The Centre of the Cyclone
Osho on World
BELOVED MASTER,
AT DARSHAN ON YOUR BIRTHDAY I LOOKED AT YOU, A STILL POOL OF SERENITY, AND EVERYTHING ELSE HAPPENING AROUND YOU WAS IRRELEVANT. IT WAS SUDDENLY SO CLEAR THAT THIS — SITTING SILENTLY AMIDST THE CHAOS AND FERVOR — WAS YOUR TEACHING; THAT YOU ARE THE WAY.
Prem Pramod, so at last a ray of light has entered into your darkness – an insight, a glimpse. Now don’t lose track of it! It is very difficult to get it and very easy to lose it. In fact, the mind and its ways are so old that soon you start suspecting whether the glimpse was true or you had only imagined it.
And the mind tries to convince you that it was sheer imagination, that you projected it, that it was just an idea. Maybe you became hypnotized by the situation. Maybe you became overwhelmed by so many people in such joy, in such ecstasy. Maybe you were touched by the flood of energy around you. Soon the mind will start creating doubts. Go on remembering. These insights are rare.
Yes, Pramod, that’s exactly what my teaching is:
Be in the world, in all its absurdities, in all its nonsense, noise, and yet remain cool, aloof, detached. Be IN it, but don’t be OF it. Let it happen all around you — there is no need to escape from it, there is nowhere to escape. And even if you escape somewhere, that is not going to transform your being; your mind will remain the same. The best way is to use the opportunity of the world. The world is an opportunity, a great opportunity, a tremendously valuable gift of God. It is a teaching device. Be in it and yet so far away, so transcendental, that nothing of it reaches to the core of your being. Only your circumference is touched by it, but your center remains aloof.
Be the center of the cyclone: that’s exactly my teaching. The world IS a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, signifying nothing. But it is very easy to get caught into the net, because the fool is not only outside, the fool is also inside. Your mind is part of the tale told by an idiot and your mind would like to find some meaning in it – whereas none exists. The mind cannot remain without finding some meaning; if it cannot find, it invents it. Otherwise it feels empty, it feels something is missing.
There is no meaning in the world; all meaning is in the very center of your being. The world is simply noise, there is no music. Music is in the deepest recesses of your being – and that music has to be heard in all the noise of the world. Then the noise of the world functions as a backdrop, a background; it becomes a context. You can hear the inner music more clearly because of the noise. Then the noise is no longer a disturbance, rather a help. That’s why I don’t teach renunciation: I teach rejoicing.
Source:
Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.
Discourse series: The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7 Chapter #8
Chapter title: Be in it; don’t be of it
18 December 1979 am in Buddha Hall
References:
Osho has spoken on ‘renunciation, isolation, detachment, rejoicing, participation, attachment, world, mind, noise, chaos, being, meditation, silence, inner music’ in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:
- A Bird on the Wing
- Ah This!
- The Beloved, Vol.1-2
- Come Follow To You Vol.1-4
- The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
- The Special Transmission
- The Imprisoned Splendour
- Zen: The Path of Paradox