Hsin Hsin Ming The Book of Nothing

Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of NothingTalks on the Faith Mind of SosanTalks given from 21/10/74 am to 30/10/74 amEnglish Discourse seriesCHAPTER1The Great Way21 October 1974 am in Buddha HallTHE GREAT WAY IS NOT DIFFICULT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO PREFERENCES.WHEN LOVE AND HATE ARE BOTH ABSENT EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR ANDUNDISGUISED.MAKE THE SMALLEST DISTINCTION, HOWEVER, AND HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE SETINFINITELY APART.IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE TRUTH THEN HOLD NO OPINION FOR OR AGAINST.THE STRUGGLE OF WHAT ONE LIKES AND WHAT ONE DISLIKES IS THE DISEASE OF THEMIND.WE WILL BE ENTERING the beautiful world of a Zen Master’s no-mind. Sosan is the third ZenPatriarch. Nothing much is known about him – this is as it should be, because history recordsonly violence. History does not record silence – it cannot record it. All records are of disturbance.Whenever someone becomes really silent, he disappears from all records, he is no more a part of our madness. So it is as it should be.Sosan remained a wandering monk his whole life. He never stayed anywhere; he was always passing, going, moving. He was a river; he was not a pond, static. He was a constant movement.That is the meaning of Buddha’s wanderers: not only in the outside world but in the inside world alsothey should be homeless – because whenever you make a home you become attached to it. Theys hould remain rootless; there is no home for them except this whole universe.2CHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAY Even when it was recognized that Sosan had become enlightened, he continued his old beggar’s way. And nothing was special about him. He was an ordinary man, the man of Tao.One thing I would like to say, and you have to remember it: Zen is a crossbreeding. And just as more beautiful flowers can come out of crossbreeding, and more beautiful children are born out of cross breeding, the same has happened with Zen.Zen is a crossbreeding between Buddha’s thought and Lao Tzu’s thought. It is a great meeting, the greatest that ever took place. That’s why Zen is more beautiful than Buddha’s thought and more beautiful than Lao Tzu’s thought. It is a tare flowering of the highest peaks and the meeting of those peaks. Zen is neither Buddhist nor Taoist, but it carries both within it.India is a little too serious about religion – a long past, a long weight on the mind of India, and religion has become serious. Lao Tzu remained a laughingstock – Lao Tzu is known as the old fool.He is not serious at all; you cannot find a more non-serious man.Then Buddha’s thought and Lao Tzu’s thought met, India and China met, and Zen was born. Andthis Sosan was just near the original source when Zen was coming out of the womb. He carries thefundamental.His biography is not relevant at all, because whenever a man becomes enlightened he has no biography. He is no more the form, so when he was born, when he died, are irrelevant facts. That’s why in the East we have never bothered about biographies, historical facts. That obsession hasnever existed here. That obsession has come from the West now; then people become interested more in irrelevant things. When a Sosan is born, what difference does it make – this year or that?When he dies, how is it important?Sosan is important, not his entry into this world and the body, not his departure. Arrivals anddepartures are irrelevant. The only relevance is in the being.And these are the only words Sosan uttered. Remember, they are not words, because they come outof a mind which has gone beyond words. They are not speculations, they are authentic experiences.Whatsoever he says, he knows.He is not a man of knowledge, he is a wise man. He has penetrated the mystery, and whatsoeverhe brings is very significant. It can transform you completely, totally. If you listen to him the verylistening can become a transformation, because whatsoever he is saying is the purest gold.But then it is difficult too, because the distance is very very great between you and him: you are amind and he is a no-mind. Even if he uses words he is saying something in silence; you, even if youremain silent, go on chattering within.It happened:There was a case against Mulla Nasruddin in the court. The court could not prove much. He wascharged with polygamy, having many wives. Everybody knew about it, but nobody could prove it.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 3OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYOf course, so early in the morning, the caretaker was disturbed. He came out, staggering, angry,and when he looked at Nasruddin, absolutely drunk, he became even more angry.He asked, ”Why? Why did you ring? Why did you ring for me? What is the matter? What do youwant?”Nasruddin looked at him for one minute, silently, then looked at the signboard and said, ”I want toknow, why can’t you ring that damn bell yourself?”It was written: RING FOR THE CARETAKER. Now how to interpret it? It depends on you.Don’t interpret – listen. And when you interpret you can’t listen, because the consciousness cannotdo two opposite things simultaneously. If you start thinking, listening stops. Just listen as you listento music – a different quality of listening because you don’t interpret. There is no meaning in thesounds.This is also music. This Sosan is a musician, not a philosopher. This Sosan is not saying words, heis saying more – more than the words. They have a significance but they don’t have any meaning.They are like musical sounds.You go and sit near a waterfall. You listen to it, but do you interpret what the waterfall says? It saysnothing... still it says. It says much, much that cannot be said.What do you do near a waterfall? You listen, you become silent and quiet, you absorb. You allowthe waterfall to go deeper and deeper within you. Then everything becomes quiet and silent within.You become a temple – the unknown enters through the waterfall.What do you do when you listen to the songs of the birds, or wind passing through the trees, or dryleaves being blown by the breeze? What do you do? You simply listen.This Sosan is not a philosopher, he is not a theologian, he is not a priest. He does not want to sellany idea to you, he is not interested in ideas. He is not there to convince you, he is simply blooming.He is a waterfall, or he is a wind blowing through the trees, or he is just a song of the birds – nomeaning, but much significance. You have to absorb that significance, only then will you be able tounderstand.So listen, but don’t think. And then it is possible for much to happen within you, because I tell you:this man – this Sosan about whom nothing much is known – he was a man of power, a man whohas come to know. And when he says something he carries something of the unknown to the worldof the known. With him enters the divine, a ray of light into the darkness of your mind.Before we enter into his words, remember the significance of the words, not the meaning; the music,the melody, not the meaning; the sound of his soundless mind, his heart, not his thinking. You haveto listen to his being, the waterfall.How to listen? Just be silent. Don’t bring your mind in. Don’t start thinking, ”What is he saying?”Just listen without deciding this way or that, without saying whether he is right or wrong, whetherHsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 5OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYyou are convinced or not. He does not bother about your conviction, you also need not bother aboutit. You simply listen and delight. Such persons as Sosan are to be delighted in; they are naturalphenomena.A beautiful rock – what do you do with it? You delight in it. You touch, you go around it, you feel it,the moss on it. What do you do with clouds moving in the sky? You dance on the earth, you look atthem, or you just keep quiet and lie down on the ground and look at them and let them float. Andthey fill you. Not only the outer sky – by and by, the more you become silent, they fill your inner skyalso. Suddenly you are not there, only clouds are moving, in and out. The division is dropped, theboundary is no more there. You have become the sky and the sky has become you.Treat Sosan as a natural phenomenon. He is not a man. He is God, he is Tao, he is a Buddha.Before we try to move into his significance, a few things have to be understood. They will give you apush.MIND IS A DISEASE. This is a basic truth the East has discovered. The West says mind canbecome ill, can be healthy. Western psychology depends on this: the mind can be healthy or ill. Butthe East says mind as such is the disease, it cannot be healthy. No psychiatry will help; at the mostyou can make it normally ill.So there are two types of illness with mind: normally ill – that means you have the same illnessas others around you; or abnormally ill – that means you are something unique. Your disease isnot ordinary – exceptional. Your disease is individual, not of the crowd; that’s the only difference.Normally ill or abnormally ill, but mind cannot be healthy. Why?The East says the very nature of mind is such that it will remain unhealthy. The word ’health’ isbeautiful. It comes from the same root as the word ’whole’. Health, healing, whole, holy – they allcome from the same root.The mind cannot be healthy because it can never be whole. Mind is always divided; division is itsbase. If it cannot be whole, how can it be healthy? And if it cannot be healthy, how can it be holy?All minds are profane. There is nothing like a holy mind. A holy man lives without the mind becausehe lives without division.Mind is the disease. And what is the name of that disease? Aristotle is the name, or if you reallywant to make it look like a disease then you can coin a word: ARISTOTLITIS. Then it looks exactlylike a disease. Why is Aristotle the disease? Because Aristotle says, ”Either this or that. Choose!”And choice is the function of the mind; mind cannot be choiceless.Choose and you are in the trap, because whenever you choose you have chosen something againstsomething else. If you are for something, you must be against something; you cannot be only for,you cannot be only against. When the ’for’ enters, the ’against’ follows as a shadow. When the’against’ is there, the ’for’ must be there – hidden or not hidden.When you choose, you divide. Then you say, ”This is good, that is wrong.” And life is a unity.Existence remains undivided, existence remains in a deep unison. It is oneness. If you say, ”This isHsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 6OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYbeautiful and that is ugly,” mind has entered, because life is both together. And the beautiful becomesugly, and the ugly goes on becoming beautiful. There is no boundary; no watertight compartmentsare there. Life goes on flowing from this to that.Mind has fixed compartments. Fixedness is the nature of mind and fluidity is the nature of life. That’swhy mind is obsession; it is always fixed, it has a solidness about it. And life is not solid; it is fluid,flexible, goes on moving to the opposite.Something is alive this moment, next moment is dead. Someone was young this moment, nextmoment he has become old. The eyes were so beautiful, now they are no more there – just ruins.The face was so roselike, now nothing is there – not even a ghost of the past. Beautiful becomesugly, life becomes death, and death goes on taking new birth.What to do with life? You cannot choose. If you want to be WITH life, with the whole, you have to bechoiceless.Mind is a choice. Aristotle made it the base of his logic and philosophy. You cannot find a man moredistant from Sosan than Aristotle, because Sosan says, ”Neither this nor that – don’t choose.” Sosansays, ”Be choiceless.” Sosan says, ”Don’t make distinctions!” The moment you make a distinction,the moment choice enters, you are already divided, fragmentary; you have become ill, you are notwhole.Remember, if you ask a Christian... who does not really belong to Jesus, who basically belongs toAristotle. Christianity is more Aristotle-based than Christ-based. Jesus was more like Sosan. Hesays, ”Don’t judge. Judge ye not!” He says, ”Don’t make any choice. Don’t say, ’This is good andthat is bad!’ That is not your concern. Let the whole decide. Don’t you be a judge.” But Christianityis not really Jesus-oriented. The founders of Christianity were more Aristotelian than Christian.You cannot make a church out of Sosan or Jesus. How can you make a church if you remainchoiceless? A church has to be for something and against something; it has to be for God andagainst the Devil. And in life God and the Devil are not two, they are one. The Devil is one face andGod is another face of the same energy – they are not two.Sometimes he comes as a Devil and sometimes he comes as a God. And if you can go deep andlook, you will find they are the same. Sometimes he comes as a thief and sometimes he comes asa virtuous man. Sometimes you will find him in respectable quarters and sometimes with those whoare not respected but condemned. He MOVES, he is a movement. And no shore is too distant forhim to reach, nobody is beyond him – he moves in everybody.Jesus makes no distinctions, but Christianity makes distinctions because a religion has to – a religionhas to become a morality. And once a religion becomes a morality it is no more a religion. Religionis the greatest daring possible. It takes the greatest courage to be choiceless, because the mindsays, ”Choose!” The mind says, ”Say something! This is wrong, that is good. This is beautiful, thisis ugly. I love this, I hate that.” Mind says, ”Choose!”Mind has a temptation to divide. Once you divide, mind is at ease. If you don’t divide, if you say, ”I’mnot going to to say anything. I’m not going to judge,” mind feels as if it is on its deathbed.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 7OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYAristotle says A is A and cannot be not A – the opposites cannot meet. Sosan says there are noopposites – they are already meeting, they have always been meeting. This is one of the mostfundamental truths to be realized, that the opposites are not opposites. It is you who say they areopposites, otherwise they are not opposites. Look existentially and you will feel they are the sameenergy.You love a person...One woman came to me and she said, ”For ten years I have been married to a person and we neverquarreled. And now suddenly, what happened? He has left me.”Now, she thinks that if they never quarreled it shows they were in deep love. This is foolish – but thisis Aristotelian; the woman is absolutely logical.She said, ”For ten years we have been married. We never quarreled, we were never angry at eachother.” She is saying, ”We were in such deep love that we never fought about anything. There wasnot even a single moment of conflict. And now, what happened? Suddenly he has left me! Has hegone mad? Our love was so deep.” She is wrong.If love is deep then there is bound to be some quarrel. Sometimes you will fight. And the fight isnot going to break the love, it enriches it. If love is there, it will be enriched by fighting; if love is notthere, then you part, you separate. Ten years is a long time – even twenty-four hours is too long tobe constantly in one state of mind, because mind moves to the opposite.You love a person; sometimes you feel angry. Really, you feel angry only because you love.Sometimes you hate! Sometimes you would like to sacrifice yourself for your lover, and sometimesyou would like to kill the lover. And both are you.If you never quarreled for ten years, it means there was no love at all. It means it was not arelationship. And you were so afraid that any anger, any conflict, any slight thing could break downthe whole thing. You were so afraid you never quarreled. You never believed that the love could godeeper than the quarrel, that the quarrel would be momentary and after the quarrel you would fallinto each other’s arms more deeply. No, you never trusted that. That’s why you managed not tofight. And this is not something to be surprised about, that the man has left. I said, ”I am surprisedthat he remained with you for ten years. Why?”One man came to me and he said, ”Something has gone wrong with my son. I have known himfor twenty years – he was always obedient. Such a good boy you cannot find anywhere. He neverdisobeyed, he never went against me. And now suddenly he has become a hippie. Now suddenlyhe doesn’t listen. He looks at me as if I am not his father at all. He looks at me as if I am a stranger.And for twenty years he was so obedient. What has happened to my son?”Nothing has happened. This is what was to be expected, because if a son really loves his fatherhe disobeys also. Whom else should he disobey? If a son really loves his father and trusts him,sometimes he goes away also – because he knows the relationship is so deep that by disobeying itis not going to be broken. Rather, on the contrary, it will be enriched. The opposite enriches.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 8OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYNasruddin said, ”It appears so. A married man does not live long, but it appears that he has beenliving long.” Because when there is much trouble, time seems longer. When there is no trouble, timeseems shorter.These so-called yogis who go on breathing less and less and slow, they slow down the process oflife only. They are less alive, that’s all. They will not be longer alive – less alive. They are not livingfully; their candle is not burning perfectly. The zest, the enthusiasm, the dance is lost. They dragthemselves, that’s all.And this has happened with sex, because with sex people think death enters. And they are right,because sex energy gives birth to life – so the more sex energy moves out, the more life is movingout. Logical, absolutely Aristotelian, but foolish. And you cannot find greater fools than logicians. Itis logical that life-energy comes from sex – a child is born because of sex, sex IS the source of life– so keep it in. Don’t allow it to go out, otherwise you will be dead. So the whole world has becomeafraid.But it is the same, just like keeping the breath in, then the whole being wants to throw it out. Soyour so-called BRAHMACHARINS, celibates, who try to keep the sex energy in, the semen in, thewhole body wants to throw it out. Their whole life becomes sexual – their mind becomes sexual,they dream of sex, they think of sex. Sex becomes their obsession because they are trying to dosomething, logical of course, but not true to life. And they don’t live long, they die soon.This is a new finding, a new research: that a man lives longer if he prolongs his love life as muchas possible. If a man can make love at eighty years of age he will live longer. Why? Because themore you breathe out, the more you breathe in. So exactly... if you want more life, breathe out moreso you create a vacuum inside and more breath comes in. You don’t think about breathing in. Yousimply exhale as much as you can and your whole being will inhale. Love more – that is breathingout – and your body will gather energy from the whole cosmos. You create the vacuum and theenergy comes.It is just like this in every process of life. You eat, but then you become a miser, you becomeconstipated. The logic is right: don’t breathe out. Constipation is choosing for breathing in and beingagainst breathing out. Almost every civilized person is constipated; you can measure civilizationthrough constipation. The more constipated a country the more civilized, because the more logical.Why breathe out? Just go on breathing in. Food is energy. Why throw it out? You may not be awarebut this is the unconscious getting logical and Aristotelian.But life is a balance between throwing out and inviting in. You are just a passage. Share! Give! andmore will be given to you. Be a miser! Don’t give! and less will be given to you because you don’tneed it.Remember, and watch your life processes. If you are really interested in understandingenlightenment ultimately, remember to give so that more is given to you whatsoever it is. Breatheout, exhale more. That is what sharing means, giving means.A gift is giving your energies, so more is given to you. But the mind says... it has its own logic, andSosan calls that logic the disease.