The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 4. TO BE DEAD DO NOTHING
because he is afraid of falling. He holds on tight to the string. Now he is in trouble. He feels, if he
leaves the string he sure to fall down. You need not catch him, he himself gets caught. The bird
catcher come and catches him. The parrot is so frightened that he forgets that he has wings; he
forgets that he can’t fall to the ground. If you hang upside down in a string, you will have the same
fear You too are afraid, if you get off the circles you will be lost, that you will go astray.
One of the characters in a novel written by Hemingway says, ”I would rather choose suffering than
nothingness.” You do not prefer to be empty. You would rather choose hell, because then you have
something to hang on to – even if it is hell. At least there something to cling to. You are used to it.
Besides, you don’t have to do anything. To give up old habits requires great effort.
If your fist has been closed for lives on you will find it impossible to open it, because your fingers
have become stiff and frozen. If you want to open your first you will have to make an effort so that
the muscles get stronger and the blood begins to flow again in the veins. One thing is certain: he
who closes his fist can also open it. The very fact that the fist is closed proves that it was open at
one time so it can be open again. But if it is closed for a longer period, it will be difficult to open it.
This is the difficulty. Hence, the effort is necessary.
Effort means: you will have to try hard to drop the mind. And the mind will whisper in your ear again
and again: ”What foolishness is this! What madness!” The moment you leave the mind, it does.
EFFORT IS THE SEEKER. Unless you become a seeker, you will not make an effort. You do make
an effort, but it is half-hearted And half hearted effort carries no meaning. It is just as if you have
gripped the wheel with one hand and let go with the other. This does not solve the problem. A
lukewarm effort is meaningless.
A businessman once told his wife that he was going to the Taj Mahal Hotel to entertain a very
important client who was to give him a very big order. So he was gone. When he came home that
night, well-stuffed with food and drink, his wife asked, ”Did you get the order?”
”Fifty-fifty,” he answered.
The wife said, ”At least you got something.”
As they were preparing to go to sleep she suddenly asked, ”What do you mean by fifty-fifty?”
The husband replied, ”I reached the hotel, but the client didn’t.”
When you too are half-and-half, you are like this. Nothing will be gained, for the other half is always
missing. You are always fragmented; you are never total. Whenever you are total a revolution takes
place, a transformation begins in your life. It is then that you reach the boiling point; and only at the
boiling point does the water turn into steam. Then you cannot flow downward like water; you can
only rise upwards like vapour. Then your direction is not downwards, it is upwards.
EFFORT IS THE SEEKER. You have to drop laziness.
People come to me and say that the morning meditation is a bit difficult. Six o’clock is too early. You
do not understand what you are saying, If getting up at six in the morning is difficult, it will be much
The Great Path 74 Osho