TALKS IN AMERICA
From Misery to Enlightenment 23
TwentyThird Discourse from the series of 29 discourses - From Misery to Enlightenment by Osho.
You can listen, download or read all of these discourses on oshoworld.com.
Osho,
Why are people so fanatically committed to groups and organizations of all kinds: religious, social, and political?
Man’s mind is a Pandora’s box.
It contains the whole of evolution from the lowest creature to the highest genius. They are all living together in man’s mind simultaneously, they are all contemporaries. It is not that something is past, something is present, something is future: as far as mind is concerned everything is simultaneous, contemporary.
It has to be understood very clearly because without understanding it the question will remain unresolved. The idiot is in you, so is the genius. Of course the idiot is much more powerful because it has a longer history, and the genius is a very still, small voice. From Khomeini to Einstein you are spread; and the trouble is that Khomeini is in the majority, much more in you than Albert Einstein, who is in a very poor minority.
Think of man’s mind as a pyramid. The base is made up of Khomeinis, millions of Khomeiniacs, and as you go upward there are fewer and fewer people. At the peak they are not in millions, not in billions, only in dozens – and at the very peak, perhaps there is a single individual.
But remember that the difference between Khomeini and Einstein is not of quality, it is only of quantity, because part of Khomeini is Albert Einstein, and the major part of Albert Einstein is also Khomeini.
Just the other day the results of a three-year long research on Albert Einstein’s brain was published. It took three years just to count the cells of his brain. There are millions of cells in every brain doing different kinds of specific work: it is a very miraculous world.
How a certain cell functions in a certain way is still not known. A certain cell thinks, a certain cell dreams, a certain cell poetizes, a certain cell paints. What makes the difference between these groups of cells? They are all alike as far as chemistry and physiology is concerned; there seems to be no difference at all. But there are cells which think, there are cells which imagine, there are cells which are mathematical, and there are cells which are philosophical. It is a whole world.
Three years counting the cells of Albert Einstein’s brain – the result is very significant. A certain kind of cell has been found in his brain – twenty-seven percent more than in the average brain. That certain kind of cell has only one function: to feed, nourish, the thinking cells. It has no direct function, it is a nourishment to the thinking cells. And that nourishing cell has been found to be twenty-seven percent more numerous than in the ordinary, average man.
Now the difference is of quantity, it is not a qualitative difference: those twenty-seven percent cells can be grown in you. And why only twenty-seven? Two hundred and seventy percent more can be grown because it is well-known and an established fact how those cells grow.
In white mice they have been growing all kinds of cells. If the white mouse is given more things to play with, he starts growing those nourishing cells, because he has to think. If you put him in a puzzle box and he has to find the way – if you put him in a box where food is hidden somewhere and he has to find the way through all kinds of labyrinths to reach the food, and he has to remember the ways that he has followed – of course a certain kind of thinking has started. And the more he thinks, the more is the need for the nourishing cell.
Nature provides you whatever you need.
Whatever you have got is not given by any god, by fate; it has been created by your need.
But one thing out of this whole research is very shocking and shattering: that the difference between Einstein and Khomeini is only of quantity. And that quantity also is not something special, it can be created: old Khomeini just has to start playing chess, cards…. Of course he won’t, but if he starts playing chess and cards and other things he will have to think.
Religions kill this very nourishing cell because they tell you to believe.
Believing means:
Don’t think, don’t play with ideas.
Don’t try to find out on your own.
Jesus has already found it, Buddha has already said it – why should you be unnecessarily concerned? Then naturally that part which makes a man an Einstein does not develop: you remain average. And average means the basement of humanity.
Hence, I call man’s mind a Pandora’s box. And for another reason also – because whatsoever has happened in evolution has left its traces within you. You are still afraid of darkness. That fear must be millions of years old; it has nothing to do with the modern world. In fact it is difficult in a place like New York to find a dark corner, everything is so lighted. People may not be enlightened, but places are.
Why this fear of darkness? Because in modern life you don’t come across darkness in any fearful way. If you meet darkness at all it is soothing, relaxing, rejuvenating. Rather than being afraid of it you should have a certain love for it. But the very idea of loving darkness seems absurd. Somewhere deep down in your heart is still the caveman who was afraid of darkness.
The fear of darkness comes from those days when fire was not discovered. Those were the days of darkness, and darkness became almost synonymous with evil. Everywhere evil is painted as dark, black. Darkness became synonymous with death. Everywhere death is painted as black.
The reason is very clear: before fire was discovered, night was the most dangerous time. If you survived one night you had done something really great, because in the night all the wild animals were ready to attack you. You could not sleep, you had to remain awake – just the fear of the wild animals was enough to keep you awake. And still they would attack in darkness, and man was helpless.
