A Noah’s Ark of Consciousness – Osho

Rocks easily destroy flowers. The politicians and religions sense that enlightenment, freedom and individuality threaten their power. Is it fear alone that is the basis of the dark use of intelligence to crush man’s finest blossoms? Or is there an unconscious urge for “endarkenment” too? 

Devageet, there is an unconscious urge for endarkenment too. It was only a hundred years ago that Sigmund Freud stumbled, in the unconsciousness of man, on a very strange instinct.

Man has been, for almost ten thousand years, working on himself, on his consciousness, but it was left to Freud to find a totally new idea. He himself was shocked, but when he came across it again and again, in different patients, he had to give it recognition. And the idea was, that just as there is a lust for life, to balance it in the unconscious of the human mind, there is an instinct for death. Perhaps this was one of the great contributions of Sigmund Freud to human knowledge, and for the future transformation of man.

Slowly, slowly, then he started gathering facts, and now it is almost an established thing that in life, everything exists with its opposite balancing it. If there is a lust for life — that one wants to live — somewhere hidden, there is bound to be a lust for death. In certain situations, it may get a grip on you — that’s why so many people commit suicide. Otherwise, suicide has no explanation.

Devageet is asking: “Rocks easily destroy flowers. The politicians and religions sense that enlightenment, freedom and individuality threaten their power. Is it fear alone that is the basis of the dark use of intelligence to crush man’s finest blossoms? or is there an unconscious urge for ‘endarkenment’ too?”

There is; there has to be. Just as there is a longing for enlightenment, to reach to the highest peak of consciousness, there is certainly, parallel to it in the unconscious of human mind, a deep urge to drown oneself into darkness, into death.

It has been observed, although never made clear, by all the physicians of all the ages, that there are people who can be helped by medicine but it seems impossible to help them because they have completely lost the willpower, the will to live, — completely. They don’t support the medicine. But none of the physicians found the thing that Sigmund Freud discovered. Perhaps this had some sense in it: a man who loses the will to live is bound to replace it by something of its opposite: the will to die.

And now medicine accepts that the physician can only help by his medicines and other things, if the person wants to live. If the person has dropped the idea of living, then all those medicines are useless. Medicines don’t cure you. Your will to live cures you — medicines are only a secondary help, a support. But if somebody has moved to the opposite pole – the instinct for death, for darkness — then no medicine can pull him out.

As I was reading the question, I thought about AIDS. Perhaps someday it may be found that AIDS is nothing but an unconscious desire to die; that’s why scientists are unable to find any cure for it.

At this moment in history, Devageet’s question becomes even more pertinent, because one wonders that seventy-five percent of the budget of the whole of humanity is being devoted to create destructive weapons — nuclear weapons, and half of humanity is starving. Thousands of people are dying without medicine, and millions of children are dying because they cannot get very inexpensive vaccines.

On the one hand, humanity is on the verge, just because of overpopulation, of dying of starvation; and on the other hand, all politicians in the world have only one desire: to become nuclear powers. Five countries are already nuclear powers, and by the end of this century, twenty-five more countries will be nuclear powers. Already, we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy humanity seven times.

It seems absolutely ridiculous now to go on piling up nuclear weapons. Billions of dollars are wasted on nuclear weapons while children are dying because they cannot get medicine, they cannot get food. By the end of this century, half of the population of the world will die from starvation; and the other half, perhaps, will die through nuclear warfare.

It seems it is not only one individual, but perhaps the whole of humanity that has lost the will to live, the will to be more conscious, the will to be more aware, the will to reach to the highest peak of enlightenment, to be a Gautam Buddha.

On the contrary, people are waiting to disappear into darkness, into death, because life is so meaningless and so futile. There seems to be no reason to go on living. For the first time, on a tremendous scale, millions of people are feeling meaninglessness. It is creating tremendous anxiety, and it seems death is the only cure. With death, everything will subside. There will be no problem, no anxiety, no struggle, no jealousy, no tension.

Perhaps, Devageet, your word “endarkenment” may become a contribution to our language, as the opposite of enlightenment. People have always lived unconsciously, but today, the unconsciousness has reached to such a point that even death is preferable to unconsciousness.

