It is said that Confucius went to see Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu was an old man, Confucius was younger.

 

Lao Tzu was almost unknown, Confucius was almost universally known. Kings and emperors used to call him to their courts; wise men used to come for his advice. He was the wisest man in China in those days. But by and by he must have felt that his wisdom might be of use to others, but he was not blissful, he had not attained to anything. He had become an expert, maybe helpful to others, but not helpful to himself.

 

So he started a secret search to find someone who could help him. Ordinary wise men wouldn't do, because they used to come for his own advice. Great scholars wouldn't do; they used to come to ask him about their problems. But there must be someone somewhere - life is vast. He tried a secret search.

 

He sent his disciples to find someone who could be of help to him, and they came with the information that there lived a man - nobody knew his name - he was known as the old guy. Lao Tzu means "the old guy." The word is not his name, nobody knows his name. He was such an unknown man that nobody knows when he was born, nobody knows to whom - who his father was or who his mother was. He had lived for ninety years but only very rare human beings had come across him, very rare, who had different eyes and perspectives with which to understand him. He was only for the rarest - so ordinary a man, but only for the rarest of human minds.

 

Hearing the news that a man known as The Old Guy existed, Confucius went to see him. When he met Lao Tzu he could feel that here was a man of great understanding, great intellectual integrity, great logical acumen, a genius. He could feel that something was there, but he couldn't catch hold of it. Vaguely, mysteriously, there was something; this man was no ordinary man although he looked absolutely ordinary. Something was hidden; he was carrying a treasure.

 

Confucius asked, "What do you say about morality? What do you say about how to cultivate good character?" - because he was a moralist and he thought that if you cultivate a good character that is the highest attainment.

 

Lao Tzu laughed loudly, and said, "If you are immoral, only then the question of morality arises. And if you don't have any character, only then you think about character. A man of character is absolutely oblivious of the fact that anything like character exists. A man of morality does not know what the word 'moral' means. So don't be foolish! And don't try to cultivate. Just be natural."

 

And the man had such tremendous energy that Confucius started trembling. He couldn't stand him.

 

He escaped. He became afraid - as one becomes afraid near an abyss. When he came back to his disciples, who were waiting outside under a tree, the disciples could not believe it. This man had been going to emperors, the greatest emperors, and they had never seen any nervousness in him.

 

And he was trembling, and cold perspiration was coming, pouring out from all over his body. They couldn't believe it - what had happened? What had this man Lao Tzu done to their teacher? They asked him and he said, "Wait a little. Let me collect myself. This man is dangerous."

 

And about Lao Tzu he said to his disciples: "I have heard about great animals like elephants, and I know how they walk. And I have heard about hidden animals in the sea, and I know how they swim.

 

And I have heard about great birds who fly thousands of miles away from the earth, and I know how they fly. But this man is a dragon. Nobody knows how he walks. Nobody knows how he lives.

 

Nobody knows how he flies. Never go near him - he is like an abyss. He is like a death."

 

And that is the definition of a Master: a Master is like death. If you come near him, too close, you will feel afraid, a trembling will take over. You will be possessed by an unknown fear, as if you are going to die. It is said that Confucius never came again to see this old man.

 

- Osho, "Tao The Three Treasures Volume 1, #1"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I say 'become water' I mean become a flow -- don't remain stagnant. Move, and move like water.

 

Lao Tzu says: The way of the Tao is a watercourse way . It moves like water. What is the movement of water? or of a river? The movement has a few beautiful things about it. One, it always moves towards the depth, it always searches for the lowest ground. It is non-ambitious; it never hankers to be the first, it wants to be the last.

 

Remember, Jesus says: Those who are the last here will be the first in my kingdom of God. He is talking about the watercourse way of Tao -- not mentioning it, but talking about it. Be the last, be non-ambitious. Ambition means go uphill. Water goes down t searches for the lowest ground, it wants to be a nonentity. It does not want to declare itself unique, exceptional, extraordinary. It has no ego idea.

 

That is what I mean when I say become water: drop the ego. Drop ambition. Don't struggle for the top of the hill and don't start moving upstream. Go with the stream, down the stream, seek and search the lowest -- because only in the lowest will you find peace and tranquillity and silence. And only in the lowest will you find the inner emptiness I have been talking about all these days. When you start striving to be somebody, you will not be empty. You will become full of bullshit, you will become garbage.

 

Go downward. Search the lowest depths and disappear there... one thing.

 

Second thing: the water is soft, feminine. The water is non-aggressive, it never fights -- it makes its way without fighting. It is from water that the Chinese and Japanese learnt the secret art of judo or jujitsu. Winning without fighting, conquering through surrendering -- WEI-WU-WEI.

 

Learn from the water one thing: that it comes across great stone walls, granite walls. It does not fight, it goes on flowing silently. If the stone is too big it finds another way, it bypasses it. But slowly slowly the granite is dissolved into water, becomes sand. Ask the sands of the oceans from where they have come. They have come from the mountains. They will tell you a great secret: "Water wins finally. And we were hard, and we knew... how can water will ' So we were very very settled. We could not believe that this poor water, so soft, unharming, unhurting, non-violent... how can it destroy us? But it destroyed us."

 

That is the beauty of the feminine energy. Don't be like a rock! Be like water -- soft, feminine. And victory IS yours.

 

- Osho, "Take it Easy, Vol 1, #14"