The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. MEDITATION IS THE SEED
The Kumbha does not come to your door, you have to make the journey to the sacred bathing place
where it occurs, but Mahavir and Buddha come knocking at your door. Alas, they find the door
closed, for we are frightened of these people. They are dangerous. They say: ”Die like a seed and
become a tree!”
This is why trust and faith are required, they are priceless. If you listen to reason it will say, ”First be
sure. What is the guarantee?” Logic is always right. It says: ”A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.”
This is correct as far as reason goes, for how can you let go of the little you have for a promise of
larger gains that are yet to come?
Mulla Nasruddin was eager to learn to swim. He found a teacher who said, ”Come, I am going to
the river.” As it happened, the Mulla slipped as soon as he stepped into the water. He fell over and
almost drowned. Somehow he found his way to the bank, whereupon he got out of the water and
ran away.
The teacher called out to him, ”Where are you going? Don’t you want to learn how to swim?”
”First teach me how to swim,” said the Mulla, ”and then I’ll get back into the river.”
”That’s almost impossible,” said the teacher. ”Unless you get into the water you cannot learn.”
But the Mulla said, ”Never again will I set foot in the river, at least not in this life.”
You also reason like Nasruddin, and your reasoning is correct. The Mulla will only step into the river
if he knows how to swim, for was he not almost drowned? It was sheer good luck that he found
himself alive!
One day I saw Nasruddin teaching his wife how to drive. He stood at the edge of the road, well away
from his wife, who sat at the wheel of the car. He was shouting out instructions: ”Press the clutch!
Change gears!”
I watched him intrigued. I went up to him and asked, ”Mulla, I have seen many people teach driving,
but yours is a unique method! How can you teach someone from outside the car?”
The Mulla replied, ”The car is insured; I am not.”
Logic always demands insurance; it wants a guarantee. The seed also demands a guarantee that
it will become a tree, but how is one to assure the seed? Faith is invaluable. There is no way to
assure you. Faith is a jump in the dark, therefore the faithful reach and the logical don’t. The mind
misleads, leads you astray; the heart takes you all the way to the destination.
When you are in love you never listen to the mind. Even when you pray you cannot pray if you listen
to the mind. If you listen to the mind its logic always seems one hundred percent correct, but the
ultimate result is zero. The seed remains a seed; not only does it remain a seed but it begins to rot.
Ask yourself this question: ”Is what I have real?” What does a seed possess? Don’t ask whether the
tree will or will not be; instead ask the seed what it has that it is so afraid of losing. This is what faith
The Great Path 135 Osho