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(Part 3) Our minds are completely confused, but we have never paid any attention to this problem and therefore have not created any methods to deal with it...
Once upon a time, there was an emperor. Every day, he would seclude himself in a room in the middle of his palace. His family, courtiers, friends, and ministers were very surprised by this habit. He always carried a key to this room with him, and when he entered it, he would lock the door from the inside. There was only one door leading to the room, and it had no windows. Every day, he would spend at least an hour in this room. Even his wives did not know what he was doing in that room because he never told anyone. If anyone asked, he would smile and remain silent, and he would not give anyone the key. Everyone was surprised by this, and curiosity grew with each passing day: "What is he doing in there?" No one knew. He would stay in that locked room for an hour, then silently leave and put the key in his pocket, and the next day he would do the same thing again. Finally, human curiosity reached its peak, and they conspired among themselves, deciding to find out what the emperor was doing in that room.
His ministers, his wives, his sons, and his daughters all participated in this conspiracy. One night, they made a hole in the wall so that they could see what he would do when he entered the room next time. The next day, when the emperor entered, they all took turns looking through the hole. But each person who put their eye to the hole immediately stepped back and asked, "What is he doing? What is he doing?" But no one could say what he was doing. The emperor entered and took off all his clothes. Then he raised his hands to the sky and said: "Oh, God! The person who wore this clothing is not me. This is not my true essence—this is my true essence." And he began to jump and shout, and yell curses, and behave like a madman. Everyone who looked through the hole immediately stepped back in shock and said, "What is our emperor doing? We thought that maybe he was doing some yoga or reciting some prayers. But this is something else! What is he doing?" And the emperor said to God
"The person who stood before you dressed and looked silent and calm is completely false. He is a cultivated man. I made him that way through my efforts. In reality, I am like this. This is my true essence, this is my nakedness, and this is my madness. If you accept my true essence, then everything is fine—because I can deceive people, but how can I deceive you? I can show people that I am not naked by wearing clothes, but you know very well that I am naked. How can I deceive you? I can show people that I am full of silence and bliss, but you know me in my deepest core. How can I deceive you? Before you, I am just a madman. Before God, we are all like madmen. In reality, if we set aside God and look inside ourselves, even in our own eyes, we will look like madmen.
Our minds are completely confused, but we have never paid any attention to this problem and therefore have not created any methods to deal with it. The first thing that is necessary is to meet the mind directly. But in order for this meeting to take place, you must understand two or three things. After that, you can think about how to change the mind. For a direct meeting with the mind, first of all, you need to discard all fears of self-knowledge. What is the fear of knowing yourself? It is the fear that you may be a bad person. It is the fear that after you have created an image of a good person, you will discover that you are a bad person. You give the impression of being a good person—sinless, innocent, authentic, truthful. Your fear is that you may find out that inside you are not authentic, but false. You are afraid to discover that you are not religious, contradictory, cunning, hypocritical, and not a sinless person. This is the fear that your self-image—what you think you are—may turn out to be false.
A person who is afraid of this will never be able to meet the mind. It is very easy to go into the forests, easy to go into the darkness, easy to sit fearlessly before wild animals, but it is very difficult to stand fearlessly before the wild person that is hidden inside you. This is very difficult. It is not at all difficult to stand in the sun for years—any fool can do that; it is not difficult to stand on your head—any idiot can be taught such circus tricks; and it is not very difficult to lie on thorns—the skin adapts to the thorns very quickly. If there is something truly difficult, it is to find the courage to have direct experience of what you are inside—whether you are bad, mad, or whatever you are.
So, the first thing that is necessary is to discard fear and prepare to see yourself bravely. The person who does not have this courage is in trouble. You are interested in reaching the soul, you are interested in knowing Existence, but you do not have the courage to simply meet yourself directly. The soul and Existence are very far away: the first reality is your mind. The first reality is the center of thinking with which you are most closely connected: you must first see it, know it, and become aware of it. First of all, there must be a desire to know your own mind in solitude, without fear.
Every day, for at least half an hour, give your mind the opportunity to express itself as it is. Lock yourself in a room—like that emperor—and give your mind complete freedom. Tell it: "Whatever you want to think about, whatever you want to contemplate, you can do it." Discard all the self-censorship that has prevented things from coming to the surface—discard all of that. Give your mind freedom, allow everything that comes to mind to come, allow everything that appears to appear. Do not stop or suppress anything—you are ready to know what is inside.
And you also should not judge what is good and what is bad, because at the moment you judge, suppression begins. Everything you call bad, the mind begins to suppress, and everything you call good, the mind begins to use as a cover. Therefore, you do not need to evaluate anything as good or bad. Whatever is present in the mind, whatever it is, be ready to know it as it is. If you allow your mind to be completely free to think, contemplate, and feel, you will experience a great fear and ask yourself if you are not crazy. But it is very important to know what is hidden inside in order to free yourself from it. Knowledge and understanding are the first steps to freeing yourself from it. You cannot defeat an enemy that you do not know or understand—it is impossible. A hidden enemy, an enemy standing behind you, is more dangerous than an enemy you know, an enemy you are familiar with, who stands before you. The first thing to understand is that because of the limitations and prohibitions that you have imposed on the mind from all sides, you do not allow the mind to express itself in its immediacy. You have limited all its immediacy. Everything has become unnatural and false.
