Taoshobuddha Responds

8/3/2019 Taoshobuddha Responds

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Taoshobuddha Responds

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Dear Master,

I wanted to ask a doubt from you. At some

rare occasions while in meditation I feelsome subtle presence around on the top of


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my left eye and cheek. I feel the presenceof some divine soul,...I sense it as some

cool breeze and some sort of coldness onmy eye and nearby areas of my face. Then

I try to communicate with it but fail.

Sometimes my whole body starts vibratingwith energy during such presence. And

always it comes at the same place.

Can you shed some light on it? Am Iimagining things?

This is what you wrote. Now I will rephrase

it somewhat poetic:

At some rare moments of meditation I feel a

deep subtle presence first around and then ontop of the left eye and the cheek. A deep feeling

envelops me of the presence of a Divine Soul.The feeling intensifies as cool breeze. Suddenly

I feel something on and around the eye assomething indescribable and this cooling effect

continue. In that state personifying it I try tocommunicate but of no avail.

Explanation: This is how I will like to put. Your

expression is prosaic and logical. My explanationis poetic. This can be a mental projection and at


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the same time it will not. It can be the mentalprojection because it is you who is experiencing

it and there is no witness to it. It is private. Thisis wave worm. Like a wave such experiences

arise on the surface of the ocean. This is in yourhand as mind can project. Also through this you

can move from the wave form to the oceanicform. In that case, the peace, serenity, bliss

beyond description remains surrounding you.And you will always find it difficult to express

and explain. When through this experience youare connected to the oceanic consciousness theprocess of transformation begins. But you arenot to hold on to it. It comes like first satori.

With first satori the process begins if you do not

cling.

Sometimes my whole body starts vibrationwith an unknown energy during such

presence.

Through this sentence you have tried tomake an effort to express the after effect

but you have failed. Your failing inexpression is good because mind did not

come. Remember your feeling and innerstate after such vision or experience

always indicates if it is mental projection


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or something beyond mind transcendental.

I take certain examples and also a

response of Osho to a question from aseeker. Hope this will help also my energy

will flow to make it settle deep with.

You are blessed with the presence of OshoShailendra, Osho Priya and Osho

Siddhartha.

Visions of Krishna or Buddha, Mahavira or Christare seen in two different ways. One is what we

call a mental projection what you see is

nothing but your dreams, your desires, yourimaginations taking a visual form, a shape in

front of your eyes. There is nothing real in frontof you; it is all imagination. The mind is quite

capable of it. It can project an image of yourdreams and desires, and you can think it is real.

As you dream in sleep, so you can dream in thewaking state as well. This is how a Hindu sees

visions of Krishna or Rama; a Christian seesvisions of Christ or Mary. It is just mental,

imaginary, and hallucinatory. The other way isreal, but it does not bring you face to face with

Krishna or his image; it makes you encounterand experience what may be called the Krishna-


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consciousness. In an experience like this thereis no image whatsoever of Krishna or Christ,

there is only a state of heightened awareness, acontact-high.

As I said yesterday, there are two forms of

Krishna: one is his oceanic form and the other ishis wave form. While his oceanic form

represents the universal consciousness orsuper-consciousness, his wave form represents

Krishna the man who happened some fivethousand years ago.

Now an image, an icon of his wave form

Krishna the man can be used to come in

contact with his oceanic form, with Krishna-consciousness. But when you will really come in

contact with Krishna-consciousness, this image,this symbol of Krishna will disappear and only

the super-consciousness will remain with you.While it is true that his statue can be used for

connecting with Krishnas super-consciousness,if someone sees only visions of Krishna and

does not experience his consciousness, then it ismerely a case of mental projection and nothing

else.

The experience of Krishna-consciousness doesnot happen by way of visions and images. It is


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pure consciousness without any shape or form.We associate Krishnas name with it because a

person loves Krishna and comes to thisconsciousness with the help of his image.

Another person can come to it with the help ofBuddhas image, and he can call it Buddha-

consciousness. It can he called Christ-consciousness if someone attains it through the

image of Christ. Names dont matter; the realthing is the oceanic consciousness, which is

without name and form.

