The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. WHOLENESS
In the morning the dog was found dead. And he was there alone, there were only mirrors. Nobody
was fighting with him, nobody was there to fight, but he looked at himself in the mirror and became
afraid. And when he started fighting, the mirror reflection also started fighting. He was alone, with
millions and millions of dogs around him. Can you imagine the hell he lived through that night?
You are living in that hell right now; millions and millions of dogs are barking around you. In every
mirror, in every relationship, you see the enemy. A man of Tao can walk through the walls because
he has no wall in his heart. A man of Tao finds nowhere the enemy because he is not the enemy
inside. A man of Tao finds all mirrors vacant, all boats empty, because his own boat is empty. He is
mirrored, he has no face of his own, so how can you mirror, how can you reflect a man of Tao? All
mirrors keep silent. A man of Tao passes – no footprints are left behind, no trace. All mirrors remain
silent. Nothing reflects him, because he is not there, he is absent.
When the ego disappears you are absent, and then you are whole. When the ego is there you are
present, and you are just a tiny part, a very tiny part, and very ugly at that. The part will always be
ugly. That is why we have to try to make it beautiful in so many ways. But a man with ego cannot be
beautiful. Beauty happens only to those who are without egos. Then the beauty has something of
the unknown in it, something immeasurable.
Remember this: ugliness can be measured. It has limits. Beauty, the so-called beauty, can be
measured. It has limits. But the real beauty cannot be measured – it has no limits. It is mysterious
– it goes on and on and on. You cannot be finished with a buddha. You can enter him, and you will
never come out. Endless! His beauty is never finished.
But the ego goes on trying to be beautiful. Somehow you remember the beauty of the whole;
somehow you remember the silence of the womb; somehow deep down you know the bliss of being
one, the union, the unity with existence. Because of that, many desires arise. You know the beauty
of being a god and you have to live like a beggar. So what do you do? You create faces, you paint
yourself. But deep down the ugliness remains, because all paints are just paints.
It happened once that a woman was walking on the seashore. She found a bottle, opened it, and a
genie came out. And, like all true genies, this genie said, ”You have broken my prison, you have set
me free. So now you can ask anything, and I will fulfill your fondest desire or wish.”
Genies are not found every day, on every shore, in every bottle. It rarely happens, and only in stories.
But the woman didn’t think even for a single moment. She said, ”I want to become a beautiful person
– hair like Elizabeth Taylor, eyes like Brigitte Bardot, body like Sophia Loren.”
The genie looked again, and said, ”Honey, put me back in the bottle!”
And this is what you are all asking for – everybody is asking for this – this is why genies have
disappeared from the world. They are so afraid of you, you are asking the impossible. It cannot
happen because the part can never be beautiful.
Just think: my hand can be cut off – can that hand be beautiful? It will grow more and more ugly,
it will deteriorate, it will start smelling. How can my hand be beautiful, separate from me? The
separation brings death; unison brings life. In the whole you are alive; alone, separate, you are
already dead or dying.
The Empty Boat 181 Osho