Buddhist Sutra- UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE – UNTIL.-- Osho

Osho : Only this much is the sutra. Just like any scientific sutra it is short, but even these few words can transform your life totally.

UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE – UNTIL. KEEP IN THE MIDDLE…

 
Buddha developed his whole technique of meditation on this sutra. His path is known as MAJJHIM NIKAYA – the middle path. Buddha says, ”Remain always in the middle – in everything.”

One Prince Shrown took initiation, Buddha initiated him into sannyas. That prince was a rare man, and when he took sannyas, when he was initiated, his whole kingdom was just amazed. The kingdom couldn’t believe it, the people couldn’t believe that Prince Shrown could become a sannyasin. No one had ever even imagined it, as he was a man of this world – indulging in everything, indulging to the extreme. Wine and women were his whole milieu.

Then suddenly Buddha came to the town, and the prince went to see him for a DARSHAN – A spiritual encounter. He fell at Buddha’s feet and he said, ”Initiate me. I will leave this world.” Those who had come with him were not even aware… this was so sudden. So they asked Buddha, ”What is happening? This is a miracle. Shrown is not that type of man, and he has lived very luxuriously.

 
Up to now we couldn’t even imagine that Shrown is going to take sannyas, so what has happened? You have done something.”

Buddha said, ”I have not done anything. Mind can move easily from one extreme to the other. That is the way of the mind – to move from one extreme to another. So Shrown is not doing something new. It is to be expected. Because you do not know the law of the mind, that is why you are so much taken aback.”

The mind moves from one extreme to another, that is the way of the mind. So it happens every day: a person who was mad after wealth renounces everything, becomes a naked fakir. We think, ”What a miracle!” But it is nothing – just the ordinary law. A person who was not mad after wealth cannot be expected to renounce, because only from one extreme can you move to another – just like a pendulum, from one extreme to the other.

So a person who was after wealth, mad after wealth, will become mad against it, but the madness will remain – that is the mind. A man who lived just for sex may become a celibate, may move into isolation, but the madness will remain. Before he was living only for sex, now he will be living only against sex – but the attitude, the approach, remains the same.

So a BRAHMACHARI, a celibate, is not really beyond sex; his whole mind is sex-oriented. He is against, but not beyond. The way of beyond is always in the middle, it is never at the extreme. So Buddha says, ”This could have been expected. No miracle has happened. This is how mind works.”

Shrown became a beggar, a sannyasin. He became a BHIKKHU, a monk, and soon other disciples of Buddha observed that he was moving to the other extreme. Buddha never asked anyone to be naked, but Shrown became naked. Buddha was not for nakedness. He said, ”That is just another extreme.”

There are persons who live for clothes as if that is their life, and there are other persons who become naked – but both believe in the same thing. Buddha never taught nakedness, but Shrown became naked. He was the only disciple of Buddha who was naked. He became very, very self-torturing.

Buddha allowed one meal every day for the sannyasins, but Shrown would take only one meal on alternate days. He became lean and thin. While all the other disciples would sit for meditation under trees, in the shade, he would never sit under any tree. He would always remain in the hot sun. He was a beautiful man and he had a very lovely body, but within six months no one could recognize that he was the same man. He became ugly, dark, black, burned.

Buddha went to Shrown one night and asked him, ”Shrown, I have heard that when you were a prince, before initiation, you used to play on a VEENA, a sitar, and you were a great musician. So I have come to ask you one question. If the strings of the veena are very loose, what happens?”

Shrown said, ”If the strings are very loose, then no music is possible.”

And then Buddha said, ”And if the strings are very tight, too tight, then what happens?” Shrown said, ”Then too music cannot be produced. The strings must be in the middle – neither loose nor tight, but just exactly in the middle.”

Shrown said, ”It is easy to play the veena, but only a master can set these strings right, in the middle.”

So Buddha said, ”This much I have to say to you, after observing you for the last six months – that in life also the music comes only when the strings are neither loose nor tight, but just in the middle.

