
because there was deep longing for sannyas.
He was doing a
therapy group. After the group he said to the leader, "I would like to remain here my
whole life." He will be here now his whole life -- and not only this life, but for
eternity.
This place, this
space that you are creating by your meditations, is the right space in which to live,
love, laugh, and it is also the right space in which to leave the body and go into the
beyond, disappear into the ultimate existence.
It is a moment of
rejoicing. So tomorrow, when you say goodbye to him on a funeral pyre, rejoice, and dance,
and celebrate. Such a death is rare. Very few human beings are so blessed.
And when the
funeral pyre's flames start moving upwards, remember why in this country for thousands of
years we have chosen not to bury the dead, but to give them to fire. There is a special
reason for it.
Fire is the only
thing you know which does not allow any gravitation. It always goes upwards. The fire is a
symbol of your spirituality; it always goes upwards. No gravitation can pull it down.
Secondly, when you
have lived in your body for so many years there arises naturally a certain attachment to
the body. The body is prone to be attracted by gravitation. But when the consciousness
sees the body burning -- with the body burning, all your attachments with the body, all
your prisons that have taken you to many bodies in many lives, start disappearing. One
feels a tremendous freedom rising with the flames towards the sky.
And you know ...
You see flames, and soon they disappear. They are visible only for a few moments, then
they become invisible. Fire is a great symbol of purification, of detachment, of rising
vertically towards the ultimate space which is our home.
We come from there,
and we go back there.
Now, Christianity
...
Christianity is a
vast propaganda. They say they are defending the truth, but truth needs no defense, it is
self-evident. It needs no propaganda. Lies need to be defended, lies need to be
propagated, but not truth. Truth shines almost like a sunrise, you don't have to declare
it.
And saying that
they are defending the truth ... I will give you a few examples from their own theological
history which make it clear what they are defending.
The French
scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest and a scientist of world fame,
who was working in China in search of the Peking man. It was thought that somewhere in
China the "missing link" of Charles Darwin was to be found, because China is one
of the most ancient countries.
Charles Darwin's
problem was that there was no interconnecting link between the chimpanzee, or the ape, or
the gorilla, and man. The distance is too great, there must be one more step in between.
De Chardin was searching for that missing step in Peking, and he had found a
fifty-thousand-year-old skeleton of a man.
The pope asked him
not to report it to the scientists: "Don't write it in any paper, and don't publish
anything that you have found till your death." This is defense of truth. His
researches, which have now been published after his death, show that the earth and the
universe are not only six thousand years old; even man is at least fifty thousand years
old, according to the Peking man, which scientists have agreed is at least fifty thousand
years old.
The snow of the
Himalayas on the Chinese border has saved the man almost as he would have died. Covered
with snow, he has remained frozen as he was fifty thousand years ago. This disturbs the
Christian idea that the world was created six thousand years ago.
Teilhard de
Chardin's mouth was locked, he was not allowed to teach in any Christian college or
university. This is defending the truth? I am very much surprised that de Chardin listened
to all these idiots of the Vatican.
That is why
Christians go on insisting that obedience is the greatest virtue. He was programmed from
his very childhood to obey; disobedience is the original sin. So, although he was a great
scientist, his whole upbringing, continuous conditioning and programming, had made him a
coward, a slave. He was a genius in his mind, but the conditioning had gone deeper into
his unconscious, and he obeyed the Vatican's orders literally.
He did not say
anything to anybody; he continued to work, and he did not publish any paper during his
life, he did not publish any book on it in his lifetime. The books now published bring
tears to anybody who can understand what a great man, a great genius, has been repressed
his whole life by the church. He could not see his own research published.
The whole of
Christianity lives in a paranoia that if anybody finds some truth, then what is going to
happen to their lies that they go on propagating?
One of the most
important theologians, Rudolf Bultman of the University of Marburg, one of the most famous
and esteemed of twentieth-century biblical scholars, stated, "We can now know almost
nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources
showed no interest in either, and are, moreover, fragmentary and often legendary."
But he must have
become immediately afraid, because the church had been burning people, killing people. He
immediately wrote underneath -- that shows how programming works -- after writing this he
immediately wrote, "That does not disturb my faith. I still believe in Jesus Christ
as the only begotten son of God, and I have absolute faith in the church of Jesus."
And he could not even see the contradiction. But the fear must have taken over; he
contradicted himself immediately.
On the one hand he
is saying, "We know nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus." If
you don't know anything of the personality of Jesus, how can you have faith? in whom? It
is not faith, it is fear. It is fear of the church, it is fear of the pope, it is fear of
the whole of Christianity. They will kill you, as they have killed many.
The Vatican has an
underground library of thousands of scriptures which they have burned, saving only one
copy. Nobody is allowed to enter, except the pope and the cardinals, to see all the
evidence, all the proofs which go against Christianity. The public is not allowed to know
what the truth is. And these people, Jesuits, are claiming that Christianity defends
truth!
