---
section: Library
booktitle: "Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "CUCKOO"
dategiven: "04 July 1988 pm"
place: " in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #8"
chaptertitle: "Like the tongue of a dead man"
acode: "8807045"
shorttitle: "CUCKOO08"
audio: "Yes"
video: "Yes"
esttime: "90mins"
displaytitle: "Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest: Chapter #8"
---

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  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
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<p class="sutra">BELOVED OSHO,
SEPPO FIRST VISITED ENKAN, THEN TOSU THREE TIMES, AND TOZAN NINE TIMES, WITHOUT RESULT. WHEN AT LAST HE VISITED TOKUSAN, SEPPO ASKED HIM, "IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TOO TO SHARE, WITH THE PATRIARCHS, IN THE SUPREME TEACHING?"
TOKUSAN STRUCK HIM WITH HIS STAFF, SAYING, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
THE NEXT DAY SEPPO ASKED FOR AN EXPLANATION. TOKUSAN SAID, "MY RELIGION HAS NO WORDS AND SENTENCES. IT HAS NOTHING TO GIVE ANYBODY."
AT THIS SEPPO BECAME ENLIGHTENED.
ONCE, A MONK ASKED TOZAN, "WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES?"
TOZAN SAID, "IT IS LIKE THE TONGUE OF A DEAD MAN."
ON ANOTHER OCCASION A NUN ASKED JOSHU, "WHAT IS THE SECRET OF SECRETS?"
JOSHU TAPPED HER ON THE ELBOW.
THE NUN SAID, "YOU ARE STILL HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING."
"NO," SAID JOSHU. "IT IS YOU WHO ARE HOLDING ON TO IT."
ONCE A MONK ASKED JOSHU, "WHAT IS THE WORD OF THE ANCIENTS?"
JOSHU SAID, "LISTEN CAREFULLY! LISTEN CAREFULLY!"</p>


Maneesha, listen carefully ....


The cuckoos are absolutely free to sing their song or not. Listen carefully to the birds, because these sounds are coming from the very center of existence. It is life singing, dancing, rejoicing.
Before I discuss the anecdote before me, I have a few things to say to you.


First -- you have to be aware that you are living in an insane world. Unless you see the insanity of the world and its behavior, you will never get rid of it. You will always be in bondage.


Just today I came across the statistics: one million children every year are being sold at the high price of twenty to forty thousand dollars, for sexual abuse. And this figure of one million is not the total number, because many countries don't allow any survey. It is absolutely certain that at least three times more children from poor countries, poor parents, will be sold for sexual abuse. And we call this world sane.


Just in New York last year, hundreds of small just-born babies were found thrown into junk yards, into gutters, flushed into toilets. What can be more barbarous? And all these people pretend to be part of some religion -- Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mohammedan. Why this kind of insane behavior? Because nobody is objecting, because great vested interests are supporting the whole mafia. Your politicians are involved in it, your religious leaders are involved in it. Otherwise, such inhuman acts cannot continue. One suspects whether humanity will ever become a culture, a civilization.


Just today I have received a letter from the Shankaracharya of Puri saying that he wants a debate with me. I am perfectly willing, but on what grounds is he going to debate with me? He has said that if a woman is burned alive, becomes a sati, then in Hyderabad rains will come. Now on what grounds can we discuss it? The only way is that the Shankaracharya should become a sati in Hyderabad! And if rains come, I will accept that he was right. If rains don't come, everybody will know that he was wrong.


He thinks in terms of scriptures, not in terms of real life. He thinks that he can discuss with me because in the Hindu scriptures the idea is that a woman whose husband has died has to jump into his funeral pyre. To him, it proves that sati pratha is right. To me, it proves that the scripture has to be thrown into the fire! On what grounds can we discuss?


Even so-called great saints, avataras ... I don't bother how ancient they are. The more ancient, the more rotten.


A single act is enough to prove that all the statues of Rama should be removed from all the temples. He killed a young harijan boy, because Hindu scriptures say that the poor harijans cannot read the religious scriptures and this boy -- although he was not reading, because they have never been allowed any education -- was curious. A few brahmins were doing a ritual, chanting Sanskrit mantras, and this boy, out of curiosity, hiding behind the bushes, heard the Vedic scriptures. This was his crime.


