Truth

Wisdom and Understanding.

Listening to me, by and by you will come to a point where you will understand that all questions are futile, in fact questioning is useless. When this realization arises in you, you will have a total change of attitude. Then questions disappear. When all questions disappear, the answer arises. And remember well, there are not as many answers as there are questions, there is only one answer to all questions. Questions may be millions – the answer is one. There is only one answer, the answer, and that is self-knowledge. So I am helping you to become aware.

There is a Sufi story:

A few men were passing by a Sufi monastery; just curious, they came to see what was happening there. People were in catharsis, freaking out, screaming, jumping, going completely mad. The travelers thought, “This is a mad monastery. We always thought that people come to attain enlightenment here but these people have gone mad.” And the master was sitting amidst this catharsis, this mad chaos all around him. In the midst of it he was sitting silently.

The travelers thought, “Why is the master sitting silently?” Someone from the group suggested that maybe he was too tired, he may have done this madness too much.

Then after a few months they were coming back to their town after their work was done, and again they passed the monastery. They again looked to see what had happened to those mad people. But now everybody was sitting silently, not even a single word. When they approached the monastery they became afraid: had those people left? – because there seemed to be nobody now. When they came in everybody was there but they were silently sitting.

Then after a few months they went again on another business journey. Curiosity led them again to the monastery. They looked, there was nobody. Only the master was sitting there. So they asked, “What is all this?”

The master said, “When you passed through the first time you saw the beginners. They were full of madness and I encouraged them to bring it out. The next time you passed, they had realized, they had calmed down. That’s why they were sitting silently. There was nothing to do. When you passed by the third time there was no need even to be here. Now they can be silent anywhere in the world, so I have sent them back to the world. I am waiting for a new group. When you pass next time, again there will be madness.”

I encourage you to ask – it is to bring your mind out. This will help you to calm down. My answering in fact is not any effort to answer your questions, it is an effort to kill them, to murder them. I am not a teacher. I may be a murderer but I am not a teacher. I am not teaching you anything, I am simply destroying your questions. Once all questions are destroyed your head is cut off – I have murdered you. Then you are completely silent, content, absolutely at home. No problem exists – you live life moment to moment, you enjoy, you delight in it moment to moment. No problem exists.

I am against metaphysics but I have to talk about metaphysics. My whole work is therapeutic. I am not a metaphysician. My work is like this: you have a thorn in your foot; I bring another thorn to take the first thorn out of your foot. The first thorn and the second thorn are similar, there exists no qualitative difference. When the first is out, helped by the second, we throw away both.

When I bring your questions out I’m not saying put my answers in the places left vacant by the questions – no. Throw away my answers also as you throw away your questions, otherwise my answers will create troubles for you. Don’t carry my answers, they are only therapeutic. They are like thorns: they can be used to bring other thorns out, then both have to be thrown away. ...

From Osho's, Absolute Tao, Chapter #10.