a real man cannot be confined, cannot be imprisoned
TRANSCRIPT
7/27/2019 A Real Man Cannot Be Confined, Cannot Be Imprisoned
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IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF IDEAS ABOUT A SAINT, they are going to be
destroyed. Here, at least, you will not be allowed to carry those ideas. I am
an iconoclast: MY WHOLE EFFORT HERE IS TO DESTROY IDEALS, IDEAS,
IDEOLOGIES.
And that is the whole zen standpoint. Why? Because these ideas are thebarriers. If you have a certain idea how a saint should be, then you don't
know that A SAINT IS UNPREDICTABLE AND YOU CANNOT HAVE ANY IDEAS
ABOUT HIM.
All ideas will become a confinement -- and a saint worth the name would not
like to be confined in any idea. He is freedom. Nobody can draw a line
around him, that 'This is the place you should be, and don't go out of it.' If
somebody allows that -- allows that you draw a line around him and make adefinition and he will remain there -- then he is not a saint at all. Beware of
him: he is there to deceive you. IF HE FOLLOWS YOUR IDEAS, HE IS GOINGTO DECEIVE YOU.
LOOK FOR A SAINT WHO WILL NOT BOTHER WHAT YOUR OPINION IS
ABOUT HIM. Find out somebody who does not care what your definition of a
saint is, and you will be benefited.
A SAINT WHO FOLLOWS YOU AND YOUR IDEAS IS WORTHLESS. He is your
follower. No saint -- no Christ, no Buddha, no Mahavira -- has ever been
according to you. That's why they got into trouble. Jesus would not have
been crucified if he was according to you. Neither would Mahavir have been
stoned, thrown out of villages, whipped, beaten... if he was just followingyour idea of a saint. No, he was not following you.
NO SAINT CAN FOLLOW YOUR IDEAS. The moment somebody starts
following your ideas, he is not a saint. He does not know freedom -- he has
not stumbled upon his inner freedom, he does not know who he is. He gets
his ego from you and your ideas.
THIS IS THE CRITERION TO JUDGE: if you see a man who goes on following
a certain kind of ideology in his behavior... There is a Jaina monk, he follows
the ideas of the Jainas. And there is a Catholic monk, he follows the ideas of Catholic Christians, he behaves accordingly. THESE ARE SLAVES, THESE ARE
NOT REAL MEN.
A REAL MAN CANNOT BE CONFINED, CANNOT BE IMPRISONED.
I am not a saint in that way, that you can have some ideas about me. Forget
about sainthood. Just look into me, just be here and have a taste of me.
7/27/2019 A Real Man Cannot Be Confined, Cannot Be Imprisoned
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DON'T CARRY ANY IDEAS -- I AM NOT GOING TO BE BOTHERED BY THEM. If
you are shocked, that is your problem.
And I am not in any way in any need to get any identity from you. SO WHATYOU SAY DOES NOT MATTER. If you are here to learn something, learn it.
And meanwhile you will have to go through many shocks. Those shocks arereally processes of understanding; those shocks are processes of learning.
IF YOU ARE COURAGEOUS, only then can you be here. Otherwise go and
find some dummy-saint somewhere.
OSHO
Zen: The Path of Paradox
Vol 2, Ch #2: Selling water by the riveram in Buddha Hall