Mikhail Naimy (17 October 1889–28 February 1988) was a Lebanese writer, poet, philosopher and mystic, born in Baskinta, Lebanon. He became one of the important figures of modern Arabic literature and was part of the Mahjar literary movement.

His best known spiritual work, The Book of Mirdad, is a mystical parable exploring consciousness, love, silence and the nature of existence. Osho regarded it as one of the greatest books ever created, saying that its meaning lies not merely in its words but in the silence and music between them. For Osho, Naimy was not simply a writer who wrote a book, but a man who gave birth to a spiritual experience through it.

There are millions of books in the world, but THE BOOK OF MIRDAD stands out far above any other book in existence.

It is unfortunate that very few people are acquainted with THE BOOK OF MIRDAD for the simple reason that it is not a religious scripture. It is a parable, a fiction, but containing oceanic truth.It is a small book, but the man who gave birth to this book... and mind my words, I am not saying "the man who wrote this book." Nobody wrote this book. I am saying the man who gave birth to this book -- he was an unknown, a nobody. And because he was not a novelist, he never wrote again; just that single book contains his whole experience.

The name of the man was Mikhail Naimy.

It is an extraordinary book in the sense that you can read it and miss it completely, because the meaning of the book is not in the words of the book. The meaning of the book is running side by side in silence between the words, between the lines, in the gaps.

If you are in a state of meditativeness -- if you are not only reading a fiction but you are encountering the whole religious experience of a great human being, absorbing it; not intellectually understanding but existentially drinking it -- the words are there but they become secondary. Something else becomes primary: the silence that those words create, the music that those words create. The words affect your mind, and the music goes directly to your heart.

And it is a book to be read by the heart, not by the mind. It is a book not to be understood, but experienced. It is something phenomenal.

Millions of people have tried to write books so that they can express the inexpressible, but they have utterly failed. I know only one book, THE BOOK OF MIRDAD, which has not failed; and if you cannot get to the very essence of it, it will be your failure, not his.

He has created a perfect device of words, parables, situations. If you allow it, the book becomes alive and something starts happening to your being. And naturally, because you have never come to such a state, you are puzzled about what it is -- sadness? blissfulness? There are tears, but those tears can be either of sadness or they can be of immense joy.

You have come to a point where you have never been before, so naturally you cannot categorize it. You cannot put a label on it according to your old experiences. But the name does not mean anything. What matters is that you have taken a step beyond yourself. You have never been in this space; you have entered into the unknown, and it is so unknown that you don't have the vocabulary even to give it a name.

Just see the point: It may look like sadness... because for the first time in your life you will become aware that up to now you have not been alive. Life has happened today.

And it brings a great sadness... you were alive -- but knowing this new experience, your whole life becomes so mundane, so meaningless, that it is better to say that it was more death than life. And a sadness arises that, "Why could I not reach this space before?" It is so close -- just a step beyond the boundaries of your old mind and the whole sky with all its stars becomes available. You were confined in such a small prison -- and nobody was imprisoning you. You were the prisoner and you were the imprisoned. You were the jailer and you were the jailed. Naturally... a sadness, looking to the past.

But looking to the present... a great blissfulness, a peace that passeth understanding, a silence that is not just the opposite of sound... a silence which is absence of sound, not the opposite of sound. A music without any instruments, a song without any words....

For the first time you start feeling that, "Up to now I have been living in the head; and only this moment the doors of my heart are open."

There is an old Chinese story. Because of the story a proverb has come into existence -- that when the musician becomes perfect, he burns his instruments; they become not only useless, they become a nuisance because they only create noise. Only between the noise are there a few moments of music -- why not have it all?

And when the archer becomes a perfect master, he drops his bow and his arrows and forgets all about it. A strange proverb -- because ordinarily we think that when we become perfect our instruments will also attain a perfection with us; their working will also become perfect.

The proverb comes from a story: A man had become a great archer, and he was confident that he had attained perfection. He never missed any target. He was able to kill flying birds without fail. He appeared before the emperor and told him, "It is time that you should declare me the greatest, the master archer of the empire. Otherwise I am ready for any challenge. If somebody doubts it, I am ready for a competition."

