In Focus - Enlightenment

What is Enlightment

- Swami Satya Vedant

A man asked Buddha: “Everyday you say everyone can become enlightened. Then why doesn’t evetryone become enlightened?” Buddha said, “In the evening make a list of all those in the town and write down their desires next to their names.” Man came back in the evening and gave the list to Buddha. He asked, “How many of these seek enlightenment?” Man said, not one person. Then Buddha said, “I say, everyone is capable of enlightenment; I do not say everyone wants enlightenment.”

Osho has brought this point home repeatedly that every human being is potentially capable of enlightenment, however, one would need earnestness of desire and a committed effort to actualize this potential.

Essentially, enlightenment according to Osho is about being able to see how your mind works clearly, and thus gaining better understanding and comfort with your thoughts, feelings and actions. A moment to moment awareness needs to be an ever-present and all-pervading part of our existence. It is basically our conscious and qualitative experience of the world around us. Osho makes it clear, there is nothing inherently ""mystical" to gaining awareness. It is about watching through a witnessing consciousness how our mind functions and coming to terms with what you see, think, feel and do. As part of this process, one must deal with how the mind interacts with the unknown.

Osho says, “And you are not courageous enough to accept the fact, because you don't respect yourself. You have been taught by the so-called religious people to condemn yourself. You cannot accept that 'Enlightenment can happen to me. It happens to Buddha -- okay. It happens to Christ -- maybe. But it can't happen to me. To me? It can't happen to me.' You have not respected yourself, you have not loved yourself.

Otherwise enlightenment comes to everybody, all and sundry. It comes to sinners, it comes to saints. Enlightenment has no condition for coming. In fact to use the word 'coming' is not right -- it arises.” (The Revolution,Ch.10,Q.3)

Osho points out that creating a meditative space is a pre requisite to enlightenment. This meditative space holds the enlightened moment to give us a transcendental experience of relaity. “If you have created a meditative space inside you,” explains Osho, “that meditative space will be able to contain it. That's what meditation is all about: the capacity to contain enlightenment. Enlightenment comes to everybody -- but you have so many holes in your being, it flows out, it simply leaks out. Seeing a tree in full bloom, the spring has come and you are in a kind of awe. Seeing the green and the red and the gold of the tree, you are transported into another world. This is enlightenment.”

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Expaining “meditative space” he says,: “And when you are totally meditative... and what do I mean by 'meditative'? When you are totally thoughtless. It is thought that functions as a hole in your being -- and you have so many thoughts, so you have so many holes. Your bucket is full of holes: with this bucket you go to a well and you try to draw water. When you lower the bucket down into the well, when it is in the water it is full of water. Then you start drawing it and the water starts leaking. By the time it reaches your hands it is empty.

“And it is not that it was not full of water when it was in the well -- it was. Exactly like that, it happens: there are moments when you are full of enlightenment.” (The Revolution,Ch.10,Q.3)

In Osho’s view, enlightenment is nothing but living naturally, what Kabir calls “sahaj”. To be just ordinary, to live -- to enjoy, to love, to dance, to sing, being creative consciously -- the very ordinary existence with an extraordinary intensity, with passion, that, according to Osho, is enlightenment.

Osho’ insight is: “Consciousness is always enlightenment. To be conscious means to be a Buddha. And the possibility exists in everybody. Yet people go on living in an unconscious way because they believe they are already conscious, so there is nothing to be done, there is nothing to be transformed to. They go on thinking this is all that they have. This is not even the beginning; the journey has not started. You are fast asleep. But you can have a dream-journey -- you can go in your dream to the farthest corner of the earth, and you can go on believing that you are a traveler. And all the time you are asleep here now.

