:: BOOK OF THE MONTH ::

I AM THE GATE

Eighteen years after its publication, I Am The Gate is pulsating with the present. Osho has spoken of revealing greater truths to us as we became ready to hear them. And, as I am writing, I look around the room at people I have known for so many years and I see how much has happened to us. It seems to me now that Osho wasn't talking about revealing great secrets with words, or telling us anything different than He ever was, but rather that he knew that through all His talking the ultimate truth, silence, would slowly, slowly seep into our beings. Fear would start to disappear, doubts would start to disappear, as the mind simply began to lose the grip it has had on us. More has happened to us than the mind would ever admit.

"You cannot read in any book that which you have not known already in some way. You can only read yourself and nothing else. If you are reading Buddha's Dhammapada, it is not Buddha's Dhammapada you are reading, it is your Dhammapada. Now you will be creator of it. Now your depths will reach to the depths of Buddha's sayings. You cannot go beyond yourself, you cannot have a glimpse of anything that is beyond yourself."

I remember hearing Osho telling us many times He is not doing anything. Now, it seems I have deeper understanding than ever, that He is merely revealing to us what we already know, that He is waking up what has simply fallen asleep.

Tears fall as I write this and I ask myself why. The answer that seems to come is that I am overwhelmed by the aloneness of this Being, this Being who has taken us step by step through our darkest and most terrifying moments with the love that He is. No one knows what's going to happen. But the more our trust falls into His trust, the more we are able to go through even difficult passages and come out less afraid, less convinced that we are just monsters who should be living in hiding.

I Am the Gate opens many doors. As you read, and peek into the door, one or more may evoke a deep memory in you, because He touches everything. In fact, the gate is the gateless gate. But Osho never wants us to get caught in a memory: "Never remember anything that has happened. No experience should be accumulated and nourished. As it happens throw it, forget it, and move on. Nothing short of the total explosion will do, so do not pay any attention to minor explosions."

The world has often closed its doors on Osho. But all the Osho's doors are open. He is openness. An image comes to my mind. The world is like an old, bitter person peering through a peephole; and Osho is the open, empty eyes of a child.

For those of you who have never read I Am the Gate, I say read it. To those of you who have read it years ago, I say read it again. And to everyone, I say, above all, drink it, it is an endless source of the nectar of life. "Just do your part. And remember, you are capable of doing your part. Your part is to surrender, and whenever you are able to surrender, the master will come. The master is there, masters have always been in existence. The world has never lacked masters, it has always lacked disciples."

Ma Satya Priya
Poona, 1990