The Discipline of Transcendencevol3, Osho, Collections
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The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 3
Discourses on the 42 Sutras of Buddha
Talks given from 21/10/76 am to 30/10/76 am
English Discourse series
10 Chapters
Year published: 1976
Originally published in two volumes, later released as four volumes.
The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 3
Chapter #1
Chapter title: You Are Always on the Funeral Pyre
21 October 1976 am in Buddha Hall
THE SUTRA OF FORTY-TWO CHAPTERS
THE BUDDHA SAID:
"MOVED BY THEIR SELFISH DESIRES, PEOPLE SEEK AFTER FAME AND
GLORY. BUT WHEN THEY HAVE ACQUIRED IT, THEY ARE ALREADY
STRICKEN IN YEARS. IF YOU HANKER AFTER WORLDLY FAME AND
PRACTISE NOT THE WAY, YOUR LABOURS ARE WRONGFULLY APPLIED
AND YOUR ENERGY IS WASTED. IT IS LIKE UNTO BURNING AN INCENSE
STICK. HOWEVER MUCH ITS PLEASING ODOUR BE ADMIRED, THE FIRE
THAT CONSUMES IS STEADILY BURNING UP THE STICK."
THE BUDDHA SAID:
"PEOPLE CLEAVE TO THEIR WORLDLY POSSESSIONS AND SELFISH
PASSIONS SO BLINDLY AS TO SACRIFICE THEIR OWN LIVES FOR THEM.
THEY ARE LIKE A CHILD WHO TRIES TO EAT A LITTLE HONEY SMEARED
ON THE EDGE OF A KNIFE. THE AMOUNT IS BY NO MEANS SUFFICIENT
TO APPEASE HIS APPETITE, BUT HE RUNS THE RISK OF WOUNDING HIS
TONGUE."
THE BUDDHA SAID:
"MEN ARE TIED UP TO THEIR FAMILIES AND POSSESSIONS MORE
HELPLESSLY THAN IN A PRISON. THERE IS AN OCCASION FOR THE
PRISONER TO BE RELEASED, BUT HOUSEHOLDERS ENTERTAIN NO
DESIRE TO BE RELIEVED FROM THE TIES OF FAMILY. WHEN A MAN'S
PASSION IS AROUSED NOTHING PREVENTS HIM FROM RUINING
HIMSELF. EVEN INTO THE MAWS OF A TIGER HE WILL JUMP. THOSE
WHO ARE THUS DROWNED IN THE FILTH OF PASSION ARE CALLED THE
IGNORANT. THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO OVERCOME IT ARE SAINTLY
ARHATS."
THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA is not a religion in the ordinary sense of the term,
because it has no belief-system, no dogma, no scripture. It does not believe in
God, it does not believe in the soul, it does not believe in any state of moksha. It
is a tremendous unbelief -- and yet it is a religion.
It is unique. Nothing has ever happened before like that in the history of human
consciousness, and nothing afterwards. Buddha remains utterly unique,
incomparable.
He says that God is nothing but a search for security, a search for safety, a search
for shelter. You believe in God, not because God is there; you believe in God
because you feel helpless without that belief. Even if there is no God, you will go
on inventing. The temptation comes from your weakness. It is a projection.
Man feels very limited, very helpless, almost a victim of circumstances -- not
knowing from where he comes and not knowing where he is going, not knowing
why he is here. If there is no God it is very difficult for ordinary man to have any
meaning in life. The ordinary mind will go berserk without God.
God is a prop -- it helps you, it consoles you, it comforts you. It says, "Don't be
worried -- the Almighty God knows everything about why you are here. He is
the Creator, He knows why He has created the world. You may not know but the
Father knows, and you can trust in Him." It is a great consolation.
The very idea of God gives you a sense of relief -- that you are not alone, that
somebody is looking after the affairs; that this cosmos is not just a chaos, it is
REALLY a cosmos; that there is a system behind it, that there is logic behind it;
that it is not an illogical jumble of things, that it is not anarchy. Somebody rules
it; the sovereign King is there looking after each small detail -- not even a leaf
moves without His moving it. Everything is planned. You are part of a great
destiny. Maybe the meaning is not known to you, but the meaning is there --
because God is there.
