The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. WHOLENESS
My eyes, take them out, then what are they? Even stones, colored stones, will be more beautiful
than they because they are still with the whole. Pluck a flower; then it is not beautiful, the glory is
gone. It was beautiful just a moment ago when it was joined with the roots, with the earth. Uprooted,
you float like egos. You are ill, and you will remain ill, and nothing can be of any help. All your efforts,
however clever, are going to fail.
Only in the whole are you beautiful.
Only in the whole are you lovely.
Only in the whole is grace possible.
It is not because of cunningness that the man of Tao walks through walls without obstruction, and
stands in fire without being burnt. It is:
NOT BECAUSE OF CUNNING OR DARING,
AND NOT BECAUSE HE HAS LEARNED –
BUT BECAUSE HE HAS UNLEARNED.
Learning goes into the ego; learning strengthens the ego. That is why pundits, brahmins, scholars,
have the subtlest egos. Learning gives them scope, learning gives them space. They become
tumors, egos. Their whole being is then exploited by the ego.
The more learned a man, the more difficult he is to live with, the more difficult he is to relate to, the
more difficult it is for him to reach the temple. It is almost impossible for him to know God because
he himself now lives like a tumor, and the tumor has its own life – now it is the ego tumor. And it
exploits. The more you know, the less possibility there is for prayer to happen.
So, says Chuang Tzu, it is not because of cunningness; he is not calculating, he is not cunning
or daring, because daring, cunning, calculating, are all part of the ego. A man of Tao is neither a
coward nor a brave man. He does not know what bravery is, what cowardice is. He lives. He is not
self-conscious, not because he has learned but because he has unlearned. The whole of religion
is a process of unlearning. Learning is the process of the ego, unlearning is the process of the
non-ego. Learned, your boat is full, filled with yourself.
It happened that Mulla Nasruddin used to have a ferryboat, and when times were not good he would
carry passengers from one bank to the other.
One day a great scholar, a grammarian, a pundit, was crossing in his ferryboat to the other shore.
The pundit asked Nasruddin, ”Do you know the Koran? Have you learned the scriptures?”
Nasruddin said, ”No, no time.”
The scholar said, ”Half your life has been wasted.”
The Empty Boat 182 Osho