So to renounce is easy, but only a master knows how to be in the middle. So Shrown, be a master, and let these strings of life be just in the middle – in everything. Do not go to this extreme; do not go to that one. Everything has two extremes, but you remain just in the middle.”

But the mind is very unmindful. That is why the sutra says, UNMINDING MIND… You will hear this, you will understand this, but the mind will not take note. The mind will always go on choosing extremes.

The extreme has a fascination for the mind. Why? Because in the middle, mind dies. Look at a pendulum: if you have any old clock, look at the pendulum. The pendulum can go on moving the whole day if it goes to the extremes. When it goes to the left it is gathering momentum to go to the right. When it goes toward the right, do not think that it is going toward the right – it is accumulating momentum to go toward the left. So the extremes are right-left, right-left.

Let the pendulum stay in the middle, then the whole momentum is lost. Then the pendulum has no energy, because the energy comes from one of the extremes. Then that extreme throws it toward another, then again, and it is a circle… the pendulum goes on moving. Let it be in the middle, and the whole movement will then stop.

 
Mind is just like a pendulum and every day, if you observe, you will come to know this. You decide one thing on one extreme, and then you move to another. You are angry; then you repent.

You decide, ”No, this is enough. Now I will never be angry.” But you do not see the extreme.
”Never” is an extreme. How are you so certain that you will never be angry? What are you saying?

Think once more – never? Then go to the past and remember how many times you have decided that”I will never be angry.” When you say, ”I will never be angry,” you do not know that by being angry you have accumulated momentum to go to the other extreme.

Buddha was charismatic, hypnotic. People were impressed by him. But the interpretation of Buddha was bound to be rational.

 Question: DIDN’T BUDDHA HAVE A RATIONAL MIND?

 
Osho: He was very rational, but he had very irrational gaps. He was at ease with the irrational also. The concept we have of Buddha is not really of Buddha, but of the traditions that followed. Buddha was an altogether different thing. Because we cannot do otherwise, we have to go through Buddhists to reach Buddha. They have created a long tradition of two thousand years, and they have made Buddha very rational. He was not so.

You cannot be if you are deep into existence. You have to be irrational many times – and Buddha is! But to know this, we have to put aside the whole tradition and encounter Buddha directly. It is very difficult, but it can happen. If I am talking to a rational person, unconsciously he discards all that is not rational. But if I am talking to a poet, the same sentence and the same words signify something different. A rational man cannot look at the poetry of the words.

He can look only at the logic, the argument. A poet sees the words in a different way. The words have a shade of color, a poetry that is not connected at all with any argument. So the faces of Buddha differs according to the person who is seeing him.

 

 Buddha existed in India in a period when the whole country was going through a crisis of everything irrational: the VEDAS, the UPANISHADS, the whole mysticism. The movement against all this was very great, particularly in Bihar where Buddha was.

Buddha was charismatic, hypnotic. People were impressed by him. But the interpretation of Buddha was bound to be rational. 

If Buddha had lived at another time in history, in a part of the world that was not against mysticism, he would have been seen as a great mystic, not as an intellectual. The face that is known belongs to the history of a particular time. As I see Buddha, he was not primarily rational. The whole concept of nirvana is mystical.

He was even more mystical than the UPANISHADS, because the UPANISHADS, however mystical they look, have their own rationality. They talk about transmigration of the soul. Buddha talked about transmigration without a soul. It is more mystical.

The UPANISHADS talk about liberation, but you will be there. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes nonsense. If I cannot be in that ultimate state of existence, then the whole effort is useless, illogical. Buddha said the effort is to be done – and you will not be there. It will just be nothingness. The concept is more mystical.

Buddhas work, Don’t miss Buddhahood ‏-- Osho:-

Osho:- I have been working with many, many people, and sometimes they turn when the right moment was going to be; exactly before that moment they turn away. And the mind is cunning enough; it can philosophize, it can say why you have turned away. Exactly at the moment when something was going to happen, you can turn away. 

