When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. FLIGHT FROM THE SHADOW
Wherever you go in the world, be alert, don’t do the dynamic meditation in front of others, they will
think you have gone crazy.
Everybody has settled for a mind, and every mind is a fragment. One has to throw away this mind
only then the Cosmic mind, the Universal mind, happens to you.
This fragmentary mind is just a method, a function for society. You need language to talk to others,
you need mind to relate to others. Remember, mind is almost always right when you are using it with
others, and it is almost always wrong when you start using it with yourselves. This man was right. If
somebody else had been following him, then he was right, absolutely right: he was not running fast
enough and that was why the other was following. But he was wrong, because there was nobody
else. The mind was useless. Mind for others – meditation for yourself. Mind for others – no mind for
yourself. That is the whole emphasis of Chuang Tzu, or Zen, or Sufis, or Hasids, of all those who
know; of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, of all those who have known. The whole emphasis is: mind
for others, no mind for yourself.
This man got into trouble because he used the mind for himself, and the mind has its own pattern.
The mind said: Faster, faster! If you go fast enough, this shadow will not be able to follow you.
HE ATTRIBUTED HIS FAILURE TO THE FACT THAT HE WAS NOT RUNNING FAST ENOUGH.
The failure was there in the first place BECAUSE he was running. But the mind cannot say that, the
mind has not been fed for it. It is a computer, you have to feed it, it is a mechanism. It cannot give
you anything new, it can only give you whatsoever you have fed into it. The mind cannot give you
anything new; whatsoever it gives you is borrowed. And if you are addicted to listening to it always
you will be in trouble when you turn towards yourself. When there is a conversion, a turning towards
the source, then you will be in difficulty. Then this mind is absolutely useless – not only useless, it is
a positive hindrance, it is harmful. So drop it.
I have heard it happened that one day Mulla Nasrudin’s son came home from his progressive school
and brought a book on sexology. The mother was very much disturbed but she waited for Mulla
Nasrudin to come. Something had to be done; this progressive school was going too far! When
Mulla Nasrudin came his wife showed him the book.
Nasrudin went upstairs to find out where his son was. He found him in his room, kissing the
maidservant. So Nasrudin said: Son, when you are finished with your homework, come down.
But this is logical! Logic has its own steps, and each step follows another, there is no end to it.
This man followed the mind, so he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally dropped
dead. Faster and faster without stopping – then only death can occur.
Have you ever observed that life has not occurred to you yet? Have you observed that there has
never been a single moment of life as such happening to you? You have not experienced a single
moment of the bliss that Chuang Tzu and Buddha talk about. And what is going to happen to you?
Nothing is going to happen to you except death. And the nearer you come to death, the faster you
run, because you think that if you go faster you will escape.
When the Shoe Fits 41 Osho