And a man of the quality of Rama, whom Hindus believe to be a god, poured hot, liquid lead into the ears of the boy because he had heard the holy scriptures, which was prohibited. The boy died -- and still nobody has objected to Rama. To me this is enough to prove that this man is a politician and nothing else.


The letter that I have received from this Shankaracharya is an absolute lie. He says, "I challenged you to a debate twelve years ago." I have been in Poona from 1974 -- twelve years means somewhere near 1976. I have not received any challenge. And anyway, there is still time, but what is he going to prove to me? I encountered him in 1965 in Patna during a world Hindu conference and criticized every point that he was making. And I asked one hundred thousand people who had gathered for the international conference, "Are you in agreement with me? -- then raise your hands!" Not a single person was there who did not raise his hand. He is already defeated!


But he is old, and getting more and more senile. To me, just because something is written in a book does not mean that it has to be right. The criterion for its being right has to be humanitarian.


The Hindu scriptures say that the women have to be categorized just like animals. The great Hindu saint Tulsidas says that every woman has to be beaten at least once a week. Just because it is written by Tulsidas, it does not become a truth. It simply shows the stupidity of the man, the inhumanity of the man, and his book should be burned. At least all the women around the country, wherever they find Tulsidas' book, should immediately burn it. It is male chauvinistic.


To me, who is not part of any religion, there is no prejudice. Everything has to be clear-cut and straightforward, no politics in it. That's what the Shankaracharya is doing. And opposing him, another Hindu sannyasin, Swami Agnivesh, is doing the same. Politics is such a game. It makes people like footballs. Their interests are different; Agnivesh is against the Shankaracharya. I am against both, because they are two polarities of the same politics.


The Shankaracharya does not want Hindu harijans to enter into Nath Dwara, a temple in Rajasthan. And Agnivesh is determined to take a big crowd of harijans and enter forcibly into the temple, where never in the whole of history has any harijan been allowed. It is not because of great compassion that Agnivesh is trying to bring harijans. And the Shankaracharya is determined that they cannot enter, and he will do everything to prevent the entry because that will spoil the purity of the temple.


The harijans should see a simple point, that for centuries Hindus have been entering that temple -- what have they gained except poverty, slavery, starvation? What are harijans going to gain by entering in Nath Dwara uninvited, rejected?


If they listen to an unprejudiced approach, they should spit on this temple which has never in centuries allowed their ancestors to enter. They should refuse. Even if the Shankaracharya touches their feet and asks them to come into Nath Dwara, they should not enter such ugly places, so inhuman, so violent ...


But the poor harijans will not understand a simple fact: you have been tortured for ten thousand years and still you go on thinking of yourselves as Hindu. You are not! Hindus themselves have rejected you; you are not allowed to enter their temples, you are not allowed to read their scriptures. On what grounds do they say you are Hindus? They burn your villages, hundreds of people burned alive -- strangely, young children, old men. They just save young girls, to rape, and this has been going on and on for centuries.


It is for the harijans to reject Agnivesh and tell him, "Go and jump into the ocean. Don't bother us, we are not Hindus." And tell the Shankaracharya, "Why are you unnecessarily making a fuss? Who wants to enter your temple? Keep your temple!"


Harijans should declare themselves independent from Hindus. They are such a big force that they will change the whole character of Indian politics. They are one fourth of all Hindus; one fourth of the power should go to them.


Even Mahatma Gandhi deceived. Before India's independence, he was saying that the first president should be a harijan girl. He was proposing two things: raising the respect towards women and the respect towards the harijan. And when the country became independent, he forgot it completely. Again the brahmins, the Nehrus ... and they have made themselves a dynasty. They call it democracy.


As an individual, I don't belong to any party or to any religion. I am not a politician and I am not a religious man in the ordinary sense because I am not Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian. I don't feel that I have to belong to any organization; I am enough unto myself. And that is my whole teaching, that you should not belong to any organization; you are enough. Your splendor has to be independent.


The women also have to come to a conclusive decision that they will not vote for men. Half of the country belongs to women -- half of the parliament should also belong to them. They should ask for a separate vote; no woman is going to vote for any man of any party.


It is not a question of party, it is a question of a long slavery that man has imposed on women. All women should fight against this slavery.


