The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. THE ETERNAL SPRING
Before entering into the sutras...
I told you before that I would say more about mantra, for I would like you to know how the right
use of mantra can bring about a transformation in your life. The first thing is, as I said before, your
personality contains a number of layers like an onion. You have to peel off each layer so that you
can reach the center that is hidden within. The diamond is hidden. It is not lost; for you yourself
are the diamond, and you can never lose it. It is only that the center is concealed under the various
layers, but so is a diamond. A diamond lies concealed under layers of stone; it also looks almost like
a stone, but that does not alter its intrinsic quality as a diamond.
Perhaps you do not know why diamonds are so valuable. Behind its worth lies the search of man for
the eternal. The diamond is the most stable object in the world. All things change, but a diamond
dies not change. Thousands of years can pass and it will not deteriorate. In this ever-changing world
the diamond is the symbol of changeless existence. Hence its value; otherwise, it is just a stone. Its
value lies in its changelessness, its stability.
You eternal nature is a diamond. All sadhana is designed to remove the layers of dust that are
covering this diamond. Since the covering layers ar dust, they are easily removed. It is the
constantly-changing that covers the changeless, so it is not difficult to remove it. Mantra is a method
for removing these layers.
Let me tell you a short story:
Mulla Nasruddin met a friend who he had not seen for many years. The friend asked the Mulla about
his family. ”What about your daughter, Nasruddin?”
”Oh, my daughter,” said the Mulla. ”You won’t believe this, but I have to tell you she is happily
married. Not only that, her husband is a famous doctor.”
The friend knew Nasruddin, and he couldn’t believe a word. He said, ”For give me, Mulla, but I find
that difficult to accept. Not only was your daughter... well, not beautiful, she was very ugly – really
ugly. She had a body like an army tent. It is hard enough to believe that she got married at all, but
to a doctor? How did you hood wink a doctor?”
”All right! All right! replied the Mulla. ”He may not be such a big doctor... He may not be a doctor at
all, but he has relieved me of my headache, so for me he is the world’s greatest physician.”
The one who removes your headache is a doctor; but that which removes the head, is mantra. The
proverb says: Without bamboo there can be no flute. But as long as the head remains there will be
headache. There is a technique by which the head ban be removed. All your troubles are caused
by your head; your thoughts, your reasoning, your arguing, your obsessing and wondering. If the
thoughts are lost, then the head is lost; you will be, but not the mind! That which kills the mind
is mantra. When the mind is not, then the bridge between the body and you is broken. It is the
mind that connects you to the body; if the bridge breaks you stand here and the body stand before.
He who knows himself to the apart from the body and without mind, attains Shivahood. He is the
ultimate ’aloneness’.
The Great Path 175 Osho