Osho - No Water No Moon
Chapter 7. Black-Nosed
Buddha
A nun who was searching for enlightenment
made a wooden statue of Buddha and covered it with gold leaf. It was very
pretty and she carried it with her wherever she went.
Years passed, and still carrying her
Buddha, the nun settled down in a small country temple where there were many
statues of Buddha each having its own shrine.
The nun burned incense before her Golden
Buddha each day, but not liking the idea of her perfume straying to the other
statues, she devised a funnel through which the smoke would ascend to her
statue only.
This blackened the nose of the golden
statue and made it especially ugly.
One of the greatest problems
that is bound to face everybody who is traveling the path, is to make a
clear-cut distinction between love and attachment. They appear the same - they
are not. They look alike - they are not. Rather, on the contrary, even hate is
more similar to love than attachment.
Attachment is just the
contrary; it hides the reality of hatred and gives the appearance of love, it
kills love. Nothing else can be so poisonous as attachment, as possessiveness.
So try to understand this, then we can enter this beautiful story.
It has happened to many, it is
happening to you - because mind is so confused between love and attachment. And
those who look at things from the outside, they always become victims.
Attachment is taken as if it is love, and once you have taken attachment,
possessiveness, as love, you will always go on missing the real thing. You have
chosen a false coin. Now you will not look for the real coin because you think
this is the real. You have been deceived.
Possessiveness, attachment, is
the false love. Hatred is better, because at least it is true, at least it is a
fact. And hatred can become love any day, but possessiveness can never become
love. You simply have to drop it to grow into love. Why does attachment appear
like love? And what is the difference? The mechanism is subtle.
Love means that you are ready
to merge yourself into the other. It is a death, the deepest death possible,
the deepest abyss possible in which you can fall, and go on falling and
falling. And there is no end to it, there is no bottom to it, it is an eternal
falling into the other. It never ends. To love means the other has become so
significant that you can lose yourself. Love is surrender - unconditional;
because if there is even a single condition then you are important, not the
other; then you are the center, not the other. And if you are the center, the
other is just a means. You are using the other, exploiting the other, finding
satisfaction, gratification through the other - but you are the goal. And love
says, make the end the other, and dissolve, and merge. It is a dying
phenomenon, a death- process. That's why people are afraid of love. You may
talk about it, you may sing about it, but deep down you are afraid of love. You
never enter into it.
All your poetries, all your
songs about love, are just substitutes so that you can sing without entering
into it, so that you can feel that you are loving without loving. And love is
such a deep need that you cannot live without it; either the real or some substitute
is needed. The substitute may be false, but at least for a time, for the time
being, it gives you the feeling that you are in love. And even the false is
enjoyed. Sooner or later you will realize that it is false; then you are not
going to change the false love into real love - then you will change the lover
or the beloved.
These are the two
possibilities: when you come to know that this love is false you can change,
you can drop this false love and become a real lover. The other possibility is
to change the partner. And this is how your mind functions: whenever you feel,
"This love has not given me the bliss it promised, rather on the contrary,
I have become more miserable" - you think the other is deceiving, not that
you are deceiving.
Nobody can deceive you except
yourself... so you feel the other is deceiving, the other is responsible:
change the wife, change the
husband, change the master, change the god, move from Buddha's temple to
Mahavira's temple, change your religion, change your prayer, don't go to the
mosque, go to the church - change the other. Then again for a time you will
have the feeling that you are in love, in prayer. But sooner or later again the
false will be known - because it cannot satisfy. You can befool yourself, but
how long can one befool oneself...? Then again you have to change - the other.
If you come to realize the
other is not the problem, that your love is false... you have been talking
about it, you have not been doing anything to enter into it - you are afraid
and scared. Love is death-like, and if you are afraid of death you will also be
afraid of love. In death only your body dies.
The essential, the ego that
looks essential to you, remains safe. The mind, that appears significant to
you, is carried on further into another life. Your inner identity remains the
same; only the outer garb, the clothes, change in death.
So death is never very deep, it
is just superficial. And if you are afraid of death, how can you be ready to
enter into love? Because in love not only the garb, not only the house, but you
die - the mind, the ego dies. This fear of death becomes the fear of love, and
the fear of love becomes the fear of prayer, meditation. These three things are
similar: death, love, meditation. And the route is the same but you have to
move on it. And if you have never loved you cannot pray, you cannot do
meditation. And if you have never loved and meditated, you will miss the
beautiful experience of death completely.
