Don’t Cling to That Which is No More
Find a Living Master

Always remember, truth cannot be said, it can be shown. It is a finger pointing to the moon. All words are just fingers pointing to the moon, but don’t accept the fingers as the moon. The moment you start clinging to the fingers – that’s where doctrines, cults, creeds, dogmas, are born – then you have missed the whole point. The fingers were not the point; the point was the moon.

That’s why I say, don’t get lost in words, don’t get lost in doctrines. Rather, find a living Master whose very being is a finger pointing to the moon. In his presence maybe something transpires in you. Not in his words, but perhaps in his eyes. There you may find a certain inspiration, a glimpse, a door opening into the mysteries of life.

Books cannot do that; only a living Master can. And this is the misery, that people go on carrying dead books, dead words. Perhaps those words were once alive when the Master who had spoken them was there.

When I am speaking to you, do you think it is only the words that reach to you? No, my tone, my emphasis on certain words, my silence between two words, my gestures of the hands, my eyes – which I forget completely to blink! My doctors are after me to continue to blink – but I forget! When I am really speaking to you then it is not only my words, but my whole being that is involved in it. It is a total expression…and one never knows what will reach to your heart.

You can write these words. They will be the same – but yet not the same, because the living reality behind them will be missing. My emphasis has always been – while I’m alive do not bother about what I say. Don’t listen to what I say, listen to what I am! And when I am gone, just say a goodbye to me. Don’t cling to the memories, don’t cling to that which is no more. Find another living Master – the Earth is never empty.

Existence is very compassionate. I don’t want you to cling to me. That is one of the faults all the old religions have committed, and I don’t want you to do it. They have all seen to it that after the Master is dead there is a succession. Now the pope is not enlightened. Now your eight shankaracharyas have nothing to do with the original shankaracharya; they are not enlightened people. You are unnecessarily wasting your time and their time.

Search and you will always find, because the earth is not barren, it is always produces. Whoever is thirsty will find the well somewhere.

Rather than getting lost into words, use your time in finding a charismatic personality, a living mystery, a man who has become a legend while he is alive. And when he is gone, be grateful for those moments that you lived with him. Be grateful for all that you have learned from him but don’t get stuck there. Find out, and now it will be easier for you to find out because you have tasted one mystic, you know the taste, you know the vibe. You will be easily pulled towards the direction where you will find another awakened being. Only bodies differ, the experience of awakening is the same.

So I don’t want anybody to remember me, even when I am gone. If you have really love me, I would like you to find someone of the same quality, so that your love goes on growing, your being goes on maturing, so that one day you are also in a state where you can help thirsty people to quench their thirst.

Osho
Viha Connection: The World of Osho, November/December 2009, Volume XIII Six Page 51-52,
taken from The Sword and the Lotus, Chapter 2 by Osho

(Although having Osho quotes in this website is the antithesis of what He said in this quote, it is just a way of pointing to the moon. In fact, this is the only purpose for putting anything in writing.   Love and blessings, Swami Prem Isa )