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Taoshobuddha Responds
Dear Master,
I wanted to ask a doubt from you. At some
rare occasions while in meditation I feelsome subtle presence around on the top of
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my left eye and cheek. I feel the presenceof some divine soul,...I sense it as some
cool breeze and some sort of coldness onmy eye and nearby areas of my face. Then
I try to communicate with it but fail.
Sometimes my whole body starts vibratingwith energy during such presence. And
always it comes at the same place.
Can you shed some light on it? Am Iimagining things?
This is what you wrote. Now I will rephrase
it somewhat poetic:
At some rare moments of meditation I feel a
deep subtle presence first around and then ontop of the left eye and the cheek. A deep feeling
envelops me of the presence of a Divine Soul.The feeling intensifies as cool breeze. Suddenly
I feel something on and around the eye assomething indescribable and this cooling effect
continue. In that state personifying it I try tocommunicate but of no avail.
Explanation: This is how I will like to put. Your
expression is prosaic and logical. My explanationis poetic. This can be a mental projection and at
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the same time it will not. It can be the mentalprojection because it is you who is experiencing
it and there is no witness to it. It is private. Thisis wave worm. Like a wave such experiences
arise on the surface of the ocean. This is in yourhand as mind can project. Also through this you
can move from the wave form to the oceanicform. In that case, the peace, serenity, bliss
beyond description remains surrounding you.And you will always find it difficult to express
and explain. When through this experience youare connected to the oceanic consciousness theprocess of transformation begins. But you arenot to hold on to it. It comes like first satori.
With first satori the process begins if you do not
cling.
Sometimes my whole body starts vibrationwith an unknown energy during such
presence.
Through this sentence you have tried tomake an effort to express the after effect
but you have failed. Your failing inexpression is good because mind did not
come. Remember your feeling and innerstate after such vision or experience
always indicates if it is mental projection
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or something beyond mind transcendental.
I take certain examples and also a
response of Osho to a question from aseeker. Hope this will help also my energy
will flow to make it settle deep with.
You are blessed with the presence of OshoShailendra, Osho Priya and Osho
Siddhartha.
Visions of Krishna or Buddha, Mahavira or Christare seen in two different ways. One is what we
call a mental projection what you see is
nothing but your dreams, your desires, yourimaginations taking a visual form, a shape in
front of your eyes. There is nothing real in frontof you; it is all imagination. The mind is quite
capable of it. It can project an image of yourdreams and desires, and you can think it is real.
As you dream in sleep, so you can dream in thewaking state as well. This is how a Hindu sees
visions of Krishna or Rama; a Christian seesvisions of Christ or Mary. It is just mental,
imaginary, and hallucinatory. The other way isreal, but it does not bring you face to face with
Krishna or his image; it makes you encounterand experience what may be called the Krishna-
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consciousness. In an experience like this thereis no image whatsoever of Krishna or Christ,
there is only a state of heightened awareness, acontact-high.
As I said yesterday, there are two forms of
Krishna: one is his oceanic form and the other ishis wave form. While his oceanic form
represents the universal consciousness orsuper-consciousness, his wave form represents
Krishna the man who happened some fivethousand years ago.
Now an image, an icon of his wave form
Krishna the man can be used to come in
contact with his oceanic form, with Krishna-consciousness. But when you will really come in
contact with Krishna-consciousness, this image,this symbol of Krishna will disappear and only
the super-consciousness will remain with you.While it is true that his statue can be used for
connecting with Krishnas super-consciousness,if someone sees only visions of Krishna and
does not experience his consciousness, then it ismerely a case of mental projection and nothing
else.
The experience of Krishna-consciousness doesnot happen by way of visions and images. It is
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pure consciousness without any shape or form.We associate Krishnas name with it because a
person loves Krishna and comes to thisconsciousness with the help of his image.
Another person can come to it with the help ofBuddhas image, and he can call it Buddha-
consciousness. It can he called Christ-consciousness if someone attains it through the
image of Christ. Names dont matter; the realthing is the oceanic consciousness, which is
without name and form.
Aurobindos experience of Krishna-visions isconcerned with Krishnas image, his physical
form. He says that Krishna appeared before him
in physical form. This is simply a case of mentalprojection. Of course such an experience is
pleasant and gratifying, but it is nonetheless aprojection of our mind. It is an extension of
desire. Certainly it is exactly dream-stuff. It isour minds creation.
