WESTERN MYSTICS
The New Alchemy 27
TwentySeventh Discourse from the series of 34 discourses - The New Alchemy by Osho.
You can listen, download or read all of these discourses on oshoworld.com.
Osho,
Are mind and consciousness separate things? Or is the silent mind, or the concentrated mind, what is called “consciousness”?
It depends, it depends on your definition. But to me, mind is that part which has been given to you. It is not yours. Mind means the borrowed, mind means the cultivated, mind means that with which the society has penetrated you. It is not you.
Consciousness is your nature; mind is just the circumference created by the society around you, the culture, your education.
Mind means the conditioning. So, you can have a Hindu mind, you cannot have a Hindu consciousness. You can have a Christian mind, you can’t have a Christian consciousness. Consciousness is one: it is not divisible. Minds are many. Societies are many, cultures, religions are many and each culture, each society, creates a different mind. Mind is a social by-product. And unless this mind dissolves, you cannot go within; you cannot know what is really your nature, what is authentically your existence, your consciousness.
To struggle for meditation is to struggle against the mind. Mind is never meditative and mind is never silent, so to say “a silent mind” is meaningless, absurd. It is just like saying “a healthy disease.” It makes no sense. How can there be a disease that is healthy? Disease is disease, and health is the absence of disease.
There is nothing like a silent mind. When there is silence, there is no mind. When there is mind, there is no silence. Mind, as such, is the disturbance, the dis-ease. Meditation is the state of no-mind – not of a silent mind, not of a healthy mind, not of a concentrated mind, no. Meditation is the state of no-mind: no society within you, no conditioning within you – just you, with your pure consciousness.
In Zen they say: “Find your original face.” The face that you are using is not original, it is cultivated. It is not your face; it is just a facade, just a device. You have many faces, each moment you have to change it. You go on changing, and the changing becomes so automatic that you don’t even observe it, you don’t notice it.
When you meet your servant you have one face. When you meet your boss you have a different face. And if your servant is sitting on your left side and your boss is sitting on your right, you have two faces. The left face is for the servant and the right face is for the boss. You are simultaneously two people. How can you have the same face for your servant? One of your eyes has a certain quality, a certain look. Your other eye has a different quality, a different look. It is meant for the boss and the other one is meant for the servant. But it has become so automatic, so mechanical, so robot-like that you go on changing your faces. You have multi-faces, and not a single one is the original.
In Zen they say: find your original face, the face you had before you were born, or the face you will have when you are dead. What is that original face? – it is your consciousness. All your other faces are your mind.
Remember well that you don’t have one mind, you have multi-minds. Forget the concept that everyone has one mind. You don’t have one mind, you have many – a crowd, a multiplicity. You are poly-psychic. In the morning you have one mind, in the afternoon a different mind and in the evening still a different mind. Every single moment you have a different mind.
Mind is a flux: river-like, flowing, changing. Consciousness is eternal, one.
It is not one thing in the morning and different in the evening. It is not one thing when you are born and different when you die. It is one and the same, the eternal. Mind is a flux. A child has a childish mind, an old man has an old mind; but a child or an old man have the same consciousness, which is neither childish nor old. It cannot be.
Mind moves in time and consciousness lives in timelessness. They are not one. But we are identified with the mind. We go on saying, insisting, “My mind. I think this way. This is my thought. This is my ideology.” Because of this identification with the mind, you miss that which you really are.
Dissolve these links with the mind. Remember that your minds are not your own. They have been given to you by others: your parents, your society, your university. They have been given to you. Throw them away, remain with the simple consciousness that you are – pure consciousness, innocent.
This is how one moves from mind to meditation.
This is how one moves away from society, from the without to the within. This is how one moves from the man-made world, the maya, to the universal truth, existence.
This is what we are doing here: throwing away the mind.
When I insist “Go mad,” I am saying to you “Throw away the mind.” When I say “Pass through a catharsis,” I am saying “Throw away everything that society has given to you and remain only with that which you are – not given, but born with, your nature.”
Throw off all inhibitions, repressions, ideas, attitudes, concepts. Be simple, childlike, innocent, and then you have entered a different dimension. Then you can move into the world of the unknown. Mind belongs to the world of the known; truth is always unknown. That’s why truth cannot be known through mind. Mind means the past, and truth means the ever-present. That’s why you cannot approach the truth through the mind. Mind is the barrier, the only hindrance.
