The future is in danger

We don’t have time for evolution. We don’t have time even for revolution. Only a quantum leap can save humanity and the universe.

And I think as the pressure of death, destructiveness, nuclear war, will become more and more heavy, the possibility for the quantum leap will also become more and more plausible, because that will be the only way out of a global suicide.

Beloved Osho,

I have just read an article by Stephen Jay Gould, a warm, amusing, open-minded scientist whose field is biology, and particularly evolution. It seems probable that about five to eight million years ago the chimp-human ancestral line split into what was to become modern chimp and modern man. Homo erectus appeared about a million or so years ago.

The interest in all this is that if true, it means that man learned to stand up very fast in evolutionary terms – over only about a million years. Elsewhere, in trying to explain missing fossils it has been suggested that evolution is not necessarily slow, but may occur in sudden leaps.

When I think of an imaginary conversation between pre-chimp and pre-human, as they parted company so long ago, I think of you talking to mankind.

Are we living through an equally momentous point in evolution, where you, as the first of homo novus point to a beautiful vision which is as far removed from homo sapiens as he, in turn, is from the chimpanzee? Might the jump into enlightenment as a quantum leap in consciousness have any natural equivalent in evolutionary jumps in the physical world?

The quantum leap is the latest discovery in modern physics. Up to now evolution was always thought of as a slow process. Hence it was always contrasted with revolution. Revolution was fast, quick; evolution was very slow.

But a quantum leap cannot even be called fast. It is instantaneous: from one point, from one stage, you disappear, and you appear at a higher, at a different point, at a different stage.

It was very puzzling in the beginning because no such thing had ever been conceived of. But slowly, slowly physics has settled with it, that it is a reality. Electrons disappear from one point and appear at another point and between the two there is no time gap. Here it disappears, there it appears; the distance is covered but time is not taken in covering the distance.

In physics it has now become accepted; in metaphysics, as far as human consciousness is concerned, it can be even quicker, because if matter can take such jumps that it moves almost beyond imagination, beyond the speed of time, in consciousness many more miracles are possible, because of course consciousness is the highest flowering of existence. It seems that the whole existence has been working to reach to the stage of a Gautam Buddha. Gautam Buddha followed slowly the path of evolution, because that was the only possibility in those days.

After twenty-five centuries, it is possible to declare that quantum leaps are available, for those who have the courage, in the field of consciousness too. Particularly in consciousness, time has no reference, no relevance – consciousness in non-temporal.

One can move from sleep to awakening instantly – or do you think it takes a long slow process – that first one is partly awake, then a little more awake, and by the evening one is fully awake? And then the second process starts – you start partly asleep, then more, then more, then by midnight you are fast asleep?

We know that it happens to everybody that you wake up instantly. Any device may do – just an alarm clock, which has nothing to do with you. The alarm clock is not even aware of you, is not concerned with you – it may be enough to change you from deep sleep into a quick awakening. The same is possible as far as spiritual sleep is concerned. It is only a question of finding a device. The problem is a little complicated, because an alarm clock will do for everybody, but spiritual devices are meant for unique individuals. One device will not work for all, because people are so different, so unique. Nature does not produce carbon copies, everybody is original. Hence he needs an original device.

In the past, one hundred and twelve methods have been found for meditation – those are the devices. The undercurrent is the same, just the devices are a little different from each other, because individuals are different from each other.

The religions which have been teaching the same prayer to everybody are doing an enormous harm, because that prayer in the first place is based on a belief in a God no one has seen, no one has heard of. Different religions define God in a different way.

In England there is now a growing movement of satanism, devil worshippers. Thirty thousand people already openly declare that the devil is not God’s enemy, but God’s only begotten son. And they worship the devil because God, after creating the world, has either gone senile or has completely forgotten about the world. But one thing is certain, that he is no more interested, because after those six days, he has never been seen. There is not a single eyewitness. So why bother the old fellow? His young son, the devil… the word `devil’ helps them, because it comes from the same Sanskrit root as `divine’. It means `godly’.

It depends on you what you make of God, and such things. Nobody interferes. God has never said anything about himself. He has never said to any religion “Don’t say these things, they are not true.” In fact God is only an image created by man, so is the devil.

You can change your images, and you can go on praying to your own handmade, homemade gods for millions of years. Nothing will happen to you, because these are not devices.

I have told you Leo Tolstoy’s story. Before the Russian revolution, Russia was one of the most orthodox Christian countries, more than anywhere else. The archbishop of the Russian church was getting more and more angry about three men who lived beyond a lake, under a tree – poor folks, villagers, uneducated, uncultured; but people had started worshipping them as saints.

And thousands of people were going there. And that was hurting him very much. These were the people who were supposed to come to his church; they are going to three persons who are not even recognized by the church as saints.

The English word `saint’ is ugly. It comes from the original `sanction’ – a man who has been sanctioned by the church in his holiness. He has a certificate of holiness from the church.

These people have never been sanctioned in any holiness, and thousands of people are going. Finally, outraged, he himself went in a boat.

Those three poor fellows were sitting under a tree, very happy, very peaceful, very silent. But the archbishop was very angry. He screamed at them, shouted at them. They all kneeled before him and said, “Forgive us if we have done anything wrong, but why are you shouting? What is the problem?”

