Buddha says the Doctrine of Dhamma | Philosia: The Art of seeing all

On 8th September 1976 am in Gautam the Buddha Hall, Osho was talking with his disciples on ancient Chinese Buddhist scripture ‘The 42 sutras of Buddha’ which is available as his book ‘Discipline of Transcendence, (old) Vol 2 Chapter #9, Chapter title: The discipline beyond discipline

As usual I share from my experiences by enclosing my comments in parentheses, to make it more clearly understandable.

THE BUDDHA SAID:

MY DOCTRINE IS TO THINK THE THOUGHT THAT IS UNTHINKABLE; TO PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NOT DOING; TO SPEAK THE SPEECH THAT IS INEXPRESSIBLE; AND TO BE TRAINED IN THE DISCIPLINE THAT IS BEYOND DISCIPLINE.

The choice of the word ‘doctrine’ is unfortunate, but there are difficulties in translating. Buddha must have used the word SIDDHANTA. It has a totally different meaning.

A person who has seen the truth or reality called as Siddha, and a statement from his journey to become Siddha, (that may help you in your journey), is called as Siddhanta.

A siddhanta is one which you have seen, which has been revealed to you, which has become your own experience, which you have encountered.

A doctrine is almost imaginary, it is not real. A doctrine is almost always borrowed. You can hide your borrowing in many ways — subtle, cunning ways. You can reformulate, you can take from many sources and you can rearrange everything, but a doctrine is a borrowed thing — nothing original in it.

A siddhanta is absolutely original, new. It is your authentic experience. You have come to see what reality is. It is an immediate perception, it is a benediction, it is a blessing, it is a grace, a gift. You have arrived and you have seen what truth is.

The statement of a realization is siddhanta.

Propounding a doctrine is one thing; giving expression to a siddhanta is totally different.

(To make it clear to his disciples Osho cites this interesting joke as example)

I have heard:

Once Mulla Nasrudin was talking to a few of his friends. He was telling his pals about the wonderful vacation he and his family had just had in the United States.

‘It is a wonderful country,’ he exclaimed. ‘Nowhere in the world is a stranger treated so well.

You walk along the street and you meet a well-dressed fellow with lots of dollars. He tips his hat and smiles at you, and you talk together. He invites you into his big car, and shows you the town. He buys you a fine dinner, then takes you to the theatre. You have more fine food and plenty of drinks, and he invites you to his house and you sleep nice all night. Next morning…

‘What, Nasrudin.’ a listener said, ‘did all this really happen to you ? ‘

‘No, not exactly, but it all happened to my wife,’ said Nasrudin.

A doctrine is that which has happened to somebody else. You have heard about it. It has not happened to you — it is borrowed, dirty, ugly.

A siddhanta is virgin.

A doctrine is a prostitute.

It has been moving through many minds, through many hands. It is like dirty currency; it goes on changing its owner.

A siddhanta is something absolutely fresh. It has never happened before, it will never happen again. It has happened to you. A siddhanta is deeply individual, it is a personal vision of reality.

MY SIDDHANTA

IS TO THINK THE THOUGHT THAT IS UNTHINKABLE….

Now just in a small sentence absolute contradiction — to think the unthinkable. (Truth cannot be expressed without contradiction because it includes Yin and Yang as well as all that is beyond both! Look at the logo of this blog site Philosia, the truth ie outer black ellipse encloses Yin and Yang and beyond both ie inner white circle. It is also not correct expression but best possible to be used as Logo.)

How can you think the unthinkable?

If it is really unthinkable you cannot think.

If you can think then how can it be unthinkable?

Simple, illogical — but what Buddha means? It has to be understood.

Don’t be in a hurry; that’s why I say go patiently.

When he means?… when he wants to say something, he means it. He is saying there is a way to know things without thinking. There is a way to know things without mind.

There is a way to see into reality directly, immediately, without the vehicle of thought. (I define it as seeing through heart! It is because the heart always bypasses the mind.)

You can be connected with reality (through heart) without any agent of thinking — that is what he is saying.