So darkness became evil, bad, and synonymous with death. And the fear has entered so deep in the heart, that still today, when darkness has gone through a complete transformation…. Neither wild animals attack you in the dark, nor does darkness bring any evil or death to you. It only brings soothing sleep, takes all your tiredness of the day; makes you again young, alive, full of energy, ready to meet tomorrow’s morning sun. But our attitude remains the same. So is the case with everything.
In the past, throughout the whole of evolution, man had to become part of a certain group, organization, society, tribe, for a simple reason: because alone he was so helpless. Alone, and the whole wilderness against you – it was difficult to face it. Together, with a crowd, you felt more protected, more secure.
You have to remember that man is the most weak and helpless animal in the world, and because of this helplessness and weakness our whole civilization and culture has grown. So don’t think of it as a curse; it has proved a great, the greatest, blessing.
Lions cannot create society, lions cannot create culture, because a lion has no need of the group. He alone is powerful enough. Sheep move in groups; lions don’t move in groups. Each lion has its own territorial imperative. They have a specific technique to declare their territory. All the animals – they piss on a certain area. Its smell makes others aware that this is the boundary line, the fence. Outside it, everything is okay; just a single step in, and there is danger.
Lions like to be alone for the simple reason that they are enough for any enemy. Now if you think about man…his body is not so strong as that of an animal. His nails are not so strong that he can kill any animal just with his nails. His teeth are not so strong that he can eat the raw meat of an animal killed by his own hands. Neither can he kill with his hands nor can he eat raw meat directly with his teeth. All his limbs are weaker than other animals. He cannot run with a horse or with a dog, or with a bull, or with a wolf, or with a deer: he is just a nobody.
It is good that these people don’t participate in your Olympic races; otherwise your great runners will just look silly. You cannot move like monkeys from one tree to another tree. They go on jumping from one tree to another tree for miles; they need not touch the ground. You cannot fight even with a monkey.
This has to be accepted: that man is the weakest animal on the earth. And this is the foundation of his whole behavior, his commitments, his groupings. He has to be part of something bigger than himself; only then does he feel safe.
He had to invent all kinds of weapons. No animal has bothered to invent weapons. There is no need; their hands, their teeth, their nails, are enough. From the earliest days man had to invent weapons – first made of stones, rocks, then slowly slowly with metals.
Then he had to work out that even with a weapon in his hand he could not fight with a lion or an animal at close quarters. He had to invent arrows – that is, shooting from a distance – coming close was dangerous. You may have a weapon but it won’t be of much use against an elephant. He will take you and your weapon both together and throw you half a mile away.
Why are people so fanatically committed to groups and organizations of all kinds: religious, social, and political?
Man’s mind is a Pandora’s box.
It contains the whole of evolution from the lowest creature to the highest genius. They are all living together in man’s mind simultaneously, they are all contemporaries. It is not that something is past, something is present, something is future: as far as mind is concerned everything is simultaneous, contemporary.
It has to be understood very clearly because without understanding it the question will remain unresolved. The idiot is in you, so is the genius. Of course the idiot is much more powerful because it has a longer history, and the genius is a very still, small voice. From Khomeini to Einstein you are spread; and the trouble is that Khomeini is in the majority, much more in you than Albert Einstein, who is in a very poor minority.
Think of man’s mind as a pyramid. The base is made up of Khomeinis, millions of Khomeiniacs, and as you go upward there are fewer and fewer people. At the peak they are not in millions, not in billions, only in dozens – and at the very peak, perhaps there is a single individual.
But remember that the difference between Khomeini and Einstein is not of quality, it is only of quantity, because part of Khomeini is Albert Einstein, and the major part of Albert Einstein is also Khomeini.
Just the other day the results of a three-year long research on Albert Einstein’s brain was published. It took three years just to count the cells of his brain. There are millions of cells in every brain doing different kinds of specific work: it is a very miraculous world.
How a certain cell functions in a certain way is still not known. A certain cell thinks, a certain cell dreams, a certain cell poetizes, a certain cell paints. What makes the difference between these groups of cells? They are all alike as far as chemistry and physiology is concerned; there seems to be no difference at all. But there are cells which think, there are cells which imagine, there are cells which are mathematical, and there are cells which are philosophical. It is a whole world.
Three years counting the cells of Albert Einstein’s brain – the result is very significant. A certain kind of cell has been found in his brain – twenty-seven percent more than in the average brain. That certain kind of cell has only one function: to feed, nourish, the thinking cells. It has no direct function, it is a nourishment to the thinking cells. And that nourishing cell has been found to be twenty-seven percent more numerous than in the ordinary, average man.
Now the difference is of quantity, it is not a qualitative difference: those twenty-seven percent cells can be grown in you. And why only twenty-seven? Two hundred and seventy percent more can be grown because it is well-known and an established fact how those cells grow.
