If you want something that you do not have, this desire will continue to disturb you until it is fulfilled. If all desires die, why should a person return to the world? But you come back because you die unsatisfied. And this happens many times. You are still interested in worldly happiness; there are still desires, and they shout to you: “Where are you going? Come back!"
Nobody sends you back to this world, you return because of your desires. You return yourself; you are traveling across the bridge of your own desires. The body remains behind, but you come back with the same mind and start the whole journey over again. You enter the womb of the next mother and the same procedure is repeated.
The death that becomes the vehicle for the next birth is, in fact, not real death. The mystic Kabir calls this "incomplete death." This is an immature death, not fully ripe. You haven't grown up yet. You have not yet attained wisdom and died a ripe death. Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with aging. Hair turns gray according to the natural direction of things, but there is a huge difference between achieving wisdom and just turning gray. Wisdom is achieved only when desires grow old and fall apart, only when a person's desires no longer exist.
Animals also get old, trees get old, and you too will one day grow old. One day you too will die. But a person whose desires grow old, a person who knows what desires are, a person whose desires are dying - this is a person who has attained wisdom. The death of such a person is completely different. Kabir dies, Buddha dies, and you will also die, but there is a qualitative difference between your death and the death of Kabir, between your death and the death of Buddha.
Kabir says that everyone in this world dies, but no one dies in the right and dignified way. He says, like all other enlightened people, that dying is an art.
Perhaps you have never thought of death in this way; you don't even consider life an art. You live like a log floating on a river, which pulls wherever the current carries it. Your life is a tragedy; it has not yet become art. Before you take any step, you don't even stop to think.
If someone asks you, “Why did you do this?” You don't really have an answer. Although you prepare an answer and give it, inside you know very well that it is absolutely not an answer. You live as if you grope in the dark. Your life has not become art. That is why until the very end of your life you will not know what beauty is, what truth is, or what bliss is. You don't worry about any of these things. You feel like you've lived your whole life wandering in the desert; you feel like you've never accomplished anything in your entire life.
But this is all very natural, because your life has not become a work of art. If this were so, you could make a beautiful sculpture out of your life. You could give your life a certain shape; you could cleanse it, polish it and give it its inherent shine. If you burned all the rubbish in your life, then by this time you would have reached the purity of gold. If you cut off all the excess stone, each limb of the statue would now be a real art. You could create a wonderful sculpture out of your life, a wonderful work of art. But no, despite the fact that you have done many things in your life, you have not achieved anything significant.
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Your life is not art; it is not art, in any sense - and Kabir says that even death must be complete art. Death is as much an art as life. And death is a test. If you lived right, you can die right.
If you haven't lived right, you cannot die right. Death is the final offering. This is the highest; it is the crown crowning the top. Death is the essence and flowering of life. How can your death be right if you've spent your whole life wrong? How can there be meaningful death if your whole life has been a waste? How can a tree whose roots are rotten grow sweet fruit? It's impossible.
What is the secret of the art of living? This is the secret - to live in full awareness. Don't grope in the dark; do not walk in a dream; walk in awareness. Whatever you do, no matter what it is - even if it is as insignificant as opening and closing your eyes - do it carefully, do it with awareness. Who knows, everything can depend on this tiny movement - the opening and closing of the eyes. Perhaps, walking along the road, you will see a woman and live with her all your life! Even when you close and open your eyes, remain alert.
The Buddha used to tell his disciples not to look more than four feet ahead when walking: “This is enough for walking,” he said. - No need to look around and constantly stare in all directions. When you finish seeing the first four feet, you will see the next ones in front of you. It's enough; thus it is possible to travel thousands of miles. Why look around? Don't constantly look in all directions. This journey never ends.
If you study your life, you can see that whatever happens in it was accidental and coincidental. Something happened by itself, and because of this accident the whole course of life changed.
You walked along the road to the temple, for example, and a woman smiled at you. Instead of reaching your destination, you ended up in some other place. You married this woman; you have children. You were worried about marrying her, and thus you were caught in a wheel that turns and turns. Has it ever occurred to you that all this is caused by chance, coincidence? If you followed the advice the Buddha gave to his disciples, perhaps none of this would have happened.
