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ZORBA THE BUDDHA

Zorba, is the unlived part of every so-called religious person and Buddha is the unlived part of every materialist. Osho proclaims the new man as Zorba the Buddha, the meeting of the materialist and the spiritualist. Without Buddha, Zorba is incomplete and without Zorba, Buddha is incomplete. Read on as Osho brings out the essence of Zorba the Buddha……


“I have been proclaiming the new man as Zorba the Buddha -- which is a meeting of East and West, which is a meeting of science and religion, which is a meeting of logic and love, which is a meeting of the outer and the inner. Only in these meetings will you find peace; otherwise, you will remain a battlefield. If you are miserable, remember that the misery is arising out of an inner battle that goes on day in, day out.

There have been great Zorbas in the world. "Eat, drink and be merry" is their simple philosophy. "There is no life beyond death. God is nothing but an invention of cunning priests. Don't waste your time on unnecessary things; life is short."

In India we have a whole philosophy, the system of the charvakas. Perhaps a charvaka is the most articulate Zorba, and if you try to understand him he is very convincing: "There is no evidence, no eye-witness of any God or of any life after death. There is no evidence or proof that you have an immortal soul. Don't get caught in these words, which have been created just to create a conflict in you so you can become Christians, Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists, Mohammedans."

India has also known great Buddhas. They say the world is illusory; all that is true is inner, and all that is untrue is outside. So don't waste your time in desires, in ambitions; they are nothing but the same stuff as dreams are made of. Use the small time that you have in your hands to go as deep inside as possible so that you can find the temple of God -- your godliness.

If you listen to the Buddhas, they seem to be convincing. If you listen to the Zorbas, they seem to be convincing -- and then you are in trouble, because you have both within you.
I want you to be a peacemaker, not a battlefield.

Let there be a deep friendship between your reason and your passion, so that you can enjoy what is available on the outside... and much is available. It is not illusory, the actions of the Buddhas prove it. They need food -- it does not grow inside. They need water -- they have to seek and find it outside. And still they go on saying, "All that is outside is illusory."

And the Zorbas, although they say that they are only living on the outside, are simply unreasonable -- because the outside can exist only if there is an inside. They are inseparable. Have you seen anything which has only outside and no inside? Have you seen a coin which has only one side? Howsoever thin you make it, both sides will remain together.

The first step to understand is: The most significant approach is to relax and be in love with your body, with your heart. Don't create any conflict, bring them closer -- because centuries have made them so unbridgeable. And as they come closer and become one you will not be just a Zorba or just a Buddha, you will be Zorba the Buddha. You will be a total man. And in your totality is beauty, is bliss, is truth.

YOUR REASON AND YOUR PASSION ARE THE RUDDER AND THE SAILS OF YOUR SEAFARING SOUL.

When you have understood their unity and they are no longer in conflict, suddenly you will see a new space arising in you: you will see your soul. Now that there is no conflict in your body, your reason, your heart, you have time, silence and space to see something of the beyond -- the soul.

You are basically a triangle: reason, heart and soul. But very few people have reached to the soul, because the battlefield continues. You don't have any time to explore -- the Zorba goes on pulling you outside, and the Buddha goes on pulling you inside. It is a strange struggle that has been imposed on you by all those who want you to be weak, who want you to be without souls -- just machines, robots.
He is saying:

YOUR REASON AND YOUR PASSION ARE THE RUDDER AND THE SAILS OF YOUR SEAFARING SOUL.
IF EITHER YOUR SAILS OR YOUR RUDDER BE BROKEN, YOU CAN BUT TOSS AND DRIFT...

and that is what almost all of humanity is doing, tossing and drifting...or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas -- that is a kind of death before death.

FOR REASON, RULING ALONE, IS A FORCE CONFINING.

Reason has its limits. It cannot accept that which is limitless.

AND PASSION UNATTENDED IS A FLAME THAT BURNS TO ITS OWN DESTRUCTION.

Your passion is your fire -- fire of your life. But unattended, unlistened to, ignored, the fire is going to destroy itself. The same fire could be used by reason to destroy the limits, to burn the limited imprisonment, and you would have the whole sky for yourself.

THEREFORE, LET YOUR SOUL EXALT YOUR REASON TO THE HEIGHT OF PASSION.

Passion knows no limits. Your energy is a source inexhaustible, because your energy is the energy of the whole universe.

LET YOUR SOUL EXALT YOUR REASON TO THE HEIGHT OF PASSION, THAT IS MAY SING.

Blessed is the man whose reason starts singing and dancing -- because reason knows only curiosity, doubt, questioning; it does not know anything about singing, dancing, celebrating -- those belong to your heart. But if your soul, your awareness, brings them together they will become partners in a dance, partners in a song so deeply in tune that all their duality disappears.

To me, this disappearance of duality is the beginning of a new life without any conflict, without any battlefield. Your life starts to become the garden of Eden. All your energies are enough to create a paradise within you.

It has been told to you that if you follow certain conditions as a Christian, a Hindu or a Mohammedan, you will enter into paradise. But I say to you: You never enter paradise. It is paradise which enters you the moment the battlefield has disappeared, and your heart and your reason are dancing in tune. Paradise is waiting for the moment when it can enter. In this joy, silence and peace, paradise has to come to you.

The whole idea of you going to paradise is nonsense. There is no paradise outside you, and there is no hell outside you. You are living in hell when you are in conflict, fighting with yourself. And heaven is in you when there is absolute silence, and a song arises in your being of totality, of organic unity.”

THE MESSIAH, VOL-2
# 3, Each Moment a Resurrection

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