He is saying that the mind can completely cease its activity, completely can drop its activity and yet be — still, a reservoir — and see into reality. (Calling that you see the reality is not correct, as per my experience I can say that the still mind becomes like mirror that is what Osho mean by reservoir, and in that mirror the reality that is always shining like a Sun gets reflected and this grace that heart can feels as it feels Love or Compassion)

But you will have to experience it, only then you will be able to understand.

(This I experienced first time during brushing my teeth one fine morning while practicing awareness meditation, and I became confident that I can move forward by applying this meditation during other acts. This meditation practice during any act is helpful for active people like me, but for those who are at ease with sitting silently this example by Osho will be worth experimenting.)

Sometimes try just to see. Sitting by the side of a rosebush, just look at the rose flower; don’t think, don’t even give names. Don’t even classify. Don’t even say that this is a rose — because a rose is a rose is a rose; whether you call it rose or something else makes no difference. So don’t label it, don’t give it a name, don’t bring language in. Don’t bring any symbol in, because symbol is the method of falsifying reality.

If you say this is a rose, you have already missed. Then you have brought in some past experience of other roses, which are not.

When Buddha says drop thinking he means, don’t bring the past in. (Your naming it as rose is from the past memory. You may have learned it as R for Rose etc.)

What is the point of bringing it in?

This rose is here, you are here. Let it be a deep meeting, a communion, a connection. Melt a little with this rose, let this rose melt a little in you. The rose is ready to share its fragrance, you also share your being, your

consciousness, with it.

Let there be a handshake with reality. Let there be a little dance with this rose… dancing in the wind. You also move, be, look, feel, close your eyes, smell, touch, drink.

This beautiful phenomenon that is facing you… don’t go here and there -

just be with it. No more right and left, just be direct like an arrow moving

towards the target. If you bring words, language, you bring society, you bring past, you bring other people.

This rose exists herenow with god. There is no idea in the mind of god -

and this rose is a real rose. God exists with this rose and this rose exists with god, and god has no barrier with this rose, no mind barrier.

So try it. Sometimes allow your no-mind to function. Sometimes push aside all your thinking. Sometimes let reality penetrate you. Sometimes let there be a blessing from reality. Allow it to deliver its message to you. But we go on living in words, and we pay too much attention to the words.

It may make a difference to you because you live surrounded by your language, concept, verbalization. You immediately go on translating everything into language.

De-language yourself — that’s what Buddha means. Un-mind yourself, un-wind yourself — (Un-condition yourself) that’s what Buddha means. Otherwise you will never know what is true.

(Whatever society has taught you is called as conditioning by the society, it is important so that they can grow you among them without much challenges but once we are grown up then we need to discard that which is not helping you move forward in your material life as well as spiritual life, this is called as Un-conditioning by Osho.)

MY SIDDHANTA IS TO THINK THE THOUGHT THAT IS UNTHINKABLE.

You cannot think about reality. There is no way to think about it. All thinking is borrowed. No thinking is ever original. All thinking is repetitive, all thinking is mechanical.

You cannot think about reality because reality is every moment original. It is every moment so new that it has never been like that before. It is so absolutely fresh that you will have to know it. There is no other way to know it than knowing it.

The only way to know love is to love. The only way to know swimming is to

swim. The only way to know reality is to be real. Mind makes you unreal.

Buddha says attain to a clarity. Just see, just be. And then you will be able to think that thought which is unthinkable. You will be able to have a meeting with reality, a date with god.

THE THOUGHT THAT IS UNTHINKABLE — only that is worth thinking. All

else is just wasting life energy.

TO PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NON-DOING.

This is what Lao Tzu calls wu-wei. Action in inaction — again another paradox.

But a siddhanta has to be paradoxical.

TO PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NOT DOING…

Ordinarily we know only deeds which we can do. We are surrounded by our doing. We don’t know that there are things which are beyond our doing and still are happening.

All that depends on your doing is accidental and all that goes on without you is essential. Religion’s whole concern is the essential, the world of the essential. You are there; not that you have done yourself, you are simply there for no reason. You have not earned it, it is nothing of your doing. It is a benediction, it is a gift.

You are there: existence has willed you to be there, it is not your own will.

Watch it, understand it.

When such a thing like life — so precious — can happen without your doing, then why bother?

Then allow more and more the dimension of happening. Drop more and more doing. Do only that which seems needful.

