Man proposes God disposes & Buddha Dances | Philosia: The Art of seeing all
In his book, The Discipline of Transcendence, (old) Vol 2
Chapter #10 A hollow bamboo on 9 September 1976 am in Gautam the Buddha Hall while Osho was talking to his disciples on ancient Chinese Buddhist scripture ’42 Sutras of Buddha’ a disciple asked this question.
In brackets I add comments from my experience so that you could understand it in a better way.
(Answering this question Osho says that yes, Enlightened person not only lives a self suffice t life in this world but since they have dropped all propositions so thay live it celebrating, dancing every moment. Whether they express it or not is their choice, but inward they are very peaceful, happy and free without any trembling for future or fear of death.)
Question 1
CAN ONE LIVE AND FUNCTION IN THE WORLD IN A STATE OF
ENLIGHTENMENT OR NO-MIND? IS AN ENLIGHTENED PERSON SELF- SUFFICIENT IN THE WORLD?
Osho:- Everybody wants to become the richest man of the world.
Everybody wants to be the most powerful man in the world.
Everybody wants to be the most strong, beautiful, intelligent, famous in the world.
Of course much anxiety is created. In that anxiety you are in a sort of continuous illness, dis-ease, restlessness, a fever, in which you go on, continuously trembling. And every moment there is frustration waiting for you.
Hence people say, ‘Man proposes and god disposes.’ God has never disposed anything. In your very proposition you are disposing god, hence you get in trouble.
( What does Osho mean by proposition? I wish to share my experiences with you here. By proposition Osho mean that one should not deliberately try to get things done according to his desires. I could not pass Pre Engineering Test examination, so I kept studying by taking admission in B. Sc. First year and attempted exam. There were students who have taken drop so that they could get admission in Engineering college of their choice, this is called proposition.
I could pass it with lesser marks than cutoff required for getting admission into any engineering college so got offer for admission in Polytechnic college, which is already equivalent to B. Sc. First year but I preferred to take admission in it as it was my choice to study engineering. One of my friend also got offer for polytechnic college but he preferred to join Engineering course on management quota seat by paying donation.
So this is called as proposition. In my job few people know that they could get promoted early if they could manage to get Excellent grade in Yearly appraisal, so they requests our client department to get endorsements in their favour. This is proposition. So in my opinion not attempting to get things done in your favour and even misusing our authority to get it done is proposition.
Not proposing does not mean we should not try to get best course, job etc.
What is the need of proposing something? God has already gifted us life on this planet as his best creation! Our role is just to give our best to whatever comes in our life, and expect the least from others. When we give our best with attitude of gratitude then the feeling of contentment is it’s reward! The reward is included in the work! )
Because the nature has its own way, the tao has its own way; it has its own destiny. It is as if a part is trying to go on its own journey, leaving the whole behind. It is not possible — the part has to go with the whole.
The tail has to go with the elephant. If the tail starts going on its own way against the elephant, separate from the elephant, then there is going to be trouble — the tail will go mad. And actually it will have to drag with the elephant; there is no other way.
Mulla Nasrudin was saying to me one day, ‘When I was fourteen I decided that I was going to become the richest man in the world, whatsoever the cost.’
Then I asked him, ‘Then what happened? You never became the richest man in the world. You may be the poorest. What happened then?’
He said, ‘By the time I was twenty-one I thought it is easier to change my mind than to become the richest man in the world. It is easier to change my mind.’
So there are only two types of people in the world. One, who have private goals — — they feel they are being dragged; they feel man proposes, god disposes.
Then there is another type of people in the world — very few, rare, far, far and few between, very few — who have dropped all their propositions. They don’t drag, they dance.
They dance, because whatsoever god proposes they accept. And they have no private propositions, they don’t have any desire of their own.
What Jesus says on the cross, that is his last message to the world — ‘Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done ‘.
Just a moment before he has hesitated a little, just a moment before he shouted and said, ‘Why have you forsaken me? Why? Why are you showing me all this?’
You cannot complain against Jesus — that too is natural and human.
Jesus shouts at god, ‘Why have you forsaken me? Why are you showing me all this?’ — human, very human.
But immediately he became aware of it.
It must have escaped — this shouting against god — in a moment of unawareness.
The pain may have been too much, the misery was too much. Death was just close by; he was shocked. But he regained balance.
He was going to propose something.
He simply said, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.’ He surrendered. He died as Christ.
In a single moment he was no more Jesus, he was Christ. In a single moment he was no more human, he was superhuman.
The gap is very small.
That’s why Buddha says, ‘Miss it by a single inch, or by a single moment and you are thrown millions of miles away.’
Just a single inch was the difference between these two sentences — there was not much gap, maybe a single breath.
But he was just ordinary when he shouted against god — human, weak. Just a moment later on he was reconciled; there was no problem then. If this is the way god wants it to happen, then this is the way it has to happen. He accepted.
A smile must have come to his face, and not only to his face but to his heart also.
In that moment he must have expanded. Now there was nothing to shrink, to remain closed. Even death was accepted.
When you accept death, you have accepted god. Everybody desires for life. When you accept life you don’t accept much. When you accept death you have accepted all. (Buddha says it is difficult to )
An enlightened person is one who has not only accepted death, who has really died. (Death always happens to the ego, and enlightened person’s ego dies before getting enlightened.) He is no more there, the house is absolutely empty. Or he is that emptiness.
That emptiness is luminous, full of light. Now he moves hand and hand with god.
Now wherever god takes him, to whatsoever land — uncharted, unmapped — he runs along, dancing.
-Osho, The Discipline of Transcendence, (old) Vol 2
Chapter #10 A hollow bamboo
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 25, 2024.
