Послания любви. 365 писем Ошо - [25]

these dreaming patterns.

A philosopher stopped Mulla Nasruddin on the street.

In order to test whether the Mulla

was sensitive to philosophical knowledge

he made a sign, pointing at the sky.

The philosopher meant: There is only one truth,

which covers all.

Nasruddin’s companion, an ordinary man, thought:

The philosopher is mad.

I wonder what precautions Nasruddin will take.

Nasruddin looked in his knapsack and took out a coil of rope.

This he handed to his companion.

Excellent, thought the companion.

We will bind him up if he becomes violent.

The philosopher saw that Nasruddin meant:

Ordinary humanity tries to find truth by methods

as unsuitable as attempting to climb

into the sky with a rope.

Now can you remain content with the fact

of Mulla Nasruddin giving the rope to his companion

without any interpretation whatsoever?

Remain with the fact, and you will be in meditation.

167. Love.

The ego is necessary

for both the sensation of pain and the feeling of pleasure

and vice versa also –

the sensation of pain and the feeling of pleasure,

are necessary for the existence of the ego.

In fact these are two sides of the same coin.

The name of the coin is ignorance.

Understand this

and do not fight with the ego

or with pain and pleasure,

because unless ignorance is gone

they will not go, they cannot go.

And you cannot fight with ignorance

because ignorance is just absence of something –

absence of yourself.

So be present to your ignorance,

be aware of it,

and then you will be and there will be no ignorance

because you and ignorance cannot exist simultaneously,

as with light and darkness.

168. Love.

A small boy with a penny

clutched tightly in his hot little hand

entered the toy shop

and drove the proprietor to distraction

asking him to show this and that

and everything

without ever making up his mind.

Look here, my boy, said the storekeeper finally.

What do you want to buy for a penny –

the whole world with a fence around it?

The boy thought for a moment

and then replied: Let me see it.

And I say to you that ordinarily

no one in this world is different from that small boy.

But unless one is different, one is not mature.

And maturity does not come with age alone,

maturity comes through understanding the distinction

between that which is possible

and that which is not possible.

169. Love.

Things go on changing without.

You must mirror them,

you must reflect them,

but remember always that the mirror remains the same.

Mirroring does not change the mirror.

Do not be identified with mirroring.

Remember yourself as the mirror –

that is what is meant by witnessing.

And witnessing is meditation.

Lieh-Tzu exhibited his skill in archery to Po-Hun Wu-Jen.

When the bow was drawn to its full length

a cup of water was placed on his elbow

and he began to shoot.

As soon as the first arrow was let fly

a second one was already on the string

and a third followed.

In the meantime he stood unmoved like a statue.

Po-Hun Wu-Jen said: The technique of your shooting is fine,

but it is still a technique.

You look just like a statue from without.

Now let us go up to a high mountain

and stand on a rock projecting over a precipice

and then you try to shoot.

They climbed up a mountain.

Standing on a rock projecting over a precipice

ten thousand feet high

Po-Hun Wu-Jen stepped backward

until one third of his feet was hanging over the rock.

He then motioned to Lieh-Tzu to come forward.

Lieh-Tzu fell to the ground

with perspiration running down to his heels.

Po-Hun Wu-Jen said:

The perfect man soars up above the blue sky

or dives down to the yellow springs,

or wanders about all over the eight limits of the world,

yet shows no signs of change in his spirit.

But you betray a sign of trepidation

and your eyes are dazed.

How can you expect to hit the target?

170. Love.

Do you want to ask questions?

Or do you want to get answers?

Because if you want to ask questions

then you will not get answers,

and if you want to get answers

then you cannot be allowed to ask questions –

because the answer is in that consciousness

where the questions have not yet been raised,

or have been uprooted and thrown out.

171. Love.

I hope you will be moving in deep meditation.

Breathe in it

sleep in it

live in it –

let meditation be your very existence.

Only then is the happening.

Don’t do it, but be it.

And my blessings are always with you.

If you need any help from me just ask when

you are thoughtless,

and it will be given to you.

172. Love.

A madman entered the bazaar and declaimed:

The moon is more useful than the sun.

But why? asked someone.

We need the light more

during the night than during the day, he said.

And I say to you that

all our metaphysical theories and explanations

are not of more worth than the explanation of that madman.

173. Love.

Ask for nothing and you will never be frustrated.

Anticipate darkness with light and sorrow with happiness

because such is the nature of things.

Then you will never be frustrated.

Say to life: What can you do to me? I want nothing!

And say to death: What can you do to me? I have already died!

Then you will be truly free,

because unless one is free of life one can never be free of death.