means wisdom – a knowing awareness. Buddha has said, “When the flame of meditation burns high, the light that surrounds that flame is pragya.” Samadhi inside, and a light all around, an aura follows you. You are wise in your every act; not that you are trying to be wise, it simply happens because you are so totally aware. Whatever you do, it happens to be wise – not that you are continuously thinking about doing the right thing. A man who is continuously thinking about doing the right thing will not be able to do anything – he will not be able to do even the wrong thing because this will become such a tension on his mind.
How can you decide what is right and what is wrong? A man of wisdom, a man of understanding, does not choose. He simply feels. He simply throws his awareness everywhere, and in that light he moves. Wherever he moves is right.
Right does not belong to things, it belongs to you – the one who is moving. It is not that Buddha did right things – no. Whatever he did was right. Discrimination is a poor word. A man of understanding has discrimination. He doesn’t think about it, it is just easy for him. If you want to get out of this room, you simply walk out the door. You don’t grope, you don’t go to the wall first and try to find the way, you simply go out. You don’t even think that this is the door.
But when a blind man needs to go out, he asks, “Where is the door?” He also tries to find it. He knocks on various places with his cane, he will grope, and in his mind he goes on thinking, “Is this the door or the wall? Am I going the right way or the wrong way?” And when he comes to the door, he thinks, “Yes, now this is the door.” All this happens because he is blind.
You have to discriminate because you are blind; you have to think because you are blind; you have to believe in right and wrong because you are blind; you have to be involved in discipline and morality because you are blind. When understanding flowers, and the flame is there, you simply see and everything is clear. When you have an inner clarity, everything is clear; you become perceptive. Whatever you do is simply right. Not that it is right, so you do it; you do it with understanding, and it is right.
Shraddha, virya, smriti, samadhi, pragya. Others who attain asampragyata samadhi attain through trust, infinite energy, effort, total self-remembrance, a nonquestioning mind and a flame of understanding.
Enough for today.
Chapter: 2
Simplicity Never Appeals to the Ego
The first question:
Osho,
What you have been saying about Heraclitus, Christ, and Zen seems like kindergarten teachings compared to Patanjali. Heraclitus, Christ, and Zen make the final step seem close; Patanjali makes even the first step seem almost impossible. It seems like we Westerners have hardly begun to realize the amount of work that has to be done.
Lao Tzu says, “If Tao were not laughed at, it would not be Tao.” And I would like to say to you: “If you did not misunderstand me, you would not be you. You are bound to misunderstand.” You have not understood what I had been saying about Heraclitus, Christ, and Zen. If you cannot understand Heraclitus, Zen, and Jesus, you will not be able to understand Patanjali either.
The first rule of understanding is not to compare. How can you compare? What do you know about the innermost state of Heraclitus, Basho, Buddha, Jesus or Patanjali? Who are you to compare? Comparison is a judgment. Who are you to judge? But the mind wants to judge because in judging the mind feels superior. You become the judge and your ego feels very, very good. You feed the ego. Through judgment and comparison you think that you know.
They are different types of flowers – incomparable. How can you compare a rose with a lotus? Is any comparison possible? There’s no possibility because both are different worlds. How can you compare the moon with the sun? There is no possibility because they are different dimensions. Heraclitus is a wildflower; Patanjali is in a cultivated garden. Patanjali will be nearer your intellect, Heraclitus nearer your heart. But as you go deeper, the differences are lost. When you start flowering, a new understanding dawns upon you – the understanding that flowers differ in their color, smell, shape, form and name.
But in flowering they don’t differ. The flowering, the phenomenon that they have flowered, is the same. Heraclitus is, of course, different; he has to be. Every individual is unique. Patanjali is also different. You cannot put them into one category. No pigeonholes exist where you can force them or categorize them. But if you also flower, you will come to understand that flowering is the same whether the flower is a lotus or a rose. It makes no difference. The innermost phenomenon of energy coming to a celebration is the same.
Patanjali is a scientific thinker. He is a grammarian, a linguist. Heraclitus is a wild poet. They talk differently, they have different mind patterns. Heraclitus does not bother about grammar, language or form. When you say that listening to Patanjali you feel that Heraclitus, Basho, and Zen appear childish, like kindergarten teachings, you are not saying anything about Patanjali or Heraclitus, you are saying something about yourself. You are saying that you are a mind oriented person.
You can understand Patanjali; Heraclitus simply eludes you. Patanjali is more solid, you can have a grip on him. Heraclitus is a cloud, you cannot have any grip on him. You can make head and tail out of Patanjali, he seems rational. What will you do with a Heraclitus, with a Basho? No, they are simply so irrational. Thinking about them, your mind becomes absolutely impotent. When you say such things and make comparisons, judgments, you say something about yourself – who you are.
Patanjali can be understood, there is no trouble about it. He is absolutely rational and can be followed; there is no problem there. All his techniques can be done because he gives you “the how,” and “how” is always easy to understand. What to do? How to do it? He gives you the techniques.
Ask Basho or Heraclitus what to do, and they simply say, “There is nothing to be done.” You are at a loss. If something is to be done you can do it, but if nothing is to be done you are at a loss. Still, you go on asking again and again, “What to do? How to do it? How to achieve that which you are talking about?”
They talk about the ultimate without talking about the way that leads to it. Patanjali talks about the way, never about the goal. He is concerned with the means, Heraclitus with the end. The end is mysterious. It is poetry; it is not a mathematical solution. It is a mystery. But the path is a scientific thing. The technique, the know-how appeals to you. But this shows something about you, not about Heraclitus or Patanjali. You are a mind oriented person, a head oriented person. Try to see this. Don’t compare Patanjali and Heraclitus. Simply try to see that it shows something about you. And if it shows something about you, you can do something about it.
Don’t think that you know what Patanjali is and what Heraclitus is. You can’t even understand an ordinary flower in the garden – and they are the ultimate flowering in existence. Unless you flower in the same way, you will not be able to understand. But you can compare, you can judge, and through judgment you will miss the whole point.
So the first rule of understanding is never to judge. Never judge and never compare Buddha, Mahavira, Mohammed, Christ, Krishna. Never compare! They exist in a dimension beyond comparison, and whatever you know about them is really nothing – just fragments. You cannot have the total comprehension. They are so beyond. In fact, you simply see their reflection in the water of your mind.
You have not seen the moon; you have seen the moon in the lake. You have not seen the reality; you have simply seen a mirror reflection, and the reflection depends on the mirror. If the mirror is defective, the reflection is different. Your mind is your mirror.
When you say that Patanjali and his teaching seems very great,