If it defends
truth, it should open the underground library in the Vatican to all the scholars who want
to study there, and Christianity will evaporate without leaving a single trace on the
human consciousness. It is ninety-nine percent myth, invented, propagated, but it has a
great propaganda machine, and it has a militant church. It has almost half of humanity
converted to Christianity.
It is a strange
thing, but I want to tell it to you: after the death of Jesus Christ, three hundred years
after, it was through voting that the Christian priests decided that he was a divine
personality -- by voting. And who were these people who were voting? They knew nothing of
divineness.
This has never
happened anywhere else. Mahavira was never elected as a tirthankara, Buddha was not
elected by the masses as an awakened man. Poor Jesus not only suffered on the cross, he
has suffered more from his own self-styled so-called representatives.
What would have
happened if the vote had been against his divinity? Is religion a political affair? And
people who had no experience of godliness were voting and deciding by vote, three hundred
years later, that he was a divine personality. This was decided in the Council of Nicea in
325 A.D. Jesus was declared divine by a vote of the Council of Nicea. The nature of his
divinity was also decided by vote. This is the ugliest thing you can think of.
Truth does not need
votes. It is self-luminous.
Hermann Samuel
Remarius, a professor at Hamburg in the eighteenth century, wrote that "Jesus was a
failed Jewish revolutionary whose body was removed from its tomb by his disciples."
I am not saying
that, it is said by a Christian professor who has looked into the sources, the original
sources, and found that he was a "failed Jewish revolutionary"; he had nothing
to do with Christianity.
Christianity is a
fiction. Jesus had never even heard the name Christianity. It has been imposed on him, he
was not the founder of Christianity. Who exactly was the founder of Christianity? One
thing is certain, Jesus was not. He never thought about founding a religion, he was simply
telling the Jews, "I am your last prophet." He died on the cross as a Jew.
Then who founded
Christianity?
You can find
Buddhism in the teachings of Gautam Buddha; he was the founder. You can find in the
teachings of Mahavira that he was the founder of Jainism. You can find in the teachings of
Lao Tzu that he was the founder of Taoism. But it is a very strange thing about
Christianity: the founder had no idea at all, was not interested in creating a new
religion.
The man who founded
it -- you will not believe it -- was the Emperor Constantine. The church knows it, but
does not allow the public to know it.
Emperor Constantine
of Rome, who headed the Council of Nicea, died as a Christian, but he was baptized only on
his deathbed. His whole life he was the high priest of the Sun God religion, which was why
he changed the sabbath from Saturday, which was Jesus' sabbath day, to Sunday. Jews still
have their sabbath on Saturday, and Jesus also had lived his whole life believing in the
sabbath on Saturday. How did it become Sunday?
It was Constantine,
who was a worshipper of the Sun God. Sunday represents the sun; the followers of the sun
have always believed that Sunday is a holy day.
It was Constantine
who was actually the founder of Christianity. He was the decisive factor in the Council of
Nicea. It was under his pressure -- because he was the emperor of Rome -- that the priests
voted for the divine personality of Jesus. He made Jesus a divine person. It was his
creation, his invention.
He also changed
Jesus' birthday from January sixth to December twenty-fifth, the day of the solar rebirth.
The twenty-fifth of December, which is celebrated all over the world, is not Jesus'
birthday. The whole idea of Christmas is bogus.
Jesus was born on
January sixth, but under Constantine's influence and power, it was changed to December
twenty-fifth, the day of the solar rebirth. It is thought by the sun worshippers that the
sun was born on the twenty-fifth of December. The whole of Christianity is living in utter
darkness. Their Christmas is bogus -- and the church knows it perfectly well but won't
allow people to know about it.
This is called
defending the truth.
I call it defending
lies.
Constantine saw
Jesus as a failed messiah, with himself as the real messiah -- and his view was ratified
by the famous Christian bishop, Eusebius of Caesarea, who said, "It is as if the
religion of Abraham is at last fulfilled, not in Jesus, but in Constantine."
Constantine imposed
himself as the real last prophet for whom the Jews had been waiting. Of course, the Jews
could not crucify the emperor of Rome. And the Christians wanted some royal support;
otherwise they were being crucified everywhere. They found a shelter in Constantine, but
it was a bargain, purely business. They accepted that Jesus was a failed messiah, and that
Constantine was the real messiah.
But this is not
told to the public! Christians are not aware of it. All these scriptures are hidden under
the Vatican.
I say unto you that
Christianity is one of the most untruthful religions in the world. It is a disease, a
sickness, a pathology, a poison. It has not been helpful to humanity in finding the truth
in any sense. It has been trying to propagate lies so continuously that they have almost
become truth.
You must have all
celebrated Christmas. Have you ever thought that this is not the birth of Jesus? You never
remember Jesus on the sixth of January ....
