Truth is one - cannot be otherwise because existence is a universe, it is not a 'multiverse'. It is one.
It is glued together. It is a togetherness. It is a cosmos. That which keeps the universe together is what we call truth, or Tao, or God. Tao is not a person, neither is god a person, but the unity that runs through everything, like a thread running through a garland. The universe is not a heap of things, separate, individual, like islands. No, the universe is one, together, and sometimes keeps it together... it is not falling apart. That which keeps it together is God, Tao.
But man can approach through two ways towards this truth. Those two ways have to be understood.
Truth is one but the paths are two. Thew first path is VIA AFFIRMATIVA, the positive path, the 'yes-sayers' path, The path of devotee. Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna-they have followed the path of affirmation. The path of affirmation seems the path of effort, great effort: one is trying to reach God, one has to make all the effort that is possible, one has to do the utmost, one has to put oneself at stake. In modern times, Gurdjieff, Ramakrishna-they followed the path of affirmation, VIA AFFIRMATIVA.
The other path is VIA NEGATIVA, through negation, through the 'no'. Lao Tzu, Buddha, Nagarjuna - they followed the path of negation. In modern times, Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti - they follow the path of the 'no'.
These two paths have to be understood as clearly as possible because much will depend on it; you will have to choose some day or other. They move in different dimensions; they reach to the same goal, but they move in different directions.
The positive path is a positive approach towards God, a reaching towards God, a seeking, an enquiry. The negative path is a waiting for God, not seeking. The negative path is just to keep the door open, not to go, to seek; not to enquire, just to be receptive, womb-like. The first is yang, the second is yin. The first is the male-oriented path, the second is the female-oriented path. One has just to be in a let-go in the second: no will, but surrender. One has just to allow God to be; no reaching for him, let HIM reach you. Simply be silent, empty. Give space so that if he comes you are available; you remain available.
On the path of will you have much to do; on the path of surrender you have nothing to do, exactly nothing to do, only nothing to do. These paths can be named in a different way too. The first path can be said to be the path of the ascetic. The word 'ascetic' comes from a Greek root ASCESIS which means exercise. Many methods, many exercises, Yoga, methodology, techniques, are possible. The second path can be called the path of the mystic: no exercise, no methods. no technology.
On the first path time is a must. You cannot be immediately enlightened - methods take time, exercises take time, preparation takes time, and you will have to wait for many lives. The enlightenment will be gradual, it cannot be sudden. On the negative path it can be absolutely sudden, it can happen this very moment. Time is not needed because exercise is not needed. You are not to go anywhere; you are just to sit silently, you have just to be in a let-go. One need not wait.
The path of the mystic is mysterious - cannot be explained. The path of the ascetic is explainable:
it is very scientific, very logical. Step by step it can be explained; it can be analysed, divided in easy steps. The steps can be made so small that everybody can take them, even a small child; there, degrees are possible. But the path of the mystic is very mysterious, hence it is called the mystic path. No degrees are possible, no small steps - but a quantum leap, a jump into the unknown, sudden, like lightning. Naturally it cannot be explained logically. The logical mind will be at a loss.
It needs great understanding, not based on logic but based on intuition, not based on intellect but based on intuition. It needs an illogical, adventurous mind: one which can forego all steps, one which is ready to go into the unknown, one which is courageous enough to take the jump.
On the first path you go step by step, moving upwards. On the second path you simply take a jump into the abyss. It is a bottomless abyss, it is emptiness, it is absolute nothingness. You disappear.
These two are the paths, and everybody has to decide in his own innermost core of being what appeals to him or to her. It is difficult to decide but it HAS to be decided, otherwise you can go on doing things which will not prove of any meaning. If you can take the jump then there is no need to train yourself for Yoga. If you cannot take the jump, then there is no point in just sitting and waiting.
On the first path, the greatest danger is of the ego because you have to do much, and if you are too egoistic, you will become a doer and then ego will become your barrier. One has to do, yet not to strengthen the ego. On the second path, lethargy is the problem. You are not to do anything; one can become lethargic, one can become dull and dead. That is the danger - very natural: sitting silently, doing nothing, by and by you relapse into a dullness, into a sort of unintelligence; you lose sharpness, you lose aliveness, you become idiotic. That's possible; one has to be very alert about this.
On the first path, one has to watch that the ego does not arise. On the second path, one has to watch that lethargy is not settling. If these two pitfalls are avoided, then yOu can reach from either the affirmative or the negative. People have reached from both. So there is no question about reaching, the question is which is going to be easier, more in tune with your inner nature - choose that.
