Be thirsty – take the jump.

Abu Bakr al-Shibli was a Sufi mystic and poet of Persian descent born in Samarra.

SHIBLI WAS ASKED: `WHO GUIDED YOU IN THE PATH?’

SHIBLI SAID: `A DOG. ONE DAY I SAW HIM, ALMOST DEAD WITH THIRST, STANDING BY THE WATER’S EDGE. EVERY TIME HE LOOKED AT HIS REFLECTION IN THE WATER HE WAS FRIGHTENED AND WITHDREW, BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WAS ANOTHER DOG.

`FINALLY, SUCH WAS HIS NECESSITY, HE CAST AWAY FEAR AND LEAPT INTO THE WATER; AT WHICH THE SELF-REFLECTION DISAPPEARED.

`THE DOG FOUND THAT THE OBSTACLE, WHICH WAS HIMSELF, THE BARRIER BETWEEN HIM AND WHAT HE SOUGHT, MELTED AWAY.

`IN THIS SAME WAY MY OWN OBSTACLE VANISHED WHEN I KNEW THAT IT WAS WHAT I TOOK TO BE MY OWN SELF. AND MY WAY WAS FIRST SHOWN TO ME BY THE BEHAVIOUR OF — A DOG.’

A man who is ready to learn can learn from anywhere. A man who is not ready to learn cannot learn even from a Buddha. It depends on you. A dog can become a god if you are ready to learn. Even a god will not look like a god if you are not ready to learn. It depends. Finally, it depends on you. To be ready to learn means to be open to all possibilities. With no prejudice, watching with no pre-concepts. Otherwise, who will watch a dog? You would not have been even aware; you would have passed by, and you would have missed the opportunity which made Shibli a changed man, which became the guide.

You have been missing opportunities every day. Every moment the guidance is there. The Divine goes on calling you, from different quarters, but you don’t listen. In fact, you think you already know. That is the trouble. If a sick man thinks that he is already healthy, why should he listen to any doctor? And then there is no possibility of his illness being treated. The very possibility of treatment is closed. If you know that you already know, you will not be able to know. First recognize that you don’t know, then suddenly, from everywhere, things start happening.

`Who guided you on the Path?’ somebody asked Shibli.

He could never have imagined that Shibli would say: `A DOG. ONE DAY I SAW HIM, ALMOST DEAD WITH THIRST, STANDING BY THE WATER’S EDGE.’

That is where you all are standing: at the water’s edge, almost dead with thirst. But something withholds you. You are not jumping. Something keeps you. What is that? Some sort of fear. Because the bank is known, familiar and to jump into the river is to move into the unknown.

The known is always dead like a bank, and the unknown is always fluid, flowing like a river. The fear: cling to the familiar. The fear always says, `Cling to the familiar, to the known.’ Then fear makes you move in a circle, because only a circular path can be familiar. You move in the same rut again and again. Everything is known. People come to me in deep misery, but they are not ready to even leave their misery — because even misery looks familiar. At least, they think, their own. They are not ready to surrender even their misery.

Why can’t you surrender your misery? Familiar, habitual; you have lived with it so long that now you will feel lonely without it. This I always feel. And if you cling to misery, how is bliss possible? Both cannot live together. The bliss cannot enter you. It can enter only if misery leaves from this door; then the bliss enters from another door — immediately it enters and fills you.

Nature abhors a vacuum, God also. But you are already filled, and you cling to your misery as if it is a treasure. What have you got? Can’t you renounce your misery? Have you not lived enough with it? Has it not already crippled you too much? For what are you waiting?

You are in the same situation, says Shibli, `ONE DAY I SAW HIM ALMOST DEAD WITH THIRST…’ Dead with thirst! And the water just in front! `… STANDING BY THE WATER’S EDGE, BUT EVERY TIME HE LOOKED AT HIS REFLECTION IN THE WATER HE WAS FRIGHTENED AND WITHDREW…’ The fear of the unknown and the fear of the reflection. He saw himself reflected in the water and he thought there was another dog. He was seeing himself. There was nobody else.

