THE ZODIAC

Zodiac, imaginary belt in the celestial sphere, extending about 8° on either side of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun among the stars. The width of the zodiac was determined originally so as to include the orbits of the Sun and Moon and of the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) that were known to the people of ancient times. The zodiac is divided into 12 sections of 30° each, which are called the signs of the zodiac. Starting with the vernal equinox and then proceeding eastward along the ecliptic, each of the divisions is named for the constellation situated within its limits in the 2nd century bc. The names of the zodiacal signs are Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricorn, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water Bearer; and Pisces, the Fishes. Because of the precession of the equinoxes about the ecliptic, a 26,000-year cycle, the first point of Aries retrogrades about 1° in 70 years, so that the sign Aries today lies in the constellation Pisces. In about 24,000 years, when the retrogression will have completed the entire circuit of 360°, the zodiacal signs and constellations will again coincide. See Astronomy.

It is believed that the zodiacal signs originated in Mesopotamia as early as 2000 bc. The Greeks adopted the symbols from the Babylonians and passed them on to the other ancient civilizations. The Egyptians assigned other names and symbols to the zodiacal divisions. The Chinese also adopted the 12-fold division, but called the signs rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, hen, dog, and pig. Independently, the Aztec people devised a similar system.

Rat Shu 1900 1912 1924 1936 1948 1960 1972 1984 1996 2008

Ox Niu 1901 1913 1925 1937 1949 1961 1973 1985 1997 2009

Tiger Hu 1902 1914 1926 1938 1950 1962 1974 1986 1998 2010

Hare T'u 1903 1915 1927 1939 1951 1963 1975 1987 1999 2011

Dragon Lung 1904 1916 1928 1940 1952 1964 1976 1988 2000 2012

Snake She 1905 1917 1929 1941 1953 1965 1977 1989 2001 2013

Horse Ma 1906 1918 1930 1942 1954 1966 1978 1990 2002 2014

Sheep Yang 1907 1919 1931 1943 1955 1967 1979 1991 2003 2015

Monkey Hou 1908 1920 1932 1944 1956 1968 1980 1992 2004 2016

Rooster Chi 1909 1921 1933 1945 1957 1969 1981 1993 2005 2017

Dog Kou 1910 1922 1934 1946 1958 1970 1982 1994 2006 2018

Pig Chu 1911 1923 1935 1947 1959 1971 1983 1995 2007 2019

Buddha’s deny to Nirvana – A parable

This is a short story about Buddha that when he reached the gate of Nirvana, the gates were thrown open. Rarely does it happen – millions of years pass before a person comes to the gate. For millions of years the gatekeeper was just waiting and waiting for somebody to come. Rust must have gathered on the gate, it had not been opened for so long, for so many million years. The gatekeeper was happy, he opened the door. But Buddha didn’t enter the gate. The gatekeeper asked, “Why are you standing outside? Come in, you are welcome. You have earned it.” Buddha said, “I cannot enter. I have taken a vow: unless all living beings enter into the nirvana before me, I cannot enter. I will be the last. So I will have to wait – you can close the door. And I will have to wait infinitely, because millions and millions of beings are suffering and groping in the dark, trying to come. When they all have passed, when I see that now nobody is left behind, then only will I enter.”

This is just a parable but of immense significance. The meaning is: when you start meditating, don’t become too self conscious. Help, be compassionate. Help others to meditate. And whatsoever you gain out of meditation, shower it on others. Share it – in sharing it will grow.

Whenever you meditate and you come upon beautiful spaces, immediately pray to existence. “Let my joy be showered over every being – conscious, unconscious. I don’t want any personal claim over it.” When you attain to satoris, share. Don’t hold then, don’t become possessive. If you become possessive you will kill them.

There are things which are immediately killed, the moment you possess them. In your experience there is only one thing that is immediately killed if you possess it – that is love. Similarly when you attain to the silent space, a meditative experience inside, don’t possess it! This is the vow. Don’t say, “This is mine.” Don’t become egoistic about it, don’t start bragging. Don’t start walking in a special way, don’t start looking at people, thinking, “These poor people, they have not attained yet.” Don’t start pretending that you are a Buddha.

If you have attained Satori, become more humble, feel more grateful. And share it and shower it on others. Don’t hold it - it is not a treasure to guard, it is a treasure to be shared. And the more you share, the more will be coming to you. The more you hoard it, you will be surprised one day, to find your fists are empty.

- Osho

People often ask: Is there life after death? Osho counter-question: Is there life before death?

People often ponder over this question that “Is there life after death?” Osho does not give an answer. He counter-questions: Is there life before death? And even if we know what lies beyond death, will we gain anything?

In his discourse on ‘From misery to Enlightenment’, Osho tells a beautiful story. In a restaurant in paradise, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tzu are in discussion. An apsara come dancing, wine flask in her hands. She says, “You are talking about life. Listening to you, I wondered. Life is available here in this restaurant; that is our special recipe. We make life, the juice called life. I have brought it in this flask. There is no need to discuss it. Why don’t you drink and taste it?”

