Belief is a barrier, trust is a bridge

 

 

Question 1:

Osho,

I trust you unconditionally. at the same time, i don't believe you. can you speak about trust and belief?

 

 

Baby, that is really great! Just groovy. I don't believe in my own statements either! We are in perfect agreement. I trust myself, I trust you, because I trust love.

 

Trust is of the heart, belief is of the mind. They are diametrically opposite, they never meet. They can run parallel to each other, but they will never meet. Belief will remain hollow, without any content, and trust is overflowing with joy, blissfulness.

 

You say you trust me. That's enough, more than enough. I don't want you to believe in my statements, because my statements go on changing every day. If you believe in my statements you are going to be crazy. They are so contradictory, you will not be able to figure out what I actually want to say to you.

 

But trust remains the same - the same flavor, the same grace, the same beauty, because it is not a statement of the mind. It is not a statement at all. It is a silent communion between two hearts, a silent communion in which two hearts synchronize; their beats become a rhythm, their vibe takes the same color and aroma.

 

I am not a man who wants you to believe in anything, including me. I am against belief as such.

 

That's why I have been continuously contradicting myself, so nobody can make any belief out of my statements. No scholar, no theologian is going to make any system out of my statements. In thirty years I must have contradicted myself thirty thousand times. Anybody working on me for a Ph.D. will soon be found in a madhouse. And my reason for doing so is crystal clear. If I were making statements consistent with each other, you would not listen to me, you would make a belief system out of it. I am a little outlandish.

 

In the forty-two years Buddha spoke, you cannot find a single inconsistency, no contradiction. Now it is so easy to make the whole living religion into a dead belief, a dogma. The religion becomes a cult.

 

Religion is religion only when the master is there continuously watching that you don't get into the head, that you remain centered in the heart. But when the master is gone, all that you have left with you is his statements. If they are consistent, then it is very easy for you to make a theology, a Christianity, a Buddhism, a Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and then cling to it. You have forgotten the master; now you have only words, which mean nothing. It was the man behind the words who had meant something to you. Can't you see the difference?

 

When Gautam Buddha spoke, many hearts started melting into him. The same words are written in the books; the Buddhist theologian is not speaking any other words, he is speaking the same words Buddha used - but nothing stirs in your heart. On the contrary, your head becomes interested; you start arguing for and against.

 

My strategy has never been used before. No master has been self-contradictory, and because they were not self-contradictory they have all failed. Although Buddha goes on saying, "Don't believe in me," that does not make any difference. When Buddha is gone, they need some substitute - a holy book, the DHAMMAPADA, the BIBLE, the KORAN - they need something substantial to hold on to.

 

They will make a belief, they will make a theology, they will make a philosophy. And that's how all the religions have slowly slowly died.

 

By the time a religion becomes a theology, it is only a cult. Christianity is a cult, Hinduism is a cult, Buddhism is a cult. But the miracle of miracles is, they call my people a cult and I am managing things in such a way that whatsoever you do, you cannot make it a cult. Either it remains as religion or it disappears. It is better that it disappears than that it becomes a cult.

 

I am not going to leave any successor because we have seen what happens to successors. Two thousand years of popes coming and going.... If you want to find idiots in history, it is so easy - take the names of all the popes, because other names have disappeared. These popes are representing Jesus Christ, and because they are representing Jesus Christ they are infallible. I am not going to leave any successor behind me, because in the first place I, myself, am fallible. How can my representative be infallible?

 

I am not special, not holier-than-thou. I am not a messiah, not a prophet, just a simple, ordinary human being like you. You cannot manage with such a man to have anything like the whole history of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. They fall into the same pit, into the same darkness. And the basic reason is that their prophets and messiahs and their founders were trying hard to be consistent, because consistency has been thought to be of immense value. It is of immense value, but only for the head. No scientist can afford self-contradictions, he has to be consistent.

 

I am not a scientist. I am a mystic.

 

Science tries to demystify things. What does knowing everything about existence mean? In other words, it is demystifying existence.

 

I do just the opposite: I mystify the rose, I mystify the cloud. I mystify the sky, the stars. I mystify you. And remember, it is no mystification-that is bogus. I simply reveal your reality to you. And it is such a mystery.

