From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 16. LET’S NOT FACE IT – YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY ALONE
And the second time, again one day, after his whole life’s effort.... He has been able to make
something – a little house, a family, a small circle of friends, a little warmth, a little corner somewhere
in the world where he can relax and be himself, where he is accepted. Difficult – a whole life’s
struggle, and suddenly, one day, he finds again he is being thrown out.
The doctor has come again – and this is the man who had hit him! But that time it was to start the
breathing; this time, as far as we know.... Now we are on this side, we don’t know the other side.
The other side is left to the imagination; that’s why heaven and hell... and every kind of imagination
has gone wild.
We are on this side and this man is dying. To us he is dying; perhaps he is again being reborn.
But that only he knows, and he cannot turn back and tell us, ”Don’t be worried; I am not dead, I am
alive.” He could not turn in his mother’s womb to have a last glimpse and say goodbye to everybody,
neither can he turn back now, open his eyes and say goodbye to you all, and say, ”Don’t be worried.
I am not dying, I am being reborn.
The Hindu idea of rebirth is nothing but a projection of the ordinary birth. For the womb – if the
womb thinks – the child is dead. For the child – if it thinks – it is dying. But he is born; it was not
death, it is birth. The Hindus have projected the same idea on death. From this side it looks as if he
is dying, but from the other side.... But the other side is our imagination; we can make it as we want
it.
Every religion makes the other side in a different way because every society and every culture
depends on a different geography, a different history. For example: the Tibetan cannot think of the
other side as cool – even cool is fearful, cold is impossible. The Tibetan thinks that the dead person
is warm, in a new world which always remains warm.
The Indian cannot think that it always remains warm. Even four months’ heat in India is too much,
but for eternity to remain warm – you will be cooked! The Hindu religion thinks.... They had no idea
of air conditioning, but the way they describe their paradise, it is almost air conditioned – always cool
air, neither hot nor cold, but cool. It is always spring, Indian spring – because around the earth there
are different kinds of spring – this is the Indian spring. All the flowers are in blossom, the winds are
full of fragrance, the birds are singing, everything is alive; but not warm, cool air. That they remind
us again and again: cool air continues to flow.
This is your mind that is projecting the idea; otherwise, for the Tibetan or for the Indian or for the
Mohammedan, it cannot be different. The Mohammedan cannot think that the other world is going
to be a desert – he has suffered so much in the Arabian desert. The other world is an oasis – an
oasis all over. It is not that after a hundred miles you find a small oasis with a little water and a few
trees, no – just oases all over, and desert nowhere.
We project, but to the person who is dying it is again the same process that he has experienced
once. It is a well – known fact that at the time of death, if the person has not become unconscious,
has not fallen into a coma, he starts remembering his whole life cycle. He goes on back to the first
moment of his life when he was born. It seems to be significant that when he is leaving this world
he may have a look at all that has happened. Just in a few seconds the whole calendar moves, just
as it moves in your movies.
From Ignorance to Innocence 218 Osho