The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 8. THE FOURTH STATE
Dreams open the door to the fulfillment of all your desires. If a man lives for sixty years he spends
twenty years in sleep, twenty at work and another twenty awake in other pursuits. Now if a man
remains a king for twenty years in his actual life and another is a king for twenty years in his dreams,
what is the difference? The sum total is the same. Besides, he who is emperor during the day has
a thousand-and-one worries on his mind, but the dream king has all the leisure to enjoy his status.
Dreams are lost only when a man awakens in sleep. Then dreams become meaningless, for he who
awakens in sleep has no desire left in him. All desires are part of unconsciousness.
Once Mulla Nasruddin got off a train looking very sick and unable to walk straight. ”Are you ill?” a
friend asked.
Nasruddin replied, ”Whenever I travel and sit facing backward I feel sick and dizzy.”
The friend said, ”You should have asked the man sitting opposite you to change seats with you,
Mulla.”
”I wanted to do that,” said the Mulla, ”only there was no one in the opposite seat.”
You go through life in exactly the same way, as if you are dead drunk or completely drugged. You will
have to break this addiction. Where will you start? You will begin with the waking state. When you
awaken in the morning make a resolution: Today I shall practice the witnessing attitude. Early in the
morning when you first awaken your mind is very light and fresh, there are no dreams, no thoughts.
After a full night’s rest there is a dawn within just as there is a dawn without. There are no tensions,
no clouds. You are light and free. Soon the world will claim you and then the difficulties will begin.
As soon as your sleep is interrupted, don’t be in a hurry to open your eyes. At that moment the mind
is very sensitive. As soon as you awaken remember your resolve, ”I am the witness.” Lie still for
five Lie still for five minutes and meditate on this. Don’t open your eyes, for once the eyes are open
there is the world in front of you, and you lost yourself in it. Keep your eyes closed and cultivate the
feeling: ”I am not the doer, I am the witness.” Let this witnessing practice be with me throughout the
day. Let me remember to practice it all day long.”
Now get up, immersed completely in this feeling and try to maintain the feeling for a while. In the
beginning you will find it easy. Get up and sit up in bed, then put your feet down. Be fully aware.
Take a bath; bathe with consciousness. Eat your breakfast; be fully aware as you eat it.
To be fully aware means to be fully conscious of the fact that all actions are happening outside. They
are the needs of the body, not your needs. You have no needs, and indeed there are none, for you
yourself are God. What could you need? You are complete, perfect. You are Brahma. Everything
is yours. The soul has no requirements, it needs no fuel. The flame burns without wick and without
oil. So you say, ”I have no needs. All needs are of the body – to bathe, to eat, to work, to move.”
Try to maintain this attitude. Keep this thread of the witness for as long as you can. Soon it will be
lost in the hustle and bustle of the day. Your habits are so very old and deeply ingrained. Keep at
it and water it each day, and the sapling will sprout and grow. At first it will not be apparent, for the
growth will be slow, very slow; but soon you will find a thin ribbon of light shining perpetually within
The Great Path 147 Osho