If you have loved, then death
is such a beautiful and intense experience that you cannot compare it with
anything in life. Life can never be so deep as death, because life is spread
out over seventy, eighty years. Death is in a single moment - so intense; life
can never be so intense. And death is the culmination, it is not the end. It is
the culmination, the very peak; your whole life you have been making effort to
reach it. And what stupidity - when you reach to the peak you are so afraid,
you feel so dizzy, you close your eyes, you become so scared that you become
unconscious. People die, they die in an unconscious state. They miss the
experience.
So love can be helpful because
love will prepare you for death, and love will prepare you for meditation also.
In meditation you have to lose - the other is not there - you simply have to
lose yourself. Love is deeper than death; meditation is even deeper than love,
because the other is still there in love - you have something to cling to. And
when you can cling, something of you survives.
But in meditation there is no
other. That is why Buddha, Mahavira and Lao Tzu, they deny the existence of
God. Why? They know very well God is, but they deny the existence so that you
have no support left for meditation. If the other is there, your meditation can
become at the most love, devotion, but the total death is still not
experienced. Total death is possible only when there is no other and you simply
dissolve, you simply evaporate; there is nobody to cling to - then the greatest
ecstasy happens.
The word ecstasy is very meaningful.
This English word ecstasy is so beautiful and so significant; no other language
has such a word. Ecstasy means to stand outside. Ecstasy means you are
completely dead, and you are standing outside yourself and looking at this
death, as if your whole existence has become a corpse. You are out of it and
looking at your own death; then the supreme bliss happens. If I say it to you,
you will be scared. If I say to you that you are in search of the supreme
death, you will be scared - but you are in search of it. The whole of religion
is the art of learning how to die.
Love means death, but
attachment is not death. Love means the other has become so significant that
you can dissolve yourself; you trust the other so much that you need not have
your own mind - you can put it aside.
This is why people say love is
mad, and people say love is blind; it is. Not that your eyes go blind, but when
you put your ego aside, your mind aside, to everybody else you will look blind
and mad.
This is the state of madness.
You are not thinking on your own. You trust the other so much that now there is
no need to think, because thinking is needed if there is doubt. Doubt creates
thinking, doubt is the base of thinking. If you cannot doubt, thinking stops.
If you cannot think, where is the ego, how can the ego stand? That is why ego
always doubts things, never trusts.
If you trust, no ego appears -
the ego is gone. Hence the insistence of all religions that only through faith
and trust and love will you enter the temple of the divine - there is no other
door to it. Through doubt you cannot enter, because through doubt you remain.
In trust you are lost.
Love is a trust, a dissolving
of the ego. The center moves to the other. The other becomes so significant -
your very life, your very being. Not even a flicker of doubt comes to you. It
is so peaceful, so beautiful, that not a flicker of doubt comes to you, not a
ripple in the mind. Trust is complete, perfect. In that perfect trust there is
a beatitude, a blessing. Even if you think about it you will have a small
glimpse of it, what it can be. But if you feel it, it is tremendous, there is
nothing like it.
But the ego creates a false
trick. Instead of love it gives you attachment, possessiveness. Love says, be
possessed by the other; ego says, possess the other. Love says, dissolve into
the other; ego says, let the other yield to you, force the other to be yours,
don't allow the other to move in freedom. Cut the other's freedom, let him
become your periphery, your shadow.
Love gives life to the other;
possessiveness, attachment, kills the other, takes the life of the other.
That is why lovers, so-called
lovers, always kill each other - they are poisonous. Look at a husband and a
wife: once they were lovers - they thought they were lovers and then they
started killing each other. Now they are two dead persons, they have become an
imprisonment for each other. They are simply afraid and bored, scared of the
other.
Once it happened: In a circus,
there was a woman lion-tamer. And the fiercest lions were in her perfect
control; she would order them and they would obey. And the greatest thing, when
everybody's breathing would stop, was when the fiercest lion would be ordered
to come near and he would come, and the lion-tamer, the woman, would have a
piece of sugar on her tongue, and the lion would come and take the sugar from
her mouth. Everybody would go mad - so much excitement, everybody would clap
and show their appreciation.
One day Mulla Nasruddin was
there. Everybody clapped but he was not moved at all. He said, "Nothing,
anybody can do that."
