---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Old Pond ... Plop"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "POND"
dategiven: "06 January 1981 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #6"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8101065"
shorttitle: "POND06"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Old Pond ... Plop: Chapter #6"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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> [!info]
> Note
>
[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]


Life is a curse if you are not aware. Then it is nothing but misery. It is only thorns, not a single rose. From the cradle to the grave there are hopes and man goes on living because of those hopes, but they are never fulfilled.


In the end there is only despair, hopelessness, anguish. That's our whole anguish. But this tragedy happens only because we are not aware. Awareness functions like magic: it transforms everything into its opposite. Anger becomes compassion, greed becomes sharing, hate becomes love, the very darkness of life becomes light. And then suddenly one discovers that the thorns were not there outside; they were our projection of an unconscious state.


Once you are conscious, there are only roses and roses. The person who coined the proverb that life is not a bed of roses must have been unconscious, unaware, because all the awakened ones say just the opposite: Life is a bed of roses. Hence all that a sannyasin has to do is to shift a gear inside himself from unconscious to consciusness.


And the process is very simple. It cannot be simpler than it is. In fact because it is so simple, people go on missing it. If it was a little complicated, difficult, there would be a challenge for the ego; but there is no challenge for the ego. Ego is always interested in something difficult. The more difficult it is, the better. The ego is interested in going to the moon, to Mars; it is not interested in going within oneself.


The process can be reduced into a simple formula: whatsoever you do, do it but remain alert. Walking, watch your walking; eating, watch you. eating just don't go on stuffing youself mechanically. The mind is somewhere else, you are thinking a thousand-and-one things and the hands go on stuffing and the mouth goes on chewing. That is a mechanical process. You are not aware of what you are doing.


If you are totally in the moment -- only then can you be aware. So forget the whole world while you are eating. Eating, just eat; walking, just walk; listening, just listen; talking, just talk and remain totally in it, alert, aware of each gesture, each nuance. And slowly you will get the knack of it, the hang of it.


It is not a science, it is not even an art. It is only a knack, like swimming -- you have just to start throwing your hands. First start in shallow water so there is no fear, then go deeper. First begin with the body -- that is the shallowest part of our being. Then go into the mind. Then watch your thoughts, desires, memories. Then go still deeper, dive still deeper -- watch your emotions, your moods. And then the fundamental and the ultimate plunge, the fourth, where your centre is. Then become aware of your awareness itself.


The moment one is aware of awareness itself the circle is complete . And that is the moment we in the East have called enlightenment.


Man is not imprisoned by outside forces. He is imprisoned by his own unconscious, by his own instincts, by his own biological past. So one can try to be politically free -- that is not difficult -- but it is not going to bring real freedom.


So almost every counrty is politicallty free but the people are in the same misery. One can try to be economically free. The moment you become rich you are economically free. You can purchase anything you want, you can have all the things of the world. There is no limitation. You can have the best house, the best of everything; still, something will be missing. You will not feel contented. You will not really feel free . On the other hand, you will feel hampered by all your possessions.


The richer a person gets, the more and more he is imprisoned in his richness. He cannot even sleep well. He cannot live in a relaxed way, although he always wished that when the money would be there he would live in a relaxed way. Then life would be just a long holiday. He now has a house in the mountains, a house on the beach, a beautiful yacht in the sea, an aeroplane and everything, but he has no will to relax. In fact in earning all this money he has learned one thing: how to remain constantly tense. He has been always on his tiptoes. Now it is too late to relax.


Relaxation needs a totally different kind of skill -- the rich person misses it. Hence the rich person only appears rich. Really he is as poor as anybody else, maybe far poorer than the poor ones. Apparently he has all but inside there is only nothingness, and the freedom that he was thinking would come through econonic prosperity has not arrived.


Money can be earned, freedom cannot be earned. Freedom has to grow within you. It grows simultaneously as a by-product of awarness. The more aware you are, the freer. The moment your awareness is at the peak, your freedom is also at the peak. So only a Buddha, a Christ, a Zarathustra -- these few people -- have lived and known freedom.
And that is the goal of sannays: absolute freedom. The method is awareness.


God is non-existencial but godliness exists. God as a person is just a childish desire for a father figure. It is not accidental that god is called the father. The word is very indicative. We are brought up in such way that we elarn only one thing: how to remain always dependent on somebdoy. The child depends on the father, ont he mother. As he grows up he becomes independent -- at least outwardly -- but inside the desire for a father or a mother continues.


Hence in matriarchal societies where the woman, the mother, was dominant, there was the idea of a mother-god. The goddess-mother is far older than god the father, because the matriarchal system is older than the patriarchal system.


In the beginning; the woman ruled. The mother was more powerful than the father. There are even a few small aboriginal tribes in the world -- in India there are a few tribes living in the deep jungles -- who still worship god the mother. They have no idea of god as a father, because the woman is still predominant. And a strange thing...