We can begin with the mind, but we have to go
beyond the mind sooner or later. The journeybegins with the mind, and ends with the no-
mind, cessation of the mind. It is significant toknow that the mind is the world of words, forms
and images; words, forms and imagesconstitute the mind. And where forms and
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images disappear the mind disappears on itsown. There is no way for the mind to exist
without words, forms and images. The mindcannot exist in emptiness, in void; it lives on the
determined, the concrete. The moment theconcrete world comes to an end, the mind itself
comes to an end. Krishna-consciousness isattained only when the mind ceases to be; it is
a state of no-mind.
Whoever says he has encountered Krishna in hisphysical form is a victim of mental projection.He is projecting his own mental images on thevast screen of universal consciousness and
viewing the objective reality. It is like a movie
projector projects fast moving pictures on allempty screen; there is really nothing on the
screen except shadows. Such visions are not aspiritual experience, they are wholly psychic.
They are, however, very gratifying; a Krishnadevotee is bound to be overjoyed to see visions
of one he has been desiring to see all his life.But remember, it is only a kind of happiness,
not bliss. Nor can you call it an experience oftruth.
I dont mean to say that Aurobindos experience
is not real, but he describes it in the way of ascholar, an intellectual. And this makes the
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experience appear to be one of mentalprojection. It is not difficult to distinguish a real
experience, an experience of the oceanicconsciousness from the one that is projected or
imagined. An oceanic experience is ever lasting;once it comes it comes forever, and it wipes out
all other experiences from your mind. It reallywipes out the mind itself.
One blessed with such an experience sees the
divine everywhere in trees and rocks, instreams and rivers, in mountains and stars. Butso far as projected visions are concerned, theyappear and disappear, they never last. They are
transient, momentary. Being an intellectual,
Aurobindo is not able to portray it rightly; for aman of intellect such a task becomes difficult.
Still there is another side of Aurobindo which is
poetic. He is not only an intellectual but also agreat poet. As a poet he is not less than
Rabindranath Tagore. If he failed to receive theNobel Prize, it was not because he did not
deserve it, but because his poetry is much toocomplex and difficult to understand. His Savitri
ranks among the great epics of the world; thereare hardly ten great epics of the stature of
Savitri. And unlike the scholar, the poet inAurobindo is quite capable of seeing Krishnas
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visions. Ironically, Aurobindo has expressed thisexperience strictly in terms of logic and reason,
which is of course natural. And his account ofthe experience does not have the flavor of the
trans-conscious.
We use words in two ways. In one way the wordis kept within the confines of its known
meaning; it conveys only that which is conveyedby its meaning. It fails to go beyond its own
limitations. In the other way, the word usedcommunicates much more than its givenmeaning. The word itself may be small, but itsmeaning is vast; the meaning is larger than the
word itself. Aurobindos way is quite different;
while he uses big words, he fails tocommunicate any great meaning through them.
He is known for his long words and lengthysentences. That is why he always ends up as a
philosopher.
When words really take off, when theytranscend their given meaning, they enter a
world of mystery they become a vehicle for thetranscendental experience. Such words are
pregnant with tremendous meaning; they arelike fingers pointing to the moon. Aurobindos
words are not that pregnant, they dont have anarrow directed toward the beyond. His words
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never transcend their given meaning. And thereare reasons for it.
Aurobindo was educated in the West at a time
when, like Darwin in science, Hegel was themost dominant influence in philosophy. And
Hegel is also known for the pompous languagereplete with big words and complex phrases in
his treatises. Going through Hegels works onehas a sense of profundity about them in the
beginning. We tend to think that what we do notunderstand must be very profound. But it is notnecessarily so, although it is true that profoundthings are difficult to understand. So many
people use obscure words and elaborate phrases
to create an impression of depth on theirlisteners and readers.
Hegel is a case in point: his language is very
complex, devious and bombastic full oflengthy, explanatory statements enclosed within
brackets. But as scholarship gained maturity inEurope, Hegels reputation declined in the same
measure, and people came to know that heknew much less than he pretended. Aurobindos
way of expression is Hegelian, and like Hegel heis also a systematizer. He too has not much to
say, and so he has to say it in a great manywords, and long and involved sentences at that.
