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GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
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THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
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THE KARMA CLEARING
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MASTERY
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THE SECRET
Chapter 18: The Master Is A Metaphor
Question 1
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sufism The secret
The first question
Question 1
OSHO, WHY AM I SO MUCH AFRAID OF TWO GROUPS HERE, THE TANTRA AND THE ENCOUNTER?
Man has always been afraid of two things, life and death. He is afraid of life because life brings death; he is afraid of death because death ends life. Hence there have been only two taboos in the world: one is sex -- sex represents life; the other is death. All the societies of the world have been repressing two things.
If you watch people's faces, their beings, you will come to know about two things: that they don't take any note of 'death, and death is everywhere. Death is the way life exists on the earth. And death is beautiful; it is only through death that life renews itself; otherwise life would become so rotten. It is death that goes on giving it new garments, new abodes; otherwise life would be in ruins. Death is very creative. You only see the disappearing body, you don't see the new appearance.
And whatever is death on one side is sex on another side. Death and sex are two aspects of the same coin, and they are always together. If you deny one, you automatically deny the other.
This is something very important to be understood, because I would like you to live your sex in totality and your death too in its totality. A man is in truth only when he is capable of living life and death both, without any inhibition. Life exists only between the polarity of sex and death. If both are denied -- as they have been denied down the ages -- then man becomes apathetic. Great apathy arises; man becomes indifferent to things, man becomes boredom.
Have you observed the fact? Each time you go deeply into love, each time you attain a sexual orgasm, what happens afterwards? A sadness settles; you fall into a deep valley of darkness. That's why people make love and then they go to sleep, to avoid facing that dark, deep valley. It is inevitable because sex brings you to the highest peak of life, to the greatest peak of radiance, joy, to the climax. You vibrate at your maximum. But that can only be for a moment, and then suddenly all starts disappearing, you start falling back. And the fall is going to be deep and steep.
It is not so only in man. Animal watchers also say animals look very sad after making love. When you make love, life takes a flight, and when life is very much there you become aware, in contrast, of death too. Awareness happens only in contrast. That's why in the night you can see the stars in the sky, not in the day. In the day there is no contrast; the sunlight is so much, you cannot see the stars in the day. But in the night, when the sun is gone and all is dark, stars start appearing. What happens? The contrast of darkness is needed for them to appear, just as you write with white chalk on a blackboard.
If you move deeply into life, love, sex, suddenly you will become aware of death surrounding you from everywhere. That's why man became afraid of sex and religions became repressive of sex. It is not just an invention of some theologians; there is some deep psychological reason for it. Man became aware of one thing: that whenever you move to the peak of love, suddenly you become aware of the deep, deep, abysmal valley surrounding it. And fear takes grip of you, you start feeling nauseous, shaky; trembling arises in you. How to avoid this trembling? The only way that was found was to avoid the peak, so that you never come across the valley -- avoid sex, so you never become aware of death.
You will be surprised to know that it is really death that has made people afraid of sex. And all the people who are afraid of sex are cowards, naturally. It has to be so. It is because of the fear of death that they have become inhibitive of sex; hence they are cowards.
And the second taboo is death: don't talk of death; it is thought to be unmannerly. Don't bring death into a conversation; it is thought to be uneducated, vulgar. Keep death out of life, as if it doesn't exist. At least believe that it doesn't exist. That's why cemeteries are made outside of the town, so that we don't come across them; or cemeteries are made in such a beautiful way -- gardens, flowers, marble graves -- to hide the phenomenon of death. And people believe in the immortality of the soul -- not that they know -- but only so that they can go on living with this illusion that death is unreal.
Just as in the moment of sexual ecstasy you become aware of death, the same happens when you are dying or you are on the verge of death: you become aware of your whole sexuality, of your whole sexual being. It is a well-known fact that when people are hanged, the last thing that happens to them is ejaculation. When a person is murdered on a gallows, the last thing that happens is ejaculation. Why? Death brings the other pole into vision.
