The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 1. THE DARKNESS INSIDE
Consciousness is your innate nature. You have not been away from it even for a moment. But the
fact is, it is dark underneath the lamp. You can’t go too far away from the lamp, the illuminating
consciousness – even if you wished to. You can, of course, have an illusion of having been moved
too far apart from it; you can be in a dream world. But a dream cannot be the reality. Consciousness
is your inherent nature and that is the only reality there is.
Consciousness is the being. And so the first thing is: no one, nothing is mine except the
consciousness. Should this feeling become crystallized in you, it will give birth to sannyas. Because,
essentially, samsara means to carry the feeling that someone other than myself can be mine.
Hence, the first sutra is tremendously radical; it can spark off a revolution in your life. It’s a
provocation for making you realize for the first time the truth that you alone belong to yourself –
there is no one else for you. This realization will naturally depress your mind; because you have
built great relationships, you have saved lofty dreams around other people. You are carrying a lot of
hopes from them.
A mother is carrying high expectations from her son. A father is hopeful of his son. They are
completely lost in their hopes. Your father, for example, died carrying similar hopes. What did he
gain from you? The same will apply to you; you too will meet death and gain nothing from your son.
And your son will continue to follow the same stupidity – he will keep expectations from his son.
No, this won’t help. Look at your own self – neither at someone who will follow you, nor at anyone
who preceded you. No one is yours. No son can ever fulfill you. No relationship can ever be a
substitute for your soul. You alone are your own friend. A realization of all this creates fear, because
it makes one feel as though he is left all by himself.
Man is so scared of being lonely that even as he passes through a deserted lane, he begins to sing
in a loud voice. Just by listening to his own voice he feels he is not alone. The fact is, he is listening
to his own voice, there is no one else around. Similarly, when the father builds his dreams around
his son, the son is not a party to it. This is the father whistling alone in a deserted alley. He is bound
to face unhappiness, because throughout his life he did nothing but weave dreams assuming his
son was having the same dreams too. He is wrong. The son is engaged in his own dreams, the
father in his own, his father cherished some other dreams – but they don’t meet anywhere.
Every father dies unhappy. What can be the reason? Because, the fact remains that whatever
dreams he creates, they all fall apart. Moreover, everyone here is to see his own dreams – not your
dreams. And if you wish to attain an ideal situation, a satisfaction, then never create your dreams
around someone else; otherwise, you are sure to get lost.
Samsara simply means: the boat of your dreams is tethered to others. Sannyas means you have
awakened; and that you have accepted one fact – regardless of how painful, how hurting, how
terribly tormenting it may feel in the beginning – that you are alone. That all relationships, all
companionships are pseudo. This does not mean however that you should escape to the Himalayas.
Because, one who is heading to the Himalayas shows that he still looks upon his relationships, his
ties as real – that they haven’t become false and meaningless to him yet.
Once it becomes evident that something is false, then there is no point in running away from it. After
waking up in the morning and having realized the dream was false, one doesn’t start running away
The Great Path 10 Osho