Osho on English Philosopher Francis Bacon&nbsp;Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scholar, and author. He has been called the father of empiricism and his work indirectly influenced the development of the modern scientific method pertaining to a circle of six steps. He developed the idea of gaining scientific knowledge through inductive reasoning, observation, and skeptic methodology. Bacon is also credited with influencing the scientific revolution through his book Novum Organum (1620), talking about scientific experimentation and its role in prioritizing “knowledge of and power over nature”.&nbsp;As a statesman, Bacon served as an Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of Elizabethan England. He only ever went upward in his ranks - he was appointed as Queen’s counsel under Elizabeth I of England and was knighted under James VI and I. Bacon was also a patron of libraries and developed a system of classification of sciences under history, poetry, and science - a system that was used in libraries and in 18th-century Encyclopedias. He wrote over 100 essays and books titled The Advancement and Proficience of Learning Divine and Human (1605) and New Atlantis (1626).&nbsp;Osho mentions Bacon, “... Participate in it rather than trying to understand it. That way comes understanding -- participate in it, dissolve in it, allow it to overwhelm you and overpower you. Be possessed by it. And these are two totally different attitudes.When we try to understand something, we are trying to possess it, we are trying to control it. Knowledge is control. Lord Bacon has said, 'Knowledge is power.' It is. That's what science goes on doing. Science tries to know things just to overpower them. Once you know them, you become the master.Religion is, just the opposite, diametrically opposite. It is not a quest to know. It is a quest to be.Whatsoever is happening, allow it to overpower you, not the other way round. Don't try to understand it. Let it understand you.”<div class="raw-html-embed"><div style="width:100%;height:1px;background:#00000036;margin:10px 0;"></div></div>DEAR FRIEND, IF YOU PLACE THE WICK IN THE OIL, YOU WILL GET LIGHT WHEN FIRE IS APPLIED TO IT. IF YOU POUR OUT THE OIL AND PUT THE WICK IN THE WATER, YOU WILL GET NO LIGHT. IF YOU SHAKE UP THE OIL AND WATER AND THEN PLACE THE WICK IN THEM, YOU WILL GET A SPLUTTERING AND A GOING OUT. THERE IS NO NEED TO CARRY OUT THIS EXPERIMENT THROUGH WORDS AND VISITS WHEN IT CAN BE DONE WITH SUCH SIMPLE MATERIALS AS THESE.&nbsp;Sufism is existential, experimental, experiential. It insists that God can be known by simple methods, that there is no need to philosophise.&nbsp;Many times people come to me, people who are knowledgeable, and they say -- particularly Indians -- 'What is the meaning of dancing? How can one attain to God by dancing?'&nbsp;Dancing is an experiment, an experiment to bring your body, your mind, your soul, in tune. Dance is one of the most rhythmic phenomena. If you are really dancing there is no other activity which creates such unity. If you are sitting, the body is not used; then you use only your mind. If you are running very fast, your life is in danger, then you use your body and you don't use your mind. In dance you are neither sitting nor running for your life. It is movement, a joyful movement. The body is moving, the energy is flowing, the mind is moving, the mind is flowing. And when these two things are flowing they melt into each other. You become psychosomatic. A certain alchemy starts happening. That's why you see a new kind of grace on the face of the dancer, it is alchemical -- the body-mind meeting, merging, the body-mind becoming one tune, one rhythm, one harmony. When this harmony has happened then the third, the soul, starts entering into it. The soul can enter into your existence only when your body and mind are no longer in conflict, when your body and mind co-operate, when your body and mind are deep in love, embracing, hugging each other... that's what happens in dance. Then immediately you will find the third entering also. When the body-mind is really in harmony, when the two are no more two, the third enters. For the first time you become a trinity, a TRIMURTI. Those are the three faces of God.&nbsp;And while you are dancing something is happening. It is an experiment. It is not just contemplation -- just sitting and thinking about God -- it is allowing God to enter into you, it is opening yourself to God. It is like a flower opening in the morning. When the flower opens, suddenly sun rays start dancing on its petals. When you open, God starts dancing in you. God can be met only through dance. There is no other activity which is more harmonious than dance. That's why all the primitive religions were dance-based, and all the modern religions -- the so-called civilised, sophisticated religions -- have nothing like dance in them; they are dull affairs. A church looks more like a cemetery than like a temple. You can't dance there, you can't be joyous there, you cannot -- it is not allowed. You have to be serious. You have to be very, very serious, sad, as if you are doing something wrong. The joy is missing. The joy is missing because people are just sitting, not doing anything. And the church goes on just thinking about God. The preacher talks about God and the people listen to it; the preacher thinks and the people who listen think. God is a thought, it is not an act in the church.&nbsp;In this place God is not a thought; it is an act, it is a dance. And the dance has to be of the total: body, mind, soul. Nothing has to be denied, because if you deny anything something will be missing, something will certainly be missing. And then your synthesis will not be the highest possibility, it will remain some-where low, it will not reach towards the ultimate Everest. These people who come here and watch and see people dancing or doing Kundalini or the Dynamic -- they become very puzzled because they have an idea that one should sit and read the Geeta and think about God. That is all nonsense! By reading the Geeta and thinking about God you are not going to go anywhere. If you really want to go somewhere you have to be experimental, you have to use some method. Sufism has a method and has no philosophy.