Original Source

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE IN A STATE OF PURE CONSCIOUSNESS FOR A WHILE AND TO FALL OUT AGAIN?

No, it is not possible. But something like it happens: you have a glimpse of pure consciousness; you have not entered. It is just as if you look from hundreds of miles’ distance towards the Himalayan peaks. You have not reached them, but you can look from a vast distance. You can look at the peaks; you can have a feeling. You can open a window and look at the moon far away, and the rays will touch you and you will be illumined, you will have a certain experience, but from this window-experience you will fall again and again.

When pure consciousness is achieved – not a glimpse from a distance, but you have entered into it – then you cannot lose it again. Once achieved it is achieved forever. You cannot fall out of it. Why? Because the moment you enter it you disappear. Who can fall out of it? To fall out at least you have to remain as yourself. But to enter pure consciousness, the ego disappears completely, the self disappears completely. Then who will come back?

In a glimpse you are not disappeared; you are there. You can have a glimpse and close the eyes. You can have a glimpse and close the window. It will become a memory; it will haunt you; it will become a nostalgia. It will come in your dreams. Sometimes, suddenly, you will feel again a deep urge to have that glimpse, but it cannot be a phenomenon forever and forever. Glimpses are only glimpses. Good, beautiful, but don’t cling to them; because they are not permanent. You will fall out of them again and again – because you are still there.

When there is a glimpse, move towards the peaks, move towards the moon… become one with the moon. Unless you disappear completely you will fall. You will have to come back to the world because that ego will feel suffocated with the glimpse. The ego will feel deathlike panic. It will say, “Close the window! Enough you have looked at the moon. Now don’t be foolish. Don’t be a lunatic.”

The word “lunatic” means moonstruck. The word comes from “lunar” – of the moon. All mad people are called lunatics, moonstruck – thinking of distant dreams.

The mind, the ego, will say, “Don’t be a lunatic. It is okay to have, sometimes, the window open and look at the moon, but don’t be obsessed. The world is waiting for you. You have responsibilities to fulfill in the world.” And the ego will bring you and persuade you, seduce you, towards the world; because the ego can exist only in the world. Whenever something of the other world penetrates into your mind, the ego becomes afraid, panicky, scared. It looks like death.

If that glimpse is to become a permanent life-style, your very being, then you have to bridge the distance, bridge the gap. You have to move. When you become pure consciousness then there is no falling out again. It is a point of no return. One only goes in; one never comes out. It has no exit, only one door… the entrance.

Seeker asked to Osho – YOU SAID THAT BUDDHA WAS ESSENTIALLY SELFISH. WAS JESUS THE SAME? IF SO WHAT DID HE MEAN BY: “IF ANY MAN COME AFTER ME LET HIM DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME.”

Osho’s answer –  Yes, Jesus is also selfish; otherwise it is not possible. Jesus, Krishna, Zarathustra, Buddha – all selfish people: because so much compassion arises out of them.

That is not possible if they are not self-centered. That is not possible if they have not attained to their own bliss. First, one has to attain; only then can one share… and they share so much that even centuries have passed, but they go on sharing still.

If you love Jesus, suddenly you are filled with his compassion. His love still flows. The body has disappeared, but his love has not disappeared. It has become a permanent phenomenon in the world. It will always be there.

Whenever there will be somebody ready, receptive, his love will flow. But this is possible only because he attained to his original source: he must have been selfish.

Then what is the meaning? Because these words seem to be contradictory? “If any man comes after me let him deny himself….” Yes, they look paradoxical: if I am true then they contradict me. I am true, and they don’t contradict me. It is only appearance, because Jesus is saying, “If you want to attain, to yourself you will have to lose yourself, that is the way.” So when Jesus says, “If any man comes after me let him deny himself…” it is because that is the only way to be himself.

You can attain to the self only when you deny your ego. You can attain to yourself when you completely disappear.

