Osho on Unconditional Seeing

OSHO,

ARE YOU A YOGI, OR A BHAKTA. OR A GYANI. OR A TANTRIKA?

Nothing of the nonsense. Don’t try to label me; don’t try to categorize. The mind would like to put me in a pigeonhole so you can say this man is this and you can be finished with me. It is not going to be that easy. I will not allow. I will remain like mercury the more you will try to grasp me, the more I will become elusive. Either I am all or I am nothing — only these two categories can be allowed, and all other categories in between are not allowed, because they are not going to say the truth. And the day you will realize me either as all or as nothing will be a day of great realization to you.

Let me tell you a story I was just reading yesterday. In his story “The Country of the Blind,” H. G. Wells tells how a traveller came to a strange valley, set off from the rest of the world by precipitous walls, in which all the people were blind – the valley of the blind. He lived for a while in this strange place, but was considered queer by the natives. Their experts said, “His brain is affected by these queer things called the eyes, which keep it in a constant state of irritation and distraction.” And they concluded that he would never be normal until his eyes were removed. “A surgery is needed, and it is urgent,” the experts said.

The traveller fell in love with a sightless maiden, who pleaded with him to have his eyes removed that they might live together in happiness. “Because,” the woman said, “if you don’t remove your eyes, my community is not going to accept you. You are abnormal; you are so strange. Some misfortune has befallen you. One has never heard about these eyes. And you can ask people nobody has ever seen. Because of these two eyes, you will remain a stranger in my community and they won’t allow me to live with you. And I am also a little afraid to live with you. You are so different, so alien.”

She persuaded him to please let his eyes be removed that they might live together in happiness. And he was just on the verge of accepting the offer, because he had fallen in love with this blind girl — because of that love and attachment he was ready even to lose his eyes — but one day when he was just on the verge of deciding one morning he saw the sun rise on the rocks, and the meadows beautiful with white flowers… no longer could he be content in the valley of darkness. He climbed back to the land where men walk in the light.

Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Zarathustra, they are men with eyes in the valley of the blind. Call them what you like – Yogis, Buddhas, Jinas, Christs, Bhaktas. Call them what you like, but all your categories simply say one thing that they are different than you, that they have a certain quality of vision, that they have eyes, that they can see something which you cannot see.

And you feel offended; hence, in the beginning you oppose them, even when you start following them. Because their visions create a great desire in you — in spite of your opposition. Deep down in you your own nature goes on saying that these eyes are possible to you also. On the surface you go on denying; deep down an undercurrent goes on saying to you that maybe you are not right. Maybe these eyes are normal and you are abnormal. Maybe you are in a majority, but that doesn’t make it a truth.

These people are to be remembered just as people with eyes amongst the valley of the blind.

I am here amongst you. I know your difficulty, because that which I can see you cannot see, that which I can feel you cannot feel, that which I can touch you cannot touch. I know even if you become convinced with me, deep down somewhere a doubt goes on lingering. A doubt -who knows? – this man may be imagining. Who knows? – this man may be just deceiving. Who knows? Because until it becomes an experience in you, how can you trust?

You would like to categorize me. That will give you a least a name, a label, and you will feel comfortable. Then you will start feeling that you know me if you can categorize, that he is a yogi. Then you don’t feel so uncomfortable. At least you feel that you know. By naming, people feel that they know. That’s an obsession…

People come to me. They ask me, “Who are you? Hindu, Jain, Mohammedan, Christian? Who are you?” If they can categorize, that I am a Hindu, they will feel satisfied — they know me. Now the word “Hindu” will give them a false feeling of knowing.

You ask me, “Who are you? A bhakta a yogi, a gyani. a tantrika?” If you can find a name, you will be at ease. Then you can relax, then there is no problem.

But will you be able to know me by giving me a name? In fact, if you really want to know me, please don’t bring a name in between me and you. Drop all categories. Just look direct. Let your eyes be open and clean of all dust. Look at me without knowledge. Look at me with a simple, innocent look with no ideas, no prejudices behind, and you will be able to see through and through. I will become transparent to you. That’s the only way to know me, that’s the only way to know the reality. Look at the rose and forget the word “rose.” Look at the tree and forget the word “tree.”  Look at the greenery and forget the word “green.”  And immediately you will become aware of a strange presence surrounding you that is God. God labelled becomes the world; world unlabelled again, becomes God. God conditioned in your mind becomes the world; the world unconditioned, again unstructured, again unknown, becomes God. Look at me without any words.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse series: Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 7 Chapter #2

Chapter title: The mind is very clever

2 January 1976 am in Buddha Hall

References:

Osho has spoken on prominent writers and philosophers like Albert Camus, Aristotle, Byron, Descartes, Fyodor Dostoevsky, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Hegel, Huxley, John Milton, Kahlil Gibran, Kalidas, Kant, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Nietzsche, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Shakespeare and many more in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. The Discipline of Transcendence
2. This Very Body the Buddha
3. The Messiah Vol.1-2
4. The Dhammapada: the way of the Buddha Vol.1,3,7,9,10,12
5. When the Shoe Fits
6. The Fish in The Sea Is Not Thirsty
7. From Bondage to Freedom
8. The Madman’s Guide to Enlightenment
9. Far Beyond the Stars
10. The Wild Geese and the Water