Perform act completely - Osho

Whenever a person performs any act with all his heart and soul, that act becomes the path. Endless meditation, if halfhearted, will take you nowhere; whereas just singing a simple song with all your being merged in it, or dance a dance with the same total absorption and you will reach god. The question is not what you do, but how much of yourself you involved in the act.

Source: Osho - The true name

133 - What made you give me the stone

A wise man who was travelling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day he met another traveller who was hungry, and the wise man opened his bag to share his food. The hungry traveller saw the precious stone and asked the man to give it to him. He did so without hesitation. The traveller left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.

But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise man.

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

129 - Churning yourself - manthan

All of us are familiar with the story of the Samudra Manthan. The Devas had to have the amrit which was at the bottom of the ocean if they were to gain over the Asuras and become immortal.

Vishnu took the form of a giant tortoise and with Mandara the mountain acted as the churner and Vasuki the king of serpents was the rope, which the gods and the demons used to churn the ocean. The first thing that the ocean threw up was the terrible poison (Halahala), which Shiva drank and became Neelkanth without which matters could not have gone ahead.

Then came the celestial elephant Eirawat that Indra claimed as his own, then the wonder cow Surabhi, the white as moon horse Uchchaishrava and the tree Kalpvruksh. After this came Lakshmi whom Vishnu claimed as his wife or he would have still been a bachelor!

Many wonderful and useful things followed and after 14 such wonders came the Amrit.

Similarly in life when you do ' Manthan ' - introspection, if it is true churning then a transformation takes place !

Every time manthan happens first there is pain, horrible things will come out. One has to drink this poison. Nobody dies. Shiva also did not die. One has to dare to persist in spite of all the poisons. Only then good things will come and happen. At end you get amrit.

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

Osho - Drop the Trinity

When you are not, the whole existence feels ecstatic and celebrates; flowers shower on you. They have not showered yet because you ARE, and they will not shower until you dissolve. When you are empty, no more, when you are a nothingness, SHUNYATA, suddenly they start showering. They have showered on Buddha, on Subhuti, on Nansen;
they can shower on YOU -- they are waiting. They are knocking at the door. They are ready. Just the moment you become empty, they start falling on you. So remember it: the final liberation is not YOUR liberation, the final liberation is FROM YOU. Enlightenment is not yours, cannot be. When you are not, it is there. Drop yourself
in your totalness: the world of things, the world of thoughts, the world of the self; all three layers, drop. Drop this trinity; drop this TRIMURTI, drop these three faces, because if you are there then the one cannot be. If you are three, how can the one be?

Let all three disappear -- God, the Holy Ghost and the Son; Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh -- all the three, let them drop! Let them disappear. Nobody remains -- and then everything is there. When nothing happens, the all happens. You are nothing... the all starts showering on you.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Zen Koans - Not mind, not buddha, not things

A monk asked Nansen: "Is there a teaching no master ever preached before?"

Nansen said: "Yes there is."

"What is that?" asked the monk.

Nansen replied: "It is not mind, it is not buddha, it is not things."

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Maya - Osho

My whole effort is to bring you out of your systematizing mind. If you can become again a child, if you can look at reality without any preconceptions about it, you will attain. It is simple, it is ordinary, nothing is special about it. Reality is nothing special and extraordinary -- it is there, it is everywhere. Only your mind is an unreal thing. Mind creates illusion, MAYA, mind creates dreams -- and then you are clouded in them. And you are trying to do the impossible, that which cannot
be done: you are trying to find the real through the mind. You lose the real through the mind, you cannot find it through the mind. You have to drop the mind completely. Yes, the way is right before your eyes -- but you are not there.



Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Zen Koans - Seeing double

A master was asked by a curious monk: "What is the way?"

"It is right before your eyes," said the master.

"Why do I not see it for myself?" asked the monk.

"Because you are thinking of yourself,"  said the master.

"What about you," said the monk, "Do you see it?"

The master said: "So long as you see double, saying I don't, and you do, and so on, your eyes are clouded."

"When there is neither I nor you, can one see it?" said the monk.

"When there i neither I not you, who is the one who wants to see it?" replied the master.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Zen Koans - Deaf Dumb and Blind

Gensha complained to his followers one day: 'Other Masters are always carrying on about the necessity of saving everyone -- But suppose you meet up with someone who is deaf, dumb and blind: He couldn't see your gestures, hear your preaching, or, for that matter, ask questions. Unable to save him, you'd prove yourself a worthless buddhist.'
Troubled by these words, one of Gensha's disciples went to consult the Master Ummon who, like Gensha, was a disciple of Seppo.

"Bow Please," said Ummon.

The monk, though taken by surprise, obeyed the master's command -- then straightened up in expectation of having his query answered.

But instead of an answer, he got a staff thrust at him. He Leapt back.

"Well," said Ummon, "You're not blind. Now approach."

The monk did as he was bidden. "Good," said Ummon, "You are not deaf either. Well, Understand?"

"Understand what Sir?" said the monk.  "Ah, you are not dumb either," said Ummon.