There is more possibility for you to turn away from that moment than from any other moment; it is unfortunate but it happens. You wait and wait and wait, and then the moment is nearing where the evaporating point can be reached, and suddenly you turn away. To resist that turning is very difficult. It is just like death reaching nearer, nearer, nearer, and seeing the abyss you turn away and run as fast as you can.

Remain alert. This misfortune happens to seekers; it can happen to you. Buddha passed through a village many times in his forty years of traveling. 

One man used to come; he would listen for a few minutes then get up and go away. And this had become a habit; he never listened to Buddha for the whole time Buddha was speaking. He would come, that was certain, and whenever Buddha would come to the town he would wait for that man. He would come, that was certain.
 
He would sit and for a few minutes he would listen, then, respectfully bowing down to Buddha, he would go away.

Ananda once asked that man, “Why do you do this?”

The man said, “Sometimes this is the peak hour for my business, but I must come just to pay my respects; that’s why I come. But my shop is open and customers are there, and they will not wait. Enlightenment can wait; next time I will hear.” It happened again and again.

The day Buddha died he was near the village, and before his death he said to Ananda, “That man has not come. This is exceptional — he never missed. He always missed in a sense but he never missed. He has always come, now he has not come.”

Then Buddha asked his disciples, “Do you have anything to ask — because soon I will enter into the final Samadhi, the final ecstasy, and then I will not be able to come back and answer you.”

They started weeping and crying but there was no question. And Ananda said, “We have asked everything, you have answered everything, and there is nothing. Our minds are blank just thinking that you are going to disappear.”

Buddha asked thrice, again and again. There was no question so he went behind the tree and closed his eyes, just to dissolve into the infinite, to leave the body, and then suddenly the man came. He started fighting with the monks and said, “I must see him. This is the last time; I will not be able to see him again. For forty years I have been missing and I have a question to ask. I have never been able to ask it before because sometimes there was a marriage in my family, sometimes business was at a peak, sometimes I was ill or my wife was ill, and sometimes there were relatives staying. I always missed but now don’t prevent me.”

The disciples said, “It is not possible; now he is dissolving.”

Buddha came out from his ecstasy, from his final Samadhi. He came in front of the tree and he said, “Don’t prevent that man. He may have been foolish, he may have missed because of his ignorance, but I cannot be hard on him. I am still alive so let him come. No one should say that Buddha was alive and a man who had come begging was sent back.” Buddha said, “What have you come to ask?”

The man had forgotten the question. He said, “When I came, I knew, but now I can’t remember. Next time I see you I will bring the question.” … And there was going to be no next time. Buddha died that day, and that man must be wandering somewhere on this or some other earth, seeking a man who can answer his question. That man missed Buddha continuously for forty years.

You can miss me — always remember that possibility. But it will be because of you, not because of me; I am always ready. Whenever you are ready I will hit you, but a deep surrender is needed; before that nothing can be done. You have to die, die as you are, so that which you really are can be born out of you. You have to die as an appearance so that the real can be born. You have to die on the periphery, so that the center evolves and comes out in its luminousness, in its full perfection. All hits are to destroy the seed so that the tree is born. Anything more?

Buddha said, “Let me repeat again:- APPA DIPO BHAVA — be a light unto yourself.”--Osho

Osho – The last statement of Gautama the Buddha to his disciples was: Be a light unto yourself. They were crying and weeping, naturally — the master was leaving and they had lived with the master for almost forty years; a few older disciples had lived with him the whole time. These forty years were of tremendous joy, of great experiences. These forty years had been the most beautiful time possible, humanly possible. These forty years had been days of paradise on earth. And now the master is leaving! It was natural, they started crying and weeping.

 
Buddha opened his eyes and said, “Stop crying and weeping! Have you not listened to me yet? Why are you crying?”

 
His chief disciple, Ananda, said, “Because you are leaving, because our light is leaving. We see, we feel darkness descending upon us. I have not yet become enlightened and you are leaving. If I could not become enlightened while you were alive, what is the hope for me now when you will be gone? I am in great despair, my anguish is incalculable, I have wasted these forty years. I have been following you like a shadow, it was tremendously beautiful to be with you, but now you are leaving. What is going to happen to us?”

