The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com
The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com
The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com
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CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER<br />
surrounds us all, science is created. Science is born out of astonishment. Astonishment means, it<br />
has embarked on the outward journey.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is one more difference between wonder and astonishment: if we are surprised by something,<br />
sooner or later we will be fed up with that surprise, because surprise creates tension; hence the<br />
effort of destroying that which surprises us. Science is born out of this surprise. <strong>The</strong>n it destroys<br />
the surprise. It tries to find interpretations, doctrines, formulas, keys and it does not rest assured<br />
till it destroys the mystery, till it is in possession of knowledge, till science can claim: ”Yes, I have<br />
understood!”<br />
Science is bent upon eradicating the element of astonishment from the world. If it succeeds in<br />
achieving that, there will not be a single thing on earth that man cannot boast of not knowing. It<br />
means, this world will be godless, because God means that which we cannot claim to know even if<br />
we have known him. We may know him but he remains unknowable. We may go on deepening our<br />
knowledge of him, he cannot be exhausted. We are in the state of eternal wonder about him.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are some objects which have be<strong>com</strong>e known to us. We can call them, the known. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
some other objects which we do not know but we will know them. Let us call them, the unknown.<br />
And the existence also consists of such objects which we have never known and about which we<br />
will never be able to know. We will call them, the unknowable. God is unknowable. This is the third<br />
element. Science does not accept God because it says that nothing is unknowable in the world. We<br />
may have not known it up to now, maybe we did not try hard enough, but sooner or later we will<br />
know. Some day we will know the world <strong>com</strong>pletely; nothing will remain unknown in it.<br />
Science is born out of astonishment and then it begins to destroy the astonishment. <strong>The</strong>refore, I<br />
call science patricidal: it tries to kill that which created it. Religion is just the opposite. Religion is<br />
also born out of a certain astonishment; this sutra calls it, ”sense of wonder.” <strong>The</strong> only difference is:<br />
when a religious seeker is filled with wonder, he does not set out on the outer journey, he goes on<br />
an inner pilgrimage. Whenever some kind of mystery envelops him, he starts thinking about himself:<br />
I must know who I am.<br />
If the mystery be<strong>com</strong>es introspective, and the search and the journey is directed inwards, the arrow<br />
of the seeking points towards the self, the attention is totally absorbed by the thirst to know our own<br />
reality – then it is wonder.<br />
And the second point to be understood is that the sense of wonder is inexhaustible. <strong>The</strong> more we<br />
know, the more it increases. That’s why wonder is contradictory. As a rule, the sense of wonder<br />
should disappear the moment we <strong>com</strong>e to know something. But Buddha or Krishna or Shiva or<br />
Christ do not lose their sense of wonder. When they attain the ultimate consciousness, their sense<br />
of wonder be<strong>com</strong>es ultimate! At that time they do not say that they have known everything, they say<br />
that after knowing everything everything remains to be known.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Upanishads have said, ”Even if you extract the whole from the whole, the whole remains.” Even<br />
if you know the whole, the whole remains to be known. <strong>The</strong>refore spiritual knowledge does not<br />
nourish the ego, scientific knowledge nourishes the ego. Spiritual knowledge will never make you<br />
a knower; you will always remain humble. And the more you know, the more you will feel, ”I do not<br />
know anything.” At the highest peak of knowledge you will be able to say, ”I know nothing.” At the<br />
moment of ultimate knowledge the whole existence fills you with a sense of wonder.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Great</strong> <strong>Path</strong> 45 Osho