 

I can afford contradictions, because I am not aiming at your head. My aim is somewhere else. You can ask, then why do I talk? I talk to keep your head engaged; meanwhile, my arrow goes directly to your heart. Continuously I am throwing arrows to your heart; but the head knows nothing about it, cannot know anything about it. They are not on talking terms either.

 

And I have to contradict; otherwise my arrows will be futile. Your head will find rationality, consistency, a better philosophy, better argument, more contemporary, and you will be satisfied with your head.

 

And your head is just a computer, it is not you.

 

Anything can be fed into the head. It can contain almost all the books of all the libraries of the world; a single head can contain that much information. And the more information you have, the more your head starts swelling up, becoming bigger and bigger. And in the noise and the clamor, who is going to listen to the still, small voice of the heart? Hence, you need not believe my contradictions; you should not believe what I say.

 

When I am here, why not have a heart-to-heart meeting? That is trust. Behead yourself completely!

 

You are right, and I can see your difficulty, because in ordinary dictionaries "belief," "faith," and "trust," are all synonymous. They are not. Belief is rational, it is in favor of the better argument, it simply goes on following a long line since Adam and Eve - blindly, faithfully. If so many people are ahead of him, they must be going in the right direction. And everybody thinks so too.

 

My word is "trust," and it has a different orientation altogether. It is simply a love affair.

 

Just think of a situation: a man says to a woman, "I believe I love you." The statement will offend the woman. He believes he loves you. You simply say, "I love you." There is no question of belief or faith.

 

You cannot say to a beautiful woman, "I have faith, that are beautiful." That is enough proof that the woman is not beautiful.

 

Just the other night, I was talking to a very beautiful heart, a Dutch journalist - which is rare, because journalism is worse than politics. In fact, of the people who become journalists, ninety-nine percent are the people who wanted to be politicians but could not manage. They did not have guts enough to fight and struggle. They could not race in competition, so the second alternative was standing by the side and throwing stones at anybody who is going up higher. The whole function of journalism has become nothing but a frustration, and out of frustration, naturally, comes revengefulness against the politicians.

 

But this man was not of that category. Accidentally it seems, he became a journalist. He had as pure a heart as you have. I was asked by him, "I have been reading so many contradictions in your books. You say one thing today, tomorrow you contradict it. Then how do your sannyasins go on believing in you?"

 

A consistent question, relevant. You can believe in a person who says the same thing. You cannot believe in a person when you know perfectly well tomorrow he may say just the opposite: "So at least let us wait for tomorrow, then we can see what to do." But tomorrow never comes, it is always coming.

 

And I don't take any account of my past statements. For me there is no contradiction at all, because unless I compare two statements how can I find there is contradiction? By the time I go to bed I am finished with that day. In the morning I wake up fresh - just like an innocent child, carrying no burden of the past. I speak to you from that innocence.

 

And I speak not to emphasize a certain psychology, a certain theology - I do not speak to program your mind. I cannot humiliate any human being by programming his mind. Programming the mind of a human being means you are reducing the man to a machine.

 

His question was relevant. He was puzzled: "There are people who have been with you for twenty, thirty years - can't they see these many contradictions? And they go on believing in you?" He was simply using the word "belief" wrongly.

 

My people trust me, love me. It is not a question of my statements to them. They enjoy my statements, it is good entertainment, but it is not a belief system for which you have to live and die. It is only pure entertainment. You have just to laugh and enjoy.

 

My real work is going on underground. Whatever I am doing is just creating a situation so your head is engaged. And my real approach, my target, is your heart, not your skull. And it is the best way I have found to sort out people. Those who approach me rationally will soon find the way towards Santa Fe. Santa Fe is going to be a world-famous place. All the camels of different sizes and shapes!

 

To be with me you have to learn one art, and that is, don't take my statements seriously. For the moment enjoy them, but don't expect that I am not going to contradict them. Don't impose any expectations of yours on me. I never impose any expectations on you. At least this much you can do - a simple thing.

 

For centuries masters have been imposing their ideas on the disciples. I am not imposing any of my ideas on you. Don't from your side insist on how I should behave, what I should say or not say; accept that saying something will create contradiction, saying it will create hostility in people outside, saying it will create unnecessary confusion. Don't expect anything from me. Open your heart. That is where the real surgery has to happen.