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 12OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYTHE GREAT WAY IS NOT DIFFICULT...You make it difficult, YOU are difficult. The Great Way is easy..... FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO PREFERENCES.Don’t prefer – just allow life to move. You don’t say to life, ”Move this way, go to the north, or go tothe south.” You don’t say – you simply flow with life. You don’t fight against the current, you becomeone with the current.... FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO PREFERENCES.The Great Way is easy FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO PREFERENCES. And you have preferences– about everything! About everything you bring your mind in. You say, ”I like, I don’t like. I prefer this,I don’t prefer that.”WHEN LOVE AND HATE ARE BOTH ABSENT...When you have no preferences... when all ’for’ and ’against’ attitudes are absent, both love andhate are absent, you neither like something nor dislike something, you simply allow everything tohappen...... EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR AND UNDISGUISED.MAKE THE SMALLEST DISTINCTION, HOWEVER, AND HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE SETINFINITELY APART.But your mind will say, ”You will become an animal if you don’t prefer. If you don’t choose then whatwill be the difference between you and a tree7” There will be a difference, a great difference, but notthe difference which brings the mind in – a difference which comes through awareness. The treeis choiceless, unconscious. You will be choiceless, conscious. That is what choiceless awarenessmeans and that is the greatest distinction: you will be aware that you are not choosing.And this awareness gives such profound peace... you become a Buddha, you become a Sosan, aChuang Tzu. The tree cannot become a Chuang Tzu. Chuang Tzu is like the tree, and plus. He islike the tree as far as choice is concerned, he is absolutely unlike the tree as far as awareness isconcerned. He is fully aware that he is not choosing.WHEN LOVE AND HATE ARE BOTH ABSENT...Love and hate both give color to your eyes and then you cannot see clearly. If you love a person, youstart seeing things which are not there. No woman is as beautiful as you think when you love her,because you project. You have a dream girl in the mind and that dream girl is projected. Somehowthe real girl functions only as a screen.That’s why every love comes to a frustrating point sooner or later, because how can the girl go onplaying the screen? She is a real person; she will assert, she will say, ”I am not a screen!” How longHsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 13OshoCHAPTER 1. THE GREAT WAYWHEN LOVE AND HATE ARE BOTH ABSENT EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR ANDUNDISGUISED.Mind has to love and hate, and mind has to go continuously fighting between these two. If youdon’t love and don’t hate, you go beyond mind. Where is the mind then? Within you, when choicedisappears mind disappears. Even if you say, ”I would like to be silent,” you will never be silentbecause you have a preference. This is the problem.People come to me and they say, ”I would LIKE to be silent, I don’t want these tensions any more.”I feel sorry for them – sorry because what they are saying is stupid. If you don’t want tensions anymore you will create new ones, because this not-wanting is going to create a new tension. And ifyou want silence too much, if you are too much after it, your silence itself will become a tension. Youwill be more disturbed because of it now.What is silence? It is a deep understanding – understanding of the phenomenon that if you prefer,you will be tense. Even if you prefer silence, you will be tense.Understand, feel it – whenever you prefer, you become tense; whenever you don’t prefer, there is notension, you are relaxed. And when you are relaxed, your eyes have a clarity; they are not crowdedwith clouds and dreams. No thoughts move in the mind; you can see through. And when you cansee the true, it liberates. Truth liberates.MAKE THE SMALLEST DISTINCTION, HOWEVER, AND HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE SETINFINITELY APART.The smallest distinction, the slightest choice, and you are divided. Then you have a hell and aheaven, and between these two you will be crushed.IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE TRUTH, THEN HOLD NO OPINION FOR OR AGAINST.Move without opinion. Move naked, with no clothes, with no opinions about truth, because truthabhors all opinions. Drop all your philosophies, theories, doctrines, scriptures! Drop all rubbish! Yougo silent, unchoosing, your eyes just ready to see what is, not in any way hoping to see some ofyour wishes fulfilled. Don’t carry wishes. It is said the path of hell is completely filled with wishes –good wishes, hopes, dreams, rainbows, ideals. The path of heaven is absolutely empty.Drop all the burdens! The higher you want to reach, the less burdened you must be. If you go tothe Himalayas you have to unburden yourself completely. Finally, when you reach the Gourishankar,the Everest, you have to drop everything. You have to go completely naked, because the higher youmove, the more weightless you are needed to be. And opinions are weights on you. They are notwings, they are like paperweights. Opinionless, without any preference...IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE TRUTH THEN HOLD NO OPINION FOR OR AGAINST.Don’t be a theist and don’t be an atheist if you really want to know what truth is. Don’t say, ”Thereis God”; don t say, ”There is not,” because whatsoever you say will become a deep desire. Andwhatsoever is there hidden in the desire you will project.