---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Sound of One Hand Clapping"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "CLAPP"
dategiven: "10 March 1981 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #10"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8103105"
shorttitle: "CLAPP10"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Sound of One Hand Clapping: Chapter #10"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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meditation transforms you
into a beloved of the whole existence
as the meditator becomes centred, silent, aware
the whole existence starts converging upward
the same world but no more the same
before it was cold, alien
now it is cosy, a home


a man without meditation
lives in the world as a stranger
as you enter meditation
you enter a love affair with existence
and for love everything is possible
even the impossible is not impossible
all that is needed is
a deep, profound silence in your being
that becomes a magnetic pull
then whatsoever is beautiful in existence
starts moving towards you
meditation creates gravitation for truth
for beauty, for love
for freedom, for godliness
for all that is really valuable


one need not go searching for anything
one has simply to rest in one's being
and all that is needed follows in its own course


meditation is the only magic
that has yet been known
and i don't think it can ever be transcended
there will not be any magic greater than meditation


meditation cannot be a logical enquiry you cannot study it from the outside it is not an object hence no scientific enquiry is possible by its very nature
it is a matter of love not of logic
the head is incapable of meditation
so those who start thinking about meditation
studying meditation
go on missing the point
they are starting from a wrong space
their very first step has gone wrong
and the first step is the most important step
it is almost half the journey
because the next step follows the first
the next step is implied in the first


so i want my sannyasins to be reminded
again and again
to let meditation be your love affair
don't think about it
don't philosophise about it
take a plunge
just as one falls in love, fall into meditation
then all the mysteries are yours
just a moment's thought
and you are thousands of miles away from it
no thought and you are it


one cannot expect, one cannot desire
one cannot demand
as far as meditation is concerned
expecting, demanding, desiring are barriers
one can simply wait, utterly relaxed
it comes but it comes like a sudden breeze
it comes and refreshes you
it comes and rejuvenates you
it comes and it transforms you
but it does not come according to your ideas
it does not come according to your prejudices


that is something significant
never to be forgotten
because the whole functioning of our mind
is such that whatsoever we do we do with a motive
if we are meditating then we look sideways


looking at the clock, expecting
now it is going to happen
it is time enough
it should happen now
i have been meditating for three days
or three months or three years
how long can one go on meditating?
enough-is enough
if all these things are going on
then you are creating a barricade


meditation should be done for its own joy
it is an end unto itself
not a means to something else
and then the miracle happens
but you cannot do it, it happens
it comes like a breeze
it surprises you, it wakes you up
for a moment you miss a heartbeat
because the guest has come so unexpectedly
and it is so glorious, so fulfilling
so tremendously blissful
its whole beauty depends on
its unexpectedness, its surprise


millions of people have meditated
but very few have reached
for the simple reason that
only very few have meditated
for its sheer joy


meditation is a state of suspendedness
a state of interval
before meditation
you live in the darkness of the mind
with all its desires, greeds, angers, jealousies
after meditation you live in the world of bliss
benediction, truth, freedom
but there is a gap between the two
when one is in fact nowhere
neither here nor there
and that is the most significant passage


the mind tries to go back
because that twilight zone is frightening
because suddenly all your ideas, all your notions
your very ego is getting lost
a fear grips one, one
wants to fall back and cling to all the old things
at least there was something to cling to


meditation is emptiness
hence the master is needed
the most significant function of the master
is in the twilight zone
because when the disciple starts falling back
which is a natural thing
nothing extraordinary about it it
happens to everybody
because the known, the familiar
was at least the known and the familiar


and now one is simply melting
and one knows not what is going to happen next
it is almost like death
the death of the old and the new is not born yet
that is the moment when the master
can go on holding your hand and he can say
don't be worried -- the dawn is not far away
just look at the east, the sun is rising


sometimes the master has to devise things
just to keep you occupied in the twilight zone
some toys to cling to, some methods, some words
so you are not utterly empty
as the twilight zone passes by
you will be able to see that these are toys
and that they have served their function


mind is full
full of all that is ugly, it is full of hell
and the soul is full
full of all that is beautiful
it is full of heaven
between these two fullnesses
there is a gap of utter emptiness
that's what meditation is
it takes you from the fullness of the ugly mind
to the fullness of the beautiful soul
but there is no way to escape the gap
one has to pass through it
and if one knows one can pass joyously