A few things have to be understood about the path of nothingness, because Lieh Tzu is a follower of that path - the path of VIA NEGATIVA, the mystic path. On the mystic path you have to be alone - no possibility of 'being together'. It is a deep inactivity, so deep that the very idea of action has to be dropped and renounced. No desire, no action; one has just to be. Aloneness has to be experienced.
Solitude has to be experienced.
On the path of affirmation, God is always with you, you are never alone. You can always talk to God, always pray to God, you can always hope that he is with you. He surrounds you, he holds your hand. And he is very much on the path of affirmation. His hand is almost in your hands. It is not just imagination - remember it, it is not hallucination; it is so. When you have done all that you can do suddenly he becomes available. More you cannot do: you have not been withholding, you have done all that you can do, you have put yourself totally in the work, you have come to your optimum - from that moment he takes over. But one has to do the optimum, less than that will not help. One has to boil to a hundred degrees, then suddenly - the evaporation.
On the path of the ascetic God is with you; you are never alone, you can always pray. But on the negative path prayer is not possible, prayer is not allowed - prayer is a hindrance. Remember this too: one thing may be a help on one path and may become a hindrance on another path. Prayer is a hindrance. If you ask the follower of the negative path he will say: Prayer means that you are still not capable of being alone; you are still attached to the other. You may have dropped your attachment to the wife, to the husband. to the children. to the friend, to the society, but now you have projected a God and now you keep company with him; but you cannot be alone. Prayer means that you are still afraid of being alone, so you create a bridge with the other. you seek the other. Prayer simply means that whenever you are alone, you are not alone but lonely: you miss the other. On the path of the negative, aloneness is simply the greatest splendour there is.
If you ask the mystic he will say: Being lonely is just a pause. Being alone is an ultimate condition.
Being lonely or together is accidental. Being alone is essential. Being lonely implies an evolution or continuity of experience, while being alone means a radical, total, one hundred and eighty degree change. a mutation, a METANOIA. Being lonely is a way back to others: whenever you feel lonely you are seeking the other in some form or other. Being lonely is a way back to others. Being alone is a way back to oneself.
This has to be remembered. That's why on the negative path meditation is more significant than prayer. Meditation is a help, prayer is a hindrance. On the path of affirmation, prayer is a help, meditation is not talked about at all. That's why in Christianity, in Islam, in Judaism, in Hinduism, meditation has not been developed. Meditation has been developed utterly by the Buddhists and the Taoists - that is their secret key.
You can divide all the religions into two: Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity - all are on the path of VIA AFFIRMATIVA. Buddhism and Tao - they are basically negative, on the path of VIA NEGATIVA. Hinduism and Islam have flowered to their utmost in Sufism. That is the meeting of the Hindu and the Mohammedan and a really beautiful flower has come out of the meeting - it is a cross-breeding - Sufism. It is higher than anything that is in Hinduism and higher than anything that is in Mohammedanism; it is higher than both, it has transcended both the parents. The child is more beautiful than the mother and the father - has to be, because both mother and father have dissolved into it. So Sufism is the peak of the affirmative. And Buddhism and Taoism met and gave birth to Zen: that is the optimum on the path of meditation. Again more beautiful than Buddhism and Taoism, better than both the parents: again a crossbreeding.
The meeting of Islam and Hinduism happened in India. Islam came to India, met with Hinduism and a beautiful child was born. The meeting of Taoism and Buddhism happened in China. Buddhism went to China, met with Taoism and a beautiful child, Zen, was born. If everything disappears from the world and only two things can be retained, Sufism and Zen, nothing will be lost. They are the highest crescendos, but of two different paths. Sufism is nothing but pure prayer, ZIKR, remembrance of God, and Zen is nothing but meditation.
The word zen comes from the sanskrit root dhyana. First the word DHYANA became JHANA, because Buddha used to talk in Pali - DHYANA is JHANA in Pali. Then from JHANA it became CH'AN in China. Then it became zen when it reached to Japan. But it is DHYANA, it is the essential DHYANA: just to be alone, absolutely alone, not even a thought to keep company with. In that aloneness all disappears. One is just spacious, one is just a space, pure, transparent. In that purity one achieves, God comes in. When you are ready to be so empty, God enters in. The Sufi seeks God. The Zen disciple waits, God comes.
-Osho, “Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1, #9”