In India, the harijans and the women are the two most oppressed, insulted, humiliated beings. If they get together, this country will belong to them. Let these Shankaracharyas and these Nehrus be forgotten. It is a simple fact that freedom has not come to the country. Britain has gone but slavery is still here. What kind of spirituality is it, that does not allow human beings to enter temples?


I accept the Shankaracharya's challenge, but because he is giving the challenge, he will have to accept my conditions. He has to come here, because I don't go anywhere. And because this gathering is international, he will have to talk in English. No rotten Sanskrit will do. It will be perfectly humorous, we will all enjoy it, but that old goat has to come here -- that is the first condition.


Second, the language in which the conversation is to happen will be international: the English language.


Thirdly, when entering the gate he and his company have to bring negative AIDS certificates. Without negative certificates, they cannot enter this campus. This is the only campus in the world which is AIDS-free.


If he is willing to fulfill these conditions he is welcome. We will really enjoy.

Now, Maneesha's Zen anecdote:


SEPPO FIRST VISITED ENKAN, THEN TOSU THREE TIMES, AND TOZAN NINE TIMES, WITHOUT RESULT.      ... Because Seppo was a great scholar, and all these people were men of reality, not men of knowledge. So although he could feel there was something... but he could not come to a conclusion about what it was. There is something -- otherwise why should he go first to Enkan, then to Tosu three times and Tozan nine times, but without coming to a conclusion about what it is?


The reason was, he was trying to approach reality through the mind. Mind can only weave philosophies, theorizations, but it cannot know. It is blind as far as your own being is concerned. And that is, emphatically, the only religious experience: where your logic and your reason and your mind no longer function; when you are simply a pure space, unclouded.


WHEN AT LAST HE VISITED TOKUSAN, SEPPO ASKED HIM, "IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO SHARE WITH THE PATRIARCHS," the buddhas, "IN THE SUPREME TEACHING?"
TOKUSAN STRUCK HIM WITH HIS STAFF, SAYING, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"


Intellectually, what he is asking is perfectly valid. Existentially it is absolutely wrong. This distinction you have to remember.


He had asked, "Is it possible for me to share the experience of a buddha?" Nobody can experience through the mind. And without the mind, there is no need to share because you are the buddha. That's why Tokusan struck him with his staff, saying, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
THE NEXT DAY SEPPO ASKED FOR AN EXPLANATION. TOKUSAN SAID, "MY RELIGION HAS NO WORDS AND SENTENCES. IT HAS NOTHING TO GIVE ANYBODY."
At this point,
<p class="sutra">SEPPO BECAME ENLIGHTENED.</p>


Enlightenment is not something that you can get from somebody else. Tired ... he must have been going to one master, then another master, then another master -- three times, nine times. Tokusan was the last master. His intellect tired, his mind tired, he simply sat there when Tokusan hit him with his staff, saying to him,
<p class="sutra">"MY RELIGION HAS NO WORDS AND SENTENCES. IT HAS NOTHING TO GIVE ANYBODY."</p>


In that silence, he suddenly became awake.
In this silence, anyone can become awake.


I am inviting the Shankaracharya to see for the first time in his life what silence means -- it is not a scripture. What a gathering of buddhas means -- no mind, but just a dance of being, a rejoicing inside, in your eternity, immortality, in your very truth.


And if he comes here, I will have to bring my staff, too. He is old and I don't want to hit him, but at least I can show him the staff and show him your presence, your silence. This whole silence says more than any scripture can say.


One never knows, perhaps even the Shankaracharya of Puri can become enlightened! As far as this moment goes, he is the most unenlightened man on the earth, but from this point, the quantum leap can be possible. Because the road ends; he cannot be more stupid than he is. He cannot fall more, there is no way. He has to turn back.


And I would like Swami Agnivesh to know ... Why bother forcing people into Nath Dwara when the priests of Nath Dwara are unwilling? My doors are open. Bring all your harijans and my people will hug them. Give dignity to people! This is very undignified.


But politics is politics. Agnivesh knows that the Shankaracharya is going to fight hard. He will not allow harijans to enter and this gives Agnivesh a chance to become a leader of harijans. He belongs to the same old rotten gang, but harijans will think, "He is our friend." He is your enemy -- as much, or perhaps more, than the Shankaracharya of Puri. All that he wants is votes. I know him. This is a great strategy. Two hundred and fifty million votes are there. Agnivesh is trying to make himself a great leader of the downtrodden and the oppressed, but the real desire is to have power.