The woman, the lion-tamer,
looked scornfully at him and said, "Can you do it?"
He said, "Yes, anybody can
do it - if the lion can do it."
Man is so afraid of woman - and
this is through the experience of love. Love, the so-called love, kills the
other. Otherwise, why is this world so ugly? So many lovers, everybody is a
lover; the husband loving the wife, the wife loving the husband, the parents
loving the children, the children loving the parents, and friends, and
everybody, relatives, the whole world is in love.... So much love - and so much
ugliness, so much misery?
Somewhere, something seems to
have gone deeply wrong - in the very roots. This is not love; otherwise, fear
disappears - the more you love, the less you fear. When love really comes to
its totality there is no fear. But in possessiveness, fear goes on growing more
and more, because when you possess a person you are always afraid he may leave
you, he may go away - and the doubt is always there. The husband is always
doubting that the wife may love somebody else. They become spies on each other,
and they cut each other's freedom so there is no possibility.
But when you cut freedom, when
you cut the possibility of the unknown, life becomes dead, stale.
Everything becomes flat,
meaningless, a boredom, a monotone. And the more it happens, the more you
become possessive. When life is ebbing, when the love is going, when something
is going out of your hands, you become more possessive, more clinging; you
become more protective, you create more walls and more prisons. This is the
vicious circle.
The more prisons, the less life
there will be. You will be more afraid that something is happening - and love
is disappearing so create a bigger prison. Then love will disappear more, then
a still bigger prison will be needed. And there are many subtle methods how to
do it: jealousy, continuous jealousy, and possessiveness, to such an extent
that the other remains no longer a person. The other becomes just a thing, a
commodity, because a thing can be possessed easier than a person, because a
thing cannot rebel, cannot disobey, cannot go away without your permission,
cannot fall in love with somebody else.
When love becomes a frustration
- and it will become a frustration, because it is not love - then you by and by
start loving things. Look at people when they polish their cars, the way they
look at their car - enchanted! Look at the romantic light that comes to their
face when they look at their car; they are in love with their car.
In the West particularly, where
love has been killed completely, people are in love with things or animals:
dogs, cats, cars, houses. It is easier to love a thing or an animal; a dog is
more faithful than a wife ever can be. You cannot find a more faithful animal
than a dog - he remains faithful, there is no danger. A wife is dangerous. A
husband is dangerous; any moment he can move away and you cannot do anything.
And when he moves, your whole ego is shattered, you feel hurt. To protect from
that hurt ever happening you start killing the husband or the wife, so they
become just like cars and houses - dead things.
This is the misery though: that
whenever you possess a person he becomes a thing - but you wanted to love a
person, not a thing. Because a thing can be possessed, but a thing cannot be
responsive. You may love a thing, but the thing cannot answer your love. You
may hug your car, but the car cannot hug you. You may kiss your car, but the
kiss cannot be returned.
I have heard about Picasso: A
woman, a woman appreciator, a fan of Picasso's, once came to him and said,
"I saw your self-portrait in an art gallery. It is so beautiful, and I
became so possessed by it, that I forgot completely and kissed the
portrait."
Picasso looked at the woman and
said, "Did the portrait return the kiss?"
The woman said, "What are
you asking? How can a portrait return the kiss?"
And Picasso said, "Then
that is not my portrait!" How can a dead wife return the kiss? How can a
dead husband return the kiss?
This is the misery: if you want
to possess, you kill. And the moment you have succeeded the whole glory is
lost, because now the other cannot respond. The other can respond only in
freedom, but you cannot allow freedom because you are not in love. Love is
never possessive. It cannot be, by its very nature.
And not only loving a man or a
woman: if you start loving a Buddha you will repeat this whole thing. You will
do the same, you will be possessive there also. That is why so many temples
have been created - possessiveness. Christians think Christ belongs to them.
Christ cannot belong to anybody, but Christians think he belongs to them; they
are the possessors. Mohammedans think Mohammed belongs to them. You cannot draw
a picture of Mohammed - you will be dragged to the court. You cannot make a
statue of Mohammed, because Mohammedans won't allow it. But who are these
Mohammedans? How did they become the possessors? They have turned Mohammed into
a dead thing.
Nobody can possess Mohammed,
nobody can possess Christ - they are so big and your hands are so small. They
cannot be possessed. Love can never be possessed; it is such a vital force, and
such an infinite force, and you are so tiny and so small, you cannot possess
it. But Christians have their Christ, Mohammedans have their Mohammed, Hindus
their Krishna, Buddhists their Buddha.
