Listening to the Sounds of the Unknown

Individual Talk

From:And the Grass Grows by Itself…

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"Poetry is closer than theology to religion, imagination nearer than reason. And, of course, religion transcends both – it is neither.
"But through logic, to drop into the abyss of religion is a little bit..."
Listening to the Sounds of the Unknown
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"Poetry is closer than theology to religion, imagination nearer than reason. And, of course, religion transcends both – it is neither.
"But through logic, to drop into the abyss of religion is a little bit..."

Osho continues:
"Poetry is not rigid; you can drop out of it, if you like; it will not cling to you. And, because it is imaginative, it can stumble, even unknowingly, upon the unknown. It goes on groping in the dark – it is a groping in the dark – and it goes on groping, it goes on searching. It is always ready to move into any new dimension.

"Logic is resistant: you cannot find more orthodox people than logicians. They will never listen to a new dimension opening, they will not even look at it. They will simply say it is not possible. All that is possible, they think, is already known; all that can happen has already happened. They are always suspicious of the unknown.

"The heart of the poet is always in love with the unknown. He goes on groping in the dark for something new, something original, something untasted before, something unlived, unexperienced. A poet gropes. And sometimes he can stumble upon the unknown, he can fall into the abyss of religion.

"Poetry is metaphoric, metaphorical, it lives through metaphors. The same is the language of religion. Of course, when a metaphor is used in a poetic way, it means one thing; and when it is used in a religious way, it means something else. But both use metaphors. There is a meeting ground. Their meanings may differ, but their methods are of the same family. They look like twins. Vast is the difference within, but at least in form, at the surface, they are more alike than logic and religion. Because of this likeness religion has always spoken in the way of the poet: Upanishads, Vedas, Kabir, Meera, Zen poets.

"Zen poets have written beautiful haikus, so condensed that a vast poetic world becomes like a seed in the haiku. Sometimes they are very simple, you cannot even catch the significance immediately. But if you ponder over them, meditate upon them, then, by and by, the small haiku becomes a door. A few days before I was reading Basho's famous haiku. It is very small, but if you meditate upon it, suddenly a door opens.

"The haiku is:
Old pond
frog jump-in
water-sound.
"Just visualize it – an old pond, very ancient, a frog jumps in, the water-sound."
More Information
Publisher Osho International
Duration of Talk 91 mins
File Size 28.47 MB
Type Individual Talks