The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE NEED TO WIN
Another way is to go within – not to try to get rid of this nobodiness, but to realize it. This is what
Chuang Tzu is saying: Become an empty boat, just go in and realize that you are nobody. The
moment you realize that you are nobody you explode into a new dimension, because when one
person realizes he is nobody he is also realizing that he is all.
You are not somebody, because you are all. How can the all be somebody? Somebody is always
a part. God cannot be somebody because he is all, he cannot possess anything because he is
the whole. Only beggars possess, because possessions have limitations, they cannot become
unlimited. Somebodiness has a boundary, somebodiness cannot be without boundaries, it cannot
be infinite. Nobodiness is infinite, just like allness.
Really, both ways are the same. If you are moving without you will feel your inner being as nobody.
If you are moving within you will feel the same nobodiness as all. That is why Buddha says that
SHUNYA, the absolute void, is Brahman. To be nobody is to realize that you are all. To realize that
you are somebody is to realize that you are not all. And nothing less will do.
So the other way is to move within, not to fight with this nobodiness, not to try to fill this emptiness,
but to realize it and become one with it. Be the empty boat and then all the seas are yours. Then
you can move into the uncharted, then there is no hindrance for this boat, nobody can block its path.
No maps are needed. This boat will move into the infinite and now everywhere is the goal. But one
has to move within.
The need to win is to prove that you are somebody, and the only way we know how to prove is to
prove in the eyes of others, because their eyes become reflections.
Looking in others’ eyes Alexander could see that he was somebody; standing near Diogenes, he
felt he was nobody. Diogenes would not recognize external greatness. Before him, Alexander must
have felt foolish. It is said that he told Diogenes that if God would grant him another birth he would
like to be Diogenes rather than Alexander – next time!
The mind always moves to the future! This very time he could become Diogenes, there was no
barrier, nobody was preventing him. There will be millions of barriers to becoming Alexander the
Great because everybody will try to prevent you. When you want to prove that you are somebody
you hurt everyone’s ego, and they will all try to prove that you are nothing. What, who, do you think
you are? You have to prove it, and it is a very hard way, very violent, very destructive.
There is no barrier to being a Diogenes. Alexander felt the beauty, the grace of this man. He said,
”If God gives me another birth I would like to be Diogenes – but next time.”
Diogenes laughed and said, ”If I am asked, only one thing is certain: I would not like ever to be
Alexander the Great!”
In the eye of Diogenes, Alexander could have seen no recognition of his victories. Suddenly he must
have felt the sinking sensation, the deathlike sensation that he was nobody. He must have escaped,
run from Diogenes as soon as possible. He was a dangerous man.
It is said that Diogenes haunted Alexander his whole life. Wherever he went, Diogenes was with
him like a shadow. At night, in dreams, Diogenes was there laughing. And a beautiful story tells that
they died on the same day.
The Empty Boat 108 Osho