This is a very, very pregnant sentence. Let me say to you that you are alone in your world. There is nobody else. And all else that you are seeing is your own reflections. You have never moved out of yourself. And, in fact, there is nobody else but you — in your world. All is reflections. And because of those reflections, you are closed in, caved in.

When you meet a person, do you really meet the person he is, or do you simply meet the reflection of your own self in him? Have you ever met anybody? — or just your own reflections, your own interpretations? When you meet a person, you immediately start interpreting the person. You start creating an image about him. That image is yours. The person is not important — just your image. The person goes far away. More and more the image becomes clear; the person is forgotten. And then you live with this image. When you talk to the person, you talk to your image of the person, not to the person really.

You meet a man or a woman, you fall in love — do you think you are falling in love with the other? Impossible. You are falling in love with an image that you have created around the other. And the other is also falling in love with an image that he or she has created around you. Whenever two persons fall in love, at least four persons are there; more are possible, less not. And then there is trouble, because you never fall in love with the person — you fall with your own image. And he is not there to fulfill your image. Sooner or later, the reality comes in. A conflict arises between your dream and the real, between your image and the real person who is there, absolutely unknown. And then there is a clash.

Every love affair shatters on the rocks — every love affair. And the deeper the love, the more intense the feeling, the sooner it shatters on the rocks. Why does it happen? It has to happen — because two persons falling in love with their own images, how can they be together? Those images will always be in between them. And those images will be false. A real person is totally different. He’s not your image. And he is not there to fulfill your expectations. Neither are you there to fulfill anybody’s expectations.

A real person is real. He has his own destiny. You have your own destiny. If you can walk together hand in hand for a few moments on the path, so far so good — beautiful. But you cannot expect that `You do this — you don’t do that.’ Once you start expecting, you are bringing your image in: love is almost dead; now it is going to be a dead thing.

I see into your eyes; I see into your heart — dead with thirst. But that thirst still doesn’t seem to be enough — so that you can take the jump, so that you can drop the fear, so that you can choose the unknown. The thirst is there but doesn’t seem to be enough. Fear seems to be more important, more significant, heavier on you. Many of you reach to the point in the meditations when the river is flowing, and you can jump. But then fear arises. It looks like death. Meditation is like death. Fear arises. The thirst is there, but it seems not to be enough.

If you are really thirsty, then you will take the jump whatsoever the cost. And a master is needed to make you more and more thirsty, more and more aware of your thirst — because that is the only way. The thirstier you become, a fire arises in your heart, and you are burning with thirst. Only then can you drop the fear and take the jump — when the thirst is more than the fear.

Somebody asked Buddha, `You say Truth cannot be taught. Then why do you teach? And you say that nobody can force anybody towards enlightenment, but then why do you work so hard with people?’

Buddha is reported to have said, `Truth cannot be taught, but thirst can be taught. Or, at least, you can be made aware of your thirst — which is already there, but you are suppressing it.’ Because of the fear you go on suppressing the thirst. You go on suppressing that which is continuously there. A deep discontent with all that is around you. A divine discontent. A thirst.

`… STANDING BY THE WATER’S EDGE. EVERY TIME HE LOOKED AT HIS REFLECTION IN THE WATER HE WAS FRIGHTENED AND WITHDREW, BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WAS ANOTHER DOG.

`FINALLY, SUCH WAS HIS NECESSITY…’

Remember these words. I cannot do anything unless the moment comes for you when you can feel such is your necessity that you have to take the jump, that you have to explode into the unknown, that you have to step into it.

`FINALLY, SUCH WAS HIS NECESSITY, HE CAST AWAY FEAR AND LEAPT INTO THE WATER; AT WHICH THE REFLECTION DISAPPEARED…’

Because when you jump into the water, the mirror like river is no more mirror like. The reflection disappeared. The dog was no more there. And Shibli must have been watching, sitting by the bank, looking at this dog — his fear, his continuous effort to go and then withdrawing again and again and again. He must have watched very keenly for what was going to happen. And then the dog jumped. The reflection disappeared.

