The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. THE ETERNAL SPRING
The boy said, ”What difference does it make which hand I use, my mouth is in the middle either
way?”
Only he can be constant who finds the point of balance between happiness and sorrow. The
equilibrium between rightness lies exactly at the mid-point between happiness and sorrow. Here
there are no extremes. It is like the movement of the indicator on the balance scales; the stable
point is right in the middle. Any slight weight and the needle deflects either sad or happy, constantly
you will soon tire of the weight of it and will want to move it to the other side.
When people are carrying a body to the burning ghats they bear the wight of the bier on one shoulder
and soon they tire and change shoulders; the weight does not decrease but the shoulder is relieved.
Happiness and sorrow are your two shoulders and the attitude of being the doer is your bier. You
keep changing shoulders. Sometimes you identify with happiness and sometimes with sorrow. Be
the witness – stay in the middle – then you will be able to be constant.
Buddhahood can be constant for it is a state of peacefulness. There is bliss in it, but it is not like the
sharp rays of the sun. It is cool and refreshing like moonbeams. Bliss is not like burning rays but like
a cool luster; there is no tension in it, no restlessness.
Have you noticed that it is often when a man is happy that he has a heart attack. Suddenly a man
wins the lottery. He is extremely happy... and he drops dead!
A man won a lottery of ten lakh rupees. When the news came he was not at home. His wife was
terribly upset. She knew her husband, and if he were to hear that he had won two paise he might
die of a heart attack. She ran to a nearby temple where she knew the priest was a wise man. She
asked for his help. He told her not to worry and returned home with her, promising to break the nows
immediately to her husband.
When the husband cam the priest thought it would be best to start with a smaller amount, so he
said, ”I would like you to know that you have won one lakh rupees in the lottery.”
The husband replied, ”Really? If that is true then I shall donate fifty thousand rupees to your temple.”
The priest dropped dead of a heart attack. It never occurred to him that fifty thousand rupees would
be too much to bear.
Happiness can also kill. It is not only sorrow that kills, for both contain a stimulant that causes
excitement; and wherever there is excitement something is bound to break. The only thing that can
remain constant is your non-excited nature, and this need not be practised. It is always within you.
You cannot lose it, for it is your very nature.
Hence the search of all religion is the search for the individual’s basic nature. The search for one’s
true nature is religion, for it is eternal; you can never feel bored by it, for it is your true self. There
is no way you can separate yourself from your nature; you cannot stand back from it and see it. If
what you see bores you when you create a distance from it, know that it is not your true nature.
When the mind is killed by the mantra, when the mantra causes the mind to commit suicide, the
eternal spring arises within. When this eternal spring has arisen, the individual is liberated from the
The Great Path 187 Osho