To acquire the art of living, remember this - never act in unconsciousness, never act in a dream. Never let anything happen by itself. See it well first. Consider it right first: before you put something into action, look at it firmly, with care and wisdom. By doing this, you will find that your life will acquire a new kind of beauty, a certain elegance. You will become like a sculpture; you will become like a situation in which the sculptor and the sculpture are not separate. You are a sculptor and a statue, you are a stone and an instrument. You are everything and everyone.
By living in awareness, you will find that the tool has done a good job. He cut off the useless stone and did not allow anything unworthy of it to remain. The tool cut away all unnecessary and went straight to the point. And then one day you will find that you have reached the temple, that you yourself have become a divine sculpture. You will find that you have achieved a kind of beauty, that you have reached deep consciousness.
If you remain awake and alert until your death, you have lived right. And then you can meet death in the right way.
• • •
In his poem, Kabir says: "Death, death, everything is constantly dying."
Kabir says that everyone in this world dies, that death occurs every day, happens at every moment. He says that we are surrounded on all sides by the sea of death. The whole is constantly drowning in it.
"Nobody dies right."
Nobody dies in the right way. Kabir says no one dies in consciousness.
He says: “Kabir met death to never die again. This is art. This is evidence that death is no more. If you do something right once, you don't have to do it again. You have to do something over and over again if you couldn't do it right before. Existence gives us opportunity after opportunity to live right. It is in no hurry; he has no lack of time. And as long as you keep making the same mistakes, you will be thrown out into the world again. You will not be caught in his net only when you can return to existence with a full and complete experience of life.
You are just like a child who is sent to the same class over and over again until he passes the exam. We say that he will not be allowed to move to the next class until he finishes it. The abode of love remains closed to you in the same way until you end your life.
The art of living is to get through life successfully. And a person who goes through life successfully has nothing more to learn in this world. He learned everything that can be learned in this way. He went through severe trials and the fire of passionate desires and aspirations. Now the door to the upper class opens for him; now he is admitted there. He learned everything that could be learned in this world. Therefore, this door leading to this world is closed to him. He cannot return: "Kabir met death to never die again."
Live in such a way that there will never be another birth, and die in such a way that there will never be another death. If there is birth, then surely there will be death; death will follow automatically. Therefore, live in such a way that there will be no other birth - and then there will be no more death.
Everyone wants to be saved from death. Is it possible to find a person who would not like to be saved from death? Then why aren't these people saved from death? You cannot be saved from death until you cannot be saved from birth. Birth is the other end of death. If you say that you want to be born again and again forever, you are talking nonsense. All this means that you do not understand the simplest rule of arithmetic: that birth is one pole of life, and death is the other.
The person who is born is about to die. What began must also end. But if there is no end, there can be no beginning. Therefore, if you want to be saved from the end, never desire the beginning. Do not crave for the beginning if you want beginningless, if you want eternal. Just try to save yourself from the beginning.
Even small experiences of life will help in this effort. People come to me and say, “We want to be saved from feeling angry. What should we do? I tell them to stay alert from the start. If anger has already caught you in its own hands, it will be very difficult, almost impossible to avoid it or get rid of it. You have to go through it. It doesn't matter if you go fast or slow, but you have to go through it. It may take time, but everything that started will end at some point.
You want to be saved from death. But you don't even know when death begins. People think that death begins with old age, when the body loses its vitality, when medicines no longer work, or when doctors are helpless. If you think this way, you are wrong. Then you have to die again and again; then you cannot understand the truth about life.
Death begins with birth.
If you go deeper into this phenomenon, you will see that death occurs simultaneously with conception. When you are born, you have already been dead for 9 months, because these 9 months you have already lived in the womb. These 9 months begin at the moment of conception and should undoubtedly be included in the journey to death. You are already 9 months of age at the time of birth. This amount of old age has already caught up with you. Your birth, in fact, begins from the moment your being entered the womb, and at the same moment death begins.
You die every day. This is not an event that happens at the end of life.