When this temple's doors are open, Agnivesh should bring his followers here. We will give them more respect than has ever been given to harijans in the whole of history. They have been treated as cattle. But he will not come here. He also needs a good beating of the staff! He knows nothing of religion. If he knew even a little bit, he would not put harijans into an insulting, humiliating state. This is not giving respect to those who have been treated like animals. Even their shadows make things impure ....


In the whole world nobody has been so badly treated as harijans, and still you ask -- from the same people, the same temples, the same priests! Harijans should destroy these temples and burn these scriptures and throw these priests into the ocean. They are enough, and they have every right. For thousands of years they have been treated like shoes. Even shoes are treated better.


But one never knows, perhaps Agnivesh may become enlightened. It is everybody's right. If the Shankaracharya of Puri can become enlightened, everybody else in the world becomes entitled to enlightenment.
<p class="sutra">ONCE A MONK ASKED TOZAN, "WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES?"
TOZAN SAID, "IT IS LIKE THE TONGUE OF A DEAD MAN."</p>


These are people who know. These are not priests. These are not philosophers either. These are the people who have gone deep into their own being. Their statements show their integrity, their understanding. What a beautiful statement! TOZAN SAID, "IT IS LIKE THE TONGUE OF A DEAD MAN." Just as the dead man cannot speak, the mystery of mysteries cannot be spoken. It can be lived, loved. You can be the mystery, but you cannot say anything about it. As far as saying is concerned, a dead man's tongue is as capable as your tongue.
<p class="sutra">ON ANOTHER OCCASION A NUN ASKED JOSHU, "WHAT IS THE SECRET OF SECRETS?"
JOSH TAPPED HER ON THE ELBOW.
THE NUN SAID, "YOU ARE STILL HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING."
"NO," SAID JOSHU. "IT IS YOU WHO ARE HOLDING ON TO IT."</p>


Joshu's tapping her on the elbow shows, "I can tap your elbow -- if you are receptive, this much is enough for you to enter into the secret of secrets."


But the poor nun did not understand. She said, "YOU ARE STILL HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING." That something was the nun's elbow.


"NO," SAID JOSHU. "IT IS YOU WHO ARE HOLDING ON TO IT. It is not my elbow."


In these small anecdotes tremendous secrets are revealed. He is saying, "I am not the body. And I am not the mind, because I have not said anything. I just tapped your elbow to make you aware that you are also not a body."


Ordinarily, a Buddhist is not allowed to touch a woman, but only a Zen master can do that because he knows that no one is a body. What nonsense, about male and female -- inside is simply a silent space, and that is your eternity.


But it is certainly difficult for a woman -- more difficult than for a man -- not to hold on to the body. A fact is a fact.


One day, Mulla Nasruddin caught four flies and told his wife, "I have caught four flies. Two are women and two are men."
The wife said, "My god, how do you know who is male and who is female?"


He said, "Very simple. Two were sitting on the mirror for hours, and two were reading the newspaper! And I have been watching. It proves it. There is no need for any other proof."


Why is the woman so attached to the body? It is not only her fault, it is our whole process of upbringing. We make from the very beginning a distinction between boys and girls.


In my childhood, I had long hair. I used to pass through my father's shop into the house, because the house was behind the shop. And his customers would ask, "Whose girl is this?"


My father used to feel embarrassed. He was very angry at me one day. He said, "Because of your hair, I am continually in an embarrassing position."


I said, "What is embarrassing? Just tell them that, 'She is my girl.' It will not make any difference."
He said, "You don't feel offended?"


I said, "Why should I feel offended? I am myself, whether I am man or woman. Whatever I am, I am. And just because of my hair, if somebody thinks I am a girl, it is perfectly good! Just a misunderstanding, it harms nobody."


But he was angry and he cut my hair. With the same scissors that he used to cut the cloth in his shop, he cut my hair. I said, "You will repent."
He said, "What are you going to do that I will repent?"
I said, "Within a few minutes you will see."
He knew me. He said, "Don't do anything dangerous."


I said, "Now it is going to be dangerous. You have stepped on my freedom. This is my hair."


And I went to an opium-addict barber who was my friend, because nobody else would do that .... In India, when your father dies -- only then your head can be shaved. I told the opium-addict barber, "This is a critical period of our friendship. Shave my head!"