then one can even enjoy the interval
its silence, its emptiness, its nothingness


meditation can be thought of
either as silence or as song
it can be thought of as silence
if you compare it with the mind
compared to the mind it is silence
but compared to the soul it is a song
it is not something dead, it is very alive
it is not the silence of the cemetery
but the silence
of the high altitudes of mountains
in that silence
if you have enough sensitivity
you can decipher many songs


all the creativity that has happened in the world
has come through meditation
knowingly or unknowingly
all the poetry, all the music, all the dance
is possible only if something deep inside you
starts bursting forth in celebration


you have to come out of seriousness
there is no need to be so serious
no need to be so sacred, holy
learn to laugh, learn to sing


and that will help you immensely
because the whole existence is a celebration
if we are serious then we are not part of the universe


the old proverb is right
if you laugh the whole world laughs with you
it you weep, if you cry
you weep and cry alone
people have their own problems
more than are needed
who wants to participate
with someone who is sad and serious?


so make it a point to drop your seriousness
wherever it exists
and it can be dropped because it is unnatural
no child is born serious, it is taught by others
and my function here is to help you
to become a child again


nobody has ever defined meditation
as a sense of humour
but to me the sense of humour
is the most significant religious quality
the person who cannot laugh cannot pray either
the person who cannot see existence
with all its incredible beauty and also
with all its infinite ridiculousness


cannot understand life
and life is god, there is no other god


the more you become silent
the more you will be able to see things
in clear perspective
and then you will be surprised
that things are so incredibly beautiful
that the whole existence is giggling
except foolish man and his foolish saints
who are sitting like mummies
dead, holding themself together
afraid that if they lose control
if they start laughing
they will lose all respectability


i don't teach my sannyasins to be respectable
i teach them to be alive
whatsoever it costs be totally alive
even if you have to risk your life it is worth it
in fact when a man has something to die for
only then has he something to live for


always look at the humorous side of existence
and you will start getting more and more in tune
with yourself and with the world


the sense of humour makes a man very ordinary
but to me that ordinariness is in fact
the most extraordinary phenomenon


the desire to be extraordinary is very ordinary
everybody wants that
to relax into ordinariness
is a very rare phenomenon, very extraordinary


and the sense of humour brings you many gifts
it is not only a question of laughing at others
more fundamentally it is a question
of laughing at oneself too
if you see your own life and its ridiculousness
you will start laughing
what have you been doing? what are you doing?
and if you can start laughing at your own actions
a tremendous relief happens
and when you can laugh at yourself
you cannot be hard on others


your so-called saints are very hard on others
just for small things
for example, somebody loves smoking
he has to be thrown into hell
this is too much... and for eternity
he will be thrown alive into hellfire
and for eternity he will have to burn there
just because he was smoking
so he has to smoke for eternity now
and what was so wrong with it?
it is everybody's right
if one wants to take smoke in and out
it is nobody else's business, nothing is wrong in it


but our saints have been too hard
for the simple reason
that they had no sense of humour
they created hell
i cannot conceive hell
the whole of existence is paradise


your silence should not only be silence
it should also be laughter
it should also be a dance
it should have many dimensions to it
and if you meet god anytime tell him a few jokes
and he will be far happier with you
than with jesus carrying his cross
than with your saints going to him with sad faces


friedrich nietzsche said god is dead
but i suspect he must be hiding
from the so-called saints
just look at your saints -- they are such a torture
if he is dead
then it cannot have been a normal death
he must have committed suicide
surrounded by all kinds of saints
particularly the christian saints
and all the popes and all the priests...
i cannot conceive god alive in such wrong company


god needs better company, he deserves it
i am preparing better company for god


meditation is the last boundary
beyond which nothing can be said
beyond which starts the inexpressible
beyond which is the truth
but you can reach to that beyond
only through meditation
meditation is an antidote
mind is the disease
meditation is the antidote
the moment mind is dropped
meditation is also dropped


you have come to the ultimate boundary
now begins real experiencing
so remember
my people are not to cling to meditation
it is only medicine
in fact the words meditation and medicine
come from the same root:
that which cures
that is the meaning of the root word
medicine cures your physical diseases
meditation cures your psychological diseases
but a medicine is needed only if the disease is there
when the disease is finished medicine is of no use
there comes a point in the life of a meditator
when he drops meditation
because the mind is no more there
and there is no need to meditate at all
that is the ultimate line


