When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. AUTUMN FLOODS
I have heard that once it happened in a men’s club that three professors of philosophy were
discussing, in a panel discussion, what is most beautiful in a woman. The one philosopher said:
It is the eyes – the eyes carry the whole of the woman, they are the most beautiful part in a feminine
body. The second one said: I don’t agree. The hair is the most beautiful part of a feminine face and
body, it gives it the beauty and the mystery. And the third said: I don’t agree with you, you both are
wrong – it is the legs, the way a woman walks, the curves of her legs, just the marbleness of her
legs, that gives her the whole feminine beauty.
One woman, an old woman, who was listening very seriously to this discussion, elevated her nose
and said: I must get out of here before one of you boys says the truth!
A woman is not a philosopher, she has no theories – she knows.
A religious person has an intuitive grasp – it is not intellect, it is his whole being. He feels rather
than knows. And feeling hits the centre. So remember one thing – through philosophy you will never
reach the truth, you will just go about and about and about.
Omar Khayyam has said in his ’Rubaiyat’: When I was young I did frequent doctor and saint.
About and about they argued and I came out by the same door as I went in. He visited so many
philosophers, so many saints – but they talked about and about and he had to come back by the
same door.
Nothing is gained, only life is wasted. The sooner you become alert, the better. The sooner you
become aware and drop out of the trap of philosophy, the better. Because life will not wait for you
and your theories, it is moving fast. Soon death will happen and you will die with your theories in your
hand; and they won’t help, they are just dead ashes. Chuang Tzu says: Live, don’t think! That is all
that those who have known have always said: Live, don’t think! Drop thinking and become a being
– your totality is required. It is okay that for science you use your head, it is okay that for art you use
your heart, but for religion you in your totality are required. If the head functions alone it produces
dry theories; if the heart functions alone it creates fictions, dreams. Your totality is required. And
when you function totally you reach the total that is the universe – you become the same, and only
the similar can know it. If you become total in your small circle then the total of the vast circle, the
Brahman, is ready to receive you. This is one thing.
The second thing before we enter this parable is that mind is always conditioned. It cannot be
unconditioned. Being is unconditioned, mind is a conditioning. Mind is always trained by the society
in which you live, trained by the experiences through which you pass. So a frog has a frog mind –
he lives in a well, that is his whole universe. And you also have a frog mind because you also live
in a well; the well of the Hindu, the well of the Mohammedan, the well of the Christian or the Jew.
And you have a boundary – it may be invisible, but then it is more dangerous because you can jump
out of visible boundaries more easily. Invisible boundaries... you never feel that they are there so
they just cling to you. It is easier for a frog to come out of his well than for you to come out of your
Hinduism, your Christianity. It is difficult, because the well is invisible. A frog lives in a fixed well – he
can jump out of it. You live in a well that you carry around you; it is like a climate, always surrounding
you; it is your invisible personality. Wherever you go you carry your well with you, you remain in it;
whatsoever you see, you see through it.
When the Shoe Fits 96 Osho