On hearing these words the monk awoke as from a deep sleep.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Zen - Paradox - Osho

And remember, and always keep it in your heart: truth, love, life, meditation, ecstacy, bliss, all that is true and beautiful and good, always exists as a paradox:

• in the world, and not of it;
•  with people, yet alone;
• doing everything, and being inactive;
• moving and not moving;
• living an ordinary life. and yet not being identified with it;
• working as everybody else is working, yet remaining aloof deep down.

Being in the world and not of the world, that is the paradox. And when you attain this paradox, the greatest peak happens to you: the peak of experience.

If you start living this paradox your life will become a symphony; it will become a higher and higher synthesis of all the opposites. In YOU, then, all opposites will dissolve.

In this moment you can awake. You can look, you can shake the mind a little, create a discontinuity, and suddenly you understand... what Arthur Koestler misses. If you are also too intelligent, you will miss. Don't be too intelligent, don't try to be too clever, because there is a wisdom which is attained by those who become fools; there is a wisdom which is attained by those who become like madmen; there is a wisdom which is attained only when you lose your mind.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Zen Koans - Tozan's five pounds

The master Tozan was weighing some flax in the storeroom.
A monk came up to him and asked: "What is Buddha?"

Tozan said: "This flax weighs five pounds."



Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Let go and Relax - Osho

Nobody asked you about being born, nobody is going to ask you when the time comes for you to be taken away. Then why be worried? Birth happened to you; death will happen to you; who are you to come in between?

Things are happening. You feel hunger, you feel love, you feel anger -- everything happens to you, you are not a doer. Nature takes care. You eat and nature digests it; you need not bother about it, about how the stomach is functioning, how the food is going to become blood. If you become too tense about it you will have ulcers -- and king-size ulcers, not ordinary ones. No need to worry.

The whole is moving. The vast ocean, the infinite is moving. You are just a wave in it. Relax, and let things be. Once you know how to let go, you have known all that is worth knowing. If you don't know how to let go, whatsoever you know is worthless, it is rubbish.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

Find Attention - Osho

Sometimes you become attentive. If somebody comes to hit you, the attention comes. If you are in danger, if you are passing through a forest at night and it is dark, you walk with a different quality of attention. You are awake; thinking is not there. You are fully in rapport with the situation, with whatsoever is happening. Even if a leaf creates a sound you are fully alert. You are just like a hare, or a deer -- they are always awake. Your ears are bigger, your eyes are wide open, you are feeling what is happening all around because danger is there. In danger your sleep is less, your awareness is more, the gestalt changes. If somebody puts a dagger to your heart and is just going to push it in, in that moment there is no thinking. Past disappears, future disappears: you are here and now. The possibility is there. If you make the effort you will catch the one ray that exists in you, and once you catch the one ray, the sun is not very far; then through the ray you can reach the sun -- the ray becomes the path.

So remember: find attention, let it become a continuity in you twenty-four hours a day, whatsoever you do. Eat, but try to be attentive: eat with awareness. Walk, but walk with awareness. Love, but love fully aware. Try!

It cannot become total just in one day, but even if one ray is caught, you will feel a deep fulfillment -- because the quality is the same whether you attain to one ray or the whole sun. Whether you taste a drop of water from the ocean or the whole ocean, the salty taste is the same -- and the taste becomes your satori, the glimpse.

Source: Osho - And the Flowers Showered...

118 - Digging for gold

As a young boy, Andrew Carnegie came to America and started doing odd jobs. Later on, he became one of the largest steel manufacturers of the United States.

At one time, he had 43 millionaires working for him. One day, someone asked him how he dealt with people. Andrew Carnegie replied, "Dealing with people is like digging for gold. When you go digging for an once of gold, you have to move tons of dirt to get one ounce of gold. But when you go digging, you don't go looking for dirt, you go looking for gold." There is something positive in every person and every situation. Sometimes we have to dig deep to look for the positive because it may not be apparent.

"Gunadosha samahare gunan gruhananthi sahdavah
Ksheeravari samahare hamsah ksheeramivaakhilam"

The good people pick up only good qualities from the aggregate of good and bad just as a swan picks up milk in its entirety from the mixture of milk and water.

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

116 - Too busy to take the blindfold off

When the master invited the Governor to practice meditation, and the Governor said he was too busy, this is the reply he got, "You put me in my mind the condition of a man walking blind-folded into the jungle - and too busy to take the blindfold off."

When the Governor pleaded lack of time, the Master said, "It is a mistake to think that meditation cannot be practiced for lack of time. The real cause is agitation of the mind."

There was an exhausted woodcutter who kept wasting time and energy chopping wood with a blunt axe because he did not have the time, to stop and sharpen the blade.






source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

113 - Pebbles and the "Ping !" sound

A young man wanted to cross a river. It was not yet morning, it was pitch dark. So he thought he would sit and wait for sunrise. As he was walking he tripped over something. He picked it up and saw that it was bag with some stones in it. He took it, sat on the rock next to the river, picked up one stone and threw it into the river, 'Ping !' it made a noise and since it was quiet all around the sound kept on ringing for a few moments. As the ripples went on in the water in increasing concentric circles, he almost felt the same for the sound. It was a very pleasant sensation.