Don’t be bothered too much with the doing.

That is the meaning of a sannyasin. The householder, the GRUSTHA, is one who is simply possessed by the dimension of doing. He thinks that if he is not going to do, nothing is going to happen. He is a doer.

A sannyasin is one who knows that whether he is going to do it or not, all that is essential is going to continue to happen. Nonessential may disappear, but that is irrelevant — but the essential will continue.

Love is essential; money is non-essential. To be alive is essential; to live in a big house or not is non-essential. To be fulfilled, contented, is essential; rushing, ambitious, always trying to reach somewhere, trying to perform, trying to prove that you are somebody, is non-essential. People live only in two dimensions: the dimension of the doer and the dimension of the non-doer.

Buddha says:

TO PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NOT DOING…

He says practise that. He says ‘practise’, because there is no other way to say it.

The word ‘practise’ looks like doing, that’s the paradox. He says, ‘Do that which cannot be done.’

Do that which only happens.

Allow, he means — allow that which happens, allow god to be there.

Allow life to be there, allow love to be there.

Allow the existence to penetrate you, to infiltrate you.

Don’t continue to be a doer.

He does not mean don’t do anything at all.

He says don’t emphasize it.

Maybe it is needful. You have to clean your room. Without your doing it, it is not going to happen. So do it! — but don’t get obsessed with it. It is just a minor part.

The major part of life, the central part of life, should be like a happening. As the lightning happens in the clouds, so god happens. As rivers go on rushing towards the ocean and dissolve, so love happens. So happens meditation — it has nothing to do with your doing. Your doing is not essential for it to happen. It can happen when you are sitting and not doing anything. In fact it happens only then, when you are not doing anything and you are sitting.

You will not reach to meditation by doing, you will reach to meditation only by non-doing. And in non-doing will happen the real thing.

The real thing cannot be produced; it always happens. One has to be just

sensitive and open and vulnerable. It is very delicate. You cannot grab it. It is very fragile… fragile like a flower. You cannot grab it. If you grab it you will destroy it. You have to be very soft. It is not hardware, it is software. You have to be really soft, you have to be feminine.

Buddha says:

PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NOT DOING….

That is the message of all the great ones, the really great ones. The greatest realisation on this earth has been this: that we are unnecessarily creating too much fuss. That which is to happen is going to happen if we wait. In the right season, the harvest; in the right season, the fruition. In the right season everything happens. If a man can learn only one thing — how to wait prayerfully — nothing else is needed. Ecstasy is a PRASAD, a gift of god.

You just try. Practise what Buddha says. At least for one hour you become a non- doer. At least for one hour, deep in the night, sit alone. Don’t do anything — not even chanting a mantra, not even transcendental meditation. Don’t do anything.

Just sit, lie down, look at the stars. That too should not be hard. Look very softly. Don’t focus; remain unfocussed like an unfocussed photograph — hazy, blurred, not knowing where the boundaries are. Just remain silent in the darkness.

If thoughts come let them come. Don’t fight with them either. They will come and they will go — you just be a watcher. It is none of your business whether they come or they go.

Who are you?

They come without invitation, they go without pushing.

They come and go, it is a constant traffic. You just sit by the side of the

road and watch.

When I say watch, don’t misinterpret me. Don’t make watching an effort.

Otherwise people become very stiff and they start watching in a very stiff and tense way. Again they have started doing. What I am saying, or what Buddha is saying is — be in an attitude of not doing, be lazy.

Just be lazy, and see what happens. You will be amazed. Some day — just sitting, just sitting, not doing anything — some day, from some unknown source, a lightning, a benediction. Some day, in some moment, suddenly you are transfigured. Suddenly you see a quiet descending upon you. It is almost physical.

When somebody is sitting there, just sitting there, like a tree, like a rock, not doing anything, it happens: something from the above descends, penetrates his very core of being. A subtle light surrounds him… a glow, a blessing can be felt around him — even by those people who don’t know what meditation is. Even passing by the side, they will also feel the impact of it. This benediction has been called god.

God is not a person, it is a deep experience when you are not doing anything and existence simply flows in you… the immensity of it, the beautitude of it, the grace of it.