You have covered everything with veils, you wear false faces, and you never allow the mind to express itself directly. Therefore, first allow the mind to express itself directly, at least before you, so that you can become familiar with all its contents, which have been hidden and suppressed. A huge part of the mind has been suppressed and hidden in the darkness…
Osho
Once upon a time, there was an emperor. Every day, he would seclude himself in a room in the middle of his palace. His family, courtiers, friends, and ministers were very surprised by this habit. He always carried a key to this room with him, and when he entered it, he would lock the door from the inside. There was only one door leading to the room, and it had no windows. Every day, he would spend at least an hour in this room. Even his wives did not know what he was doing in that room because he never told anyone. If anyone asked, he would smile and remain silent, and he would not give anyone the key. Everyone was surprised by this, and curiosity grew with each passing day: "What is he doing in there?" No one knew. He would stay in that locked room for an hour, then silently leave and put the key in his pocket, and the next day he would do the same thing again. Finally, human curiosity reached its peak, and they conspired among themselves, deciding to find out what the emperor was doing in that room.
His ministers, his wives, his sons, and his daughters all participated in this conspiracy. One night, they made a hole in the wall so that they could see what he would do when he entered the room next time. The next day, when the emperor entered, they all took turns looking through the hole. But each person who put their eye to the hole immediately stepped back and asked, "What is he doing? What is he doing?" But no one could say what he was doing. The emperor entered and took off all his clothes. Then he raised his hands to the sky and said: "Oh, God! The person who wore this clothing is not me. This is not my true essence—this is my true essence." And he began to jump and shout, and yell curses, and behave like a madman. Everyone who looked through the hole immediately stepped back in shock and said, "What is our emperor doing? We thought that maybe he was doing some yoga or reciting some prayers. But this is something else! What is he doing?" And the emperor said to God
"The person who stood before you dressed and looked silent and calm is completely false. He is a cultivated man. I made him that way through my efforts. In reality, I am like this. This is my true essence, this is my nakedness, and this is my madness. If you accept my true essence, then everything is fine—because I can deceive people, but how can I deceive you? I can show people that I am not naked by wearing clothes, but you know very well that I am naked. How can I deceive you? I can show people that I am full of silence and bliss, but you know me in my deepest core. How can I deceive you? Before you, I am just a madman. Before God, we are all like madmen. In reality, if we set aside God and look inside ourselves, even in our own eyes, we will look like madmen.
Our minds are completely confused, but we have never paid any attention to this problem and therefore have not created any methods to deal with it. The first thing that is necessary is to meet the mind directly. But in order for this meeting to take place, you must understand two or three things. After that, you can think about how to change the mind. For a direct meeting with the mind, first of all, you need to discard all fears of self-knowledge. What is the fear of knowing yourself? It is the fear that you may be a bad person. It is the fear that after you have created an image of a good person, you will discover that you are a bad person. You give the impression of being a good person—sinless, innocent, authentic, truthful. Your fear is that you may find out that inside you are not authentic, but false. You are afraid to discover that you are not religious, contradictory, cunning, hypocritical, and not a sinless person. This is the fear that your self-image—what you think you are—may turn out to be false.
A person who is afraid of this will never be able to meet the mind. It is very easy to go into the forests, easy to go into the darkness, easy to sit fearlessly before wild animals, but it is very difficult to stand fearlessly before the wild person that is hidden inside you. This is very difficult. It is not at all difficult to stand in the sun for years—any fool can do that; it is not difficult to stand on your head—any idiot can be taught such circus tricks; and it is not very difficult to lie on thorns—the skin adapts to the thorns very quickly. If there is something truly difficult, it is to find the courage to have direct experience of what you are inside—whether you are bad, mad, or whatever you are.
So, the first thing that is necessary is to discard fear and prepare to see yourself bravely. The person who does not have this courage is in trouble. You are interested in reaching the soul, you are interested in knowing Existence, but you do not have the courage to simply meet yourself directly. The soul and Existence are very far away: the first reality is your mind. The first reality is the center of thinking with which you are most closely connected: you must first see it, know it, and become aware of it. First of all, there must be a desire to know your own mind in solitude, without fear.
Every day, for at least half an hour, give your mind the opportunity to express itself as it is. Lock yourself in a room—like that emperor—and give your mind complete freedom. Tell it: "Whatever you want to think about, whatever you want to contemplate, you can do it." Discard all the self-censorship that has prevented things from coming to the surface—discard all of that. Give your mind freedom, allow everything that comes to mind to come, allow everything that appears to appear. Do not stop or suppress anything—you are ready to know what is inside.
And you also should not judge what is good and what is bad, because at the moment you judge, suppression begins. Everything you call bad, the mind begins to suppress, and everything you call good, the mind begins to use as a cover. Therefore, you do not need to evaluate anything as good or bad. Whatever is present in the mind, whatever it is, be ready to know it as it is. If you allow your mind to be completely free to think, contemplate, and feel, you will experience a great fear and ask yourself if you are not crazy. But it is very important to know what is hidden inside in order to free yourself from it. Knowledge and understanding are the first steps to freeing yourself from it. You cannot defeat an enemy that you do not know or understand—it is impossible. A hidden enemy, an enemy standing behind you, is more dangerous than an enemy you know, an enemy you are familiar with, who stands before you. The first thing to understand is that because of the limitations and prohibitions that you have imposed on the mind from all sides, you do not allow the mind to express itself in its immediacy. You have limited all its immediacy. Everything has become unnatural and false.
You have covered everything with veils, you wear false faces, and you never allow the mind to express itself directly. Therefore, first allow the mind to express itself directly, at least before you, so that you can become familiar with all its contents, which have been hidden and suppressed. A huge part of the mind has been suppressed and hidden in the darkness…
Osho