The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE MAD PROJECTIONIST
Before entering into the sutras let us understand a few things, Friedrich Nietzsche has said
somewhere , ”I only believe in a God who can dance. Believing in a sad God is a sign of a sick
man.”
There is truth in this statement. You mold your God in your own image. You are sad - your God
will be sad. You are happy - your God will be happy. If you can dance then your God will also be
able to dance. Existence appears to you just as you are yourself. CREATION IS AN EXTENSION
OF YOUR OWN VISION. As long as you cannot believe in a dancing God, you are not healthy. The
concept of a sad, weeping, sick God speaks of your own sick state.
The first sutra of today is:
THE SOUL IS A DANCER
There are some things that need to be understood about a dancer. Dance is the only activity in which
the act and actor become one. When someone draws a picture, the picture and the person who
draws it become separate; when a poet writes a poem, the poem and the poet become separate;
when a sculptor makes a statue, the sculptor and the statue become separate. Dance is the only
activity in which the dancer and the dance are one; the two cannot be separated. If the dancer goes
away then the dance will be no more. If the dance is lost then that man cannot be called a dancer.
The dancer and the dance are one.
That is why it is very meaningful to call God, a dancer. This world is not apart from him. It is his
dance; it is not his deed. It is not a sculpture that God has created and finished with. He is present
within his creation every moment. The moment He steps aside the dance will stop. And remember,
the moment the dance stops, God will also disappear. He cannot exist without the dance. He is
manifest in every flower, every leaf, every grain and particle. It is not that the work of creation took
place in some ancient past and stopped. The act of creation is happening every moment; therefore
everything is new. God is dancing – inside and outside too.
THE SOUL IS A DANCER. This means that whatever you have done, whatever you are doing,
whatever you will do, is not separate and apart from you. It is your own game. If you are suffering, it
is your own choice. If you are blissful, it is your own choice. No one else is responsible.
I was a newly appointed professor in a college. As the college was a good distance away from
the town the professors used to bring their lunch with them and sit together at one table during
lunchtime. It was by chance that when the person sitting next to me opened his box and looked in,
he said, ”Again it is potatoes and chapatis!” I thought maybe he doesn’t like potatoes and chapatis.
But as I was new there, I didn’t say anything. Next day the same thing happened. He opened his
lunch box, looked in and sighed, ”The same potatoes, the same chapatis!” So I said to him, ”If you
don’t like potatoes why don’t you tell your wife to make something else?” He said,”Wife! What wife?
I make my lunch myself?”
This is your life. There is nobody else. If you laugh, you laugh; if you cry, you cry. No one else is
responsible. It could be, however, that you have cried for so long that it has become a habit and
you have forgotten how to laugh. It could also be that you have cried so much that you cannot do
anything else! You have had a lot of practice. It is also possible that you have been crying for so
The Great Path 103 Osho