Aurobindos experience of Krishna-visions isconcerned with Krishnas image, his physical

form. He says that Krishna appeared before him

in physical form. This is simply a case of mentalprojection. Of course such an experience is

pleasant and gratifying, but it is nonetheless aprojection of our mind. It is an extension of

desire. Certainly it is exactly dream-stuff. It isour minds creation.

We can begin with the mind, but we have to go

beyond the mind sooner or later. The journeybegins with the mind, and ends with the no-

mind, cessation of the mind. It is significant toknow that the mind is the world of words, forms

and images; words, forms and imagesconstitute the mind. And where forms and


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images disappear the mind disappears on itsown. There is no way for the mind to exist

without words, forms and images. The mindcannot exist in emptiness, in void; it lives on the

determined, the concrete. The moment theconcrete world comes to an end, the mind itself

comes to an end. Krishna-consciousness isattained only when the mind ceases to be; it is

a state of no-mind.

Whoever says he has encountered Krishna in hisphysical form is a victim of mental projection.He is projecting his own mental images on thevast screen of universal consciousness and

viewing the objective reality. It is like a movie

projector projects fast moving pictures on allempty screen; there is really nothing on the

screen except shadows. Such visions are not aspiritual experience, they are wholly psychic.

They are, however, very gratifying; a Krishnadevotee is bound to be overjoyed to see visions

of one he has been desiring to see all his life.But remember, it is only a kind of happiness,

not bliss. Nor can you call it an experience oftruth.

I dont mean to say that Aurobindos experience

is not real, but he describes it in the way of ascholar, an intellectual. And this makes the


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experience appear to be one of mentalprojection. It is not difficult to distinguish a real

experience, an experience of the oceanicconsciousness from the one that is projected or

imagined. An oceanic experience is ever lasting;once it comes it comes forever, and it wipes out

all other experiences from your mind. It reallywipes out the mind itself.

One blessed with such an experience sees the

divine everywhere in trees and rocks, instreams and rivers, in mountains and stars. Butso far as projected visions are concerned, theyappear and disappear, they never last. They are

transient, momentary. Being an intellectual,

Aurobindo is not able to portray it rightly; for aman of intellect such a task becomes difficult.

Still there is another side of Aurobindo which is

poetic. He is not only an intellectual but also agreat poet. As a poet he is not less than

Rabindranath Tagore. If he failed to receive theNobel Prize, it was not because he did not

deserve it, but because his poetry is much toocomplex and difficult to understand. His Savitri

ranks among the great epics of the world; thereare hardly ten great epics of the stature of

Savitri. And unlike the scholar, the poet inAurobindo is quite capable of seeing Krishnas


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visions. Ironically, Aurobindo has expressed thisexperience strictly in terms of logic and reason,

which is of course natural. And his account ofthe experience does not have the flavor of the

trans-conscious.

We use words in two ways. In one way the wordis kept within the confines of its known

meaning; it conveys only that which is conveyedby its meaning. It fails to go beyond its own

limitations. In the other way, the word usedcommunicates much more than its givenmeaning. The word itself may be small, but itsmeaning is vast; the meaning is larger than the

word itself. Aurobindos way is quite different;

while he uses big words, he fails tocommunicate any great meaning through them.

He is known for his long words and lengthysentences. That is why he always ends up as a

philosopher.

When words really take off, when theytranscend their given meaning, they enter a

world of mystery they become a vehicle for thetranscendental experience. Such words are

pregnant with tremendous meaning; they arelike fingers pointing to the moon. Aurobindos

words are not that pregnant, they dont have anarrow directed toward the beyond. His words


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never transcend their given meaning. And thereare reasons for it.

Aurobindo was educated in the West at a time

when, like Darwin in science, Hegel was themost dominant influence in philosophy. And

Hegel is also known for the pompous languagereplete with big words and complex phrases in

his treatises. Going through Hegels works onehas a sense of profundity about them in the

beginning. We tend to think that what we do notunderstand must be very profound. But it is notnecessarily so, although it is true that profoundthings are difficult to understand. So many

people use obscure words and elaborate phrases

to create an impression of depth on theirlisteners and readers.

Hegel is a case in point: his language is very

complex, devious and bombastic full oflengthy, explanatory statements enclosed within

brackets. But as scholarship gained maturity inEurope, Hegels reputation declined in the same

measure, and people came to know that heknew much less than he pretended. Aurobindos

way of expression is Hegelian, and like Hegel heis also a systematizer. He too has not much to

say, and so he has to say it in a great manywords, and long and involved sentences at that.


