Existence is very generous, always forgiving, never punishing.
But the only way to reach to existence is through your own innermost silence. That is the silence between the stars — the same silence; there is no difference.
There are no types of silence, remember that. There cannot be two kinds of silence. Silence is simply one.
Just the taste of it and you have tasted the silence that is there millions of light years away, surrounding the whole universe.
By feeling your inner silence you have felt the pulse of the universe.
I say to you, with God there is no possibility of religion.
And I say to you also, that with the so-called religions that have existed up to now, there is no possibility of religion either.
I teach you a Godless, religionless religion.
Of course, then my meaning of religion will be “religiousness”. You are not a Christian, you are not a Hindu, you are not a Mohammedan. You are just a man of silence, a man of truth, a man of compassion, a man who is no longer searching — one who has arrived. And the feeling of arrival… then there are no questions, no doubts, no beliefs, no answers either.
When Bodhidharma was dying his disciples asked him, “Master, your last message?”
He opened his eyes, and said, “I do not know anything at all — I have arrived. Knowledge is left far behind; who cares to know? There is nobody asking, there is nobody questioning, there is nobody answering; all has become silent. Hence,” he says, “all that I can say is that I do not know.”
That was the statement of Socrates also in the end. He said, “When I was young I thought,’I know much and soon I will know all.’ But as I went on searching, doubting, enquiring” — and he was a man not of belief, but of doubt. He is far superior to any of your religious prophets, messiahs, avataras, tirthankaras — he is far superior.
In the end he said, “The more I started to know, the more I started to feel that I don’t know anything.”
His statements are tremendously beautiful, because on the surface they look contradictory. He says, “The more I knew, the less I knew. The moment I came to know all, all was lost; only ignorance remained.” So he said, “There is a knowledge which is ignorant, and there is an ignorance which knows.”
With belief you will come to a knowledge which is ignorant.
With doubt, enquiry, meditation, you will come to a state of ignorance which knows.
There is no need for you to be labeled. There is no need for you to be part of a congregation.
My function is to make you free of all congregations, to give you total freedom to be yourself.
But perhaps alone you are not able to stand against the whole world. You need fellow travelers. You need people who are walking on the same path to give you courage, to keep you inspired.
Those who are with me know perfectly well that this is just playfulness..
I am not giving you any doctrine. I have none.
I will take all doctrines away from you.
I want you to become just an emptiness. And that is the ultimate quality of religious man: to know the inner emptiness. It is unbounded. It is as vast as the universe. It contains the whole universe in it.
When you are absolutely empty, stars start moving within you. The whole universe and you are no longer separate. You have found a subtle, secret door that goes from you to the whole.
God is not needed.
It is an absolutely useless hypothesis.
Nor are religions needed.
But a religious consciousness is absolutely needed — more today than ever before.
If we cannot create a great movement for religious consciousness there is no future for humanity — man is doomed.
The priests, the politicians and other vested interests together have prepared your grave; any moment they will push you into it. Many of you, of your own accord, are sitting in that grave.
The world has never been before at such a critical moment. If a great release of religious consciousness is not made available, man is doomed.
But I hope that religious consciousness is going to prevail, that man will pass through this dangerous moment and will come out of it far superior, far higher, far more humane.
OSHO