I have been
thinking that we should start here a celebration for poor Jesus on the sixth of January
every year. That is defending the truth. So please remind me when the sixth of January
comes, because I have no sense of time at all. I don't know what day it is today, and I
don't care. So when the sixth of January comes, please remind me. We will celebrate. At
least after two thousand years Jesus will have a real birthday celebration!
The Bible says,
"Judge not, that ye be not judged." I also teach you no judgment, but that does
not mean what the Bible says. "Judge ye not" -- but there is a reason for not
judging -- "so that ye be not judged." It is pure business.
When I say don't
judge, you are not going to be rewarded for it. In the very act of not judging you are
rewarded: such peace ...
People who are
judgmental are grumpy, always have grudges against everybody, nobody seems to be right.
They go on looking at the negative side of everybody, the darker side. They may look at a
rosebush but they will not look at the roses, they will count the thorns.
I say to you: Don't
judge, because you don't know yourself, so how can you know anybody else? And every
judgment is about a certain action. A man may have stolen something, and you judge that
man as a thief. The whole man is judged, his whole life is judged by a single act. You
don't go deeper into the act. The man may be dying of starvation, his mother may be dying
of starvation -- and if he has stolen a little food from people who are suffering from
being overweight, he has helped them.
Don't judge people
by their actions. Actions are momentary, life is long. You judge the whole life of a
person -- "That man is a thief, that man is a murderer" -- and not only do you
judge, but your courts, which are thought to be just, go on judging people by small
actions. Those small actions may have been done for a certain purpose. Nobody looks at the
purpose, nobody looks at the cause.
I am reminded of
Lao Tzu ....
The emperor of
China wanted the most wise man to be the chief justice of the supreme court of China.
People suggested Lao Tzu's name. It was absolutely right, there was no disagreement about
it in his court, and Lao Tzu was called.
Lao Tzu came in his
own way. He used to ride on a buffalo -- which is a very rare thing. People ride on
horses, and people ride on elephants, but a buffalo ...? But he loved his buffalo; it
carried him from one place to another, and it gave him nourishment. No horse can do that.
And buffalos are so
silent -- and Lao Tzu was in immense love with silence -- they don't chatter. They are so
contented, they don't have any grudge against existence.
He came into the
court riding on his buffalo. The emperor was shocked, but they had invited him, and they
were well-mannered, well-educated people, so they ignored the buffalo.
The emperor asked
Lao Tzu, "I want you to be the chief justice of the supreme court of China."
Lao Tzu said,
"You are choosing a wrong person."
The emperor said,
"Why?"
"Because,"
Lao Tzu said, "I will be really just."
The emperor said,
"That is the very function. Don't say no to your own emperor."
Lao Tzu said,
"Okay, but it won't last long -- perhaps one day." And it lasted only one day.
The first case was
about a thief who had stolen money from the richest man in China. The man was so rich that
even the emperor used to borrow money from him.
Lao Tzu listened to
the whole case and gave his judgment: "Six months jail for both the rich man and the
thief."
The rich man said,
"What?! My money is stolen and you are sending me to jail?"
Lao Tzu said,
"I am looking at the whole thing as deeply as possible. This thief is a secondary
criminal, you are the primary criminal. You have collected all the money of the capital,
you have deprived millions of people of money. Even if he had not stolen from you, you
needed punishment. And I will not call this poor man a thief; he was simply distributing
wealth to those to whom it belongs. You are a bloodsucker, a parasite!"
The rich man said,
"I want to see the emperor before you send me to jail."
He went to the
emperor and he said, "Listen, this man is absolutely absurd and dangerous. He is
sending me to jail for six months."
The emperor said,
"You are being judged? You have not done anything wrong."
He said, "I
told that man, but he is telling me that `You have been exploiting the money of the poor.
Where will they get money? Except by stealing there seems to be no way!' So he calls me a
primary criminal, and the thief only a by-product.
"I warn you,
if I go to jail, it will not be long before you will be coming to jail too, because you
have been committing murders, you have been raping women, you have been collecting all the
beautiful women of the country into your palace. This man has to be immediately removed
from his post."
The emperor
understood. He said, "He was saying himself that he would not last more than one day.
Even the full day is not ended, this is just the first case!"
Lao Tzu was given
his freedom and told, "You are right. You go on your buffalo wherever you want to
go." He was a man of tremendous consideration, of in-depth exploration of everything.
Don't judge anybody
superficially. You don't have the means to enter into anybody's act, because the action
comes from his unconscious. You have not explored your own unconscious, how can you enter
into somebody else's unconscious? And who are you to judge anybody?
But Christianity's
statement is different. It is saying to you that if you want not to be judged by God on
the day of judgment, then don't judge anybody else. This is simple bargaining, business.
Truth is not a
business.
The morality that
Christianity preaches is always motivated, and wherever there is motivation, there is no
morality.
The church says
that a righteous man can judge others because he is without sin. Who is the righteous man?
If you look you will not find a single person who is without sin, because everything that
is joyful and that is pleasant, that you love, is called sin.
