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Osho on Gautam
Buddha's Life and Vipassana Meditation
Osho :
Gautam Buddha had lived in tremendous luxury, surrounded by
beautiful girls, beautiful palaces. The whole night was a
celebration; the day was for rest, the night for dances and
drinking. Out of this experience he became tired. He had seen
all the beautiful girls; there was nothing more to be seen. He
had seen that every man and woman is just a skeleton, covered
with a thin skin. Just think for a moment: here all of you are
skeletons covered with thin skin! This body and its beauty
fades very soon.
He had seen all that was possible in those days for a man of
power and riches to see, but he could not find peace,
contentment, silence. He could not find himself. Utterly
frustrated, he moved out of the palace one night – because this
life is going to end in a few days, or in a few years. It is not
something to cling to. Each moment death is coming closer;
before death grabs you, you have to figure out something which
is eternal, which is immortal. All that you see around you is
made of the same stuff as dreams are. Do you think you are for
the first time on the earth?
On the same earth millions of people have come and simply
disappeared into thin air. Scientists have calculated that the
place you are occupying has been occupied by at least ten people
before you. You are sitting on ten corpses! And don’t think much
of yourself, because you cannot get out – you will be the
eleventh. And remember, it is not a laughing matter for you.
Those ten corpses will laugh at you: ”Look, the poor fellow was
thinking of great things and finally is flat on the pile of
corpses.”
Gautam Buddha’s search for truth, for himself, for the source of
life which is eternal, cannot be the search of a poor man who is
hungry, who is searching for a loaf of bread. But people have
completely forgotten
Gautam Buddha. They have taken his
meditation out of context. He could meditate because there was
nothing else in the world to think about, to desire, to be
ambitious for. The world was, in a way, finished the day he left
his house; he never looked back.
I am reminded of a beautiful story....
Buddha was afraid that if
he went into the mountains of his own kingdom, his father’s
armies would find him; he would not be able to escape. He was
the only son of an old king, who was hoping that he would
succeed him. And he had made a big kingdom for him So he
immediately passed beyond the boundaries of his kingdom to the
neighboring kingdom. And the king was very furious. He ordered
the armies not to leave even a single inch unsearched: ”Look
around, all over the country.”
Gautam Buddha was not found, but he was not aware that the
kingdom he had entered belonged to a friend of his father. So
the father informed this king and other kings surrounding his
kingdom, ”You have to find my son. In my old age at least you
can do this much for me; we have been friends.”
The neighboring king found
Gautam Buddha and he said, ”If you
are angry, if you have fought with your father... It happens. It
is not something strange or unfamiliar; fathers and sons have
always been fighting. Don’t be worried. I have only one daughter
and no son – get married to my daughter and you will have two
kingdoms together. Your father is old; he cannot live long. And
my kingdom is far bigger than your father’s. He is my friend and
I have come with a request. You have everything to gain, nothing
to lose.
You get a beautiful wife, a great kingdom, and of course your
own kingdom is there. You will be a greater king than me or your
father because your kingdom will be bigger than the kingdoms we
have. You will have two kingdoms together.”
Gautam Buddha said, ”You don’t understand the point. I have not
fought with my father, I have not been angry with him, and I
have not come here in search of a girl. I am not interested in a
kingdom, howsoever big it is. But I would like to ask you a few
questions; you are my father’s friend. First tell me, you say
your girl is very beautiful – is this beauty going to remain
forever? Will she not one day be old?”
The king said, ”You ask strange questions. Everybody becomes
old.”
”And do you think,” Gautam Buddha asked, ”she will never die?”
The king laughed. He said, ”You are hilarious. Everybody dies.”
Gautam Buddha said, ”I don’t want to get married with someone
who is going to die.”
The king said, ”She is not going to die tomorrow.”
Gautam Buddha said, ”You cannot give any guarantee. Are you sure
you will be alive tomorrow?”
The king said, ”I have never thought about it. I hope that I
will be alive, but I cannot be certain. But you are creating
anxieties in my mind. I had come to take you to the palace and
it seems you are trying to convince me to follow you to the
mountains.”
Gautam Buddha said, ”It is better – there is still time, it is
still light; maybe you have a few days more to live. Devote
these few days to a search for something which cannot be taken
away from you. Your youth will disappear, your beauty will
disappear, your kingdom will one day belong to somebody else.
And what does it matter, when you are dead, to whom your kingdom
belongs, whether he is your son or somebody else’s son?”
The king said, ”You are a dangerous fellow. I don’t want to talk
to you.”
He informed Gautam Buddha’s father, ”I have met your son; he is
in the mountains in my kingdom. I tried hard, but he is very
convincing. And he has created such anxiety in me that I have
not slept since. I am continuously thinking of death – what is
going to happen after death? What have I gained by having this
big kingdom? I am a poor man inside. I have never looked into my
own being; I am not even acquainted with myself. I request to
you: don’t try to prevent him, let him go and let him search.
What we have missed, perhaps we can hope he will find it.”
Gautam Buddha could sit silently, desireless, thoughtless,
moving inwards, because the outside had lost all interest. He
had seen it – that it is just a phenomenon, the way you see a
film. But there are idiots who even seeing a film will cry, will
weep, will laugh, because they will become identified and they
will forget that there is nothing on the screen, it is just a
projected film. Our whole life is not much more than that, but
to know it you have to go through it. Gautam Buddha had a great
chance to experience life and see its futility. This gave him
the opportunity to sit in deep silence, undisturbed.
Vipassana
was discovered in these moments.
Source: from book "Hari Om Tat Sa"
by Osho
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