Amongst Jainas, there are two
communities - they have divided their Mahavira. There are a few temples in
India which belong to both communities, so there is always fight and always
cases in the courts, because a time division is there: in the morning the
swetambers will worship; in the evening the digambers, the other community,
will worship. And they change because swetambers put false, open eyes on the
Mahavira's statue, and digambers worship Mahavira with closed eyes, so they
cannot worship the same statue. First they have to close the eyes, or remove
the false eyes, only then are they at ease; then it is THEIR Mahavira. But how
can it be yours or mine? Is Mahavira a thing, a house, a shop, a commodity? But
lovers are false lovers - they are really possessors, not lovers.
This has happened in religions
so deeply, that religion, rather than becoming a blessing to the world, has
proved dangerous. Through this possessiveness religion becomes the sect - then
you go on worshipping this dead thing and then nothing happens in your life;
and then you think something is wrong with religion. Nothing is wrong with
religion. Mahavira could have transformed you. Krishna could have given you the
light that he had, but you didn't allow him. Christ certainly could have become
the salvation, but you didn't allow. Jews crucified him, and you - you have
mummified him in the churches. Now he is a dead thing - good to worship, good
to possess, but how can a dead Christ transform you?
And the priest knows it very
well. That is why I have never come across a priest who is a believer.
Priests are deep down always
nonbelievers, because they know the whole business, and they know this Christ
is dead. When they worship it is just a gesture, for show.
It happened once, it is an
historic fact, that in the year 999, on December 31st, there was a rumor all
over the world, particularly in Christian communities, that the last day is
coming on January 1st; in the year 1000, on January 1st, the last day of
judgment is coming and the world is going to be dissolved and everybody is
going to face the divine.
So, on December 31st, 999, all
the Christians all over the world closed their shops, closed their offices -
people even distributed their things, because on the morning of January 1st
there was going to be no world. People kissed and hugged each other, even went
to their enemies to be forgiven, and there was a totally different world that
evening. Everything closed, because tomorrow there is going to be no future. So
why be an enemy? And why not love? Why not enjoy? People were celebrating - the
last day is coming.
All over the world, Christians
closed everything. Only the offices of the Vatican in Rome were open - because
the pope knows well, the priests know well, that this is not going to happen,
this is just a superstition. And they created the whole thing! But not a single
thing was distributed from the pope.
Priests are in the know. They
know that Christ is dead - and you are a fool, you are praying to a dead thing.
But they cannot say that to you, because that is a trade secret; and only
through it is exploitation possible. And it is in their favor, because if
Christ is alive they cannot become the agents in between. An alive Christ will
come directly to you; he will not allow a mediator, a broker. He will not allow
it. Christ will not allow a priest to come and stand in between the lovers and
himself - he will face them, he will come to you directly. So for priests, a
live Christ is dangerous, only a dead Christ is good.
Priests never like a Mahavira
when he is alive, they never like a Buddha when he is alive - they are always
against when he is alive. When he is dead, they immediately come and organize
around him, make a temple and start exploiting you. Priests are against a
Mahavira, a Buddha, a Krishna, but they know that when they are dead their
names can be exploited.
But you have to remember well
that with your love, your prayer, your worship - if it becomes possessive - you
are killing. And if you kill Krishna how can he transform you? How can he bring
you to Krishna consciousness? Impossible!
Now we should enter this story.
It is beautiful.
A nun who was searching for
enlightenment made a wooden statue of Buddha and covered it with gold leaf. It
was very pretty, and she carried it with her wherever she went.
Many things have to be
understood - even word by word. A NUN... because this is the heart of the woman
- to possess. That's why not a monk, but a nun. And don't think that only women
possess; men also possess, but then they have the heart of the woman, not of
the man. Why is woman more possessive than man? - because possession is out of
fear. Man is less afraid than woman, that's why - man is less afraid than
woman. Because he is less afraid, he is less possessive. The feminine mind is
more afraid, fear is natural to it, there is always a trembling. Because of
that fear woman is more possessive. Unless she is completely satisfied that she
possesses, she is not happy. And when she possesses completely she cannot be
happy, because the man is dead. Only in freedom life exists.
