---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Further Shore"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "SHORE"
dategiven: "27 June 1977 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #25"
chaptertitle: "We are coming closer to a better world"
acode: "7706275"
shorttitle: "SHORE25"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Further Shore: Chapter #25"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
<!--This file is automatically generated. Do not edit!-->


Ram is one of the names of god. In india we have one thousand names for god. The basic idea is that all names are of god -- obviously, because there is nobody else other than god so all names are his, all forms are his. It is god manifest in everything.


Ram is one of the names of god, and the indian term ram, if read backwards, becomes 'mara'; that means death. So life and death are not two separate things. If you read this one way it is life, god himself, if you read the other way it is death itself... so life and death are two aspects of the same coin.


There is a story about valmiki; he was an uneducated man, very rough. He was a robber and a murderer, and he was going to rob a saint. The saint laughed, and he said to the man, 'Why are you doing all this, for what? You will not be here forever.' And the robber said, 'I am doing it for my children, for my wife; my parents are old.'


And the saint said, 'You go and ask them if they will share the bad karmas that will arise out of your acts. Are they ready to share those effects?'


The robber laughed; he said, 'You seem to be a very cunning fellow! I will go home to ask and you will escape.'
So the saint said, 'You can tie me to this tree with ropes and I will wait.'
So the robber went home; he asked his wife, 'Will you share my bad karmas?'


The wife said, 'What nonsense are you talking? I am your wife; you have to look after me. I don't know what you do, I don't care what you do. How you earn the money is your business. Why should I share your karmas?'


And the children simply refused. They said, 'What, us? We don't know anything about your business, about what you do.'


And the old parents said, 'We are old; it is your duty to serve your father and mother. It is your choice: if you can't serve in the right way, it is your choice. Why should we share?'


The man was very much disillusioned: so they were all ready to take the money, but nobody was ready to share his bad karmas!


He went back to the saint and he said, 'Initiate me into sannyas -- I am finished with all this nonsense! I was thinking they are together in everything with me, in good, in bad, in happiness, in unhappiness, but they are only with me if they feel that I have money and I am happy and I am giving them something. Teach me something.'


So the saint -- his name was narga -- told him, 'Just repeat the word "ram"; go on repeating it as much as you can. Forget everything and just repeat the word "ram, ram, ram..."'


The saint went away and when he returned after three years, this man had become enlightened -- just by repeating the word 'ram, ram, ram'. But he was an uneducated man so when he was repeating 'ram, ram, ram...' continuously, it became 'mara, mara, mara....' He forgot that he had to repeat 'ram' so he was repeating 'mara, mara, mara....' He became enlightened -- even by repeating wrongly, but he became absorbed in it.


The saint was surprised because he himself was not yet enlightened, and he said 'I have been doing everything rightly and you have not even been able to repeat the name rightly! This is a miracle! How did it happen?'


So god came in a vision to the saint, narga, and he said, 'It does not matter how you repeat it -- all names are mine! The question is what energy you pour into it. The question is what focusing you bring into it, what consciousness you bring to it. This man is simply incredible! In these three years, not for a single moment has he been thinking of anything else. Day in, day out, even in his dream he is just continuously repeating, "ram, ram, ram...". Even in his sleep his lips are moving; even when he falls deep in sleep, something deep inside his heart goes on repeating "ram".'
In India, this is one of the most loved names of god....


[Osho gives an initiate the name prem nandan -- love bliss. Get more into love and joy, Osho says to her. Nobody is stopping you: you can be as loving, as joyful, as you want to be. Love and joy go together; it is one dance. Become more loving and you will see that more love follows: it is a by-product, a shadow, of love. Happiness cannot be sought directly. Something has to be done with your love energy and then joy follows. So let love be your prayer and joy will start flooding you!]


[A sannyasin says he has a sensation in his belly. He says he feels like throwing it out when it becomes very intense and yet it isn't anger. It's as if emotions come and go but have no labels, no definitions; they're just feelings. Should he keep it in or let it go?
Osho checks his energy.]


Mm, it is perfectly good! Try to hold it inside, just try to hold it inside. It is beautiful energy. It has nothing to do with anger, nothing to do with sadness, but it can look like anger because it is very vital like anger, and it can look like sadness too because it is very weak like sadness. Still it is neither sadness nor anger. It is pure energy that the system is releasing. And this is a beautiful moment; you should hold it.


And if it wants to come out, then allow it very graceful expression -- smiling, dancing, but very graceful; don't be violent otherwise it will be a wastage. If you are very graceful, very smooth, very silent -- even in your expression -- then it is not wasted. It will go and spread all over your system, it will reach to every cell of the body. So movement you can do, but very very graceful movements like a dancer.


Just the other day I was reading about a zen master who was a dancer, a great dancer, and he used to teach his disciples meditation through dance.