&nbsp;THERE IS NO NEED TO CARRY OUT THIS EXPERIMENT THROUGH WORDS AND VISITS....&nbsp;How can you carry out an experiment through words and visits? Yes, words can be used for instruction -- that's what I go on doing every morning. These are just instructions. Then for the whole day words disappear from this ashram. Then you dance, then you hum, then you shake, then you sit, then you watch, then you love, you pray, you meditate. Every morning I start with instructions and then the whole day is for you to experiment in. Words can be used but only as instructions, not as propositions. I am not creating any belief system in you here. I am destroying all belief systems. I am simply giving you a few methods, a few techniques. If you know how to use them and you are really interested in search, and you use them, there is no reason why you should not attain. There is no reason at all why you cannot become God-realised. If it has happened to me it can happen to you. If you co-operate with me it is going to happen to you. A Master goes on taking everything from you. First he teaches you to become a disciple and then one day he will take your disciplehood also -- because a Master cannot be satisfied unless you have become Masters in your own right. A Satguru is one who creates Satgurus.&nbsp;A Master goes on creating Masters. First he teaches you to surrender so that all that is false disappears. Once the false has disappeared he will tell you to surrender too. Once the false has disappeared he will now tell you to surrender your disciplehood too. A Master is satisfied only when he has created another Master. In the vicinity of a Master a chain starts working -- one flame jumps into other lamps and they start burning. And then they in their own right will start jumping into other unlit lamps, and many more will be burned. People come to me and ask why I am not going into the world. I need not go. I will create many Satgurus, I will create many Masters, just sitting here. They will be travelling, they will be my ambassadors; they will go around the world to share their light. But one has to go deep into experimentation because only through experimentation is there experience. Through philosophising people avoid taking risks…&nbsp;People want to remain safe, uninvolved, uncommitted. They want to grow but they don't want to commit themselves; they want to grow but they don't want to sacrifice anything. They want to grow for nothing, they don't want to pay. These people never grow. Growth is through sacrifice. One has to put all one has at the stake. Growth is a gamble, it is a risk. So if you are trying to save yourself -- let me warn you -- if you are trying to save yourself you may be successful. You may succeed in saving yourself, but then nothing will happen. You have to be open, you have to be ready to lose yourself, not save yourself.&nbsp;Philosophy is very good because it never touches your reality, it simply goes on like a cloud, hovering around your mind. You can enjoy it. It is an easy-chair thing. You can go into great thoughts, there is no fear, you are always safe -- anchored in your home, anchored in your security, safety. That's why I insist on sannyas. Sannyas means that now you are becoming committed, now you are getting involved, now it is not just a philosophy with me. You are ready to go into danger, into the unknown, into the insecure. Many people say, 'If we listen to you and we meditate, will it not help? Why is there a need to become sannyasins?' The need is to be committed, the need is to get involved. The need is that you should not stand aloof, saving yourself and then trying something -- if you can grab something by trying, good, but you don't want to get into anything. You don't want to get into any trouble. But these people are the losers. Their cleverness is not going to help them, their very cleverness will prove to be their doom.&nbsp;Philosophy is simply a mind journey, you don't go anywhere, you remain where you are. It is a dream projection you can sit here and close your eyes and you can be in Calcutta or in Chicago. You can close your eyes and you can be anywhere you like, but whenever you open your eyes you will find yourself sitting here in Poona. That's what philosophy goes on doing. You can think great thoughts and while you are thinking, you are thrilled. And whenever you come back and open your eyes, you are exactly the same as you have always been. Nothing ever changes through philosophy because philosophy is an avoidance. It simply goes on labelling things: this is this, that is that. Philosophy is labelling. And remember, you are not kidding anybody but yourself.&nbsp;It happened....Two lions were in a zoo. One of them had been there for several years, while the second one was a newcomer.At feeding time the new lion noticed that he received a few figs, nuts and bananas, while the older one was given a luscious, juicy chunk of meat.After this had gone for several weeks the young lion plucked up courage enough to enquire why this was so.'I know you have the seniority around here, but why do you always get the meat while I get fruit and nuts?' he asked.'Well,' explained the older lion, 'the zoo manager is a philosopher and the zoo is so poor that he has only room for one lion, so he has listed you as a monkey.'Now by listing a lion as a monkey, a lion does not become a monkey. But the old lion says, 'Because he is a philosopher.... He thinks that by labelling, things are finished. He treats you as a monkey.' That's what philosophy goes on doing. You go on labelling things. Once you have labelled them you start treating them that way.