---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Imprisoned Splendor"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "IMPRIS"
dategiven: "30 June 1980 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #29"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8006305"
shorttitle: "IMPRIS30"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Imprisoned Splendor: Chapter #29"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
<!--This file is automatically generated. Do not edit!-->
> [!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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up.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.]


The greatest courage in life is needed when you go inwards, for many reasons...


The first is: it is a flight from the alone to the alone, it is going deeper into your aloneness. And man is caught up in such a way that he becomes accustomed to company, to people, to family. He forgets absolutely the joy of being alone; hence there is a fear of being left alone. That's why nations exist: it is because of fear, not because of any love. That's why religions exist -- not because of a longing for god. How many people really long for god? Not so many Christians, not so many Hindus, not so many Mohammedans. The whole world is religious in that way. But people are afraid of being left alone; they have to be part of some crowd -- a political crowd, a social crowd, a religious crowd; any crowd will do, but they are dependent on the crowd. They feel good when they are surrounded by people; they start feeling shaky, scared when they find there is nobody and they are alone. That is the fear that grips you when you are lost in a jungle or in a desert where, as far as you can see, there is nobody. That utter aloneness creates great fear because we are conditioned by the crowd, for the crowd, as part of the crowd. We are not brought up as individuals. We are brought up as small units of a great mechanism called the society, the nation, the church.


People are not satisfied with these crowds -- they create their small crowds -- because when the crowd is very big you start losing yourself in the crowd. It becomes impossible for you to recognise people, to see who is who; hence people create small crowds of their own: the Rotary Club, the Lion's Club. These are just small crowds where everybody knows everybody else, where everybody is acquainted with everybody else.


The greatest fear arises when you move inwards... because it is possible to find a man in the desert, it is possible to find somebody in the jungle when you are lost.
I have heard a story:


Once a hunter got lost in the jungle. He tried for three days continuously, but he could not find any way to get out. He got deeper and deeper in the thicker parts of the jungle. He became desperate: he could not sleep, there was nothing to eat. After three days he thought 'This is death. Now I cannot survive.' He shouted and did everything and on the third day evening, he suddenly saw a man coming. They both rejoiced, both ran towards each other and hugged each other. They were absolutely unacquainted, but what a joy to see another man! But soon they found that that joy was wrong, they were disillusioned: both were lost. Each was thinking 'Now I have found a person who will help me to get out,' and both rejoiced for a moment, but the moment they explained to each other why they were rejoicing so much, both were shocked.


They were still lost in the same way, but they were not in so much despair. At least they could share their misery, they could communicate, relate, talk to each other, converse, do something -- together. They were still lost in the same way but somehow it felt different.


That's how marriage came into existence. Two lost people for a moment enjoy the honeymoon, thinking 'I have found the person whom I was seeking,' and each is thinking the same; soon they will be disillusioned. But still, even though they will be miserable, they will be miserable together. It is better, people think, to be miserable together than to be miserable alone; in fact in togetherness misery is multiplied. But people love togetherness because we are brought up in that way. From the very first moment of birth the child depends on the mother, on the father, on the family. Then his circle becomes bigger, but he always remains part of some group, some collectivity.


Meditation is the only phenomenon where there is no possibility of meeting anybody, where you have to go alone, totally alone. Hence only very courageous people can enter into the world of meditation. That's why so few people have ever entered, Why so few people have ever become enlightened.


Secondly: when you move inwards you move without any maps. Even if you go to the moon you have a certain map, a certain route. There have been people before you, their footprints are there, there are milestones everywhere. Even in the sea you are not totally lost, in the sky you are not totally lost: you can communicate with people, you can give messages -- even from the moon! You can remain in some kind of relationship; it may be just through radio waves, but you can remain connected. You can still hear the voices of people, you can still see that others are there; you are connected.


But when you move inwards, the people who have gone in cannot leave any footprints for anybody. It is impossible, because everybody's inner territory is so different that Buddha's footprints won't help you and if you follow Buddha's footprints literally, you will never find yourself.


Jesus' map won't help you; you cannot follow it literally. It can help in a very indirect way; it can make you aware of certain things inside, but in a very vague sense. It can give you the confidence that 'Yes, there is a world inside, no doubt about it, because so many people cannot be lying. Buddha, Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Mahavira, Krishna, Mohammed, such beautiful people cannot all be lying. They cannot be in a conspiracy -- for what? They never existed together -- they lived in different ages, in different countries -- yet they all speak almost the same language... But you cannot follow it exactly because Buddha's inner territory is different. Each individual is unique, so unique that you have to discover yourself all alone; hence great courage is needed.


This is the greatest adventure in life, and one who goes on this adventure is blessed.


These are the two paths that have been followed up to now by all the seekers. Either people have arrived through love -- Meera, Chaitanya, Farid, Bahauddin, Jesus, Mohammed... All these people have arrived through the path of love. And the other path is of meditation -- Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu. These people have followed the path of meditation. Both arrive at the same goal; but up to now nobody has tried to create a higher synthesis of the two.


My effort here is to create that higher synthesis. Because of these two different paths, humanity has become divided. And it is  possible that one can be both together, there is no intrinsic impossibility in it. They are complementaries, not opposites, but they have always been thought to be opposites. In fact opposites are always complementaries. For example, negative and positive poles look opposite but together they both create electricity. Man and woman, yin and yang, Shiva and Shakti, matter and consciousness -- these are all polarities. On the surface they are opposite, opposed to each other, but deep down they are connected, joined together.


My effort here is to help you to discover that inner connection; then a man can be both a lover and a meditator; and that will be the highest  kind of man because he will have the qualities of Jesus and Buddha together. Of course, he will be more misunderstood in the world than anybody else. Jesus, who was in a way consistent, was misunderstood. So what to say about a man like me who is trying to live both these polarities together -- not only trying to live them himself, but helping many to live in the same way? I am bound to be misunderstood, I am going to be the most misunderstood man on the earth ever, for the simple reason that each of my statements will be contradictory to other statements -- my own statements! I am bound to be inconsistent for the simple reason that when I talk about love I am bound to say something which will look as if it is going against meditation , and vice versa; when I talk about meditation it is very easy to interpret it as going against love.


To understand me one will need a very sympathetic heart -- not an analytical mind. My approach will remain incomprehensible to the analytical mind. In that way Jesus will look clear-cut, Buddha will look very clear-cut, and far more clear-cut that Jesus, because Jesus follows the path of love and love can never be very clear. Love is a kind of mad affair with god. But Buddha is very clear, very logical, very consistent, comprehensible to any analytical mind.


But I am really going to be a dilemma. And that's what is creating so much controversy all over the world -- and it is going to grow every day. I would like to involve the whole world in a controversy over what I am doing, because that controversy will bring the most intelligent and sympathetic people to me. Only the stupid will be debarred, and who cares about them. I want only the most intelligent people; not intellectual but intelligent. The intellectual will not be able to understand; only the intelligent will be able to see the complementariness of the opposites.


And I would like my sannyasins to be more liquid than the followers of Jesus or Buddha -- they are more rigid. My sannyasins have to be more like water, so they can take any form. If you fill a pot with water, it takes the form of the pot; if you pour the water in a bucket, it takes the form of the bucket. It has no resistance, it does not fight with any form. It is always in a state of let-go.


My sannyasins have to be in a state of let-go, so when they are alone they will be meditators, enjoying their aloneness, their solitariness, and when they are together they will be lovers and great lovers and enjoying togetherness. They will not renounce the world; there is no reason to renounce the world -- they can fit anywhere, they can adjust anywhere. Their adjustability will be almost infinite. And that is what is needed in the world: not rigid people, not fanatic people, but liquid people.
Become both love and meditation. Allow that synthesis to happen in you.


The old religions are religions of renunciation. They teach people anti-life attitudes, they are life-negative. they encourage people to renounce life, to escape to the monasteries, to the mountains, to the deserts.


My religion is a religion of celebration, festivity. I teach not renunciation, but deep rejoicing. Rejoice in life because life is synonymous with god. There is no other god than life. I am life-affirmative. I am a total yes-sayer to life and to all that it implies, from the very ordinary things to the very extraordinary. The whole spectrum has to be accepted with gratitude -- loved, lived, gone through, transcended, but not renounced.


Yes, There comes a moment of transcendence, but that comes through living it, experiencing it, going through it. That transcendence comes of its own accord, not through any effort. when you force something you become ugly. that's why your old so-called saints are ugly. they don't have the grace, the beauty, the joy, the splendour of the divine. they are like parrots: repeating, reciting scriptures, torturing themselves. In the name of religion they are really practising masochists, and teaching others also to torture themselves.


The whole of religion up to now has remained pathological, sado-masochistic: torture yourself and teach others to torture themselves. The more you torture yourself, the greater a saint you are, the more holy you are; the less you torture yourself of course, the smaller a saint you are. You will also have a place in heaven but just near the gate, not very close to the palace of god -- that is impossible. Around him will be real torturers.


He must be getting tired of these people, unless he himself is a sadist and enjoys all this torture: people fasting, lying down on a bed of nails, hitting their own body with spears, wounding themselves, creating as many wounds as possible in the body and never allowing those wounds to heal. Just think of a go surrounded by these people -- this god must be a sadist!


They say the best marriage is between a sadist and a masochist because the sadist wants to torture and the masochist wants to be tortured. That is the best kind of marriage, because both can enjoy themselves. But sometimes even that may not work.


One masochist read about this, that the best kind of marriage is that of a sadist with a masochist. and she was a masochist, she wanted to be tortured, so she searched for a sadist and she found one. The sadist was also happy because no woman was ready to marry him but this woman rejoiced in finding him because he would be torturing her -- that was his joy -- and to be tortured was her joy...


So on the first night of the honeymoon the woman threw off her clothes. Naked, she lay down on the floor and the man brought in the bag he used to carry for such loving situations. In the bag he used to have all kinds of instruments of torture -- nails and screwdrivers and all kinds of things! He started bringing them out and the woman rejoiced; she was almost going into orgasm, just seeing the things he was taking out! And then he just sat there.


The woman said, 'What are you doing? Start!' But he just sat there. The woman said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'I rejoice in torturing people. Now, I will not do anything -- this is my joy. Now you will feel tortured, now you will know what torture is.' And he started putting the things back.
So sometimes even that may not work!


God is not a sadist and the mahatmas need not be masochists. They are ill and pathological people. My sannyasins have to be whole; they have to live as totally, as intensely, as passionately as possible. They have to rejoice in life.


Bliss is our goal, bliss is our ultimate truth, and we are going to find it dancing, celebrating. We will celebrate life, we will celebrate even death -- we will celebrate everything!


Celebration is the keyword if somebody want to understand me and my philosophy, my religion, my way of life.
		

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