 
Buddha said, “You are crying because you have not heard me yet. I have been telling you again and again: Don’t believe in me — but you have not listened. Because you have believed in me, and now I am dying, your whole structure is falling apart. Had you listened to me, had you created a light into your being rather than becoming knowledgeable through me, if you had experienced your own self there would have been no need to cry.

 
“Look at Manjushree!” he said — Manjushree was another disciple of Buddha, one of the greatest. He was sitting under a tree just close by, with closed eyes, so serene, so quiet, so utterly blissful, that Buddha said, “Look at Manjushree! Go and ask him why he is not crying.”

 
They asked Manjushree. He laughed and said, “What reason is there to cry? Buddha has helped me to know my own light. I am thankful, I am grateful, but there is no darkness descending. And how can Buddha die? I know I cannot die — how can Buddha die? He will be here. Just as a river disappears in the ocean he will disappear into the cosmos. But he will be here! He will be spread all over the cosmos. It is going to be something tremendously beautiful. Buddha was confined to a small body; now his fragrance will be released, he will permeate the whole of existence. I am tremendously happy that now Buddha will be spread all over space. I will be able to see him rising in the sun and I will be able to see him flying in a bird and I will be able to see him in the waves of the ocean… and I will be able to see him everywhere.

 
“He is simply leaving his body. It was a confinement. And how do I know it? I know it because I have known my own soul. I listened to him and you have not listened to him — that’s why you are crying.”

 
Buddha said, “Let me repeat again: APPA DIPO BHAVA — be a light unto yourself.” Then he closed his eyes and disappeared into the cosmos. But his last statement was also his first statement. In fact that was his whole message — the whole of his life he was repeating the same message again and again and again.

 
Source – Osho Book “The Dhammapada, Vol3″

The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you, Not in a mansion of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood and God is there, Lift a stone and you will find God."

 "Jesus said:-"Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all." (Gospel of Thomas 2)

 "The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you, Not in a mansion of wood and stone.  Split a piece of wood and God is there, Lift a stone and you will find God." (Gospel of Thomas)

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. (And after they have reigned they will rest.)"

Sage Sri, Sankara says:- one must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.

VC-63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? — It would result merely in an effort of speech

That alone is called ultimate truth, which is a fact that can never be changed under any circumstances. One must make an effort to know the ultimate truth. The soul is there always in the form of consciousness. Everyone has got it, there is nothing new to be acquired; only they have to be sharp enough to grasp and understand and assimilate it, when told about it. But there is a difference between understanding and realization. Effort is required for this understanding only, whereas once understood no special effort is needed to remember his understanding: until then he only has an idea of the soul, he only partially understands it. But once he thoroughly grasps what it is and that all these things are soul, he will then constantly find it present everywhere without further effort, because he will perceive the ultimate truth by understanding, even in the midst of worldly existence.

 When there is only one thing  that is soul, then  there is nothing to change, nothing to appear or disappear; when one speaks of remembering or forgetting soul that implies he believe in the existence of something else, i.e. a second thing, which is to be remembered. That would show he has not known that all is one. But knowing it, there is no second, consequently no intermittent perception of the soul, but a permanent effortless understanding and assimilation that it alone is. 

When one gets a glimpse of truth he has to try to repeat it a number of times in order to establish it.  The soul , the innermost self must raise itself by the soul, the innermost self. 

The difference between a physical truth and a spiritual truth, the former can evolve or change; the latter is ultimate and final. 

The seeker has to verify and accept the truth and reject the untruth.   When Buddha verified Vedic religion, god and scriptures and found them they are not the means for self-realization and rejected them. Then   he was on his own and found the truth through deeper reasoning and got enlightenment. Without being judgmental about your views, I am expressing my views derived from deeper self-search.  

