The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty Talks on Kabir

And then it becomes a problem, because for forty-two years Buddha continued answering people, and different people required different answers, and sometimes contradictory answers. A Buddha has to contradict himself almost every day.

Once it happened:

Ananda, who was Buddha's chief disciple, was present on all three occasions. He was continuously behind Buddha like a shadow -- serving him, taking care of his body, looking after his needs. He was very much puzzled: "In a single day Buddha has said there is no God, Buddha has said there is a God, and Buddha has kept silent too, he has not answered this way or that. These are the only three possibilities -- all the possibilities exhausted, in a single day? All the answers given."

He could not sleep; he tossed and turned, and Buddha asked, "What is the matter with you tonight? Are you not tired or something?"

He said, "I don't want to disturb you, but unless you answer me this question I don't think I will be able to sleep. In the morning you said no, in the afternoon you said yes, and by the evening you remained silent, you didn't answer -- and the question was exactly the same!"

Buddha laughed and he said, "The person who had come early in the morning and had asked 'Is there a God?' was a theist, was a believer. He wanted me to say yes so that his belief could become more strengthened -- and I don't strengthen people's beliefs, because a believing mind is never a seeing mind. To believe is to remain in darkness. I wanted to shatter his belief. My answer had nothing to do with God; my answer had something to do with that man. He was there just to accumulate a little more evidence for his belief, so he could say to people that 'Not only do I believe that there is a God, but even Buddha says there is a God!'

"He had not come to understand. He simply wanted me to be a witness to HIS belief And his belief is just out of fear, a conditioning taught by others. His belief is nothing but a cover-up for his ignorance. I cannot be in any way a help to it. I had to shatter it. I had to shout no, emphatically. And it helped. 'Buddha says no?' Enquiry started in his being. Now he cannot be at rest with his belief He will have to come -- you will see."

And one day he came again, and he said to Buddha, "You did it: since that time my worship has become empty. Since that time I go to the temple, but the temple no longer has any deity in it. Since that time I know it is only a belief. If you say God is not, then who am I to say God is? You are so godly, you must be true. I have come to enquire. Now I come to you without any belief. Now I come to you open -- to seek, to search. Now my question is not rooted in my knowledge." And Buddha said to Ananda, "The second person was an atheist -- he believed that there is no God. He had come in the same way as the first one: to have my support." His belief was as stupid as the first one's, because to believe without knowing is to be stupid. Believe only when you have known, but then it is not a belief at all; it is a totally different experience. It is trust. It is not based on somebody else's experience; it is your OWN experience. You are reborn in it. It is not Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan -- it is simply your experience. And even if the whole world says it is not so, you cannot deny it, your trust cannot be shaken.

"The other person," Buddha said, "was an atheist, hence I had to say YES, and emphatically I had to say yes."

Ananda said, "And what about the third?"

Buddha said, "He was neither a theist, nor an atheist, so neither was yes needed nor was no needed. He was really an innocent soul, a very pure heart. His question was not out of his a priori knowledge; his question was really innocent. His question was a quest, an enquiry. I had to remain silent -- because that was my answer to him. And he understood it.

"Did you not watch: when I remained silent and closed my eyes, he also closed his eyes, and a great silence descended on him. And did you not observe? -- when he went his eyes were shining, his eyes were like lit candles. And did you not observe? -- when he left, he touched my feet, bowed down, thanked me, saying 'You answered rightly,' although I had not answered him at all. That man tasted something of my silence, imbibed something of my being. That man was the true seeker."
A true seeker does not need a verbal answer: a true seeker needs something existential -- a penetration of the heart into the heart, a penetration of the soul into the soul. The real seeker wants the Master to overlap him. The real seeker wants the Master to go into his innermost core and stir the sleeping soul.

Zareen, your question is significant. You say:

It is true. Many times he said to many people that life is misery; and many times he said to many people that life is bliss -- SATCHITANANDA -- it is truth, it is consciousness, it is bliss.

But people have gathered more the answer that life is misery, because it fits with their own experience. When the Buddha says, "Life is joy," it doesn't fit with your experience. It falls on flat ears. You hear it, but you cannot understand it. It does not ring any bells in your heart.

So the answers that he gave to those who had come to know something of bliss, something of joy, something of song, have not become so important. And it was only rarely that he would say that, because it is only a rare person who will require that answer. Millions and millions need to be told, "Your life is misery." It IS so.

But why does Buddha say your life is misery, why? He says it so that you can come out of it. You can have another kind of life -- this is not the only kind! This is only one of the ways, and the worst way possible. You have created a hell out of your life; and if it can be a hell, it can also be a heaven; if it can be misery, it can be bliss. It is the same energy used wrongly that becomes misery, AND used rightly becomes bliss.

