Osho - Mind as such is nothing but misunderstanding

Question - Beloved Osho, Is Misunderstanding natural to the Human Mind?

Osho - Milarepa, misunderstanding is certainly natural to the human mind. Mind is a misunderstanding, and through mind whatsoever you understand is misunderstanding.

Understanding arises only when mind is absent, because what is mind after all? -- just a collection of thoughts, none of which is your experience. Through that screen of collected thoughts, whatever you see you interpret. You never see what is there, you only see what your mind can interpret. And all interpretations are misunderstandings.
When there is no interpretation, you simply see the fact, the truth... that which is. Then the mind does not distort, does not color, does not give meanings to it. You don't have any mind; you are just an opening, a mirror reflecting reality as it is.

What are the differences in the world between people? What is the difference between a Christian and a Hindu, or a Buddhist and a Mohammedan? Nobody is born as a Buddhist or a Christian or a Hindu. The differences are only of the mind and you don't bring the mind with you when you are born. It is all nurtured. Your mind is created by the society you are born in, and of course they create your mind for their own purposes. It is not for you but for the society, for the state, for the church. Your mind is a slave. Whoever has created it has created it for its own purposes -- to exploit you.

Every nation fills your mind with nationality. Every religion fills your mind with the idea that even to die for your religion is the greatest virtue or to kill for your religion is not a sin. All these religions, all these nations, these political, social, religious ideologies, go on conflicting, fighting. Man has not done anything much on the earth except fighting or preparing for fighting. There are only two periods in history: one is preparation for war, and the other is war itself. Man has never known peace.

My history teacher in the high school was at a loss when I told him this, because he was talking about periods of peace when there was no war, and he was dividing history into war periods and peace periods. I said, "I cannot agree with you because what do you do in your peace time? -- you prepare for war. So I would like to divide history into two periods: preparation for war, and war itself."

He was a very nice gentleman, hence he was not angry. For a moment he was silent and then he said, "Perhaps you are right. My whole life I have been dividing history into these two periods... but you seem to be more clear, because if there is a peace period, from where does the war come in?"

The day we will have peace, then there will be no war. But up to now we have not known peace. What is the reason for all this conflict and war and violence and murders and massacres? The mind! The world will know peace only when we have learnt how to go beyond mind. Then you are not a Christian and you are not an Indian, you are not a Chinese and you are not a communist. Then you are simply a human being. In that utter purity of humanness, the world will come to know exactly what peace is and what a celebration it brings with itself.

Mind as such is nothing but misunderstanding. If you really want to understand, get rid of the mind. But people do just the opposite: in trying to understand they go on strengthening their minds. They think a stronger mind -- more nourished, more reformed, more educated -- will be able to understand. I have seen the most educated people, but their Christianity remains there, their Hinduism remains there. Even the very highly educated culture remains superstitious... and their misunderstanding becomes even deeper. Now they have more refined arguments for their misunderstanding.

One great Christian missionary, Stanley Jones used to stay with me. He had fallen in love with me. He was an old man and a world famous missionary, very educated, very refined and sophisticated. But I asked him one day, "The only thing that puzzles me is that with so much information and so much sophistication, you are still a Christian, you have not yet become just human. Deep down you still think that Christianity is the only true religion, that all other religions are so-so... they may be faraway echoes of truth, but Christianity has the monopoly of truth.

"Even with your understanding you have not been able to see that Jesus Christ cannot be compared to Gautam Buddha. Jesus Christ remains a Jew, dies a Jew. He had no idea that his crucifixion would become the beginning of a new religion. He had never thought beyond the boundaries of Jewish thinking. Gautam Buddha was a rebel. He was born a Hindu, but he renounced Hinduism. By renouncing Hinduism, he renounced the whole mind that the Hindus had given to him. He became clear and pure, just a child again. That makes him a totally unique and different person than all other religious people."
Stanley Jones said to me, "Whenever you argue for anything, you argue well! But there are reasons which cannot be dispelled by argument."
I said, "What kind of reasons?"

He said, "I cannot refute you on this point, but in the deepest part of me I cannot put anybody above Jesus Christ."
I said, "This is what I call the mind. You don't have any argument, but still you have a conditioning so deep... with this conditioning you cannot look around the world with open eyes, unprejudiced, impartial.

"You go on arguing against other religions without any difficulty. You go on finding superstitions in Hindus, in Mohammedans, in Jainas, in Buddhists, but I have never heard you talk about the superstitions of Christians. Do you mean to say that they don't have any superstitions? Or is it simply that your mind cannot conceive of it because it has been created by Christians? In Christian colleges, in theological trainings, your mind has been completely filled with Christian ideas, and you think it is your mind. In fact you are being used."

But this is the situation. People think they need a greater mind to understand. I want you to see it clearly: you need no mind if you want to understand. You need only a meditative silent space.

Source - Osho Book "The Great Pilgrimage: From Here to Here"

^Top Back to What is Meditation Page