Question :

I love ordinary life. It is like daytime in which i feel more and more awake. But i often have the sense that there is a universe of mysteries that belongs in darkness and is unavailable to me. Esoteric teachings, symbols, ‘higher knowledge’, seem to point to these mysteries, but i can never get interested in the books. I would rather journey into the night. Can you talk about this please?

 

 

The question is from Anand Rajen. Rajen, there is no other life than this ordinary life. Because people are incapable of living this ordinary life, they invent esoteric things. These are the people who are incapable of living — they distract their minds and beings. All esoteric teachings and all hidden teachings and all those so-called mysteries are just mumbo-jumbo.

 

The mystery is here. The mystery is in the trees and in the rocks and in the birds. The mystery is in people — in you, in me. The mystery is in relating, the mystery is in singing, the mystery is in dancing, the mystery is in love, the mystery is in prayer. Avoid all that nonsense literature which goes on in the name of esotericism. It is pathological. These are the people who are incapable of tasting this life. They have to find some excuses, alibis, to avoid this life. They cannot enjoy, they cannot be passionately in it. They don’t have passion, they don’t have intensity of life, they don’t know how to live. They have forgotten all — how to be natural and spontaneous. Now they have to find some way to pretend that this life is not worth living, the grapes are sour — there are other grapes, hidden grapes, which only they know and their inner circle knows.

 

Theosophy and anthroposophy and masonic lodges — and all kinds of nonsense goes on. Avoid it, it is against life. This is the only life there is, the only dance there is. The real enlightened people have known this life’s extraordinariness.

 

A man asked a Zen master: ‘Since you have become enlightened what changes happen in your life?’ The master said: ‘Before I became enlightened I used to chop wood and carry water from the well.’ And the man asked: ‘Now that you have become enlightened what do you do? What changes have happened?’ He said: ‘I chop wood and I carry water from the well.’ But the man was puzzled. ‘Then,’ he said, ‘what is the difference? It is the same thing.’

 

And the master laughed. He said, ‘It is not the same thing. Before, I used to chop wood and think a thousand and one thoughts. Now I simply chop wood. It is so beautiful just to chop wood and do nothing. Before, I used to have a thousand and one desires while drawing water from the well. Now I simply draw water. And to tell you the truth, there is no one inside me who is drawing the water. And when I am chopping the wood it is wonderful, because there is nobody in me chopping the wood. I have disappeared! The wood is being chopped and the water is being carried, and it is tremendously beautiful.’

 

The ordinary life becomes extraordinary if you live it totally, fully. Avoid esotericism. They are dangerous things, you can become hooked into them. And then you will be just in mind-trips, imagination. If you love imagination it is okay, if you love fantasizing it is okay. You can create your own planes and your own astral travels and subtle bodies and whatsoever you want.

 

A young woman dreamt that the prince charming had come on his horse. A beautiful horse and the beautiful prince — and she has been waiting for this prince charming for ever and ever, and he has come. When you wait too much, beware — it happens. And the prince took the woman on the horse and the horse started galloping towards some unknown destination. And the woman was thrilled — who would not be thrilled? And she asked the prince, ‘Where are you taking me?’ And the prince said, ‘This is your dream. So you say to me where you want to be taken. This is your dream.’

 

In these so-called esoteric trips, wherever you are going it is your dream. Masters will appear — Kuthumi and KH — and automatic handwriting will appear, and messages will be received from the beyond. And all sheer nonsense. Eat your breakfast and have a good sleep.

 

- Osho, “This Very Body the Buddha”