People who are dying almost always die with sexual fantasies surrounding them, and that is natural because this is the way they will enter into another womb immediately. Here they are dying, the body is disappearing, they are losing their roots in this body, and their fantasy is already searching for a new womb, for a new body, for a new sexuality. In the moment of death people become aware very much of sexuality. The dying person almost always has an erection; even old people, very old people, will have erections when they are dying. What happens? Life is trying to assert itself at the last moment too. Life is trying to overcome death.
People try to avoid sex, to repress sex, so that they can forget all about death. And then at the moment of death priests have invented rituals -- they go on repeating mantras and sacred scriptures into the ears of the dying man so he is still kept engaged, so that he does not become aware of his sexuality. But these are just foolish inventions of man which don't work, which can't work.
You must have heard about William Randolph Hearst, the great newspaper tycoon. He is an example. He tried through power and wealth to build a wall between himself and the human condition. A fairyland world was constructed on his orders where the mention of death was prohibited, and everything was arranged to create the illusion that life would never end. Hearst, in his later years, showed himself to be a weakling and a fool -- naturally, because he avoided life to avoid death. He remained stupid.
You will remain stupid if you avoid the real human situation. Whatsoever it contains, whatsoever is implied in it, has to be encountered, has to be lived through. That is the only way to go beyond it.
Given the human reality, the only alternative to courage is a flight from reality. That's how escapism arises. Millions of people have been escaping to the monasteries, to the Himalayas, to the caves. Why? -- to avoid life so that they can avoid death. Millions of people have been searching for immortality, hoping that there must be some way to become immortals.
And I am not saying that the soul is not immortal. It is, but you don't know anything about the soul. And your efforts to be immortal simply show that you are not yet aware of your soul, because the soul need not become immortal: it is! But it is not a question of believing in immortality. It is a question of exploring, and exploration goes through real life situations. And these two are the greatest life situations: sex and death.
It is through sex that life arises, it is through death that life disappears. Sex is the door from where life enters, and death is the door from where life disappears. These two doors have to be explored in their totality. And those who have looked into it have found that these two doors are not two; it is one door. From one side it is entrance, from the other side it is exit.
The so-called monk, the so-called old idea of sannyas are all escapisms, cowardly, utterly cowardly.
Running away, however, is never a solution. It is rather a form of weakness and cowardice. Minor forms of this weakness are called neuroses, and the acute forms of this weakness are called psychoses.
And your so-called religions have been teaching you only these two things: neurosis and psychosis. Neurosis is a mild form, a mild dose of cowardliness, of not facing life as it is, and psychosis is the acute. The fully grown neurosis becomes psychosis; then you start escaping to the monastery, then you drop out of life -- but this is not the way to go beyond. The way beyond goes through life, and life is utterly beautiful. Sex and death, both are beautiful.
You ask me, "Why am I so much afraid of two groups here, the Tantra and the Encounter?"
Tantra is based on life; tantra is the art of life, of love. Tantra is the method to encounter your sexuality, your sensuousness, your sensate being. And you are afraid of it because you have been taught that there is something wrong in your sensuousness. You are afraid to encounter your sensate being, your physical being. You are afraid to encounter your body and others' bodies, and you are afraid, deep down, that if sex reaches to a climax, then you will have to face the ultimate terror of death. It is better to avoid the peaks and walk on level ground -- no peaks, no valleys. Live a mediocre life of no peaks and no valleys. Live an unintelligent life, stupid, boring, dull, drab, placid. But one thing is good about it -- that you will not encounter two things: the ecstasies of the peaks and the agonies of the valleys. But you will not grow either.
Growth happens only when one moves from peaks to valleys and valleys to peaks. Growth happens only in that constant pilgrimage between darkness and light and from light to darkness. When one rises on the waves of the ocean and falls back, and again rises and falls back and slowly, slowly attains a certain balance, in that balance one transcends peaks and valleys both, becomes a witness. That witnessing is meditation.
So not only are you afraid of Tantra, people are afraid.