The righteous
person is one who has never committed any sin, who has never looked at a woman with loving
eyes, who has never lied -- and the whole church is lying. Even the pope is lying. Who is
righteous? You will not find anyone.
According to the
Christian ideology, you are all sinners. You are carrying the same sin that Adam and Eve
committed. That is their dogma, I am not talking on my own. It is their dogma that Adam
and Eve committed the original sin by disobeying God, and because the same blood is
flowing in all humanity around the world, you partake of, and you have to be responsible
for, the original sin of Adam and Eve.
You are their sons
and daughters, and you are born out of sin. Except Jesus, nobody is born without sin. But
I don't consider that Jesus was born without sin. In fact, in the birth of Jesus even God
has become a sinner.
The Holy Ghost,
they say, is one with God, is not separate. And it is the Holy Ghost who made the poor
Mary pregnant. God himself has become a sinner; it does not make Jesus born out of virtue.
Because God is raping a woman who is somebody's wife without her consent, Jesus simply
becomes a bastard, and God becomes a sinner.
So the whole of
humanity is born out of sin, the original sin that Adam and Eve committed. And God has
become a sinner from the very beginning. First he murdered Lilith, then he committed rape
on Mary. Even God is not qualified to be present on the judgment day. Only the righteous
can judge.
Who is righteous?
But Christian
theologians are very clever in finding ways. Just a few days ago, the third man in the
Church of England ... The first is the archbishop of England, then there is the second
most senior man; then comes the third man, who can possibly someday become the archbishop
of England, because only one man is in between him and the top, and he is young enough
....
He has come out
with the statement that, "Taking the vow of celibacy does not include
homosexuality." You can be celibate and you can be homosexual; it simply prevents you
from heterosexuality. A new definition! They have to find such a definition, because
almost fifty percent of Christian monks are homosexuals. The remaining ones may be
masturbating, but nobody, unless he is born impotent, can be celibate by nature.
These people go on
teaching unnatural things. And when people cannot cope with unnaturalness, and they are
drawn to their nature, it becomes sin. Then they have to be condemned to hellfire. To be
natural is a sin, according to Christianity -- and according to other religions too. To be
unnatural and abnormal -- to be perverted -- is to be saintly.
Now this bishop,
who has a high post in England, with every possibility that he will become the archbishop
of England ... England has its own church, so the archbishop of England has the same
position as the pope. Now he is saying that homosexuality is allowed, no scripture
prevents it.
I could not believe
my eyes! I could not believe my ears! What is this man saying?
The Old Testament
has the story of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed both the cities completely,
just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been destroyed. What was the reason? -- because they
were all becoming homosexuals. Bestiality, masturbation, all kinds of perversions were
prevailing in both the cities.
God told them,
"If you remain so perverted, I am going to destroy you." And he destroyed both
the cities, which were great cities in those days.
If God is still
alive, which I doubt, then he should destroy all the Christian monks immediately. This is
the right moment to finish with Christian monks, because they are making the whole earth a
Sodom, a Gomorrah. All their monasteries are nothing but sexual perversion.
And that is true
about other religions also. They are all against nature and being natural. You are forcing
people to unnecessarily feel guilty.
Mahatma Gandhi was
very much influenced by Christianity and was thinking to become a Christian himself; at
least three times he was on the verge of being converted. In his ashram, even to eat
tastefully is a sin. You are enjoying taste? -- you have to eat without tasting. Now, that
is possible only if the taste buds on your tongue are removed surgically. If the taste
buds are there, they are beyond your control, they will taste. The sweet will be sweet and
the bitter will be bitter. You cannot do anything about it, they are not under the control
of your mind. You can only pretend.
So all the
religions -- particularly Christianity -- force everybody to be hypocrites, to pretend. No
taste, no love, no appreciation of your own body and its wisdom. Your body is doing a
tremendous service for you for seventy, eighty, or a hundred years -- and you are not even
grateful. All the religions treat the body as the enemy, so torture it. Torturing is
virtue.
Rejoicing in your
body, in its health, in its youth, in its old age, rejoicing in your body even in death,
is what I teach.
Christianity is
basically masochistic -- torture your body. The more you torture your body the greater
saint you are. And there are idiots everywhere available -- they are the majority in the
world -- who start doing all kinds of stupid things just to become saints. It does not
need any education, it does not need any culture, any civilization, any intelligence, any
genius. Any idiot can become a saint.
My own
understanding is that only idiots become saints. A man of intelligence cannot become a
saint, because to be a saint you have to go against nature, against the body, against
yourself. It is very strange that God has given you all these tendencies -- of love, of
taste, of laughter. Who is the criminal?
If anybody is a
criminal, it is God. Why has he implanted taste buds? While he was creating man he should
have removed sexuality, he should have removed taste buds. In fact, there was no question
of removing them, he should not have created them. Just visualize God making Adam: he
should not have made his genitals -- and he was making his genitals with such joy!