One day he was called by the Emperor to dance before him; he went. The Emperor enjoyed the master's dance so much that he asked again and again for more and more and more. Half the night had passed when the emperor released him and said that now he was perfectly happy. He gave the master many presents, valuable diamonds, much money.


The master had to take all those valuable presents back to his monastery; it was outside the town. A robber started following him -- it was a good chance -- but the master was walking so gracefully that the robber could not dare to attack the man! The grace was such, the very movement of the master was such, that the robber became hypnotised and he completely forgot that he had come to rob this man.


And when he reached the monastery, he realised. that he had followed this man almost magnetised; he could not go away either! He fell at the master's feet and said, 'I came to rob you but you have robbed me. Now initiate me! What kind of movement is this? You reduced me to being almost like a moth -- just like a moth who goes on rushing towards a flame knowing perfectly well that only death can happen there, but there is some immense attraction.'


The robber said, 'I knew it -- that you were going towards your monastery and there would be thousands of monks, your disciples, and I would be in danger, but something pulled me. I could not rob you, I could not go back.... The movement was so graceful! How did you manage it?'


This is the energy by which it can be managed. When this energy starts spreading all over your system, a very unknown grace arises.


So one thing to be remembered: no violent catharsis. First try to hold it as much as you can... to relax into it... just go into and relax into it with not even a movement of the body. But when you feel it has become too much and it is unbearable -- there will be moments when it becomes unbearable -- then stand up and allow slow movements, very slow movements. Just allow a slow movement of the hand with it taking hours to come to this point... very slow movements -- as slow as possible, as if there is no hurry. Walk very slowly, make small dances but very slowly. Smile, don't laugh. Make everything very very soft.... And things are going very well.

[Osho suggests some non-cathartic groups for him.


The sannyasin then describes an experience when he was working long hours cleaning pots -- he became completely detached: It was as if I were on the ceiling, looking down at me working, and then I get quite frightened.]

Very good... very good!...


I understand; there is no need to explain it. This witnessing will happen many times, and it will grow. As your energy is there more and more, it will grow.


For a few moments you will simply disappear up beyond the roof. And the work will continue but you will become very detached. You will be doing it almost like an automaton, robot-like. Mm? the body is doing things and you can see that you are not doing and yet it is happening; you will be able to do that. It is very beautiful, mm? This is what is called witnessing. Just conserve energy. Very good.


[Another sannyasin asks for advice on returning to the west to commence a three-year ecology course. Osho checks his energy.]


My feeling is that you should do your ecology course, mm? It will be good for your growth too -- so it is not only for the future: it will help you. It will give you a vision and a perspective, and you will become a better sannyasin out of it.


So go, join the course, mm? and each year whenever you have vacations you can come for one or two months and that will do. I will give you enough in that time so that for one year you will never run out of gas! Mm? Good!


[A sannyasin couple who have been together seven years are experiencing differences when the woman has become involved in groups. Osho gives them an 'energy darshan' together.]


There is nothing wrong with your energies, mm? I think that will always be your way -- that sometimes fooling around will be helpful, and then you will be more into each other again. There are many types of couples....


One type of couple needs a few holidays from each other -- and you are that type. So if you are together for too long you will feel bored; she particularly will feel very bored. And when she is bored, of course you can't be happy; it is impossible. When you love a person and the person is bored, feeling unhappy, you start feeling unhappy. When you are unhappy, she will feel the relationship is even more meaningless and she will start feeling guilty too that she is making you unhappy because she is bored. So a vicious circle arises and things go on becoming more difficult.


For a couple like you the best way is to have a weekend apart. So sometimes she can be with other people and sometimes you can be with other women. And this will not destroy your relationship, this will enhance it.


There are people whose relationship will be destroyed immediately. They can't have any weekends; they don't love that much. Really that is not a very ideal couple: they don't love very much, they are more possessive. Love is less, so they are substituting love by possessiveness, and more than being in love, they are on ego-trips.


That type of couple has been predominant down the ages and they have created a great morality around themselves. They think they are the ideals: everyone else who is not according to them falls below, is a sinner or a criminal or immoral. They have nothing but condemnation for people other than their own type.


And because these people are very possessive, very dictatorial, they have dictated their whole philosophy to the society too. These people are dominant types, very articulate. They make the law, they make all kinds of rules and regulations in the world; naturally they have them made according to themselves.


The world has not existed for all kinds of people up to now: it has always been dominated by one type and naturally the other types suffer. But now we are coming closer to a better world where other types will be accepted... a more fluid kind of world where, if it gives you joy, everything is right. If you don't create any trouble for anybody, then whatsoever you are doing is good.


So this is my feeling about you -- that it will be good if sometimes she is having an affair and you are having an affair. Go with understanding, and after each affair you will feel yourselves closer than ever. All boredom will disappear and again you will be in love. (To the woman) After each love affair you will find more in him and he will find more in you. And those love affairs will not destroy you; they will enhance.


