There Is Only the Dance

Poetry

A poem by T.S. Eliot that Osho cited

At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
At the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

T. S. Eliot
(excerpt from ‘The Four Quartets’)

Osho has spoken on T.S. Eliot and his poems on various occasions, including about the one above, which he cited in a discourse about Kabir:

“The still point… There is a point within you where nothing ever moves – no movement from or to, no stirring, no sound created by any instrument. Nobody is there, just stillness, but that stillness is the dance and that stillness is the music. It is called anahad.

… is ghat antar anahad garje, isee men uthat fuhara…

And the moment you have heard that music, a great fountain bursts forth, of joy, of bliss. You become a rejoicing, you become a dance yourself, you become a song yourself. Then your life is religious – not like the so-called saints, sad, pious and ugly. The really religious person is one whose mere wells have started flowing, who has become a fountain of joy, of song and dance and celebration.”

Osho, The Guest, Ch 7
Read here the entire discourse: The God Whom I love Is Inside

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