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LISTEN TO OSHO SPEAK ON THIS MEDITATION
THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW
NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE
This
is one of the basic messages of tantra. It is very difficult to conceive
of it because it is absolutely non-ethical, non-moral. I will not
say immoral because tantra is not concerned with morality or immorality.
Tantra says it is irrelevant. This message is to help you to grow
beyond purity and impurity, beyond division really, beyond dichotomy,
duality. Tantra says, existence is non-dual, it is one, and all distinctions
are man-created -- all distinctions, remember. Distinctions as such
are man-created. Good-bad, pure-impure, moral-immoral, virtue-sin:
all these concepts are man-created. They are attitudes of man; they
are not real. What is impure and what is pure? It depends on your
interpretation. What is immoral and what is moral? It depends on your
interpretation.
Nietzsche
has said somewhere that all morality is interpretation. So something
can be moral in this country and immoral in the neighboring country,
something can be moral to a Mohammedan and immoral to a Hindu, moral
to a Christian and immoral to a Jaina. Or something can even be moral
to the older generation and immoral to the younger generation. It
depends; it is an attitude. Basically, it is a fiction. The fact is
simply the fact. The naked fact is simply the fact; it is neither
moral nor immoral, pure nor impure.
Think
of the earth without human beings. Then what will be pure and what
will be impure? Everything will be -- simply "be." Nothing
will be pure and nothing will be impure; nothing will be good and
nothing will be bad. With man, mind comes in. Mind divides. It says
"this" is good and "that" is bad. This division
not only creates a division in the world; this division creates a
division in the divider also. If you divide, you are also divided
in that division, and you cannot transcend your inner division unless
you forget outer divisions. Whatsoever you do to the world, you have
done to yourself also.
Naropa,
one of the greatest masters of Siddha Yoga, says, "An inch division,
and hell and heaven are set apart" -- an inch division! But we
go on dividing; we go on labeling, condemning, justifying. Look at
the bare fact of existence and don't label it. Only then can tantra's
teachings be understood. Don't say good or bad; don't bring your mind
to the fact. The moment you bring your mind to the fact, you have
created a fiction. Now it is not a fact, it is not a reality: it is
your projection. This sutra says, "THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS
IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE."
"THE
PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:" Tantra says,
"What is very pure for other teachings, a virtue, is a sin for
us, because their concept of purity divides. For them something becomes
impure."
If
you call a man a saint, you have created the sinner. Now you will
have to condemn someone somewhere because the saint cannot exist without
the sinner. And look now at the absurdity of our efforts: we go on
trying to destroy sinners, and we conceive of and hope for a world
where there will be no sinners -- only saints. This is nonsense because
saints cannot exist without sinners. They are the other aspect of
the same coin. You cannot destroy one aspect of the coin, they both
will exist. Sinners and saints are both part and parcel of one thing.
If you destroy the sinners, saints will disappear from the world.
But don't be afraid; let them disappear because they have not proved
to be of any worth.
Sinners
and saints are both part of one interpretation, of one attitude towards
the world, in which one says, "This is good and that is bad."
And you cannot say that "This is good" unless you say that
"That is bad." The bad is needed to define the good. So
the good depends on the bad, your virtue depends on sin, and your
saints are impossible; they cannot exist without the sinners. So they
must be grateful to the sinners; they cannot exist without them. In
relation to them, in comparison to them, howsoever much they condemn
the sinners, they are part and parcel of the same phenomenon. Sinners
can disappear from the world only when saints disappear -- not before
that; and sin will not be there when there is no concept of virtue.
Tantra
says that the fact is real and the interpretation is unreal. Don't
interpret. "IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE."
Why? Because purity and impurity are OUR attitudes imposed on reality.
Try this. This technique is arduous, not simple -- because we are
so much oriented towards dual thinking, based, rooted in dual thinking,
that we are not even aware of our condemnations and justifications.
If someone starts smoking here, you may not have consciously felt
anything, but you have condemned. Deep down within you, you have condemned.
Your look may have condemned or no look may have condemned. You may
not have looked at the person, and you have condemned.
This
is going to be difficult because the habit has become so deep-rooted.
You go on -- just by your gestures, your sitting, your standing --
you go on condemning, justifying, not even aware of what you are doing.
When you smile at a person or when you don't smile at a person, when
you look at someone or you don't look, you just ignore someone, what
are you doing? You are imposing your attitudes. You say something
is beautiful; then you will have to condemn something as ugly. And
this dual attitude is simultaneously dividing you, so within you there
will be two persons.
If
you say that someone is angry and anger is bad, what will you do when
you will feel angry? You will say that this is bad, then there will
be problems because you say that "This is bad: this anger in
me is bad." Then you have started to divide yourself into two
persons -- a bad person, an evil person within, and a good person,
a saint. Of course, you are bound to be identified with the saint
within, so the devil, Satan, the evil within you is to be condemned.
You are divided in two. Now there will be a constant fight, a conflict.
Now you cannot be an individual; you will be a crowd, a house divided
against itself. Now there will be no peace, no silence. You will feel
only tensions and anguish. This is what you are feeling, but you don't
know why.
