Osho - The Empty Boat: Encounters with Nothingness

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Table of Contents

Preface

Osho, can you summarize your teaching in short because I am here only for a day or two.

It is impossible. In the first place I have no teaching to summarize. I am not a teacher, I am a presence. I have no catechism. I cannot give you ten commandments - do this, dont do that.

And whatsoever I say today I may contradict tomorrow because my commitment is to the moment. Whatsoever I said yesterday, I am no longer committed to it. The moment I said it I became free of it. Now I wont bother about it, I wont look at it again. Whatsoever I am saying to you right now is true this very moment; tomorrow I will not be committed to it. Whatsoever tomorrow brings, I will say it. Whatsoever today has brought I am telling you now. And if they are contradictory who am I to make them consistent? I dont make any effort on my own.

My commitment is to the moment. I am never committed to the past. I am like a river: where I will be tomorrow nobody knows, not even I myself. You will be surprised, I will also be surprised.

The question must be from someone who comes from the continent I call Acirema it is America read in the reverse order. America is topsy-turvy. Everything has become chaotic. People are in such a hurry that they have forgotten that there are a few things which you cannot get in a hurry, for which patience is a must.

You cannot get truth in such a hurry. Patience is a basic condition for it. It is not like instant coffee and it does not come packed in tins. It does not come ready-made. Truth is not a commodity that somebody can give to you. It grows in you.

Thats what I mean when I say I am a presence, I am not a teacher. If you are here, something may grow in you. I say, may because it depends on you. I am here. If you are ready to receive me, something will start growing within you. It is like a child becoming a young man. Yes, truth is like that. The false personality drops and the true being arrives. It is like a child becoming a young man, a young man becoming an old one. There is no way to hurry the process. You cannot make a child grow up fast in one night, in a day or two. It will take time. And it is good that it takes time because only through time do things become seasoned.

No, I cannot do that, I cannot summarize. I have no teaching. And even if I had a teaching I would not summarize it, because the more you summarize something, the more it becomes less alive. Love is vast, life is vast; law is limited. Law can be summarized; love cannot be summarized. Law is defined but life is excessive. You cannot summarize life, there cannot be a synopsis of life; you can summarize law. I am life. There is no way to summarize me.

And I am still alive so whatsoever you summarize I will destroy tomorrow.

When you summarize, by and by things become absurd.

Never summarize anything that is alive. I am still alive. When I am dead and gone then people will summarize. And I am going to give them a hell of a lot of trouble. It will not be an easy thing. They will go nuts. It will be impossible to put me into a synopsis.

It has been always so. You cannot summarize Buddha. Because of summarizations many schools were born. Buddha died, then there was a question. People wanted to summarize. For forty years the man had been teaching morning, afternoon, evening for forty years. He had talked a lot, he had said many things, and now he had gone and it had to be summarized.

Truth is not like a commodity. When you come to me, if you really want to know what my truth is, you will have to be here. My truth can be expressed to you only when I have come to know your truth too. When I have come to know you and you have come to know me, in that meeting will be the glimpse. It cannot be given to you. You will have to receive it and you will have to prepare for it. You will have to become a very relaxed being. You will have to be able to soak me up and allow me to sink deep into your heart.

It happened

In the Amsterdam National Museum an elderly couple came to see Rembrandts masterpiece The Nightwatch. When, after a long walk through the many corridors, they finally reached the famous painting, the usher overheard the man say to his wife, Look, what a beautiful frame!

The frame may have been beautiful, but cant you see that something is missing in the admiration? Something essential is lost. I am not saying that the frame was not beautiful, the frame may have been the most beautiful frame in the world, but to go to see Rembrandts masterpiece The Nightwatch and then to talk about the frame is absurd. Even to see the frame is foolish, stupid. The painting is not the frame. The frame has nothing to do with the painting.

What I am saying is just a frame, what I am is the painting. Look at the masterpiece and dont be bothered with the frame.

Chapter 1

The Toast Is Burned

He who rules men lives in confusion;
He who is ruled by men lives in sorrow.
Yao therefore desired
Neither to influence others
Nor to be influenced by them.
The way to get clear of confusion
And free of sorrow
Is to live with Tao
In the land of the great Void.
If a man is crossing a river
And an empty boat collides with his own skiff,
Even though he be a bad-tempered man
He will not become very angry.
But if he sees a man in the boat,
He will shout at him to steer clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again,
And yet again, and begin cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet if the boat were empty,
He would not be shouting, and not angry.

If you can empty your own boat
Crossing the river of the world,
No one will oppose you,
No one will seek to harm you.

The straight tree is the first to be cut down,
The spring of clear water is the first to be drained dry.
If you wish to improve your wisdom
And shame the ignorant,
To cultivate your character
And outshine others;
A light will shine around you
As if you had swallowed the sun and the moon:
You will not avoid calamity.

A wise man has said:
He who is content with himself
Has done a worthless work.
Achievement is the beginning of failure,
Fame is the beginning of disgrace.

Who can free himself from achievement
And from fame, descend and be lost
Amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen,
He will go about like Life itself
With no name and no home.
Simple is he, without distinction.
To all appearances he is a fool.
His steps leave no trace. He has no power.
He achieves nothing, he has no reputation.
Since he judges no one,
No one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty.

Y ou have come to me. You have taken a dangerous step. It is a risk because near me you can be lost forever. To come closer will mean death and cannot mean anything else. I am just like an abyss. Come closer to me and you will fall into me. And for this, the invitation has been given to you. You have heard it and you have come.

Be aware that through me you are not going to gain anything. Through me you can only lose all because unless you are lost, the divine cannot happen; unless you disappear totally, the real cannot arise. You are the barrier.

And you are so much, so stubbornly much, you are so filled with yourself that nothing can penetrate you. Your doors are closed. When you disappear, when you are not, the doors open. Then you become just like the vast, infinite sky.

That is your nature. That is Tao.

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