Osho - Buddha says: It is a rare fortune to be born in the time of a Buddha

Osho on Buddha Sutra - Even if he be born in the time of a Buddha it is his rare fortune to see the Enlightened.

Osho - But difficulties are there: you may be born in the time of Buddha but you may never go to see him -- because just the very idea that somebody is enlightened is against your ego. You cannot believe that somebody is enlightened and you are not. It is impossible that somebody has gone ahead of you. You cannot believe it because of your ego, and you will find a thousand and one reasons not to go to a Buddha. You will find arguments that he is wrong, that he is a megalomaniac, that he is claiming, that he is not really a Buddha -- "What is the proof?" People used to go to Buddha and ask, "What is your proof? Who is your witness?"

Now these are foolish questions. Who can be a witness? Buddhahood happens in such deep aloneness that nobody can be a witness. It is not an act in the world, it is an act out of the world. Who can be a witness? It happens in tremendous aloneness. It happens at the innermost core; nobody can see it. A Buddha has to be self-proclaimed; there is no other way. And who will certify that he is a Buddha? People used to go to him and they would find a thousand and one ways to prove that whatsoever he was saying did or did not coincide with the old scriptures. It never coincides; it cannot, in the very nature of things. Because whenever somebody becomes enlightened he brings a different vision into the world which had never existed before.

Each enlightened person brings a new gift to the world which had not existed before. So if you look in the Vedas you may not find it; if you look in the Upanishads you may not find what Buddha is saying. It will look a little rebellious, unorthodox. An enlightened person is rebellious, is unorthodox, because truth is rebellious and truth is unorthodox. So whenever a Buddha comes, people just start looking in their old scriptures to see whether there is a proof, and it never happens.

When Christ came Jews started looking in their old scriptures, and they never became convinced that this man was the Messiah for whom they were waiting. They crucified him. Why? -- because they could not figure it out. People believe in scriptures. Scriptures are dead things, and scriptures are made by you, collected by you, interpreted by you. Nobody knows what the scriptures really mean. Nobody can know -- because words are there, but the content has to be given by you.
I have heard....

Mulla Nasrudin went to his doctor and said, "I am very worried. A week ago, I came home to find my wife in the arms of another man who talked me into going out for a cup of coffee. The next five nights, exactly the same thing happened."
"My good man," said the doctor, "it is not a doctor you want. It is a solicitor."
"No," insisted the Mulla, "it is a doctor I want. I have just got to know if I am drinking too much coffee."

Now it depends... how you take a certain thing, how you interpret it. Interpretation is bound to come from your mind.

Listen to an anecdote. It was their honeymoon-night, and the Jewish bride had put on a sheer nightgown and crawled into bed, only to discover that her Episcopalian husband was about to go to sleep on the couch. It was the month of Lent, when Christians are supposed to drop at least one of their enjoyments.
"George," she called out, "are you not going to make love to me?"
"I can't, honey," he replied, "because it is Lent."
"Why, that's awful!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears. "To whom? and for how long?"

Get it? Now the passionate mind, the lustful mind, has its own interpretations. Words don't matter much; you project your ideas on the words. If you are looking for something you will be able to see it. If you are not looking for something you may not be able to see it. And the natural tendency of the human mind is to first deny that somebody has arrived. It is offensive to the ego. That's why it is very difficult for you.

If somebody comes and says that another man, your neighbor, is a murderer, you immediately believe. You don't bother about any proofs. You say, "I have known him long. I have always thought that he is." If somebody comes and says, "That man is a thief, immoral," this and that, you never bother about any proofs. If people bothered about proofs there would not be so much gossiping in the world. Who bothers about proofs? When somebody is being condemned you immediately believe it because that gives you a feeling that you are better than the other person.

But if somebody comes and says, "One man has become a meditator, a great meditator," immediately there is suspicion. You listen to it but you don't want to listen. You say, "It is not possible. I know that man; he is a cheat. How can he meditate? I know him from his very childhood; we were colleagues in school. No, he cannot. What is the proof?" you ask. Whenever somebody talks about somebody else being good, you ask for the proof because it hurts your ego: "So, somebody else has become good before me?"

When a Buddha walks on the earth he's claiming the impossible, that which only rarely happens. He's saying he has become a Buddha, and of course only he can say that. There is no other way to prove it or disprove it. His statement is not provable or disprovable -- and your ego feels offended.

Buddha says: It is a rare fortune to be born in the time of a Buddha, and still more rare a fortune to see the enlightened -- to go, to bow. Because only if you bow, if you surrender, will you be able to see. It is not a question of physical eyes. Many people saw the Buddha walking, passing from one town to another, but they were not the people who had seen him. Only those few rare individuals who became his disciples had seen. Because it is impossible to see a Buddha and not to become a disciple. If you have seen, then you have seen; and then you cannot be the same again. Then your whole life is upside down. Then you are in a chaos, then you are reborn. Then there is going to be a complete collapse of your past, a new birth, and of course, all the pain that is always involved in a new birth.

Source - Osho Book "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol4"

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