JOIN USI am not calling him “late” on purpose. Right now he is more alive than he ever was –– even more than he was in his body. His songs, his things, his anecdotes, family –– every small detail of his personal life becomes news. The flower has withered, but the fragrance permeates the universe.
This song reminds me of Zen haikus. Hiakus are short Zen poems with 14 syllables. The Zen masters express the profound experience they have in meditation in unbelievably subtle and delicate images of nature. Hence Osho calls them paintings in words. Zen people don’t care for long, wordy philosophical statements. Their experience is beautifully expressed in the description of natural phenomena, for Zen is deeply in tune with nature. For example, Ikkiu, the Zen master says:
Though we do not preach the doctrine,
Unasked, the flowers bloom in spring;
They fall and scatter,
They turn to dust.
Who preaches the flowers to bloom and then wither and return to dust? They do it by themselves without learning about it from a teacher, or without going to a school. They can do so because they follow the rhythm of nature. Why do human beings need preachers and teachers, religions and priests? Why do they have to read scriptures to take lessons in living?
Osho has started a great revolution by denying the organised religions, for they are more of a prison. They create boundaries around your consciousness which is in essence free.
He asks people to learn directly from nature, for which no guide is needed, no mediator between you and existence. What is needed is a sensitive heart, a clear perception that receive the messages of nature.
He says: “The dead, pale leaf falling from the tree is a sermon on life as well as sermon on death. The morning dewdrops disappearing, evaporating in the sun –– a sermon on life! That’s how life disappears. Sometimes wake up with the rising sun and watch the dewdrop responding to the warmth of the early morning sun-rays. A dewdrop slips out of a grass leaf... starts going... going, and then is gone. One moment it was there, another moment it is gone. One moment we are here, and another moment we will be gone. And for this simple moment, how much fuss we make –– how much violence, ambition, struggle, conflict, anger, hatred.”
Buddha says: Dhamma is preached every moment. It is in every grass leaf and in every star. Seeing it will be a transformation. A silence will descend suddenly.