What is misery? Misery is feeling separate from existence, feeling isolated from existence, feeling alienated from existence -- that is misery. And what is bliss? Feeling one with existence, orgasmically one with existence, organically one with existence. Having an ego is misery, and becoming egolessness is bliss. Both alternatives are open. The choice is yours.

Zareen, listening to Buddha's answer that life is misery, don't settle there. His answer is to unsettle you. His answer is to shock you. His answer is to wake you up to the fact that your life is misery. But people are really cunning, very cunning; they listen only to that which they want to listen to. People are so cunning that listening to the statement that life is misery, they say, ''Then nothing can be done. If life is misery, then I have to live a miserable life, then this is all there is -- so live it! Live it anyhow."

Rather than creating a desire to transform themselves, they completely drown themselves in their misery -- as if Buddha has given them a certificate that this is what life is all about. People are so cunning, they simply listen only to that which they want to listen to.

"Just a minute, young lady," said the judge. "Now, you have been here a dozen times -- one hundred dollars fine. Next!"

"I am just a poor private secretary," said the second girl, "and I was not doing anything..."

"I recognize you too, miss," said the magistrate. "Two hundred dollars or ten days in jail. Next case!"

"Judge," said the third girl, "I am a prostitute. I am not proud of it, but it is the only way I can support my three kids. I am guilty."

"Young woman," said the judge, "I like your honesty, and because of it I am going to give you a break. Your case is dismissed and, sergeant, give this girl fifty dollars out of the policemen's fund."

Now comes poor old Liebowitz, arrested for selling ties without a license. "Your Honour," he pleaded. "I'm not gonna lie to you -- I am a prostitute too.... "
Beware of your mind -- it is always trying ways and means, strategies, tactics, to remain as it is. It can wear masks, it can become religious, it can go to the church, it can read the Bibles and the Vedas... and still it will find only ways and means to remain itself.

Zareen, Buddha's statement has been taken by people as if he has said, "Life cannot be bliss." It is impossible. "Life is misery and it is going to remain misery -- to be miserable is life's intrinsic quality," people have taken it that way. That is not true. I know it is not true.

I say to you: your life is misery, but it need not be so. It is misery because you have not tried to transform it; you have not worked on it. It is misery because you are still unborn. It is misery because the opportunity is being wasted, and you are not being creative. It is misery because you are not behaving intelligently.

Be intelligent. And I don't mean by 'intelligence' be intellectual -- intellectuals are not necessarily intelligent people, and intelligent people are not necessarily intellectuals. Almost always the case is that the intellectual is only a pretend, he is pseudo; by being intellectual he is trying to convince himself and others that he is intelligent.

What is the criterion of being an intelligent person? Only one criterion: if you can create bliss in your life you are intelligent -- otherwise there is no other way to prove it. If you can create a paradise around yourself, if you can remain in a constant cheerfulness, cheerfulness becomes just your very milieu, then you are intelligent.

Be intelligent and life is bliss; be stupid and life is misery. It all depends on you.

Question 3

AND THE MIND GOES BANANAS...

"SURRENDER, DO YOUR OWN THING."

"TRUST, LIVE YOUR LIFE..."

SLOWLY IT SEEMS TO ME THAT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AND SOMETIMES IT FEELS VERY GOOD. BUT STILL I WANT TO KNOW.

First dissolve yourself, then God is your you, then God is your self You have just missed those two simple words 'and then'.

Surrender AND THEN do your own thing.

Trust AND THEN live your own life.

Surrender and trust are not two things; it is the same phenomenon. You can surrender only if you trust, and you can trust only if you surrender. They go hand in band. They are inseparable. If one happens, the other is bound to have already happened. Just those two words that are missing are creating trouble for you: and then.
A man came to St. Augustine and asked him, "I am illiterate, very old, not much life is left. I cannot go into great austerities; the energy is ebbing. I am just on the verge of death. I have walked many miles just to see you and ask you something very simple. I have not come to listen to great philosophy -- just something very simple, a single word will do. You just simply tell me a single word that I can keep in my heart and I can follow it for whatsoever of my life is left."

It is said St. Augustine closed his eyes... his disciples were very much puzzled. It had never happened before. Great theologians had come, great philosophers had visited; they had asked very complicated, very difficult questions, and Augustine was never known to meditate over those questions. His answers were immediate. "What is he doing? This old villager's question -- and he is meditating?"