After some moments he threw yet another stone and again got the sensual pleasure through the sound "Ping !"

After some moments he threw yet another stone, and so on and so on, till he had only one stone left.

By that time dawn was breaking and some light was there and he saw the stone - it was a beautiful, large, precious, gem stone !

It is not that for certain momentary pleasures we throw away our life, little by little, and realize it only when one small portion is remaining !

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

106 - Leave your self behind

A monk was so tormented by temptation that he could bear it no longer. So he decided to abandon his cell and go somewhere else.

As he was putting on his sandals to carry out his resolve he saw another monk not far from where he stood who was also putting his sandals on.

"Who are you?" he asked the stranger.

"I am your self," was the reply. "If it is on my account that you are leaving this place, I would have you know that no matter where you go I shall go with you."










source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

105 - Get yourself out of the way

A woodcarver had just finished work on a statue of Saraswati. Everyone who saw it marvelled, for it seemed to be the work of spirits. When the King saw it, he asked, "What sort of genius is yours that you could make such a thing?"

The woodcarver replied, "Sit, I am only a simple workman. I am no genius. But there is one thing. When I am going to make a statue I meditate for three days to calm my mind. When I have meditated for three days I think no more about rewards or emoluments. When I have meditated for five days I  no longer think of praise or blame, skillfulness or awkwardness. When I have meditated for seven days I suddenly forget my limbs, my body. I forget my very self. I lose consciousness of the court and my surroundings. Only my skill remains. In that state I walk into the forest and examine each tree until I find one in which I see the statue in all its perfection. Then my hands go to the task. Having set my self aside, nature meets nature in the work that is performed through me. This, no doubt is the reason why everyone says that the finished product is the work of the spirit. "

Said a world famous violinist about his success in playing, Beethoven's Violin Converto, "I have splendid music, a splendid violin and a splendid bow. All I need to do is bring them together and get out of the way.'

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

099 - Princess marrying a slave

A princess had set her heart on marrying one of her slaves. Nothing the king said or did succeeded in moving the girl from her resolve. And none of the king's advisers could tell him what to do.

Finally, a wise old man appeared at court and, on hearing of the king's predicament said, "Your Majesty is ill advised, for if you forbid the girl to marry she will only resent you and be more attracted to the slave."

"Then tell me what to do," cried the king.

The wise old man suggested a plan of action.

The king was skeptical but decided to give it a try. He sent for the young woman and said, "I am going to put your love for this man to the test. You will be locked up in a tiny cell with your lover for thirty days and nights. If at the end of that period  you still wish to marry him, you shall have my consent."

The princess, beside herself with joy, hugged her father and delightedly agreed to the test. All went well for a couple of days but boredom soon set in. Within a week she was pining for other company and exasperated at her lover's every word and action. After two weeks she was so sick of the man, she took to screaming and pounding on the door of the cell. When she was finally let out she flung her arms around her father in gratitude for having saved her from the man she had now come to abhor !

Living apart makes living together easier.

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

091 - The sense of music

This is a story from the life of Buddha. One afternoon, when he was in meditation, voices drifted across. One musician was in conversation with the other. He told him, "You want to be able to play the ektara don't you? Then learn to tune your string properly, in such a way that it's neither too tight, nor too loose. The middle path, that's the road to good music."

The voices ceased. But in a flash, Siddharth's mind had absorbed the message. He had the answers to his questions. he understood the reason for sorrow and all the problems man faced. Either man was too attached to the world, or he was too detached, either people ate too much or they starved, either they were too rich or too poor. In either case they were unhappy, because their string of life had not been properly tuned!

The answer? The middle path - the path of peace and serenity - the 'madhyama marga'. Who would have thought that this concept that changed the world would have originated from a statement made by an illiterate musician? A most unlikely teacher indeed!

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html

082 - Hanuman Chalisa - 1

Prabhu Mudrika Meli Mukh Mahee,
Jaladhi Laandhi Gaye Achraj Naahi.

Hanuman was standing on the shore preparing to jump across the ocean to reach Lanka and Sita. Ram gave him a ring to show to Sita (otherwise she may be frightened of the monkey and not believe that he was a Ramdoot !). Hanuman said, "Cool, it will be done."

Hanuman was wondering where to put the ring so that it should not fall into the ocean where he was crossing it. His swimming trunks did not have a pocket with a zip or a velcro. He vetoed the idea of wearing it on his finger since it was Ram's wedding ring given by Sita and befitted only the Lord's hand. he thought of holding it in his fist tightly, but then thought that might not be very safe. Hanuman is a simple straightforward person, so he just popped it in his mouth !

A creative interpretation - If I put the name of the Lord in my mouth (meaning I constantly chant God's name), then jumping and crossing the ocean and other such 'impossible' tasks will be accomplished by me and it will be no surprise.

Bhagwan ka naam lekar kaam karo, safalta avashya milegee. 

source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html