Hence, in the story, a nun has
been chosen. But remember well, it doesn't make any difference if you are a man
- your mind can still be feminine. There are rarely men.... You may be a woman
and still have a man's fearless mind. So the distinction is not through sex, it
is through attitudes. A man can be a woman, a woman can be a man - the symbol
is just to show the attitude. What attitude?
If you are a man and still
possessive, you have a feminine mind. If you are a woman and not possessive,
you have a male mind. It is said that Mahavira insisted that no woman can enter
into enlightenment unless she becomes a man. People took it literally, and they
missed the point. They thought that no woman can enter into enlightenment, so
every woman who is striving will have to be born in the next life as a man, and
then only can she enter. This is foolishness - but no feminine mind can enter
into enlightenment, that is true, because the feminine mind means fear and
possessiveness. And with fear and possessiveness, no love, no meditation is
possible.
One woman became enlightened.
Jainas - the followers of Mahavira and followers of the tirthankaras - were
much disturbed. What to do? So they changed the name of the woman into the name
of a man, and they simply forgot the whole thing. A woman named Mallibai became
enlightened - what to do about the theory now? So they changed the name, they
call Mallibai, Mallinath. They changed the statue, you will never find a
woman's statue. And this Mallibai - or Mallinath - she was such a rare being
that they had to concede tirthankarhood to her. So in twenty- four tirthankaras
one is a woman, but you will never find her because the name given is
Mallinath.
So one feels no woman has
attained enlightenment. But it is true in a different, deeper sense; no
feminine mind can enter - because fear cannot enter it, possessiveness cannot
enter.
A nun who was searching for
enlightenment made a wooden statue of Buddha...
And it is very difficult for a
mind which is feminine - man or woman. But the mind, if it is feminine, will
create a statue; you will create the other. You cannot be alone.
A statue means the other has
been created. There is no one, but you cannot be satisfied with nothingness;
something has to be there to cling to. Hence so many temples and so many
statues - they are created out of the feminine mind. That's why you will not
find many men in the temples whenever you go, but many women will be there. And
if some men have come, those are the henpecked husbands. They have come with
their wives, they have not come directly; they had to come just because of the
wife.
When Mahavira preached, forty
thousand people took sannyas from him - thirty thousand were women, only ten
thousand men. What is the matter? And this is the ratio - this is the ratio
with me also. If four persons come - three women, one man. And the man comes
with difficulty and goes very easily, and the woman comes very easily and it is
very difficult for her to go. She clings; it is very difficult for her to go.
But a feminine mind can create
difficulties, barriers. If you start becoming possessive, then you miss. You
have to remember: the fear has to be left - only then love arises. The fear has
to be dropped, because the fear is of the ego. And if fear exists, the ego will
persist; then you can create a statue and cling to the statue. This statue is
not going to lead you to the ultimate, because this is your creation. You may
cover it with gold leaf, it may look pretty, but it is a dead thing. You may
make a golden statue, but it is not going to help - it is a dead thing.
It was very pretty, and she
carried it with her wherever she went.
It became a burden, it had to
be carried, protected. She couldn't sleep well because somebody may steal it.
She could not go without it, because somebody else may want to possess it, it
may have been taken from her. Her whole mind became possessive around it. The
statue became the center, the center of her possessiveness, fear, worship. But
this is not love.
Years passed, and still
carrying her Buddha, the nun settled down in a small country temple where there
were many statues of Buddha each having its own shrine.
Years passed, nothing happened.
Carrying a Buddha nothing can happen, because how can you carry a Buddha? You
can only carry a statue. Buddha has to be lived, not carried. Buddha has to be
loved, not possessed. You have to dissolve yourself in the Buddha, not carry
him as your possession.
Buddha is alive if you dissolve
into him. But then Buddha is dangerous, because you will never come back. It is
a point from where no one can come back. Once you have fallen, you have fallen
into it; there is no returning. There is fear and trembling, you are afraid you
may be lost. And your fear is true - you are going to be lost.
But with a statue there is no
fear, you can carry it. The statue can be lost some day, but you will not be
lost. You can create another, even a prettier one, there is no difficulty - it
is your creation. Go to the temples: what has man done? - created statues, his
own creations. Now he is bowing down before them, weeping and crying, and the
whole thing is false, because the base is false. Your tears, your prayers - to
whom are you addressing them? Before whom are you weeping and crying? - your
own creations, your own toys. Howsoever beautiful and costly, it makes no
difference. But you are the creator of your gods, and before them you cry and
weep and you think something is going to happen. You are simply acting
stupidly. Temples are filled with stupid people. They are not aware of what
they are doing, bowing down before their own creations. Now, how can this help
you?