For half an hour he meditated, and then he opened his eyes and he said, "Then I can say only one thing: love and then whatsoever you do is right."
Remember love. Love is the quintessence of the whole of religion, the very perfume of all the flowers that have bloomed in the name of religion -- Buddha, Krishna, Christ, Mohammed, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Kabir, Farid, Nanak, Meera -- all the flowers in all the ages that have ever bloomed, they have the same fragrance and that fragrance is love.

If you can love, then everything is allowed -- because a loving man cannot do anything wrong. Love is the only commandment. If love is not there, then even those ten commandments are not going to help at all. Ten commandments are not needed; they are needed only because you are not ready to fulfill the first and the only commandment. Those ten commandments are just poor substitutes for the single commandment: love.

And remember, love AND THEN whatsoever you do is good, is virtuous.

That's what I go on saying in different ways: surrender and then do your own thing. Listening to me you can misunderstand, because doing your own thing has become the very flavour of the new generation. I am not saying the same thing. When I say do your own thing, I am not repeating a hippie slogan. When I am saying do your own thing, there is a condition preceding it: surrender, trust, AND THEN.... Otherwise, what are you going to do? Without surrender whatsoever you do will come out of your ego, will come out of your unconsciousness, will come out of your past. It CAN'T come from God, and it can't come from a conscious, alert being.

And whatsoever comes from the unconscious is going to create more and more misery for you and for others. There is enough misery; there is no need for you to contribute more to it. There is more than enough. If you want to contribute something to it, please, first fulfill the basic requirement of surrender and trust.

Just meditate for a moment... if the ego is not there, then who is doing? Then God is doing through you, then you are just a hollow bamboo. On his lips you become a flute -- the song is his. And then you will not feel so puzzled, Varidhi.

You are going really mighty slow. You say: SLOWLY IT SEEMS TO ME... How can it seem slowly? Either you see it instantly, or you don't see it -- what do you mean by 'slowly'? These things are not gradual. These things are breakthroughs, sudden, like lightning in the dark night.

When I say something, if you are available in that moment, if you are in tune with me in that moment, there will be a lightning experience. A tremendous yes will arise in your heart... a flood of a new vision, of a new clarity, of a new transparency. You will see what is what, and in that very seeing, that which is wrong drops out of your hands -- and only the wrong has to be dropped; the right is always there. It cannot be dropped; it is only covered by the wrong. The wrong is a foreign element, the right is your natural being.
You say: SLOWLY IT SEEMS TO ME THAT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING...

No, it cannot happen slowly. It never happens slowly. If you listen to me you are bound to experience it, that you don't know anything at all. What do you know? I am not talking about engineering and medicine and geography and history; I am not talking about all that nonsense -- utilitarian nonsense. But what do you know of reality, of truth, of God, of love, of meditation? What do you know about this mysterious existence that surrounds you? What do you know about yourself? -- with whom you have lived from eternity and you are going to live for eternity. What do you know about the person who you are?

Ouspensky declared in the beginning of the book that the third existed even before the first ever existed. And it is NOT just pride, it is not just ego -- it is true. He had discovered something of immense value; he had contributed to the world of mathematics, logic, metaphysics, something really valuable. He was known all over the world; the book was being translated into many many languages.

And Gurdjieff was not known at all -- just a small group of people knew about him. And it was not easy to approach him either; he was not available publicly. Ouspensky had great difficulties and had to wait three months to see him, and had to try many people because only those who belonged to the inner circle of Gurdjieff were allowed to bring some new guest.

And the day he was ushered into the presence of Gurdjieff, twelve people were sitting there. Gurdjieff in the middle and all the twelve surrounding him, and there was absolute silence. And the man who had brought Ouspensky, he also sat there and closed his eyes. Now, Ouspensky started feeling very restless; he was not even introduced. He started feeling a little embarrassed too: "What is he doing here? And what are these people doing here, just sitting silently?"

Half an hour passed... and now it was almost one hour passing. Ouspensky started thinking, "What am I sitting here for?" But he could not even leave, because it looked so impolite to disturb the silence. The silence was so tangible, like a cloud the silence was sitting there.

And then Gurdjieff looked at Ouspensky, and he said, "You are feeling very restless. It is natural -- you come from a restless world, you don't know the ways of silence. Why did you want to see me? Why have you been haunting me for three months?"

And Ouspensky said, "I wanted to ask you a few questions." Gurdjieff gave him a blank sheet of paper and told him, "Go into the other room and on the one side write whatsoever you know, and on the other side whatsoever you don't know. And then come back -- because I will answer only that which you don't know. If you already know it, why bother about it?"