But every religion
wants to castrate you, and particularly Christianity castrates people. What are they doing
in Mount Athos, where no kind of woman is allowed? A hen, a dog, a female horse, a female
baby six months old -- nobody is allowed.
One American woman
tried to break the one-thousand-year-old rule of the Mount Athos monastery and enter. She
dressed like a man, she cut her hair and arranged everything perfectly. But she was caught
red-handed, because women walk differently from men, so just at the gate she was caught.
A woman cannot walk
like a man, and the reason for it is the womb. Man has no womb. That womb makes a
difference in your walk. She had not thought about it. She had done everything, but she
had not thought about the walk, and those people are watching continually that no woman
ever enters.
The monastery is
guarded; it has its own government, it has its own police. It is a sovereign nation. When
the woman was caught she was jailed for six months. It is their law that if any woman
tries to enter and is caught she will have to be punished.
Now, after that
woman's effort, everybody who wants to go into Athos, man or woman, first has to enter
into the office outside the monastery and has to be stripped naked, to be looked at from
every side, to see whether he is man or woman -- and nobody will say that those who are
looking at naked people are voyeurs, homosexuals, enjoying the naked bodies of other men.
Of course no woman has dared since then, but now it has become a rule that anybody who
enters Mount Athos first has to be inspected naked by the guards. Unless they are
certified to be a man, nobody can enter. Such fear ... I call it castration.
And do you see the
difference?
Have you seen the
beauty of a bull? -- so proud, such grandeur, he looks so majestic, and after castration
he becomes the bullock. The same bull becomes a bullock. The bullock looks sad, shrunken,
all pride and dignity gone. He is a slave; now he can be used for pulling carts.
You cannot put a
bull to pull a cart; you are not a match for a bull. He will not remain on the road, he
will go anywhere he wants -- and if by chance he comes across a girlfriend the cart will
be thrown by the side of the road. First things first! You may have multiple fractures --
and he will be enjoying making love to his girlfriend.
Bulls are not used
for bullock carts -- but what a difference it creates, just castrating them, just
destroying their sexual energy. The bullock is a sad affair.
Christianity and
all other religions are part of the conspiracy to make man castrated. They have destroyed
all the dignity of man. They have given only guilt and sin. Hence I call Christianity the
deadliest poison.
The Bible says,
"We know at the end we shall have life eternal." This has been the justification
for sacrifice and suffering: you can sacrifice a human being in the name of God because he
will have life eternal. Don't be worried, you are not destroying him, his spirit. Because
he is sacrificed in the name of God he will enter into paradise.
So sacrifice is
supported in the name of the eternal life that you will get after death. And suffering
also is supported: it is only a question of a few moments; your life of seventy years is
nothing but a few moments compared to the eternity of existence. Suffer patiently.
Patience is one of
the pillars of Christianity, and patience is against all rebellion, all revolution, all
change. Patience is the opium which drugs people into deep coma. They move like robots.
They have forgotten that they are being exploited, their blood sucked. They allow it.
The Bible says you
should not change or make an effort to change anything, because God has made everything
perfect as it is. This is the ultimate utterance against revolution, change, evolution,
improvement in the conditions of the poor, of the sick.
Scientists say man
can live at least three hundred years if care is taken. If his body is taken care of, not
tortured, not undernourished, not fasting, not overeating -- if the body is given
scientific care it can live three hundred years very easily. And that does not seem to be
incorrect, because there are people in a few places who live one hundred and eighty years.
In Russia there are
a few aboriginal tribes where you will find one hundred and fifty years is an ordinary
thing. Thousands of people have passed one hundred and fifty, and even after one hundred
and fifty they are young, they are working people -- in the fields, in the orchards,
chopping wood, carrying water from the well -- perfectly healthy. And there are a few
people in Russia who have passed the age of one hundred and eighty.
So science seems to
be perfectly right: if sufficient care is taken, life can last three hundred years. Just
think of Albert Einstein living three hundred years! Science would have benefited
immensely; miracles would have happened.
But fate is
strange: by the time a man becomes experienced, death overtakes him and the experienced
man is replaced by a baby, absolutely inexperienced. Now you start from the beginning
again -- ABC -- and by the time the baby reaches to the point where it can contribute
something to humanity, to the world, to the beautification of it, death overtakes the man.
But Christianity
will not allow it.
It does not allow
birth control, even seeing clearly that if the population goes on growing the whole of
humanity is going to suffer utter starvation, and billions of people will die within the
coming ten years. Without any third world war people will be dying on their own.
But Christianity
goes on insisting, because the Bible says, "Multiply. Have as many children as you
can." And because God creates life, Christianity's argument is, "You should not
stop the birth of a child."
But do you see the
contradiction?
Killing is allowed,
sacrifice is allowed, because nothing is dying. You will have an eternal life in paradise.
So what is the problem? -- if a child is stopped, he will have eternal life or may move to
another womb. If the spirit does not die when you kill a man as a sacrifice, why should
the spirit die by birth control methods? In fact, the spirit would not enter into the womb
at all.