Buddha immediately closed his eyes, and said, “Birth is pain, death is pain, and between two pains there is no possibility of life being bliss. I don’t even want to see it.” Jesus said, “Life is born in sin, and you are trying to tempt us? You must belong to the devil. Get out of my sight!” Confucius was more human. He said, “I cannot be like these two guys; they are against life. I am a pragmatist. I cannot say anything without tasting. Give me a little of this juice you call life.” He tasted it and said, “No, this is bitter. Those two are right.” Lao Tzu said, “Unless you drink the whole of it you cannot pass ant judgement, because there are things that are bitter in the beginning and sweet in the end. Moreover, one has to learn tasting too. Just taking one sip, with no flask, drank up the contents, thanked the apsara and told his great friends, “It is tremendously beautiful and delicious, but one really has to experience it in its totality. Less than that won’t do.”

This is the approach of the pagan. Lao Tzu is a pagan. That’s why in his writings you will not find God mentioned, or heaven and hell talked about. He is concerned solely with the here and now. He lived that way.

Another time, Confucius asked Lao Tzu: “People ask me about death but I don’t know anything about it. You are older and wiser. You love to move into dangerous spaces of consciousness. Do you have some idea?” And Lao Tzu said, “Without dying, there is no way to know death. The only way to know it is to experience it. Finding out about it beforehand is silly. Right now, try to live; otherwise you will miss this too!”

- Swami Chaitanya Keerti

Message of Buddha – Freedom

The message of Buddha can be condensed into one word – Freedom. It is absolute and unconditional. Buddha does not mean freedom only from outer bondage but from inner too; Freedom not only from others but from oneself too. Other religions also talk about freedom, but not in that penetrating sense in which Buddha talks about it. Other religions talk about freedom in the sense that the self has to be free. Buddha talks in a diametrically opposite sense, with a new dimension to it. He says: One has to be free from the self itself.

The self is bondage. You are not in bondage because of others; you are in bondage because of yourself. Unless you disappear, bondage will continue. It may change forms, it may become modified here and there, it may become more convenient, comfortable, but it will remain. The moment you disappear, the moment you see yourself as an absolute emptiness, at that time freedom is total. Freedom from self is real freedom.

These sutras are of immense value. Remember, when Buddha talks about freedom he does not mean the ordinary freedom talked about by the politicians, by the priests, and others. The social and the political freedom are: you are completely free as long as you think, act, dress, earn, speak and buy like everybody else.

You can’t be free unless absolutely whatsoever happens spontaneously in you is allowed and accepted. Man has been programmed, you have been given blueprints – what to be, how to be, what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. And those programs have been put so deep down in your being that you have become unconscious of them. It appears as if you are acting out of freedom; you have been tremendously deceived.

Even when you think you are acting out of freedom, even when you think you are acting out of your own conscience, you are not. The society is controlling you in a very subtle way. The moment the child is born, the society starts programming the child. The society treats you like a computer; it goes on feeding and programming you. By the time you become a little alert, you are already programmed – you are already a Christian or a Hindu or a Jain. You are already fixed; you are no more liquid, you are no more flowing. And you will function out of this fixity, out of this obsession, that the society has put inside you.

Freedom is the dignity Buddha brings to humanity; this is the grandeur that he introduces you to again. This is your inheritance, natural inheritance. So live with it forever.

- Osho

Three layers of Existence

There are three layers in our existence. One is thinking; deeper than that is feeling; deeper than that is being. Thinking is the most superficial; being, the most profound. And
Between the two is feeling.

There are religions which are thinking-oriented- they create theologies. They create great philosophies, they invent proofs for God – as if God needs proofs, as if God can be proved or disproved.

Then there are religions of the heart, religions of feeling, which don’t create theologies, they create devotion. They are far better then the first – their prayers are true, because they are full of tears. Their expressions are more authentic, because they are less verbal. They dance, they sing, they cry, they weep – they live through feeling, through the heart.

But Buddha goes even deeper. He says: the head is superficial, the heart is a little deeper but not deep enough. Thinking is in words, thoughts, syllogisms. Feeling is emotions, sentiments. But both are disturbances. When your mind is full of thoughts you are distracted, disturbed, pulled apart. And when your mind is not full of thoughts but your heart is throbbing with great feeling; then too you are excited. Then too, you are feverish. Love is a fever – even love for God creates great passion, stirs you, does not calm you down.

Buddha says: Thoughts distract, feelings distract. Come to the deepest core of your being, where thoughts as well as feelings disappear. Then what is left? Simple being. That is tathata, suchness. One simply is – nothing is stirred; no thought, no feeling, just pure existence. That pure existence has no fever in it, no passion, no movement – it is not going anywhere, it is not doing anything. In that moment, time disappears. One transcends time; it is a transcendental moment. In that moment, one comes to know reality as it is.

When you think, you can’t see reality as it is, because your thinking becomes a barrier. Your thinking colors reality. When you feel, then too you cannot see reality as it is, because your eyes are full of tears and your heart is full of emotions. When thinking and feeling both disappear, only then there is contact with truth. And then you attain to that freedom, fluidity, flexibility, spontaneity. Then you don’t live out of your past and you don’t live out of your future. Then you are not programmed; you are not a robot. Then you live moment to moment – as life reveals itself, you live it. Your response is always total, it is never a reaction.

- Osho