Question 4

Osho,

Each morning at discourse i feel you are beckoning me with your eyes to walk across the water to you. courage arises and i step from my boat. exhilarated, i take a few steps, but i become afraid and begin to sink. what is this?

 

 

Anand Pragyan.

I AM certainly beckoning you continuously to come across, but who has told you to walk on the water? Why should you step out of your boat? Use the boat and just come across!

 

Once a man went to Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna was sitting on the bank of the Ganges. The man was a very famous yogi of those days. He had gone there to brag about himself — and that’s what these so-called yogis go on doing. He said, “Ramakrishna, what are you doing sitting here? Let us go for a walk on the Ganges.”

 

Ramakrishna asked him, “How many years did it take for you to walk on water?”

 

He said, “Eighteen years practising in the Himalayas, hard work, fasting, yoga postures. It has been difficult, very difficult. It was almost impossible, and many times I wanted to drop the whole project, but somehow I persisted. Now I have the SIDDHI, the power — I can walk on the water. Can’t you walk on the water?”

 

Ramakrishna said, “I am not so foolish. When I want to go to the other bank I give the ferryman only two paise, and that’s enough! Your eighteen years are worth just two paise. Get lost! I am not interested in it.”

 

Only fools are interested in miracles.

 

Another story… One day Hassan, a Sufi mystic, went to Rabiya, the great Sufi woman. He had just learned how to walk on water, so he told Rabiya, “Let us go and walk on water and have a little spiritual discourse, discussion.” That spiritual discussion was just an excuse; he wanted to show Rabiya that he could walk on the water.

 

Rabiya said, “On the water? That does not appeal to me. Let us go to the clouds! We will sit on the clouds and have spiritual discourse.”

 

Hassan said, “But I don’t know how to go to the clouds and sit on the clouds.”

 

Rabiya said, “Neither do I! But what is the point? Why can’t we have a religious discourse here? Why go to the water or to the clouds?”

 

All great mystics have been against miracles, and all fools are interested in miracles.

 

Pragyan, use your boat! Certainly you have to come to the other shore, but there is no need to get out of your boat. You have misunderstood my calling you.

 

A group of tourists were standing at a vantage point overlooking an awesome panorama of the Grand Canyon, when one of them could be heard saying, "You know, there is a tremendous updraught that happens here every afternoon caused by the warm air rushing up the canyon. A person can actually float upon it."

 

"You don't say!" replied his friend.

 

"Why yes, watch this!" as he stepped from the edge of the cliff and floated away and back easily.

 

"Wow!" said a person standing by, "I will try that!" And he stepped off and went plummetting to the bottom of the Canyon out of sight.

 

Said one person to the first, "You can be really mean sometimes, Superman."

 

And I cannot be mean to you!

 

Please Pragyan, don't get out of your boat. If you sink it is natural, it is not your fault. That's how it should be. Use the boat! What is the boat made for?

 

I am not for any stupid miracles, I am totally for the natural. Use the boat, use all natural means. God is available only through nature, not through the cunning devices of man.

 

You say, "OSHO, EACH MORNING AT DISCOURSE I FEEL YOU ARE BECKONING ME WITH YOUR EYES TO WALK ACROSS THE WATER TO YOU. COURAGE ARISES AND I STEP FROM MY BOAT. EXHILARATED, I TAKE A FEW STEPS, BUT I BECOME AFRAID AND BEGIN TO SINK. WHAT IS THIS?"

 

Stupidity, just pure stupidity! Next time courage arises, don't do it! Don't you have oars? Use them, use the boat.

 

There are two kinds of foolish people in the world: one, who would not like to use the boat, who would like to walk on the water; and the other, who will use the boat and when they have reached to the other shore they will not leave the boat. Just out of gratitude, they will carry the boat on their heads for their whole lives.

 

I go on beckoning you, but you have to understand rightly. Just a little misunderstanding, just a little misinterpretation, and you will be moving astray. That's where I am totally different, and you can see the difference.

 

The same story is there in Jesus: Jesus calls; he is walking on water. I don't know that these stories are true; these stories must have been invented by the priests. Priests are the greatest cunning, inventive people in the world. I cannot think that a man like Jesus can be so mean as to walk on water. Why should he?