God brings a tremendous relief. One starts feeling that life is not accidental; there
is a certain undercurrent of significance, meaning, destiny. God brings a sense of
destiny.
Buddha says: There is no God -- it simply shows that man knows not why he is
here. It simply shows man is helpless. It simply shows that man has no meaning
available to him. By creating the idea of God he can believe in meaning, and he
can live this futile life with the idea that somebody is looking after it.
Just think: you are in an air flight and somebody comes and says, "There is no
pilot." Suddenly there will be a panic. No pilot?! 'No pilot' simply means you are
doomed. Then somebody says, "Believe the pilot is there -- invisible. We may not
be able to see the pilot, but he is there; otherwise how is this beautiful
mechanism functioning? Just think of it: everything is going so beautifully --
there must be a pilot! Maybe we are not capable of seeing him, maybe we are not
yet prayerful enough to see him, maybe our eyes are closed, but the pilot is there.
Otherwise, how is it possible? This aeroplane has taken off, it is flying perfectly
well; the engines are humming. Everything is a proof that there is a pilot."
If somebody proves it, you relax again into your chair. You close your eyes, you
start dreaming again -- you can fall asleep. The pilot is there, you need not
worry.
Buddha says: The pilot exists not -- it is a human creation. Man has created God
in his own image. It is man's invention; God is not a discovery, it is an invention.
And God is not the truth -- it is the greatest lie there is.
That's why I say Buddhism is not a religion in the ordinary sense of the term. A
God less religion -- can you imagine? When for the first time Western scholars
became aware of Buddhism, they were shocked. They could not comprehend
that a religion can exist -- and without God! They had known only Judaism,
Christianity and Islam. All these three religions are in a way very immature
compared to Buddhism.
Buddhism is religion come of age. Buddhism is the religion of a mature mind.
Buddhism is not childish at all -- and it doesn't help any childish desires in you.
It is very MERCILESS. Let me repeat it: There has never been a man more
compassionate than Buddha, but his religion is merciless.
In fact, in that mercilessness he is showing his compassion. He will not allow you
to cling to any lie. Howsoever consoling, a lie is a lie. And those who have given
you the lie, they are not friends to you, they are enemies -- because under the
impact of the lie you will live a life full of lies.
The truth has to be brought to you, howsoever hard, howsoever shattering,
howsoever shocking. Even if you are annihilated by the impact of the truth it is
good.
Buddha says: The truth is that man's religions are man's inventions. You are in a
dark night surrounded by alien forces. You need someone to hang on to,
someone to cling to.
And everything that you can see is changing -- your father will die one day and
you will be left alone, your mother will die one day and you will be left alone,
and you will be an orphan. And from the very childhood you have been
accustomed to having a father to protect you, a mother to love you. Now that
childish desire will again assert itself: you will need a father-figure. If you cannot
find it in the sky, then you will find it in some politician.
Stalin became the father of Soviet Russia; they had dropped the idea of God. Mao
became the father of China; they had dropped the idea of God. But man is such
that he cannot live without a father-figure. Man IS childish. There are very few
rare people who grow to be mature.
My own observation is this, that people remain near about the age of seven,
eight, nine. Their physical bodies go on growing, but their minds remain stuck
there somewhere below the age of ten.
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, are the religions below the age of ten.
They fulfil whatsoever are your needs; they are not too much worried about the
truth. They are more worried about you, they are more worried how to console
you.
The situation is such: the mother has died and the child is crying and weeping,
and you have to console the child. So you tell lies. You pretend that the mother
has not died: "She has gone for a visit to the neighbours -- she will be coming.
Don't be worried, she will be just coming."Or: "She has gone for a long journey. It
will take a few days but she will I be back." Or: "She has gone to visit God --
nothing to be worried about. She IS still alive: maybe she has left the body, but
the soul lives for ever."
Buddha is the most shattering individual in the whole history of humanity. His
whole effort is to drop all props. He does not say to believe in anything. He is an
unbeliever and his religion is that of un-belief. He does not say "Believe!" he says
"Doubt!"
