Nothing to Lose But Your Head Talks given from 13/2/76 to 12/3/76 Darshan Diary 22 Chapters Year published: 1977 Nothing to Lose But Your Head Chapter #1 Chapter title: None 13 February 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Archive code: 7602135 ShortTitle: TOLOSE01 Audio: No Video: No [A visitor asked what the agreement of sannyas meant.] That you are no more. It is a total surrender. No agreement -- because in an agreement there are two parties. You simply surrender. Much courage is needed... It is not an agreement because it is not a legal thing. It is just a love affair... you fall in love. It is not an agreement because it is not a marriage. So if you feel love for me you take the jump and of course it needs courage, the greatest courage. All other courages are nothing compared to it, because before you were moving on familiar ground. Even if something new was there, it was not absolutely new. You knew it somehow; it had a context in your past, with your mind, with your intellect. You simply move in deep trust. Much happens through it -- and there is no other way of happening -- because once you put yourself aside, all barriers drop. Suddenly you are open, vulnerable. That is the meaning of courage -- to remain vulnerable. Whatsoever happens, one remains open. Storms may come, but still one never closes the doors. Once you close the door, it is closed against the enemy. It is also dosed against the friend. A closed door makes no difference between the enemy and the friend. In fear we close ourselves. Of course we close ourselves against death -- but life is also left outside. This is the risk: if you want to live, you have to live with death constantly. So if you want in short what sannyas is, it is losing your head. And you have nothing else to lose except your head. So let me cut it, mm? [A visitor says: I am looking for my master... I try to understand.] That will be difficult. The disciple can never choose the master -- only the master can choose the disciple -- because the disciple is almost asleep. In sleep, how can you choose who is going to wake you? At the most you can dream, dream about the master. But you cannot choose, because you are asleep. Only somebody who is awake can choose whether to wake you or not. So if you leave it to me I can wake you, but if you are trying to choose, then it is for you... [The visitor had previously found Yoga and Sufi techniques complicated when he expected to find them simple.] They are very simple but because you are looking through a certain mind, because you are not looking directly and you have certain ideas in the mind, then things become complicated. If you have certain ideas, then whatsoever I say has to fit with those ideas. If it doesn't fit then there are complications; then there comes conflict and confusion. [The visitor adds: What I mean is, for example, Jesus went to the lake in Israel and said to people to follow him. And to come to this place I had to go to the secretary to arrange things, and had to wait to see you.] I am not Jesus. I have my own ways. And I am not a follower of Jesus. He lived his life -- I live mine. That's what I say -- you have a certain idea so you are trying to figure it out; you are trying to compare with Jesus. If my followers go to Jesus they will be in trouble, because they will look for a secretary, and there will be none. (laughter) They will say this man is wrong. You understand me? Each master lives his own way -- there is no other way he can live. This is my way: to make myself as unapproachable as possible, to make it as difficult as possible for you to come to me. This is nothing, this is just the beginning. Wait a few more days and you will have a secretary to the secretary. That's my way, because this is my understanding -- that the more easily available you are, the more useless your availability is. Make it difficult, and then people come with intense desire. Only then they come -- otherwise crowds come. I have lived that way also. For many years I was available under a tree... [The visitor asks: Is it not a natural right to be free, or to go one step after the other -- just a natural right?] There is no particular nature. Each has his own particular nature -- there is nothing like a generalised nature, nothing like human nature. Jesus has his nature, I have mine, you have yours. And when you flower, you will flower in a different way. Everybody has his own. Even Jesus' master, John the Baptist, had a different quality. Jesus never followed him -- he started moving in different ways. It has to be so. There is no problem in it. I have to follow my nature. This is how I see that it is more helpful to you -- if I am less available. If I give you one hour to talk to me, you will talk rubbish, because you only have rubbish. If I give you only three minutes, you have to choose from the rubbish; you have to choose whatsoever jewels you have. If you are allowed to live with me for twenty-four hours, you will completely forget me. That's how all Jesus' disciples missed him. But that was his way and nothing can be said about it, because there is no comparison, no criterion. And there is nothing like human nature. Each individual human being has his own nature. So if you reach to a Buddha he will be totally different from Jesus. If you ask a Buddhist, he will say that Jesus must have been a little political, that he was not purely religious, otherwise why should he be crucified? Buddha was not crucified! If you ask Jains, the followers of Mahavir, they will say that one is crucified only when he has committed many sins in a past life, otherwise not. So Jesus must have been a murderer in a past life, and he was crucified because of that karma -- because a Mahavir cannot be crucified. Mahavir lived naked, so his followers think that everybody who has attained has to live naked, because when you become innocent, what is the use of clothes? Jesus is not realised because he is still wearing clothes. Even a Buddha is not realised -- he is still wearing clothes! So these are different people, and they have all attained in their own ways; their expressions are unique. And it is good that they are unique, otherwise life will be too monotonous. Think -- a row of Jesuses standing in a queue. (laughter) It will look ugly. Alone Jesus is beautiful, a precious diamond, but if there are too many just like him, he will be a pebble on the shore -- nothing of worth. [The visitor then says: That's what I found with the sannyasins -- they all look too similar.] You have not seen them yet. Become a sannyasin and see. You will find them each different. Their clothes are similar -- they are not. That is just appearance. No two individuals can be similar. Approach them, be close to them, and you will see the difference. So if you are ready, then I give you sannyas. Or if you want to think a little more... [He answers:... show me something. If you can let me feel -- I am prepared to feel.] If you are prepared to feel, you will feel. I am not going to show anything to you. If you are prepared, you feel. Just by saying, no one is prepared. The very saying shows that you are not prepared. You may be greedy, you may be looking for some miracle, but you are not prepared.... You are not prepared. Those who are prepared simply relax and surrender, and then many things are shown to them. Not that I show them to them -- they see. That's also a difference -- I am not a magician, and I am not here to show you miracles. If you are ready, things will happen to you... but you wait. Avinash means immortal, and anand means bliss -- deathless bliss; immortal bliss. Forget the old completely. I will be working through you. (Avinash had said earlier that he was working as a psychologist in a clinic for people who were mentally troubled, in Switzerland.) You will become a vehicle. There is no block, nothing -- the passage is completely clear. Very few people are so completely clean and clear. [A sannyasin said he had been aware of a block in his chest, a sensation of pain and chaos, that came when he was lying down, and which happened after meditating but also at other times. Osho passed him one of his special initialled handkerchiefs that he gives to people who are leaving him, or to others to help clear blocks and discharge energy.] This night, put the handkerchief where you feel the pressure. Press it there, and remember me. The pain will become more and more intense... it will become hot, white-hot, and burning. But don't be afraid... and keep the handkerchief there. This will last only a few minutes, and then you will feel a relaxation -- it has disappeared.