Today’s excerpt is from Osho’s discourse on Vedanta, that have been compiled into a book titled “Vedanta – Seven Steps to Samadhi”. The following excerpt is from discourse number #10. To read the full transcript please click here – Sublime is the Spontaneous.
“It happened, Buddha became enlightened and one of his cousins, Devadatta, tried to poison him, tried to kill him, in many ways tried to murder him. He was always a failure, fortunately. Somebody asked Buddha, “Why don’t you do something about it? This man is constantly trying in many ways to kill you.”
Once he brought a mad elephant and left the elephant near Buddha. The elephant was mad, in a rage. The elephant came running, but suddenly just near Buddha it stopped, bowed down and closed its eyes as if it was meditating. So somebody asked, “Why don’t you do something about this man? And why is he doing such things?”
Buddha said, “Because of my past actions. I must have hurt him in the past. He is simply reacting out of that chain. It is not his doing, I must have done some wrong to him in the past. And I must have done something good to this elephant in the past, otherwise there was no possibility…. And I should remain now a witness. If I do something again in connection with Devadatta, then again a chain will be created. So let him be finished with my past deeds – but I am not going to create a new karma for the future.”
When someone insults you, the attitude of a witness, of a person who is practicing nonattachment, is this: “I must have insulted him before in some past life somewhere, because nothing is born without a cause. The cause must be there, this is only the effect. So I must wait and take it, accept it as part of my destiny and be finished with it, because if I do something again a new future is created and the chain continues.”
Someone insults you. If you answer in any way then the account is not closed, it remains open. If you don’t respond then the account is closed. And this is the difference between the Eastern attitude and Christianity. Even very beautiful things sometimes can be basically wrong. Jesus says, “If someone hits you on one cheek, give him the other.” This is a beautiful saying, and one of the most beautiful sayings ever uttered in the world. But ask an Eastern buddha. He will say, “Don’t do even that. When someone hits you, remain as you were before he hit you. Don’t change, don’t do anything, because even giving him the other cheek is a response – a good response, a beautiful response, but a response – and you are creating karma again.”
Nietzsche somewhere criticizes Jesus for this. He says, “If I hit Jesus on one cheek and he gives me the other, I will hit even harder on the other, because this man is insulting me, he is treating me like an insect. He is not giving me the same status as him.” Nietzsche says, “It would be better if Jesus hits me back, because then he is behaving with me on equal terms. If he gives me the other cheek he is trying to play the god and he is insulting me.”
That’s possible. You can insult a person just by becoming superior – not that Jesus means it, but you can do it. And just trying to become superior will be more insulting, and the other person will feel more hurt than if you had given him a good slap. The Eastern attitude is to not do anything in any way, to remain as if nothing has happened. Somebody hits you, you remain as if nothing has happened. And this hit has come not from this person but from your past deed. So accept it – it is your own doing, he has not done anything – and remain as if nothing has happened. Don’t hit him back and don’t give him the other cheek, because both will create a new chain. Be finished with it, so the account is closed with this man at least.
And this way you close the accounts with all. When all the accounts are closed you need not be reborn. This is the philosophy of going beyond life and death. Then you need not be reborn again; you simply disappear from this phenomenal world, from this bodily, physical world. Then you exist as cosmos, not as individuals. Jesus’ saying is beautiful, very moral. But Buddha’s attitude is spiritual, not only moral: not to do anything, because whatsoever you do creates future, and one has to stop creating future…..”
I wish I had listened to this discourse 30 years back. Might have avoided so many confrontations and would have saved myself from collecting new Karma !! At least now, I can try. It’s so difficult for someone like me to just remain a witness.
Non-attachment to the results of one’s work is how Krishna approaches witnessing in the Bhagvad Gita. These are simple ways to break the chain of Karma but they require awareness and awareness doesn’t “happen” unless we meditate. Everything goes back to meditation. That’s the start point.
Thank You Master 🙏🏿
I make no claims to be like Buddha, Christ, or any guru or master of anything. It takes me a long time to process anything, so I often don’t know when I’m being insulted, until later. By then, I’ve forgotten the insult, or I’ve decided it’s not worth retaliation.