 

And once you have known the beauty, the joy, the blessing of dancing in tune with my heart, you will never be bothered by what I said yesterday, what I said ten years ago. Leave all this to people whose profession is gravedigging. Let them settle with the skeletons of the past.

 

You be here now in this moment, part of my life, part of my love, part of my being. Let me reach you in your innermost core. Allow me to touch your center.

 

The head is only the periphery, and I am not interested in your heads. I don't count heads, I count the hearts.

 

The Dutch journalist could understand. When I stood up and started dancing with the sannyasins, he was dancing behind me - in absolute abandon, as if nothing else existed in that moment but the dance.

 

I told the man, "You can write anything you want about me. Even if you want to say things which I have not said, I give you the authority, because I have been able to touch your heart. And beware, soon you will be a sannyasin!"

 

I could see the glow in his eyes - just the idea of being a sannyasin, a great adventure ahead, a great pilgrimage. And the way he was dancing was absolutely drunk. It is just coincidence that he happens to be a journalist, that is not his place. His place is amongst the sannyasins, he is a seeker.

 

And he trusts me....

 

The second problem that you have raised is about believing. But who is asking you to believe me? I go on destroying every possibility of believing in me. Even if you want to believe in me, you cannot; I will not allow it. To the very last breath of my life I will go on contradicting continuously.

 

Perhaps at the last breath I may say all this enlightenment business is just bullshit. Forget all about it! Just be human, ordinary, enjoying the small things of life, relishing the beauty of nature, drowning yourself in love, friendship - and you have something better than enlightenment.

 

Yes, I want it to be remembered: It is difficult to be enlightened, but enlightenment is not the end.

 

One has to transcend enlightenment too. Then one is completely free. Enlightenment helps one to be free from every other bondage, but then one becomes dependent on enlightenment. The real enlightened person transcends it, and he becomes again simple, ordinary, with no idea of any holiness, no idea of meditation, no idea about anything. He lives moment to moment, joyously.

 

It is good that you trust me unconditionally. Trust can only be unconditional. Belief is always conditional. A better argument, and your belief can be destroyed. But your trust is unconditional, nothing can destroy it. If there is a condition, then it is easy to argue and prove that the condition is wrong, that the condition has loopholes. And when you see that in your condition there are loopholes, your belief falls down.

 

Trust has to be intrinsically unconditional; hence, nobody can argue against my people. My people are not believers. They have known something far deeper and far higher: they have tasted the juice of trust.

 

You are fortunate. Don't be worried that you don't believe in me. I don't want you to believe in me!

 

And what you are feeling, an unconditional trust, is what is needed between me and you.

 

Belief is a barrier. Trust is a bridge.

 

So rejoice, and forget all about beliefs. Anyway you cannot believe because I am going to contradict myself.

 

When I was talking to the Dutch journalist, he was worried. He loves me, he has been here before at celebrations, he has been reading my books. He himself has paid his fare, because the editor was not ready to pay the fare. The editor is ready to publish whatsoever the journalist writes, but he was not ready to pay the fare from Holland to here. The journalist has paid it himself.

 

It was a problem for him, and naturally he said: "I cannot conceive - you go on contradicting and still your people are not disturbed by your contradictions."

 

I said, "That is one of the fire tests for becoming a sannyasin. I will contradict my statements. I can start contradicting them by my actions, but trust has no condition."

 

He asked me, "In the world press conference you said that you are a showman."

 

I said, "Me, a showman? What are you asking?"

 

He was, for a moment, silent. And then he said, "You said in the press conference, 'My people are a circus.'"

 

I said, "my people? The whole world is a circus except my people! These are the sanest people in the whole world, and anybody who is sane is going to join my people."

 

Naturally one gets puzzled. But if you trust, you don't get puzzled at all. You can enjoy. You laughed when I said I am a showman, and you are laughing when I am saying I am not! You were laughing when I said you are my circus, and now you are laughing when I am saying you are the only people who are not a circus.

 

This is the beauty of trust.

 

- Osho, "From Death to Deathlessness, #3"