25AUGUST 2008

Sufi Master Bayazid

It is said about the great Sufi mystic, Bayazid, that when he reached the

station of nearness he heard a voice which ordered him, "Ask for

something!"

The state of nearness is the state when you fall silent, when voices in

your head disappear, evaporate, when thoughts leave you, desert you; when

you feel utterly alone, not even shadows of the others are present; when you

are just on the verge of disappearing. That is called the "station of nearness".

When Bayazid reached the station of nearness he heard a voice which

ordered him, "Ask for something!"

"I have no desire," he replied.

But the voice insisted. It said, "You ask for something!"

Again he said, "But there is nothing to ask, because I have no desire. "

But again the voice repeated, "Ask for something!"

Bayazid answered, "Then I want only Thee!"

The voice then said, "So long as even an atom of Bayazid's existence

remains, this is impossible."

Bayazid missed. He was just on the verge. He started asking. He came

back -- because with the desire you are back, with the desire the mind is

back. Even if the desire is for God, that doesn't matter. You would have

thought that this was beautiful, that Bayazid desired God. But desire is

The state of nearness is

the state when you fall

silent, when voices in

your head disappear,

evaporate, when

thoughts leave you,

desert you; when you

feel utterly alone, not

even shadows of the

others are present;

when you are just on

the verge of

disappearing. That is

called the "station of

nearness", Osho.

26 OSHO WORLD

desire; what you desire is

irrelevant. Desire brings the desiring

mind back. Bayazid had again

entered into the marketplace, that

station of nearness was lost. The

moment he said, "I want only Thee,"

he was there. Again the I had

gathered, and when there is I, it

creates thou. When there is I it

creates duality, and all is lost in

duality. When there is no I, then

there is non-duality.

Then you are one with existence,

utterly one. Then you are nothing

but a pulsation of existence itself,

just a ripple in the lake of this

infinite consciousness.

The moment he said, "I want

only Thee," the voice then said, "So

long as even an atom of the

existence of Bayazid remains, this is

impossible."

Man has to disappear for God to

be. All that is needed is this simple

phenomenon of disappearance. But

because we don't want to disappear,

then the whole approach becomes

very arduous. Then we start playing

games: on the one hand, we want

God, and on the other hand, we

want to protect ourselves.

Again it is said of Bayazid that

once he was walking along a road

with his disciples when they came

across a severed head lying on the

way. On its forehead was written

this tremendously important sutra

from the Koran: He loseth both the

world and the hereafter.

Bayazid picked up the head and

kissed it. When his disciples asked

who he was, who this man was, he

answered, "This is the head of a Sufi

dervish who gave up both worlds

for God. I have not yet been able to

do it. I had reached the point where

it could have happened, but I

missed."

On the severed head these words

from the Koran were written: He

loseth both the world and the

hereafter. One has to lose all, only

then is God gained.

loseth both the world and the

hereafter. One has to lose all, only

then is God gained.

The people who search for God,

the people who search for

enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, or

any other name, will go on missing;

and their lives will become more

and more complicated, and the

journey will become harder and

harder.

But Bayazid had learnt a lesson

from his first experience. Soon he

was again at the station of nearness.

Again it was asked, "Bayazid, ask for

something!" This time he did not

even bother to say that "I have

nothing to ask" -- because even if

you say that you have nothing to

ask, you are. He simply sat there in

utter silence. Repeatedly the voice

provoked him, tempted him, "Ask

for something, Bayazid!" but there

was no answer from Bayazid. Thrice

it was repeated, "Bayazid, ask

something!" And this voice was

God's voice, this was disrespectful!

When God himself is telling you to

ask, ask! But Bayazid was not there,

there was nobody; so how could he

be respectful or disrespectful?

This is what Sufis call adab: the

way of being in the presence of a

Master, and ultimately, the way of

being in the presence of God.

There was no Bayazid, so even

this provocation, "Ask, Bayazid! This

is disrespectful towards God. I am

God myself, asking you to ask for

something. I am happy with you. I

am here to give you all that you

want, all that you ask. Even if you

ask me, I am prepared to give

myself to you."

something. I am happy with you.

I am here to give you all that you

want, all that you ask. Even if you

ask me, I am prepared to give

myself to you."

But this time there was nobody,

the silence remained undisturbed.

There was no response from

Bayazid. And he took the ultimate

jump, it happened -- he became

God. This is the way one becomes a

God, this is the way one attains.

It is said:

"Who are you?" somebody asked

Bayazid.

He said, "I lost him years ago.

The more I seek him, the less I find."

"Who are you?" the person asked

again. Bayazid said, "There is

nothing under my cloak but Allah.

Except God, there is nobody within

me, so the question 'who are you?' is

meaningless. I am not, God is. And

God is always blissful. God is

blissfulness, so the question is

irrelevant. There is nobody, nothing

under my cloak, except Allah."

