Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho's Haikus - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. THE LAST MILESTONEOne Sufi mystic, Omar Khayyam, has written a great book and became known worldwide. Hundredsof translations have happened, but all are full of misunderstandings. They thought that he was onlya poet talking about this world. He was a mystic, and all that he was talking about was symbolic.His book’s name is RUBAIYAT. The rubaiyat is again a very special form of Persian poetry, just likea haiku.In one of his rubaiyat he says to his friends not to be afraid of death for two reasons: if you die, youdie. There is nothing to be afraid of. There will be nobody left behind, so there is no question of fear.If it is as the religions say, that you don’t die, then there is no question of being afraid, death doesnot happen. In either case, fear is irrelevant.If you can die knowingly, that means the element that is passing through the tunnel of death, isseparate from death. The life principle is eternal. It takes many forms, thousands of lives to becomea man. Up to now nobody has appeared who is a superman.Man, up to now, is the ultimate in the evolution of consciousness, but it is very superficial, verynew. Underneath, there is deep unconsciousness. So when you die, that deep unconsciousnessoverfloods your consciousness and you die without knowing what is happening. Everybody knowsthat you have died except you. And because the death is unconscious, your being born into a wombcannot be conscious.Both the ends have to be the same: if death is conscious, then birth will be conscious. If deathis unconscious, then the birth is unconscious. You don’t know anything about from where youare coming because you were not conscious about your birth. You are certainly coming fromsomewhere.THAT WHICH KNOWS BIRTH IS THE UNBORN. This is a very pregnant sentence. That whichknows birth is beyond birth. That which knows death is beyond death. It is only a witness. It goes ononly watching – that the old body is gone and the new womb has been made available, that a newbody has started growing. In deep hypnosis you can be reminded of your experiences in the ninemonths of your mother’s womb. Nine months cannot go without any episodes. Your mother may falldown, your mother may be very angry, or very loving....All that goes on in your mother’s mind and body affects the child who is still attached to the mother’sbody – everything. Those nine months are of tremendous importance. If the mother can rememberthat a child is growing in her – she should take care not to do anything, not to act anything that maycreate a difficulty for the child in his life, because these nine months are the most important periodof the whole life of seventy years.This way, two persons will be changed. The mother takes care of the child and is aware that shehas not to do anything that will be disadvantageous to the child. She cannot be angry, she cannotbe jealous, she cannot be hateful; she cannot do or even think anything wrong. So two persons arebeing changed. Those nine months are transforming two persons, the child and the mother.If in nine months one woman can remain without jealousy, without anger, without hatred, but withjust pure love, compassion, the joy of this nine-month experience will be so much that when the childis born, she is not going to fall back to her old habits.Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho’s Haikus 100 Osho