The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE STARS MIRRORED
Sleep means where there is nothing – neither the world within nor the world without. Everything
is lost in darkness. Yes, you certainly feel rested, but of what use is that rest if the next morning
you fall in the same rut? The energy you gain by the night’s rest will be used in creating fresh
tensions, fresh anxieties. You will rest every night and you will create new tensions every day.
If only you were to realize this small fact – in unconscious slumber you get so much pleasure,
because there is no tension, no anxiety there. You forget all your problems when you slip into this
unconscious state. Imagine how much pleasure and joy will be attained on the day that your worries
and confusions fall away and you are filled with awareness. This is what is referred to as moksha,
nirvana, brahmananda.
Sleep gives you the feeling of having rested and fills you with pleasure, because all chaos and
confusion subsides in it. Then, when these are actually dissolved and you remain in complete
relaxation all twenty-four hours of the day – the place you sometimes reach in deep sleep – imagine
what bliss you will experience. It is a state of perpetual serenity! Just think about it! Because
samadhi is like deep sleep with a slight difference: there is awareness. In sleep there is no
awareness; in samadhi you are fully aware. The fourth state is like deep sleep – with only one
difference: in deep sleep there is darkness, while in the fourth state there is light.
Suppose you are brought to this garden in an unconscious state, on a stretcher. The rays of the sun
will touch you, because they are not unconscious, because you are unconscious. The breeze will
play over you, caress you because they are not unconscious, you are unconscious. The flowers will
spread their fragrance. The freshness of early morning dew-drops will touch you because they are
not unconscious, you are unconscious.
Everything will happen around you but you will be unaware of it; yet when you regain your
consciousness you will say, ”How restful the sleep was.” All these factors contribute to your
restfulness – the sunrays, the fragrance of the flowers, the cool breeze – you have no knowledge of
them. Yet you say: What restful sleep!
Now consider the other way. Suppose you are sitting in the garden in full awareness. The morning
sun sends down its cosy warmth, the flowers fill the air with breath-taking perfumes, the cool breeze
creates music in the leaves of the trees as it rustles through them, the dew glitters on the petals.
Amidst all of this, can you imagine the joy, the bliss....!
In deep sleep we reach exactly where Buddha, Mahavir and Shiva reach in full awareness. Even
from your deep sleep you bring back the message: How blissful! Although you cannot express this
happiness clearly – what it was like, how it was. You cannot define it, you cannot bring the taste
with you. So after a good night’s rest, you get up fresh and cheerful. You get a little glimpse of
buddhahood on the faces of people who sleep very deeply, especially little children, for their minds
are not yet filled with tensions. As your worries increase, your sleep decreases. Watch a little child
as it is about to get up in the morning. His face bears the freshness of the Buddha. Something
blissful has happened within him, though he is unaware of it.
All tensions fade in deep sleep but there is no wisdom. In samadhi – that is, in the fourth state – all
tensions fade, but wisdom remains. Wisdom plus deep sleep equals samadhi.
HE WHO ENJOYS ALL THREE IS THE SUPREME HERO.
The Great Path 41 Osho