Feeling of wonder brings transformation in life 1 | Philosia: The Art of seeing all

It is not the knowledge of a Pandit or a Scholar or of a Ph.D. degree holder person, but the feeling of wonder and fascination that brings about revolution in life.
It is my experience before attaining self-realisation a person lives in a state of wonder. Existence gradually reveals itself!
Therefore, I decided to translate a series of three lectures of Osho in Hindi and posted published as posts on wonder, the title of which are ending with 1, 2 and 3. Osho emphasised the most on wonder, but today it is very difficult to find a discourse on this topic in any book because most of the books containing discourse or lectures on it are now out of print.
Only people knowing Hindi can read them or listen to the audio of this in the Hindi Library on Osho’s website. So this English translation of my post in Hindi titled ‘ Amazement पंडित का ज्ञान नहीं, विस्मय के भाव से जीवन में क्रांति ‘ will be of great help to the English speaking as well as thirsty seekers in their spiritual or inner journey to discover light within. It is also going to help in getting it translated in other European languages too.

Osho came to Pune to give discourses on 15–18 March 1968. These discourses have been compiled in a book called Amrit Dwar. This is edited version of the discourse.

On the evening of March 15, while giving a discourse, Osho said:-

Dear soul fellow,

One morning a rich man came to Ramakrishna. He came and placed 1000 gold coins at his feet and asked him to accept them. Ramakrishna said to the rich man, you must be attracted to this wealth, you must be attached to this wealth. Why do you waste it? But that person said that I have no attachment, I have no attachment. If you accept these, I will be happy.

Ramakrishna said that if you have no attachment or attachment to these, then go and throw all these coins in the Ganges flowing below. Now these were coins presented to Ramakrishna, and Ramakrishna himself said that go and throw them in the Ganga and come back. So the man packed the gold coins and took them to the banks of Ganga.
Ramakrishna started asking again and again why it took so long to throw the bundle of gold coins in the Ganges. So he sent two people, they returned and told that the man was counting the coins from the bundle and throwing them in the Ganga. Then he returned after about an hour. Ramakrishna said to him that the work which could have been done in one go, you unnecessarily did it in thousand times! The work which could have been done in one step, you took a thousand steps in vain. What is the need to count the thing which had to be thrown?
The thing which has to be kept safely has to be counted. And the thing which has to be thrown does not have to be counted. You wasted an hour in vain, why were you counting?

Man has to throw all his superstitions, all traditions, all beliefs together in the Ganga, they should not be counted. If you throw them after counting, then your whole life will end and you will not be able to throw them.
Because that man had a thousand coins, he was able to count them and throw them. That work was also completed in an hour.

But if a man keeps throwing away superstitions, faith one by one, then life is very short and the bundle of blindness is very big. Life will be wasted and there will be no freedom from blindness. Therefore, one has to understand that if faith is wrong, it makes a man sad, spiritually disabled and blind, it makes him dependent. If this vision and wisdom comes to mind, then do not think that slowly we will leave the beliefs, slowly we will break the net, slowly we will come out.
You will have to throw it all together.

Buddha used to say that a man fell into a fire. People told him to come out, and the man jumped out. He is not going to say that I will come out slowly. A man who falls into a fire does not come out slowly. And neither does he say that I will come out tomorrow, I will come out the day after. A man who falls into a fire jumps out immediately.
But the fire of faith is worse and causes greater harm than the fire of fuel. The fire of fuel burns the body, faith burns the entire soul. And yet people caught in the fire of faith say that we will try and come out slowly and gradually. When someone says that I will come out of the fire slowly, then two things are clear, either he is unable to see the fire or he is bent on die by suicide, he does not want to come out.

When a person wishes to drop faith and says that they will do it slowly, then either they are unable to see the fire of faith that it can burn their spiritual life or that they have decided to take their life. They simply do not want to come out.
Yesterday morning I talked to you on the first sutra that the spiritual wisdom grows not by faith but by thoughts/thinking, not by blindness but through inner eyes, not by acceptance but by doubt.

The first sutra of life transformation is doubt and not faith. No revolution is possible in the life of one who is led by faith. Revolution is inevitable in the life of one who is led by thoughts/thinking. Thoughts are basically rebellious. Thoughts/right thinking basically give eyes and tell where the mistake is, where the flaw is. And when the flaw is seen and the mistake is visible, then it is not difficult to get free from it.

