From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 23. CONSCIENCE: A COFFIN FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
At the ultimate omega point, only the person himself recognizes what has happened to him; he
cannot find even a second man.
That’s why a Buddha has to declare himself that he is enlightened. Nobody else can recognize it,
because to recognize it, you will have to have some taste of it. Otherwise, how can you recognize
it? No recognition is possible because the point is so high.
But what is the meaning of Buddhahood? What is the meaning of becoming enlightened? What is
the point? If you ask about the point, there is none. It itself is enough. It needs nothing else to make
it significant.
That’s what I mean when I say that the really valuable things in life are not divided into ends and
means. There is no division between ends and means. Ends are the means, means are the ends
– perhaps two sides of the same coin inseparably joined together – in fact, they are a oneness, a
wholeness.
You ask me, ”Is there any point in life, in living?” I am afraid that if I say there is no point in living,
you will think that means you have to commit suicide, because if there is no point in living, then what
else to do? – commit suicide! I am not saying commit suicide, because in committing suicide also
there is no point.
Living: live, and live totally.
Dying: die, and die totally.
And in that totality you will find significance.
I am consideredly not using the word meaning, and using the word significance because ”meaning
is contaminated. The word meaning – it always points somewhere else. You must have heard, you
must have read in your childhood, many stories.... Why are they written for children? – perhaps the
writers don’t know, but it is part of the same exploitation c humanity.
The stories are like this: a man is there whose life is in a parrot. If you kill the parrot, the man will be
killed, but you cannot kill the man directly. You can shoot, and nothing will happen. You can swing
your sword and the sword will pass through his neck, but the neck will remain still joined to the body.
You cannot kill the man – first you have to find where his life is. So in those stories the life is always
somewhere else. And when you find out you just kill the parrot and wherever the man is, he will die
immediately
Even when I was a child, I used to ask my teacher ”This seems to be a very stupid kind of story
because I don’t see anyone whose life is in a parrot or in a dog or in something else, like a tree.” It
was the first time I heard that story, that type of story; then I came across many. They were written
specially for children.
The man who was teaching me was a very nice and respectable gentleman. I asked him, ”Can you
tell me where your life is? Because I would like to try... ”
He said, ”What do you mean?”
From Ignorance to Innocence 328 Osho