You are not doing anything, you are not even expecting anything, you are not waiting for anything. You have no motive. You are just there like a tree standing in the winds, or like a rock just silently sitting by the side of a river.

Or like a cloud perched on the hilltop — just there, no movement of your own.

In that moment you are not a self, in that moment you are a no-self.

In that moment you are not a mind, you are a no-mind.

In that moment you don’t have a center.

In that moment you are immense… vastness with no boundaries -

suddenly the contact.

Suddenly it is there! Suddenly you are fulfilled, suddenly you are surrounded by some unknown presence. It is tremendous.

That is what the Buddha says:

PRACTISE THE DEED THAT IS NOT DOING; TO SPEAK THE SPEECH THAT

IS INEXPRESSIBLE.

What is the way to express the inexpressible?

It can be expressed only through being. Words are too narrow. It can be expressed only by your existence, by your presence — in your walking, in your sitting, in your eyes, in your gestures, in your touch, in your compassion, in your love.

The way you are — it can be expressed through it.

Because it will be difficult for you to be in silence with a Buddha. He has to talk, because if he is talking you feel that everything is okay, you can listen.

If he is not talking how will you listen?

You don’t know how to

listen when nobody is talking. You don’t know how to listen to that which cannot be expressed.

But by and by, living around a master, a Buddha, a Jesus, by and by you will start imbibing his spirit. By and by, in spite of you, there will be moments when you will relax, and not only that which he is saying will be reaching into your heart, but that which he IS also will penetrate. And with him the whole dimension of happening opens. That’s the meaning of satsanga — being in the presence of a master.

Buddha says

AND TO BE TRAINED IN THE DISCIPLINE BEYOND DISCIPLINE.

And Buddha says there is a discipline which is not a discipline. Ordinarily we think about discipline as if somebody else is trying to discipline you. Discipline carries a very ugly connotation — as if you are being disciplined, as if you are just to obey. The center that is disciplining you is outside you.

Be free, no need to be disciplined from any outside source. Become alert, so that inner discipline arises in you. Become responsible, so that whatsoever you do you do with a certain order, a certain cosmos in it; so that your being is not a chaos, so that your being is not in a mess.

So there are two types of discipline: one, that can be forced from the outside.

That’s what politicians go on doing, priests go on doing, parents go on doing.

And there is a discipline that can be provoked in you — that can be done only by masters. They don’t enforce any discipline on you, they make you simply more aware so you can find your own discipline.

I give you only one discipline — what Buddha calls the discipline of the beyond, the discipline of transcendence.

I give you only one discipline and that is of being aware. If you are aware you will get up in the right time. When the body is rested you will get up. When you are aware you will eat only that which is needed, you will eat only that which is least harmful to you and to others. You will eat only that which is not based on violence. But awareness will be the decisive factor.

the deepest urge in a human being is for freedom, for moksha.

To be free is the search.

Down the centuries, for millennia, in many lives, we have been searching how to be free.

So whenever somebody comes — even for your own sake, for your own good — and enforces something upon you, you resist. It is against human nature, it is against human destiny.

Buddha says there is no need to be obedient to somebody else; you should find your own awareness — be obedient to it.

Be aware! — that is the only scripture.

Be aware! — that is the only master.

Be aware! — and nothing can ever go wrong.

Awareness brings its own discipline like a shadow. And then the discipline is beautiful. Then it is not like a slavery, then it is like a harmony.

Then it is not as if enforced, then it is a flowering out of your own being, a blooming.

AND TO BE TRAINED IN THE DISCIPLINE THAT IS BEYOND DISCIPLINE.

People ordinarily seek somebody to tell them what to do — because they are afraid of their freedom, because they don’t know that they can rely on their own sources, because they are not self-confident, because they have always been told what to do by somebody else, so they have become addicted to it.

They are searching father-figures for their whole life.

You should learn how to be free from all father-figures.

You should learn how to be yourself.

You should learn how to be aware and responsible.

Then only you start growing.

Maturity is always maturity towards freedom. Immaturity is always a sort of dependence and a fear of freedom.

A child is dependent — it’s okay, it can be understood. He is helpless.

But why remain a child your whole life?

That is the revolution Buddha brought into the world. He is one of the most rebellious thinkers of the world.

