The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 4. TO BE DEAD DO NOTHING
shocked to discover that you get angry not because of any outside influence but because of what is
going on inside you. The other person is merely an excuse. Then, if you lose your temper, you will
not blame the other; on the contrary, you will ask his pardon. You will ask him to forgive you. You
will explain that your outburst has nothing to do with him, that you always get angry at this time of
the month. It was just accidental that he was there to provide an excuse for your rage. Anyone else
would have done just as well.
By self-observation you will discover the circular movement of the mind. It is a mantra that is
repeated over and over again. If you fail to understand this you will be revolving round and round for
endless births. Therefore the Hindus have called the world samsara – the wheel that turns round
and round. For endless lives you do the same things over and over again, and you are not the only
one doing this. Everyone else also does it. When you fall in love for the first time you feel that such
a wonderful thing has never happened before. But this happens every moment somewhere in the
world, even in the world of animals and plants. It is not only to you that love is happening. It has
been happening all along. And anger, too, is happening to everyone.
There is only one thing that is outside of this circle, and that is meditation. It is the only happening
that does not occur by itself. Other happenings occur all by themselves; you do not have to bring
them about. All that you have to do is keep sitting on the wheel, it is moving of its own accord, you
will keep on moving tied down to it. Only by jumping outside this wheel can you get rid of it. There
is only one thing which is out of this wheel and that is meditation! But this does not happen on its
own. It happens to one in a million – to a rare Buddha!
According to Arnold Toynbee, the great historian, only six people have managed to jump out of this
circle from the whole history of mankind. If it is sixty and not six, even then the number is too small.
It is an unusual – almost impossible – phenomenon. Anger, love, greed are common, ordinary
happenings; they occur not only to men but even to animals. These do not make you a human
being. You will be truly human being the day you step out of this circle of the mind, you step out of
the rotating movement of the mind. When the circle of the mind breaks and you stand outside of it –
that is meditation!
Meditation is not circular. Meditation is a state of being, the mind is a movement. Meditation is a
condition of no movement. The mind is another name for a wandering, and the places it wanders in
are not new. It is caught in a rut. It wanders in the same places again and again, like an ox at the oil
mill. If you observe this phenomenon consciously you will know that it is not just a concept, but truly
a fact of life. It is not a doctrine of philosophy. The circular movement of your mind, that your mind
being a mantra is a fact of your life.
Those of you who have tried to understand life have discovered this fact. It is not a principle, not a
theory, but fact. A concept is only a circular movement in your mind. his is not a philosophic theory
but a fact of life, and you can obtain it from your experience. don’t believe it just because I say so,
or just because Shiva says so. You have eyes to see. Look within; observe your mind. View your
mind from within for a few days and you will be surprised at what you discover. You will find yourself
chained and shackled to this wheel; and not only you, all of creation is captive to the wheel. This is
not the assertion of your humanness, there is no dignity in this state.
The real dignity of your existence as a human being cannot be realized while you are captive to this
The Great Path 72 Osho