love something that is always changing

[Guest guest]

Is love something that is always changing, coming and going, taking on different

flavors and colors, or is love simply everything that is and every moment that

is?

 

Love that comes and goes is only a reflection of the real love. A full moon

reflected in the lake looks exactly like the moon, but the reflection can be

disturbed very easily by a small wind. It shatters into thousands of pieces of

silver all over the lake, and as the lake settles back, it again appears as the

moon.

 

But the real moon in the sky is not disturbed by winds, by seasons, by anything.

It is even there in the day, although you cannot see it because the sunlight is

too bright.

 

Love is in the exact same situation. Real love is just to be love; it is not a

relationship, it is your state of being. It has nothing to do with anybody, you

are simply full of love. Many can share it; those who are thirsty can quench

their thirst.

 

This state of being love is the ultimate peak of consciousness, called the

awakened state or the enlightened state, the state of a Gautam Buddha. He does

not love -- he is love. He is doing nothing on his part -- just his presence

radiates love. This love is not addressed to anyone in particular, just as the

sun rays are not addressed to any particular flower, any particular tree. It

reaches all those who are available to receive it.

 

Love as a state of being is only an availability. You can take as much as you

can contain; it is abundant, overflowing. A man in this state, even if he is

sitting alone, goes on radiating love. This love is reflected in many kinds of

love, but those are only reflections.

 

"The love between man and woman -- active, sensual, and playful; the love

between master and disciple -- passive, cool and silent"; the love between

friends: it can have many manifestations, but they are always changing. They

have to change, because they are only reflections, shadows, and in their wake

they bring much misery.

 

When the moon is reflected in the lake, there is joy, there is beauty; and when

it is shattered by the wind, or just by a small pebble thrown into the lake, it

is all gone -- shattered. And you know in your experience that your love

relationships with friends, with husbands, with wives, with masters, are all

very fragile. Any small thing and the whole love disappears. Not only does it

disappear, it changes into its opposite. Friends become enemies; husband and

wife need not become enemies because they are already enemies; disciples betray

their masters. There are always Judases who can sell their masters.

 

We are acquainted with all these loves; they are all conditional. Even the love

of parents for their children is conditional: if you obey them, if you are not a

rebel, if you are going to become what they want you to become, you will be

loved; but if you go on your own way -- parents even abandon their children,

disinherit their children.

 

But these reflections indicate that there must be a reality which is reflected.

Without something real, there cannot be any reflections.

 

In the enlightened man, love becomes his very nature, his very breath, his very

heartbeat. Wherever he is, he goes on showering his love. It is unconditional --

it does not ask anything from you, hence it cannot be disturbed. And unless you

know this love, you have only been dreaming about love. All those reflections

are nothing but dreams, and they bring great misery, anxiety, anguish. In

between they give you a few moments of joy -- those moments are nothing but

consolations.

 

Authentic love is a tremendous contentment in yourself; it is a settling of your

energies at the center of your being. This centeredness brings an alchemical

change to your energies. Then wherever you are -- with the trees, with the

ocean, with the mountains, with the stars, with people, with animals, with birds

-- you cannot do anything, love simply radiates from you. It is your very life.

You cannot prevent it. Preventing it will be committing suicide.

>From your so-called love affairs, learn only one thing: that there must be

something authentic and real and eternal which is reflected in the mirrors of

your relationships. Unless you know that love, you will suffer much, and you

will gain nothing. And it can be known because it is your intrinsic capacity;

you are born with the seed. You just have to take a little care with it, and it

will start growing. Soon you will be full of flowers -- the spring has come. And

once it comes, it never goes. To the very last moment it remains there. A very

beautiful story is told about Gautam Buddha. He informed his disciples that on a

particular day, the coming full moon night, he was going to die. As the full

moon disappeared, he would also disappear.

 

It is a rare coincidence that Gautam Buddha was born on a full moon night, he

became enlightened on a full moon night, and he died on a full moon night.

