The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. THE OWL AND THE PHOENIX
When your eyes are filled with desire they only see the dead rats. Ramakrishna used to say: There
are people who cannot see anything else than the objects of their lust. This owl can sit at the top
of a tall tree, but he is only looking for dead rats. Whenever a dead rat is seen on the street the owl
becomes excited. He won’t get excited, he won’t even see if you throw him a beautiful fruit. He will
not become aware of it. The information never reaches him because the desires work as a screen.
All the time, continuously, only that enters you which your desires allow. Your desires are just like a
watchman standing at the door of your being. They allow in only that which appeals to them.
Change this watchman; otherwise you will live always on dead rats. You will remain an owl, and that
is the misery, because deep within you the phoenix is hidden and you are behaving like an owl. That
is the discontent. That is why you can never feel at ease, that is why you can never feel blissful. How
can a phoenix feel blissful with a dead rat? He is always a stranger, and this is not the right food for
him.
And this you have felt many times. Making love to a woman or to a man, you have felt many times
that this is not for you. The phoenix asserts itself but the owl is much more noisy. The phoenix cannot
be heard, its voice is very subtle and silent, not aggressive. In moments of peace and meditation
the phoenix says, ”What are you doing? This is not for you. What are you eating? This is not for
you. What are you drinking? This is not for you. ”
But the owl is very noisy and you have believed in the owl for so long that you go on following it
just like a habit. It has become a dead habit. You simply follow it, because it is the line of least
resistance. The rut is there. You don’t have to do anything. You simply run on the track, you go on
running in a circle – the same desires, the same lusts, the same ambitions. No wonder you live in
anguish, you live in a nightmare.
Let the inner Chuang Tzu assert himself, let the inner phoenix assert itself. Listen to it, it is a still,
small voice. You will have to calm down, you will have to put this owl to sleep; only then will you be
able to listen. This owl is the ego, the mind, the phoenix is the soul. It is born in the south, out of the
sea, it is not a part of the land. Not out of the mud, out of the vast sea it is born. It never grows old,
it never dies. It alights only on rare, holy, sacred trees, eats only exquisite rare fruit, drinks only from
the clearest of springs. Those springs are there, those holy trees are there. You have been missing
them because of the owl, and the owl has become the leader.
All meditation is nothing but an effort to silence this owl so that the still small voice can be heard.
Then you will see what you have been doing – chewing a dead rat.
Chuang Tzu is right. The prime minister was unnecessarily dismayed. When you, your inner
phoenix, comes to live its life, the owl, the prime minister, will in the beginning be very much
dismayed. Your mind will create every type of objection to meditation because the mind is afraid, the
prime minister is afraid – this Chuang Tzu, this meditativeness, is coming to supplant him.
Your mind will catch hold of the dead rat, and will scream, scared, as if somebody is going to take
that food away from it. In the beginning it will happen – and you have to be alert and aware of it.
Only your awareness will help by and by.
Whenever one starts meditating, the mind becomes rebellious. It starts up all types of arguments:
What are you doing, why are you wasting time? Use this time! You can achieve so much in the
The Empty Boat 60 Osho