God is not there to be found

somewhere else -- in Kaaba, in

Kailash, in Girnar, in Jerusalem. God

has to be found under your cloak.

And the reality is this: that there is

nobody except God within you. But

you have not turned upon yourself,

your eyes are fixed at distant goals.

Your eyes are roaming there

somewhere in the future; and God is

here, and you are not here. Hence

the meeting is difficult. Otherwise

there is no difficulty at all. Sufism is

the path of intense love, passionate

love. As Bayazid has said, "The

duration of Bayazid's life of

asceticism was only three days. On

God is not there to be found somewhere

else -- in Kaaba, in Kailash, in Girnar, in

Jerusalem. God has to be found under

your cloak. And the reality is this: that

there is nobody except God within you

27AUGUST 2008

there is no difficulty at all.

Sufism is the path of intense love,

passionate love. As Bayazid has said,

"The duration of Bayazid's life of

asceticism was only three days. On

the first day he renounced the

world, on the second day he

renounced the other world, and on

the last day he renounced himself. "

There are only three steps. The

first step: becoming aware that this

world is nothing but games,

becoming aware that this world is

nothing but our projections; and the

second step, becoming aware that

the other world, heaven, paradise, is

also nothing but our unfulfilled

dreams, our unfulfilled desires

projected in time, in the future; and

the third step, when this world is

dropped and that world is dropped,

then all that is left is you. Then all

that is left is the faculty of

projection, the mind, the ego. And

the third step consists of dropping

the ego. And suddenly you are back

home. Suddenly nothing is needed

any more, all is available. And then

one starts laughing, because this had

always been so -- all had always

been available. Just because we were

searching and searching, and we

were in such a frantic search that we

never looked within; we never

looked at the treasure that we are

already carrying, we became too

obsessed with the outside world; we

forgot the language of the inner, we

forgot that there is an interior in us

and that interiority is God.

Meditate over these beautiful

lines of D.H. Lawrence:

Are you willing to be sponged out,

Erased, cancelled, made nothing?

Are you willing to be made nothing,

Dipped into oblivion?

If not, you will never really change.

The phoenix renews her youth

Only when she is burnt, burnt alive,

Burnt down to hot and flocculent ash.

The myth, the beautiful myth of

the phoenix, the bird who becomes

alive only through death, who

renews itself by burning itself,

utterly burning itself, whose death

becomes resurrection... The myth of

the phoenix bird is the myth of all

the awakened people.

Jesus is another representation of

the same myth crucifixion and

resurrection. Bayazid says, "I am

gone, I am no more." This is death.

But out of this death something

deathless arrives, is found. But

people are cunning: they would like

to have God also. Just as they have a

good bank balance, they would like

God also to be in their fist. They

would like God to be their

possession so that they can brag

about and claim that "I know God."

But that ego will not allow them.

God cannot be possessed. God is

not a property. You cannot own

God. God is a love affair; you can

only dissolve into him. And

remember again: the dissolution is

not into some thou, the dissolution

is simply a let-go into your own

being. When you disappear into

your own being and there is no

Centre left which can say "I", you

have known what God is.

Man is like an ice cube, frozen.

God is nothing but the melting of

the ice cube. Then you lose your

solidity, you become fluid. Then you

lose your stagnancy and you become

flowing. That flow, yes, that flow is

another name for God. Life is

another name for God.

By creating the temples and the

mosques and the churches, we have

deceived people. We have given

them a wrong notion of God, as if

God is something separate from life.

It is not so. And it is because of this

mis-education that has been

perpetuated for centuries, because of

this wrong conditioning, that

whenever people think of God they

think of a statue, a temple, a holy

perpetuated for centuries,

because of this wrong conditioning,

that whenever people think of God

they think of a statue, a temple, a

holy place; they never think of

themselves.

Standing before a mirror, looking

into your own eyes reflected in the

mirror, has the idea ever arisen in

you that this is God? No, your

priests have destroyed that

possibility. And this is the real

phenomenon: to recognise God as

your own being, pulsating in you, in

the very beat of your heart.

So the first thing I would like to

say to you: God is not difficult to

find. The difficulty consists in losing

yourself. And this is the statement

not of one enlightened person, this is

the statement of all the enlightened

people of the world. They may have

been born in India, in China, in

Japan, in Israel, or any where else --

about this they all agree.

Rumi says: "In a court of justice

requiring several witnesses to prove

guilt, a prosecutor brought a few

Sufis to bear witness with regard to

a certain crime. The judge, however,

refused to accept the testimony on

the grounds that the prosecutor had

only one witness, a thousand Sufis

being the same as one."

That's a beautiful story Rumi

relates: that the judge refused to

accept because many witnesses were

needed. Many witnesses were

produced but they were all Sufis, so

the judge said, "One Sufi or many

Sufis does not make much

difference, because whatever one

Sufi says will be said by all the Sufis.

So you can bring ten thousand Sufis;

it counts only

as one. "

-Osho

The Secret, Ch 7