But don't change
anything, that is the fundamental motto of Christianity -- and that means death to
humanity, death to this beautiful planet.
Christianity is the
most out-of-date religion. All its assumptions are absurd.
For example, the
myth is that Mary was assumed into heaven alive, she never died. Jesus ascended into
heaven and then he assumed Mary there. In life he was misbehaving with his mother --
calling her "that woman" -- and suddenly he becomes very compassionate when he
ascends alive to heaven. He takes his mother also alive into heaven.
What happened to
his five brothers and sisters? And what happened to poor Joseph, his father? If he was
able to take his mother into heaven, why not take ... what happened to the twelve
apostles?
That Jesus ascended
to heaven alive and Mary also is as absurd as the Mohammedan concept. But Mohammed did a
far better miracle; he ascended to heaven alive with his horse, both alive. Strange! What
will the horse be doing amongst the saints? He must be dying to come back to earth.
De Chardin said to
the Vatican, "Why am I not allowed to publish my work? It is based on scientific
principles and will contribute much to clear many fallacies which are prevalent in the
scientific world." He told the Vatican that it must refashion its Christology to
resolve the conflicts with science.
Rome responded that
his diagnosis did not coincide with the ideas currently accepted in the eternal city --
Rome they call the eternal city -- and because his ideas do not coincide with Christianity
and its Bible, unless he makes his Christology coincide with the Christian ideology and
theology, he will not be allowed to publish his papers while he is alive.
These people have
been killing truth for thousands of years.
De Chardin
commented, hearing this, "Since then, as we all know, the religious schizophrenia
from which we suffer has constantly grown more marked."
A kind of split in
the scientists who have been brought up as Christians is bound to happen. All scientists
brought up as Christians will suffer from schizophrenia, they will have a split
personality. One side has faith in God, faith in the virgin birth of Jesus, faith in the
infallibility of the pope -- knowing perfectly well that all this is nonsense, but their
minds are split.
Science says one
thing, Christianity says just the contradictory thing, and they have to cope with both.
They become two persons. So in the scientific lab they will be scientists and in the
church they will be Christians. You don't know how ....
Schizophrenia is
cutting a human being in two parts -- a constant wound which knows no healing. The whole
of humanity suffers from schizophrenia and all kinds of mental sicknesses because of these
teachings which cannot go on changing with the changing world of knowledge; which are
stuck somewhere and are stubbornly against moving from there; which are carrying corpses
of the past and will not listen to the living sources.
Man has to get rid
of all religions, including Christianity, otherwise he will never be wholesome, he will
never be one, and he will never know the joys of life and the blessings and the
benediction. He will never know the truth.
If these religions
go on living they are going to drive the whole of humanity insane. They have pushed
everybody to the very verge of insanity.
It is time to get
rid of Christianity -- and all so-called religions which are different versions of the
same stupidity.
Man needs absolute
freedom from the past. Only then can he live in the moment responsibly, and only then can
he create a new future, a better future than the ugly past, for the coming humanity -- a
superman, a better man than the pygmies of the past who were just slaves and nothing else.
The sutra:
OUR BELOVED
MASTER,
UNGAN REMAINED WITH
YAKUSAN FOR SOME TIME, THEN ONE DAY DECIDED TO LEAVE: HE EXPLAINED TO YAKUSAN THAT HE HAD
MADE A VOW TO STAY WITH HYAKUJO
-- his old master
Hyakujo, who had allowed him to go to Yakusan when he asked. Because he had allowed him
without any hesitation, Ungan became more grateful to the old master than he had ever been
before.
Freedom is the very
air, the very climate of Zen. The master is not a chain on your feet, the master is not
handcuffs on your hands. A master is not a prison.
A master is not
like the Catholic monastery of Mount Athos, which is nothing but a prison. There is no
other prison like Mount Athos, because with a prison you go in and you can get out. But in
Mount Athos, once you go in as a monk, only your dead body will come out. You are
committing for your whole life, now there is no question of change.
This is the
greatest prison in the world, where you enter alive and leave only when you are dead. This
they call loyalty. This they call commitment. But in actual practice this is slavery --
pure spiritual slavery.
Because Hyakujo had
allowed him when he asked that he wanted sometime to visit his brother Dogo, and Dogo's
master Yakusan, his respect and reverence for Hyakujo had grown.
He lived for a few
years with Yakusan, then he said, "Now I would like to go back to my old
master."
YAKUSAN AGREED, AND
UNGAN SET OFF DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, DOGO ACCOMPANYING HIM A LITTLE WAY, AND THEN RETURNING TO
YAKUSAN, WHO ASKED, "DID YOU SEE YOUR BROTHER OFF?"
"YES, I
DID," REPLIED DOGO, AND THEN ADDED, "IS IT ALRIGHT FOR MY BROTHER TO LEAVE
YOU?"