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 15OshoCHAPTER3Truth cannot be sought23 October 1974 am in Buddha HallTO DENY THE REALITY OF THINGS IS TO MISS THEIR REALITY; TO ASSERT THE EMPTINESSOF THINGS IS TO MISS THEIR REALITY.THE MORE YOU TALK AND THINK ABOUT IT, THE FURTHER ASTRAY YOU WANDER FROMTHE TRUTH.STOP TALKING AND THINKING, AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KNOW.THE REALITY is always there waiting just near your heart, near your eyes, near your hands. Youcan touch it, you can feel it, you can live it – but you cannot think it. Seeing is possible, feeling ispossible, touching is possible – but thinking is not possible.Try to understand the nature of thinking. Thinking is always about, it is never direct. You can see thereality, but you will have to think ABOUT it and ’about’ is the trap, because whenever you think aboutyou have moved away. ’About’ means indirect. ’About’ means you will not see this flower here andnow, you will think about it, and the ’about’ will become a barrier. Through that ’about’ you will neverreach to THIS flower.Seeing is direct, touching is direct – thinking is indirect. That’s why thinking misses. A lover canknow the reality, even a dancer can know it, a singer can feel it, but a thinker goes on missing it.I have heard about one Jewish philosopher. He was an ordinary peasant but very philosophic. Hisname was Yossel. He would think about everything, as philosophers do. It was very difficult for him35CHAPTER 3. TRUTH CANNOT BE SOUGHTto do anything because thinking would take all his time, and by the time he was ready the opportunitywas lost.Once he went to the market, to a nearby village, to sell his wheat. He told his wife, ”As soon as I amable to sell the wheat, immediately I will send you a telegram.”He sold the wheat with much profit so he wrote a telegram, went to the post office, filled in the form– and then started thinking about it.He wrote: ”Wheat sold profitably. Coming tomorrow. Love and kisses, Yossel.”Then he started thinking and he thought, ”My wife will think I have gone mad. Why ’profitably’? AmI going to sell my wheat at a loss?” So he crossed out the word ’profitably.’ Then he became moreconcerned, because if he could miss and write a wrong word he may have made other errors also.So he looked, started thinking about each word.Then he said, ”Why ’coming tomorrow’? Am I going to come next month? Or next year? My wifeknows that I will come as soon as the wheat is sold.” So he crossed out the words ’coming tomorrow.’Then he thought, ”My wife already knows that I have come to sell the wheat, so why write, ’soldwheat’?” He crossed that out too.And then he started laughing. He said, ”I am writing to my own wife. Why should I write ’love andkisses’? Am I writing to somebody else’s wife? And is it her birthday or Yom Kippur or something?”He crossed out that too.Now only his name remained: Yossel. He said to himself, ”Yossel, have you gone mad? Your wifealready knows your name.” So he tore up the telegram, happy that he had saved much money andfoolishness.But this is how it happens: if you go on thinking ’about’, you miss the whole life – everything iscrossed out by and by. In the end you are also crossed out – not only is the word crossed out, youare also in the end crossed out. Thinking becomes smoke; everything moves into it and everythingis finished.And action becomes impossible – even to send a telegram is not possible. Action becomesimpossible because action is direct and thinking is indirect. They never meet.This is the problem in the world. People who think, they never act; and people who don’t think, theygo on acting. The world is in misery. People who are fools, they go on acting because they neverthink, they jump in everything. Hitlers and Napoleons and Maos, they go on doing things, and wisepeople, the so-called thinkers – Aristotle, or Kant, or Hegel – they go on thinking, they never doanything.The problem for a man who is seeking reality is how to stop the vicious circle of thinking, yet beaware. Because fools also don’t think, but they are not aware. Be aware – the energy that movesinto thinking should become awareness. Consciousness that goes on in a vicious circle with thinkingHsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 36OshoCHAPTER 4. RETURN TO THE ROOTAnd if waiting becomes a habit the flower MAY flower and you may not be able to see. Because youhave become accustomed to looking to the future, your eyes have become fixed. They cannot lookat the near and the close, they can always look to the far and distant.If for many lives you have been looking in the future for the meaning, and the flower flowers, youwill not be able to see it – because seeing does not depend on the flower, the seeing depends onyour penetrating eyes. And you don’t have any penetrating eyes, otherwise the beginning is alwaysthere, the seed is always there. You could have looked into it.If you look to the future and wait for the meaning to be revealed somewhere, then sooner or later youwill feel life is meaningless. That is what is happening in the West, because continuously philosophywas thinking that somewhere in the future is the goal.It looks absurd to think that the goal is in the beginning. It looks contradictory, because how canthe goal be in the beginning? So the mind says the goal must be somewhere ahead, because mindlives through desire, moves through desire. Motivation has to be there in the future. And now, fortwo thousand years continuously thinking in terms of the future, the Western mind thinks that thereis no meaning because the future has not arrived.The future never arrives! It cannot arrive by its very nature; it remains always unarrived. It is arrivingbut it never arrives. It is just like the tomorrow which never comes. Whenever it comes it is alwaystoday, whenever it comes it is always the present.Future never comes, cannot come. Its very nature is like hope, dream – illusory. It appears as if itis coming, just like the horizon; it never reaches. Then, waiting and waiting, you feel meaningless.The whole Western thinking mind today feels life is meaningless, absurd. And if you feel life ismeaningless, absurd, then suicide remains the only way to get out of it.One of the great Western thinkers of this century, Marcel, has written that suicide is the only problem.If you see that life is meaningless then what is left? Then why go on dragging? Why