Many times, I have heard you say that the disciple should not stop until he arrives, and that peace and bliss are not the end. I wonder why you say this so often, and how a disciple could stop. It seems inconceivable to me to be able to let go of peace and bliss in view of how hard it is to let go of misery.
Kaveesha, I can understand your problem. It certainly is inconceivable that anybody should even think of stopping on the way when bliss is growing, when life is becoming more and more juicy, when love is showering, when it is spring all over the path. In this fragrant, blissful state, it should be natural to go on and on, because the farther and deeper you go, the more light is yours – the more life is yours.
But still, what seems to be inconceivable happens almost without fail to everybody. It is one of those strange things to which man is vulnerable. You know that man clings to misery; in fact, clinging becomes his habit, his second nature. Whatever is known to him he clings to, even though it is misery, suffering; it is better to be miserable than to have nothing and be lonely. If man cannot even give up his misery . . . then what to say about blissfulness?
Misery is certainly a consolation – at least you have something. People brag about it; people exaggerate their misery. They may have a small sickness, and they pretend – perhaps they have tuberculosis. […]
People exaggerate their misery; they make it as big as possible. Because they are not ordinary people, they can’t have small sicknesses, just a little cold, or a headache – these are for ordinary people. They have very special . . . Just any small thing will happen, and they have cancer. […]
Kaveesha, man clings to anything that he has, and he makes much fuss about it. It is just a desire to be special, to be extraordinary – just a poor desire, just a pitiable condition. Because of this habit, I have to remind sannyasins, “While on the path, don’t stop,” because they will find something small, a little wildflower, and they will think they have found the lotus paradise of Gautam Buddha . . . because less than that is not possible for such great men like them. They will stop there, they will cling to it, they will not go further. They have to be pushed continuously. It is inconceivable, but this is the trouble with man; much is inconceivable about him, but it is factual.
The police car stops Levy on the main highway. “Sir, do you know your wife fell out of the car five miles back?”
“Ah, thank God, officer. I thought I had gone deaf.”
Five miles . . . there was so much silence; otherwise, the wife was constantly chattering, so he was worried. What seems to be inconceivable is possible.
“These are extra strong pills, Mr. Cohen,” the doctor advised him. “Take one on Monday, skip Tuesday, one Wednesday, skip Thursday, and so on. I will come round next week to see you.” When the doctor calls, he is met by a weeping Mrs. Cohen. “He’s dead,” she tells him.
“What!” said the doctor in surprise. “There was very little wrong with him. The pills should have cleared it up.”
“It was not the pills,” wailed Mrs. Cohen. “It was the skipping.”
He was skipping the whole day. It would kill anybody.
So, Kaveesha – even if something seems impossible, be gullible and believe it.
It can happen.
Man is a very strange animal.
-Osho
From The Rebel, Discourse #4
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