Now get ready for the morning meditation.
Are mind and consciousness separate things? Or is the silent mind, or the concentrated mind, what is called “consciousness”?
It depends, it depends on your definition. But to me, mind is that part which has been given to you. It is not yours. Mind means the borrowed, mind means the cultivated, mind means that with which the society has penetrated you. It is not you.
Consciousness is your nature; mind is just the circumference created by the society around you, the culture, your education.
Mind means the conditioning. So, you can have a Hindu mind, you cannot have a Hindu consciousness. You can have a Christian mind, you can’t have a Christian consciousness. Consciousness is one: it is not divisible. Minds are many. Societies are many, cultures, religions are many and each culture, each society, creates a different mind. Mind is a social by-product. And unless this mind dissolves, you cannot go within; you cannot know what is really your nature, what is authentically your existence, your consciousness.
To struggle for meditation is to struggle against the mind. Mind is never meditative and mind is never silent, so to say “a silent mind” is meaningless, absurd. It is just like saying “a healthy disease.” It makes no sense. How can there be a disease that is healthy? Disease is disease, and health is the absence of disease.
There is nothing like a silent mind. When there is silence, there is no mind. When there is mind, there is no silence. Mind, as such, is the disturbance, the dis-ease. Meditation is the state of no-mind – not of a silent mind, not of a healthy mind, not of a concentrated mind, no. Meditation is the state of no-mind: no society within you, no conditioning within you – just you, with your pure consciousness.
In Zen they say: “Find your original face.” The face that you are using is not original, it is cultivated. It is not your face; it is just a facade, just a device. You have many faces, each moment you have to change it. You go on changing, and the changing becomes so automatic that you don’t even observe it, you don’t notice it.
When you meet your servant you have one face. When you meet your boss you have a different face. And if your servant is sitting on your left side and your boss is sitting on your right, you have two faces. The left face is for the servant and the right face is for the boss. You are simultaneously two people. How can you have the same face for your servant? One of your eyes has a certain quality, a certain look. Your other eye has a different quality, a different look. It is meant for the boss and the other one is meant for the servant. But it has become so automatic, so mechanical, so robot-like that you go on changing your faces. You have multi-faces, and not a single one is the original.
In Zen they say: find your original face, the face you had before you were born, or the face you will have when you are dead. What is that original face? – it is your consciousness. All your other faces are your mind.
Remember well that you don’t have one mind, you have multi-minds. Forget the concept that everyone has one mind. You don’t have one mind, you have many – a crowd, a multiplicity. You are poly-psychic. In the morning you have one mind, in the afternoon a different mind and in the evening still a different mind. Every single moment you have a different mind.
Mind is a flux: river-like, flowing, changing. Consciousness is eternal, one.
It is not one thing in the morning and different in the evening. It is not one thing when you are born and different when you die. It is one and the same, the eternal. Mind is a flux. A child has a childish mind, an old man has an old mind; but a child or an old man have the same consciousness, which is neither childish nor old. It cannot be.
Mind moves in time and consciousness lives in timelessness. They are not one. But we are identified with the mind. We go on saying, insisting, “My mind. I think this way. This is my thought. This is my ideology.” Because of this identification with the mind, you miss that which you really are.
Dissolve these links with the mind. Remember that your minds are not your own. They have been given to you by others: your parents, your society, your university. They have been given to you. Throw them away, remain with the simple consciousness that you are – pure consciousness, innocent.
This is how one moves from mind to meditation.
This is how one moves away from society, from the without to the within. This is how one moves from the man-made world, the maya, to the universal truth, existence.
This is what we are doing here: throwing away the mind.
When I insist “Go mad,” I am saying to you “Throw away the mind.” When I say “Pass through a catharsis,” I am saying “Throw away everything that society has given to you and remain only with that which you are – not given, but born with, your nature.”
Throw off all inhibitions, repressions, ideas, attitudes, concepts. Be simple, childlike, innocent, and then you have entered a different dimension. Then you can move into the world of the unknown. Mind belongs to the world of the known; truth is always unknown. That’s why truth cannot be known through mind. Mind means the past, and truth means the ever-present. That’s why you cannot approach the truth through the mind. Mind is the barrier, the only hindrance.
Now get ready for the morning meditation.