She carried... many years
passed, many lives may have passed - and still carrying her Buddha she was
nowhere. Just wandering from one place to another, from one life to another,
from one mood to another, from one mind to another - but just wandering,
reaching nowhere! Then she got fed up with the journey; the goal seemed nowhere
to be achieved, the goal seemed nowhere to be coming closer.
So she... settled down in a small
country temple where there were many statues of Buddha each having its own
shrine.
But there were many statues of
the Buddha. In China, in Japan, they have created very big temples for Buddha.
In China there is one temple with ten thousand Buddhas, ten thousand shrines in
one temple! Ten thousand statues! But even ten thousand statues are of no help.
One Buddha is enough, ten thousand statues are not enough.
Why does the mind go on,
working nonsense? - one statue is not doing it, so create two. This is the
arithmetic; two are not doing it, so create three - ten thousand statues! One
man wandering amongst ten thousand statues and nothing is happening. Nothing is
going to happen, because life never arises out of a dead thing, a man is never
transformed out of a dead statue.
Seek a living buddha. And if
you cannot find a living buddha, close your eyes and seek there. If you cannot
find him without, you will find him within, because Buddhas are never dead.
They are there, just to be sought - and they are always there. They may be just
by the corner of your house, but you have never looked. Or you are so
acquainted with the neighbor, with the corner, that you feel you know. Nobody
knows - you may meet the buddha in a beggar.
Just remain with open eyes. If
you are carrying a statue, your eyes are closed. This woman may have missed
many buddhas because of this statue - because she thinks she already possesses.
She already has the Buddha, so
what need is there to look elsewhere? Then she settled in a temple - people who
live with statues will always settle in a temple. People who live with statues
cannot reach to the ultimate goal; they have to settle somewhere on the way, by
the side of the way - a shrine, a temple.
Many people have settled in
temples. They wandered and they searched and then they found that nothing can
be found, it is impossible. Not because the goal is very far away - the goal is
very near, nearer than you can conceive - but because they are carrying
statues. Those statues have become their blindness; their eyes are closed with
their statues, their hearts are burdened with their statues, words, scriptures
- dead things.
I have heard: Once it happened
in ancient days, a king, a very scholarly man, wanted to marry a girl, but no
ordinary girl would do. He wanted a perfect woman, astrologically perfect. So
he consulted many astrologers. It was very difficult - many years passed, his
youth was almost gone. He was no longer young - because these astrologers are
difficult people, and mathematics takes time. And then one woman would be found
and one attribute would still be lacking - not exactly perfect.
Really, you cannot find anyone
perfect. It is impossible, because perfection always means death. If someone is
alive, it means imperfect - that's why we say that whenever one is perfect, he
is born no more. Because how can you be born if you are perfect? Then you have
passed through this world, you have gained, grown, you cannot be allowed back.
Then the king said to his
advisers, "It is enough; if not perfect, then approximately perfect will
do.
But my youth is passing, I am
almost thirty-eight. Now find a woman!"
So a woman was found - not
exactly one hundred percent, but ninety-nine percent. Then the search started
for the right time when this king should make love to this woman, because he
wanted a rare, extraordinary child. It was very, very difficult, many
scriptures were consulted, the I Ching and others; many wise men were called
from faraway countries, and they consulted and they discussed - and the king
was almost forty-four.
Then one day he got fed up, and
he turned them out. He burned all the scriptures and told to his wife,
"Enough is enough! Now we must make love" - they had not made love up
to now. But the woman was old, he was also old, and with love there is a
problem. If you start making love early, you can go on making love to the very
end of your life. If you don't start early, you cannot make love later on,
because lovemaking is a mechanical thing. The mechanism needs efficiency.
So if a man starts making love
when he is fourteen, he may go on making love up to eighty. And don't think
that if you make love too much in your young age, then in your old age you will
not be able. You are absolutely wrong. If you make love too much, only then you
will be able to later on.
And you cannot make love too
much, remember that, because the body won't allow. Too much is impossible;
there is a thermostat in the body - too much is not possible. Whatsoever you
do, it is always within the limit. But by this time the king had become
impotent - he couldn't make love, the wife was frigid. They had missed the
right moment. The child was never born to them, then they had to adopt a child.