Now, you have heard about religions which say "Believe!" You have never heard
about a religion which says "Doubt!" Doubt is the very methodology -- DOUBT
to the very core, doubt to the very end, doubt to the very last. And when you
have doubted everything, and you have dropped everything out of doubt, then
reality arises in your vision. It has nothing to do with your beliefs about God. It is
nothing like your so-called God. Then arises reality: absolutely unfamiliar and
unknown.
But that possibility exists only when all the beliefs have been dropped and the
mind has come to a state of maturity, understanding, acceptance that
"Whatsoever is is, and we don't desire otherwise. If there is no God, there is no
God, and we don't have any desire to project a God. If there is no God, then we
accept it."
This is what maturity is: to accept the fact and not to create a fiction around it; to
accept the reality as it is, without trying to sweeten it, without trying to decorate
it, without trying to make it more acceptable to your heart. If it is shattering, it is
shattering. If it is shocking, it is shocking. If the truth kills, then one is ready to be
killed.
Buddha is merciless. And nobody has ever opened the door of reality so deeply,
so profoundly as he has done. He does not allow you any childish desires. He
says: Become more aware, become more conscious, become more courageous.
Don't go on hiding behind beliefs and masks and theologies. Take hold of your
life into your own hands. Burn bright your inner light and see whatsoever is.
And once you have become courageous enough to accept it, it is a benediction.
No belief is needed.
That is Buddha's first step towards reality: all belief-systems are poisonous; all
belief-systems are barriers.
He is not a theist. And remember: he is not an atheist either -- because, he says, a
few people believe that there is God and a few people believe that there is no
God, but both are believers. His non-belief is so deep that even those who say
there is no God, and believe in it, are not acceptable to him. H.e says that just to
say there is no God makes no difference. If you remain childish, you will create
another source of God.
For example, Karl Marx declared: "There is no God," but then he created a God
out of history. History becomes the God; the same function is being done now by
history that was done previously by the concept of God. What was God doing?
God was the determining factor; God was the managing factor. It was God who
was deciding what should be and what should not be. Marx dropped the idea of
God, but then history became the determining factor, then history became the
fate, then history became kismet -- then history is determining. Now what is
history? And Marx says communism is an inevitable state. History has
determined that it will come, and everything is determined by history. Now
history becomes a super-God.
But somebody to determine is needed. Man cannot live with indeterminate
reality. Man cannot live with reality as it is: chaotic, accidental. Man cannot live
with reality without finding some idea which makes it meaningful, relevant,
continuous, which gives it a shape which reason can understand; which can be
dissected, analysed, into cause and effect.
Freud dropped the idea of God, but then the unconscious became the God -- then
everything is determined by the unconscious of man, and man is helpless in the
hands of the unconscious. Now these are new names for God; it is a new
mythology.
The Freudian psychology is a new mythology about God. The name is changed
but the content remains the same; the label has changed, the old label has been
dropped; a fresh, newly-painted label has been put on it -- it can deceive people
who are not very alert. But if you go deeper into Freudian analysis you will
immediately see that now the unconscious is doing the same work that God used
to do.
So what is wrong with poor God? If you have to invent something, and man has
always to be determined by something -- history, economics, unconscious, this
and that -- IF MAN CANNOT BE FREE, then what is the point of changing
mythologies, theologies? It makes not much difference.
You may be a Hindu, you may be a Mohammedan, you may be a Christian, you
may be a Jew -- it makes not much difference. Your mind remains childish, you
remain immature. You remain in search, you continue to search for a father-
figure: someone somewhere who can explain everything, who can become the
ultimate explanation.
The mature mind is one who can remain without any search even if there is no
ultimate explanation of things.
That's why Buddha says: I am not a metaphysician. He has no metaphysics.
Metaphysics means the ultimate explanation about things -- he has no ultimate
explanation. He does not say, "I have solved the mystery." He does not say,
"Here I hand over to you what truth is."
He says, "The only thing that I can give to you is an impetus, a thirst, a
tremendous passion, to become aware, to become conscious, to become alert; to
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