The first sutra is right thinking and not faith, we talked about it yesterday, today we will talk about the second sutra. What is the second sutra of life transformation?

The second sutra is not knowledge but wonder.

If you keep holding on to faith, you will go on becoming knowledgeable. And the person whom we call a Gyani (intellectual), the person whom we call a Pandit (scholar), the person whom we call man of letters, they can never become religious.

There is no beginning of religion in the life of the person who develops arrogance of knowledge. And there is no connection of happiness in the life of the person who has an illusion of knowledge. The one who falls into the trap of knowledge, wanders on a circular path than the ignorant. And the entire human race has fallen into the trap of knowledge.

Therefore, the more the knowledge increased, the more irreligious the man became, the more pseudo the man became, the more arrogant the man became, the more complex and difficult the man became. Knowledge has closed the eyes of man. And knowledge is outright lie and untruth.

We do not know anything. The truth is that we do not know anything about life. We do not even know the stone lying on the side of the road, but we can give discourses about the God sitting in the sky. Everything is unknown, life is a mystery and the one who wants to be related to the mystery should have the eyes of wonder.

The only one who knows the mystery is the one who is filled with mystery. Who experiences his ignorance and remains silent and quiet. The intellectual man cannot remain silent and quiet. They know that they know everything. Whoever develops the illusion that they know everything, for them the doors of inner wisdom are closed and their journey ends.

In the last three thousand years, if man has invented the most dangerous thing, then it is the fact that they successful in creating the illusion that they know.

What do we know?

We do not even know ourselves and are busy knowing things that are far away. It is because we have readymade answers for everything. We have tailor-made like answers. We have readymade answers in our books, in our scriptures, from our Gurus. We are prepared to answer every question and then the questions that could have taken us to the unknown, do not take us there because our answers leave us stuck and the matter ends.

D H Lawrence went out for a walk in the garden one morning. He had a small child with him. As is the habit of children, they raise the biggest questions of life.
The child raised his hand and asked Lawrence why the leaves of the trees are green? Why are the trees green?

Lawrence started laughing and said trees are green because they are green. He said that trees are green because they are green.

The boy said you seem to be a very strange man. My father gives the right answer to whatever I ask him.

What would you answer?

What would his father have answered him?

If he had been an old fashioned man, he would have said that trees are green because God made them green so that they look good to the eyes of devotees.
Or if he had been a scientific mind, he would have said that trees are green because they have chlorophyll in them, their chemical system makes them green.

But Lawrence gave a very religious answer, he said they are green because they are green.

Indirectly Lawrence said that we do not know why they are green? We do not know why the trees are green?
They are simply green, they appear green and we have no answer as to why they are green?
Do you understand what is so wonderful about this answer?

In this answer the question has not been killed, the question has remained standing again. The question is still there. No fixed answer has been given.

In this the answerer has not thought that I know why they are green, but he has right thinking that I really do not know why the leaves are green. The sense of not knowing is the mark of a religious man.

The Pandit’s sense is the opposite, he knows that I know. That is why the Pandit can never be religious. Those people who drink in bars, those people who watch dances in brothels can be religious sometimes but those people who carry the burden of scriptures can never be religious. A drinker can come to discover inner/personal religion sometimes, and a person who lives in brothels can come to discover inner/personal religion or truth sometimes. But one who lives in words and knowledge, one who drinks the wine of words and knowledge can never come close to discover inner/personal religion or truth.
A wall of thought between them is erected that I know. And the person who gets the idea that I know, he forgets how much power a man has and how big is the truth.

Truth is so infinite and so beginning less. Truth is so limitless and I am so limited and so small!

It is like someone goes to the sea shore and wants to fill his pitcher with the entire ocean. And if a person comes back after filling his pitcher with the ocean and says that he has filled the entire ocean in his pitcher. Then we will laugh at him and say that you are mad, how can someone fill the ocean in a pitcher?

The only way to fill the ocean with the pitcher is by dipping it fully into the ocean and then breaking it but the ocean cannot be brought home in the pitcher. ( Here pitcher is used as metaphor for mind/intellect, and breaking the pitcher is for dissolving the ego/pride of knowledge and ocean is used as metaphor for Truth/Reality. Osho is creating a simulation of the moment a person discovers truth or light within. The infinite is known by dissolving into it, by becoming part of it. It is like giving fill command to a shape drawn on Paint software. If the shape is not complete or broken then whole screen gets filled by that colour and the shape will become part of it. The incompleteness or hole in shape is the attitude of ‘Don’t know’ or ‘Wonder’. So we have to become knowledgeable but there must be a hole of wonder or Don’t know in us too, to be able to know the reality. Life of a human being begins only after discovering Reality or Truth or Light within. This journey of discovering it is called as ‘Religion’ or ‘Personal religion ‘.)

