---
section: Library
booktitle: "Om Shantih Shantih Shantih"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "SHANTI"
dategiven: "09 March 1988 am"
place: " in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #18"
chaptertitle: "The mind goes out of employment"
acode: "8803090"
shorttitle: "SHANTI18"
audio: "Yes"
video: "Yes"
esttime: "71mins"
displaytitle: "Om Shantih Shantih Shantih: Chapter #18"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="question">BELOVED MASTER,
AS FAR BACK AS I CAN REMEMBER FROM MY EARLY CHILDHOOD UNTIL I TOOK SANNYAS, I WAS VERY MUCH SUFFERING FROM THE STRONG FEELING THAT EVERYTHING WAS TOO COMPLICATED. SINCE I MET YOU EIGHT YEARS AGO THINGS HAVE STARTED TO BE SLOWLY, SLOWLY MORE AND MORE SIMPLE. FOR ME, THIS IS A MIRACLE FOR WHICH I CAN SAY THANKS FOREVER.
TO BE SIMPLE IS VERY SIGNIFICANT FOR ME. PLEASE, CAN YOU SPEAK ABOUT SIMPLICITY?</p>


Dhyan Guy, the world is as you are. It is complicated if you are complicated. It is very simple if you are simple. In other words you are the world. Mind makes everything complicated. Even the simplest thing becomes complicated for the simple reason that mind's function is to fight against complexities and win over lands which it itself has projected.


But for the heart, everything is simple. It simply takes the world as it is. And if you go a little deeper, for the being even the word 'simplicity' is too complicated. Things are as they are. And in this experience existence becomes your home -- not a struggle to solve problems, not a turmoil of emotions, but a place to rest and relax and let things be as they are.


So you have a three-layer system in your being. The uppermost is the mind, which is only interested in complexities. If it meets God it will not be interested at all because there is no God and no possibility to meet him. For centuries, mind goes on complicating, fabricating, theorizing philosophies about one who in the first place does not exist.


Mind creates the idea of God and then starts inquiring what God is. And naturally, you cannot find God so it becomes more and more complex, you have to develop belief systems. God has been the center of all theologies, all religions, and thousands of scholars are worrying about God.


The second layer, of the heart, does not project anything, it simply accepts things as they are. But a man of the heart is not acceptable to society. He is too simple, almost a simpleton. And at the fundamental roots of your being, the world's complexity, simplicity and the problems they create have never arisen. There it is utter silence; there is no problem at all.


Things are so beautiful and the world is so full of music, songs, playfulness. But it opens itself only to the person who has centered himself in his being.


You say, "Since I met you eight years ago, things have started to be slowly, slowly more and more simple. For me, this is a miracle for which I can say thanks forever. To be simple is very significant for me." Being with me is in fact being with yourself. Being sincerely with me, you are yourself. You have touched the world of being -- and just being is enough. These birds singing around... and just see the trees how joyous they look basking in the early morning sun.... That seems to be no problem at all. But the mind cannot live without problems and it cannot easily allow retirement; it gives fight. That's why what can happen in an instant, is happening slowly, slowly.


Either you are simple or you are not. There are not categories that one is a little more simple and the other a little more... Simplicity does not belong to the world of categories, measurements. It is a quality, and you have not to do anything to be simple. That is one of the most important things to remember. Millions of religious people have tried to be simple, but when you try to be simple, your simplicity itself becomes tremendously complex. It is not authentic simplicity which is created by effort. Simplicity has to be spontaneous, by understanding and not by effort; by meditation, not by action. You have simply to understand that mind has a certain sickness of making things complex.


One German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, was approached by a beautiful young woman. She waited long, but he must have been a man like Niskriya. He never looked this way or that way. He simply went from his home directly to the university. He functioned almost like a robot. People used to fix their watches on seeing Immanuel Kant going to the university. When he was coming back, it again showed the time.


The girl gathered courage and told him that she loved him. He was very much shocked that somebody loved him -- it is becoming a dangerous situation. He said, "I will think about it."
She said, "No, I really love you."
He said, "You may love; that is your problem..."
"... and I want to get married to you."