A Scotsman named Angus needed a new kilt. When he went to pick out some material at the store, he decided to purchase two extra yards of fabric to make a matching scarf for his girlfriend.

He then went home and made such a beautiful kilt that when he tried it on, and looked in the mirror, he forgot all about the scarf and thought, “I shall go right now and show this to my lady.”

As he ran out of the door, a thread of the new kilt caught on the doorway, unraveling the garment. Eventually, Angus was running across the heather with his jewels dangling in the dew. He got to his girlfriend’s house and knocked on the door.

As his girlfriend opened the door and looked him up and down, she said, “Hello Angus, so nice of you to drop in.”

“Hello my bonny lass. And what do you think of this?” Angus said, pointing down to where he thought his new kilt was.

She said, “Ah Angus, it is just lovely.”

Angus said, “That’s right my pretty lass, and I have got two more yards at home to wrap around your neck.”

Man has always lived in unconsciousness, but the darkness was never as much as it is today. There have been nights, but always the dawn has come. This time it seems to be doubtful whether the dawn will come or not.

I am not a pessimist, but I am no longer an optimist either. I used to be — now, I am simply a realist. And the reality is: perhaps we are very close to the end of this beautiful planet, with all its beauty, all its life, and all its great achievements. There seems to be no ray of hope from anywhere. And perhaps when I am saying this, it is not me who is saying it; perhaps it is existence itself who has lost hope about humanity and its future.

The only thing that I still go on dreaming for is my people. Perhaps the planet will not be saved, but those who have come to me, if they make a little effort to become conscious, to create a longing for enlightenment, at least they can be saved. But if you go on behaving like the masses of the world, you are also a lost case.

Immense responsibility rests on you because nowhere else in the whole world are people trying, even in small groups, to achieve enlightenment, to be meditative, to be loving, to be rejoicing. We are a very small island in the ocean of the world, but it does not matter. If these few people can be saved, the whole heritage of humanity, the heritage of all the mystics, of all the awakened people, can be saved through you.

If this planet dies, perhaps on another planet… There are fifty thousand planets which can sustain life; perhaps civilization has to begin from ABC on some other planet. But who will be the pioneers? These dark masses, utterly unconscious, cannot be. Only a few chosen ones who have striven hard to make themselves deserving of light, of eternal life, of some experience of godliness — perhaps they will be the ones who will be starting a new civilization somewhere in the universe, on some new planet.

I have never said this before but, going around the world, I have felt such a wound in my heart that the people who need to be saved are the people who are creating every kind of barrier to being saved. Even to approach them has become impossible. And seeing the whole world, I started feeling that there is now only one possibility, and that is to create in the consciousness of those few who have come close to me, a Noah’s Ark. It will not be a physical thing, but a Noah’s Ark of consciousness which moves a small group of conscious people to another planet. That seems to be the only possibility to save the great heritage of humanity.

You cannot depend any longer on the politicians and on the priests, and on the masses who seem to be willing, deeply desiring, to die. Death seems to be the greatest desire in the world today, and because I have been talking about life and love and laughter, I have been condemned from every corner.

I can understand the reason: to spread the message of life, love and laughter amongst people who, deep down, are getting ready to commit a global suicide… this is very contradictory to them.

Perhaps we will have to meet on some other planet — this planet seems to be spent. And it is not new: planets are born, planets die; stars are born, stars die — so it is not something strange. And the preparations are going so well that it seems almost an impossibility for life to survive here on this earth. The whole blame goes on those vested interests which have kept humanity unconscious, and don’t want man to become intelligent and conscious, alert and aware. Anyway, it seems too late.

The police were investigating the death of Markowitz, the dress manufacturer who had jumped from the window of his office. The detective decided to query Marilyn, his lovely young secretary.

“Well, after working for Mr. Markowitz one month,” she began, “I got a forty-dollar-a-week raise. At the end of the second month, he gave me a beautiful black necklace. At the end of the third month, he gave me a new Thunderbird, and a stunning Persian lamb coat. Then he asked me if I would be willing to make love, and how much I would charge him. I told him that he had been so nice to me, I would charge him only ten dollars, even though I was getting twenty from the other guys in the office. And that is when he jumped out of the window.”

-Osho

From The Hidden Splendor, Discourse #11, Q3

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