But the wise person, the so-called Pandit/Scholar, feels that they have known everything, even the existence of God. They have known nothing except words, principles, scriptures. They have become a collection of all principles and scriptures.

And all kinds of collections strengthen the ego of a person, compel them to become egoist. Whether it is collection of money. A person keeps on collecting money. The number of rupees keeps on increasing and the man starts thinking that they have become bigger. I have so much, I have plenty of this or that, I have a lot of this or that. The more they have, the stronger the man and their ego becomes that I am something. One person collects wealth, another person collects knowledge, there is no difference between the two.

Lots of Coins of money let them feel that I am something and similar way collection of words helps them feel that I am something. The rich person is weak in comparison to the wise person, they can be robbed. Their house can catch fire, they can go bankrupt. But the wise person cannot be robbed, neither can fire break out nor can he go bankrupt. So the wealth of knowledge is more secure. So the few greedy people on this earth collect wealth and the more greedy ones collect knowledge.

Those persons whose greed is not satisfied with ordinary coins, they collect coins of principles and words. They collect Upanishads, Vedas, Gita and Quran and by collecting all of them they think that they have collected some wealth, they have become something. But no one can enter God with any kind of wealth. Jesus Christ used to say that a camel can pass through the eye of a needle but a rich person will not be able to enter God’s heaven.

But perhaps people might be thinking that a rich person in this example by Jesus means the one who has money. It is not just a question of money, the one who has any kind of collection is a rich person.
The one who does not have any collection is poor. The man who does not have any wealth is the one who has no collection.

After all, why is Christ so opposed to wealth and collection?

The objection is that where there is collection there is arrogance, there is ego. Where there is collection there is the thought that I am something, and where there is the thought that I am something, it becomes impossible to discover truth/Reality/Light within. Because only those enter through that door of inner wisdom are the ones who know that they are nothing.

Those who go there as nothingness, gain entry. Those who go there as something, do not gain entry. The door of love opens only for those who do not have ego. The door of prayer also opens only for those. The door of God/Truth/Reality/Light also opens only for those ego has dropped on their own. ( Ego drops on it’s own without any effort in intense state of meditation, when it becomes part in our acts 24×7.)

There was a person named Augustinus who had been gathering knowledge for thirty years. He read all the scriptures that were available. He memorized them. He knew everything that could be known, but did not get any hint of God. Then he got frightened, then he became worried and sad. Then he started penance. Then he fasted, then he remained hungry and endured hunger and heat, he dried up his body, but still did not get any fragrance of God. One morning, disappointed and sad, he went to the seashore to take his own life. It was morning and the sun was about to rise. It was a deserted seashore, there was no one there, when Augustinus reached there.

Then Augustine reached there and went to the sea shore and folded his hands towards the sky and said: O God, this is my last request, either you meet me or I will kill myself by drowning. This is my last bet.

Egoists always gamble. There is no bigger gamble than ego. Ego is the biggest gamble. Some man spend their life in earning money. Some man spends their life in attaining God. But both the gambles are of ego. We call one a worldly person, we call the other a sanyasi. But the gamble is of ego that ‘I’ ie ego will go on accumulating.

Augustine was saying this when the morning sun started rising, he looked around to see if anyone was watching him?

It was a deserted shore. But a small child sitting near a stone was crying. Augustine was very surprised.
Why did this small child need to come here so early in the morning? Alone, no one with him.

Why would he be crying?

He reached the child and asked, my son, why are you crying?

What do you want? How did you come so early in the morning? Where are your parents?

This child kept crying, tears kept falling from his eyes.

He said: Don’t ask about my problem!

Augustine wiped his tears and said: Tell me, maybe I can help you in some way.

That child was holding a cup in his hand. And he told Augustine that this is a cup, I want to fill the ocean in it, but the ocean does not get filled in it. So I got scared. I tried a lot. And today I have decided that either I will return home after filling the ocean in my cup or I will not return at all.

