Anything based on mind is bogus.
– Osho
Unstruck Sound
It happened once that a seeker who was in continual meditation with his koan persisted in listening to his mind. Finally one day his master said to him, “How long are you going to keep this up? If you can’t find the solution, it is better that you die!”
The next day the seeker came to the master and his mind said to him, “Yes, it is quite right. It is better to die if the solution cannot be found.”
So as the master asked, “Have you brought the solution?” the disciple fell to the ground and closed his eyes. The master said, “Very good! If you have not brought the answer, death is better. But now tell me, after dying, do you have the answer or not?”
The disciple opened one eye and said, “No, I don’t have the answer.”
The master said, “Get up! Corpses do not speak, nor do they open their eyes. Just get lost! You have only died because the mind said so. The mind is going to deceive in everything, and if you die following its advice even that death will be a false one.”
Mind is the source of deceptions. All illusions stem from it. Whoever listens to mind will have to accept the false. Mind is maya, the illusion. Both its life and its death are false.
All its answers are meaningless. But if the seeker persists, does not get defeated by it, does not run away, if he stands fast, the mind will finally get tired and will fall down.
The day the mind gives in and falls, the unstruck sound is heard – because that sound is humming within us perpetually. We have also called it Omkar.
So Om is not a mantra that you sit down and go on chanting – Om, Om, Om – and something happens out of it. That is a struck sound, blown from the throat through the striking of the lips. That Om is not what we have called Omkar. The Om that has to be recited is useless. Any achievement through the recital of Om is an achievement of the mind.
But when the mind drops, suddenly you hear Omkar. You do not recite Om, you hear Om. You are not the doer of it but only the listener. You hear the Om resonating within you. That resonance is not yours, it is not created by you; rather it is this resonance that is creating you. The flute became inverted. Now you are not blowing the flute, you are not creating the mantra, the mantra is creating you. Omkar is not an effort of yours, you yourself are the materialized form of Omkar. That perpetual sound of Om within you is creating you. You are not giving birth to that sound, but that sound is giving birth to you. So Om is not a mantra, it is your life. Om is not a thing that you can do; it is your source, your existence. Om is the sound of existence, the anahat nad, the unstruck sound.
The day mind drops, that unstruck sound is heard.
Any belief indicates your ignorance, your blindness, but gives you a false sense – as if you know.
– Osho
