Osho - The Voice of Silence

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
jaicopub@jaicobooks.com
www.jaicobooks.com

THE VOICE OF SILENCE
ISBN 978-81-8495-018-2

First Jaico Impression: 2010
Fourth Jaico Impression: 2012

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Introduction

Every few thousand years an individual appears who irrevocably changes the world around them in ways that are never immediately apparent, except to the most perceptive.

Osho is one such individual: his spoken words will resonate for centuries to come.

All those words have been recorded and transcribed into books like this one, written words that can carry a transforming message to the reader.

For Osho, all change is individual. There is no "society" to change it can only happen to each one of us, one at a time.

So, no matter what the subject matter of the book, the thread that runs through all Osho's words is like a love song that we can suddenly, mysteriously, hear at just the right moment. And strangely, no matter what the words seem to be referring to, they are really only referring to us.

And this is no ordinary love song, more an invitation to open our hearts to hear something beyond the words, beyond the heart...a silence beyond all understanding. Where we all belong.

AMBITION

PART 1

These rules are written for all disciples: Attend you to them.

Before the eyes can see,
they must be incapable of tears.
Before the ear can hear,
it must have lost its sensitiveness.
Before the voice can speak
in the presence of the Masters,
it must have lost the power to wound.
Before the soul can stand
in the presence of the Masters,
its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.

1. Kill out ambition.

Ambition is the first curse:
the great tempter of the man
who is rising above his fellows.
It is the simplest form of looking for reward.
Men of intelligence and power are led away from their higher possibilities by it continually.
Yet it is a necessary teacher.
Its results turn to dust and ashes in the mouth; like death and estrangement, it shows the man at last that to work for self is to work for disappointment.

I called you and you have come. To come outwardly is very easy but until you also come to me inwardly, your outer coming or not coming does not have much meaning. One who can come outwardly, who has a thirst and longing, can also come from the inside too. The outer coming is a proof that you are searching, but that proof alone is not enough. It is an indication, and it is a good indication; it is necessary, but it is not enough. You have to come inwardly too. And before that inner journey can begin, it is necessary for you to understand a few things about yourself because it is you who will make this journey. No one else can make this journey on your behalf. In this world, it is not possible to see with someone else's eyes, nor is it possible to walk with someone else's feet. Here, you have to die for yourself and you have to live for yourself. Here, nobody can take your place.

That is why it is necessary first of all to understand a few things about yourself because if there is a misconception about that, then even a right path will take you to a wrong place. If you do not have the right understanding about yourself, you will turn even a right path into one that takes you to the wrong destination. And if you have a right understanding about yourself, then there is no path that will not take you to the right place. Even wrong paths can reach to the right destination; what is needed is the right traveler. It all depends on the traveler. It is not the path that takes the traveler to the destination, it is the traveler who reaches.

The path changes in accordance with you. As you are, so becomes the path. That is why there are no ready-made paths on which you can walk blindly.

The first thing is to have the right understanding about yourself, because it is out of you that the path will be born, and in the end the destination will also arise from you.

You are everything you are the seed and you will also become the tree. And when the flowers bloom and the fragrance emanates from them, then it is you who will be in those flowers and in that fragrance. If you have the wrong understanding about yourself, then all your hard work will go to waste.

The first thing: the first thing for you to understand about yourself is that you don't know anything. If you did know, then there would have been no need for you to come to me. If you are able to catch hold of even one ray of sunlight, then the whole path which reaches to the sun has opened up because by catching that ray you can reach to its original source, the sun. And if you are able to taste even one drop of the ocean, then you have tasted the whole ocean. If you know even a little bit of life, then there is no need to ask anyone anything. With the help of that little bit that you know, you can keep moving on ahead.

It is as if a man takes a small lamp and walks in the darkness, and the way is lit for only two steps; but when he has taken those two steps, two more steps are lit up and then when he has taken those two steps, two more steps are lighted. With a lamp which can shed light on only two steps, you can complete a journey of a thousand miles. There is no need to light up the whole thousand miles. Even if you have a small lamp in your hand, even then, the journey along the longest of long, dark roads can be completed. Two steps are enough.

If you knew even a little bit about yourself, then there would have been no need for you to come to me; there would have been no need for you to go to anyone. So the first thing is that you understand this rightly: as yet, you don't know anything about yourself, and whatever you may know is just words. But words have no life and no meaning. In this world, there is nothing more false than words.

Experience, yes experience has meaning. I may talk as much as I want, but I cannot put my experience into words. Nobody has ever been able to do it and nobody will ever be able to do it because whatever I know is my experience. And when I put that into words, what you hear is not the experience, but empty words.

I say God and you hear it, I say soul and you also hear it, but there is no meaning in the words soul or God. What you are hearing is just words, and by hearing them again and again an illusion is created that you have understood. The knowledge of words is another name for foolishness.

You don't know anything. Please let this be clear; this is fundamental. Because if a person who does not know starts to think that he knows, then all the doors to knowing close for him. If a sick person believes that he is healthy, then the search for a cure stops. If an ignorant person thinks that he is wise, then this so-called wisdom will lead him much farther astray than his ignorance would have.

If you can understand that you don't know anything, then that is the first ray of wisdom. Now you have become honest. Now you have at least accepted one truth: that you don't know anything. You have put your scriptures aside and you have left your words behind. You have become honest. You have become authentic with yourself in seeing that you don't know anything about your soul or about salvation; you don't know what life is all about. This acceptance of your ignorance is the first step of wisdom.