Death is not a miracle, death is not a magic trick. Death is a process. You are gradually dying, you are dying little by little daily, and the day will come when this process of dying will stop. Death is the final step in this process.
Death is the end of the beginning. And it lasts for a long time, about 70 years!
If you want to be saved from death, save yourself from not entering the next womb … If you do not want to enter the other womb, go deeper and deeper into yourself. And as you do this, you will come to the realization, understanding of the true art of life and death; you will come to know what life and death really are. If you do not want to enter another womb, you need to be saved from desires, from the act of desire.
The old man who is dying - who is on the verge of death, but is attached to life - he will say: “If only I had a little more time, then I could fulfill all my unfulfilled desires. My house is not yet completed, and my son has not yet married. There are still so many desires in me that I want to fulfill. I only started doing them recently. Is it fair, is it right that I need to be dragged out of the world? Only recently have I managed to organize things a little better. And I was planning a little vacation. Now that the kids were grown up and started earning a living, I thought I could devote some time to worshiping God, going to church and singing hymns.”
Nobody ever does that. And yet, when death approaches, one always thinks, “If I had time, I would spend it worshiping God. It seems unjust that God takes my life away from me without letting my desires come true."
This constitutes a difficulty at the time of death. A person's desires are not fully realized, and the body is ready to leave him. And these unfinished and unfulfilled desires will immediately seek a new birth. They must be satisfied. You cannot free yourself from the world before this. Your desire to get a little more life, to live a little longer will be the reason for the next birth.
Therefore, understand well that the beginning of death is not really even the womb of the mother; it occurs even before you enter the womb. This chain of death began when you wished for more life during your previous death. Going deeper and deeper into this phenomenon, you will find that desires are the connecting links in the chain of death. Whether someone is old or young, he has desires that he wants to fulfill - and this becomes the cause of a series of birth and death. Buddha constantly said: "Be free from desires, and you will be free from samsara, free from the world."
Thus, never encourage desires. Be happy with what you have and be satisfied with who you are. Then there will be no other birth for you. You should be satisfied - as if you have achieved your goal; as if there was no further need to continue any journey; as if there is nowhere else to go. No matter what you have achieved, it should be more than enough. There should be no thought whatsoever about achieving anything more than you already have.
If this happens to you, how will you be born again? You will die completely satisfied. And a person who dies completely satisfied has no reason to return to the world again. Such a person has learned the art of death. A person who dies in "wantlessness" knows the art of death.
Having achieved this wisdom, becoming fulfilled, Kabir dies. He dies knowing reality, knowing truth. And you die without knowing anything at all. You die without satisfaction, without wakefulness and without wisdom. As you grow old, you die; having attained wisdom, the enlightened one dies. This is what Kabir says. You die in a state of helplessness, crying for someone to help you, crying for doctors and medicines.
A person dies, but does not want to die. He dies because he is helpless. You try to do a lot of tricks in order not to die. You believe in the false assurances that astrologers and so-called holy people give you. Some people even wear amulets in an attempt to escape death. You are trying to do every possible thing to be saved.
Growing old does not mean becoming wise. Attaining wisdom means that you have realized that there is nothing worth achieving in this life, and there is nothing worth saving. The attainment of wisdom means that you have examined all your desires and found that there is nothing significant in them.
You made love and found it to be nothing more than lust; you have found that nature is simply using you as a means to reproduce the species. You made money and found that although it is considered valuable in society, it is nothing but dirty pieces of paper. You have reached a high position, and hundreds of thousands look up at you with awe and respect, but you realize that your position has not brought you any satisfaction, that your mind has remained dissatisfied.
You have explored the heights of the ego and found that there too nothing can be found but mediocrity and pettiness. You lived in palaces, but your inner poverty has not disappeared.
Perhaps you have earned everything that is possible, achieved everything that is possible, but only when you realize that all this gain is in reality nothing but a loss, you become a wise person. Only then will you realize that there is nothing in life that is worth achieving. Despite the fact that you have explored every nook and cranny, you have found that there is nothing significant in your life.
