I remember a story about Mulla Nasruddin.
In the last days of his life, he became the prime minister of an emperor. Every month or two, he would go to a nearby hill station to rest, to a small mountain bungalow he owned.
The emperor soon became puzzled.
Sometimes Nasruddin would say, “I will return in twenty days,” and he would be back in five. At other times he would say, “I will return in five days,” and he would take twenty. Finally, the emperor asked, “What is this strange pattern? Why do you never return according to what you say? By what calculation do you decide when to come back?”
Nasruddin replied, “If you promise not to tell anyone, I will reveal my secret.”
The emperor said, “Is it really that confidential?”
Nasruddin said, “Extremely.”
He said, “I have appointed a servant woman in that bungalow. She is around seventy years old. Not a single tooth remains in her mouth. One eye is artificial, made of stone. One leg is wooden. Her body looks as if it should have died long ago.”
“And this is my rule,” Nasruddin said.
“The moment that woman begins to appear beautiful to me, I run away.”
Whether it takes five days, seven days, ten days—
the moment she appears beautiful, I understand: now it is time to escape.
It does not merely happen sometimes—it always happens.
So, I cannot decide beforehand. Sometimes it takes five days; sometimes ten; sometimes twenty. But this is my measure. When she starts looking beautiful, I know my awareness is slipping out of my hands. Then I must leave immediately.
LSD does not only come from outside.
It is born within.
What we call sexual attraction, sensual magnetism, is nothing but chemistry—glands secreting certain fluids, nothing more. If a few glands were removed from your body, no woman would appear beautiful to you. No man would appear beautiful to you.
Between you and what you see, a stream of chemicals flows.
That stream—whether it comes from an external drug like LSD or arises from within—is the same.
Inside the human being, hypnotic drugs are continuously produced. In youth especially, a certain madness arises. The same intoxication takes possession. Awareness is eclipsed. Consciousness falls into a faint.
And meditation is simply the art of not being drunk with your own chemistry.
~ Translated from Nirvan Upanishad by Osho (Hindi Discourse), Discourse 3
No comments:
Post a Comment