The king knew the man, and knew that what he was saying was not bragging, it was a simple fact. But the old servant of the king said, "Wait a minute before you say anything, because I have something to say before you decide." He was so old that he had served the grandfather of the king, the father of the king, the king himself, and there was a possibility that he would serve the fourth generation also.

The king had tremendous respect for the man. He said, "If you have something to say, you say it."

The old servant said, "This man knows nothing of archery yet. He can kill animals, he can kill birds, flying birds; he never misses any target. That's all okay, but that is not perfection and mastery. I know a man who is a perfect archer. He lives in the mountains, and because he became a perfect archer thirty years ago, he has completely forgotten about archery. After perfection, what is the point of remembering?"

The archer was puzzled: "What kind of archery is this, that the man has even forgotten archery? For thirty years he has not practiced -- if I don't practice a single day, the next day I can see mistakes happening. Within two days, critics will see that mistakes are happening, and within three days anybody will be able to see that there are mistakes. Thirty years!"

And the old man said, "Unless you go to the forest and meet the great archer.... If he approves there is no question of any competition -- I will ask the emperor to declare you the champion master of the whole kingdom."

The archer had to go and search in the mountains. On a very high peak, in a small cave, he found the old man. The archer was carrying his bow, his arrows. The old man looked at the bow, looked at the arrows, and he said, "These things I have seen once, I remember. What do you call these things?"

The man said, "You are a great archer? You don't even know the name of the bow and the arrows!"

The old man said, "This is a bow and arrows... and what is the function of it? What do you do with it?"

The archer said, "Come out and I will show you." And he killed with one arrow a faraway flying bird -- just one arrow and the bird was on the earth.

The old man said, "This you call archery? I remember, when I was young I used to call this archery too. Now, come with me."

The old man must have been nearabout one hundred and twenty years old, not less than that -- very frail. He took the young archer to a cliff which was hanging over a valley thousands of feet deep.

The archer stopped. He said, "I cannot go on that cliff! Just a small mistake and you are finished forever."

But the old man went to the very edge -- his feet were half hanging off the edge of the cliff. He was standing with just half his feet on the edge and he said, "Come on -- you are a great archer; you should know balance, because the secret of archery is balance. And if you are trembling so much inside, your arrow cannot be perfect, because your arrow will be going through your hands. And you are trembling. Come on! You are young, and as you see I am old, one hundred and twenty years old."

The man tried, one or two feet... and fell down on the rock. He said, "I have never been afraid of death. But I cannot do that."

That old man came back and he said, "If you cannot do this, forget all about archery. The day you can do this you will throw away the bow, you will throw away the arrows. Now look...." There were seven birds flying far away. And the old man simply looked at those seven birds one by one, and they all fell down on the earth.

He said, "When you have no trembling inside, just your eyes are enough; no arrows are needed. So go back, you are an amateur. I will come when the time has come, I will keep watch on you. I have my people in the city, in the capital; it was one of my people who sent you here. He was one of my disciples and I have a few more disciples who will keep watch. And if I am not alive, then I will tell them to inform the king when you are a perfect archer."

The young man was simply in great despair. He proved to be an amateur; he was thinking himself to be a champion master.

After five years.... The old man had said, "Learn inner balancing." I call it meditation; these are different names, in different countries. `Inner balancing' means you are so balanced at your innermost center that there is no trembling at all. You are in such a silent, unmoving space, as if you are not.

After five years a man visited the archer. As they were entering the archer's house, he saw a big bow hanging on the wall. The guest asked, "What is that?"

And the archer said, "I used to remember, but fortunately I met an old man... now I have completely forgotten what it is."

But the guest said, "I have heard that you are an archer."

The man said, "Forget all about it. When a man is young he has all kinds of stupid ideas. I also had my stupidities, but due to the compassion of the old man in the mountains I survived, I moved on."

That very day the king called him and declared him to be the champion master archer of the kingdom.

"But," he said, "I know nothing of archery. What are you doing?"

The king said, "I am not doing anything. These are instructions from your master. Of course you could not be the champion master. The old man has left his body, with the message, `While I am alive he cannot be a champion. And the poor fellow wanted to be a champion so desperately, but if I am alive in the kingdom it is impossible. I will never come to the capital to contest; the whole idea is childish. But there are my disciples who will not allow it to happen any other way. Only my death... and it is worth it, to make him happy.'