It was as if a light flashed in mind of Augustine. As if a lamp was lit in a dark house. He stood speechless. Then he started dancing.

That child started asking: Why are you dancing? What happened to you?

Augustine said, “My son, I thought you were a child, now I know that I am also a child. Your statement seems foolish to me that you have come to fill the ocean in a cup. But it can happen that the ocean gets filled in a cup, because the cup is limited and the ocean is also limited. But I went to fill it in my limited skull. How can we fill that which is infinite?

My thirty years were wasted. And I did not know that I would get this message from a child that my whole life till now was wasted! I was also caught in this kind of madness.
( At least Augustine could realise it well before his death. This realisation in itself brought loads of wisdom , with a flash, waiting at the door to get opened. But every ordinary person often realises this at the time of death, and then there is no time to correct the mistake. Therefore, if someone realises this during life and corrects their mistake, then they have crossed a big stage of the spiritual journey. Everything else happens automatically.)

But at that very moment Augustan’s life became something else. He returned dancing. When the people of his ashram saw him dancing, they thought that perhaps he had attained the knowledge of God. Perhaps he is returning after knowing the truth. Because happiness was never seen in his eyes. A smile was never seen on his lips. His feet… his feet could dance, but no one had imagined this.

People gathered and said: Augustine, have you found what you wanted to find?

Have you known what you were obsessed to know?

Did you find that thing?

Did you find that knowledge?

Augustine said no, actually what he had set out to find was lost. What he had set out to find was lost. And I tell you that the moment I let go of the thought of finding, and the moment I let go of the thought of knowing, that very day I found that he had always been found. He had always been known. But our attempt to know was so intense that we got entangled in that attempt. And the one ie reality/truth/light, which was always with us or near us, which is present everywhere, is not visible.

Man cannot know God, but he can dissolve in God. And what is attained by that annihilation is knowledge. But that knowledge is not the knowledge of a scholar. What is known by that annihilation is experience. But that experience is not learned through words.

The drop gets lost in the ocean and becomes the ocean. It knows the ocean. But if the drop wants the ocean to come into it, if the drop wants to absorb the ocean into itself, then it is impossible. But the drop can fall into the ocean and become the ocean. And when the drop falls into the ocean and becomes the ocean, then it is difficult to know whether the drop has merged with the ocean or the ocean has merged with the dead drop. They both become one.

Man cannot know, but he can become. Man cannot attain, but he can dissolve into it to become. But that knowledge is not obtained from scriptures, it is not obtained from words, it is not obtained from principles. Principles and scriptures give man a false knowledge. They give a substitute knowledge. A false knowledge which creates the illusion that we have known. And we remain without knowing.

That ignorance which knows that we do not know is better than that knowledge which gives the thought that we know. Ignorance will take you to the shore of God/Truth/Reality someday, but knowledge will stop you, because then there is nothing left to know for you.

The second thing to remember is whether we have become wise or not? Otherwise, no revolution will be possible in our life. And the joy of being really wise is such that it cannot be measured. One learns four words and becomes pseudo wise. One reads four scriptures and becomes pseudo wise. Memory is considered knowledge. Whatever is remembered, one thinks, I have known this.

Memory is not knowledge, knowledge is something else. What comes from memory is only a word. And when memory becomes void, then what descends is knowledge.

Memory makes a man like a tank. Knowledge makes a man like a well. You are aware of the difference between a well and a tank. We all know what the difference is between them. They look similar from the outside: a tank looks like a well and a well looks like a tank. But there is a fundamental difference between them. There is a spiritual difference between them. All the water in the tank is borrowed, it has nothing of its own. A well has everything of its own, nothing is borrowed. A well has its own soul, a tank has no soul of its own.

When a man digs a well, he has to dig and separate the earth, remove the soil and stones. Then the water appears on its own. Water does not have to be brought from anywhere, water is present. Water is present even under the ground where we are sitting. Water does not have to be brought from anywhere, only the layers in between have to be separated, the obstacles in between have to be removed, only the curtains in between have to be separated, then water is present below. Water does not have to be brought, curtains have to be removed, obstacles have to be removed. It is negative work, negative work, there is no positive work. Water does not have to be brought from anywhere, there are only obstacles in between, water is already present. Break the wall in between and you will get water. Something has to be broken, nothing has to be brought. Something has to be removed, nothing has to be brought.
But when a person builds a tank, he has to do positive work, he has to do constructive work. First he has to bring bricks, mortar, soil, so that the walls can be joined and the tank can be built. Then he has to bring water in it, so that the thank can be filled and water can be retained. The one who wants a tank has to bring everything, the one who digs a well has to remove everything.

