Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 20

CHAPTER 2. SOURCE OF VIOLENCE IN MAN
will be distinct and separate but that which is in it is not separate. One who experiences nonviolence, knows the Self, knows also that even though pitchers may be separate, the thing within them is one and the same. That experiencing of 'one' is nonviolence. Therefore, it cannot be sympathy because the other is necessary in sympathy. The other is not eliminated from it.
Sympathy is that which is beyond the mind. It is not in the mind or below it, but it is above and beyond the mind. And this happening which takes place beyond the mind is spiritual. Me alone can call it spiritual who knows what is in an atom is also there in the Universe. He alone can call it spiritual who knows that a drop of water and an ocean are one. One who has known one drop perfectly well has got nothing more to know about the ocean. When a drop is known the whole ocean is known. He has known the ocean within all who has known the drop within himself. Then he does not die because there is nothing left. Then that ego, that 'l' has disappeared because no 'thou' is seen there. As long as there is 'thou', there is 'T'. The pair of 'thou and I' is always together. Martin Boehme's book I AND THOU IS a very valuable book. According to Martin Boehme's idea, all the relationships of life are the relationships of 'I and thou'. But there is yet another world which is beyond 'I and thou'. There is another world of real life which is not of relationships but is of life-energy, of God, where there are no l and thou.
Empathy is the highest peak of spirituality, and sympathy is our temporary worldly practice. This sympathy is generally 99 per cent false. We do not simply deceive others but deceive ourselves also. And even if it is one per cent genuine, 'l' and 'thou' still remain Pitchers do remain there. And perhaps we peep from one pitcher into another also. And even then we do not have any idea that there is that 'One' between the two pitchers, that 'one is flowing between the two'.
I call that element empathy where there remains 'One' only, where there is not other. You may call it nonduality, or Brahma, or God, you can call it what you like. You can call it existence also. Life attains its highest peaks, its peak experiences where there is 'One' only. When thou and I have fallen off, one realises that relationship of 'thou and I' is surely violence.
Life is a continuous flow, it is an unbroken stream, it is one, but we are unable to experience that oneness, because we have built ramparts around us, we have built our own walls, we have surrounded us from all sides, we have created boundaries, in fact they are not there. They are made by us and they are temporary. These boundaries exist nowhere. If we ask a man of spiritual eminence he would say the same thing. The spiritual person would say so because he has experienced the expansion of the soul, and the scientist would say so because he tried to Find out all boundaries, but could not see them anywhere.
If you ask a scientist 'where does your body end?' he would reply 'it is difficult to answer the question. Does it end at bones? No, it does not end in bones, because there is flesh on the bones. Does it end in flesh? It does not end there because there is the covering of skin on it. Does it end at the layer of the skin? It does not end there because the layer of atmosphere is necessary outside it. If that is not there, there would be no bones, and no flesh. Does it end at the atmosphere layer? No, the atmosphere layer ends at two hundred miles above the earth. And if this atmosphere layer does not get the sun s rays, it would be no more there. The sun is one hundred million miles away from the earth. So does my body end at the skin? One hundred million miles away? Even our sun would be cold if it does not continuously get rays of light from great suns. Then the question is, where does my body end?
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho