The emperor’s wish: one minute of silence

1001 Tales told by the Master

“If just the outside noise stopping for one minute gives you such stillness, such sweet silence, what will happen when your inside mind stops making noise?” asks Osho.

Sundial

I have heard an ancient story:

Once a great emperor, a chakravartin, who ruled the whole earth, decided that if the whole world stopped all kinds of noise even for a single minute, that silence would be some incredible experience. But how to convince people to stop totally for one minute – the whole world stopping for one minute, no talking? Even though he was a great emperor, it was not feasible. He inquired of his wise men.

They said, “That seems to be an impossible task. How can we manage it? How will we guard? Who can prevent people from talking and making noise? Millions of people! Your army is big, but compared to the people your army is nothing.”

Then a mystic rose and said to the king, “I can manage it. I know the secret.”

He whispered the secret into the ears of the king and the secret worked. The secret was very strange – as the ways of the mystics are always very strange. On the surface they look like one thing, deep down they are something else – maybe exactly the opposite of how they appear on the surface.

The mystic told the king, “You make an announcement that on a particular day at twelve o’clock midday, the whole world has to shout together the sound ‘Hoo’ for one minute. The whole world has to shout it! Nobody is allowed not to shout, everybody has to participate.”

The king said, “What are you talking about? I want the world to fall into absolute peace for one minute!”

The mystic said, “I know people! You just follow what I am saying, and what you want will happen.”

And it really happened. The king made the declaration, the day was fixed, and people waited eagerly for that moment. The whole world shouting “Hoo” for one minute – it was going to be something extraordinary! Everybody thought, “I am not going to shout, I will listen. Why miss such an opportunity? The king himself wants to listen, why should I miss the opportunity? And who is to find out? When the whole world is shouting Hoo, who is to find out that I have not been a participant?”

And that’s how everybody thought. At exactly twelve o’clock, for one minute there was absolute silence – not even a single noise. The mystic had managed it. And the king was transformed by the silence it was so deep – its beauty, its music, its exquisite grace. It became the beginning of his own meditation.

If just the outside noise stopping for one minute gives you such stillness, such sweet silence, what will happen when your inside mind stops making noise? It was a turning point in the life of the emperor.

Osho, The White Lotus, Ch 11 (excerpt)

Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales

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