Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

SR No.: 007697
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish
Total Pages: 96
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 1 MB

Page 84

CHAPTER 8
Perfect knowledge
16 November 1970 am in
A person wishes to go into the depths of an ocean after tying himself with chains to the shore. He wants to go deep into the depths of the ocean and also wants to know what difficulties, hurdles, he will have to face. We shall have to tell him that his first problem is that he is clinging to the chains on the shore. The second one is to learn to swim to save himself, instead of directly going into the depths of the ocean. The third hurdle would be the experience of the depth which is like death. As he goes down he will start losing himself. And there is only death when you reach the final depth.
The world is all around us. And we have tied ourselves to many things in the world. This strong hold is the greatest hurdle on our way to the depths of the self. Buddha used to tell his Bhikshus - Sannyasis - that life is a great deception and he who comprehends the meaning of this maxim, loses his grip of life. So try to understand this first maxim - life is a deception. Things are not that which they appear to be. Here what we hope for is never fulfilled. We try to find happiness and we get unhappiness. We try to find life and get death. We want fame and nothing remains in our hands except infamy. We try to get riches, but the inner poverty goes on increasing. We desire for success and the whole life is a long story of failures. We start for victory and return defeated.
It is essential to understand this deception of the entire life. If a sadhak who is desirous of going within himself realizes that life is a great deception, then the hold of life on him will be loosened - will go away. His hand on the chain fastened at the shore will be free at once, We know this but we do not see it, we ignore it. We want to see, to persuade ourselves, that life is not deception. We desire to deceive ourselves thus.
Life is only a tool. Life for some is awakening and for the other it is a sleep. It is like mistaking a rope for a snake in the darkness while walking on the road. There is no desire to see the rope as a
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