The archbishop said, “Who told you you are saints?”

They said, “Nobody, and we don’t think we are saints, we are poor people. But what can we do if people have started coming to us, just as you have come. What can we do?”

“But why have people started coming to you? What is your religion?”

They looked at each other. They said, “We are uneducated people; don’t talk in such cultured, sophisticated language. Make it simple.”

The archbishop was happy that they were humbled by him. He said, “What prayer do you do?” All the three giggled. He said, “What is there to giggle about; is this your prayer?”

They said, “No, this is not, but what it is creates giggling.”

“Say it.”

Everybody said to the other, “You say it.” The second said to the third, “Better you say it. You are older than us. It is your right to say it.”

The archbishop said, “I don’t have much time. Say it! What is your prayer?”

They said, “We are ashamed. Just forgive us, because our prayer is very poor. Hearing that God is a trinity and we are also a trinity, we have made our own prayer. Our prayer is simple because we are very simple people. We cannot remember long words and big prayers. Our prayer is, “You are three, we are three; have mercy on us.'”

Even the archbishop giggled. He said, “This is a prayer? You were right that it brings giggling. I have never giggled in my life, I am a serious man, but seeing you three fools creating a prayer on your own – and we have a prayer authorized by the church. I will tell you the authorized prayer, and from today, you start the authorized prayer. Become real Christians!”

They said, “We will try. Just tell us what we have to do.” So he repeated the whole authorized Russian prayer. As he was saying the prayer, all the three were becoming very sad. At the end, they said, “It is almost impossible for us to remember. You will have to repeat it two, three times so that we can manage. One part I will remember, another part the other remembers, the third part, the third remembers. But the whole prayer to be remembered by one single person is asking too much.”

He said, “Okay, that will do, but at least it will be authorized prayer, the right prayer, the only right prayer in the world.” So he repeated again.

They thanked him; “It was great of you to come here. God must have sent you here.”

And he went very happily back in his boat, feeling satisfied that now this foolishness will stop. People will not go to these people. I will expose them, that this is their prayer. And how have they become saints?

But in the middle of the lake, he saw suddenly all three running on water towards him. He said, “My God!”

They caught the boat and said, “One more time because we forgot. We forgot which part is to be remembered by whom. And there was so much conflict that we said it is better to go to you. You can decide which part – and the reality is, we have forgotten the prayer. You repeat it once more.”

But now it was a revelation to the archbishop, that these people are walking on water. He said, “Forget the prayer I have told you. Your prayer is right. You continue your prayer, because I have been praying this authorized prayer my whole life. I cannot walk on water. My prayer has not been heard, but your prayer has been heard. You go. Just forgive me for interfering in your life. Whatever you are doing is right. Continue doing it in your own way.”

These one hundred and twelve methods of meditation are exhaustive. There cannot be one hundred and thirteen. Everything that different human types will need is included in one hundred and twelve methods. And they are handed down from centuries. They are simple. The key in all those one hundred and twelve methods is witnessing – in different forms, in different strategies – but the innermost core is witnessing, awareness, watchfulness. You can call it anything, but it will be another meaning of witnessing.

With witnessing, you can have a quantum leap. You can move from your sleep – not the ordinary, but the spiritual sleep – and you can wake up. Not the ordinary waking that you have done every morning, but the real awakening, which brings you to the highest realization in life – of yourself, and the whole, and that you are part of it; that the whole is you and that you are the whole. There is no distinction.

Physics has given the words `quantum leap’. No spiritual thinker, philosopher, has tried to think of a parallel for spiritual growth. That shows the poverty of your so-called spiritual thinkers, theologians. But in fact, meditation is the way which can bring a sudden flare-up in your being. And not only that, it can start a chain reaction. One flares up and suddenly people of the same type, who have not even tried meditation, who are not even seekers, who have never thought about anything spiritual, catch the infection – it is contagious.

So a few people around the earth get the quantum leap, then thousands more will become part of a world-wide fire. And that is the only way to save whatever millions of years of evolution has brought to us.

You have to choose between Ronald Reagan and Gautam Buddha. It is not a coincidence that Ronald Reagan used to have a chimpanzee as his friend. A man is known by the company he keeps. And when he became president, the chimpanzee was also very happy.

They both went for a walk. An old man saw the chimpanzee and Ronald Reagan; he was ashamed that the president of America cannot find friendship with any human being, he has to find friendship with a chimpanzee.

He went close to them and said, “Mr. President, this does not look good.”

Ronald Reagan said, “What does not look good?”

That old man said, “You shut up, idiot. I am talking to the president. You have no right to interfere. You may be his friend, not mine.”

The future is in danger if man does not understand the methods that can bring him quick transformation. We don’t have time for evolution. We don’t have time even for revolution. Only a quantum leap can save humanity and the universe.

And I think as the pressure of death, destructiveness, nuclear war, becomes more and more heavy, the possibility for the quantum leap will also become more and more plausible, because that will be the only way out of a global suicide.

Osho, The Transmission of the Lamp, Ch 12, Q 1

Audio submitted by Nirbija