Jesus says, “If you cling to life, you will lose it. If you are ready to lose it, it will be forever and forever with you. You will attain to life abundant, infinite.” When a water drop falls in the ocean, it loses itself – denies itself – and becomes the ocean. It pays nothing and attains to the ocean: it simply loses its own boundaries. When Jesus is saying, “If any man comes after me let him deny himself…” it is the ocean saying to the drop, “Come, deny yourself! – So that you can become the ocean also.” And this is the most selfish thing: to become the ocean.

A drop is very altruistic, but he remains a drop – finite, limited, miserable. Looks as if he is selfish; he is not. If you go and look at the selfish people in the world, you will not find them really selfish. They are simply foolish, not selfish.

Really selfish people become wise. Really selfish people are those who try to attain nirvana, who try to attain God, who try to attain moksha – liberty, freedom. They are the really selfish people, not those people which are known as selfish in the world because they are trying to accumulate riches. They are simply foolish, not selfish. Don’t use that beautiful word for them. They are simply foolish.

Why do you call them selfish? They go on accumulating riches and go on selling their; self for them. They make a big house and they themselves become hollow, empty. They have a big car and no soul within. And you call them selfish? They are the most unselfish people. They have given their; self – for nothing, actually.

It happened: One man came to Ramkrishna with many gold coins, and he wanted to give them to him. Ramkrishna said, “I don’t touch gold. Take them away.”

The man was very impressed. He said, “How unselfish you are.”

Ramkrishna laughed and he said, “Unselfish and me? I am a selfish man. That’s why I don’t touch this gold. I am not so foolish. Unselfish you are: you have sold yourself for gold coins.”

Who is unselfish? One who gives his soul for gold coins is unselfish?… Or one who leaves everything of the world to attain to his soul, he is selfish? In the world people lose themselves and attain nothing, and you call them selfish.

They are unselfish people, foolish. Buddha, Jesus, Krishna – they attained to the utmost glory, to the utter blissfulness. Buddha has said: “I have attained to the unexcelled SAMADHI.” And you call them unselfish? Those who live in perfect bliss, you call them unselfish? You have destroyed a beautiful word.

Jesus is right, “If any man comes after me let him deny himself…” because that is the only way to attain to oneself. He is teaching selfishness.

“… and take up his cross and follow me,” because that is the only way to be resurrected. If you want a new life you will have to die. If you want to be resurrected you will have to carry your own cross. Be crucified in the material world and you will be resurrected in the spiritual. Die moment to moment to the past so that you are resurrected every moment into the present. Dying is an art, one of the most basic. And those who know how to die, only they know how to live. People who are afraid of dying become afraid of living. People who are too afraid of death and dying become incapable of living, because life has death as part of it.

When Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me,” he is saying, “Be ready to die if you really want to attain eternal life.” This is selfishness.

And when people like Jesus say, “Follow me,” you will misunderstand them.

When Krishna says in the Geeta to Arjuna, “Drop everything – all your religions. Surrender to me. Come, and follow me,” what is he saying exactly? Are these people very egoistic? They say, “Come, follow me.” In fact, when Jesus says, “Come, follow me,” he is saying: “I am your innermost soul.” When Krishna says, “Surrender to me,” he is not saying surrender to this outer Krishna. He is saying: “Deep down, I am hidden in you. When you surrender to me, I am just an excuse to surrender. You will reach to your innermost core of being. Follow me so that you can follow your innermost core of being. I have attained; to that innermost core.”

They are not saying to follow Jesus or Krishna. They are saying, “Surrender,” because in surrender you will become a Krishna, a Jesus yourself. And this is utterly selfish.

But the very word has taken a quality of condemnation. When somebody says, “Don’t be selfish,” immediately, he is condemned. I am trying to purify that beautiful word again. I am trying to bring it to its real stature. That word has fallen into the mud, but that word is like a diamond. It may be in the mud: it can be cleaned and washed. And if you understand me you will see that if you are really selfish, only then can you be unselfish. I teach you selfishness because I would like you to be unselfish.