“Here now you are asleep. That is what unconsciousness is. You may be conscious of the past -- but the past is no more, so that consciousness is of absence. You may be conscious of the future, and the future is not yet. That consciousness is pseudo. The only consciousness is of here now, of this moment. If you are utterly here this moment, totally here this moment, then you are conscious. And in that very intensity you become a flame of light. A smokeless flame. That is what enlightenment is.” (This Very Body the Buddha, Ch.2, Q.1)

- Swami Satya Vedant

Ma Anand Bhagawati has been Osho’s disciple for more than 30 years. A computer hardware specialist by profession, she worked in the Shree Rajneesh Ashram’s kitchen Vrindavan, in the medical center and later, in the press office. When Osho left for America, she ran the Vihan Meditation Center in Berlin, Germany and later, in Rajneeshpuram, her work experiences ranged from legal services, to taxi driver, to ‘Twinkie’ (tour guide and press relations). During the Pune 2 years she worked in the main office.

Her home for more than 15 years has been the island of Bali, Indonesia. Always interested in writing and reading since she was a child, she now enjoys being a columnist and author. She also loves traveling to and around India as much as possible.

Enlightenment : The Natural Happening

- Ma Anand Bhagawati

Osho has spoken about enlightenment thousands of times. We have listened to him but can it be understood? How can we talk about something that we have no direct personal experience of? Or better, something that we already are (as He said), but have lost the key for, have forgotten? At best I can talk about all the things we do to avoid becoming enlightened!

The very phenomenon of the flowering of consciousness cannot be explained but may be sensed by losing oneself in the depth of the Master’s eyes, by sitting silently at his feet, experiencing the delicate vibrations of his being. It can be experienced in momentary glimpses, during a Samadhi, moments of utter bliss, and then the veil that seemingly had disappeared nimbly adjusts itself again between the two worlds until a next precious moment or the final blast happens!

The word enlightenment was the carrot that hung right before our eyes, which made us forsake house and home to satisfy this incredible longing the very mention of the word brought up. Yes, we were all bent to become enlightened in this life and did we ever stop in this dream to consider what exactly happens when one enlightens? What then?

“Enlightenment is a natural happening. If we don't hinder it, it is bound to happen. It is not that you have to achieve it; all that you have to do is not to hinder it. You hinder it in a thousand and one ways. You don't allow it to happen. When it starts to happen you become frightened. When it takes possession of you, you cannot give that much possession – you shrink back, you withdraw. You come back in your tiny cell of the ego. There you feel protected, defended, secure.

Enlightenment is the open sky of insecurity. It is vastness, it is uncharted ocean. The journey is from one unknown to another unknown. There is nothing that can be known. Knowledge, the very idea of knowledge, is part of human stupidity. Life is such a mystery it cannot be known. And if it cannot be known how can it be taught? And if it cannot be taught, what is the point of being a master and a disciple?

Just a few days ago there was a question: ‘Why have you declared yourself to be the Blessed One?' It is a drama. I have decided to play the part of the Blessed One and you have decided to play the part of disciples – but it is a drama. The day you will become aware you will know there is no master and no disciple. The day you will understand, you will know that it was a dream – but a dream which can help you to come out of all your other dreams, a thorn which can help to pull out your thorns from your flesh, it can be instrumental – but a thorn all the same. A poison which can help you to drop your other poisons – but a poison all the same. Use it as a raft. That's why I say it is a drama.

Your being a disciple and my being a master is a drama. Play it as beautifully as possible. To you it is a reality, I know. To me it is a drama. From your side it is a great reality, from my side it is a game. One day you will also understand that it is a game. That day will be the day of your enlightenment.”
The Diamond Sutra, Chapter 9

I remember how after listening to the Zen koan in the discourse series, ‘The Goose is Out’, my mind freaked out. My brain felt on fire. I just couldn’t ‘get it’. Actually, it was rather my mind that could not ‘get it’ and went into a feeding frenzy along the known and stored experiences and tried to figure it out. Circuits blew. I couldn’t breathe; an anxiety overcame me that for sure I wouldn’t ‘get it’ because time was running out. Time! The only way to ease this turmoil was to write a question to Osho and hope for an answer, otherwise I would surely go around the bend and find myself marooned in an asylum.

