Your mind cannot find peace. The mind has to do something, not only when awake, but even when asleep. Watch your wife or husband sleep one day; sit silently for two or three hours and watch the face. You will see the monkey, not the human. A lot of things go on even in sleep. The mind is busy. This sleep can't be deep, it can't be really relaxing, because the work is going on. The day goes on, there is no break; the mind continues to operate in the same way. There is a constant inner chatter; You keep talking to yourself, an internal monologue, and it's no wonder you get bored. You are squeezing yourself. Everyone looks bored.
Nasreddin Hodja was telling a story to his students – there must be a day like this. Suddenly it started to rain and a passerby went under the porch where Nasreddin was talking to his students to avoid the rain. He was waiting for the rain to stop, but he couldn't help but overhear.
Nasreddin used to tell incredible stories. He was saying such nonsense that the man had a hard time not to interfere many times. But he thought and thought, “It's none of my business. I'm under this porch because of the rain, and I'll be gone as soon as the rain stops. There is no need for me to intervene,” he said. But there came a time when he couldn't stand it, couldn't help himself. "That's enough," he interjected. "Excuse me, it's none of my business but you've gone too far now!"
Let me tell the story first, the part where this man can't help himself...
Nasreddin said, “The event takes place in the forests of Africa, the Dark Continent, in my youth days. One day, just five meters away, a lion suddenly jumped up. I had no weapons, no protection, and I was alone in the forest. The lion stared and started walking towards me.”
The students were very excited. Nasreddin stopped for a moment and looked at their faces. Then a student said, “Don't make us wait, what happened?” said.
Nasreddin said, “As the lion got closer, it came closer, one meter away from me.”
“Don't wait any longer. Tell me what happened,” said another student.
“So simple, so logical that you can draw the conclusion yourself. The lion jumped, killed me and ate me!” said.
At this point, the stranger couldn't help himself. "That's enough. What are you saying? The lion killed and ate you, and are you sitting here alive?” said.
Nasreddin looked at the man, stared, and said, "Ha, ha, you call that being alive?" said.
Look at people's faces and you'll see what he means. You call that being alive? Exploding with boredom, dragging…
A man once said to Nasreddin, “I am very poor. Almost impossible, now it seems almost impossible to survive. I have six children and a wife, a widowed sister, elderly parents, a large family and relatives. It's getting harder. Can you suggest something? Should we commit suicide?" he asked.
“You can do two things,” said Nasreddin, “and both will benefit. First, start baking bread, because people have to live and they have to eat, you always have a job.”
“And the other?” asked the man.
“Start making shrouds for the dead,” said Nasreddin, “because the living people will die. This business will always go on. Those two jobs are good – the bread and the shroud for the dead.”
A month later the man came back. He looked even more hopeless, very sad and said, “It seems like nothing is helping. I put everything I had to work, as you suggested, but everything seems to be against me.”
“How can this be?” said Nasreddin.
"But you don't understand," said the man. “No one is alive in this village, and no one ever dies. All they do is drag.”
Everyone is just dragging himself, no one is alive and no one ever dies, because in order to die one must first be alive. People just drag. Look at their faces - there is no need to look at the faces of others, look in the mirror and you will see what drag means - neither alive nor dead. Life is beautiful, death is beautiful – dragging is ugly.
But why do you look so loaded? Because the mind's constant chatter destroys energy. It is a constant leak in the presence of constant chatter of the mind. Energy dissipates. You never have the energy to make you feel alive, young, alive, and if you are not young and fresh and full of life, your death will be a very boring job.
He who lives intensely dies intensely, and when death is intense, it has a beauty of its own. He who lives fully, literally dies, and where there is unity there is beauty. Death is ugly not because of death, but because you have never lived right. If you've never been alive, you don't deserve a beautiful death. It must be deserved. One has to live in such a way, so fully and completely, that he can die whole, not in parts. One piece dies, then another piece, then another piece, and your death takes years. The whole thing gets ugly. If people were alive, death would be beautiful. This inner monkey won't let you be alive, and this inner monkey won't let you die well either. This constant chattering needs to be stopped.
Osho – “The Empty Boat”