The old man is dead. The message has come that you should be declared the champion."

The king said, "Just out of curiosity I would like to see how far your eyes can function as arrows." The man looked into the sky. Nine birds -- a whole flock -- came down to the earth.

And the king said, "That old man was never wrong."

This is archery.

A musician when he is perfect forgets his instruments; now silence is his music.

THE BOOK OF MIRDAD is one of the greatest devices that have been created down the ages. Don't read it like any other book. Don't read it like SHRI BHAGAVADGITA or THE HOLY BIBLE. Read it as beautiful poetry, as music spread on the pages. Read it as a message from a master of meditation.

The words are code words.

Don't look for their meaning in the dictionary.

Their meaning is when they strike something in your heart.

That's why you felt, reading MIRDAD, that your breathing changed. It has to be understood very carefully: your breathing changes with each of your emotions. When you are angry, watch: you will have a different kind of breathing, unrhythmic, chaotic. When you are in love, just holding the hand of your beloved, your breathing will be different -- peaceful, silent, musical, harmonious. And these are small things; I am just giving you examples to understand.

When you are sitting with the master, the breathing becomes so harmonious that sometimes you may think it has stopped. There will be moments when suddenly you become aware -- "Has my breathing stopped?" Because it will be so silent that even you cannot feel its movement.

There was one very significant man in south India, Brahma Yogi, but he got distracted. He was able to bring his breathing to such a harmonious state that doctors declared him to be dead. Because if there is no breathing... and not just for a second or two; he was capable for ten minutes. Medical science has its own limits. For ten minutes, no sign of breathing....

In Oxford, in Cambridge, in Calcutta University, in Rangoon University; he went all over the world. He forgot completely the mission of his life, that he had been meditating to attain to his innermost self. That's how people get distracted -- he became an entertainer, a showman. He earned much, he became world famous. And the doctors everywhere were shocked. In every medical college of importance in the world he was examined with all their refined instruments. They had to declare that the man was dead, and after ten minutes he would start breathing again.

It was not that he was not breathing for ten minutes; he was breathing, but the breathing had gone so slow that it was beyond the instruments' capacity to capture its movement.

This happened to you reading MIRDAD, that you felt your breathing was changing. It was beautiful. And because your breathing changed, that's why you came to a point where you were indecisive. Whether you were sad or silent, blissful, ecstatic, you could not decide, because the thing was so new and you had no category to put it in.

But I will tell you: You were sad, sad because you have wasted your whole life -- and this space was so close; you were just to reach and it was going to be available to you. You were sad, just like a beggar will be sad who comes to know that he is the emperor and there has been some mistake; the beggar is sitting on the throne and the emperor is begging in the streets. All those years of begging... a shadow, a sadness.

You also felt silence, because THE BOOK OF MIRDAD has been created by a man who knows the inner workings of human consciousness. He was not a writer; hence, nobody ever bothered to give him a Nobel prize. He was alive in this century, he was our contemporary. His book has not been translated into many languages for the simple reason that the book is unique -- it is not a book, it is a device. And it is not meant to be read, it is meant to create a certain atmosphere around you. If you are ready, available, receptive, the atmosphere will be created and there will be great silence. And silence is always blissful.

So you got very much confused: There was sadness because of the past; there was silence because of the present -- and silence is always bringing flowers of blissfulness.

You thought there must be something in the words, so you read those words again. But you could not find it; in those words there was nothing, they were ordinary words. From where was this experience happening?

It was happening because you are on the path.

You are part of a mystery school.

You are a seeker.

It would not have happened to you if you were not on the path. It happened to you because you were getting ready for this happening, and THE BOOK OF MIRDAD simply triggered what was already going to happen. It would have happened even without THE BOOK OF MIRDAD, perhaps a little later.

The man on the path may find in his life.... Listening to music sometimes it happens. The musician may be an ordinary man; he may not know anything about silence and blissfulness, but his music can trigger something in you. It may be triggered by seeing a sunset; now the sunset is not aware of you at all. It may be triggered by the perfume of a rose.

But remember one thing: Just because THE BOOK OF MIRDAD helped you in reaching a new space in yourself, don't tell others to read it -- because they will find it just ordinary fiction, beautiful. They may even destroy your connection that has been created unknowingly; you were not ready for this experience. So one thing: Don't tell others, "Read THE BOOK OF MIRDAD, it brings such beautiful experiences." It may not bring them anything.

