Baul Mystics, Vol. 2 The Beloved Chapter 4: Remember To Stop In The Middle, Question 1

The first question:

Question 1

BELOVED OSHO, I HAVE HEARD....

A PSYCHOLOGIST WANTS TO EXPERIMENT WITH HIS TWIN SONS. HE TAKES THEM DOWN TO HIS GROUP ROOMS AND PUTS EACH IN A ROOM BY HIMSELF. IN IKE'S ROOM HE LOADS IN A PILE OF TV-ADVERTISED, HARD-SELL TOYS. IKE IS DIAGNOSED AS A COMPLAINING, NEGATIVE PESSIMIST. IN MIKE'S ROOM HE LOADS IN AN ENORMOUS PILE OF MANURE. MIKE IS THE OPTIMIST.

AN HOUR AFTER THEY ARE LOCKED IN, HE ENTERS IKE'S ROOM. THERE IS IKE TOSSING OUT TOY AFTER TOY, COMPLAINING, "THIS IS NOT ANY GOOD, THAT ONE WON'T WORK."

AS HE OPENS THE DOOR INTO THE SECOND ROOM HE IS UNABLE TO FIND HIS SON FOR A FEW MOMENTS. BUT HE HEARS HIS VOICE; IT IS SAYING, "THERE'S GOTTA BE A PONY, THERE'S GOTTA BE A PONY." AND AS HE APPEARS HE IS SHOWN FRANTICALLY DIGGING THROUGH THE MANURE, LOOKING FOR THE PONY.

I HAVE CHANGED ROOMS; I HAVE GOT MY EYE OUT FOR THE PONY.

THE QUESTION IS FROM PREM JEEVAN.

The first thing to be understood about pessimism and optimism is that they are not different. They look different, but don't be deceived by their appearances. They are just two polarities of the same phenomenon. A pessimist can become an optimist; an optimist can become a pessimist. A pessimist is just an optimist standing on his head, and vice versa. They are not two different people, they are not two different dimensions. Remember, it is not worth changing rooms. Get out of both the rooms, under the sky where neither pessimism nor optimism exist. You can be at ease only when both are gone, because both are wrong.

Analyze the situation. The pessimist goes on looking at the darker side of things and goes on denying the whiter side; he accepts only half of the truth. The optimist goes on denying the darker side of things and accepts only the whiter side; he is also half true. Neither of them accepts the whole truth, because the whole truth is both summer and winter, God and devil, darkness and light, good and evil, life and death. The whole truth is both. Both are doing the same exercise -- they are denying the half and accepting the other half. The other half is as much half as the first; there is no difference. If th!e pessimist is wrong, the optimist is also wrong. Both are not ready to accept the truth as it is. They choose.

Move out of both the rooms under the open sky of choicelessness. Don't choose. Let truth be as it is. Don't try to paint it in your own mood. Try to see the facility of it; don't bring your mood in. Don't look through hope, don't look through frustration. Don't be positive and don't be negative -- that is the highest consciousness possible.

But optimism appeals because the world is more or less pessimistic. People have long faces; they are always complaining and grumbling. It is beautiful to come across the optimist. People are always talking about the thorns; it is fortunate to meet somebody who talks about flowers and fragrances. But he is also wrong.

Let me tell you another anecdote.

Once I went to visit the hospital where Mulla Nasrudin was confined as a result of an automobile accident. The Mulla had been seriously injured: a broken leg, both arms broken, a broken collarbone, terrible cuts over his face and head, and several broken ribs. He was so thoroughly bandaged and taped and strapped up that only his two eyes and mouth were showing.

I was at a loss for words, but I realized that I must say something. So I asked the Mulla, "How do you feel today, Nasrudin? I suppose all of those broken bones and cuts cause a great deal of pain. Do you suffer very much?"

"No, not much," said Nasrudin. "Only when I laugh."

It is good to meet such a person. It is rare, but it is as wrong as the common variety The pessimist is the common variety. Out of a hundred persons, ninety-nine are pessimists. They are looking for misery, they are waiting for misery. They are convinced that something is going to happen which is going to be wrong. They are ready for it. If it doesn't happen they will be very disappointed, but they are waiting for the negative, for the dark side. These people are certainly wrong, but then because of these people -- and they are in the majority -- the other rarity becomes very valuable: a person who is looking for the morning, who looks for the white lightning in the darkest of clouds. When the night is very dark he waits, because he knows now the morning is very close. He is always hopeful. But I again insist that both are wrong because life is both black and white. In fact, life is grey. On one extreme end it looks white, on the other extreme end it looks black, but just in between the two it is nothing but shades of grey.

One who understands both becomes choiceless. He is neither pessimist nor optimist. You will not find him in either of the rooms. You will not find him unhappy, you will not find him over enthusiastic about happiness. That is the goal of the Buddhas: they are not in agony and they are not in any ecstasy. They don't know any excitement; they are simply peaceful, silent. That is what bliss is, satchitananda. Bliss is not happiness, because happiness has a certain excitement in it -- it is feverish. Sooner or later you will be tired of it; it is unnatural. Sooner or later you will have to change, you will have to become unhappy. Bliss is neither; it is neither negative nor positive -- it is transcendental, it is beyond duality. One remains tranquil, calm, quiet, centered. Whatsoever happens, good or bad, one accepts both because one knows life is both.

