Science of the Rishis: A Daily Rhythm

Part V: The Casino as a Temple: Beyond Duality and Identification

THE MAGIC KEYS YOU HAVE GIVEN TO GO BEYOND DUALITY ARE ONE THING TO HEAR AND ANOTHER TO LIVE. LAST NIGHT A MIRACLE HAPPENED. I LOVE TO GAMBLE, AND WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR OF A CASINO FOR ME IS LIKE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE A SNAKE BITE ON THEIR TONGUE AND HAVE TO STAY AWARE. LAST NIGHT I WAS ABLE TO REMAIN PRESENT FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER HUNDREDS OF TRIES; AND EVEN THOUGH I LOST MONEY, THE VICTORY OF NOT BEING IDENTIFIED COULDN’T BE BOUGHT BY ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD. BELOVED OSHO, I’M SO HAPPY.

Kaveesha, I am also very happy. It does not matter where awareness happens; what matters is that it happens. If it happens in a casino, then the casino has become a temple, a sacred place. For most people it does not happen, even in temples, in synagogues, in churches. For them, those places are not sacred because they have not tasted anything sacred there.

The place does not count, the act does not count. What counts is: can you do it absolutely unidentified? Let it happen in different situations and it will bring more and more flowers to your being.

A CURIOUS THING HAPPENED TO ME ONCE WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL — PERHAPS ELEVEN OR TWELVE YEARS OLD. DURING RECESS TIME AT SCHOOL I WAS IN THE BATHROOM AND I LOOKED INTO THE MIRROR TO SEE IF I LOOKED TIDY. THEN SUDDENLY I FOUND THAT I WAS STANDING HALFWAY BETWEEN MY BODY AND THE MIRROR, WATCHING MYSELF LOOKING AT MY REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR. IT AMUSED ME TO SEE THE THREE I’S, AND I THOUGHT IT MUST HAVE BEEN A TRICK ONE COULD LEARN. SO I TRIED TO SHOW MY GIRLFRIEND AND I TRIED IT AGAIN MYSELF — WITHOUT SUCCESS. IT DIDN’T, IN RETROSPECT, FEEL LIKE WITNESSING; IT FELT LIKE MY ESSENTIAL SELF HAD STEPPED OUT OF MY PHYSICAL FORM. IS IT OF ANY VALUE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT LITTLE GIRL?

It happens to many children, but because the atmosphere around is not supportive of awareness, those experiences are not nourished by the parents, the school, the friends, the teachers. And if you say that it has happened to you, people will laugh — and you yourself will think that something has gone wrong, that it was not right.

For example, all children in every culture around the world like to whirl. And every parent stops them from whirling and says, “You will fall down.” It is true, there is a possibility they may fall down. But that falling down is not going to harm much.

But why do children like whirling? While the body is whirling, small children can see it whirling. They are no longer identified with it, because it is such a new experience.

With everything they are identified — with walking they are identified, with eating they are identified, with anything they are doing, usually they are identified. This whirling is such an experience that the faster the body moves, whirls, the less is the possibility of their remaining identified.

Soon they are lagging behind; the body is whirling but their being cannot whirl. It stops at a point and starts seeing its own body whirling. Sometimes it can come out of the body too. If the whirling child is not staying at one place but goes on moving — whirling and moving around the place — then his essential self can come out and watch it.

Such activities should be helped, nourished, and the child should be asked, “What are you experiencing?” and told, “This experience is one of the greatest in life, so don’t forget it. Even if you fall, there is no harm; there is not much that can be harmful. But what you can gain is invaluable.” But they are being stopped in this and in many other things.

My own experience in childhood was… the flooded river of my town — nobody used to cross it by swimming when it was flooded. It was a mountainous river. Ordinarily, it was a small river, but in rainy times it was at least one mile wide. The current of the water was tremendous; you could not stand in it. And the water was deep, so there was no way to stand anyway.

I loved it. I waited for the rainy season because it always helped… there would come a moment when I would feel that I was dying, because I was tired and I could not see the other shore, and the waves were high and the current was strong… and there was no way to go back, because now the other shore was as far away. Perhaps I was in the middle; it was the same either way. I would feel so completely tired and the water would take me down with such a force that there would come a time when I would see, “Now there is no possibility of living any more.” And that was the moment when I would suddenly see myself above the water and my body in the water. When it happened the first time, it was a very frightening experience. I thought I must have died. I had heard that when you die, the soul goes out of the body: “So I have gone out of the body and I am dead.” But I could see the body was still trying to reach the other shore, so I followed the body.

That was the first time I became aware of a connection between your essential being and the body. It is connected just below the navel — two inches below the navel — by something like a silver cord, a silver rope. It is not material, but it shines like silver. Each time I reached the other shore, the moment I reached the other shore my being would enter into the body. The first time it was frightening; then it became a great entertainment.

When I told my parents, they said, “Someday you are going to die in that river. This is enough of a sign. Stop going into the river when it is flooded.”

But I said, “I am enjoying it so much… the freedom, no force of gravitation, and seeing one’s own body completely away.”

Then I moved to the university and there it happened once. I have talked about it. Just behind the university campus there was a hillock with three trees. I used to love those trees because it was impossible to sit silently in the hostels. So I used to go and climb up a tree. The middle tree was very comfortable to sit in — the way its branches were — and I would sit there for hours in silence.

One day — I don’t know what happened — when I opened my eyes I saw my body lying down on the ground. It was the same experience that had happened in the river many times, so there was no fear.

Theory: The Silver Cord: Floating Above the Flooded River of Life

Mindful Workplace (Sattva): Sakshi Bhava in High-Pressure Meetings (The Casino Victory) – Witness consciousness (Sakshi)

• Workplace Practice: Anchoring your awareness in physical sensations and viewing rising emotions as temporary internal weather allows you to stay grounded during high-stakes discussions. By redefining true success as preserving your inner peace, you maintain an unshakeable presence regardless of the external outcome.