When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. DUKE HWAN AND THE WHEELRIGHT
objective world. The artist paints a picture of a rose, but the rose is there. Van Gogh’s rose or
Picasso’s rose may not be exactly as it is in the garden, but still it is a rose. You can find some
similarity, you can find something which corresponds.
But when a Buddha talks about NIRVANA, it is not in the outside world, you don’t have anything to
correspond to it. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, it is not there in the objective world.
Art represents the objective: the symbol is difficult, but you can still find something corresponding
to it in the world. Religion symbolises the subjective, you cannot find anything like it in the world.
Unless you go within yourself you will not be able to find the meaning, the significance. Then you
will carry the word, and the word is not the reality. Then you may repeat the word ’God’ and you
don’t know anything about God. It is more like an art, and even more like a craft.
What is a Buddha doing? He is a craftsman, he makes gods out of you. Just like a sculptor he goes
on hammering on the stone, cutting this and that piece, throwing away all that is inessential – then
by and by an image is discovered. It was there. Before the artist started with his chisel and hammer
it was there, but the inessential was there also. The inessential has to be broken and thrown away
so that the essential comes up and is discovered. So what is a Buddha doing? You are like a stone;
he will go on working with his chisel and hammer, he will cut away the inessential, and then the
essential comes in its total glory. Then the magnificent is born, then the other world penetrates into
this world. He is not bringing anything new into the world, he is simply changing you, transforming
you.
You are already carrying the other world within you but it is mixed too much with this world. A
separation is needed: a separation of that which is essential from that which is non-essential; a
separation of that which is you from that which you possess; a separation of the possessor from the
possession; of the spirit from the body; of the centre from the circumference. It is like a skill. No
painter can tell you how to paint, you have to live with the master. If you go to Picasso and say,
’How do you paint? Tell me something, give me some guidelines’ he cannot give you any guidelines
because he himself is not aware. It is such a tremendous phenomenon, it is so unconscious, that
when Picasso is painting he is not aware of any rules, regulations, any laws, any guidelines. He
becomes his painting, he is no longer there, he is completely absorbed in it. You have to be with
him. When he moves into his painting, and when the painter is lost, and only the painting remains,
when the painting is no longer a conscious effort, when the unconscious takes over, you have to see
the phenomenon to feel it, what it is. Then those are not the hands of Picasso, then the unconscious
Tao, nature, has taken over. Picasso’s hands are instrumental, they work as vehicles, some other
energy is there. Watch Picasso painting – he is no longer a man. He is not at all a part of you; he
has become a creator, he is not a creature. That is why when the painting is born it brings something
of the other world.
But this is nothing. When a Buddha speaks he is not the speaker. When a Buddha moves he is
not the walker. When a Buddha puts his hand on your head he is not the hand. Tao – you may
call it God, whatsoever name you choose – has taken over. Now the hand is not of Buddha, it is
instrumental. God is touching you through him and Buddha is not there at all, not standing between
you and God. But this has to be experienced. It is impossible to learn anything from a dead Buddha.
And if you cannot learn from a living one, how can you expect to learn from a dead one?
It is a skill, the greatest skill, and it is so delicate and subtle that nothing can be done consciously,
you have simply to be near and imbibe. This word has to be remembered – imbibe. A Buddha has
When the Shoe Fits 125 Osho