The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. RIGHT SEARCH, WRONG DIRECTION
between you and the body. Remember! As your awareness deeps the connecting links will begin
to separate; then one day you will observe the profound fact that the body is just a shell; you are
life, the body is death; you are consciousness, the body is matter, a play of atoms. You are not a
collection of anything. You are consciousness – integrated consciousness – that always was, always
is, and always will be.
As soon as the first layer is peeled off, like the first layer of an onion, the second layer comes into
view. This second layer is the mind. This illness is more deep seated, for the body is further away
from you than the mind. If the body is a conglomeration of atoms, the mind is a conglomeration of
thoughts. If the body is gross matter, the mind is subtle matter. Thoughts are subtle vibrations, and
vibrations are matter. You are total in the grips of the thoughts. They are not like the body, which
can be compared to clothing that is worn. Thoughts are more like the skin of the body; they don’t
come off as easily as clothing.
You have always been under the illusion that thoughts are really ’yours’. You are always ready to
find on the grounds that ’that is my idea’. you always try to uphold your views, whether right or
wrong. You are always afraid that if your viewpoint is wrong you are wrong. You identification with
your thoughts is much stronger than your identification with your body.
If someone is told, ’Go to a doctor, your body is ill,’ he won’t object; only the body is involved. Tell
a person he is ill and he will not be offended, but tell someone that his mind is ill and he should go
to a psychiatrist and he will not like it at all. Tell him that he is mad and he will immediately come
flying at your throat. This is because there is some distance between you and the body, but your
identification with the mind is more deep-rooted. Thoughts envelop you from all sides like smoke;
as long as this smoke persists, your eyes will remain blind to this fact.
The second experiment – and it is a difficult practice – is to become aware of your thoughts, all
thoughts. It does not matter what kind of thoughts – good, bad, right or wrong, whether they come
from the scriptures, whether they are traditional or non-traditional – just know that ’I am not these
thoughts’. All thoughts are borrowed. They are given to you by society; they come from others
and you have learned them. You are that which is within you – the untaught. You are only the
consciousness, not the thoughts. Thoughts are the surface ripples on a lake. They are like flotsam
on a river. You are the river. You are the eternal stream of consciousness.
Slowly, slowly you must begin to peel off the layers of thoughts. Whenever a thought catches hold
of you, immediately remember; It is not me! It is only the outside dust. As dust gathers on a mirror,
so thoughts have gathered on you. Never consider any particular thought to be so much your own
that you are ready to come to blows over it.
If people were to break their connection with their thoughts there would be no more war in the world.
All wars, all conflicts, all violence is caused by your identification with your thoughts. Someone is a
Hindu, someone else is a Moslem; one is a communist, another is a socialist; this is nothing more
than being identified with thoughts. You are only God. You are neither Hindu nor Moslem nor Jain
nor Buddhist. Your purity is your Shivahood.
Unfortunately, you get caught up in what is cheap and worthless. You think it is more important to
be a Hindu than to be God, or more important to be a Moslem than to be God. Your being a Hindu
The Great Path 166 Osho