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Expression has to have a logical and rational
buildup. However, if it says something whichgoes beyond it, then it means the person saying
it, has known that which lies beyond words aswell. But if he exhausts himself in his words,
which say nothing more than what they mean,then it is clear he is only a knowledgeable
person. Going through all of Aurobindos worksyou are left with a feeling that they are wordy.
Indeed there is nothing experiential about them.
Always remember If you have who known something of the beyond and are keeping
silent, then even your silence will be
eloquent. But in the absence of such anexperience, even a million words will prove
to be wastage. When you say something,you have to say it logically, but if your
something is experiential it will leave itsflavor, its perfume in your every word and
metaphor. Not only that, your words willalso say that they could not say what they
really wanted to say. As far as Aurobindo isconcerned, it seems he has said much more
than was worth saying.
In this context I recall a significant event fromthe life of Rabindranath, which will help you to
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understand the thing better. The great poet ison his deathbed, and an intimate friend has
come to say farewell. The friend says,You sangall you wanted to sing, you said all you wanted
to say; not only that, you did all you wanted todo. I believe now you can leave this world in
perfect peace and contentment, with a feeling ofutter gratefulness to God.
Rabindranath opened his eyes and said, You
have got it all wrong. Right now I have beensaying to God, How ironical it is that when Ihave put together all the musical instrumentsand am ready to sing, I am called upon to leave
the world. I have yet to sing my song. What
people think to be my song is only preparationfor the real song I was going to begin, but alas!
I have yet to say what I wanted to say.
Aurobindo cannot say the same thing. He hassaid all that he wanted to say, and said them
very methodically. And I say that as a mysticRabindranath is head and shoulders above
Aurobindo.
Someone asked Osho this question once.
Questioner: We would like to return toAurobindo seeing visions of Krishna, which
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you think to be a case of mental projection.In this connection we recall what you once
said about the Tibetan lamas, that on a particular day of each year some
competent lamas gather together andestablish contact with Buddha. On another
occasion you had said something aboutGandhi and on being further questioned
you said that you had your fact fromGandhi himself. And we have heard that till
recently there were lamas in Tibet whotraveled astrally from one place to anotherwhere they again appeared in theirphysical bodies. Will you please shed some
more light on this matter?
Osho: In this context a few things have to be
understood first. It is true that on a particularfull moon night, which is known as Buddhas full
moon night, five hundred lamas gather at one ofthe summits of the Himalayas the same
Himalayas where we are gathered at thismoment and see visions of Buddha. The
number of lamas who gather there neverexceeds five hundred; it is fixed for good. It is
only on the death of one of them that anotherlama is admitted in his place.
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But there is a basic difference between this andAurobindo seeing visions of Krishna. In the case
of his visions of Krishna, it is Aurobindo whotakes the initiative and makes efforts to see
them. The lamas dont have to do anything;Buddha himself appears before them according
to a promise he had given to his disciples in hislifetime. The lamas have only to be present
there at the appointed time. And this differencebetween the two events should be clearly
understood.
Buddha has left behind him a promise that at aparticular time of Buddhas full moon night of
each year and at a particular spot in the
Himalayas, he would appear for his chosendisciples. At this promised moment Buddhas
oceanic body takes the form of a wave body,seen by five hundred lamas together. But the
lamas have no part in it except that theypresent themselves on the said occasion. This is
one difference between this encounter, thisdarshan, and the one that Aurobindo has.
Secondly, while Aurobindo is alone at the timeof Krishnas appearance, there are altogether
five hundred lamas to witness Buddhasappearance. An event of mental projection is
always personal you cannot make anotherperson an associate with you. If you ask
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Aurobindo or any other person who sees suchvisions, for that matter, to allow you to share
his experience, he will just say no, it is notpossible. But when five hundred people see
visions of Buddha together, it cannot be a caseof psychic projection. Not only that, all the
people present compare notes and acceptsomething as real only when each of its
accounts tallies with another. As far asAurobindo is concerned he is his own witness.
And then while Aurobindo comes to it after longefforts, the lamas make no efforts whatsoever.It is just the fulfillment of a promise made byanother person in another time.