It is impossible to prove the existence of God by any reasoning: one can only believe or assume. Religious belivers  see visions of gods and goddesses and adepts according to their own impressions remaining unconsciously in the mind from the inherited conditioning. This entire concept based confusion and doubts are present only until the ignorance is there. Once one discovers the fact that, the self is not physical but it is the soul/spirit then there is no scope for duality, which he experienced as reality.

No one has seen God or world in deep sleep. One does not know gods capacities, what god can do? And, what God cannot do in deep sleep? Therefore, any statement one might make about God can be made only in the waking experience (illusion). Seeker of truth should not accept anything as truth until and unless he verifies and satisfies himself through deeper inquiry, analysis and reasoning. Belief of   the god is the part of the illusion; therefore, God is only a settled fact for believers.  However, for a Gnani god's existence is only part of the illusion. Gnani knows nothing other than consciousness (soul) can exists in the realm of truth.  Therefore, Holy Korans Insight: - ANAL HAQ – (I AM THE TRUTH) -spiritually it means -- Self (soul) is the truth. GITA:- Ahum Brahmsmi (I AM BRAHMAN) – spiritually it means –Self (soul) is ultimate truth. Sage Sri, Sankara: - Ataman is Brahman – Soul is ultimate truth.  Therefore, all the foundation of the religion is based on truth (non-duality) but their practice is based on untruth (duality). 

 There is no other god but the formless soul (spirit or consciousness), which the innermost self.

When the experience itself is an illusion, whatever, they experienced on the base of the false self, within the false experience is bound to be falsehood.  How do the mystics or yogis know they have experienced the whole, when they themselves exist within the whole? There is the proof they have seen it? When they say, "I know from experience" they merely mean, "I think so." In the realm of truth the man and his experience of the world are mere illusion created out of the soul/consciousness. Moreover, the physical entity is not the witness. The one, which sees the illusion (physical entity and world together) as a whole, is formless. Thus, there is no physical apparatus to experience the bliss or any sort of experience.      If mystics experiences bliss, they cannot be waking or dreamless, for who is having the bliss? Moreover, if they retain the waking or dream they cannot know the Ultimate truth, the whole. Whatever they experienced as reality only in illusion and illusion is a myth. Whatever, prevails without the illusion/myth is ultimate reality. 

How the mystic knows, that God who tells about himself in meditation is truthful! He may be telling a lie or he is in hallucination! His claim has to be verified because in reality, there is no scope for duality. Since his own existence as a person is part of the illusion. Therefore, without verifying validity of his own existence, what value is there for the claim made on the base of illusory entity within the illusion?

Supposing a mystic has a vision or experience is true, but he must prove that it is really, what it purports to be, and that he is not deluded. For that, one must analyze it on the standpoint of the soul, the innermost self to unfold the truth.  All the vision and experiences is an object to the soul. Appearances and quotations have nothing to do in pursuit of truth.

Religionists and Authoritarianism merely assume as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved. One may believe in a position, but one is required to prove the truth of one's belief. A belief is mere feeling, truth is knowledge. Blind beliefs cannot be accepted as a god.  If the belief is accepted as god, then god is dependent on man for his existence. Because man has to exist first to believe there is a god, then only god can exist.  Therefore, it is necessary to trace the source of man’s existence to realize the truth of Gods existence.  Without knowing man’s existence it is impossible to blindly accept the god’s existence. 

Biblical insight says: - “Spirit is my Father, I and my Father are one”.—if the spirit is the ‘father’ then the ‘son’ is bound to be spirit. Therefore,   both are one in essence. Here “spirit”-- means the soul, which is the self.  “I” means—“the mind” – “the soul” and “the mind” are one in essence—means both are spirit, therefore, there is no second thing exists other than the spirit.

The God cannot exist in the soul, because the soul itself is in the form of spirit or consciousness, and consciousness is the ultimate truth and all else (three states) is an illusion created out of spirit. Other than the soul or spirit, nothing else can be called as a god.

The love, grace, God, compassion is physically based and they imply duality. The duality is mere illusion on the ultimate point of view. When the ultimate is spirit (father) how the duality (mind) can be real. Therefore, many souls’ theories are false theory; there is only one formless soul, which illuminates the whole illusion, in which form, time and space is a reality. But in the realm of truth the form, time and space is falsehood.

