Sammasati – Osho

What exactly is the right remembrance that Buddha talks about? […] 

Anand Agyeya, what Gautam Buddha calls the right remembrance is not what you understand by remembering. To create the distinction between what he means and your understanding of remembering, he uses the word “right”; otherwise there is no need to use that word.

His original word is sammasati; sati is remembering, it is memory. It is all the experiences that you have passed through. Right remembrance is not memory; it is remembering yourself – who you are.

Not your education, not your culture, not your civilization, not your religion, not your profession – who you are. The moment you remember yourself – “I am this . . . this moment, this consciousness, this bliss, this eternity” – it is right remembrance.

It is the same poverty of language that each mystic has suffered from. Even Buddha could not do much more than that. He had to use a word from the language which knows nothing about the self – which knows about everything else in the world – but doesn’t ask “Who are you?” because that creates great anxiety.

Just think: if somebody asks you, “Who are you?” – Not your name, obviously; not your caste, obviously; not your nation, obviously. Who are you? Not your body because it changes every day. […]

But in this whole changing, river-like being . . . who are you? Only the stupid will speak out; the wise will remain silent. One who knows not will say, “I am this; I am a man, I am a woman, I am young, I am Hindu, I am a Christian . . .” Only the stupid will speak out.

The wise will become absolutely silent. He is also answering – his silence is the answer. Buddha calls this silence “right remembrance” . . .  sammasati. […]

There is only pure consciousness in you. This pure consciousness is in itself the remembrance – not of many things but only of one thing – of itself. […]

What Gautam Buddha or what I am saying to you is to be in a state where there is no thought, no insight, no imagination, no emotion, no sentiment.

Just simple consciousness, utterly empty.

Only in that utterly empty consciousness blossoms the mystic rose. That is your very being. Out of that being arise all kinds of ecstasies, but it is not a thought. It is not part of the mind.

On the contrary, it is called no-mind, no-thought, no-insight. Gautam Buddha was very particularly insistent that unless you achieve a state of nothingness, you have not found yourself. […]

When everything is discarded, when nothing remains, you are. Only you cannot be discarded.

How can you discard yourself?

That’s why Buddha is absolutely right – he tried to negate, to eliminate everything – till there is nothing to negate. But you are there, who has negated everything.

This great negator has been called by many names. One of the names is enlightenment.

-Osho

From Yaa-Hoo! The Mystic Rose, Discourse #29, Q2

Copyright © OSHO International Foundation

An MP3 audio file of this discourse can be downloaded from Osho.com, or you can read the entire book online at the Osho Library.

Many of Osho’s books are available in the U.S. online from Amazon.com and Viha Osho Book Distributors. In India they are available from Amazon.in and Oshoworld.com.

 

 

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