And Encounter is facing your fears -- and all fears are based in death -- facing your anger, facing your violence, facing the possibility that death is there, that death cannot be denied. So Encounter and Tantra are frightening because they bring you against two taboos which have been cultivated for centuries: Sex and death.
Just the other day I was talking to you about Geet Govind from Esalen. When he came here, I had given him only two groups, Encounter and Tantra, because that was my first insight into his being, that he was afraid of two things -- sex and death. Although he had been a disciple and a colleague of Fritz Perls, he had not learned anything. Although he is the founder of Esalen, he must have been avoiding his own deep problems. I had given him these two groups. If ke had passed through these two groups he would have attained to a great insight -- a satori was possible -- but he escaped, he ran away.
In the Encounter group, after just twenty-four hours, he wrote a letter to me: "I don't want to participate in it. There is too much violence. I cannot cope with it." I gave him a message, "Then if you cannot cope, drop out of it." Receiving my message he must have become aware that dropping out of it was cowardice, so just to keep face, he tried to continue in it; but he remained only on the periphery, he didn't get involved in it. He was there more as a spectator than as a participant. He did not expose his own hidden fears and violences. He did not expose that he is afraid of death. He did not encounter the possibility of his own death.
Rather than encountering the possibility of his own death, he started being angry at the Encounter group that is being run here. That is a "transference"; it is a well-known phenomenon to psychoanalysts. If the psychoanalyst brings the patient to a certain point that the patient wants to avoid, if the psychoanalyst pushes a button that the patient has been avoiding his whole life, the patient immediately becomes angry at the psychoanalyst. Rather than seeing the truth of his wound, when his wound is touched he thinks he has been offended, he has been hurt. He immediately becomes angry with the therapist -- and that's what happened to Geet Govind.
If it had happened to somebody else it would have been understandable. But a man who runs a prestigious institute like Esalen, who is the founder, if he could not understand the simple phenomenon of transference, then who is going to understand? Not only did he fail, but through him he betrayed Fritz Perls too: that if living with him for so many years and being his disciple he could not understand the simple phenomenon of transference, what else could he understand? And remember, trees are known by their fruits; the Master is known by the disciples. He has, through his cowardice, condemned his own Master.
He became so angry. Not seeing his fears, not seeing his death-oriented cowardice, he started projecting all his violence and anger on the group. And he escaped before the Tantra group started, without telling anybody. He was to see me before he was to leave, but for that he would have had to do the Tantra group. He left without seeing me. He didn't even participate in Tantra. He didn't participate in Encounter either, but at least he was a spectator there. But in Tantra he was not even courageous enough to be a spectator.
Now he is talking against me, without understanding what he has done.
Man is made of two things: being and non-being. Man is a strange phenomenon. Something in him is very existential, and something in him is very non-existential. The existential is sex, and the non-existential is death; and man is a combination of sex and death. And unless you know both without any prejudice, you will not be able to transcend, you will not be able to become a real meditator. One has to face these two facts. These are the ultimate facts of life, and these are the tests: if you face them, unafraid, they are holding the keys to eternal life. It is through them that you will be able to enter into the kingdom of God.
These two groups are very important groups. All the other groups are, in a way, a preparation for these two. But the fear is there. One has to go into these experiences in spite of the fear.
Just see how you are made with being and non-being. Something in you is present: that is your sexuality. That's why in deep sexual experience the past and future disappear and you are utterly present to the present moment and it becomes a moment of meditation. So is the case with death: if death suddenly is encountered, the mind stops, all past and future disappear again.
If you have been in an accident, when you see that another car is coming and there is no way to avoid it and the accident is going to happen -- just a few seconds more and you are gone -- in those few seconds all thoughts disappear. Suddenly there is silence, utter silence. Silence that you have been seeking your whole life and were not able to attain, is attained. It comes from nowhere. Death makes you again present to the moment; it brings you to the moment.
These are the two most potential experiences. Please, don't be afraid and don't avoid them.
