The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE STARS MIRRORED
night, at least two hours are spent in dreaming. But this is the case in a completely healthy man
who has no mental disorder. Such a healthy person is not easy to find. Generally people dream for
six out of the eight hours they sleep. The constant flow of dreams eats up a large amount of your
energy. It is not for free! You purchase it at the cost of your life.
The mantra centralizes this energy around Ram, Krishna, Christ, Om, or whatever you like. Any
word will do. It is not necessary that it be God’s name. Your own name can be equally useful.
The English poet, Tennyson, writes in his memoirs that he stumbled upon a method in his childhood.
When he could not sleep at night he would repeat over and over to himself, ”Tennyson, Tennyson,
Tennyson...” and he would fall asleep. As he grew older, he realized that it was a wonderful device.
Whenever he was restless he would repeat to himself, ”Tennyson, Tennyson, Tennyson...” and his
mind would regain its peace and equilibrium. So he used his own name as a mantra.
Your own name can yield the same result – but it won’t, because you don’t have that much faith in
your name. Whether you say Ram or Rahim, it makes no difference. The question is not one of
names; words make no difference. All words are the same, and all names are the name of God,
including yours. When any name is thus repeated, it produces a musical note within and the dream
energy dissolves in it. Mantras are instrumental for destroying dreams. Nobody has attained God
only by repeating a mantra, but destroying dreams is a great step towards the attainment of God.
Mantra is a method, an instrument, a hammer to shatter dreams. And what are dreams? They too
are nothing but words, and that is why a hammer of words can break them. There is no need to use
an actual hammer. Dreams are unreal, so a pseudo-hammer will do the trick. A genuine medicine
is dangerous for pseudo-ailment; only an imaginary medicine will help remove the false disease.
What are dreams? They are thought-waves. And what are mantras? They are willpower, which is
also a form of dream. But dreams are impermanent, changing; whereas the mantra is constant and
one. Gradually the dream energy is absorbed in the mantra. The night you find that there are no
dreams and you hear the constant music of the mantra in your sleep, you will know that you have
conquered the dream state. The illusion is now broken and truth has begun to unfold. Then you can
enter the deep sleep state.
But you do just the opposite. You strengthen your thought-waves. You are seized by worthless
thoughts and you co-operate with them. You are sitting alone, there is nothing to do and you start
thinking of fighting the coming election. The dream begins! Nothing will please you short of reaching
the president’s chair. You have become a president in your dream. There are felicitations and you
are enjoying them thoroughly! You never stop to think – what kind of stupidity is this! What are you
doing? You are just giving energy to worthless fantasies. Your mind is filled with useless illusions of
this kind.
If we examine human life in detail, we will find that ninety-nine percent of the life is lost in fruitless
dreams like this. Some dream of wealth, others of power, and others of various conquests. What
will you gain even if you attain them all?
There was a great President of America, Calvin Coolidge; he was a very serene person by nature. It
must have been a total accident that he became president because such serene people can never
The Great Path 39 Osho