Today’s excerpts are from Osho’s discourse on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, discourse #8. To read the full transcript click here – Total Acceptance and Non-Division.
Osho talks about how we try and live up to an image of ourselves, rather than accepting our real nature. He talks of how ego is created.
“…..Many people come to me and they go on asking how to be egoless. You cannot be egoless unless you look at the foundations of your ego to find it. You are greedy and you think you are non-greedy – this is the ego. If you are greedy and you know and accept totally that you are greedy, then where can you allow your ego to stand? If you are angry and you say that you are angry – you do not say it to others, but you feel it deep down, you feel the helplessness – then where can your anger stand?
If you are sexual, accept it. Whatsoever is there, accept it.
The non-acceptance of nature creates the ego, the non-acceptance of your suchness – your TATHATA, that which you are. If you accept it, the ego will not be there. If you do not accept it, if you reject it, if you create ideals against it, there will be ego. Ideals are the stuff the ego is made of.
Accept yourself. But then you will look like an animal. You will not look like a man because your concept of man is in your ideals. That is why we go on teaching others not to be like animals, and everyone is an animal. What can you do? You ARE an animal. Accept your animality. And the moment you accept your animality, you have done the first thing to go beyond animals – because no animal knows that it is an animal, only man can know. That is going beyond. You cannot go beyond by denying.
Accept! When everything is accepted, suddenly you will feel that you have transcended. Who is accepting? Who accepts the whole? That which accepts has gone beyond. If you reject, you remain on the same plane. If you accept, you go beyond. Acceptance is transcendence. And if you accept yourself totally, suddenly you are thrown to your center. Then you cannot move anywhere.
You cannot move from your suchness, from your nature, so you are thrown to your center.
All these tantric techniques which we are discussing and trying to understand are different ways of throwing you to your center, of throwing you from the periphery. And you are trying to escape from the center in many ways. Ideals are good escapes. Idealists are the most subtle of egoists.
Many things happen…. You are violent and you create an ideal of nonviolence. Then you need not go into yourself, into your violence; there is no need. Then this is the only need – to go on thinking about nonviolence, reading about nonviolence, and trying to practice nonviolence. You say to yourself, “Do not touch violence,” and you are violent. So you can escape from yourself, you can go to the periphery, but then you will never come to the center. That is one thing.
Secondly, when you create the ideal of nonviolence, you can condemn others. Now it becomes very easy. You have the ideal to judge everyone with, and you can say to anyone, “You are violent.”
India has created many ideals; that is why India continuously goes on condemning the whole world.”
“…. Accept, move deep, go to the very roots. This is tantra. Tantra stands for deep experiences. Anything experienced can be transcended; anything suppressed can never be transcended.”
These discourses are so powerful because a Master is explaining complex concepts and practices in simple words. It’s Osho’s experience, he is not just giving the meaning of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra – it’s his lived experience and so they reach deep. What a blessing it is to hear a Master’s voice in your ear, a private discourse. 🙏🏿
Thank you Master. Now to learn total acceptance… a tough one.
Disclaimer – I post excerpts from Osho’s books and discourses and sometimes share his quotes. In most of the posts, the link to the full audio or full transcript is given. Osho is the Master, and to understand him, please listen to him or read his books. These excerpts are my limited interpretations with my limited understanding. Nothing original and I could be totally off the mark. The highlights and italics/bold font is also done by me.