Our future evolution would be of consciousness and not body, says OSHO.
Animals appear happy. They are blissfully unaware. There is no anxiety. They drift. Humans become anxious, and the greater a man, the more anxiety will be there. Religious anguish arises the moment you become aware that something is possible. But when you are unaware, nothing happens. You feel impotent.
That was the Buddha’s condition before he became a Buddha. He was on the verge of committing suicide. You will have to pass through that. And you cannot leave it to nature; you have to do something about it — and you can do something. And the goal is not very far.
So don’t be depressed if you feel anxiety. It shows you are becoming more and more aware of that which is possible, and now you will never be at ease unless it becomes actual.
We cannot leave it to nature because we have become conscious. Only a minor part of a seeker is conscious, but that changes everything. And unless your total being becomes conscious, you cannot know simple happiness. To know it, become more alert, aware, and more conscious. You cannot regress. You can either remain where you are and suffer, or you have to go forward and go beyond suffering.
Total unconsciousness is blissful, total consciousness is blissful — and you are in between. A part of you has become conscious, and the major part of you is still unconscious. You are divided. You have become two, you are not one. The integration is lost. Animals are integrated and saints are integrated. So there are two ways. One is just to deceive yourself — that is to become totally unconscious again.
You can take intoxicants…you drug the part that has become conscious; you become totally unconscious. But this is a temporary deception. The part which you have forcibly suppressed with alcohol or drugs or something else will arise again, and then you will feel more suffering, because then you can compare.
Getting High
There are religious methods. You can chant a mantra and create an intoxicating effect. You can do many things which can make you unconscious again, but that is going to be temporary….
Remember one thing: totality is bliss. If you are unconscious totally, then too, it is bliss, but you are not aware of it. Animals are happy but they are not aware of their happiness. So it is futile. It is just like when you are asleep you are happy, and whenever you are awake, you are unhappy. Totality is bliss.
You can be total in consciousness also.
Then there will be bliss and you will be perfectly aware of it. This is possible through sadhana, through practising techniques which increase your consciousness. You are not enlightened because you have not done anything for it, but you have become aware that you are not enlightened.
No More Physical Growth
We have skeletons that are millions of years old, but there is no visible change.... So for millions of years there has been no growth in the body, it has remained the same. Even the brain has not grown. In a sense, man is now responsible for his own growth. And the growth is not going to be physical, but spiritual.
The skeleton of a Buddha and your skeleton are not basically different, but you and Buddha are absolutely different. Evolution is working horizontally; methods, techniques, religions, they work vertically. Your body has stopped: it has come to an omega point. Now, wherever you are, you have to take a jump vertically. That vertical evolution will be of consciousness, not of body. And you are responsible for it.
The Book of Secrets, courtesy Osho International Foundation.