The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IS SELF KNOWLEDGE
”What kind of heaven is this where you let anyone in without asking any questions at all? You never
inquired who I was or what my actions were on earth, good or bad. I don’t want to be in a place that
is open to all and sundry. No reservation, no inquiry – you welcome just like that! This is not my idea
of heaven.”
His ego is filled with good deeds, not evil. This man has performed so many austerities, so many
spiritual practices; perhaps he has attained siddhis, powers; but it is all in vain, for all the siddhis he
has gained have only helped to swell his ego. His sadhanas (austerities or spiritual practices) have
been a total failure.
Bernard Shaw had received the Nobel Prize. He was invited to join an exclusive club in Europe that
has only a hundred members in the world. Each member must be an outstanding world figure in
his own field: Nobel laureates, celebrities, great sculptors, painters, writers. But only hundred, not
more than that. Only when a member dies do they choose another in his place. People wait their
whole lives to be invited. When Shaw got the Nobel prize, he received the invitation of that club.
The invitation said: ”We shall feel honored to have you as a member of our club.” Shaw replied, ”Any
organization that is honored by my membership is no organization for me. It is inferior to me. I only
want to become a member of a club that is unwilling to admit me.”
The ego always seeks the difficult, the unattainable; whereas life is very simple. Therefore the ego
always misses life. And there is nothing more simple than God. Therefore the ego never seeks
this door. This door is always open. You are always welcome without any questions. If you are
questioned at the entrance, that is not the gate to God; it is the gate to the market place. The fact
is: you stand at this entrance. If you stand with your back towards it, it is entirely your own doing.
The door has not rejected you. If you would only look! The door is always open and the sign says
”Welcome”!
THE SOUL IS MIND means: do not ever consider yourself separate, no matter how evil you are.
This does not give you licence to be bad. On the contrary. Once you see that you are not separate,
evil will be impossible.
Psychologists say that an individual becomes what he believes himself to be. Our belief becomes
our very existence. They say we should not call a bad man evil, because by constant repetition –
”You are bad! You are bad!” – becomes a mantra. If a man is told constantly by everyone around
him, ”You are evil”,it within himself that he is evil. Not only that, and then he tries to behave as others
expect him to. Evil becomes his habit. People who explored the field of religion made this discovery
long long ago. So they have asked the ultimate reality to make your mantra. THE SOUL IS MIND.
You are God. Your very soul is your mantra. This is the greatest statement that can be made about
you. If this becomes your mantra, if it mingles and mixes with every particle of your being, if its
vibrations penetrate each pore of your body, you will gradually come to feel that you are becoming
what you think you are. What you have chanted inside yourself becomes a reality in your life.
The beginning of religion is: You are not, God is! It starts with this sutra. You are in deep slumber.
Granted that you are a great wrong-doer, granted that you are guilty of a host of sins this makes
no difference to your basic nature. Purity is your nature. No matter what sins you have committed,
once this thought takes root within you – that you are God! – all evil is wiped away. You can destroy
The Great Path 87 Osho