Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 94

CHAPTER 8. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
witness has got to be aware to be a witness. One does not stand aloof. Whatever is happening, is happening in the light of awareness burning within. Even if I raise my foot, I do it consciously. Even a word is uttered in a state of full consciousness. If I say yes, I mean to say yes. I have said that consciously. And if I say no, I mean to say no. I have certainly said so with awareness.
In this state of awareness everything that is meaningless in life stops because nobody can do anything worthless and meaningless while being aware of it The web of meaningless things in life which we spin like a spider and often get ourselves caught, is at once broken. If I tell a lie, and to maintain that lie throughout life, you go on telling other lies, you forget the original lie, the net goes on spreading and step by step you move into it thoughtlessly. We walk on those roads where we did not wish to go. We make such connections which we did not wish to make. We perform such actions which we had never wished for. Then the whole life becomes perplexed and shattered. Awareness means I am totally aware of what I am doing at the time of doing it. After having experimented with it you will realize and experience that peace which you never new before.
The third maxim of tathata - total acceptability is still mere difficult. If one can master awareness, he can master total acceptability. Tathata means suchness what is is. There are no complaints, and I am pleased. In the case of a witness, I am the observer of whatever happens. In awareness we are fully awakened. In total acceptability, we are pleased with whatever there is, whether it is misery, death, a meeting with a loved person or annuity etc. There is no rejection, there is tranquility. Tathata is the supreme belief in God. He is not a believer who says I believe in God. He is not a believer, who says I have trust in God. He is a believer who does not complain. He says, whatever is, is all right. Every breath is full of willingness. Total acceptability is the throbbing of his heart.
Voltaire has written somewhere, Oh God, we might accept you some day but are not able to accept your world. There are some who accept the world but are not able to accept God. We all accept happiness but who would accept unhappiness? And as long as it is not accepted unhappiness will remain. This is perhaps the importance of unhappiness in the evolution of spiritual life. Whatever the scheme of life holds, has to be accepted, this total acceptance brings rains of bliss. Anybody accepts flowers, but the real question is of accepting thorns. Everybody accepts life, embraces it, the question is of accepting death.
Tathata means total acceptability. Such an acceptability can take place when one is totally aware. It is possible only after being a witness. When such an acceptability is fixed in the heart of anyone, the dance of endless bliss begins in his lire. The music of that flute, which is void, begins to play in his life. That dance which has no rhythm to it, enters his life. That smell which has no flower, begins to come in his life. But total acceptability is a very difficult thing to achieve.
A mendicant was passing under a tree. A man hit him with a stick, but in his nervousness his stick fell down and he ran away. That mendicant returned, and took his stick, went to a shop nearby and told the shopkeeper to keep that stick with him, and to return to that poor man if he comes back in search of it. The shopkeeper said, 'What a kind man you are. He has struck you with the stick.' The mendicant replied, Once when I was passing à under tree, a branch of the tree fell on me, and I accepted it. This man must at least be better than the tree.'
For example if you are sailing in a boat in a river another empty boat comes from another side and bumps against your boat, and you say nothing. You accept this and sail further. But if a man is
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
94
Osho