`THE DOG FOUND THAT THE OBSTACLE…’ was not outside, it was he himself. The dog was not there in the water. The dog in the water was not preventing him, as he was thinking before. It was he himself `… WHICH WAS HIMSELF, THE BARRIER BETWEEN HIM AND WHAT HE SOUGHT, MELTED AWAY.’

He was himself the barrier between his thirst and the water, his hunger and the satiety, his discontent and the contentment, his search and the goal, his seeking and the sought. There was nobody else, just his reflection in the water. And that is the case, absolutely the case, with you all, with everybody. Nobody is hindering you. Something of the sort of your own reflection between you and your destiny, between you as the seed and you as the flower — there is nobody else hindering, creating any obstacle. So don’t go on throwing responsibility on others. That is a way of consoling oneself. Drop consoling yourself. Drop all self pity. Look deep in the mirror. And everybody is a mirror around you. Look deep — you will find your own reflection everywhere.

`IN THIS SAME WAY, MY OWN OBSTACLE VANISHED WHEN I KNEW THAT IT WAS WHAT I TOOK TO BE MY OWN SELF. AND MY WAY WAS FIRST SHOWN TO ME BY THE BEHAVIOUR OF — A DOG.’

The Way is shown to you from millions of directions. People have become enlightened through watching a dog, through watching a cat. People have become enlightened through watching a dead leaf falling from the tree. People have become enlightened through every sort of situation. But one thing is absolutely necessary, and that is WATCHING. Dog, cat, the tree, the river — irrelevant. People become enlightened through watching.

So whatsoever the situation, you watch. And watch without any prejudice. And watch without the past. Watch without any thinking on your part. Don’t interpret. Watch! If your eyes are clear, if your perception is clear, and you watch silently, every situation leads towards the Divine. And this is how it should be! Every situation, every moment of life, leads toward the Divine.

Anything, if you watch, will give you the clue. Watching is the only method. Call it awareness, call it observation, call it witnessing – but watch. Live life with a watchful eye. And everything, the smallest, leads to the greatest. Everything leads to God.

And remember: God can knock at your door any moment. If you are not watchful, you will miss. He can knock from a dog. He can knock from a flower. A bird takes wing — and He can knock there. He can use any opportunity to knock at your door. Remain alert so that when the Guest comes, He does not find you asleep; when He knocks at your door, you are ready, and you have prepared the house for the Guest — and your heart is ready to receive.

Be watchful. Through being watchful, by and by, the ego will die, because ego is created by a non-watchful mind, an unalert mind. Through watching, witnessing, the ego dies. And nothing is possible until you die.

Osho: Until You Die: Chapter #9: Chapter title: Almost Dead With Thirst (excerpts)

आइना ये तो बताता है कि मैं क्या हूँ मगर
आइना इस पे है ख़ामोश कि क्या है मुझ में ……………..कृष्ण बिहारी नूर

aa.ina ye to batātā hai ki maiñ kyā huuñ magar
aa.ina is pe hai ḳhāmosh ki kyā hai mujh meñ……………….. KRISHN BIHARI NOOR

The mirror shows me what I appear to be,
But it stays silent about what lies within me.

Osho’s discourse “Be Thirsty” beautifully aligns with the essence of the song “Tum Hi Ho” from Aashiqui 2. Both explore longing, thirst and the realization of oneness. The line “Tere liye hi jiya main” (I lived for you) reflects the surrender Osho speaks of—not to another, but to our true inner self.

The music is written and composed by Mithoon. Sung by Arijit Singh

Meri Aashiqui Ab Tum Hi Ho Full Song (Lyrics) – Arijit Singh | Lyrics Tube (youtube.com)