Vot.. II/Nc). 6
N t w sL I I l t-R to R % [ s T IRN A Ust RAIIA
A U( iU H I / St:PIIMIIIRo5
Beloved Osho, I heard you say that we sometimes carry other people's wounds. What does this mean? Is another person's wound simply their thought pattern that we adopt? Ifwe can so easily accept someone else's wound then why is it so difficult to accept our own buddhahood? It is very complicated question, but if you are ready to understand I am willing to answer. Everybody is carrying other people's wounds. In the first place, you are living in a sick society where people are angry, full ot' hate, enjoy to hurt - that is the superficial level which can be understood easily. ... According to me, thc v hole foundation of life has to bc changed. People should bc sympathetic only when there is pleasure and joy and rejoicing, because by your sympathy you are nourishing. Nourish people's joy, don't nourish their sadness and their misery. Be compassionate when they are miserable. Make it clear that this misery is chosen by yourself.... ... Thc only way to get out ot' misery patterns, whether ancient or new, is witnessing. I say it is thc only way, bccausc nobody has escaped I'rom the mind without becoming a witness. Just witness, and suddenly you will start laughing at your own misery. All our miseries are so superlicial - and most. Iundamentally, they are all borrowed. And everybody is giving his misery to cvcrylxxty else he comes in contact with, People are talking continuously about their miseries, about their troubles, about their contlicts. Have you ever heard anybody talking about his joyous moments'! About his dances and songs? About his silences and blissfulness? No, notxxly talks about these things. People go on sharing all their vvounds„and whenever you are talking about your misery to somctxxty, without your knowing, you are transferring a miserable pattern. The person may be thinking that he is only listening to you, but he is also catching the vibc of misery, the wounds. When I said that you carry other people's wounds, my statement meant that your own consciousness has no v ounds, It everybody becomes alert, meditative, there will be no wounds in the vvorld. They will simply disappear. They will not I'ind any house, any shelter. This is possible. If it is possible for mc, it is possible for ever) Ixdy. And in your question you also ask why "wc can so easily accept someone else's wound," and ~ihy it is "so difficult to accept our oe n buddhah(xxt." You can acceptsomcixxiy's wounds because you also have wounds. You understand thc language of wounds, miscrics, sufterings. And you ask ivhy wc cannot accept thc idea of being a buddha. In thc t'irst place, you rarely come across a buddha. Very rarely docs a buddha exist in the world, so even it you meet him you will not undcrsund his language. Most probably you w>ll
misunderstand him. You know misery, and he is talking about bliss. You know wounds, and he is talking about eternal health. You know only death, and hc is talking about eternity. In the first place, it is difficult to find a buddha. In the second place, it is difficult to understand his language because it is not your language. Othe+vise, this must be the simplest thing in the world — to understand one's buddhahood. It is so obvious. Your very being is already a buddha, but you have forgotten the path of your inner being. You have travelled long on many paths, but they all lead outside, and slowly, slowly you have I'orgottcn that there is a small space within you which you have not explored. Meditation is nothing but an exploration of your ignored inner space. That, small space will suddenly remind you that you are a buddha. And unless it becomes a mindfulness in you that you are a buddha ... It is not a concept; nobody can convince you that you are a buddha ... you cannot, bc otherwise. It' you simply go in, the very experience of the interior space explodes in thc recognition and remembrance of your buddhahood. It is not a philosophy, it is an existential experience. QSHO- The Zen Manifesto