A
divided person cannot be at peace. How can he be? Where to put your
devil? You have to destroy it, and it is you; you cannot destroy it.
You are not two. The reality is one, but because of your divisive
attitude you have divided the outer reality. Now the inner is also
divided accordingly -- so everyone is fighting with himself. It is
as if you are fighting against one hand -- fighting the right hand
with the left hand -- and the energy is one. In my right hand and
left hand, I am; I am flowing in both. But I can oppose one against
the other, my right hand against my left hand, and I can create a
conflict, a bogus fight. Sometimes I can deceive myself that the right
hand has won, and now the left is down. But this is a deception, because
I know that it is me in both and any moment I can put the left up
and the right down. I am in both; both the hands are mine.
So
howsoever much you think you have put your saint above and crushed
the devil down, know that at any moment you can change the positions,
and the saint will be down and the devil will be up. That creates
fear, insecurity, because you know that nothing is certain. You know
you are so loving this moment and you have crushed your hatred down,
but you are afraid because at any moment the hatred can come up and
the love will be just crushed down. And it can happen at any moment
because you are within both.
Tantra
says don't divide, be undivided; only then will you be victorious.
How to be undivided? You don't condemn, don't say "this"
is good and "that" is bad. Just withdraw all conceptions
of purity and impurity. Look at the world, but don't say what it is.
Be ignorant, don't be too much wise. Don't label, remain silent, non-condemnatory,
non-justifying. If you can remain silent about the world, by and by
this silence will penetrate within. And if the division is not there
outwardly, the division will disappear from the inner consciousness,
because both CAN exist together.
But
this is dangerous for society. That is why tantra was suppressed.
This is dangerous! Nothing is immoral, nothing is moral; nothing is
pure, nothing is impure. Things are as they are. A real tantric will
not say that a thief is bad; he will say that he is a thief; that
is all. And by using the word `thief' there is no condemnation in
his mind. This "thief" is just a fact, not a condemnation.
If someone says that "Here is a man who is a great saint,"
he will say, "Okay! He is a saint." But there is no evaluation
in it. He will not say, "He is good", he will say, "Okay!
He is a saint and that man is a thief," just like this is a rose
and that is not a rose, this tree is high and that tree is low, night
is dark and day is light -- but without comparison.
But
this is dangerous. Society cannot exist without condemning one thing
and without appreciating the other -- society cannot exist! Society
exists on duality. That is why tantra was suppressed. It was thought
to be anti-social, but it is not. It is not! But that very attitude
of non-duality is transcendental. It is not anti-society, it is transcendental;
it is beyond society.
Try
this. Just move in the world without any values, just with natural
facts: someone is this, someone is that. And then, by and by, you
will feel a non-division within yourself. Your polarities will be
coming together, your "bad" and your "good" will
be coming together. They will merge into one, and you will become
one unity. There will be nothing as pure, nothing as impure. Know
the reality.
"THE
PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:" Tantra says
that "What is basic for others is poisonous for us." For
example, there are teachings which are based on non-violence. They
say violence is bad, non-violence is good. Tantra says that non-violence
is non-violence, violence is violence; nothing is good and nothing
is bad.
There
are teachings which are based on celibacy -- BRAHMACHARYA. They say
that BRAHMACHARYA is good, sex is bad. Tantra says sex is sex, BRAHMACHARYA
is BRAHMACHARYA. One is a BRAHMACHARI and one is not. But these are
simple facts, no values are attached to them. And tantra will never
say that BRAHMACHARYA is good -- the celibate is good -- and that
the one who is in sex is bad. Tantra will not say that. Tantra accepts
things as they are. And why? Just to create a unity within you.
This
is a technique to create a unity within you, to have a total existence
within, undivided, non-conflicting, not opposed. Only then is silence
possible. One who is trying to move to some place against something
can never be at peace. How can he be? And one who is divided within
himself, fighting with himself, how can he win? It is impossible.
You are both, so who is going to win? No one is going to win, and
you will be at loss because you will dissipate your energy in fighting
unnecessarily. This is a technique to create a unity in yourself.
Allow valleys to disappear; don't judge.
Jesus
says somewhere, "Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged."
But this was impossible for the Jews to understand, because the whole
Jewish conception is morality oriented: "This is good and that
is not good." Jesus in his teaching, "Judge ye not,"
is talking in terms of tantra. If he was murdered, crucified, it is
because of this. He had a tantra attitude -- "Judge ye not."
So
don't say that a prostitute is bad -- who knows? and don't say that
a puritan is good. Who knows? And ultimately they both are part of
one game. They are based on each other -- on a mutual existence. So
Jesus says, "Judge ye not," and this is what this sutra
means: "Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged."
If
you are non-judging, not taking any moral standpoint, simply observing
facts as they are, not interpreting them according to yourself, then
you cannot be judged. You are transformed completely. Now there is
no need for YOU to be judged by any divine power -- there is no need!
You have become divine yourself; you have become God yourself. Be
a witness, not a judge.

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