On the Wise Ones of Old

Individual Talk

From:Absolute Tao

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"Socrates was dying.
"A disciple asked, 'Why are you not afraid of death?'
"Death was certain, within minutes he would die. The poison to kill him was being prepared. But Socrates said, 'How can I..."
On the Wise Ones of Old
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"Socrates was dying.
"A disciple asked, 'Why are you not afraid of death?'
"Death was certain, within minutes he would die. The poison to kill him was being prepared. But Socrates said, 'How can I..."

Osho continues:
"If I am to continue, then death is irrelevant. And only these two possibilities exist. I cannot say anything right now about what will happen. I don't know. I don't know yet.'

"Socrates was a wise man, not a man of knowledge. A man of knowledge would have given a certain answer. Men of knowledge have certain answers, absolute certainty – that is part of their stupidity. In fact, only stupid minds can be certain. Life is such a vast mystery, unfathomable, unknowable; if you are wise you cannot be certain.

"Wisdom is cautious. Wisdom hesitates. Wisdom is never certain. That's why wisdom can never be confined to a theory. All theories are less than life, all theories are narrow, and life cannot enter into them – life is so vast, so tremendously vast and infinite. A wise man only knows one thing: that he does not know. A man of knowledge knows a thousand and one things and knows that he knows – and therein lies the foolishness of the man of knowledge. He goes on accumulating facts unlived by himself: theories, words, philosophies – untouched by his own being. He goes on accumulating them in his memory. He becomes a vast reservoir of knowledge, he becomes an Encycloapedia Britannica – but a dead thing.

"The more his memory becomes filled with knowledge the less and less he lives in his being. The more and more he moves into the head, becomes a part, a fragment, the less and less he is joined to the vast being and the universe and existence. He becomes in a way non-existential. He is no more a part of this existence, alive, radiant, vibrating. He is a frozen phenomenon; he no more flows with life. He is like an iceberg, frozen and stuck somewhere – stuck in the head.

"Consciousness, when it becomes knowledge, becomes frozen; when consciousness becomes wisdom it becomes a flow. A wise man lives, lives totally, but knows only one thing – that he doesn't know. To learn from a wise man is very difficult. To learn from a man of knowledge is very easy. He can give you all that he knows, he can transfer it very easily, language is enough of a vehicle."
More Information
Publisher Osho International
Duration of Talk 98 mins
File Size 27.91 MB
Type Individual Talks