 The real meaning of   Christ is the truth.  Spirit is the truth.  Thus, the spirit has to be taken as god not the form.  When one is capable of viewing the world view on the base of spirit, there is nothing exist other than the spirit (consciousness). Since people view the worldview on the physical base (son) they become ignorant of the Christ, which is spirit and ultimate truth.  Therefore, there is a need to understand the fact that, Christ is not physical but Christ is formless soul or   consciousness (spirit). 

The Soul or Christ can remain with or without the duality. But the duality (mind or universe) ceases to exist without the Christ. When one discovers the soul is Christ, the mind becomes still and automatically one knows the soul is God or Christ or spirit. 

Do not take my name in vein ---By taking the gods (spirit) name in vein (as body) one will not be able to recognize the ultimate truth or Christ.

If thy eye is single the whole body is full of light-- means – if one is able to view the worldview on the spirit base, not with the physical eyes (two eyes) then the whole mind (diversity) is full of spirit (consciousness). (Here light means—the spirit or consciousness—which lights the mind or the universe or illusion or insentient). 

The cross signifies --- crossing the ‘I’ or mind. If one crosses the ‘I’ (illusion), it is the kingdom of heaven.  Kingdom of heaven means- it is non-dual existence—Brahman –Buddha’s nature—Christ.

Supernatural are reality within the illusion.  In the realm of Christ or ultimate truth, there is no second thing exists other than Christ or spirit. 

The spiritual side of the bible is lost or destroyed or mutilated by the priest craft or the rulers. And the physical side is preserved to help the mass who was immersed in the worldly life, by the church, which was in the grip of the rulers in the past and the same thing passed on from one generation to the next.

There are many spiritual insights of the bible leads one towards non-duality.  But people are stuck up with the physical side of the bible and they think love, compassion, grace, blessings, forgiveness is the means of realizing the Christ the ultimate truth. But love, compassion, grace, blessings, forgiveness is good only for living in worldly life in harmony with the others, but they are not the means to follow the path of Christ or ultimate truth.

Man, grace, blessings, love, compassion, grace, individual gods and the world,   are a reality with illusion. The substance and witness (soul) of the illusion (mind) is a spirit (consciousness). Therefore, the mind and soul are one in essence. The essence is consciousness. Consciousness is the  soul or Christ or Spirit or Brahman or God.    

Man is not aware of the fact that, he is an experience within another experience. The mind is an experience, which contains man and the universe. Since one limits the mind to the physical entity, he is ignorant that his body is an experience, within the waking or dream experience. Until and unless one struggles to unfold the truth as an individual, separate from the world, he remains in the ocean of doubts and confusion.

The mind is an object, not a subject. Whatever is within the mind, that is, the man and his world, bound to be an object. The formless substance of the mind has to be traced. The mind is in the form of waking or dream experience. If there is no mind, then there is no experience. Therefore, it is evident that, the formless knower (subject) of the object (mind) can remain with or without, the object (mind or universe). For illustration, in deep sleep there is no mind, thus there is no experience. Therefore the knower of the three states is apart and it is aware of the three states, which comes and goes in succession.

When man is not his own experience, he and his experience of the world is within another experience  how can he take authorship of the  experience as his , the knower of the waking experience in which  he  perceives the world, as a person is formless and apart. He cannot take authorship as a doer, because his doer ship is the reality within the illusion.  Thus he has to trace the formless knower of three states which is within the three states but it is without the three states. Therefore, whatever prevails without the three states is real and eternal.

The whole waking experience along with the world, in which I and you and others exists, is mere illusion, witnessed by the soul, the innermost self. Thus the mind is an illusion created out of the soul, which is present in the form of consciousness or spirit. When the formless substance and the witness of the mind is traced then the mind is mere myth.  Thus all the theories and beliefs based on the false self (waking or dream), becomes unreal, when the Christ or ultimate truth or Brahman is traced and realized.