 

These stories have been invented to convert the foolish people, because they are interested only in such things. But the story is that Jesus walked on the water. Thomas saw him coming; he was sitting in the boat. Great enthusiasm arose in him -- just like you, Pragyan, great courage -- and he said, "If the Master can do it. why can't I?" So he asked Jesus, "Can I come and follow you?" He said, "Certainly, come and follow me." And Thomas walked just two, three steps, then great doubt arose in him and he started sinking. Jesus somehow had to save him, and told him, "Don't be a doubting Thomas." Since then there has been the phrase 'doubting Thomas'.

 

If I had been in Jesus' place, in the first place I would not have walked on water. In the second place, if by chance I had walked, I would have stopped Thomas: "Be in the boat, don't be too courageous."

 

Intelligent people are always courageous, but not vice versa; courageous people are not necessarily intelligent. I would have told him, "Wait! There is no need to walk on the water. Follow ME into the dimension of the unknown, but there is no need to walk on the water; that is not a prerequisite for it." I would have stopped him then and there rather than allowing him to walk a few steps and sink, and then saving him. I would not have liked all this trouble at all.

 

So Pragyan, next time this courage hits you, wait, close your eyes, take your oars, use the boat.

 

Don't misunderstand me. I would like you to trust, but very intelligently. Trust is the ultimate essence of intelligence; it is not blind faith. I am not against your doubt. You have to use your doubt in purifying your intelligence. You have to use your doubt in sharpening your intelligence. That is the function of doubt -- to sharpen intelligence. Once intelligence is sharpened doubt disappears, trust arises. Doubt is not against trust; in fact doubt is a servant, it serves trust.

 

So I am not here to tell you to faithfully believe in me. Trust intelligently.

 

But people have their own understanding. I say one thing -- they understand something else.

 

Charlie was taking his out-of-town pal for a stroll through the city. The friend observed a good-looking girl and asked Charlie if he knew her.

 

"Yes, that is Betty -- twenty dollars."

 

"How about that one?"

 

"That is Dolores -- forty dollars."

 

"Here comes one that is really first class. Do you know her?"

 

"That is Gloria -- eighty dollars."

 

"My God! Aren't there any nice, respectable girls in this town?"

 

"Of course there are, but you couldn't afford their price!"

 

People have their own understanding. It is not much of an understanding, but that's what they have got, and they go on interpreting through it. He says, "Of course there are, but you could not afford their rates."

 

A man was discussing his problems with his next door neighbor. "That selfish wife of mine," he was saying, "you know what she did? She has rationed me, cut me down to a miserable once-a-week!"

 

"Don't feel too sorry for yourself," said the next door neighbor. "I know at least ten fellows living in our block she has completely cut off."

 

I am saying things which have to be meditated upon. Don't come to conclusions in a hasty, hurried way, because I am saying things which are really paradoxical. This is a paradox.

 

You have been told down the ages, "Believe, don't doubt." I am saying something totally different: doubt, and doubt totally, so that your intelligence arises. And then trust arises of its own accord.

 

Nobody has ever said this to you, hence the world has remained blind, hence the people have remained just sheep. It has been good -- good business for the priests, good business for the politicians, good business for the so-called leaders -- because people are at a loss, they need leaders. In worldly matters, in other-worldly matters, they need leaders. In worldly matters the politician becomes their leader, and in other-worldly matters, the priest.

 

And the priests and the politicians have been in a conspiracy: don't allow people to become intelligent. Once they become intelligent they will not need any leader and they will not need any priest. They will learn how to walk on their own.

 

My approach is totally new: use doubt as a sharpener. I am not against doubt, I am all for it. Doubt very scientifically. And why am I not against doubt? -- because I know if you really doubt it is bound to make your intelligence more and more clear. It is bound to give you more and more clarity. Belief confuses, doubt clarifies.

 

And there comes a point when doubt cannot doubt anymore. My trust in truth is so much that I can tell you to doubt, because I know that if you go on doubting a moment is bound to come when doubt dies of its own accord. When you see the truth, how can doubt exist? Then trust arises.

 

Trust is through knowing, not through believing. Don't believe me. Trust me certainly, but don't believe me. And if you want to trust me you will have to go on a long pilgrimage of doubt, of sharpening your intelligence. That's why I go on talking to you, creating a thousand and one doubts in you. I don't allow you to settle anywhere. You would like to settle very soon, because who wants to travel for ever and ever? One wants to make a house and settle. I say one thing one day, and just the opposite another day. I create doubt continuously, because my trust in truth is so tremendous that I know no doubt can disturb it. If you go on doubting, even doubt will bring you to truth.

 

All doors bring you to God, even the door of doubt. Sincerity is needed and intensity is needed and totality is needed.

 

- Osho, "The Guest, #8"