The silent truth

If you ask anyone, “Do you have any problem in your life ” They will start counting their problems. In fact, everything and every person appears problematic to them, lacking a solution. Any counsellor or psychoanalyst will give you a number of methods and devices to resolve your problems. But go to an enlightened one and s/he will brush your problems aside with a feather touch. Just as Osho says, “There are no problems in the world except for those created by human beings.”

Buddha had the same approach. He told his disciples calmly, “Just watch things as they are, without interfering. This is tathata, suchness.”

The riddle gets more complex. Osho explains the insight in a simpler manner. He gives the example of a headache. He says, the moment you notice the headache you turn against it. Either you want to repress it chemically, through an asprin or novalgin, or you have to repress it in the consciousness — you don’t look at it, you put it aside. You want to be distracted so that you can forget it. But in both ways you have missed suchness. What will work is, taking note twice. Say in your mind, “Headache, headache.” Don’t feel inimical towards it, neither friendly nor antagonistic. Just treat it as if it has nothing to do with you. And remain undisturbed, undistracted, uninfluenced by it, without any opinion.

Immediately, you will notice that almost 90 per cent of the headache will subside because a headache is not a real headache. Ninety per cent of it arises out of the antagonistic opinion.

When the headache subsides it reveals something else, maybe anger which is hidden behind it. If you repress the headache you will never get to know its real message. The headache was just an indicator that you are full of anger and the this anger creates tension.

Now take note again, “anger, anger.” Don’t become angry with anger, otherwise again you are trapped and you have missed suchness.

If you say, “anger, anger,” 90 per cent of the anger will be gone immediately. This is a practical method. And the remaining 10 per cent shall reveal its message to you. You will realise that it is not anger but the ego.

Take note again: “ego, ego.” One thing is connected with another, and the deeper you move the closer you come to the original cause.

And once you have come to the original cause, the chain is broken — there is nothing beyond it. A moment will come when you will take note of the last link in the chain and then find nothingness. Then you are released from the whole chain, and there will arise great purity and great silence. And that silence is called suchness.

Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.