“Somewhere a deep balance is needed. Just between the two, exactly between the two, is transcendence. “
Things go on moving from one extreme to another. You hope – then by and by the pendulum moves towards hopelessness. If you are too much in love with life, by and by you move towards suicide. If you are too religious, by and by you move and become anti-religious. The pendulum goes on moving towards the opposite.
Somewhere in the middle one has to stop. And if you stop in the middle, time stops with you. And when time stops, all hope, all desires have stopped. You start living. Now, now is the only time and here is the only space.
Let me tell you one story. It is a very beautiful Jewish anecdote.
Young Sammy Moskowitz had just bought himself a motor scooter, but he had been brought up in orthodox fashion and wasn’t the least bit sure whether it was fitting for an orthodox Jew to ride one. He thought that the best way out would be to get his reverend rabbi to teach him a barucha – a traditional prayer of blessing – to intone over the motor scooter before he drove it. Surely that would make it proper for him to use it.
He therefore approached his rabbi and said, ‘Rabbi, I have bought a motor scooter and I wish to know if you could teach me a barucha to say over it each morning.’
The rabbi said, ‘What is a motor scooter?’
Sammy explained, and the rabbi shook his head. ‘As far as I know, there is no appropriate barucha for the occasion and I strongly suspect that riding a motor scooter is a sin. I forbid you to use it.’
Sammy was very downhearted for from his very soul he longed to drive his motor scooter, which had set him back a considerable sum. A thought occurred to him. Why not seek a second and perhaps more liberal opinion – from a rabbi who was not orthodox, but merely conservative?
He found a conservative rabbi, who, unlike the orthodox rabbi earlier consulted, was not in the traditional long coat at all but wore a dark business suit.
The conservative rabbi said, ‘What is a motor scooter?’
Sammy explained.
The rabbi thought for a while, then said, ‘I suppose there’s nothing wrong about riding a motor scooter, but still I don’t know of any appropriate barucha and if your conscience hurts you without one, then don’t drive it.’
He journeyed out to the suburbs and met Rabbi Richmond Ellis, in his knickerbockers, about to leave for the golf links on his motor scooter.
Sammy grew terribly excited, ‘It’s all right for a Jew to ride a motor scooter?’ he said. ‘I’ve got one but I didn’t know.’
‘Sure, kid,’ said the rabbi. ‘Nothing wrong with the motor scooter at all. Ride it in good health.’
‘Then give me a barucha for it.’
The reformed rabbi thought, then said, ‘What’s a barucha?’
The orthodox doesn’t know what a motor scooter is and the progressive is not aware of what a barucha is.
From religion, too much dogmatic religion, people become too irreligious. When they leave the church, they move to the prostitute.
Somewhere a deep balance is needed. Just between the two, exactly between the two, is transcendence. […]
Buddha used to say, ‘My path is the middle path.’ That is the path of transcendence.
Osho, Ancient Music in the Pines: Talks on Zen Stories, Ch 2, Q 4
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
Featured image Wikimedia Commons
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