He throws you to yourself.

It is dangerous, but he takes that risk. And he says that everybody has to take that risk. There is every possibility you may go astray — but life is risk.

It is better to go astray on your own accord than to reach heaven following somebody else. It is better to be lost forever and be yourself, than to reach paradise as a carbon copy, as an imitator. Then your paradise will be nothing but a prison.

And if you have chosen your own hell on your own accord, out of your own freedom, your hell will also be heaven — because freedom is heaven.

If you understand Buddha, the world will be totally different. Then there cannot be any more Hitlers, then there cannot be any more wars — because there cannot be any obedience from the outside, and everybody responsible will think on his own.

By and by, in spite of you, there will be moments when

you will relax, and not only that which he is saying will be reaching into your

heart, but that which he IS also will penetrate. And with him the whole

dimension of happening opens. That’s the meaning of satsanga — being in the presence of a master.

This is the definition of a religious person: He thinks the thought that is unthinkable; he practises the deed that is not doing; he speaks that which is inexpressible, ineffable; and he practises the discipline that is beyond discipline.

THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND THIS ARE NEAR; THOSE WHO ARE

CONFUSED ARE FAR.

If these four things are understood, you are close to truth. If you don’t

understand then you are far away from the truth.

there is no way to destroy truth or to cause it. It is uncaused.

It is not a chain of cause and effect. You cannot create it; it is already there. You cannot destroy it, because you are it. It is the very life. You can only do one thing — either you can close your eyes towards it, either you can forget about it, you can become absolutely oblivious of it, OR you can remember, see, realize.

If you are lost in too much doing, ambition, riches, money, prestige, power, then you will lose track of the truth which is always by the side of you — just by the corner, just within reach — but you are keeping your back towards it.

OR you can allow it. If you become a little more meditative and less ambitious, if you become a little more religious and less political, if you become a little more unworldly than worldly, if you start moving more withinwards than without, if you start becoming a little more alert than sleepy, if you come out of your drunk state, if you bring a little light into your being, then… then you will be close, close (to your eternal) home (to enjoy ultimate freedom for eternity).

You have never been away.

Then your whole life will be transformed, transfigured.

Then you will live in a totally different way; a new quality will be there in your life which has nothing to do with your doing, which is a gift, a benediction.

LOSE SIGHT OF IT TO AN INCH, says Buddha, OR MISS IT FOR A MOMENT, AND WE ARE AWAY FROM IT FOREVER MORE.

Look into it for a single moment, come close to it even a single inch, and it is yours, and it has always been yours.

This is the paradox of a siddhanta.

This is not a doctrine, this is Buddha’s realisation. He is simply trying to share his realization with you. He is not propounding a philosophy or a system of thought.

Let this be a touchstone for your growth. If you feel these four things are

happening in your life — however, in whatsoever quantity… maybe a very small quantity, but if they are happening, then you are on the right track.

If you are going away from these four things, you are going away from the way, the Dhamma, the Tao.

My suggestions:-

Awareness Meditation is the way worked for me and I tried it first during brushing my teeth in the morning after trying 8–10 meditations over period of 15 years! So there is no need to reinvent the circle for you. May be you too find it suitable otherwise with Dynamic meditation and/or Kundalini in the evening it is suitable for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho for contemporary people that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life.

Hi ….. I write my comments from my personal experiences of my inner journey. This post may include teachings of Mystics around the world which from my personal experience I found worth following even today. For more have a look at my linktree website for getting regular updates through social media lor subscribe to YouTube channel or listen to the podcasts etc.

For references of content on Osho, Copyright © OSHO International Foundation, An MP3 audio file of this discourse can be downloaded from Osho(dot)com or you can listen or watch his discourses @ OSHO International channel of YouTube where you can get subtitles in language of your choice or you can read the entire book online at the Osho Library. Many of Osho’s books are available online at Amazon.

My suggestions:-

Osho International Online (OIO) provides facility to learn these from your home, through Osho Meditation Day @€20.00 per person. You can learn Dynamic meditations from disciples of Osho. OIO rotate times through three timezones NY,Berlin and Mumbai.

Originally published at https://philosia.in on July 24, 2024.