Secondly, because it has brought you a beautiful experience this time, don't read it again and again in order to get it. Because this time you were not expecting anything; next time you will be full of expectations. You will be waiting and watching for when it happens -- it will not happen. Once in a while it is possible, but the basic condition to be fulfilled is, no expectations.

And I say to you, because it happened with THE BOOK OF MIRDAD it can happen through many other avenues. You are ready, you just need a little push. Be available to all those situations where that push is possible, but without any expectation. Just to enjoy... a beautiful dance, beautiful music, a beautiful painting; just sitting by the side of the sea and the music of the waves, the continuous music, or looking at the moon -- anything may help, but don't expect.

THE BOOK OF MIRDAD can be of immense help if you don't expect, and it is a book worth reading thousands of times. You cannot understand its oceanic meaning in one reading, because in each page, each turn, each chapter, each line, there is a possibility -- because the man who wrote it....

I understand that man. He was one of the greatest men of this century. He lived unknown to the world, but just this one book makes him the greatest writer not only of this century but of all the centuries.

I myself might have never come across his book... because it was published in the beginning of this century and then it was never published again, it never became a best seller. It was not available in the libraries because at the most only three thousand copies were in existence all over the world. I became aware of the book in a strange way.

I was a student in the university, but on Sundays I used to go to a market in the city where stolen things were sold. I was not interested in anything else, just stolen books. I got THE BOOK OF MIRDAD as a stolen book. Somebody's whole library... three hundred books in all, and all the books were beautiful. And for those three hundred books a man was asking only a hundred rupees, so I immediately gave him a hundred rupees.

The man said, "But remember one thing: these are stolen books, and if the police come here I am going to tell them your name, because on each book is the name of the man to whom these books belong and he is a well-known man." He was a retired professor of literature.

I said, "Don't be worried."

And the police finally came and they said, "This is not good. You were told by the man that these are stolen books, still you purchased them."

I said, "I don't repent, and I don't want to talk to you. I would like to meet the owner."

They said, "For what?"

I said, "I can settle things with him very easily. He is a retired professor, old. Just take me to him" -- so they took me to the old professor.

I closed the doors and said to the professor, "You are already so old, what are you going to do with those books? You will be dead soon, and you have found the right man for your books."

He said, "You are strange! You have purchased my stolen books and you have come to convince me that you have done the right thing?"

I said, "Yes, I say I have done the right thing. You have used them. You cannot read any more; your eyes are no longer in a situation to read. If you just want to keep three hundred books on your shelf, I can bring five hundred books, six hundred books. But don't ask for those three hundred books, particularly for THE BOOK OF MIRDAD. That I cannot return to you, stolen or not stolen."

The old man looked at me and he said, "Did you like THE BOOK OF MIRDAD?"

I said, "I not only liked it -- I have read thousands of books; none is comparable to it."

He gave me fifty rupees back. He said, "You have wasted fifty rupees -- you are a student; you don't have much money, I know about you. You keep the books. And I agree with you that the books have reached to the right man, and the person who has stolen them needs to be rewarded. I am going to die any day, you are right, and then I don't know where those books will go.

"And I have loved those books, cherished those books. My whole life I have collected the best books. And the moment you said THE BOOK OF MIRDAD you closed the deal. You just take these fifty rupees, and whenever you need more -- because I don't have anybody; no wife, no children, and enough pension and I don't have any expenses -- you are always welcome to come to me. If you don't have money to purchase books I am here.

"Your love for MIRDAD has made you a man of my family. I have loved MIRDAD my whole life, and I have tried hundreds of my friends, but nobody could get him. And you are ready to fight for a stolen book, you are ready to go to the court for a stolen book. There is no need. I was in search of you.

"It is strange," he said, "that THE BOOK OF MIRDAD has found you itself."

That's how I found the first copy of THE BOOK OF MIRDAD. It needs to be in every house, it is so precious.

And it has touched your heart.

Just don't start having expectations, and it will help you on the way immensely.

Source

The Osho Upanished

Chapter# 7 Chapter Title: Silence is a song without words

Question 1