He said, "It is a very complicated problem. First, I have to find out all the pros and cons about marriage -- what will be the benefit and what will be the trouble -- and weigh them. Unless I come to a point where I see that to be married is better, you will have to forgive me."


And he worked hard, looking into encyclopedias, poetry, love stories. Then he said, "My God, what trouble I'm getting into. Already, my whole time is wasted by investigation and I am not married." In three years he accumulated three hundred points in favor of marriage and two hundred and ninety-nine points against marriage.


A friend told him, "You should understand one thing: this intellectual agony that you are going through, even without getting married, in three years you have got a real taste of it. And I suggest one thing more to you: whenever it is a question to experience a thing or not to experience a thing it is better to experience. That will make you more mature."


So the list was now equal. And the friend said, "Don't be afraid. All over the world everybody is married."


So he said, "Okay, if you all say -- and now the points are the same. I will go..." And he knocked on the doors of the girl's house.


Her father came out and he said, "You have come a little late. My girl got married three years ago. Now she has two children. You will have to find someone else."


He said, "No, I don't want to find someone else. I am relieved of such a burden. In these three years I have been in such a torture. It is enough experience."


Mind only thinks about things. "What will happen after death?" Why can't you wait? One thing is certain: you will die -- I guarantee it! How you prefer to die, that is another matter, but there are books and books about death and what will happen after death. In India people were more philosophically minded, not now, but twenty-five centuries ago....


In the golden days of Gautam Buddha, they even started to think about what was happening before the world. Ordinarily, nobody bothers. Have you ever been concerned where you were and what was happening to you before birth? The problem simply does not arise. And once they have created a belief system that something was happening before birth, then the whole philosophy of reincarnation... and there are complexities in the philosophy, different interpretations.


The day Gautam Buddha died, his followers divided over small points into thirty-two schools: how many hells there are... Now these are purely mind games. You have not been in a hell, nor have you met anybody who has been in a hell.


Jainas believe there are three hells -- just a mind calculation because there are small-time sinners who drink tea and eat in the night, and smoke once in a while. Just small sins...! Some place has to be made for them. So the first layer is of small sinners. Then there are bigger sinners who steal, who murder, who commit suicide and so on and so forth. And the third is specially for the greatest sinners: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Ronald Reagan. The categories are absolutely necessary for the mind to figure out things. And nobody bothers whether there is any hell or not. And similarly there are three heavens, just to equalize and balance.


Buddhists believe that there are seven hells because there are so many sins that they cannot be divided into three categories only. And the followers of Buddha thought, "Our approach is far more scientific; you have only three hells..."


There was a man who must have had a great sense of humor; his name was Makhkhali Gosal. He was also a competitor theologian. He said, "All these people who are talking know nothing. There are seventy-seven hells." Sins have to be categorized in a more mathematical, accurate way, and this is just an example. Mind has been creating all kinds of problems which don't exist, but once the mind has created them, then they become very complicated -- and all answers bring more new questions.


In the Middle Ages, all the Christian theologians were concerned with a special discussion -- you will think they were all idiots -- how many angels can stand on a pinpoint?! What business...? That is their problem, how many can stand on a pinpoint. In the first place, why should they stand? Is there not something else to do? But the problem was to prove the weightlessness of the angel, and different theologies were giving different answers -- and they were conflicting.


The whole world has lived in controversies which have to be understood as mind-created. Mind enjoys very much. If there are no problems and life is simple, there is no work for the mind. The mind goes out of employment.


The heart does not project problems, but gets caught into a small net of things, jealousy, anger, love, and makes too much of it. They are not theological problems, they are not very philosophical. They are simple but there is some shadow of the mind in them.
Only your being has no emotions and no thought.
It simply is.


In that ISness a tremendous world opens all its mysteries.


It is good that you are going slowly slowly, but better will be to take an instantaneous jump, because slowly slowly, you can go on and on for lives.... And if you see the point that as mind becomes simple, a beauty, a grace arises in your being, a childlike wonder about everything, a peace and a silence and a blissfulness -- why should you go slowly? Everywhere, you go with speed. Slowly means you are going reluctantly, trying to postpone it as long as you can, and meanwhile solve a few problems.


