LAO TZU

I have heard a story. Once he was going from one town to another on his donkey. A messenger from the emperor came and told Lao Tzu, "The emperor has heard about you and he would like you to become a part of his court. He needs wise men there."

Lao Tzu treated the messenger very courteously, but said, "No, it is impossible. I am grateful. Thank the emperor, but it is impossible."

When the messenger was going, Lao Tzu washed his ears with water, and washed the ears of the donkey also. A man who was standing by the road asked, "What are you doing, sir?"

He said, "I am washing my ears, because even the messenger from the world of politics is dangerous."

The man asked, "But why are you washing the ears of the donkey?"

He said, "Donkeys are very political. He is already walking in a different way! The moment he heard and saw the messenger from the court, he became very egoistic. Donkeys tend to be political. I don't much understand the language of the court, but he understands, because similar donkeys are there. The language is the same."
The man laughed. It is said, even when the story was reported to the king, that he also laughed.

People laughed about Lao Tzu; at the most, a crazy old man, eccentric, but nobody took him seriously. And he could never influence people to such an extent that they should organize his teaching. No religion, no organization, could come out of his teachings. He remained alone. He remains alone, but purest.

OSHO

HOTEI

In Japan, a great mystic, Hotei, is called the laughing Buddha. He is one of the most loved mystics in Japan, and he never uttered a single word. As he became enlightened, he started laughing, and whenever somebody would ask, Why are you laughing? he would laugh more. And he would move from village to village, laughing.

A crowd will gather and he will laugh. And slowly -- his laughter was very infectious -- somebody in the crowd will start laughing, then somebody else, and then the whole crowd is laughing -- laughing because.... Why are they laughing? Everybody knows, "It is ridiculous; this man is strange, but why are we laughing?"

But everybody was laughing; and everybody was a little worried, "What will people think? There is no reason to laugh." But people would wait for Hotei, because they had never laughed in their whole life with such totality, with such intensity that after the laughter they found their every sense had become more clear. Their eyes could see better, their whole being had become light, as if a great burden had disappeared.

People would ask Hotei, "Come back again," and he would move, laughing, to another village. His whole life, for near about forty-five years after his enlightenment, he did only one thing and that was laughing. That was his message, his gospel, his scripture.

And it is to be noted that in Japan, nobody has been remembered with such respect as Hotei. You will find in every house, statues of Hotei. And he had done nothing except laugh; but the laughter was coming from such depth that it stayed with anyone who heard it and triggered his being, created a synchronicity.

Hotei is unique. In the whole world there is no other human being who has made so many people laugh -- for no reason at all. And yet, everybody was nourished by the laughter, and everybody was cleansed by the laughter, felt a well-being that he had never felt. Something from the unknowable depth started ringing bells in peoples' hearts.

Kavisho, if you can go without looking back at all, passing through the unknown into the unknowable, where everything will be lost -- questions, answers, me and you -- all that remains is pure existence, infinite and eternal. And I am saying it because it is possible. You have come a long way with me.
Thousands of people have come with me, and somebody drops out after a mile, somebody drops out after the second mile; I don't complain about them, I just feel sorry for them. They were not courageous enough. There came a point where they stopped.

But you have been like many of my sannyasins -- going without any fear, risking everything. There is every possibility that you will be one of those very few fortunate ones who attain to the ultimate truth.

Before you come to the laughter of Hotei, start laughing more and more deeply, more and more madly. This joke is just for you, Kavisho:

A young couple have been trying for ages to have a baby, but with no success. Finally they decided to go to the doctor with the problem. After a detailed interview he suggests that maybe they should not make love every day, to avoid love becoming a routine. They should make love only spontaneously. Not as if they have to do it, but only when they are possessed by it.

"You have to find the right, spontaneous moment," the doctor says, "when you feel the moment is right, do it." A few months later, sure enough, the woman is back and the doctor confirms her pregnancy. "May I enquire if my advice was of any help?" "Oh, doc," she says, "it was terrific. We were having a romantic candlelight dinner with french wine and soft music, and suddenly our hands met. We were looking deep into each others eyes and we both knew, `this is it!' We simply threw off the tablecloth and made love right on the table."

"Amazing," says the doctor. "Yes, it was great," she says, "the only sad thing about it is, that we can never go to that restaurant again."

OSHO

SUDDEN TRANSFORMATION

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 old story, now no wife gives a bath to the husband. His wife was giving him a bath, and while pouring water on his body and cooling his tired limbs, she talked and she said, ”My brother has become a follower 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? And I 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 he is a religious man. And you? I don’t see any religiousness in you. I have never seen you praying or meditating. And you have the courage and you dare to say such a thing – that he will never renounce?”

The man stood – he was naked, taking his bath – came out of the bath, went onto the street. The wife 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 knew about him that he was a religious man, but this quality... He reached to Mahavira, he surrendered himself, he became a naked fakir.

The wife came, weeping and crying. Even the wife’s brother came to convince him that ”There is no hurry. Look at me! I have been thinking for twenty years. And you are a madman – is this a way to renounce?”

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 nature of things, then there is no question of changing somewhere in the future. No one changes in the future – transformation is always here and now. This moment is the only moment something can happen. There is no other moment.

OSHO

MOMENT TO MOMENT

Swami Ramteerth has told a small story: a lover went away to a far land. He did not return. His beloved kept watching the road she became tired, waiting and waiting. He wrote letters, saying again and again, I am coming now, I am coming soon, this month, next month. Years began to pass and finally the beloved got upset. There is a limit to waiting. She travelled to the distant city where her beloved was. She inquired the way and arrived at his house. The door was open. It was evening, the sun had set.

She stopped at the door looking inside. For many days she had not seen her lover. He was sitting before her, but he was absorbed in deep concentration, he was writing something. He was so absorbed that the beloved felt to wait a little, not to interfere with him, who knows what threads of thought might be lost. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that tears were flowing from his eyes. He was writing something and kept right on writing. An hour passed, two hours passed.

Then he lifted his eyes and saw: he couldn’t believe it, he was shocked. He had been writing a letter to his beloved. He was writing a letter to this one who had sat two hours in front of him. And she was waiting for him to lift his eyes. He couldn’t believe it, he thought, ”It must be hallucination, it is an illusion, perhaps a sort of auto-hypnosis. I had such abundance of feeling for the beloved, perhaps that is why she is appearing like a dream. Is it not an illusion?” He rubbed his eyes.

His beloved began to laugh. She said, ”What are you thinking? Do you think I am a mirage?” He started trembling. He said, ”But how did you come? I was writing a letter to you. Mad one – why didn’t you stop me? You were in front of me while I was writing you a letter.”

Existence is here in front of us and we are praying to become one with it – Oh lord where art thou? Tears are pouring from our eyes but because of our wall of tears we don’t see what is in front of us. We are searching for it. We miss only because of our search.

 

                                                        

OSHO