Freedom Is the Ultimate Value

Individual Talk

From:Come, Come, Yet Again Come

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Osho,
Is it possible that you are not enlightened? If it is the case, would that make any difference for me?

"It is not only possible, it is absolutely certain that I am..."
Osho,
Is it possible that you are not enlightened? If it is the case, would that make any difference for me?

"It is not only possible, it is absolutely certain that I am..."

Osho continues:
"The very word enlightenment gives you a totally different sense. Buddha's word is nirvana; nirvana means cessation, disappearance. Literally it means when you blow a candle out, when the light of the candle is blown out, when the light disappears. One cannot ask where it has gone, one cannot say where it is now; it is simply no more. This is nirvana: the disappearance of the light.

"Enlightenment gives you just the opposite meaning. It makes you feel that you become enlightened, that you become full of light, that darkness disappears, not you. You remain; in fact you are far more than you were before. Before, you were hidden in darkness; now, all the darkness is gone and your being is revealed.

"Buddha says there is no being in you; you are a non-being – anatta is his word. Anatta means no-self, no-soul, no-being. He not only denies the ego, he denies every possibility of the ego; otherwise, the ego is so cunning it will go on coming back again and again. It will find subtle ways to catch hold of you. It will come in the name of the self; in fact it will come very loudly in the name of the self.

"Ordinarily people write self with a lower case s, and the people who philosophize about the ultimate reality start writing Self with a capital S. It is ego magnified, it is ego decorated, it is ego pretending to be holy, it is ego pretending to be eternal.

"Buddha uses the words no-self, no-soul, no-being. He leaves no possibility for the ego to sprout again; he simply cuts it from the very roots. Never before Gautama the Buddha had it been done so efficiently.

"My understanding, my experience, is exactly the same: nirvana cannot be claimed by anyone; to claim it is to falsify it. The Upanishads say: 'Those who know cannot claim, and those who claim cannot know.' The knower cannot say 'I know,' because in the knowing the 'I' melts – there is nobody to claim, there is nobody to brag. Hence, Devaprem, I can only say one thing: it is absolutely certain that I am not enlightened. What is enlightened is not me; it is beyond the idea of I."
More Information
Publisher Osho International
Duration of Talk 76 mins
File Size 31.35 MB
Type Individual Talks