the moment mind and meditation are both dropped
you have come home
for the first time you are whole
for the first time you are really holy
and from this moment real things start happening
but nothing can be said about them
nothing has been written about them
it is the world of the inexpressible


meditation is only a pointing of the way
a milestone, an arrow
showing you, go on, go on
and then the milestone comes with a zero on it
miles have disappeared, arrows have disappeared
now the zero has come
that zero is the ultimate search of all sannyas
and to achieve it is to achieve all
because the zero is synonymous with the whole


meditation is a transcendence
a transcendence of three things
the body, the mind and the heart


the body consists of actions
the mind of thoughts, the heart of feelings
ordinarily we think we are just
a combination of these three
we are not -- we are the fourth


these three are there surrounding us
but the centre is beyond all three
and to find that centre of the cyclone
is the whole art of meditation


so first one has to transcend the body
and it is simple
by just watching and remembering
i am not the body
slowly slowly
the remembrance becomes an undercurrent
then you don't remember
it is there, you know it
and the same has to be done with the mind
i am not my thoughts


thoughts are like birds who come in the evening
for an overnight stay in the tree
and in the morning they are gone
thousands of thoughts
have been taking shelter in your mind
and have left
they don't belong to you, they come and go
you abide, they don't abide
they are changing, you are eternal
the remembrance that i am not my thoughts
slowly slowly seeps deep into you
and becomes a realisation
and then nothing has to be done
the body goes on doing its work


the mind goes on doing its work
only our identification is no more there
we attain to a certain detachment
a deep aloofness, a certain coolness


the most difficult is the third
because feelings are very close
emotions are very close, moods are very close
but if one succeeds with the first two
it is not difficult to succeed with the third
 one should start with the first, the body
then with the mind, then with the heart
once all these three are transcended
for the first time you experience who you are
and that experience is liberation
liberation from misery
liberation from death
liberation from everything
from every limitation


to know oneself as transcendental
is to know oneself as divine


the only problem in front of man is the ego
it is the ancientmost problem
there is no other problem
and the problem is soluble because
it is our own invention, it does not really exist


ego is a put-together phenomenon
we have manufactured it for certain purposes
the society has supported it, the society needs it
the simple process is that if you have a false centre
it can be controlled
if you have a real centre it cannot be controlled
reality cannot be enslaved
hence the society has invented a false centre
and before the child becomes aware
of his real centre
he is handed over a false centre
and the false centre is useful for the society
politicians, priests, pedagogues
they will all be using it


the man who lives with the false centre
never becomes aware
of what has gone wrong with him
he always feels something is missing
he is not what he should be
there is a constant subtle awareness
that he is false, pseudo, that he is wearing a mask
but because he has never seen his original face
he cannot discard the mask either
because he is afraid
maybe there is no face at all
it is better to have a false face than to be faceless
who knows what is behind the mask?


behind the mask is the real, original face
behind the ego is the real centre
but unless we discard the false
the real cannot be found
discarding the false is the only way to find the real


meditation is a process of elimination
go on eliminating whatsoever is false
mercilessly go on peeling
whatsoever others have imposed upon you
and soon you will come to a source
which is authentically yours
and the moment that source is found
life has a different juice to it
a different perfume, a different freedom
then nothing is felt to be missing
there is great contentment, fulfilment
one has come to flowering


in the state of egolessness
one starts hearing the celestial music
the music of the stars
one starts hearing the message of the whole
it is wordless
but it is heard and understood
it is


the Sound
of one hand
Clapping


in fact it is soundless
because one hand clapping
cannot create any sound
but still there is a music to that silence
a subtle rhythm in that silence
and that rhythm is the rhythm of the universe
once you have found it you are no more separate
all walls disappear and become bridges


these are the two ways to live your life
either surrounded by walls
disconnected from the whole


that is the way of the ego, the way of the mind
and the other style of life
is making all the walls into bridges
connected, part of the whole
that is the way of meditation, the way of egolessness


the first person lives in hell
and only he is responsible, nobody else
and the second person lives in heaven
again he is responsible, nobody else
it is our choice
so don't ever blame stars, don't ever blame fate
don't shirk your responsibility
don't throw it on anybody else's shoulders


this is one of the fundamentals of sannyas
that i am responsible
for whatsoever is happening to me
only i am responsible and nobody else
once this responsibility is totally accepted
life goes through a revolution
a revolution that brings
thousands of blessings and benedictions
			

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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