“Osho, I feel that we need to hurry, that there is not much time left. The cocoon of slumber I am existing in seems to suffocate me, and I am afraid I will never make it. You say the goose is out already, why does it feel so impossible to grasp?”

In his inexhaustible infinite compassion and patience Osho answered my question for a long time, swinging from Master Nansen to Joseph Grimaldi and Adolph Hitler and to Lao Tzu, gently pointing out how irrelevant time is and all the goose parable was about, was to relax :

“What is the hurry? The whole of eternity is yours! You have always been here, you ARE here, you will ALWAYS be here. Nothing is ever lost. Now it is a confirmed scientific truth that nothing is ever destroyed. If matter is not destroyed, why should consciousness be destroyed? Matter belongs to a very gross plane of existence. If the gross is so valued by existence, do you think the higher manifestation is not valued by existence? The higher is more valued! If matter persists and is impossible to destroy, consciousness cannot be destroyed either. It is the highest expression of life; there is nothing higher than it. It is the very Everest of life, the peak beyond which there is nothing. The whole of existence is moving towards that peak. There is no hurry.

The whole idea of hurry is a creation of the mind. Let me say it in this way: mind and time are synonymous; the moment your mind stops, time also stops. The more you are in your mind the more you are in time; the less you are in your mind the more you are out of time.”
The Goose Is Out, Chapter 2, Question 1

Over the years I have listened to or read this discourse again and again and entered deeper and deeper into Osho’s answer. This helped tremendously with the imaginary concept of time; an inner slowing down happened, the ‘urge’ ‘to get it’ became a mere occasional hiccup.

The amusing part about that particular morning is that I was on guard duty in the back of Buddha Hall and had to keep an eye on people coughing or doing anything untoward during discourse. So a few minutes after Osho had read my question and started talking, one visitor started to cough. I crawled over, tapped him on the shoulder and nudged him to get up and out. He didn’t want to leave! Between trying to hear what Osho had to say to me and getting this visitor out, I got myself into a quite stressful situation. Finally after almost hefting the man over my shoulders he left with me and as soon as I handed him to a guard outside I leaped back inside to my spot in the rear. I had just calmed down again when after about ten minutes I heard a cough to my left. I glared at this visitor and willed him to stop coughing. He didn’t. He got into a coughing fit and I did what was needed, left Buddha Hall with him, came back again. I just gave up and surrendered to the task I had been given and suddenly under standing the absurdity of the situation made me giggle.

“Don't take things seriously; life is so hilarious. There is no urgency to be enlightened. It is unfortunate that I became enlightened too early! But now nothing can be done about it -- once enlightened, enlightened forever…

I know the trouble of being enlightened. That's why I make you alert. Don't be in a hurry; otherwise you will blame me. I don't want to take the blame. Nobody can say to me, ‘I am grateful to you that you helped me to become enlightened.’ I help you to learn and love and live as totally as possible. Out of this, enlightenment is bound to happen some day – but there is no hurry for it. It is your birthright, so you cannot avoid it long enough. Sooner or later – and most probably sooner than later – it is going to happen.

But I am telling you, I don't want to take any credit for it because then you will see that this whole life is utterly futile, meaningless, no action is of any worth – and then you will search.

That's why I keep myself locked in my room. I don't want people rushing to me saying, ‘Now it is your fault. You talked about enlightenment and I have become enlightened. Now what do you suppose I should do?’

There is nothing to be done, you have become enlightened, close the door and lock yourself inside! Or if you are really angry, try to make others enlightened: Look what life has done to you.... Do it to others!”
Om Shantih Shantih Shantih, Chapter 4, Question 3

Sound advice. So when enlightenment happens to me in this or any other life, I shall just shut up and enjoy the ride!

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