Послания любви. 365 писем Ошо - [28]

grows from a tiny root.

A many-storied pagoda

is built by placing one brick upon another brick.

A journey of three thousand miles is begun by a single step.

185. Love.

When I say mutation I do not mean simply change.

Change is from the known to the known.

A sinner becomes a saint –

then it is change and not mutation.

You can practice change

but you cannot practice mutation

because only the known can be practiced –

and then any change is going to be only a modified past

because the past will be continuous in it,

and the past also will be the master of it

because it is cultivated by the past.

In other words, change is from this to that,

it is a movement in the known.

But mutation is an explosion:

from this to nothingness,

from here to nowhere.

You cannot practice it –

on the contrary, you are the only hindrance.

So what is to be done?

Really nothing can be done.

Be aware of this helplessness,

and remain in this helplessness.

Do not do anything

because any doing will be escaping

from this fact of helplessness.

Do not move at all –

and then there is an explosion,

and then there is mutation.

186. Love.

Religion is not a promise for the future

but an experience here and now.

But through the priesthood it has become

promises and promises and promises.

At an examination of a class in First Aid

a member, who was also a priest, was asked:

What would you do if you found a man in a

fainting condition?

I would give him some brandy, was the answer.

And if there was no brandy? he was then asked.

I would promise him some, replied the priest.

187. Love.

Wherever there are words there is no real meaning.

But here also are words.

Then what to do?

Read between the words.

Or read that which is said but not written,

or that which is shown and not even said,

or that which is meant and not even shown.

That is – look in,

because the words are without

but the meaning is within.

188. Love.

Reason is not enough;

it is necessary but not enough.

The beyond must be remembered – and always,

because reason in itself is destructive;

alone, it is nothing but an implement to dissect.

It makes a man anti-all and pro-nothing.

It creates absolutely negative minds

which can criticize but cannot create,

because reason has no healing force within itself.

It is only a tiny part and not the whole of life,

and the healing force is always with the whole.

189. Love.

With thought the mind has boundaries

but without thought the mind is just infinite space.

That is why in thoughtless awareness

one stops being a drop

and becomes oceanic.

And then there is great energy.

This energy wipes out everything which is dead.

It wipes out the whole karmic past –

and with no effort at all.

The greater absorbs the lesser and remains untouched.

190. Love.

The will to wholeness is inherent in everything,

but only in man has it become conscious.

Therefore man lives in tension,

and only when this longing is fulfilled

is his negative state of tension erased.

The tension is symbolic of the infinite potential

and also of the infinite possibilities.

Man is not what he can be,

and unless he is that which he can be

he cannot be at ease.

This dis-ease is man,

and health is in wholeness.

The fact that language has one root

for the words whole, holy and to heal

conceals a deep truth:

He who is whole is also healed,

and to be healed is to be whole.

This wholeness can only be achieved

by becoming totally conscious of oneself:

The darkness of the unconscious is to be penetrated

and transformed into light.

And meditation is the method.

191. Love.

The new world revealed in meditation

is not something added from the outside.

It has always been there – within,

is in being itself.

It is being itself.

One may know it or not, but it is there –

as a seed, of course, as a potentiality.

One has to make it actual, that is all.

That is why when it is revealed,

when it flowers,

one laughs uproariously

because it has always been there and one never knew it.

To work towards meditation is just like sculpturing

because as the sculptor chisels out a figure

deeply buried in a mass of inert matter,

so the meditator transforms his own inert potentialities

into living, dynamic and conscious creations.

Of course, here

the creator and the creation and the means of creation

are not different but one

because the meditator himself is all.

And that is why I call meditation the greatest art.

192. Love.

Do not think of others and waste your time;

really, that is a subtle and cunning way of the mind

to escape from itself.

Once a monk asked Ummon:

Sir, you always say that Buddhism helps us in

every possible way,

but how can it help the blind, the deaf or the dumb?

The blind cannot see the teacher’s staff

that is raised before them,

the deaf cannot hear the teacher’s words, no matter how wise,

the dumb cannot ask their questions or speak

their understanding:

so since we cannot help these people

how can we say that Buddhism helps in every possible way?

What good is it?

Ummon just remained silent for a while

and then abruptly poked at the questioner with his stick.

The monk of course jumped back.

Ah! said Ummon. I see you are not blind!

Then he told the monk to come forward, which he did.