He said, "But what about your father? And everybody will be against me ...." He said, "I will do it." And he did it -- shaved, within seconds I was back. And people started asking me, "Has your father died?"
I said, "He must have died. You see my head? That is enough to prove it."


When I entered his shop, the customers said, "My god! What happened to this boy's father?" And my father said, "Unfortunately I am the father, and I am still alive. And look -- he was right in saying that I would repent."


He called me inside and told me, "This is the last time I have done anything to you; just forgive and forget. Never again will I do anything. But this is too much!" -- because people from the town started coming. Wherever I went ... and I went all around the town just to bring everybody. They would come and they would say, "You are still alive? We saw your boy shaved completely. What happened? Who shaved him?"


My father said, "The whole day people were coming to mourn, to sympathize." When they found that he was alive, they were very much shocked themselves. And I was standing outside watching. One never knows when the moment comes ....


From that moment my father had a respect towards me that I don't think any father has ever had. And finally he became a sannyasin. I tried hard, but he would always touch my feet. He would say, "It does not matter that you are my son. I love and respect your insistence to be free and your respect for freedom."


He himself would have never thought, being a small shopkeeper, that he was going to become one day enlightened. And the day came. Listening to me continuously ... and I was only talking to him about meditation, to go on, deeper and deeper. One day he told me, that "Now you will not need to emphasize it. I have got the point."
<p class="sutra">ONCE A MONK ASKED JOSHU, "WHAT IS THE WORD OF THE ANCIENTS?"
JOSHU SAID, "LISTEN CAREFULLY! LISTEN CAREFULLY!"</p>


In this silence, listen carefully.
It is an actual experimentation, it is not a sermon or a preaching.
Listen carefully.


You will not find any word but you will find a wordless silence, drowning you in immense joy.
Joshu's answer is one of the great answers:
<p class="sutra">LISTEN CAREFULLY!</p>


Just be silent and the whole existence opens its doors.

Myoyu wrote the following poem:
<p class="sutra">DEFYING THE POWER OF SPEECH,
THE LAW COMMISSION ON MOUNT VULTURE!
KASYAPA'S SMILE TOLD THE BEYOND-TELLING.
You know Mahakashyapa and his whole story --
KASYAPA'S SMILE TOLD THE BEYOND-TELLING.
WHAT IS THERE TO REVEAL IN THAT PERFECT
ALL-SUCHNESS?</p>


In this moment, in this suchness, do you want anything more? Is not this suchness so fulfilling, with so much content?


A music without song, and a poetry without words, and a dance without movement ... you cannot have anything greater. You are the very few fortunate ones on the earth at this moment. People are engaged in mediocre things.
<p class="sutra">WHAT IS THERE TO REVEAL IN THAT PERFECT ALL-SUCHNESS?
LOOK UP!
THE MOON-MIND GLOWS UNSMIRCHED.</p>


All over, there is beauty. All over, there is truth. You don't even have to open your eyes. It is there. You don't have to stretch your hand, because it is not even that far away. It is within your hand. It is your very subjectivity.
Kido wrote:
<p class="sutra">THIS COLD NIGHT BAMBOOS STIR;
THEIR SOUND -- NOW HARSH, NOW SOFT --
SWEEPS THROUGH THE LATTICE WINDOW.
THOUGH EAR IS NO MATCH FOR MIND,
WHAT NEED, BY LAMPLIGHT,
OF A SINGLE SCRIPTURE LEAF?</p>


The moonlit night and the silence ... there is no need of any scripture.
You are the only scripture.
Just learn to read yourself.
<p class="question">Maneesha has asked:
BELOVED OSHO,
DOES UNDERSTANDING ALWAYS MEAN TRANSFORMATION?</p>


Maneesha, if it is intellectual understanding, then it does not mean transformation. But if it is a no-mind understanding, an experience but not a thought, then certainly it is synonymous with transformation. You don't have to do anything; the very knowing transforms your whole being, your actions, your gestures, your attitudes. You don't have to change anything; transformation comes just like a shadow. You get to your center and the revolution happens. It is a happening.


The bamboos are very silent, waiting to have a few laughs. Poor bamboos, they cannot laugh with you. But trust me: they hear your laughter, they feel the touch of your silence. They are with you, part of the assembly.