I lived in a tribe for a few days just to study the difference, and it was shocking that there the men are weak and the women are strong. So the whole idea that man is basically strong just an invention. It all depends on the social structure .


In those tribes where the mother is still in power, the woman does all the hard work and the man is given soft work. In fact his whole purpose is to serve the woman. He is used as a sexual object. He is fed and taken care of and protected, but his whole purpose is to serve as a sexual object -- just the opposite of what is happening all over the world.


In the rest of the world whene the man has become all powerful, he seems to 'be stronger, more muscular and can do hard things; woman is the fair sex, has to be given softer jobs and is being used as a sexual object. She has to be taken care of so she remains beautiful and young; but the whole purpose is to serve the man.


Man is more or less a creation of his own ideas. When I saw those tribes I was puzzled because the women are taller and the men are smaller. Even in height, they are not taller than the woman; so it is not a biological phenomenon. And just as is our societies female prostitution exists, in those societies male prostitution exists. Male prostitutes are in much demand. And they charge much more (laughter). A woman can serve a few people every night, a man can serve only one woman -- of course he has to charge more! (more laughter) And is those societies men are raped. Just three or four women will get hold of a man and rape him. He is just helpless!


The idea of god the father is a male chauvinist idea. In fact there is no god like he or she, but there is an experience which can be called godliness. But it is more like a frangrance, you cannot catch hold of it. It is not material, it is absolutely immatieral. You can experience it but you cannot encounter him. There is no he, there is no she, so there is no question of encountering.


You cannot pray because there is nobody to hear your prayers. You are just being stupid when you kneel on your knees and raise your hands towards the sky. You are just being foolish. It is idiotic. what you are going is just a sign of a retarded mind! (laughter)


Meditation is okay but prayer is not. Meditation simply means you are becoming silent, you are putting the mind aside.


That's what I call awareness: becoming silent, putting the mind aside, just becoming more and more aware. And when awareness explodes in you it islike an atomic explosion. All of your ego and the ideas that the ego has accumulated are simply onsumed by the fire of awareness. Nothing is left, or only nothing is left, but such a great nothing, such pure innocence, such space, that in that space one becomes aware for the first time of something transcendental. Youc an call it xyz; that is far better than calling god, because you cannot pray to 'x'. That will look stupid. Just think of puttting a big 'x' before yourself and praying... You will look all around, is anybody looking or not?


But you can make a statue of god and then that's perfectly okay -- but it is nothing more than xyz!


When you are silent, aware, you experience godliness; a fragrance comes like a breeze, overwhelms you, transforms you, gives you a new being, a new feel, a new juice, a new zest, a new dance. And life for the first time becomes a true, authentic, ecstasy.


I also use the word prayer but in a totally different sense than the Christians, Hindus and Mohammedans have used it down the ages. When this ecstasy has been experienced, when you are aware of godliness surrounding the whole world, then a thankfulness arises in your heart. That thankfulness is prayer, that gratitude is prayer. Nothing his to be said and there is nobody to say it, but you simply feel grateful, grateful to all that is!


The state of unconsciousness is like the roots of a tree. The roots of the tree remain underground, you don't see them. That's how our unconscious is, underground; we don't see it, but it affects everything. It affects the branches, the leaves, the flowers. Our roots are hidden but they are very important; they are the most important part of a tree. And unless one understands one's roots one cannot have a real exerience of one's total being.


The branches of the tree are like our so-called consciousness: it is a very fragile, very thin layer, and can be destroyed casily by any accident; just a small accident and it collapses. Somebody insults you and you are no more conscious; somebody says something, and you forget all about your meditation, your awareness. You are mad! You can do anything; in that state of madness.


Anger is a temporary madness. Madness is nothing but anger which has become a permanent state. One can murder.


Many murderers have said in the courts that they did not do it. It used to be thought that they were all lying, but by and by psychologists became aware that a few of them were certainly lying but a few of them were not lying at all. Although they have committed the murder they don't remember it. They were so possessed by something from the unconscious that they were not themselves at all, so they don't remember. It is like when somebody who is absolutely drunk says something to you and tomorrow does not remember it. He did say it, you may have a tape recording of it, but he is also right when he says that he has not said it; he has not said it consciously. And we are doing many of our acts unconsciously.


So just a thin layer of consciousness surrounds our unconscious . It is enough for our day-to-day, routine work: going to the office, working on a typewriter, driving, a car, talking to your husband or wife -- the same cliches that you have said so many times. And you will be repeating them without any consciousness. But this is what we think; is consciousness; it is so-so, just lukewarm, not enough for any great flight to the unknown, to the ultimate.