It was a cold Moscow night, the snow was falling, and Ouspensky remembers, "Going into the other room, I started perspiring. For the first time, with such emphasis, I was made aware that I know nothing. I wanted to write something, just to save my prestige, that I know this, that. I thought it over, round and round, but basically I knew nothing. I thought: Do I know anything about love? I have heard much, I have read much -- but any experience? because that man is not going to let it pass easily. He will ask, 'Any experience?' " And he had seen those eyes which can go to the very core of your being: "You cannot deceive that man.

"Do I know anything about meditation? Do I know anything about God? Do I know anything of any real significance?''

He waited and waited and he could not find anything. And finally he came out and gave the paper back -- as blank as before -- and said, "Excuse me, I don't know anything. I know nothing. I have been a fool up to now. I had always believed that I knew this and I knew that. You have shattered me in a single blow."

Gurdjieff looked at Ouspensky, and his eyes were those of benediction. He said, "Then you are accepted -- because only those who know that they know not can be accepted in my circle, because only they are capable of learning."
Varidhi, know that you know nothing -- and don't go slowly. It is not a question of gradual discovery: it is a sudden lightning experience. EACH morning I am trying to show it to you, shouting at you that you don't know anything -- anything that is of any relevance, anything that is of any value, anything that is really going to transform you, anything that you will be able to carry beyond death to the other shore.
But Varidhi says: SLOWLY IT SEEMS TO ME THAT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AND SOMETIMES IT FEELS VERY GOOD.

Even that -- a little glimpse, a gradual thing, just a little... as if a window opens and closes, but a little breeze comes in, or a ray of the sun -- still THAT feels good! If it feels good, go deeper into it, go deeper into ignorance, go deeper into not knowing, go deeper and deeper into a state where knowledgeability is just garbage. And great will be your experience -- of great joy and freedom, because knowledge is a bondage, borrowed knowledge is a bondage. One's own experience is not knowledge: it is wisdom, it is freedom.

That's good! Start from the state of not knowing and you will become capable of knowing. Start from the clean slate and let God write something on it. Efface all that you know. Before God, be just nude, innocent, ignorant, a child. And YOU WILL know. We are here to know, but that knowing does not come through scriptures, that knowing comes through silence. And the knowledgeable mind cannot be silent. It is so full of knowledge, so full of thoughts, it cannot empty itself.

Empty yourself, Varidhi. Empty yourself of all knowledge, dreams and desires. Throw all this rotten furniture out of yourself. Create a pure space, and in that pure space you become capable of attracting the ultimate towards you; you become a magnetic force. You become the host, and God comes as a guest.
The fourth question
Question 4

OSHO, FEELING A RAPIDLY GROWING UNEASINESS ABOUT MY STATE AS A NON-SANNYASIN. I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU: WHAT IS YOUR ART? HOW COULD YOU FIND THE LOOPHOLES IN MY MIND SO EASILY AND IN WHAT WAY DID YOU BYPASS MY WELL-DEVELOPED EGO? WHEN I ARRIVED TEN DAYS AGO I FELT RATHER BALANCED, GRATEFUL, YES, FOR WHAT YOU HAD SHOWN ME ALREADY, BUT NEVERTHELESS FULL OF COURAGE TO FACE AND RESIST ANY UNTIMELY ATTEMPT THAT WOULD SANNYASIN ME. BUT LOOK AT ME NOW: WANDERING AROUND IN THE ASHRAM OFF-BALANCE, EYES FULL OF AWE, CRYING TIME AND AGAIN AT COMPLETELY UNPREDICTABLE MOMENTS AND SHOWING ALL THE SIGNS OF ONE WHO IS IN LOVE. OSHO, I LOVE YOU, SO WHAT CAN I DO? AND HOW DID YOU MANAGE?

Haggarty rushed over and said, "I am terribly sorry, Father!"

"Saints above!" said the shaken priest. "You almost killed me!"

"Here," said Haggarty, "I have got a little sacramental Jack Daniels. Take some and you will feel a lot better!"

Father Cogan took a couple of large swigs and continued his tirade. "What were you thinking about, man? You nearly launched me into eternity!"

"I am sorry, Father," said Haggarty. "Take a few more sips, it will ease your nerves."

After the priest had almost finished the entire bottle, he said, "Why don't you have a drink?"

"No thanks, your reverence," said Haggarty, "I will just sit here and wait for the police!"

Something really beautiful is happening to you. All that ego that seems so strong is not so strong; it is just your belief that keeps it alive. Once you start understanding, it starts dying. It is all kinds of inhibitions that keep your tears repressed. You have been told again and again that you are not a woman, you are a man -- be a boy, don't be a girl. Crying and weeping is for girls, not for you.