Hymie Goldberg walks into an exclusive New York shop specializing in all kinds of paper products. He is approached by an elegant salesman in an immaculate suit.


"Can I help you, sir?" the salesman intones in a cultured voice. "Yes," says Hymie, "I would like some writing paper."


"Would you prefer lined or unlined paper, sir?" asks the salesman. "Anything is fine," says Hymie. "It does not matter."


"Then will you be writing with a fountain pen or a ballpoint?" continues the salesman. "I don't really know," says Hymie. "Whatever comes to hand."
"Would you prefer a thick paper or an onionskin paper, sir?"
"Look," says Hymie, "anything is fine. Just give me any kind of paper!"


"Perhaps you would prefer one of our perfumed varieties?" carries on the salesman.


"If you like," cries Hymie. "But I have a bus to catch -- just give me some paper, please!"


"Then perhaps you have a favorite color -- red, blue, yellow ...?" Just at that moment another customer comes bursting into the shop. His eyes have dark circles and his cheeks are wet with tears.


"Look," he sobs, "this tile is the color of my bathroom and this is the size of my toilet. I showed you my asshole this morning. Now, please, can I have some toilet paper?"


Kowalski's wife, Olga, is more than a little overweight. She works as a cleaner in the arrival lounge of New York's Kennedy Airport. One day she sees two men installing a new computerized weighing machine. This machine tells you your weight, in your own language, and even gives you dieting instructions.


A plane lands and the first passenger comes out. She is Italian and plump. Spotting the machine, she goes and stands on the platform. There is a two-second pause, then the machine says, "Your weight-a is seventy-two kilos. You-a are four kilos too much-a for your size. I-a suggest you knock off-a the pasta!"


Next is an elegant Frenchwoman. There is a two-second pause and then the machine says, "Zut alors! You 'av zee perfect weight and figure. Whatever it eez you are doing, continue wiz eet!"


Olga has been quietly observing all this. So after the traffic dies down, she goes and stands on the platform herself. The two-second pause stretches out to a ten-second pause and then the machine says, in a desperate voice, "Jesus Christ, will one of you guys get off!"


Doctor Feelgood has been warned by his psychiatrist colleagues that Mrs. Frostbite is a difficult patient. But he decides to see her anyway.


"Well, Mrs. Frostbite," says Feelgood, warmly, "What seems to be the problem?"


"I have no friends!" sobs Mrs. Frostbite. "When I talk to people they just walk away."
"I see," says Feelgood. "And have you any idea why that is?"


"Well, doctor," continues the poor woman, "I think it is because I say the wrong things, and people don't like it. So you will help me, won't you? -- you money-grubbing, incompetent, shrink asshole!"


A man walks into a cafeteria and orders coffee and a cream bun. "Sorry," says the attendant, "but we are out of buns. Why not have a doughnut instead?"
"In that case," says the man, "I will have a cup of tea and a cream bun."


"I just told you, sir," says the attendant, "we are out of buns. Why don't you have a doughnut?"


"Hmm ..." replies the man. "So in that case, I will have a toasted bun with butter and a cup of tea."


"Look!" cries the attendant. "How many times do I have to tell you? We don't have any buns -- cream buns, or toasted buns, or any other kind of buns!"


"Okay, okay. Then," says the man, "give me a raisin bun and a hot chocolate."


"Look here, you idiot!" shouts the attendant, seizing the man by his collar and shaking him violently. "We don't have no buns! We don't have no cream buns, we don't have no raisin buns, or hot-cross buns, or toasted buns with butter, or any other kind of buns. Get it?"
"Okay, okay," says the man, "no need to shout. Then I will just have a bun!"

Now, Nivedano, give the first beat, and everybody goes crazy.

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

(Drumbeat)

Just be silent, close your eyes.
Feel your body as almost frozen, a statue, so that you can go in easily.
Deeper and deeper, without any fear.
It is your own existence.
You are absolutely safe and secure.
You are entering into your own timelessness.
This is the only temple worth calling a temple.
Nobody needs to go into any temple.
Everybody is carrying his temple within.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Relax.
Relax so deeply as if you have died.


It is just to give you an opportunity to enter more and more deeply to the very center of your being, because that is the center of the whole universe.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Come back.
But come back as buddhas, alive, ecstatic, fresh, just born.
Feel the newness ....

Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
Can we celebrate the gathering of so many buddhas?
Yes!
			

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