One has to use this small fragment of awareness as a seed and one has to start growing it, nourishing it, helping it in every way, co-operating with it. And this in the world of a sannyasin: co-operate more and more with the small part of your being which is conscious and co-operate less and less with the bigger part of your being which is unconscious. Always choose the conscious, avoid the unconscious. Whichever makes you unconscious is wrong and whichever helps you to become concious is right. That's my definition of right and wrong, that's my whole morality. And slowly slowly if you co-operate with the conscious it grows and as you stop co-operating with the unconscious it becomes shrunken.


A moment comes when slowly slowly the territory of the conscious becomes bigger and bigger and bigger and the unconscious goes on shrinking, disappearing. Finally the whole unconscious territory is claimed by the consciousness. That is the moment you start growing flowers; for the first time your tree has flowers.


When almost ninety-nine per cent of your unconscious territory has become conscious you start growing flowers. And when one hundred per cent of the territory is reclaimed, when nothing of the unconscious remaing in you, your flowers release their fragrance. In the East we have called that fragrance Buddhahood, awakenedness. In the West the same phenomenon has been called Christ-consciousness. It is the same. Only the words differ.


And unless one has become a pure fragrance, one's life has gone as a sheer wastage. Only with this release of your innermost splendour do you enter into the kingdom, the kingdom of the infinite and the eternal. Then there is no death, no birth. Then you are here and now forever. The body will disappear but not you, the mind will disappear but not you. And to know that which abides and abides forever is to know the truth.


Awareness gives your life a new sense, a new insight, a new joy, a new ecstasy, unexperienced before, undreamt before. Life starts becoming more like a song. It starts having more and more music in it, it starts becoming harmonious; all discord disappears. For the first time you experience utter silence, so profound that it is absolutely unfathomable, immeasurable. One can dive into it and disappear, but that disappearance is not death.


That disappearance is, in fact, birth, resurrection. you had lived before almost as if in a dream; now you really live. And that dream was not sweet at all. It was more like a nightmare; you suffered all kinds of tortures in that dream. But when one is dreaming, everything in the dream lookk absolutely real. It is only when you are awake that you can see that it was a dream and nothing else. But only when you are awake, not before that.


Hence the awakened ones have said again and again that the whole world is maya, an illusion, a dream, made of the same stuff as dreams are made of. But the awakened ones cannot give any proof for it. How can you prove to the person who is fast asleep and still dreaming that what you are dreaming is a dream. There is no way.


The only possible way is to shake him, to wake him; once he is awake there is no need to prove. First you cannot prove when there is need, and when you can prove there is no need at all.


To be with a master simply means to live with someone who is awake, who is no more asleep, whose dreams are finished, whose nightmares are over. And just being in tune with the master slowly slowly wakes you up. The very energy of the master starts penetrating your being. Slowly slowly it seeps into your heart, slowly slowly it gives you a new heart, a new beat. And you cannot remain long with a master without becoming awake, because he is continuously shouting, calling you forth to wake up, calling you forth to come out of your grave.


And if you can open your eyes even once, suddenly for the first time you experience the music, the song, the dance; and it goes on increasing, it goes on moving towards a crescendo, towards a height which is absolutely unimaginable to the ordinary mind. It is beyond the mind, far beyond; hence the mind cannot say anything about it. It is indescribable, indefinable. the mind simply falls short with all its logic, language, words, with all its efficiency as far as the world is concerned.


In the encounter with the beyond, the mind feels for the first time utterly impotent. The impotency of the mind releases a new energy in you. That energy I call the song, the dance, the ecstasy. This is what Jesus calls the kingdom of god. His expression is a little bit old-fashioned but what he is indicating is exactly what I am indicating. It is a kingdom. You become an emperor only when your heart is full of songs, ready to burst forth, when the energy is so much that you would like to dance and share it.


Life can be a bliss -- it depends all upon you. And just a little effort, very little effort, just a little tossing and turning and one can wake up!


It does not take much and we come very close to the point from where waking can happen but we become afraid and we escape back into our dreams. Many people come here and escape.


Just this morning I received a letter from the father of one of my sanyasins. Krishnadeva is one of my sannyasins; his father has come to visit. He writes in a letter 'I want to escape as quickly as possible because I am becoming aware of the fact that if I remain here a little bit longer I will be trapped! (laughter) I am feeling so joyous for the first time and the people are so beautiful and the whole space... I had heard about you, that you hypnotise people; now I know! (more laughter) Before it happens I want to leave this place!
Now he is very close. He can escape. And the fear is natural and human.


So remember, when you become a sannyasin you are taking; a plunge into a very dangerous ocean! Take the plunge with the absolute decisiveness of never turning back, of never looking back. Look ahead to the further shore, because it is only on the further shore of awakening, that you will find all that you have been seeking; for many many lives. And it is only alittle bit of courage that is needed.
			

> [!info]
> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
>