Knowledge is a process like a well. Something has to be removed from the mind, the water sources are available inside, they burst forth, their springs become visible.
The Pandit, the scholar is a process like a pond, he has to bring everything — from the Gita, the Quran, the Bible, the Buddha, the Mahavira. Everything has to be brought and collected. Walls have to be built, and then water has to be filled in them. The Pandit/scholar is a pond.

And the interesting thing is, not only is the process of making a pond and a well different, their results will also naturally be different. The well always keeps shouting, take out my water, take out my water. Because as much water is taken out, that much new water comes in.
The pond keeps shouting: Do not take out my water. Because as soon as the water is taken out, it becomes empty. The pond says, pour water in me, do not take water out of me. The pond collects and is afraid to let go.

The well wants to share, it is afraid of collecting. The well does not want to collect, the well wants to give away. The well wants to scoop up the water with both hands, so that it can be scooped out and let it go. Because the more water is scooped out, the more new springs appear. The more new water comes in, the more it becomes new.

If water is collected in the well, the well grows old; if the water of the well keeps getting distributed, the well grows young.
If the water of the tank is drained out, it dies; if the water of the tank stays put, only then it has life. Only then it has a treasure, only then it has wealth.

Then if the water lying in the tank remains put, it will rot. Because there the water has no life, no liveliness. It is not a living entity. It will rot, insects will grow in it, it will start stinking.
But even if the water of the well stays put, it will not rot, it will not stink. It is alive. It is living water. It has its own roots, its own springs. It is not going to die.

So the Pandit keeps rotting, keeps rotting, and then he starts stinking. The stink that is so bad in man’s life all over the world today is because of the stink spread by the Pandits. The Hindu Pandit rots, the Muslim Pandit rots, the Jain Pandit rots, and then he spreads the stink. Because of stinks, sects are born, conflicts arise, wars arise, temples are burnt, mosques are burnt, women’s honour is looted, children are slaughtered, blood flows on the streets. This is nothing but the stink emanating from the rotten Pandits.

But the well does not rot, the water of the well remains fresh.

There are other differences too. If you go inside the tank, you will see a wall. And if you enter the well, enter inside, enter inside, then you reach the ocean. Because the streams of the well are connected to the distant ocean. That is why the well is alive. That well keeps getting something even from a distance. That well has water sources from far away. That well is related to them, it has some roots. But the tank has no roots. The tank is closed in itself and ends in itself.

The tank is filled with ego because “I am something.”

The more the well knows itself, the more egoless it becomes. Because it finds “What am I?”, I am nothing — water sets from a distant ocean, waterfalls come from a distant ocean, my doors are from a distant infinite ocean. So the more the well knows itself, the more humble, the more filled with humility it becomes.

The more the tank knows itself, the more it fills with arrogance that “I am something”. Because it has no relation with anyone, it is closed in itself, frustrated and ends. It is a close entity. The well is an opening.

The Pandit (i.e. tank) is a closed, a closed personality. And the religious person, whom I call a wise man, is an opening, he is just a door…and a bigger door and a bigger door…ultimately he reaches where God/Truth/Light is.

Just like a well is connected to the ocean, similarly a religious person is connected to God/Truth/Inner Light.
Just like a tank is not connected to anyone, it is only borrowed, similarly a Pandit is also borrowed and is not connected to anyone.

What does a religious person want to become? — To become a tank or a well?

We all keep trying to become a well, the thirst of our soul, the thirst of our soul is to become a well, our desire, our aspiration is to become a well. We all want to attain knowledge. But, but making a well is a little difficult. You have to dig a little, you have to do something different. It is an unknown path to the well because no one is seen making a well. Then will the source of water come out or not? Will there be a rock in between or what will happen? How much will you have to dig? Nothing is known.

Hauz (pond) — There is a very clean way to the cistern. They can build it on top of the house, there is no fear. And there is a lot of borrowed water, there is no danger of that either. The cistern is very simple, convenient. There is no difficulty. You don’t have to do anything extra.