This will not take you to it. This is the experience of the mystics that if you see the point, in that very point all problems, all questions, all philosophies, everything disappears.


Miss Goodbody has been teaching for twenty years, so all the kids bring her presents. They line up in front of her holding the gifts and she tries to guess what they are.


Little Ernie's father has a liquor store and she notices that little Ernie's package is leaking, so she tastes it.
"Did you bring me Scotch whiskey?" she asks.
"No," replies little Ernie.


So Miss Goodbody turns to little Ronnie. Little Ronnie's father is a florist.


"Did you bring me some love roses?" asks Miss Goodbody.


"Yes, teacher," replies Ronny, passing her the flowers.


Then Miss Goodbody goes back to Ernie's leaking package and tastes it again.
"Did you bring me gin?" she says.
"No," replies little Ernie.
Little Ruthy's father has a candy store.
"Have you brought me candy?" asks Miss Goodbody.


"Yes, teacher," replies Ruthy and gives her the package.


Then Miss Goodbody goes back to Ernie and tastes the leaking packet again.
"Did you bring me rum?" she asks.


"No," replies little Ernie, "I brought you a puppy."


This world is so hilarious. What complications...? The poor puppy is just doing his thing.


Little Ernie gives a loud wolf whistle in the middle of Father Murphy's sermon, and his grandfather picks him up and carries him out of the church.


Once they are outside, he starts to scold. "How could you?" he cries, "Making such a noise in the church...!"


"Well," replies little Ernie looking quite excited, "I have been praying for a long time that God would teach me to whistle, and this morning he did."


Just look at life with more playful eyes. Don't be serious. Seriousness becomes like a blindness. Don't pretend to be a thinker, a philosopher. Just simply be a human being. The whole world is showering its joy on you in so many ways, but you are too serious, you cannot open your heart.


Mendel Kravitz, the American from New York, goes to Japan on a business trip and meets a lovely young Japanese woman. She cannot speak much English and he does not know Japanese.


After dinner together they go back to her apartment and Mendel starts to make passionate love to her. All the time the beautiful Japanese girl is yelling, "Titti gochi, titti gochi, ah titti gochi."


Mendel thinks that she must never have had such a great lover as himself.


The next day Mendel and a Japanese businessman are playing golf. Halfway through the game, the Japanese man hits a hole in one. Not knowing any Japanese, but delighted for his friend, Mendel wants to show his excitement and cries out, "Ah, titti gochi!"


The Japanese businessman spins around and looking amazed asks, "What do you mean by wrong hole?"


Young Fergin Finkelstein has just graduated from law school and is applying for a job at a large corporation. The personnel manager looks him in the eye and says, "Mr. Finkelstein, are you an honest attorney?"


"Honest?" says young Fink. "Let me tell you something. My father lent me ten thousand dollars for my college education and I paid him back in full after my very first case."


"I am impressed," says the manager. "And what was the case?"


Young Fink turns red and says, "My father sued me for the money."


As far as I am concerned I don't see any complexity anywhere. All complexities are man-made. Simplicity is divine. It is not manufactured; it is simply here. You just have to open your eyes, your sensitivity, receptivity, and allow it to touch your heart, to enter into your being.


A beautiful world is possible if people are just simple, but to be simple is the exact meaning of religious. To be simple can be reduced to the first part of the statement on the temple of Delphi: be. And you will be surprised that everything is so juicy. But you never entered into the world of being and everything becomes a trouble, a puzzle, a complication, a complexity -- and you have to solve it without knowing that the problem is false, it cannot have a right solution.


Mulla Nasruddin was given an interview with a shipping company. The manager asked, "Nasruddin, it is a dangerous job. Sometimes the ocean behaves so roughly. If you are caught in tidal waves, what are you going to do with your ship?"


He said, "No problem at all. I will simply lower down the defense mechanism that every ship has, just weights, huge weights which keep the ship stable even when there is so much turmoil all around."


The manager said, "Another tidal wave is arising...?"


He said, "No problem. I will again lower down a huge weight" -- In the shipping world these weights are called langers.


The manager said, "But if a third wave comes, what will you do?"
He said, "No problem... a bigger langer."


