Being in the thick of the dense affairs of the world and yet in a very playful mood

Rachel, a middle-aged American is called forward.

This will be you new name: Ma Chinmatra.

It means: only consciousness. All else is appearance – the reality consists only of consciousness. This has been the experience of all the mystics down the ages – of a Christ, of a Buddha, of a Krishna. But for the first time in this century, even science is coming very close to this understanding, because now science says there is no matter. One tremendously significant step has been taken by physics: the recognition that there is no matter. This is half the journey. If there is no matter, then sooner or later the other part is going to be revealed to the scientific vision also, because this has been the dichotomy down the ages: matter and consciousness.

The scientist has been continually denying consciousness and believing in matter, and the mystics have been denying matter and believing in consciousness. Now science is agreeing more with the mystics than with its own predecessors. They have taken half the step – that matter doesn’t exist. The other half has yet to be realized, but it is not very far away, because if matter does not exist then what does? Science calls it “energy,” “electricity,” but they are coming closer. Energy is closer to consciousness than matter ever was. Consciousness is a form of energy; energy is a form of consciousness.

“Chinmatra” simply means: only consciousness is true… and this has to become your foundation. Remember it continuously: only consciousness is true and all else is just a dream. And I am not saying to deny the dream or to renounce the dream, but only to remember; just remembering it is enough. The dream still continues. It is like a film on the screen: sometimes you get lost in it, sometimes you forget that this is just a film projected on the white screen, the empty screen; there is nothing in it. Sometimes you get lost in it, you become identified. Sometimes you cry and weep, or laugh, but sometimes you remember suddenly, “This is just a film, a story, with no substance in it.” Then you start feeling embarrassed, looking ridiculous to yourself. It happens exactly the same way. But when you remember this is just a film, still the film continues; just by your remembering it does not stop.

So is the case with the world: the world continues; even for a Buddha the world continues as it continues for everybody else. The only difference is that the Buddha continuously remembers that this is just a dream, a play of consciousness, nothing to be attached to, nothing to be obsessed with, nothing to possess, nothing to be possessed by. Hence the man who remembers it remains aloof, detached, cool… moves in the world and remains unaffected by it.

And that’s the whole beauty of a religious man: being in the world and yet not affected by it, being in the marketplace and yet continuing one’s meditation, being in the thick of the dense affairs of the world and yet in a very playful mood, knowing perfectly well it is a dream, a part to be fulfilled, a role to be played, but nothing to be serious about.

This awareness unburdens, this awareness liberates.

Osho, God’s Got a Thing About You, Ch 16