Something has to be done to dig a well. And there is a risk in digging a well that you may or may not find a source of water. It is possible that a rock may come and you cannot proceed further. But from this point of view, the cistern is a matter of great safety, there is no danger, no risk.

All the weak people get satisfied by building a cistern. All the lazy people get satisfied by building a tank. All the lazy people get satisfied by building a cistern. But they should remember very well that the cistern will not be able to satisfy the thirst of their souls, their desire of life will not be fulfilled by it. Because the thirst of life is for those who are alive. Not for the dead.

The souls demand that which connects them with the infinite and the beginningless. They do not aspire for a tank enclosed in a limited duality.

The souls want to be limitless and endless. They want to reach the ocean. And you want to satisfy them by giving them small tanks. Therefore, no satisfaction is attained.
And when satisfaction is not attained, what mistake does man make?

He starts making the tank bigger and bigger. But no matter how big the tank becomes, it cannot become a well.

And no matter how small the well is, it is still connected to the infinite.

That is why even a small piece of your knowledge is more valuable than the mountain of someone else’s knowledge. Even a small well of your own knowledge will connect you to God. And even the biggest tank of someone else’s knowledge, the biggest collection is never capable of connecting you to anyone.

So, on the second sutra, I want to say: If you want to get that knowledge which is within you and which can be attained, then avoid borrowed knowledge, learnt knowledge, knowledge of words.

How will it be attained? If we avoid knowledge, then how will we dig a well within?

There is a spade to dig that well, I call it wonder. I call it wonder-enchanted feeling. Look at life, at yourself with the eyes of wonder.

Like a small child sees, who does not know anything. A small child opens his eyes, he sees the sun. They do not know anything about what the sun is. Neither do they know that Surya Narayan is God and the Sun harnesses his chariot and comes out early in the morning and keeps driving the chariot till evening. And they do not even know that this way the Sun fulfills the orders of God.

They do not even know that the sun is a round body of helium gas and fire keeps burning in it and it has been burning for so many years. They do not even know that it will become cold after so many millions of years.

They open their eyes and stands in front of the sun in awe. They do not know what the sun is. But even in that not knowing they see, something touches their soul, some movement happens, some picture is formed, some feeling is born, they stand there in awe.

They do not know anything. But even in not knowing they stand in front of the sun. They have an encounter, an encounter with the sun.

When we look at the Sun then our knowledge comes in between, the encounter stops.

In this way, children know something through encounter but old people are not able to have an encounter and hence they are not able to know.

Jesus Christ was passing through a village. In the village market, a crowd surrounded him and started asking who will enter into kingdom of God?

He lifted a small child from the crowd and said that only those who are like this child will be able to enter the kingdom of God.

Will he be like a child?

What does this mean?

Was he only young in age?

This means those who are able to see life with a sense of wonder and fascination. Those who do not see life with the arrogance of a wise man, but with the simplicity of an ignorant man. Those who see from a place of not knowing, from a state of not knowing, will attain that knowledge by which God/Truth/Light is known.

The spade for digging a well is to look at the world like a child, not like an old man.
Not like an experienced person, but like an inexperienced person. Like one who does not know.

Then even a flower takes on a wonderful meaning, and so does a blade of grass, a wave of water, a gust of wind, the clouds moving in the sky, the eyes of men and women, even a stone lying on the side of the road takes on a great meaning. Because we do not know, so we peep, we search. And in that search and peeping, since we do not have any answers, we only have questions, only curiosity, only inquiry. Because of that, whatever we witness comes in contact with the depths of our soul. Life comes in contact only with those whose minds are open. And those whose minds are filled with knowledge become closed, they are never able to see with openness.

Those whose eyes are filled with knowledge cannot see anything. There is nothing that blinds more than knowledge. That is why old people become blind, children have eyes.

Those old people are blessed who, even after running all their lives, are able to save the eyes of children, they become worthy. The old man who saves the eyes of children, also knows the truth of life. Child’s eyes mean a sense of wonder and fascination. And the ability to see life as it is, without words. A system to see life as it is, directly, immediately and without any principles.

We never see life directly, we always see it through principles.

A man meets me, he asks me which religion do you believe in?
If he is a Muslim and I say that I believe in Islam, then he sees me in a different way. And if I say that I am a Hindu, I do not believe in Islam, then he sees me in a different way. If I say that I am a silent atheist, I do not believe in religions at all, then he sees me in a different way. In all three situations, it is me, but in all three situations, I am only me. But in all three situations his way of seeing changes. He does not see me directly, he sees me through something that has come in between.