You learn this from your own vast experience. Without listening to anyone, without reading the words of Kabir and without listening to me, you realize that this whole game of life is played in ignorance - you realize this through your own trial and error and through your own experience.
There is no place in this world for an enlightened person. An enlightened person has nothing to do here. This world is a child's toy, children play with it, children are absorbed in it. When you become enlightened, you will laugh; then you will see that it is just a toy. Then you will know. Then you are enlightened. And the moment you realize this, the chain of desires is destroyed.
At the time of death, you do everything in your power to be saved. You are terrified, you are trembling. You are an ocean of fear and excitement. You are dragged into death; you don't want your life force to leave your body. You cling to the body as best you can, and you are forcefully separated from it. You die crying; you are dying in pain. You die defeated, helpless.
Sit next to the person who is dying and see what feverish efforts he makes in clinging to life. Do this because you may not be conscious enough to see it all at the time of your own death. A dying person tries to grab at any straw in order to stay alive a little longer, to stay on this shore a little more. The call came to move to the other side - a boat is waiting for you on the shore, the boatman beckons you, asking you to hurry, saying: "Your time has come," asking: "Why are you still clinging to this shore?"
You say, “Please wait another moment. Let me have some more happiness! I haven't had it all my life. You have been unhappy all your life, and yet you want to live one more moment in the hope of achieving happiness … This is a tragedy.
You die dissatisfied and thirsty. You have drunk from many sources, but your thirst is not quenched. Your hunger was insatiable, you failed to satisfy your tastes, and your desires remained the same as they were. Although you have experienced all possible experiences, your desires remain the same. They continue to bother you even at the moment of death. This kind of death is the death of an ignorant and stupid person.
If, after having experienced all possible experiences, desires begin to disappear and you begin to laugh - if you realize that trying to squeeze happiness out of this life is the same as trying to squeeze oil out of a stone … If you see that in this life there can be no genuine relationship, and that there is no way to achieve happiness in this life … If you see that you wandered in vain, that you traveled in a dream … If you realize all this, then you become a wise person. Become wise to death. You've died so many times!
When death comes for you and knocks on the door, go into it with full consciousness. Accompany death as an enlightened one would. Don't go on crying, sobbing and screaming like a child whose toy has been taken away. Don't be a child at the time of death.
Die with a smile on your face.
Say to death: “Welcome. I'm ready for you."
And when you say that, there shouldn't be a shadow of regret. In fact, if you really knew life, there will be bliss and ecstasy in your voice - and not the slightest suffering.
The rookie singer came to the city, which was mainly inhabited by musicians. The whole city gathered to listen to the newly arrived musician. He was a complete beginner, just a beginner. He hardly even knew the basics of music, and yet he had a habit of visiting places where no one knew anything about music, and his meager knowledge was always considered great. But there were experts in this city; classical music was in their blood.
As soon as he sang the first note, everyone shouted:
- Again! Again!
He got it wrong. He thought: “What lovely these people! They are really great music lovers! They are exactly as I was told about them."
And he sang again, and the whole audience screamed again:
- Again!
And he went on, repeated 7 or 8 times. Then his throat hurt and he was tired. Finally, he said:
- Friends, I am deeply moved by your love, but please excuse me. I can not do it anymore! My voice is about to break.
And then the whole audience shouted:
- You have to keep singing until you can sing correctly!
All this time, the newbie thought that shouts: "Once again!" praised his singing. But these people were experts.
“If your voice breaks,” they shouted, “let it break, but you have to keep singing until you can sing correctly!
You are brought back to samsara, to this world over and over again, but do not think that it is because you are so important, or because you are of great value. The fact that you are being sent back is a message of existence that you will have to keep singing until you can learn to sing the song of life correctly. You need this practice and repetition because you always come back to them without becoming complete. Existence does not recognize unfinished things; only the finished is recognized as such.
A person who has cognized the truth of life will be filled with joy from the arrival of death, because soon he will be freed from entanglement in samsara, from entanglement in this world. Soon, this useless continuation will end; this children's toy will soon be put aside.
This person deserves to travel to a place of no return.
Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh (Osho)