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Expression has to have a logical and rational

buildup. However, if it says something whichgoes beyond it, then it means the person saying

it, has known that which lies beyond words aswell. But if he exhausts himself in his words,

which say nothing more than what they mean,then it is clear he is only a knowledgeable

person. Going through all of Aurobindos worksyou are left with a feeling that they are wordy.

Indeed there is nothing experiential about them.

Always remember If you have who known something of the beyond and are keeping

silent, then even your silence will be

eloquent. But in the absence of such anexperience, even a million words will prove

to be wastage. When you say something,you have to say it logically, but if your

something is experiential it will leave itsflavor, its perfume in your every word and

metaphor. Not only that, your words willalso say that they could not say what they

really wanted to say. As far as Aurobindo isconcerned, it seems he has said much more

than was worth saying.

In this context I recall a significant event fromthe life of Rabindranath, which will help you to


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understand the thing better. The great poet ison his deathbed, and an intimate friend has

come to say farewell. The friend says,You sangall you wanted to sing, you said all you wanted

to say; not only that, you did all you wanted todo. I believe now you can leave this world in

perfect peace and contentment, with a feeling ofutter gratefulness to God.

Rabindranath opened his eyes and said, You

have got it all wrong. Right now I have beensaying to God, How ironical it is that when Ihave put together all the musical instrumentsand am ready to sing, I am called upon to leave

the world. I have yet to sing my song. What

people think to be my song is only preparationfor the real song I was going to begin, but alas!

I have yet to say what I wanted to say.

Aurobindo cannot say the same thing. He hassaid all that he wanted to say, and said them

very methodically. And I say that as a mysticRabindranath is head and shoulders above

Aurobindo.

Someone asked Osho this question once.

Questioner: We would like to return toAurobindo seeing visions of Krishna, which


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you think to be a case of mental projection.In this connection we recall what you once

said about the Tibetan lamas, that on a particular day of each year some

competent lamas gather together andestablish contact with Buddha. On another

occasion you had said something aboutGandhi and on being further questioned

you said that you had your fact fromGandhi himself. And we have heard that till

recently there were lamas in Tibet whotraveled astrally from one place to anotherwhere they again appeared in theirphysical bodies. Will you please shed some

more light on this matter?

Osho: In this context a few things have to be

understood first. It is true that on a particularfull moon night, which is known as Buddhas full

moon night, five hundred lamas gather at one ofthe summits of the Himalayas the same

Himalayas where we are gathered at thismoment and see visions of Buddha. The

number of lamas who gather there neverexceeds five hundred; it is fixed for good. It is

only on the death of one of them that anotherlama is admitted in his place.


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But there is a basic difference between this andAurobindo seeing visions of Krishna. In the case

of his visions of Krishna, it is Aurobindo whotakes the initiative and makes efforts to see

them. The lamas dont have to do anything;Buddha himself appears before them according

to a promise he had given to his disciples in hislifetime. The lamas have only to be present

there at the appointed time. And this differencebetween the two events should be clearly

understood.

Buddha has left behind him a promise that at aparticular time of Buddhas full moon night of

each year and at a particular spot in the

Himalayas, he would appear for his chosendisciples. At this promised moment Buddhas

oceanic body takes the form of a wave body,seen by five hundred lamas together. But the

lamas have no part in it except that theypresent themselves on the said occasion. This is

one difference between this encounter, thisdarshan, and the one that Aurobindo has.

Secondly, while Aurobindo is alone at the timeof Krishnas appearance, there are altogether

five hundred lamas to witness Buddhasappearance. An event of mental projection is

always personal you cannot make anotherperson an associate with you. If you ask


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Aurobindo or any other person who sees suchvisions, for that matter, to allow you to share

his experience, he will just say no, it is notpossible. But when five hundred people see

visions of Buddha together, it cannot be a caseof psychic projection. Not only that, all the

people present compare notes and acceptsomething as real only when each of its

accounts tallies with another. As far asAurobindo is concerned he is his own witness.

And then while Aurobindo comes to it after longefforts, the lamas make no efforts whatsoever.It is just the fulfillment of a promise made byanother person in another time.

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Taoshobuddha Responds