Words neither satisfy your hunger nor quench your thirst: words are good for nothing
If you want to cross a river, you need a real boat — the word boat described in the dictionary won’t be of any use…OSHO
Words neither satisfy your hunger nor quench your thirst — words are good for nothing.
If you want to cross a river, you need a real boat — the word boat described in the dictionary won’t be of any use.
If you bring the dictionary which describes the word boat as a vessel that carries you across the river and you try to use it, the dictionary will drown and so will you.
And the river will simply laugh at your stupidity.
The river will say, “If you really wanted to go across with the help of the word boat given in the book, you should have also crossed the river described in the book! You shouldn’t bring the boat given in the book to cross a real river.
You should have drawn the boat in the book and the river as well — that would have worked.”
If you are looking for answers, then a book is good enough.
Then you don’t need to do anything in life.
But if you become clear about this, then the book will soon begin to bore you. Not only that, but sooner or later words will seem worthless; all theories and doctrines will look like trash; you will feel like throwing away the weight of all scriptures, and a quest for experience will begin.
But first it is necessary to make it clear within yourself:
“What exactly am I looking for? Is this just out of fun, out of mere curiosity, or is it a mumuksha?”
Mumuksha means a burning desire, a search, for experience.
The second thing you need to be clear about is:
“What am I ready to let go?”
If God were to stand before you and say, “I am ready to come to you, I am ready to be yours, what can you give me in return?” the chances are you will start feeling your pocket — most people will.
You will start counting rupees, and begin figuring whether to give five rupees, or ten, or whatever.
Or what else would you give? At such a moment would you be able to give yourself away?
Would you be able to say to God, “I offer myself. Except myself what else do I have?”
If this becomes clear to you, then the second sutra: “I am ready to give myself,” will become instrumental in changing your life. This readiness should come simply as a clarity — and that’s all.
It needs to be clear to you that “Should the time come, I am willing to give myself. I won’t fail in that.
I won’t say, ‘Wait a little while. Let me first discuss this with my family, let me consult my friends. How can I just give myself right away? Please wait for a few days. Let my son be married first.'”
The point is, it should become clearly evident to you that when the time comes, you can stake yourself without the slightest hesitation.
There is no gamble greater than religion. All other bets are very small in nature. In other bets you wager and either you lose or win something, but you always remain outside. In the case of religion you wager your own self, and there is no question of losing or winning, because when you have wagered yourself, who is going to win or lose? Now you are the stake, now there is no way to either lose or win. Now you are gone. So let this be clear to you.
And the third thing you need to make plain to yourself is that when you set out in search of the eternal, a childlike impatience won’t work. You need infinite patience. And one who is ready to have infinite patience — he attains now and here.
So make these three things clear in your mind, and the preparation will take place on its own accord.
OSHO