In white mice they have been growing all kinds of cells. If the white mouse is given more things to play with, he starts growing those nourishing cells, because he has to think. If you put him in a puzzle box and he has to find the way – if you put him in a box where food is hidden somewhere and he has to find the way through all kinds of labyrinths to reach the food, and he has to remember the ways that he has followed – of course a certain kind of thinking has started. And the more he thinks, the more is the need for the nourishing cell.
Nature provides you whatever you need.
Whatever you have got is not given by any god, by fate; it has been created by your need.
But one thing out of this whole research is very shocking and shattering: that the difference between Einstein and Khomeini is only of quantity. And that quantity also is not something special, it can be created: old Khomeini just has to start playing chess, cards…. Of course he won’t, but if he starts playing chess and cards and other things he will have to think.
Religions kill this very nourishing cell because they tell you to believe.
Believing means:
Don’t think, don’t play with ideas.
Don’t try to find out on your own.
Jesus has already found it, Buddha has already said it – why should you be unnecessarily concerned? Then naturally that part which makes a man an Einstein does not develop: you remain average. And average means the basement of humanity.
Hence, I call man’s mind a Pandora’s box. And for another reason also – because whatsoever has happened in evolution has left its traces within you. You are still afraid of darkness. That fear must be millions of years old; it has nothing to do with the modern world. In fact it is difficult in a place like New York to find a dark corner, everything is so lighted. People may not be enlightened, but places are.
Why this fear of darkness? Because in modern life you don’t come across darkness in any fearful way. If you meet darkness at all it is soothing, relaxing, rejuvenating. Rather than being afraid of it you should have a certain love for it. But the very idea of loving darkness seems absurd. Somewhere deep down in your heart is still the caveman who was afraid of darkness.
The fear of darkness comes from those days when fire was not discovered. Those were the days of darkness, and darkness became almost synonymous with evil. Everywhere evil is painted as dark, black. Darkness became synonymous with death. Everywhere death is painted as black.
The reason is very clear: before fire was discovered, night was the most dangerous time. If you survived one night you had done something really great, because in the night all the wild animals were ready to attack you. You could not sleep, you had to remain awake – just the fear of the wild animals was enough to keep you awake. And still they would attack in darkness, and man was helpless.
So darkness became evil, bad, and synonymous with death. And the fear has entered so deep in the heart, that still today, when darkness has gone through a complete transformation…. Neither wild animals attack you in the dark, nor does darkness bring any evil or death to you. It only brings soothing sleep, takes all your tiredness of the day; makes you again young, alive, full of energy, ready to meet tomorrow’s morning sun. But our attitude remains the same. So is the case with everything.
In the past, throughout the whole of evolution, man had to become part of a certain group, organization, society, tribe, for a simple reason: because alone he was so helpless. Alone, and the whole wilderness against you – it was difficult to face it. Together, with a crowd, you felt more protected, more secure.
You have to remember that man is the most weak and helpless animal in the world, and because of this helplessness and weakness our whole civilization and culture has grown. So don’t think of it as a curse; it has proved a great, the greatest, blessing.
Lions cannot create society, lions cannot create culture, because a lion has no need of the group. He alone is powerful enough. Sheep move in groups; lions don’t move in groups. Each lion has its own territorial imperative. They have a specific technique to declare their territory. All the animals – they piss on a certain area. Its smell makes others aware that this is the boundary line, the fence. Outside it, everything is okay; just a single step in, and there is danger.
Lions like to be alone for the simple reason that they are enough for any enemy. Now if you think about man…his body is not so strong as that of an animal. His nails are not so strong that he can kill any animal just with his nails. His teeth are not so strong that he can eat the raw meat of an animal killed by his own hands. Neither can he kill with his hands nor can he eat raw meat directly with his teeth. All his limbs are weaker than other animals. He cannot run with a horse or with a dog, or with a bull, or with a wolf, or with a deer: he is just a nobody.
It is good that these people don’t participate in your Olympic races; otherwise your great runners will just look silly. You cannot move like monkeys from one tree to another tree. They go on jumping from one tree to another tree for miles; they need not touch the ground. You cannot fight even with a monkey.
This has to be accepted: that man is the weakest animal on the earth. And this is the foundation of his whole behavior, his commitments, his groupings. He has to be part of something bigger than himself; only then does he feel safe.
He had to invent all kinds of weapons. No animal has bothered to invent weapons. There is no need; their hands, their teeth, their nails, are enough. From the earliest days man had to invent weapons – first made of stones, rocks, then slowly slowly with metals.
Then he had to work out that even with a weapon in his hand he could not fight with a lion or an animal at close quarters. He had to invent arrows – that is, shooting from a distance – coming close was dangerous. You may have a weapon but it won’t be of much use against an elephant. He will take you and your weapon both together and throw you half a mile away.