&nbsp;Beware OF this habit. Everybody has it. You are sitting by the side of somebody and you enquire, 'Who are you? Where are you going? What is your religion?' -- this and that. And this is just an effort to label the man. If he says he is a Jew, you have labelled him. Then you know that you have to protect your pockets -- he is a Jew. Now you have labelled him. And he may not be a man that you can label as a Jew -- Jesus was also a Jew. Even if Jesus was sitting by your side he would have said, 'I am a Jew.' How are you going to label him? Would you have labelled him 'Jew'? He was the least Jewish man in the world. Or the man says, 'I am a Mohammedan,' and you think that he is dangerous. Or the man says, 'I am a Hindu,' and you think he is a hypocrite. People have universal labels. And once they have labelled someone they behave with the label, they don't think about the person at all. and each person is very unique; he represents nobody else, he represents only himself. So nobody can be labelled. No label is good.&nbsp;And philosophy goes on doing that. It goes on labelling the whole existence. Once the philosopher has labelled everything, he thinks he is finished, he has accounted for everything. And he starts living in a very comfortable, labelled world. God is in heaven and hell is underneath the earth and heaven is high in the sky and this earth is just in the middle. He has made a map and he knows what is right and what is wrong, and if you do right you will go to heaven and if you do wrong you will go to hell -- everything is categorised, finished! Now he knows all. And a philosopher knows nothing. To know, philosophy is not the door; to know, experimentation, religion, is the door.&nbsp;It happened....A hospital secretary moved to a new post, and decided immediately to tighten up on 'security'. He set up a man in the gatehouse with very strict instructions to challenge all comers. Those not on business were to be turned firmly away. The man who was put on the door was a great thinker.Quite soon a young woman marched up, seeking to enter. 'Hi, wait a bit, what is your business?' shouted the gate-keeper, the thinker.'I'm a maternity patient,' said the girl.'Can you prove it? Are you pregnant?''Don't be daft. I have not seen anything for six months.''Ah, I thought so, you've come to the wrong place, the Eye Hospital is further down the road.'&nbsp;The people who are addicted to thinking have their own logic; they don't listen, they don't see. They are always garbed with their own thinking. The woman says, 'don't be daft. I have not seen anything for six months.' And the thinker concludes. 'Right. I thought so. You have come to the wrong place, the Eye Hospital is further down the road.' He has missed the whole point.Thinking is like that -- it goes on missing the whole point. If you really want to have any contact with reality, then thinking is not the bridge, it is the barrier.&nbsp;In only three hundred years science has touched great heights. And the reason? The reason is simple. The reason is that Bacon introduced experiment into the world of science. In just three hundred years so much has happened -- it did not happen in three thousand years or even in thirty thousand years. It is because of one man, Bacon. He changed the whole course of science and the whole course of human consciousness just by creating a new door of experimentation. He said, 'Speculation is not going to help. People have speculated down the ages and nothing has happened. They go on quarrelling about theories and those theories don't mean a thing.' He introduced experiment.&nbsp;You will be surprised to know where Bacon got the idea of experiment from. You will not believe it! He got it from Sufism. He was a great reader of Sufi books, he was immensely interested in Sufi books, and from the Sufi ideas he got the idea that if experiment is the door to the inner world, why could it not be the door to the outer? Science owes much to Sufism because of this. If some day the right sources are searched for, then the real fathers of science will be the Sufis, not the Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Plato and others, no. They were all speculators.&nbsp;From where did the idea of experiment enter into the mind of Bacon? It entered from Sufism. He may have read this story or something else, but it entered from Sufism because Sufis are very insistent on experiment. And if religion is also going to grow, then experiment has to become its very foundation. Just as science has reached such a great height within such a small time limit -- three hundred years -- so religion can also have great possibilities if it becomes experimental. Religion has much to learn from Sufism. Sufism is the most essential religion -- that's why I say it is existential, experimental, experiential.&nbsp;&nbsp;Source:Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.&nbsp;Discourse Series: Sufis: <a href="/sufis-people-of-the-path-vol-1-15">The People of the Path, Vol 1</a>Chapter #15Chapter title: A Spluttering and a Going Out25 August 1977 am in Buddha Hall&nbsp;References:Osho has spoken on notable Psychologists and philosophers like Adler, Jung, Sigmund Freud, Assagioli, Wilhelm Reich, Aristotle, Berkeley, Confucius, Descartes, Feuerbach, Hegel, Heidegger, Heraclitus, Huxley, Jaspers, Kant, Kierkegaard, Laing, Marx, Moore, Nietzsche, Plato, Pythagoras, Russell, Sartre, Socrates, Wittgenstein and many others in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:The Hidden SplendourThe Wild Geese and the WaterThis, This, A Thousand Times This: The Very Essence of ZenNirvana: The Last NightmareBeyond EnlightenmentBeyond PsychologyDang Dang Doko DangThe Discipline of TranscendenceThe Dhammapada: The Way of the BuddhaFrom Bondage to FreedomFrom Darkness to LightFrom Ignorance to InnocenceThe Secret of Secrets, Vol 1From Personality to IndividualityI Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now HereYoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4Zen: The Path of Paradox, Vol 1