THE PURPOSE OF A FISH TRAP
IS TO CATCH FISH,
AND WHEN THE FISH ARE CAUGHT
THE TRAP IS FORGOTTEN.
THE PURPOSE OF WORDS
IS TO CONVEY IDEAS.
WHEN THE IDEAS ARE GRASPED
THE WORDS ARE FORGOTTEN.
WHERE CAN I FIND A MAN
WHO HAS FORGOTTEN WORDS?
HE IS THE ONE
I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO.
It is difficult to forget words. They cling to the mind. It is difficult to throw away the net because not only are fish caught in it, the fisher is also caught. This is one of the greatest problems. Working with words is playing with fire, because words become so important that the meaning loses meaning. The symbol becomes so heavy that the content is completely lost; the surface hypnotizes you and you forget the center.
This has happened all over the world. Christ is the content, Christianity is just a word; Buddha is the content, DHAMMAPADA is just a word; Krishna is the content, the Gita is nothing but a trap. But the Gita is remembered and Krishna is forgotten — or if you remember Krishna, you remember him only because of the Gita. If you talk about Christ it is because of the churches, the theology, The Bible, the words. People carry the net for many lives without realizing that it is just a net, a trap.
Buddha used to tell a story:
A few men were crossing a river. The river was dangerous, in flood — it must have been the rainy season — and the boat saved their lives. They must have been very, very intelligent because they thought, “This boat saved us, how can we leave it now? This is our savior and it will be ungrateful to leave it!” So they carried the boat on their heads into the town.
Somebody asked them, “What are you doing? We have never seen anybody carrying a boat.”
They said, “Now we will have to carry this boat for the rest of our lives, because this boat saved us and we cannot be ungrateful.”
Those intelligent-looking people must have been stupid. Thank the boat but leave it there. Don’t carry it. You have been carrying many types of boats in your head — maybe not on your head, but in your head. Look within. Ladders, boats, paths, words — this is the content of your head, of your mind.
The container becomes much too important, the vehicle becomes much too important, the body becomes much too important — and then you become a blind man. The vehicle was just to give you the message — receive the message and forget the vehicle. The messenger was just to give you the message — receive the message and forget the messenger. Thank him, but don’t carry him in your head.
Mohammed insisted again and again, almost every day of his life, “I am just a messenger, a PAIGAMBER. Don’t worship me, I have only carried a message from the divine. Don’t look at me, look at the divine who has sent the message to you.” But Mohammedans have forgotten the source. Mohammed has become important, the vehicle.
WHERE CAN I FIND A MAN
WHO HAS FORGOTTEN WORDS?
HE IS THE ONE
I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO.
A man who has forgotten words, he is worth talking to, because he has the innermost reality, the center of being within him. He has the message. His silence is pregnant. Your talking is impotent. What are you doing when you talk? You are not saying anything in particular. You have got no message, nothing is to be delivered. Your words are empty, they don’t contain anything, they don’t carry anything. They are just symbols. And when you are talking you are simply throwing out your rubbish. It may be a good catharsis for you, but it can be dangerous for the other. And how can you talk with a person who is filled with words? Impossible. The words don’t leave room. The words don’t give a door, an opening. The words are too much, you cannot penetrate.
To talk with a man who is filled with words is almost impossible. He cannot listen, because for listening one should be silent, for listening one should be receptive. Words don’t allow that — words are aggressive, they are never receptive. You can talk but you cannot listen, and if you cannot listen, your talk is the talk of a madman. You are talking not knowing why, you are talking not knowing what. You go on talking because it gives you a sort of release.
You feel good after having a good chitchat. You feel good because you are relieved: your talking is part of your tensions. It is not coming from you, it is just a disturbance; it is not a song, it has no beauty of its own. That is why whenever you talk you simply bore the other. But why is he listening? He is not listening, he is just waiting to bore you, just waiting for the right moment when he can take the reins in his hands.
You can tolerate the man — this is a bargain. If you want to bore others you have to allow them to bore you. Really, when you say that a certain person is a bore, you mean that the person will not give you any opportunity to be the next speaker. He goes on and on and you cannot find a gap from where you can enter to start boring. That person looks like a bore to you, but every mind filled with words is a bore.
When will you realize this? Why is a person bored? — because there are only words, no fish in them, only traps…useless, meaningless, there is no content. It is like a rattling of something, a noise; no meaning is carried. Whenever there is meaning it is beautiful; whenever there is meaning you grow through it; whenever there is meaning, when you encounter a man who has meaning, it gives you a new upsurge of energy. It is not a wastage, it is a learning, it is an experience. Rare and difficult it is to find a man who is silent.
If you can find a man who is silent and persuade him to talk to you, you will gain much — because when the mind is not filled with words, the heart speaks to the heart. When everything comes out of silence, when a word is born out of silence, it is beautiful, it is alive, it shares something with you. When a word comes only out of the crowd of words, it is mad, it can madden you.
This is the misery. You have to teach words, it is part of life, and then you have to learn how to be silent, and how to be wordless. Universities, parents, teachers, they teach you words, and then you have to find a master who can teach you how to keep quiet.
OSHO
from : The Empty Boat ch.9