The manager is in a difficulty what to do with this man. He says, "From where are you getting all these langers?"


Mulla Nasruddin said, "And from where are you getting these tidal waves?"

The same is the source....


You go on bringing tidal waves and I will go on lowering bigger and bigger langers.


Mind creates problems, raises tidal waves and then searches for langers and creates those langers also.... But more tidal waves are coming, and things become very difficult.


Paddy and Sean are sitting in the pub one day talking about their wives when Paddy looks into the distance, sighs and says, "Do you know what it means to come home at night to a woman who will give you a little love, a little affection, a little tenderness?"
"No," says Sean, "I am afraid I don't."
"I will tell you what it means," replies Paddy sipping his beer, "it means you are in the wrong bloody house."


In your own house it is not going to happen. Wherever I have lived I have always loved to be friends with drunkards because they are such juicy people and they say such great things -- and no newspaper takes any note...!


In my village, just in front of my house was a barber's shop. And that barber was a miracle man. He was so opium addicted that it was a miracle that he managed to find where his shop was and where his house was.


But every day I used to sit in his shop, and something was bound to happen. He would cut somebody's mustache off and then he would say, "Wait. I have urgent work to do in the market."


And the man would say, "But this is stupid ... sitting here in the barber's chair with half a mustache! You are not reliable. When will you return? And whether you will return or not today... and I have other things to do."


And the barber would say, "Don't be worried. I will come."


Sometimes it would happen that somebody had come to be shaved, and he would shave his head. And once he had started, half of the hairs gone -- now there is no way. And he was a great philosopher. He would say, "Don't worry. These hairs grow like grass. They will grow. And as far as I am concerned, you need not pay until they grow. Then you can pay me if you feel like it. But you had such beautiful hair that I felt to shave it completely. So what do you say? Should I complete the process or leave it as it is?"


Naturally, the man would say, "You complete the process, you idiot! Everybody warned me, 'Never go to this barber. He is not in his senses.'"


He would shave him completely and he would say, "You don't be worried. I will not charge you anything."


The man said, "It is not a question of charging anything... the whole village is going to laugh."


And in India particularly, you shave your head completely only when your father is dead... "So everybody is going to ask, 'My God, what happened to your father?'"


And he would advise, "No, it is just a question of a few days -- it will grow."


And I would spread the rumor that his father is dead; and then say, "Mistakenly he thought he was dead, so he shaved his hair. Don't torture him."


One day he told me, "What do you think? -- because you are my greatest fan."
I said, "That's true."


..."If all the opium addicts make a political party, can they create a revolution in the country?"


I said, "If they can manage to make a party, the revolution has already happened."


He said, "You are right, because opium addicts don't agree with anybody else. Even amongst themselves they are continuously disagreeing about everything. These are the most difficult people, but it is the absolute necessity of the times if you want this country to be liberated from the politicians. You should do something."
I said, "But what can I do?"


He said, "You can at least start a party for opium addicts."


I said, "The idea is good, but I am not an opium addict myself."


He said, "That I will teach you, but promise me that after that you will take great care. These opium addicts are very dangerous people."


One man was pissing behind his shop -- in India it is common -- and the barber caught hold of him and the man was trying... "What are you doing?"


And he said, "You idiot. In my absence you are milking my cow? I heard the noise!"


You have just to look and you will find a very simple world, and it will give your being such a shower of blessings.


You don't have to go to any church. Those churches are created by very complicated people. You don't have to go to a temple -- those gods are mind-manufactured. You don't have to go anywhere.


Just go within yourself and relax, and go on relaxing till you touch the very center of your being. And suddenly, the whole scene of the world changes: everything becomes totally new and fresh.


Just these owls... just this silence.... What is complicated? These trees trying to reach to the stars -- what is complicated?
You are complicated.
The world is absolutely simple.


And you are complicated because you are not rooted in your being. So please, don't go slowly and don't go with speed; just don't go anywhere.


Remain within you. That sentence on Delphi center: BE... But if you cannot do that, then know thyself -- then find out some meditative method, some awareness technique and keep the measure.


In everything remain balanced, and life itself is a teaching in simplicity.

Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Beloved Master.
			

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