Moon in a bowl

LIFE is in living. It is not a thing; it is a process. There is no way to attain to life except by living it, except by being alive, by flowing, streaming with it. If you are seeking the meaning of life in some dogma, in some philosophy, in some theology, that Is the sure way to miss life and meaning both.

Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as a goal to be arrived at, it is herenow, this very moment — in your breathing, circulating in your blood, beating in your heart. Whatsoever you are is your life, and if you start seeking meaning somewhere else, you will miss it. Man has done that for centuries. Concepts have become very important, explanations have become very important — and the real has been completely forgotten. We don’t look to that which is already here, we want rationalisations.

So the first thing is: don’t ask anybody how you should live your life. Life is so precious. Live it. I am not saying that you will not make mistakes, you will. Remember only one thing — don’t make the same mistake again and again. That’s enough. If you can find a new mistake every day, make it. But don’t repeat mistakes, that is foolish. A man who can find new mistakes to make will be growing continuously — that is the only way to learn, that is the only way to come to your own inner light.

I have heard:

One night the poet, Awhadi of Kerman (a very great Muslim poet) was sitting on his porch, bent over a vessel.

Shams-i-Tabrizi, a great Sufi mystic, happened to pass by.

Shams-i-Tabrizi looked at the poet, at what he was doing. He asked the poet, “What are you doing?”

The poet said, “Contemplating the moon in a bowl of water.”

Shams-e-Tabrizi started laughing, with an uproarious laughter, a mad laughter.

The poet started feeling uncomfortable; a crowd gathered.

And the poet said, “What is the matter? Why are you laughing so much? Why are you ridiculing me?”

Shams-e-Tabrizi said, “Unless you have broken your neck, why don’t you look directly at the moon in the sky?”

The moon is there, the full moon is there, and this poet was sitting with a bowl of water and looking into the bowl of water at the reflection of the moon.

Seeking truth in scriptures, seeking truth in philosophies, is looking at the reflection. If you ask somebody else how you should live your life, you are asking for misguidance, because that man can only talk about his own life. And never, never, are two lives the same. Whatsoever he can say or impart to you will be about his own life – and that too only if he has lived. He may have asked somebody else, he may have followed somebody else, he may have been an imitator himself. Then it is a reflection of a reflection.

And centuries pass and people go on reflecting the reflection of the reflection of the reflection – and the real moon is always there in the sky waiting for you. It is your moon, it is your sky, look directly. Be immediate about it. Why borrow my eyes or anybody else’s eyes? You have been given eyes, beautiful eyes, to see, and to see directly. Why borrow understanding from anybody? Remember, it may be understanding to me. but the moment you borrow it, it becomes knowledge to you — it is no more understanding.__

What is the difference in seeing a face and not a reflection? When you start seeing the face in the
mirror, you are deluded; you are thinking, ”That is my face.” That is not your face – that is just the
reflection of your face. In the mirror there can be no real face, only reflections.

Mind is a mirror! It reflects reality, but if you start believing in that reflection, you are believing in
untruth, in the image. And that very belief will become a barrier. Saraha says if you want to know
the truth, put the mind aside – otherwise it will go on reflecting and you will go on looking at the
reflection. Put the mind aside! If you really want to know the real, then go against the reflection.

For example, you see the full moon reflected in the lake. Now, where are you going to seek the full
moon? Are you going to take a jump into the lake? Are you going to dive deep into the lake to find
the moon? Then you will never find it. You may even miss yourself. If you really want to see the real
moon, then go against the reflection, just in the diametrically opposite direction – then you will find the moon. Don’t go in the mind; go diametrically opposite to the mind.

The search for truth is the search in the opposite direction of the mind because mind is a mirror, it
reflects. And to put the mind aside is what meditation is all about; to put the thoughts aside, thinking aside, mentation aside, is what meditation is all about.

When you can look into reality without thoughts reflecting it, truth is herenow, then you are truth and all is truth. Mind is the great faculty of delusion, illusion, of dreaming._

Understanding is only that which has been experienced by the person himself. It may be understanding for me, if I have looked at the moon, but the moment I say it to you it becomes knowledge, it is no longer understanding. Then it is just verbal, then it is just linguistic. And language is a lie.

Life can be understood only if you are ready to go into the unknown. If you cling to the known, you cling to the mind, and the mind is not life. Life is non-mental, nonintellectual, because life is total. Your totality has to be involved in it, you cannot just think about it. Thinking about life is not life. beware of this ‘about-ism’. One goes on thinking about and about: there are people who think about God, there are people who think about life, there are people who think about love. There are people who think about this and that.

The pure ‘is-ness’ is what I call God. If you can understand your inner divinity you have understood what life is. Otherwise you have not been able yet to decode life. This is the message. The whole life is pointing at one thing, continuously — that you are gods. Once you have understood it, then there is no death. Then you have learned the lesson. Then in death gods will be returning back to their homes.

Quote by Osho from The Art of Dying – Talks on Hassidism, Ch 1
The Tantra Vision, Vol 1: CHAPTER 7. TRUTH IS NEITHER HOLY NOR UNHOLY (Excerpts)

Shams-i-Tabrīzī (Persian: شمس تبریزی‎‎) or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was a Persian Muslim who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi’s poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz). 

I am reminded of a romantic couplet that I used to say on stage for the Show “Jaane Kahan Gaye Wo Din”

रूप जब सरोवर में नहाता है
चाँद पानी में उतर आता है
ख़ुद तो चला जाता है शीतल हो कर
आग पानी में लगा जाता है ।

Roop jab saravar me nahata hai
chand paani me utar aata hai
khud to chala jaata hai sheetal ho kar
aag paani me laga jata hai.

When Beauty bathes in the lake, it is as if the moon has entered in the water.
It goes back feeling refreshed, but its beauty sets fire in the water.

I just love listening to his magical and silky voice. Enjoy this romantic ghazal by Pankaj Udhas: