The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 8. THE FOURTH STATE
Once I was guest in a household. One evening the hostess was putting her child to bed in the room
next to mine. As she put him to sleep I heard her telling him, ”Go to sleep now. If you need anything
during the night, call out to me; your father will come running.”
All mothers do this, but what is it that the child is being initiated into? Lying, deceit, trickery! We feed
poison along with the milk. Our effort is never directed toward the child becoming more alert and
more conscious. If ever the right culture is born on this earth the first thing that will be taught to the
child is to become more aware, more conscious. The fourth state is the only thing worth teaching;
all else is useless. All else merely helps you carry on your day-to-day life.
The child is fresh, just as you are a little fresh in the morning. He is still in the morning of his life. If
he is taught the art of the fourth state from this very moment on and he learns the art of awakening
while he is still fresh, he will reach the peak by the time he becomes an old man. He will reach
buddhahood.
There is only one thing that needs to be practiced, and that is: to water the first three states with the
fourth state, with consciousness, with discrimination, with alertness, with wakefulness.
SO BATHED HE ENTERS INTO THE STATE OF SELF-AWARENESS.
In this state a person invariably slips into self-awareness, and once a person knows the light of the
fourth state he finds there is no joy equal to it. The intoxication of wine is so short-lived, while the
intoxication of the fourth state never fades. It is an eternal stream. And he who is filled with the
delight of the fourth state, who dances and rejoices in it; he who is filled n every pore with the fourth
state, whose very manner of being has become awareness; he in whom it is the fourth state that
sits and stands and moves about; he whose every atom is bathed in the fourth state, enters into
self-awareness. Otherwise, you shall remain unacquainted with your self. You may know the whole
world but you will be a stranger to your self.
You can say a great deal about others – their names, addresses, vocations, their lives – but about
yourself, you know nothing. Until such time as you know yourself all your knowledge is not worth a
penny, for it is all based on ignorance.
If you feed the oil of the fourth state continually to the other three states, then you will find the fourth
state manifesting in your life.
The way Buddha sits, stands or walks is unique. There is a wakefulness when he gets up and when
he walks. Whatever comes out of him does not arise out of unconsciousness. He is fully conscious;
whatever happens through him is filled with awareness.
Whatever you have done so far has been done in a state of unconsciousness. You say you did a
certain thing knowingly – that is not true. Your child comes home from school with a torn shirt and
broken slate. You scold him and you beat him. You say you have done it knowingly, and all for the
child’s own good. A little genuine introspection. Did you really act consciously? Or did something
happen to you at the sight of the torn shirt and broken slate? You became angry with the child and
vented your anger on him. You were angry that he disobeyed you. If you were in a state of anger
all your actions followed in unconsciousness, for anger is a state of non-awareness. Everything you
say serves only to justify your actions.
The Great Path 150 Osho