Geet Govind has written a letter to me too, "I will remain a sannyasin of yours only if you change the structures of the groups that are being run in Poona. Then I will believe you, that you are a Bhagwan, an enlightened person; otherwise you are just Mr. Rajneesh. "
You see the stupidity? You are making conditions for me. You are trying to bribe me -- as if being called "Bhagwan" by Geet Govind is going to give me something, as if I am interested in being called "Bhagwan" by Geet Govind, or as if his sannyas is something immensely valuable for my existence.
Reading his letter I was reminded of T.S. Eliot's lines:
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
If you are afraid to face your sexuality -- which is the beginning of your life, which is the source of your life -- and if you are afraid to face your death and the fear that it creates -- which is going to be the end of your life -- you are nothing but a "hollow" man, a "stuffed" man, a "headpiece filled with straw. Alas!" You are not a real man yet if you cannot face these two things. These two things have to be faced.
In the new commune I am going to introduce another group which will be called Death, which will be a higher and more intense form of Encounter in which you will have to actually move through death. You will have to pass through the experience of death, and if you can pass through it you will come out alive in a totally new sense.
I am preparing things. This is just the beginning, Geet Govind. This is just the ABC of the work. As more and more courageous people will be coming to me -- and they are coming -- as more and more uninhibited people will be coming to me -- and they are coming -- my methods will start becoming more and more intense. I will sharpen my sword!
And remember, if you avoid these two things, apathy is created. That's why you see so much apathy all around the world -- people walking, moving, doing things, but with empty faces, with no joy, no cheerfulness, their eyes dull, non-expressive, their faces almost dead, just pulling, dragging themselves somehow, a great burden. Life is not a benediction for them but a great burden, a misery, a hell.
Who has done this? Who has poisoned the sources of human joy and celebration? The people who have taught you inhibitions.
If sex and death are repressed, you will become very apathetic, you will become very, very dull. Your life will not have any streaming energy because the energy can be created only by this polarity: sex and death. Between this polarity the beautiful tension is created which keeps your life energies flowing. If you avoid these two things you have avoided all. Then you live in vain. Then your life is nothing but an empty gesture -- it means nothing.
And you will never be able to enter into the temple of God, because you are missing the very door, or you have misunderstood.
The haggard young man went to his psychiatrist and com plained of a recurring bad dream. "Every night," he said, "I dream of a sign on a door and I push it and push it, but I can't open it."
The doctor took notes frantically. "And what does the sign say?"
"Pull."
You can go on pushing, your whole life, but if the sign says pull.
God says live, love, live dangerously, love dangerously, and you remain frozen in fear. How will you enter into the temple of God?
Be aware of the poison that the priests have poured into your beings. Accept whatsoever is a fact. But priests go on rejecting facts: they say Jesus was born out of a virgin mother just to reject the facticity of sex. They cannot conceive of Jesus being conceived through sexuality. These are the poisoners. And they go on doing the other thing also: they cannot conceive that Jesus died on the cross, they say he was resurrected.
The whole of Christianity depends on two dogmas: one is the virgin birth of Jesus, the other is his resurrection. One is against sex, the other is against death -- and these are the only taboos. And the whole of Christianity depends on this pathological approach, this neurotic approach. In Jesus' life they have denied two things, sex and death, and Jesus is the example you have to imitate. You have to become like Jesus.
Jesus is born as much out of sex as anybody else. Jesus was not a freak! He was a normal human being, a natural human being -- more natural than you are. And Jesus died as everyone dies. There is nothing wrong in death; anything that begins ends.
But still there is something which never begins and never ends! -- that is God. And that is in you too. But to know that which never begins and never ends you will have to know that which begins and ends. Only in contrast will you be able to know the eternal. You will have to experience time and its process of change to know the eternal and the unchanging and the absolutely abiding truth.
Next: Chapter 18: The Master Is A Metaphor, Question 2
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sufism The secret
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
|
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TESTIMONIALS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE FAQS |
