The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. THE OWL AND THE PHOENIX
HUI TZU WAS PRIME MINISTER OF LIANG.
HE HAD WHAT HE BELIEVED TO BE INSIDE INFORMATION
THAT CHUANG TZU COVETED HIS POST,
AND WAS PLOTTING TO SUPPLANT HIM.
Politicians cannot think otherwise. The first thing to be understood is that what you are is what you
think of others. Your desires, your own ambitions give you the pattern. If you are after money you
think that everyone is after money. If you are a thief you keep checking your pocket: that is how
you show that you are a thief. Your inner desire is the language of your understanding. Politicians
always think in terms of plots, conspiracies: Somebody is going to supplant me, somebody wants
to get rid of me.... Because that is what they have done, that is what they have been doing all their
lives, plotting. Politicians are conspirators. That is their language. And you look at others through
your mind, you project onto others things which are hidden deep within you. Hui Tzu thought, ”This
Chuang Tzu is plotting to supplant me. ”
When Chuang Tzu came to visit him, the prime minister sent out police to arrest him. But although
they searched for three days and nights, they could not find him. This is beautiful!
The police can only find thieves – they understand each other. The mind of the policeman and the
mind of a thief are not different – thieves in the service of the government are the police. Their mind,
their way of thinking is the same, only their masters are different. A thief is in his own service, a
policeman is in the service of the state – but both are thieves. That is why policemen can catch
thieves. If you send a sadhu to find a thief, he won’t find him, because he will look at others through
his mind.
A rabbi was walking past a young man during a religious festival. The young man was smoking, and
smoking was forbidden on that day. So the rabbi stopped and asked him, ”Don’t you know, young
man, that this is a religious day, and you should not be smoking?”
The young man said, ”Yes, I know that this is a religious day.” Still he continued smoking – not only
that, he blew smoke into the rabbi’s face.
The rabbi asked, ”And don’t you know that smoking is forbidden?”
The young man said arrogantly, ”Yes, I know it is forbidden.” And he continued.
The rabbi looked at the sky and said, ”Father, this young man is beautiful. He may be breaking the
law, but nobody can force him to lie. He is a truthful man. He says: Yes, I know this is a religious
day, and yes, I know it is forbidden. Remember on the day of judgment, that this young man could
not be forced to lie.”
This is a beautiful rabbi. This is the mind of a sadhu. He cannot see wrong, he always sees right.
The police could not find Chuang Tzu, it was impossible. They could have found him if he had been
an ambitious man, if he had been plotting, if he were thinking in terms of politics – then he could
The Empty Boat 53 Osho