The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE STARS MIRRORED
This is, however, a waking state in the sense that there is some possibility of awakening in this state.
So start with the waking state. When you are hungry eat, but always remember that it is the body
that is hungry, not you. If you hurt your leg, wash and clean the wound, apply medication, but always
remember that it is the body that is hurt, not you. This much remembrance – and you will find that
ninety-nine percent of the pain has vanished. This slight knowledge, this little awareness removes
so much of your suffering. One percent is bound to remain because the knowledge is not total.
When knowledge becomes total all of the suffering disappears.
Buddha said that an awakened person is beyond suffering. You can cut off the limbs of such a
person, you can throw him in the fire, you can kill him, but you cannot make him suffer, because he
stands apart from all that is happening around him.
So start with the waking state. Walk on the road, but remember that you are not walking – the body
is walking. You have never walked. How could you? The soul has no feet to walk on. The soul has
no stomach, how can it be hungry? The soul has no desires; all desires are of the body. The soul
is desireless, therefore it does not walk. It simply cannot walk. It is only your body that walks. Try
to keep this awareness as long as possible. Eventually you will get a joyous experience: walking on
the road with full awareness that the body is walking and not you, you will suddenly feel that you are
divided into two parts. One part is walking; the other part is not walking. One part eats; the other
does not.
The Upanishads say: Two birds are sitting on the same tree. The one on the upper branch is quiet.
It neither moves nor cries nor flies; it neither comes nor goes, it only sits serenely. The one on the
lower branch is very restless. It moves from one branch to another branch. It jumps from one fruit to
another. It is very restless. Both these birds are within you. You are the tree. The bird that is serene
is called the witness.
Jesus says that you sleep in one bed, but there are two of you; one is dead and the other is eternal.
You are the bed. When you sleep at night, within you there are both a lifeless corpse and eternal
consciousness. Differentiate between the two; maintain the distance. It means hard work.
Start with the daytime. With the first ray of consciousness as you wake up in the morning, start
the experiment. After a thousand attempts, perhaps one may succeed but even if one attempt is
successful you will realize that the thousands of attempts were worthwhile. If even for a moment,
you came to experience that he who walks is not you but he who is unmoving is you; he who is full
of desires is not you, but that he who is forever desireless is you; that that which is perishable is
not you, but the fountain of eternal nectar is you; – if you become Mahavira or Buddha even for a
moment or attain the state of Shiva, if this knowledge dawns on you for even a moment, you will
have opened the doors of the supreme treasure. After that the journey becomes easy. After the
taste, the journey is easy. All the difficulty comes before the taste!
Start with the daytime, and gradually you will succeed in carrying it through into your sleep. Gurdjieff
used to teach his disciples to practice awareness during the daytime, and then he would tell them
that just before going to bed they must remember: ”This is a dream.” You are still awake. There is
no dream yet, but you have to keep repeating to yourself: ”Everything I see is a dream.” Touch the
bed and intensify the feeling: ”Whatever I touch is a dream.” Touch one hand with the other, and
experience: ”All that I touch is a dream.” You go to sleep sinking deep into this feeling. There will be
a constant stream of feeling moving inside.
The Great Path 28 Osho