This is what is happening: you
have to adopt a Buddha, you have to adopt a god. It is not born to you - and
God must be born to you, otherwise it is a false god. But you have been missing
because you are so occupied with scriptures, wise men, astrology, and all sorts
of nonsense. You are so obsessed with words, statues, temples, rituals,
formalities, that by the time formalities are fulfilled life has gone. By the
time you conclude logically, life is no longer there to do it.
This woman finally settled in a
temple, and I tell you: never settle in a temple, because a temple can only be
a night's shelter, it cannot be a permanent settlement. Never settle in a
temple, never settle in a sect, never settle with the Vatican or Puri
Shankaracharya, never settle with a sectarian mind.
You can have a rest, that's
okay. Stay there for a night, and by the morning, before they catch hold of
you, move! Go on moving - unless you reach the ultimate; only that is the
temple. But there you will not find any statues. There you will find the real -
not the statue, not the portrait, but the real.
Don't settle with a portrait,
don't settle with the false, don't settle with the carbon copy. Search for the
original, the very source.
The woman settled - she had to
settle. When you carry a wooden Buddha, how can you attain enlightenment? If
wooden Buddhas can give you enlightenment, then there will be no problem. A
wooden Buddha is a wooden Buddha. You can carry it, you can play with it.
The nun burned incense before
her Golden Buddha each day.
The Buddha was wooden, just
covered with gold, but she used to call her Buddha, "Golden Buddha."
The gold was just skin-deep;
deep down there was just a wooden Buddha, nothing else. But you can hide
things, and through gold you can hide anything. When there is not love, then
there is much gold around the wife. A wooden Buddha under the gold leaf - and
you think everything is okay. And the wife also thinks everything is okay,
because the husband every time comes and brings more and more ornaments. When
love is dead, ornaments become very much alive. When there is love there is no
need for ornaments.
You never cover a real Buddha
with gold, do you? The Buddha won't allow you, he will simply escape. He will
say, "Wait! What are you doing? You will kill me." Gold kills. Life
can never be covered with gold - only death. Only death will allow you to do
something. Life won't allow you such nonsense. But she called her wooden
Buddha, "Golden Buddha."
The nun burned incense before
her golden Buddha each day, but not liking the idea of her perfume straying to
the other statues, she devised a funnel through which the smoke would ascend to
her statue only.
This is the mind of a
possessive person: not even the perfume, the incense, the smoke, is allowed to
reach to other Buddhas - and others are also Buddhas. "But my Buddha is something
else. Your Buddha is nothing." In the temple all the other statues were
Buddhas. It was not that somebody was a Krishna, or somebody was a Rama - then
the difference would have been too much. She would not have stayed in that
temple. But it was a Buddhist temple, so she could stay. But this was her
statue, and those were not hers.
When there is really love, it
doesn't bother to whom it reaches. When there is love, you love your beloved
person, but you cannot devise a funnel so that your love reaches only to your
beloved. Love is such a phenomenon that when it happens it goes on beyond your
beloved, always goes on and on and on. It spreads to everyone. It is just like
a ripple on the lake.
If you throw a stone in the
lake a ripple arises and then it goes on spreading and spreading to the very
end. If you love a person, it is not linear, it is circular, a wave is created.
When you love a person, you are throwing a stone in the lake of love. Now
everybody will be benefited, not only the person you love. If you try to
benefit only the person you love, you will simply do the thing this nun did. It
is not possible. When there is someone who loves, his love goes on falling all
around. You cannot channelize it, it is not such a thing - rivers can be
channelized - it is oceanic, it cannot be channelized. Attachment can be
channelized, not love.
When you throw a stone in the
lake, it falls at a particular spot, that's okay, but then the love goes on
spreading. When you fall in love, you fall at a particular spot, with a
particular person; but that is only the beginning, not the end. Then love goes
on spreading, then the whole world is benefited.
Whenever there is a single
person of love, the whole world is benefited. There will be a center where the
stone fell, from where the waves will arise and go on to the very end. There
will be a center - the beloved, the lover; but the love cannot be contained
there. It is a growing thing, nobody can contain it. So the lover becomes just
the door, just the opening - and then the whole universe is benefited by it.