And whenever a man sees life through something, then he is not able to see life. And the one who cannot see life, he will never be able to see God/Truth/Light. Because whatever is, is the essence of God in life, life itself is God.

But we are unable to see anything. Our seeing is completely blind. Because everywhere knowledge, everywhere wisdom, everywhere scriptures surround us, we see through them. That is why we are unable to know.

There was a fakir, Mulla Nasiruddin.

A friend gifted him some meat. And along with it he also gave him a book in which the recipe of cooking meat was written. It must have been a cookery book. Mulla Nasiruddin took that book and the meat and went happily towards his house. Now he was running in his happiness and an eagle swooped down and took away his meat.

He saw the eagle and said: Fool, take it, what will you do with the meat, I have the book. I have the trick to cook it.

He reached his house and said to his wife: This is a big joke, an eagle has become a fool. The fool took the meat from my hand, it does not know that I have the trick to cook it.

His wife said, “Blessed are you Panditraj! Blessed are you! The eagle does not need books. The eagle has a direct connection with meat. It is men who need books. The joke is not with the eagle, but with you. You have become a fool.

But this joke has been played with all of us. There is no direct connection with life. There are books in between. And we think that if books are in our hands, then everything is in our hands. The one who has only books in his hands, has nothing in his hands. His hands are empty. And it is worse than empty hands. Because empty hands could never hold anything, his hands are already filled with garbage, nothing will ever be able to hold anything in his hands.

Life has to be known and lived, books are not to be carried. But all the people have become knowledgeable by carrying books. And that is why we cannot have any direct connection with religion, truth, God.

Second sutra: Not knowledge, but wonder.

Not old eyes, not eyes old from experience, not old eyes that have been learned; unlearned, unprepared, simple, innocent, blameless eyes like children. Only those eyes are capable of revealing the truth of life.

I am very grateful for listening to me with so much peace and love. Please accept my greetings.

-Osho, From his book in Hindi Amrit Dwaar, Discourse #2, given in 1968 at Pune, India Copyrights Osho International Foundation, Pune, India

Some suggestions from my experience that can help in making your eyes like a child in a simple way of uncovering the watcher within:-

Osho says:-

The miracle of being a witness/watcher (i.e. with the inner eye) is that when you look at your body (with closed eyes), your witness becomes stronger. When you look at your thoughts, your witness within is even stronger. And when you look at emotions , your witness is stronger again.

When you watch your own moods, the watcher becomes so strong that it can remain standstill or silent for longer time — watching itself, just as a lamp burning in a dark night not only lights up its surroundings but also lights up itself! This watching itself is known as knowing the Reality or discovering the light within.

But people are simply watching others, they never bother to watch themselves. Everybody is watching — this is watching at the shallowest level — what the other person is doing, what the other person is wearing, how he looks. (And in watching, one is losing the quality of going beyond death, while life has been given to one to discover the quality of going beyond death. Everybody is watching — the process of watching is not something new to be introduced into your life. It just needs to be deepened — removed from others and directed towards one’s own inner feelings, thoughts and emotions — and finally pointed towards the watcher himself.

You can easily laugh at the funny things people say, but have you ever laughed at yourself? Have you ever caught yourself doing something funny? No, you keep yourself totally unnoticed — all your watching is about others, and it is of no benefit.

Use this energy of observation, of awareness, to transform your inner self. It can give so much joy, so many blessings that you cannot even imagine in your dreams. It is a simple process, but once you start using it on yourself, it becomes a meditation.

Make anything a meditation It is possible!

You all know observation, so there is no question of learning it, it is only a question of changing the object of observation. Bring it close. Look at your body, and you will be amazed.

I can move my hand without being an observer, and I can move it with being an observer. You will not see the difference, but I can see the difference. When I move my hand with the attitude of an observer, there is a grace and beauty in it, a peace and a silence.

You can walk while observing each step, in that you will not only get all the benefits that walking can give you as an exercise, but you will also get the benefit of a very simple meditation.

- Osho, from Hindi book title Dhyanyoga: The First and the Last Liberation(Hindi),© OSHO International Foundation, Pune, India.

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.

Disclaimer: For references of content on Osho, Copyright © OSHO International Foundation, Pune, India. 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 January 15, 2025.