"YOU DON'T
HAVE TO ASK SUCH A THING," SAID YAKUSAN. "WE HAVE BEEN VERY INTIMATE FOR SUCH A
LONG TIME -- WE CAN DO OR SAY WHATSOEVER WE WOULD LIKE TO."
Love gives freedom,
intimacy gives freedom.
Yakusan said,
"We have lived in such deep intimacy for so long that he is free to say anything, and
if he wants to go back to the old master, he is absolutely free. SO THERE IS NOTHING FOR
YOU TO ASK ME."
"NO,
OSHO," Dogo said, with deep love and gratitude. "YOUR WORD CAN BECOME A
REFERENCE FOR THE FUTURE, SO PLEASE SAY SOMETHING."
"OKAY, I WILL
SAY ONE THING," REPLIED YAKUSAN. "THE EYES ARE ALRIGHT -- your brother Ungan has
attained to a clarity of vision -- THE EYES ARE ALRIGHT, ONLY THE DISCIPLINE IS LACKING --
but he is not consistent in deepening whatever he has gained."
In Zen,
`discipline' means simply, "Don't stop anywhere, go on deepening, because your depth
is infinite. Go on climbing, because your height is also infinite. You are the whole
existence."
So his eyes are
clear, he has attained to a clarity of vision, but he has stopped there. He should go on
and on and on, in both directions, upwards and downwards. One has to reach to one's roots
and one has to reach to one's flowers. When you have both the flowers and the roots, you
are complete.
His vision is
clear, but he thinks perhaps this is the end of the journey. He can stop for an overnight
stay, but in the morning you have to go again. Existence is so vast ....
You will come to
many stopping places where you will think, "This must be the end, what can be more?
Such bliss, such joy, such ecstasy, what can be more than this?" But you don't know.
Just go on and you will find there is something more.
Once you have
learned the art of not staying anywhere ... Unless you reach to the very end of the road,
you have to continue the discipline of meditation.
Yakusan said,
"THE EYES ARE ALRIGHT, ONLY THE DISCIPLINE IS LACKING."
HEARING THIS, DOGO
IMMEDIATELY LEFT THE MONASTERY IN PURSUIT OF HIS BROTHER. WHEN HE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM THE
FOLLOWING DAY, DOGO TOLD UNGAN WHAT YAKUSAN HAD SAID. THE TWO BROTHERS TURNED AROUND AND
WENT BACK TO YAKUSAN, AND REMAINED WITH HIM TILL HIS DEATH.
You have to see the
point, that Ungan did not argue at all. When Dogo told him what Yakusan had said -- that
"Your eyes are alright, but discipline is lacking" -- because his clarity was
alright, he did not argue. He immediately understood the point. He could see that Yakusan
was right.
So there was not
even a dialogue, there was not even an effort on the part of Dogo to convince him, or on
the part of Ungan to refute it. Not a single word was said. The moment Dogo told him what
the master, Yakusan, had said, he saw it immediately. That's what he said: "His eyes
are alright, his vision is clear. He has found the door beyond the mind, but he is just
standing there. He is not moving."
The no-mind is the
whole of existence. Just crossing the boundary of the mind you will have clarity, space,
open sky -- but don't stop there. You have to open your wings and fly into the eternity of
existence.
He immediately
turned around, with Dogo, his brother, and they remained with Yakusan until his death.
This will give you
some taste of Zen. It is not an argument, it is not a conversion. It is seeing things
through and through, straightforward.
Basho wrote:
THOUGH MY SHANKS
ARE THIN
I GO WHERE FLOWERS
BLOSSOM,
YOSHINO MOUNTAIN.
This Yoshino
Mountain seems to be a constant reference in many haikus of many Zen poets. In Japan, it
seems, Yoshino Mountain has the most tremendous variety of flowers.
I know one place in
the Himalayas called the Valley of the Flowers. No man has ever reached there, it is
almost impossible. It is thousands of feet deep. You can only look into that deep valley
from thousands of feet above. Even looking seems to be dangerous, because the slope is
steep, and the snow has never melted on the mountains surrounding the valley. When one
person is looking, another person has to hold him by his waist, it is so dangerous. Just a
small breeze and you may be gone, shattered completely, not to be found again.
But I have been to
the Valley of the Flowers. You can only see from thousands and thousands of feet above,
standing there, tremendous kinds of flowers down in the valley. You cannot find those
flowers anywhere else. I could not manage to figure out what even a single flower was --
just rare, absolutely rare.
Perhaps Yoshino in
Japan has flowers of such a rare variety of color, fragrance, that Basho says, THOUGH MY
SHANKS ARE THIN, I GO WHERE FLOWERS BLOSSOM, YOSHINO MOUNTAIN.
But this is only
symbolic.
What is he saying?
"Although my legs are fragile, I will go anywhere in the inner space where flowers
blossom. Even if it means climbing Yoshino Mountain, or it may mean diving deep into the
Pacific Ocean -- if flowers blossom there, I am going there. I am not concerned with my
fragile body because inside, the body does not go; only your consciousness, which has no
legs, which is not a material phenomenon."
