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Osho on Superconscious
&
Unconscious
Question: Beloved Master, The more I watch the
desires and needs of the mind, the more I come to a
space that
looks like madness. Please comment.
Osho : It is madness, but it is higher than what
you call sanity. There are two kinds of madness. Madness
simply means out of the mind. You can be out of the
mind, falling below the mind – that’s where insanity
starts. But you can also be out of the mind going beyond
the mind – that’s where meditation starts. In one sense
they are similar in that both are out of the mind. Hence
one can feel, living in the beauty of the present
moment, as if it is madness, because madness and
meditation have a similarity but only on one point: both
happen outside the mind. In every other sense they are
different.
To go below the mind means to become unconscious. To go
beyond the mind means to become superconscious. And the superconscious and unconscious are as distinct as two
things can be, as far away from each other as there is
possibility. They have nothing in common except that one
point. Hence in the beginning every meditator feels that
it is something like madness. But it is saner than your
sanity. You have to wait a little, to become acquainted
with the new territory of the world of meditation.
Others may also think that you are mad, because
sometimes you will be doing things like a madman. But
the basic difference is that no madman ever
acknowledges, ever accepts that he is mad. He refuses it
vehemently. You can go to any madhouse, not a single
madman will accept that he is mad. But the meditator can
accept it smiling. He is aware of the similarity. He can
understand the outsider’s judgment, and he can accept
it.
He can see also that the action... for example, a meditator sometimes feels so blissful that you will see
a smile on his face although there is no reason at all
to smile. And we forgive people for being miserable
without any reason, but we cannot forgive people for
being so happy without any reason. We ask people, ”What
is the cause? Why are you smiling?”
And a man who is experiencing something within himself,
joyful, something immensely sweet – what can he say to
you? And whatever he is going to say, you are not going
to believe it, because it is not your experience. You
can believe only if it is also your experience. Two
meditators can sit silently and smile without asking
each other why they are smiling. They can laugh, they
can dance without asking each other why they are doing
it.
Our life is always dominated by something from outside.
The meditator’s life is inspired from inwards, he cannot
show anything outside as a cause. He can simply say he
is feeling so blissful he would like to dance just as
the birds sing in the morning, or the flowers release
their fragrance. It is a known fact that great poets
cannot explain why they are writing certain poetry. One
of the great English poets, Coleridge, when he died left
forty thousand incomplete poems.
And his whole life
people were asking him why he went on collecting
incomplete poems, and saying that he should complete
them. Just one line was needed, or two lines were
needed... but only a poet of the quality of Coleridge
can understand why he was not completing them.
People thought he was mad, because he used to say, ”I
don’t write. Something in me begins to write it. And if
it completes, good, if it does not complete, I am not
going to complete it, because I have tried it – it looks
totally different. It does not have that quality, it
looks ordinary. So unless it happens again, and the
unknown in me completes it... I am always willing to
complete it. But I cannot do it willfully, because
whenever I have done it willfully it is not of the
quality that I would like it to be.”
It happened in one of the great Indian poets,
Rabindranath Tagore’s life.... He translated his own
book, GITANJALI – offering of songs. For this book he
received the Nobel Prize. But before taking it to
England, to show his poet friends, he showed it to one
of the great Christian missionaries, C.F. Andrews – just
a translation. He was a little suspicious whether he had
been able to bring the quality of the original into the
translation or not, and whether the language, the
grammar, was correct or not.
C.F. Andrews suggested to change four words at four
different points, because they were not linguistically
right. C.F. Andrews was not a poet, but he was a great
scholar. Rabindranath understood it, and he
changed those four words. In England, one of the great
English poets, Yeats, called a meeting of all great
poets to listen to Rabindranath Tagore’s GITANJALI.
While listening to it, Yeats himself said that at four
points it seemed somebody else had interfered in the
translation. Exactly those four points were the four
words that C.F. Andrews had suggested.
Rabindranath was simply shocked. He could not believe
it. He said, ”These are the four words suggested by C.F.
Andrews.” Yeats said, ”You drop those words. They may be
linguistically right, but they have not the poetic
quality. They are like blocking stones – they stop the
current, the flow, the spontaneity. Please put your
original words that you had before C.F. Andrews
suggested these four words to you.”
Rabindranath put back his old words, and Yeats and the
other poets said, ”They are linguistically wrong, but
they are far superior poetically. You leave what you had
originally written. Don’t listen to anybody.”
