My Mind Is Just A Mechanism

Discourses

Q: Osho, why is it that one becomes so attached to the physical peculiarities of a master: his beauty, his gentleness, his language, his mispronunciation – so that alongside the awe and respect he inspires there grows such a feeling of tenderness and familiarity? If this is a device I want to be caught by it forever.

Prem Nirada,

Love affair is a love affair!  It is not logical. When you love a person, you love his wholeness, you love him as he is. And to be with a Master the only way is to fall in total love. Hence you start liking everything of the Master — yes, even his mispronunciations! Of course it is easy to love his beauty, his grace, his wisdom, but that is not enough — unless you start loving him in his totality….

I know that if sometimes I don’t mispronounce a few words, you miss – when I mispronounce I can see the joy!

Osho namaste

Vivek goes on telling me every day, “Don’t say ‘aunt’, it is ‘ain’t’.” And whenever I come across it, just to be compassionate to you, I again say ‘aunt’.

And there is one more difficulty: there are a few things I cannot figure out. My whole life I have been unable to figure out what is left and what is right. In school when I used to go to the parade I used to write on my hands, “This is right, this is left.” So whenever this question of ‘aunt’ and ‘ain’t’ arises I am puzzled – whether it is ‘aunt’ or ‘ain’t’, or vice versa!

Yes, it is a device. If you can’t love me in my totality you will miss me.

A man with a rosary around his neck, wearing a hooded cloak and sandals, carrying a begging bowl and with a long white beard, was surrounded by a crowd in a certain town. They clamored for his blessings and he led them to the top of a hill where he sat in silence for several hours.
Finally someone approached timidly and asked him to address them.
“I know that you have all been waiting for the words of the Great Teacher so-and-so,” he said, “and I hope that his visit to this town, which is now over, has conferred the customary blessings upon it. But my own job is now finished, as he will have passed through the streets in our absence….”
“Then who are you?” shouted a frenzied worshipper.
“Me? Oh, I am the decoy….”

He was just a device of the Master, so that the foolish people could go with him outside the town and the Master could pass through the town unhindered, undisturbed – or would be met only by those who had eyes. All those who were blind followed this man because they could only see the outer garb. He looked like a Master, they followed him. Only a very few people must have remained in the town, who were not deceived by the personality.

I have become a stranger
to my own mind;
the distance is infinite
between me and the mind.
I am surprised myself
that the mind goes on functioning.
What I have known
has been known in silence;
no language can express it.

My mind is just a mechanism. For me now it is absolutely useless: it is just for your sake that I go on feeding it a little bit. Just for your sake I am speaking, otherwise now there is no point for me. In fact there is no point for me even to breathe! It is only for you that I am breathing, speaking, living. Those who have eyes will be able to see it.

Everything is a device. Remember it: you have to see the device to grow beyond it.

And as far as the pronunciation is concerned, it is a miracle that I don’t mispronounce all the words, or that even when I mispronounce you can still understand…because language is very alien to my being now – not English, but my own mother tongue is alien. I have become a stranger to my own mind; the distance is infinite between me and the mind. I am surprised myself that the mind goes on functioning. What I have known has been known in silence; no language can express it.

And from my very childhood I was not interested in any subject that was taught in the school – hence my poor history! I was always puzzled why these stupid names have to be remembered. Why, for what sin, are we punished, to remember the names of some people, dates, exact dates, exact names…? And all that these people have done is ugly! History is bunk! Why should we be punished? So I was never present in the history class. I was never interested in language, any language.

My whole interest was from the very beginning, how to transcend mind. Neither history can help, nor geography, nor mathematics, nor language – nothing can help. All these things are irrelevant. My whole being was moving in a totally different direction.

So it is just a miracle happening, that I go on speaking to you, conveying to you something which cannot be conveyed, expressing something which is inexpressible, saying the unsayable. And you have to forgive many things.

Landers and his girlfriend were dining at the famous House of Hung Lo. Landers said to the waiter, “Bling us some flied lice.” The waiter left and returned with won ton soup.
They ate it, and Landers again said to the waiter, “We want flied lice.” This time the waiter brought them two orders of egg roll. As the waiter walked away, Landers called loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear, “How about the flied lice?”
The Chinese waiter came back to the table and said, “Can’t you pronounce fried rice, you plick?”

Somehow I am managing…. So if I manage and say ‘fried rice’, then I slip somewhere else – ‘you plick’! You have to forgive me.

But everything is a device, remember…and as you get closer and closer to me, more and more subtle devices will be used. The day is not far off when we will be simply sitting in silence and there will be no question of language, words. Get ready for it, because that which I really want to communicate can only be communicated in silence.

Osho, Be Still and Know, Ch 8, Q 3

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