But if you decide
that you will reach to the point at the very center of your being -- the Valley of the
Flowers -- you will find tremendous color, psychedelic flowers, fragrance that you have
never known before.
Basho says,
"Don't stop before it, whatever happens. Risk everything and go to the place where
flowers blossom." It is not about the outside world.
Zen is not much
interested in the ordinary flowers which fade within hours. Its interest is in the eternal
flowers which never fade. You have them deep in the valley of flowers, at the very center
of your being.
Maneesha has asked
one question:
OUR BELOVED
MASTER,
IS THERE ANY
AUTHENTICITY TO THE ZEN THAT EXISTS IN AMERICA AND EUROPE TODAY?
Maneesha, there is
great scholarship but no authenticity. People are translating Zen books, people are
commenting on Zen books, but there is not a single Zen master in the West who knows the
truth. All their commentaries and all their talk about Zen are intellectual.
They are fed up
with Christianity and they are in search of something fresh and new, and they have found
in Zen fresh insights, but their approach remains Western, the approach of intellect.
Their approach remains Socratic, Aristotelian. They are beautiful people, but their Zen is
only a mind phenomenon, they have not experienced it. It is not their own truth, they have
borrowed it from different sources.
It will take some
time. As America goes on declining, once it is no more significant, just like England ...
It used to be said that in the British empire, the sun never sets -- and it was true. The
British empire was all around the globe, so somewhere or other the sun was always rising.
Now the situation is totally different. Even in England the sun never rises!
So it needs the
Western ego to be shattered completely, then perhaps they may start looking behind the
mind.
I hope that day
comes soon.
It is time for
Sardar Gurudayal Singh.
Guiseppe comes
downstairs after his wedding night and is greeted by his old friend, Giovanni.
"Hey-a,
guiseppe!" shouts Giovanni. "How-a many times-a last-a night?"
"Three-a
times!" exclaims guiseppe, doing up his trousers.
"Wow!"
shouts Giovanni. "Fantastico!"
The next morning,
when guiseppe comes down the stairs, Giovanni is waiting.
"Hey-a,
guiseppe!" shouts Giovanni. "How-a many times-a last-a night?"
guiseppe holds up
five fingers .... "Five-a times!" he announces proudly.
"Wow!"
shouts Giovanni. "Magnifico!"
The following
morning, Giovanni is standing at the foot of the stairs when Guiseppe comes down.
"Hey-a,
guiseppe!" cries Giovanni. "How-a many times-a last-a night?"
guiseppe holds up
eight fingers proudly. "Eight-a times!" he says.
"Eight-a
times?" screams Giovanni. "You have to tell-a me, how-a you do it eight-a
times!"
"It is-a
simple!" says guiseppe, pushing his hips backwards and forwards, backwards and
forwards, and counting, "One-a, two-a, three-a ...!"
It is Easter
Sunday in the White House private chapel, and George Bush has invited the TV preacher
Jimmy Bakker for a special sermon. The entire White House staff is forced to attend the
service, as Jimmy Bakker gives them all a hellfire and damnation speech about the wages of
sin.
When it comes time
for the collection plate to be passed around, Jimmy Bakker is amazed to see a one hundred
dollar bill lying amongst the nickels and dimes.
"Praise the
Lord!" shouts preacher Bakker. "Will the person who put in this one hundred
dollar note please stand up and choose three hymns!"
"Goody!"
cries Reginald, President Bush's private secretary, jumping to his feet and pointing to
three big secret service agents. "I choose him, him and him!"
A new Cadillac
pope-mobile is delivered to the door of the Vatican. Cardinal Catsass, Pope the Polack's
personal secretary, arranges to take the old Polack for a ride in it.
With Catsass at the
wheel, and Pope the Polack mounted behind him, so that he can wave to people, the
pope-mobile goes hurtling out of the Vatican gates. They drive all over Rome and then set
off into the Italian countryside.
As soon as they are
out of town, the pope-mobile's engine suddenly starts spluttering and coughing, and then
dies.
Catsass pulls the
car to the side of the road, stops and gets out. He lifts up the bonnet and stares at the
engine blankly. Then he reaches over and tries to pull out one of the spark-plugs, burning
his fingers on the hot engine.
"Goddam
son-of-a-bitch Cadillac!" shouts Catsass. "These cars always screw up!"
"Now, my
son!" cautions the shocked Polack pope from his perch in the back. "That kind of
language is certainly not going to start the car! Perhaps a little prayer would
help!"
"A
prayer?" cries Catsass. "You don't believe in that mumbo-jumbo, do you?"
"Well,
bitch," replies the pope, "with you as the mechanic, we have to try
something!"
So the two idiots
kneel down by the front bumper, the pope kisses the tire and mumbles a short prayer. Then
Catsass jumps behind the steering wheel and turns the key.
The car starts at
once.
"Holy shit!" cries Pope the Polack, in shock.
"The fucking prayer worked!" |