To me this type is the majority in the world. That's why the world is in such misery -- because the very minor type has been dominant and the majority has been crushed. They cannot even say... you cannot say this to your lover -- that because you love her so much, you would like to sleep with somebody else. Just even to say this seems to be nonsense, absurd, but there is great logic behind it.


It is always good to move with somebody else, then suddenly you will see the beauty of the person you are living with. This change of taste will bring the old taste back again and you will start hankering for it. If you do it with understanding, there will be no trouble and no problems.


There need not be any divorce between you but mini-divorces will be very helpful. Divorce happens because we don't allow the mini-divorces. I am all for mini-divorces... it is nothing wrong. It is very natural and human really; we have made very inhuman ideas.


You eat the same vegetable every day, every day, for seven years. Just think of it! If you start becoming crazy, bored and not in the present, do you think something is wrong with you?


Nothing is wrong; it is simply an inhuman idea. Man has not been looked into when the ideals have been decided. They have not been decided according to man; they have been decided according to a few types and if you don't fit then you are wrong. That's where people like jesus bring a new revolution into the world. He says, 'The sabbath is for man'... not man for the sabbath. That's what I am saying to you.


You are together to be happy; there is no other reason to be together. If the relationship is becoming unhappy, then find a way: create happiness again. My feeling is that persons will never get fed up with each other if sometimes they have a little freedom to move and they can be on their own... and without any guilt, otherwise guilt creates trouble.


If she has to go with somebody like a thief and has to hide it from you, that becomes bad, that is heavy on the heart. If you have to go with some woman and you have to do it in secret, that too is heavy and that creates a thousand and one lies, and sooner or later those lies will be found out.


In fact, the reason why they are caught is very beautiful.... (to the man) If one day suddenly you find that she is very happy with you, that will be the reason -- that she has been with somebody else. If suddenly the wife finds that the husband is too happy with her today, then something is wrong! That's a sure sign that he has been somewhere else. His zest is back, his enthusiasm is back; he is thrilled again, he is young again. The gap that the other woman has created has become a mini-divorce... and mini-divorces are a must; in a happy life they are needed.


And if this happens with understanding, then no guilt is created. When you understand each other, more love flows. When she can understand that if some day you start feeling like going with a woman... it is human, it is perfectly beautiful. If you don't feel like that, then something is wrong really: that means you have indifferent to women, how can you be loving to her? She is a woman!


And this is what is being done: the wife continuously goes on looking to see if the husband is interested in some other woman. If she feels he is smiling, if she feels he is looking at somebody more attentively than is allowed, she is against it... but she does not know; she is suicidal. She will kill her husband's interest in other women -- but she is also a woman!


Sooner or later when all interest in women is destroyed, the interest in this woman will also disappear; then her whole effort has been suicidal. Then she is worried and she feels that now there is no love flowing; what has happened? And she has done it! In the same way the husband goes on doing the same thing to the wife.


[We have such neurotic egos that we demand the other only love when with us and no one else. But love is like breathing, Osho says: it is the spiritual breath. The body lives through air and the soul lives through love.... ]


We have killed people's soul, utterly destroyed them. People are just zombies, just dead bodies walking around, managing somehow, dragging somehow, waiting only for death, and there is nothing else to happen.


Understand it, and if you love each other -- and that is my feeling, that you love; that's why I am saying this -- it is possible. Only if you love is this understanding possible.


You love each other, you understand each other, you give total freedom to each other. It is perfectly good sometimes if she moves with somebody and it is perfectly good when you want to move with somebody. You will find that you are becoming again fresh, young, green. Love will start flowing again... and then there is no need to separate.


The need to separate arises because you don't allow her to be free, she does not allow you to be free; then finally every marriage is on the rocks. Either accept this deadness or escape from it. And I think the people who accept it are impotent people but those impotent people have dominated the whole world.


And when a certain philosophy continues for many centuries it becomes part of our presuppositions; we don't think about it. Now nobody thinks about it; we simply accept it and we believe in it: it is part of our blood and bones.


It is very natural. If you live with a person for seven years and you are not fed up, then something is wrong; if you are not bored, then something is wrong.


[The man says: Well, we have had a relationship in which we have separated and come back, separated and come back.]


Yes, that's very good! That's why you have been together for seven years. Allow it now with great understanding. In fact, help each other to be free and things will be perfectly okay.


[The woman asks: Do you think we should live together... because we're not living together?]


That too, is for you to decide. Sometimes if you feel like not living together that too is perfectly okay, because that too is again just an idea. Living together is not the point; the point is being together. Living together is very simple; if you are not together, what is the point? You can live in the same room, you can sleep in the same bed, but you are not together -- that's pointless!


Sometimes when you feel like being together, be together. When you feel like moving alone, perfectly good; accept it with great love and understanding. And I don't see that there is any problem, mm?
			

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