FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE CONDEMNS MAN FOR HIS LACK OF CREATIVITY IN NOT BEING ABLE TO PRODUCE A BETTER CONCEPT OF GOD THAN THE CHRISTIAN ONE – WHICH HE REGARDS AS THE SICKEST, THE MOST DECREPIT, WHICH HE CALLS ”THIS PITIABLE GOD OF CHRISTIAN MONOTONO-THEISM.”
DO YOU AGREE THAT THE CHRISTIAN VERSION OF GOD IS THE MOST UGLY?
Maneesha, all concepts of God are fiction, so there is no question of any God being ugly or beautiful. God does not exist. Nietzsche has forgotten that God is dead.
That’s what happens to people who are not enlightened. He has been writing, ”God is dead,” and suddenly starts saying that man is not very creative because he has not been able to produce a better concept of God. That would be a better fiction only, a better lie. But he has forgotten completely that he has declared that God is dead. And even if it were a better fiction it would still have been dead. Fiction is fiction, a lie is a lie; however polished, however refined, you cannot make it true.
So Christian god, or Hindu god, or Mohammedan god, it does not matter. God is a fiction, and the fiction is out of sickness of mind. He was a Christian and had no idea of Eastern gods, he only had the idea of the Jewish god and the Christian god. If he had known the Hindu gods, he would not have written this sentence.
The Christian god is not the only ugly god; all gods are ugly in different ways. But in the first place they are lies, so there is no need to refine. Man certainly is not creative, but that does not mean that he should create a better god. A better god will be a better prison. A better god will be a far stronger chain. A better god will destroy you more efficiently than the ordinary gods are doing. Do you want a better god, a better prison, a better poison?
Nietzsche has completely forgotten that lies are lies. There are no good lies and there are no bad lies. Lies are simply lies, you cannot make the distinction. Truth is truth. There is no better truth, you cannot refine it. Lies are lies. You can refine them, but still they will be lies, they cannot become truth.
So I cannot agree, Maneesha, with Nietzsche; he has forgotten. That is the trouble with philosophers. He is a great philosopher, but he is not beyond the mind. He cannot have the clarity of the enlightened person.
Man is certainly not creative, but his creativity should not be concerned with God. His creativity should be concerned with making a better world, a better society, better literature, better poetry, better paintings, better sculpture, better human beings. A better god is not needed, a better god will be more dangerous.
I hate the very word ‘God’. And I would hate it more if somebody refined the concept of God, because lies have to be destroyed! And you cannot destroy them unless you hate them. All your love for God has to be completely demolished.
Now is the right time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh.
He is a great iconoclast. He destroys things so creatively.
Dilly Dump is the manager of the Last Resort Old People’s Home. One morning, he is going from house to house collecting donations throughout the nice, mediocre American suburb called Yuppy Acres.
Dilly walks up to the Poke household and rings the doorbell. When Porky Poke answers the door, Dilly says, ”Good morning, sir. Would you like to make a contribution to the Last Resort Old People’s Home?”
”Okay,” replies Porky. Then he turns around and calls back to the house, ”Hey, Grandma! Get your hat and coat on!”
The famous psychiatrist, Doctor Mindbender, is sitting in his chair and looking intently at his patient, Moishe Finklestein. Doctor Mindbender closes his notebook, smiles and says, ”Yes, Mr. Finklestein, I am pleased to pronounce you a hundred percent cured!”
”Rats!” sighs Moishe, looking depressed. ”What happened?”
”I don’t understand,” replies the shrink. ”Are you not happy? I have cured you!”
”Happy?” asks Moishe. ”Why should I be happy? Last week I was Jesus Christ. And now I am nobody!”
It is nine o’clock in the morning, in the Glorious Endings funeral parlor on the little Greek island of Crete. Pappa Acidophilus, the undertaker, hears the phone ring and picks it up. ”This is Bishop Kretin,” says the voice at the other end. ”There has been an accident at the Holy Orthodox Church of Our Blessed Bleeding Virgin. I am sending over the church janitors, Rastus and Leroy, with the dead body immediately!”