But this poor nun was just like
you. Just a human mind, working through human stupidities. She did not like the
idea of her perfume straying to the other statues - and the other statues are
also of Buddha.
When I love a person, I find
the divine there. Love reveals the divine in a person. Once it is revealed, all
the statues of all the Buddhas... Then everybody is divine; the tree is divine,
the cloud is divine, the beggar on the street is divine, then everybody is divine.
If love has happened and you have looked into the original face of a person -
which is revealed only in love - then Buddhas everywhere are Buddhas, all the
statues are Buddhas; then the whole world has become a temple.
But then you are not worried. Then
you are not worried that your perfume is reaching somebody.
You are not worried that your
lover's perfume is reaching to somebody else. You will be happy that through
you the whole world is being benefited, through you the whole world is
receiving the blessing. If you are afraid and you try to contain it, then it is
possessiveness and it will kill. Don't try to contain it, don't try to possess
it. Allow it to grow, help it to grow, help it to reach to everyone.
Only then you will receive it,
because you can receive only when the whole world receives it.
But this is the problem:
whenever you love a person, you want him to be contained, confined. It is as if
you are confining a tree in a pot; not only the roots but the whole tree - then
you will kill it. The tree has to move into the sky, it has to spread into the
sky. Its flowers will give perfume to many, its branches will give shadow to
many; many will be benefited by its fruits. Of course the roots are contained
in you, but the tree goes on growing. And love is the greatest tree possible;
it can spread into the whole sky, it cannot be confined, cannot be contained.
You cannot make it finite - the very nature of love is infinite.
But not liking the idea of her
perfume straying to the other statues, she devised a funnel through which the
smoke would ascend to her statue only.
Then what happened? It was
bound to happen:
This blackened the nose of the
Golden Buddha and made it especially ugly.
This is happening to every
lover and beloved, because then the perfume is not perfume, it becomes just
smoke; perfume needs to spread. Then the nose is blackened, and all the Buddhas
now have black noses.
Look at your Krishna, look at
your Buddha, your Mahavira; all their noses are blackened - because of you,
your possessiveness. Your prayer is possessiveness, it is not real. Jainas
won't allow anybody to enter their temples if they are not a Jaina. Hindus
won't allow the untouchables, because they are not a higher caste. All the
temples are blackened because they are possessed: "My temple."
The moment I assert 'my', it is
no longer a temple, because how can a temple be mine or yours? A temple is
simply a temple!
I was once dragged into court
because I inaugurated a church. The church had been closed for at least twenty
years. The worshippers of the church had moved, they were not in India - it was
the possession of some English Christian sect - and there was nobody in the
town, nobody even to take care of it. It was a beautiful church, but completely
dilapidated. Then a few Christians came to me and they said, "We don't
belong to that sect, but we don't have a church. So can you help us? Will you
inaugurate this church and we will start worshipping."
I said, "Okay." So
they broke the lock, they cleaned the church - they cleaned the blackened nose
of Christ. And I opened it for all. So I said, "It is not a question of to
whom a church belongs. Those who worship, theirs is the church."
But within two or three months
the news reached to the owners. They appointed a lawyer; he dragged me to the
court, because, "Why did you open this church?"
The magistrate asked me,
"Why did you open this church? It doesn't belong to these people. It is
not their property."
I told him, "A church
cannot be anybody's property. Those who worship - it is theirs. A church is not
a property, it is not a legal question at all."
The magistrate said,
"Don't lead us astray. We cannot go into philosophy. It is a legal
question."
A church is a legal question?
Yes, it has become a legal question. A temple is a legal question? If a temple
is a legal question, then it belongs to this world, not to that. So I said,
"Okay, you can close it, if it is a legal question. You can close it, but
remember well, this is how religion is killed, murdered.
It is not a property at
all."
But all the churches, all the
temples have become properties. They are mine or thine - then Buddha's nose is
blackened, and it... made it especially ugly.
All the temples, all the
churches, have become ugly. They have to be really destroyed, cleaned, so the
earth is clean. And the real temple can exist only then - when these temples
disappear. They have become part of your market, of your legal system. They are
now no longer symbols of the beyond.
Mind is such a thing; it turns
everything into a possession, because the ego can exist only if it possesses.
And ego is the barrier. Ego is the water in which only reflections can be
caught, the real can never be known. Now drop this pail! Why wait for an
accident? Drop this old pail and let the water flow - no water, no moon.
Enough for today.