The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. MEDITATION IS THE SEED
No one can give you such seductive sweet-talk as the mind. And you are a fool. If the mind had
anything to give, it would have given it by now. The very fact is that it keeps putting you off again
and again and you still believe it. How many times have you believed the mind? Every day it says,
”Tomorrow”, and when tomorrow comes the mind again says, ”Tomorrow”. Now it has become your
unconscious habit, and the habit is so deep-seated that you hardly think about it. Even in your sleep
the mind beguiles you with fresh assurances about the future.
Mulla Nasruddin was in bed with a very high fever. I went to see him. I asked his wife how long he
had been in that condition. The wife said, ”For an hour he has been running a fever of 105 degrees.”
The Mulla was unconscious. I put a thermometer in his mouth to see what the temperature was. At
once he spoke, ”A match, please!” He was a chain-smoker and the habit was so deep-rooted that
even in that unconscious state the thermometer reminded him of a cigarette.
And when you die your condition will be exactly like the Mulla’s. ”A match, please!” Your mind keeps
weaving its webs even in your unconsciousness. At the moment of death you will be filled with the
mind. Whether you perform worship or pray or go to the temple or to the holy places... the mind is
with you and whenever the mind is with you, you cannot establish contact with religion.
There lived a Moslem fakir by the name of Haji Mohammed. He was a sadhu. One night he dreamed
that he had died and was standing at the crossroads between heaven and hell. One road led to the
world and the other to moksha. An angel stood at the crossroads, guiding and directing people
according to their actions.
Haji Mohammed had nothing to fear. All his life he had been a good and pious man. He offered his
prayer five times a day, and he had been on the holy pilgrimage, the Haj, sixty times. In fact, that is
how he came to be known as ’Haji’ Mohammed. When his turn came he stood with his chest out
before the angel.
”Haji Mohammed!” the angel called.
”Yes,” said Haji.
”This is the way to hell.” said the angel, pointing at a road.
”There is surely some mistake,” said Haji. ”Perhaps your ledgers are mixed up. I have been to Haj
sixty times during my life on earth.”
”That has all gone to waste,” said the angel, ”for you made it a matter of prestige and began calling
yourself ’haji’. You have reaped the benefits of your Haj already. What else did you do?”
Now the Haji was not so sure of himself. When sixty pilgrimages counted as nothing, what else had
he to show? Yet he persisted, ”I have said my prayers religiously five times a day.”
”That too was fruitless,” said the angel, ”for you; you prayed louder and longer when people were
around and made a short job of it when there was no one around. Your attention was on people,
not on God. You wanted to be known as a religious man, a pious man. Have you anything else to
show?”
The Great Path 126 Osho