”Right!” says Pappa Acidophilus. ”I will get the formaldehyde ready!” He puts down the phone and dashes off into his embalming room, rubbing his hands with glee.
Three hours later, Rastus and Leroy come in carrying Old Mrs. Suflaki, who is as dead as a dodo. ”Jesus Christ!” shouts Pappa Acidophilus, looking at his watch and shaking his fist. ”Bishop Kretin called me three hours ago. What took you guys so long?”
”Sorry, boss,” drawls Leroy, ”but we had to wait until the good bishop had finished preaching to find out which one of the old ladies was dead!”
Nivedano...
(Drumbeat)
(Gibberish)
Nivedano...
(Drumbeat)
Be silent...
Close your eyes, and feel your body to be completely frozen.
This is the right moment to go inwards. Gather your energies, your total consciousness, and rush towards your center with a great urgency, as if this is going to be your last moment. Only with such urgency can one reach to the center immediately!
Faster and faster...
Deeper and deeper...
As you come closer to the center, a great silence descends over you, just like soft rain, very tangible, very cool.
A little closer, and you find a tremendous peacefulness surrounding your inner space. Flowers of the beyond start raining on you.
One step more and you are at the center. For the first time you see your original face. For the first time you encounter your eternity. The East calls this original face the face of the buddha, the awakened one.
It has nothing to do with Gautam Buddha personally, it is everybody’s original face: peaceful, graceful, with a grandeur, with tremendous clarity, transparency, majesty. Your splendor is great, your treasure is great.
Just one quality of the buddha has to be remembered. He consists only of one quality: witnessing.
This small word ‘witnessing’ contains the whole of spirituality.
Witness that you are not the body.
Witness that you are not the mind.
Witness that you are only a witness.
As the witnessing deepens, you start becoming drunk with the divine. This is what is called ecstasy.
To make the witnessing deeper, Nivedano...
(Drumbeat)
Relax...
Let go of the body and the mind.
Just remember only one thing: you are a buddha, a witness, a pure eternal awareness. And by and by you will start feeling a certain melting; separations disappear, Gautama the Buddha Auditorium becomes an ocean. Ten thousand buddhas disappear into the ocean.
This oceanic consciousness is the very essence of Zen, the very essence of authentic religiousness.
Gather as much as you can of all the ecstasy, of all the divine drunkenness, all the flowers that are showering on you, the grace, the beauty, the truth, the godliness. You have to bring them with you, and you have to express them in their utter beautifulness in your day-to-day activity.
Chopping the wood, you are a buddha. Be graceful with the tree, it is also a potential buddha. Carrying water from the well, be a buddha.
Every act has to turn into grace, into gratitude. Only then will the buddha be coming closer and closer to you.
Before Nivedano calls you, persuade the buddha to come behind you as a great presence. Persuade him to remain with you twenty-four hours a day.
His presence is going to become the alchemy of your transformation.
These are the three steps: on the first step buddha comes behind you, you feel his warmth, his love, his compassion, his beautitude; on the second step, you become the shadow, buddha comes in front of you; in the third step, your shadow disappears into the buddha, you are no more, only buddha is. You are no more, only existence is.
God is dead, and Zen is the only living truth.
Nivedano...
(Drumbeat)
Come back, but come back as a buddha.
Even your movements should be graceful and beautiful, blissful, radiating your consciousness and awareness.
Sit for a few moments to remind yourself of the golden path that you have traveled, and the inner space that you have touched, tasted, the fragrance of the beyond that is still surrounding you, and the presence of the buddha who is just behind you, almost touching you.
Let buddha become your very reality, and you dissolve yourself, you disappear completely.
You are the disease; the buddha is the cure.
You are birth and death; buddha is transcendence from the circle of birth and death.
You are momentary, just a soap bubble; buddha is your eternity.
God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth 140 ♡♥Osho♡♥
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