The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com
The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com
The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com
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CHAPTER 9. MEANS AND ENDS<br />
It is difficult to forget words. <strong>The</strong>y cling to the mind. It is difficult to throw away the net because not<br />
only are fish caught in it, the fisher is also caught. This is one of the greatest problems. Working<br />
with words is playing with fire, because words be<strong>com</strong>e so important that the meaning loses meaning.<br />
<strong>The</strong> symbol be<strong>com</strong>es so heavy that the content is <strong>com</strong>pletely lost; the surface hypnotizes you and<br />
you forget the center.<br />
This has happened all over the world. Christ is the content, Christianity is just a word; Buddha is the<br />
content, DHAMMAPADA is just a word; Krishna is the content, the Gita is nothing but a trap. But the<br />
Gita is remembered and Krishna is forgotten – or if you remember Krishna, you remember him only<br />
because of the Gita. If you talk about Christ it is because of the churches, the theology, <strong>The</strong> Bible,<br />
the words. People carry the net for many lives without realizing that it is just a net, a trap.<br />
Buddha used to tell a story:<br />
A few men were crossing a river. <strong>The</strong> river was dangerous, in flood – it must have been the rainy<br />
season – and the boat saved their lives. <strong>The</strong>y must have been very, very intelligent because they<br />
thought, ”This boat saved us, how can we leave it now? This is our savior and it will be ungrateful to<br />
leave it!” So they carried the boat on their heads into the town.<br />
Somebody asked them, ”What are you doing? We have never seen anybody carrying a boat.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>y said, ”Now we will have to carry this boat for the rest of our lives, because this boat saved us<br />
and we cannot be ungrateful.”<br />
Those intelligent-looking people must have been stupid. Thank the boat but leave it there. Don’t<br />
carry it. You have been carrying many types of boats in your head – maybe not on your head, but<br />
in your head. Look within. Ladders, boats, paths, words – this is the content of your head, of your<br />
mind.<br />
<strong>The</strong> container be<strong>com</strong>es much too important, the vehicle be<strong>com</strong>es much too important, the body<br />
be<strong>com</strong>es much too important – and then you be<strong>com</strong>e a blind man. <strong>The</strong> vehicle was just to give you<br />
the message – receive the message and forget the vehicle. <strong>The</strong> messenger was just to give you the<br />
message – receive the message and forget the messenger. Thank him, but don’t carry him in your<br />
head.<br />
Mohammed insisted again and again, almost every day of his life, ”I am just a messenger, a<br />
PAIGAMBER. Don’t worship me, I have only carried a message from the divine. Don’t look at me,<br />
look at the divine who has sent the message to you.” But Mohammedans have forgotten the source.<br />
Mohammed has be<strong>com</strong>e important, the vehicle.<br />
Says Chuang Tzu:<br />
WHERE CAN I FIND A MAN<br />
WHO HAS FORGOTTEN WORDS?<br />
HE IS THE ONE<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Empty</strong> <strong>Boat</strong> 153 <strong>Osho</strong>