A poet cannot be corrected by a grammarian, by a
linguist, by a scholar – and another poet of the same
depth can immediately see. That was the trouble with
Coleridge. He completed only seven poems in his whole
life. Just those seven poems make him one of the
greatest poets in the world. And he has left forty
thousand incomplete poems. But that does not matter, he
was sincere and honest. He could have managed, but that
would not have been coming from the heart, it would have
been coming from the head, and the head is far inferior
to the heart. And the heart cannot be ordered, it is
like a breeze – whenever it comes, it comes.
The meditator enters into a world beyond mind, a space
which is so beautiful and so blissful that he cannot
contain it. It starts overflowing him. Then it will look
as if he is mad. He will be silent where it is needed
for him to speak. And he may be speaking when he is
alone and there is nobody to speak to. There are moments
when something in him wants to be expressed. If he is a
poet, it may be expressed in poetry; if he is a
musician, it may be expressed in music; if he is a
dancer... It all depends on his talents, on his genius,
on his qualities.
If he is articulate, to say something
– and he is so full of it – then it does not matter
whether anybody is there to listen or not, he will say
it; he has to say it. It is almost like a cloud full of
rain. The cloud comes and showers itself. It cannot
contain. A meditator is a rain cloud. The clouds don’t
discriminate about where the fertile land is and where
the mountain is and where the river is, and where one
country’s boundary ends and another country’s boundary
begins. The rain cloud does not care about all these
things, he simply showers when he is too full.
A meditator sometimes behaves... particularly in the
beginning, when he is entering that wonderland of his
own being for the first time. As he becomes more and
more acquainted, his madness stops showing any
indications to the outside world. As he becomes perfect
in his meditation, there is no madness left at all. Then
he is pure sanity. But it takes time to reach to such
maturity.
In the beginning it is such a surprise, the experience
is such that one had never thought about, had never
dreamed about it – it is unbelievable. Its
unbelievability drives one crazy. And these are the
moments when the master is helpful. He goes on telling
you, ”Don’t be worried and don’t be afraid.
It is not madness, it only looks like madness. It is the
beginning of meditation. You just have to become more
acquainted, take it more calmly and quietly – just a few
days more.” There is an anecdote in Gautam Buddha’s
life....
He and his disciple Ananda have lost their path into a
forest. They inquired of an old woman who was collecting
wood, ”How far is the village?” The old woman said, ”My
sons, it is not very far, just two miles. You go
directly.”
Two miles passed, and there were no signs of any
village. They come across another man, who was cutting a
tree. They ask the woodcutter, ”How far is the village?
Have we lost the way?”
And the woodcutter said, ”No. The village is just close
by, just two miles.”
Ananda said, ”It is strange. The old woman said two
miles. We have gone two miles. This man again says two
miles.”
Buddha said, ”After two miles, ask again.”
Ananda said, ”What do you mean? After two miles also we
are not going to get to the village?”
Buddha said, ”I don’t believe them. They are just
compassionate people. They are simply
encouraging you. If they say it is ten miles, you may
get discouraged.”
It turned out to be exactly ten miles, and each time
they asked everyone on the way, just simple villagers,
all said, ”Just two miles, it is just... you have almost
reached.” When they reached the town Ananda asked, ”How
did you know that it must be at least ten miles? It
turns out to be exactly ten miles.”
Buddha said, ”That is my whole business. That’s
what I have been doing my whole life, telling people,
‘Just a little more. Soon you will be reaching,’ just to
keep them going.” A friend, a guide, a master is
immensely helpful in many ways; otherwise you may get
tired, you may think you have lost the way. You may
think it is a futile search, you may think it is really
madness and it is better to stop doing such things.
People may start to think of you as insane: you are
getting into danger. Your own children, your wife, your
father, your mother, your friends have started thinking
that you are going a little cuckoo. It is best to stop
right now, before it is too late, before you have gone
too far and you cannot come back.
A master is needed to assure you, ”This is only a
momentary phase, it will go away. You have to go a
little farther. Going back is meaningless. Go on, in
spite of what happens, in spite of what people think of
you. You will pass over it.” Somebody with great
authority and experience has to keep you inspired,
courageous. There are moments of weakness, there are
moments of doubt, and somebody is needed to keep your
spirit awake, strong, ready to go on the full adventure.
The master cannot take you to the goal, but without the
master it is almost impossible to reach. There are so
many other difficulties, which you alone may not be able
to cross over. This is one, and this is one of the most
significant because nobody wants to be thought about as
crazy or mad. But it comes to every meditator. This is
the price one has to pay. You cannot get the highest
experience in life without paying any price.
These are
the prices you
have to pay. And when these moments come, feel grateful
to existence that the journey has started, that you have
entered at least into the new space of your innermost
being. Be thankful for this madness. It happens only to
those who are blessed. And if it is happening to you,
you are blessed.
Source: “The Sword and the Lotus” - Osho
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