OshoSpeak – 2009: #2

From ‘Ecstasy: The Language of Existence’ – Diamond Pocket Books


These songs of Kabir are tremendously beautiful. He is a poet, he is not a philosopher. He has not created a system. He is not a theoretician or a theologian. He is not interested in doctrines, in scriptures. His whole interest is in how to flower and become a god.




……….nothing much is known about him…….whether he was a Hindu or a Mohammedan. The story goes that he was born a Mohammedan but was brought up by a Hindu. And this is beautiful: this is how it should be……..he has the heritage of two rich traditions…………Look at my richness, I am a Hindu and a Mohammedan and a Christian and a Sikh and a Parsi. Not only that, I am a theist and I am an atheist too. I claim the whole heritage of humanity. I claim all…………..the whole evolution of human consciousness is yours, but you are so miserly. Somebody has become a Hindu: he claims only a corner, and lives in that corner, crippled and paralysed……………A religious person will claim all – Buddha, Mahavir, Christ, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Nanak, Kabir, etc.etc.




All ideologies are violent. A real man of understanding has no ideology: then he is undivided, then he is one with the whole of existence




Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna, Ram, they were all very special people. They were all kings, and they were well-educated, well-cultured. Kabir is a nobody, a man of the masses, very poor, very ordinary, with no education at all, with no culture. And that is his rarity…………because to be ordinary in the world is the most extraordinary thing.




………..be innocent: only then will you be able to understand Kabir. Don’t bring your mind in, don’t start arguing with him, because he is not a logician. When you go to see a painting you don’t argue with the painting. You enjoy it.




Religion deteriorates into rituals. When a religion is dead, it becomes ritualistic. When a religion is alive, it remains spontaneous……………Let your prayer be very spontaneous, very real. If anger is there, what else can you offer to him? Offer anger. If love is there, offer love.…………God is nothing but a tremendous understanding that existence shows towards you.




…………there are people who have logically concluded either God is or God is not. Both are useless. They don’t have any experience.




Kabir is not interested in doctrines, philosophies. He says this life is divine – don’t bother about heaven and hell. Don’t think about faraway subjects: be realistic: be existential.




Says Jesus, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and then all else will be added unto you.” The same I day to you, and the same is the teaching of Kabir. Live here-now as totally as possible, as fully alert as possible, and as lovingly as possible: and all else will be added unto you




The Indian term for religion is very, very beautiful: the Indian term is dharma. Dharma means your intrinsic nature. Whatsoever you want to become, in fact, you are already, it is already the case. It is not a question that you have to practice something and then as a result, as a reward, you become religious. No, you become religious if you just become aware……………..Whenever you are alert, silent, peaceful, you are religious




I teach you that the first and foremost thing is to be loving towards yourself. Don’t be hard: be soft……Learn how to forgive yourself…….Then you will flower




The Zen people say, “Look for your original face; find it out.”…………”the face that you had before you were born – and the face you will have again when you have died.”…………That is truth, or call it God




Be more vulnerable. Don’t be so prejudiced, don’t decide. Experience and let experience be decisive. Never decide before the experience – never, never. Otherwise you will always be surrounded by your prejudice




………..it will be difficult if you have certain ideas implanted in you for or against. A Christian cannot be a religious man, neither can a Hindu be, nor a communist. A theist cannot be religious, an atheist cannot be religious; they are already full of ideas. They have already decided, without experiencing anything……………Be an agnostic, and that is the sure step towards religion………A religious person….He says, “…………If I come across an experience, I should like to remain open, vulnerable, so nothing is distorted”




Adam is turned out of the garden of Eden because he has eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It is a very significant parable. Because of his knowledge, Adam is turned out of heaven, loses all his blessedness…….his innocence, happiness, loses immortality, becomes a mortal, becomes miserable. This is the original sin……….Meditate on this parable as much as possible………There is no other parable so significant in the whole history of religion.
Adam’s sin is knowledge. Then what is Jesus’ virtue? It must be ignorance………..Thats what Jesus says when he says, “Unless you are like children you will not enter into the kingdom of my God”………unless you are innocent, ignorant like children, unless you drop all your knowledge………..
All meditative techniques……are nothing but efforts to make you free of your knowledge, efforts to make you free of your mind. Meditation means to create a state of no-mind……..A state of no-mind will be a state of tremendous ignorance – primal ignorance.




When Buddha became enlightened, for seven days he remained silent. He would not utter a single word. It was so difficult. It is so easy to talk when you don’t know; it is so difficult to talk when you know………….Listening to my words, you may fall silent.………you may become attentive……in that alertness truth may be able to penetrate you………….Truth is available here in my presence, but not in my words………….Maybe words can be helpful as a contrast to my silence. When you write on a blackboard with a white chalk it comes out clear and loud. Hmmm? because the blackboard gives the contrast………I can keep quiet here, I can sit silently here, but then you will not be able to understand my silence at all…………I talk to you – I create a blackboard of words, of language, concept, logic, philosophy……and then I leave just a few small gaps, silent gaps, intervals. Those gaps come very loudly


Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabir