The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE NEED TO WIN
HE HAS ALL HIS SKILL.
When you are playing, you are not trying to prove that you are somebody. You are at ease, at home.
While playing, just for fun, you are not worried what others think about you.
Have you seen a father in a mock fight with his child? He will be defeated. He will lie down and the
child will sit on his chest and laugh, and say, ”I am the winner!” – and the father will be happy. It is
just fun. In fun you can be defeated and be happy. Fun isn’t serious, it is not related to the ego. Ego
is always serious.
So remember, if you are serious, you will always be in turmoil, inner turmoil. A saint is always in
play, as if shooting for the fun of it. He is not interested in shooting at a particular target, he is just
enjoying himself.
A German philosopher, Eugene Herrigel, went to Japan to learn meditation. And in Japan they use
all types of excuses to teach meditation – archery is one of them. Herrigel was a perfect archer;
he was one hundred percent accurate, he never missed the mark. So he went to a master to learn
meditation through archery, because he was already skilled in it.
Three years of study passed and Herrigel started feeling that it was a waste of time. The master
went on insisting that HE should not shoot. He told Herrigel, ”Let the arrow leave by itself. You
should not be there when you aim, let the arrow aim itself.”
This was absurd. For a Western man particularly, it was absolutely absurd: What do you mean, let
the arrow shoot itself? How can the arrow shoot itself? I have to do something. And he continued
shooting, never missing the target.
But the master said, ”The target is not the target at all. YOU are the target. I am not looking at
whether you hit the target or not. That is a mechanical skill. I am looking at you, to see whether you
are there or not. Shoot for fun! Enjoy it, don’t try to prove that you never miss the target. Don’t try to
prove the ego. It is already there, you are there, there is no need to prove it. Be at ease and allow
the arrow to shoot itself.”
Herrigel could not understand. He tried and tried and said again and again, ”If my aim is a hundred
percent accurate, why don’t you give me the certificate?”
The Western mind is always interested in the end result and the East is always interested in the
beginning, not in the end. To the Eastern mind the end is useless; the importance is in the beginning,
in the archer, not in the target. So the master said, ”No!”
Then, completely disappointed, Herrigel asked permission to leave. He said, ”Then I will have to go.
Three years is so long and nothing has been gained. You go on saying no...that I am still the same.”
The day he was to leave he went to say goodbye to the master and found him teaching other
disciples. This morning Herrigel was not interested; he was leaving, he had dropped the whole
project. So he was just waiting there for the master to finish so that he could say his goodbye and
leave.
The Empty Boat 110 Osho