Osho: “Yes, to know oneself is very elementary.”
I have heard…
Sherlock Holmes arrived in heaven. The angels turned out en masse to meet him. The Lord himself descended from his throne to bid him welcome.
‘Holmes,’ he said, ‘we have a little mystery up here that you may be able to help us solve. Adam and Eve seem to have disappeared. Nobody has been able to locate them for aeons. If you could possibly uncover them for us….’
Holmes darted to the fringe of the assemblage and hauled two frightened and surprised angels before the Lord.
‘Here they are,’ he said.
Adam and Eve admitted their identities. ‘We got tired of being stared at and asked for autographs by every damn new angel who came up here,’ they explained. ‘We assumed aliases and these simple disguises and got away with them for centuries, until this smarty-pants ferreted us out.’
‘How did you do it?’ marvelled the Lord.
‘Elementary, my dear Lord,’ said Holmes. ‘They were the only two who had no navels.’
Yes, to know oneself is very elementary. It is not difficult. It can’t be difficult. You have just to unlearn the ways. You need not learn anything to know who you are, you have only to unlearn a few things.
First, you have to unlearn being concerned with things; second, you have to unlearn being concerned with thoughts; and the third thing happens on its own accord – witnessing.
Osho, Sufis, the People of the Path – Talks on Sufism, Vol 1, Ch 8, Q 4 (excerpt)
Image credit sherlockian.net
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
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