The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. RIGHT SEARCH, WRONG DIRECTION
on you is complete. It makes no difference whether your face is toward these things or away from
them; unless you bring about a radical change at the center, the journey remains more or less the
same.
An inner transformation is necessary and not a change in the pattern of your behavior. As soon as
there is inner change, everything changes with it. These sutras are for the inner transformation. Try
to listen to each sutra very attentively. If there is even a fraction of dry powder within you, it is bound
to explode; but if the powder is not dry then the sparks will fall but they will be put out immediately.
The trouble with you is not that you do not get an opportunity to hear truth, but that you are adept at
smothering it. Your powder is not dry. It is soaking wet. How have you managed to make the powder
wet? The more knowledge you have the wetter becomes the gunpowder. The more you think you
know, the wetter your powder becomes; it is because of this knowing that you smother every spark
of wisdom. Your knowledge prevents the sparks of wisdom from igniting you. Your knowledge stands
as a sentry barring all entry.
You are unconscious in your knowledge. Remember, there is no intoxicant more potent than the
arrogance of learning, for nowhere is the ego more subtle than here. Wealth does not feed the ego
half as much. For wealth can be stolen, the government can change, communism may come in –
anything can happen. You cannot rely completely on wealth, however knowledge cannot be stolen
or snatched away from you. Even if he is thrown into a prison, a man’s knowledge goes along with
him. Therefore a wealthy man is not half as arrogant as a learned man. It is this arrogance that
dampens the powder inside you. Remove This arrogance and your powder will dry out and when it
is dry a tiny spark is enough to ignite it.
These sutras are like sparks. Put all your knowledge aside and try to understand them. If you try to
understand through your knowledge you will never succeed.
The first sutra is:
WHATEVER HE UTTERS IS JAPA.
The last sutra discussed yesterday-like state that is reached by the seeker. Whatever such a person
speaks is japa, repetition of a mantra. Whatever he says is japa, no matter what words he uses,
for there are no more desires, no more darkness; the world is absent from his heart. His heart is a
light unto itself; whatever comes from such a heart is japa. It cannot be other than japa, for how can
darkness come from light, hatred from love, or anger from compassion. Whatever comes out of him
must be japa.
There is a very well-known saying of Jesus: The kingdom of heaven is not determined by what you
put in your mouth but what comes out of it. Whatever comes out of you indicates who you are. He
who becomes like Shiva does not need to practise japa, for whatever he does is japa.
Kabir said: My very sitting and standing is an act of ’circling the temple’. Kabir was asked: When
do you pray? When do you worship? We never see you performing any sadhana. You are called a
great devotee, but we never see you performing any devotions. All you do is weave your cloth and
sell it in the market. There is no sign of worship or meditation or going to the temple.
The Great Path 159 Osho