live at all?If there is no meaning and you are moving in a rut... every day you get up, go to work, earn alittle money, sleep in the night, dream, again in the morning... the wheel goes on moving and youreach nowhere. In the end is death. So why wait? Why not commit suicide? Why not destroy thismeaningless thing? And why be so much worried and so much burdened and so much in anxietyand anguish for something which is meaningless? It is a logical conclusion.If you look in the future you will come to understand that there is no meaning. But if you really wantthe meaning then the way is to look in the seed – and the seed is here and now. But the mind likesto look in the future. It is easier. To look in the seed is difficult.That is the whole SADHANA, that is the whole arduous effort: to look in the seed. Because if youwant to look in the seed you will need a different quality of vision. You will need a third eye, becausethese ordinary eyes can look only up to the shell. But the invisible which is hidden behind, the secret– these eyes cannot go so deep.A different quality of eyes is needed which can penetrate and look right now into what the seed iscarrying. If you look outside you cannot penetrate, because your eyes will meet the bodies, theHsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 54OshoCHAPTER 4. RETURN TO THE ROOTshells of the seeds. If you really want to look in the seed, look within, because then the shell is nomore a problem – -inside you are also a seed.You belong to this existence, you have come out of it. This existence has a blueprint in you, thisexistence is trying to fulfill some destiny through you. Look within, because then the shell is no morea problem. You need not penetrate the shell, you are already in.This is what meditation is: to look within the seed, within oneself.There meaning flowers, it flowers immediately. It has been always there – only it needed yourattention. You have neglected it, you have been indifferent to it. You have been engaged, occupied,in other things – and you have been standing with your back towards yourself.And the meaning waits, and the purpose of the whole life remains hidden, and the blessing and thegrace just goes on waiting and waiting for you to turn.The Christian word ’conversion’ means turning. It does not mean making a Hindu a Christian or aMohammedan a Christian – it means making a consciousness turn within.TO RETURN TO THE ROOT IS TO FIND THE MEANING, BUT TO PURSUE APPEARANCES ISTO MISS THE SOURCE.OUTSIDE THERE ARE ONLY APPEARANCES. You cannot know what is outside, because throughthe senses you can touch only the appearance. I cannot see you. I can see only your body – noteven the whole body but just the surface, just the surface of the skin is seen. I don’t know whetheryou are there or not. Maybe you are just an automaton, a robot – who knows?A robot is possible – now, more so. A robot can be made. And if a robot is there you cannot judgefrom the outside, because he will blink his eyes, he will even answer: if you say, ”Hello!” he will say,”Hello, how are you?” How do you know that he is not a robot? On the surface he is just like anyman, no difference.He talks, and he will talk intelligently – sometimes even more intelligently than you because he is fedcompletely. His information is accurate; he knows much, he can know more than you. They say asingle small computer can know as much as five hundred scientists can know in five hundred lives.A robot can carry a computer inside the mind – of course battery-run. You ask and he answers, andhis answers are not as fallible as your answers. And he will never be a fool, he will always be a wiseman.How to judge who is inside? You cannot penetrate. You can just go about and about, around andaround. You can touch the surface.Only in yourself can you go within. Only there can you be certain of consciousness – nowhere else.This whole world may be just a dream. Who knows? I can dream you sitting here and me talkingto you. You can dream that you are sitting here and listening to me. Have you any criterion how toprove that this is not a dream? There Is no way.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 55OshoCHAPTER 7. ALL DREAMS MUST CEASEBuddha laughed and said, ”Drop it!” So he had to drop from the right hand also, but then he waspuzzled.And when both hands were empty Buddha laughed loudly and said, ”Drop it!” Now there was nothingto drop. So he looked here and there – what to do?Ananda said, ”Buddha never meant to drop the flowers. The one who has brought the flowers hasto be dropped. By dropping flowers nothing will happen. Why not drop yourself?”The man understood and dropped at Buddha’s feet. He never went back to his palace.His prime minister came and he said, ”What are you doing? Even if you want to renounce, give it alittle time so everything settles. Come back! Your wife, your children and the whole kingdom and theaffairs – give us a little time! Even if you decide to renounce, why in such a hurry?”The man said, ”When you understand, it is always at once. If you don’t understand, it is alwayspostponed.”Only ignorance postpones, and ignorance plays a very great trick by postponing. Then you feel youhave understood, but how can you do it at once? You will do it by and by – this is the trick of notdoing it ever. This is the trick: ”I will do it tomorrow.”See: when you are angry you do it immediately, but if you feel loving you postpone it. If you want togive a gift to somebody you postpone, but if you want to be angry you do it immediately – becauseyou know well that if you postpone, things will never be done. Postponement is a trick. So deepdown you know now there is no need to do it, and on the surface you can go on believing, ”I amgoing to do it.” So you deceive yourself.Says Sosan:... SUCH THOUGHTS MUST FINALLY BE ABOLISHED AT ONCE.Don’t give time! If something is wrong, SEE through it, and drop it. Really there is no need to dropit. If you can see through it, and you feel that it is wrong, it will drop automatically. You will not beable to carry it.You carry it because you are not convinced that it is wrong. If you are not convinced it is better tosay, ”I am not convinced that it is wrong, that’s why I will carry it.” At least you will be honest, andhonesty is good. Don’t be dishonest.People come to me, they say, ”Yes, I know that greed is bad, but by and by...” But how has anybodyever thrown greed by and by? Meanwhile it goes on getting deeper roots into you. And why saygreed is bad if you cannot drop it immediately, right now? Say, ”I don’t feel it is bad, I feel it is good.When I feel it is wrong, I will drop it.” At least you are honest and sincere, and a sincere man willreach understanding. An insincere man can never reach understanding.You all say anger is bad – then why carry it? Who is forcing you to carry it? Knowledge IStransformation. If you REALLY know that anger is bad, then you will not carry it for a single moment.