The series of earthquakes in Nepal and India have shaken the world deeply and scientists in the West are expecting more earthquakes to shake the planet. Professor Bill McGuire of the University College London was quoted in the Newsweek as saying, “There are geological systems all around the planet with unstable volcanoes that are susceptible: when it comes to risk, I’m afraid there is a very, very long list.”
The insensitivity of our lifestyle towards the Earth has done tremendous harm. While scientists and politicians are busy providing solutions to disaster situations, here’s the story Osho told about a Japanese Zen master who was invited to a satsang at a mansion.
A few seekers had gathered for the session. As the master started talking there was an earthquake. Japan experiences earthquakes on a frequent basis. They were all assembled on the seventh floor of a seven-storey building. Everybody tried to escape. The host, running by, stopped to see what had happened to the zen master. The master was there with not even a ripple of anxiety on his face. He sat with his eyes closed, just as he was before the tremors began.
Seeing this the host felt a little guilty. The other guests had already gone downstairs, but he stopped. Though trembling with fear, he sat down beside the master. After the earthquake was over, the disciples began to tiptoe back to where the master was sitting in silence. When they asked him why he did not run away, he replied, “I also escaped, but you escaped outwardly, I escaped within. Your escape is useless because wherever you are going there is an earthquake, so it is meaningless, it makes no sense. You may reach the sixth storey or the fifth or the fourth, but there too is an earthquake. I escaped to a point within me where no earthquake ever reaches, cannot reach. I entered my centre.”
Thus, Osho concludes that meditation brings you face to face with reality. Once you know what life is, you never bother about death. Meditation is the only way to discover “deathlessness”.
Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of Osho Fragrance