This is the real man. He is completely without any attitude. It is very easy if you have been a pessimist for long: one day you realize that you are unnecessarily being unhappy, miserable, so you change the role. You slip into the role of an optimist. But now, from one extreme to the other you have moved.

Let me tell you one anecdote.

One day Mulla Nasrudin visited a large department store to buy his wife some nylon hose. Inadvertently he got caught in the mad rush of a counter where a bargain sale was going on. He soon found himself being pushed and stepped on by frantic women. He stood it as long as he could, then with head lowered and elbows out, he plowed through the crowd.

"You there!" said a woman. "Can't you act like a gentleman?''

"Not anymore," said Nasrudin. "I have been acting like a gentleman for an hour. From now on I am acting like a lady."

There is a point where one gets fed-up with one role. The pessimist one day realizes that, "Why? Why go on seeing the darker side? Why go on counting the thorns on the rosebush?" He forgets about thorns; he starts counting the roses -- but both are half. From one half to another half he has moved. The totality remains as far away as before.

The rosebush is both the thorn and the rose. They are both joined together there. They are not against, they are not enemies. In fact the thorns protect the flower. They are part of the whole organic being of the rosebush. And so is life. Good and bad are joined together; sinners and saints are joined together; birth and death are joined together. A real understanding is when you have understood this, this polarity. And by understanding it, you have gone beyond it. Then you become tranquil -- because there is nothing to be happy about and there is nothing to be unhappy about.

Remember, if you are happy, somewhere deep in the unconscious you are still carrying the possibility of unhappiness, because you can be happy only if you can be unhappy. Both possibilities exist together. They cannot be separated, they are two aspects of the same coin. So if you throw one aspect the other is also thrown. If you keep one aspect the other is also kept. If you become a pessimist in the conscious mind, you will be an optimist in the unconscious. If you are an optimist in the conscious mind, you will be a pessimist in the unconscious.

Happiness, unhappiness, exist together. You can change the role anytime you like. In fact, people go on changing: in the morning you are an optimist, by the evening you have become a pessimist. That's why beggars come to beg in the morning -- because morning makes many more people optimistic. By the evening, knowing the whole life and the nastiness of it, people become pessimistic, tired, angry, frustrated. In the evening beggars don't come to beg because who is going to give? In the morning people are more open; the morning sun again brings hope. The night is gone: "Maybe today something is going to happen." People are more positive. By the evening, people become negative.

In the day you change your roles many times. If you are a little alert, you will see. A moment before you were an optimist, a moment afterwards you have become a pessimist. Small things: changes in the climate, changes in the relationship, a small gesture on somebody's part can make, you change your role. Have you watched it? You are sitting, sad, and somebody comes, and he is a man of laughter, and he laughs and he jokes -- you forget that you were sad and you start laughing. You were laughing and a few friends come and they are all sad; they bring a climate of sadness, and you relapse into it.

As I see it, every man is born with both possibilities. You have to go beyond it; you have to see the futility of both. That's what silence is: it is complete absence of duality. So please avoid being extremists. Excess should always be avoided, because excess is the root of all untruth. In fact, there are no lies in the world, only half-truths and truth. All half-truths are lies; and the truth is not half, it is whole.

The mind tends to be always moving towards the extreme -- so you are moving towards the height, then you are moving towards the valley, going up then coming down. Like a yo-yo you go on, and you never become aware that both are useless. Like a pendulum of an old clock you move from one extreme to another. Once the pendulum stops in the middle, the clock stops. Once you stop in the middle, time disappears. Then you are no more part of this world. The clock stops...then you are part of eternity.

Watch the pendulum moving from left to right, from right to left. A very strange thing is happening. When the pendulum is going to the right, you see it as going to the right. Ask the mechanic: he will say that when the pendulum is going to the right it is gaining momentum to go to the left; when it is going to the left it is gaining momentum to go to the right. So when you are unhappy, you are gaining momentum to be happy. When you are happy, you are gaining momentum to be unhappy. When you are loving you are gaining momentum to be hateful, and when you are hateful you are gaining momentum to be loving.

Once you understand this subtle mechanism, that mind tends to be always moving towards extremes, you stop cooperating with the mind. Pessimist or optimist, both are within mind, and the real man of understanding is beyond it.

It happened: Mulla Nasrudin was getting ready to apply to a local department store for a job. A friend told him that it was the policy of the store to hire nobody but Catholic Christians, and that if he wanted a job there he would have to lie about being a Catholic Christian.

Nasrudin applied for the job, and the personnel man asked him the usual questions. Then he said to the Mulla, "To what church do you belong?"

"I am a Catholic," said Nasrudin, "and all my family are Catholics. In fact, my father is a priest and my mother is a nun, sir."

To the whole way!

Remember to stop in the middle. That will bring balance, that will bring centering. For the first time you will feel unperturbed, undistracted, and you will be able to accept both. Your acceptivity will become total. You will not be angry because there are thorns, and you will not be ecstatic, exhilarated, excited, because there are roses. You will see that both are, and both are good, both are needed. But you remain unaffected, untouched, unscratched -- unscratched by the thorns and unscratched by the flower also. This is the goal.

Baul Mystics

VOL. 2, THE BELOVED

Chapter-4

Remember To Stop In The Middle