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 115OshoCHAPTER 7. ALL DREAMS MUST CEASEAt once you drop. It is sudden, it happens in no time, not even a single moment is lost. But you arecunning. You think that you know and you don’t know. You want to believe that you know and youwant to believe that you are trying, by and by, to change yourself. You will never be transformed.Transformation is never gradual, it is always at once.There is a Jaina story:A man came home tired after the whole day’s work. His wife was giving him a bath – it is an oldstory, now no wife gives a bath to the husband. His wife was giving him a bath, and while pouringwater on his body and cooling his tired limbs, she talked and she said, ”My brother has become afollower of Mahavira, and he is thinking to renounce the world.”The man laughed and said, ”Thinking? – then he will never leave the world!”The wife felt hurt, because it was a question of HER brother. She said, ”What do you mean? AndI have never seen you going to Mahavira or to Buddha or anybody, and you think you understand?He is a great scholar and he understands what Mahavira says. And he meditates, worships, and heis a religious man. And you? I don’t see any religiousness in you. I have never seen you prayingor meditating. And you have the courage and you dare to say such a thing – that he will neverrenounce?”The man stood – he was naked, taking his bath – came out of the bath, went onto the street. Thewife cried, ”Are you crazy? What are you doing?”He said, ”I have renounced.”He never came back. This is the man – he understood. He never prepared for it; nobody ever knewabout him that he was a religious man, but this quality... He reached to Mahavira, he surrenderedhimself, he became a naked fakir.The wife came, weeping and crying. Even the wife’s brother came to convince him that ”There is nohurry. Look at me! I have been thinking for twenty years. And you are a madman – is this a way torenounce?”The man said, ”I don’t bother, is there any other way? For twenty years you have been thinking,for twenty lives you will continue thinking. And whenever you renounce you will renounce this way,because this is the only way – at once!”You see a thing clearly and it happens. The question is of clarity. An immediate look into the natureof things, then there is no question of changing somewhere in the future. No one changes in thefuture – transformation is always here and now. This moment is the only moment something canhappen. There is no other moment.IF THE EYE NEVER SLEEPS, ALL DREAMS WILL NATURALLY CEASE.IF THE MIND MAKES NO DISCRIMINATIONS, THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS ARE AS THEYARE, OF SINGLE ESSENCE.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 116OshoCHAPTER 8. LIFE IN TRUE FAITHThat’s why Buddhists don’t talk about God. Buddhism reached really the deepest core of religion,and people like Sosan are rare. Their understanding is perfect, total. The whole has come into theirunderstanding. They don’t need a god because they say, ”Why a god? Is not existence enough?Why personify it? And whatsoever YOU make will be just like you – it will be a projection. So allgods are projections.”Hindus make a god: look at the god, it is just a projection of the Hindu physiology – the nose, theeyes, the height, everything. Look at a Japanese god, look at a Negro god, and you can see thatthese are just projections of our own minds. If horses have their gods they cannot be men they willbe horses. Can you think of a horse having a god like a man? Impossible! Horses will have horsesas their gods. If trees have their gods they will be trees.What are your gods? Your projections. And why do you project? Because you want to be protected.Without a god you feel lonely, alone, empty; you want someone to help you. With this asking forhelp, you are creating misery for yourself. Now the opposite will happen. Every moment you will feelGod is not listening, and you are praying and crying and he is not listening. And every moment youwill feel you have done everything and you have not been given that which is due to you.Saints, so-called saints, always have complaints because they have renounced the world and yetbliss has not happened. They are celibate, but yet flowers have not fallen on them. And they havedone this and that, they have a long list, and they HAVE done many things, and yet God is as faraway as ever. They don’t trust, they are still making a fight with life. They don’t allow life to happenin its own way. They have their own ideas to enforce on life – that is distrust.Distrust means you have some ideas to enforce. You think yourself wiser than life itself. That isdistrust, that is disbelief. You want to impose yourself. Go even to the churches, synagogues, andsee people praying to God. What are they saying? They are giving advice. They are saying, ”Don’tdo this, this is wrong. My son is ill, make him healthy.”In the first place, if you really trust, then HE makes your son ill – so trust it! Why go complaining andpraying? Do you think you can improve upon him? All prayers mean praying to God that ”Pleasedon’t make two and two become four. Whatsoever is happening, whatsoever is natural, don’t let ithappen.” You have some ideas to suggest, some advice – this is not trust.Trust means: ”I am no one and I go wherever life leads me, wherever – into the unknown, into thedark, death or life. Wherever it leads, I am ready. I am always ready and I ht.” But when can you fit?You can ht only when duality ceases. When you can see, and that very seeing becomes stopping –stopping of desire, demand.FOR THE UNIFIED MIND, IN ACCORD WITH THE WAY, ALL SELF-CENTERED STRIVINGCEASES.DOUBTS AND IRRESOLUTIONS VANISH AND LIFE IN TRUE FAITH BECOMES POSSIBLE.WITH A SINGLE STROKE WE ARE FREED FROM BONDAGE...WITH A SINGLE STROKE WE ARE FREED FROM BONDAGE...Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 133OshoCHAPTER 8. LIFE IN TRUE FAITHIT IS NOT a gradual affair, it is not that by and by you reach to the truth, it is not a question of degrees.By a single stroke, when you see the truth, in a single moment you are freed of all bondage.It is not a question of making effort, because whatsoever you do, you will do with the mind, andmind is the cause of all misery. And whatsoever you do with the mind will strengthen the mind more.Whatsoever you do with the mind will be a striving. And whatsoever you do with the mind will be achoice from two opposite poles. You will be getting more entangled.So the question is not what to do, the question is how to see. The question is not of changing yourcharacter, the question is not to become more good, to become more saintly, to be less a sinner –no, that is not the question. The question is: how to see without mind, how to see without choice.The question is not concerned with doing and action, the question is concerned with the quality ofawareness.That’s why in the East we have been emphasizing meditation, and in the West they havebeen emphasizing morality. When for the first time the Upanishads were translated intoWestern languages the scholars were puzzled, because they didn’t have anything like the TenCommandments in the Upanishads – ”Don’t do this, do that” – nothing was there. They werepuzzled. How are these Upanishads religious scriptures? Because religion means a morality,religion means, ”Don’t do this and do that,” it is a DOING. And the Upanishads don’t talk aboutwhat to do, they only talk about how to be, what to be.How to be more alert and aware, that’s the only question. How to be so aware that you can seethrough, and opposites become one and dualities cease. In a deep penetration of awareness,sinners disappear, saints also, because they both belong to the duality. God dies and the Devil also,because they also belong to the duality – the mind created them.And Christianity has remained in a deep turmoil continuously, because how to make arrangementswith the Devil and God both? It is really a problem. In the first place, how does this Devil come in?If you say God created him then the responsibility goes to God himself. And what will happen in theend? Who is going to win? If you say God is going to win, finally, then why this whole nonsense onthe way, on the road? If God is going to win finally, why not now?And if you say there can be no final winning, victory, the conflict will continue, then the Devil becomesas powerful as God. And who knows? – he may win in the end. And if HE wins then what will happento all of your saints? Then sinners will be happy and saints will be thrown into hell. But the wholething arises because of the dual mind.The mind cannot see that God and Devil are one. They are. The Devil is just the opposite: theother extreme, the hate, the death. So you say God is love and the Devil is hate, God is compassionand the Devil is violence, and God is light and the Devil is darkness. What foolishness! Becausedarkness and light are two aspects of one energy. Good and bad also, right and wrong, moral andimmoral, are both two polarities of one phenomenon. And that one phenomenon is existence.Sosan will not call it God, because if you call it God you deny the Devil – it is God plus the Devil.Existence is both night and day, morning and evening both, the happiness, unhappiness – all. It istogether. And when you see this, heaven and hell BOTH together, then where is the choice? Andwhat is the point of choosing anything or asking for anything?Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 134OshoCHAPTER 8. LIFE IN TRUE FAITHAll demands cease. Faith arises, trust happens. In the emptiness of truth, where duality ceases,where you cannot even say one is, an unknown phenomenon, which is trust, flowers. Somethingblooms which is the most beautiful, the most precious, and that is the flower of trust.WITH A SINGLE STROKE WE ARE FREED FROM BONDAGE; NOTHING CLINGS TO US, ANDWE HOLD NOTHING.ALL IS EMPTY, CLEAR, SELF-ILLUMINATING, WITH NO EXERTION OF THE MIND’S POWER.HERE THOUGHT, FEELING, KNOWLEDGE AND IMAGINATION ARE OF NO VALUE.THEN ONE LIVES, only lives. One breathes, only breathes. No imagination, no thought, no mind– they are all of no value. You trust existence, and when YOU trust existence, existence trusts you.This meeting of trust is the ultimate bliss, the ecstasy, SAMADHI.So what to do about it? It is not a question of doing, nothing can be done. You have to SEE, YOUhave to observe life; become an observer, look in everything. Next time you feel love, just don’t bebefooled by it. Love, but look inside – there is hate waiting. And watch. And suddenly there will bean illumination. You will be able to see this love is just nothing but the first step of the hate.Then what is there to choose? Then why ask, ”God, give us more love” – because more hate willbe coming. So what will you do? You will float in love and you will know hate is coming. Neither willyou cling to love... because clinging means you are fighting against hate. And you KNOW, as nightcomes after the day, after love the hate will be coming. Then what will happen? Neither will youcling to love nor will you hate hate.And when you are in such a balance, in such a tranquility, where you don’t demand love, whereyou don’t want to be away from hate, where you don’t cling to anything, and nothing clings to you,suddenly you neither love nor hate – suddenly, in one stroke, the duality is broken.From anywhere... Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, ”Find out your chief characteristic.” It isgood. Find out what is your chief characteristic – fear? hate? Love? greed? sex? What is yourchief characteristic? Just watch and see, and work on that chief characteristic, and try to see theopposites together.If it is love, then see love and hate together. If you can see, they negate each other. Suddenlyyou are empty – there is neither love nor hate. They can be only one at a time. Both together,they negate each other. Suddenly they both are not there – only you are left alone, in your totalaloneness. Nothing is there, not a trace of anything. This is the emptiness, the SHUNYATA, Sosanis talking about.And if you can see this in one duality, you can see it in all – that is not a big problem. Once youhave seen it in one duality, love-hate, you have seen it all over. The same is everywhere. A totallydifferent quality of being will come into existence.Trust. It is not something to believe in, a doctrine, it has nothing to with any God, any Christ, Krishna,Mohammed, any Koran, Bible, Gita. No. It has something to do with your awareness. Fully alert,seeing through, you become free – and at one stroke.Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 135Osho