Silence

 

 

Start communicating through silence sometimes. Holding the hand of your friend, sit silently. Just looking at the moon, feel the moon, and both feel it silently. And see, there happens a communion -- not only communication but a communion. That your hearts start beating in the same rhythm. That you start feeling the same space, that you start feeling the same joy, that you start overlapping each other's being. That there is communion. That you have said without saying anything, and there will be no misunderstanding.

 

I have to use words. I am helpless. The day you will be able to understand silence there will be no need for me to talk to you every day. We can sit in silence. And that will be a beautiful day -- I am preparing you for that. Even though I use words I use them against words -- I use them in such a way so that they can commit suicide in you. That's why I have to be contradictory. That's why I say one thing this moment and contradict it immediately -- so that no word takes root in you. So slowly slowly you start understanding that words are meaningless, their meaning is a pretension. Then there will be no misunderstanding. [....]

 

Language creates almost ninety-nine percent of prob-lems. Philosophy, theology, doctrines, scriptures, political ideologies -- they have all created thousands of problems. And man is in a confusion, in a great confusion. All those fighting ideologies are inside you. All the past, the whole past, the maddening past, is trying to possess you. It is not homogeneous. Christianity is in you, Buddhism is in you, communism is in you, fascism is in you -- and they are all pulling you apart. It is a miracle how man goes on keeping himself together.

 

And in this state of confusion, when you hear something, first you don't hear rightly what is being said. Second, you interpret it according to your own past. And everything goes wrong. If you want to avoid misunderstanding, you will have to learn silence. If you learn silence, the first thing will be that you will never misunderstand anybody else. And that's a great joy, not to misunderstand anybody. You will become a good listener, you will know the right kind of listening. And everything will be crystal clear to you. That clarity will not come from logic, from intellect, from analysis; that clarity will come through silence. If in your silence somebody's word falls you cannot misinterpret it, because there is nobody to interfere. Either you understand or you don't understand, but there is no way to misunderstand. Either you say 'Yes, I understand' or you say 'I don't understand.' But there is no way to misunderstand.

 

What is misunderstanding? Misunderstanding is neither understanding nor non-understanding. It is a mixture, it is a hotch-potch. And it creates more confusion in you -- the more knowledgeable a man is, the more confused. The more a man is knowledgeable, the less is the possibility to understand anything.

 

Learn silence. And at least with your friends, with your lovers, with your family.... And this is your family, the orange family. Here, sit in silence sometimes. Don't go on gossiping, don't go on talking. Stop talking, and not only on the outside -- stop the inner talk. Be in an interval. Just sit there, doing nothing, just being presences to each other. And soon you will start finding a new way to communicate. And that is the right way.

 

It is said about Mahavira -- a strange story but beautiful and meaningful -- that when he became enlightened he remained silent. It created many problems, because he had attained and it was his duty to share it. When you have attained you have to share it. It is intrinsic to attainment to share. That's why Buddha has spoken, and Christ and Lao Tzu. Mahavira kept silent, he found another way. Maybe that is why his religion never became a world religion. His followers remain very few -- even now there are only thirty lakhs Jainas. That is nothing -- after two thousand five hundred years, only thirty thousand. That means if Mahavira had converted only thirty couples, that would have done -- that many people would have been Jainas. He could not convert many people. And the reason? He wanted to commune through silence, he remained quiet. And the way that he found was strange but beautiful. It could not prove very effective, because it is very difficult to speak through silence in this mad world. He failed, but the experiment was worth trying.

 

What did he do? He prepared a few people for silence, to understand him in silence. He would sit silently, and only those few people who had learnt how to listen to his silence would understand what he meant. And they would tell it to people. But then again the problem arose. He would not speak -- he was a strange man, he thought it a kind of betrayal to speak. Because whatsoever you say is going to be misunderstood -- then you become the cause of misunderstanding. Whatsoever you say will be only half true, because the whole truth cannot be reduced to words. So you will be destroying truth. And he was not the man to do that, he kept quiet. Just a few disciples who had learnt how to commune with him in silence would sit silently there, listen to his silence -- would feel what he wants, what he feels, what he knows, and would go to people and tell them.

 

But that doesn't help. Now these people who told others were misunderstood. So what is the point? He could have told it himself -- there would have been less misunderstanding, because the power of Mahavira would have been there. Now, Mahavira gives to other people and those people are not so enlightened, not so conscious. They go to people and they relay and broadcast Mahavira's message. Much more misunderstanding will be there. And of course they could not convert many people, they had their limitations. But he tried -- a great experiment.

 

I would also like to try it -- but not only for a few people. I would like to create a great mass of people for silence. And it's that for which I am working slowly slowly. Once you are ready, thousands of people ready for silence, then I can really say that which cannot be said through words.

 

Buddha gave Mahakashyapa his flower and said, 'I am giving to you that which I could not give to others. I am giving you that which can only be given in silence.' I would like thousands of Mahakashyapas to receive that flower. One is not enough.

 

So be more and more silent and you will understand why there is so much misunderstanding in the world. And you will understand that now you don't misunderstand; either you understand or you don't understand. Both are good, things are clear. If you don't understand, you can ask again. If you understand then the work is finished, there is no need to ask again. But if you misunderstand you go on thinking you have understood, so you don't ask again. And you have not understood. And that misunderstanding will make your life a corrupted phenomenon. It will be crippling, it will paralyze you.

 

-Osho, "This Very Body the Buddha, #5, Q2"