The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. RIGHT SEARCH, WRONG DIRECTION
mirror fell and broke. When the king saw the jester he could not believe his stupidity! ”Unless you
give me a plausible explanation for this I will have you hanged. I have seen many fools, but none to
surpass you.”
The jester replied, ”I did not know it was you, your majesty. I thought that it was the queen!”
The king had to let him go.
Wherever you stand, you stand in darkness. You make one mistake, and in your efforts to correct it,
you invariably make another; so a vicious circle is set up. You want to avoid going to your shop so
you go to the temple; but you convert the temple into a bigger shop. In essence, you are never able
to reach the temple. You break away from one place and get caught in another, and the reason is
within you, not without. You are in darkness; wherever you go, you will create problems.
Mulla Nasruddin was in jail. I went to see him. He is an old colleague of mine, so I had to visit him.
”You are so clever, Mulla,” I said to him. ”How come you got caught?”
”What can I say?” said the Mulla. ”It is all a result of my own foolishness.”
”How come?” I asked.
”For three months I worked hard getting friendly with the dog of the house that I planned to rob, but
as look would have it, as soon as I got inside I tripped over the cat’s tail.”
All your life this is what you have done. You try your best to win the dog’s friendship and you step
on the cat! You have no eyes to see. You stumble here and there in the darkness. The real problem
is not one of seeking: the real problem is the lack of light. By groping in the darkness you reach
nowhere. If there is light then the door becomes visible and you can walk through it.
He who is preoccupied with changing his pattern of behavior is groping in the dark. Once he ate too
much, and now he fasts. What he was doing until yesterday he does even today – but in reverse!
Whether you overeat or fast makes no direction. Until now you were seeking in one direction and
now you seek in the opposite direction; however, in both cases you have your eyes closed. You go
astray not because the direction is wrong, but because your eyes are closed. The eyes must be
opened! And when I say ’eyes’ I mean your consciousness. Your unconsciousness must break and
your consciousness increases. Do not walk like a somnambulist. Wake up! As soon as you awake
you become Shiva-like.
WHATEVER HE UTTERS IS JAPA.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE ITSELF IS HIS GIFT.
He does not give wealth, for wealth is no better than rubbish. Giving wealth has no meaning for him.
What is the point in giving what he himself has renounced? There is no sense in giving what he
considers useless. He performs no service for your body. He gives only one thing, which is in fact
the only thing worth giving: that is self-knowledge. This is his gift, but you take no account of it. You
have to look very carefully to see it.
The Great Path 168 Osho