Thousands of his disciples rushed from all over the place just to see him for

the last time. There was great sadness, but people were holding back their

tears, not to make his departure difficult. And Buddha asked, "If you have any

questions -- because tomorrow I will not be here -- if in your heart there is

some question still which you have not exposed, just ask me. Before I leave I

want all my disciples to be completely alert, without any questions. I want my

disciples to become answers, not questions."

 

Nobody said anything. Only Ananda said, "You have answered us for forty-two

years continually, day in, day out -- we don't have any questions. We have come

just to be near you when you dissolve into the universal consciousness. "We have

heard from the ancient days, that whenever an enlightened man dies, as he leaves

his body, his consciousness spreads all over the universe. We want to be close

to you just to have a taste of your consciousness." And at that moment Buddha

said, "Okay, then I say good-bye to you. I will die in four steps. First I will

leave my body; then I will leave my mind; then I will leave my heart; and in the

fourth, the turiya, I will dissolve into the ocean of existence."

 

He closed his eyes, and just that very moment a man came running and he said, "I

have to ask something. For thirty years I have been postponing it. Buddha has

been coming to my town many times in these thirty years, and I have always

thought that this time I am going to see him and ask my question. But something

or other... and I went on postponing. Just human stupidity -- a guest has come,

I was engaged with customers, there was a marriage ceremony I had to participate

in. So I went on postponing, thinking that there is no hurry, that when he comes

next time, then I will ask. But sometimes my wife was sick, sometimes I was

sick... and these thirty years have passed. Just now I heard that Buddha is

dying. Now I cannot postpone. No reason can prevent me."

 

But Ananda said, "You have come a little late. He has begun his inner journey;

he has already moved two steps: we can see his body has become utterly silent,

and as far as dropping the mind... it is just an empty mind, he must have

dropped it. It may take a little while for him to drop the heart, because it was

the heart that he was using continuously to radiate his love, his joy, his

silence. It is not right to disturb him at this moment. Forty-two years he has

been speaking; now it is your fault if in thirty years you could not find the

time -- it is your question."

 

But Buddha returned. His breathing, which had disappeared, came back again, his

heart started beating again. He opened his eyes and he said, "Ananda, do you

want it to be remembered by the coming generations that Buddha's love was so

small that he could not come two steps back when a thirsty man had come? And I

am still alive -- I would be blamed forever. Don't prevent him, let him ask his

question."

 

The man was seeing Buddha for the first time, and in a very strange situation:

thousands of people were sitting silently, their eyes full of tears. And Buddha

was almost half dead: he had taken two steps inwards; just two steps more and he

would become part of the oceanic consciousness. But a man who is love even in

such a situation will radiate love. Ananda and all the disciples could not

believe that for an ordinary man, who is not even a disciple, who has postponed

for thirty years.... But Buddha's love and his compassion are infinite -- he

asked the man... but the man was so overwhelmed by the situation, he forgot his

question.

 

He said, "I am fulfilled enough. Just your love has answered all my questions.

You were half-dead and still you came back just to answer an ordinary man who

has been avoiding you for thirty years, always finding different excuses." He

touched Buddha's feet and he said, "Let me be your last disciple; initiate me. I

had come to ask a question, but now there is no question -- before your love,

all questions disappear. And I don't want to miss this opportunity to be

initiated by you."

 

Buddha initiated the man. And he asked again, "Is there anyone still holding

some question? Because it will be very difficult for me... if I pass the third

stage, if I have left the heart and moved into pure consciousness, the fourth

state, it will be difficult for me -- even if I want to return. So please, if

you have any questions, don't feel shy -- ask them."

 

They said, "We are already feeling very sad and sorry because this man

unnecessarily disturbed you. This is not a moment to disturb you, this is a

moment to be silent -- so silent that when you dissolve your consciousness,

something of it becomes part of us, too." He said good-bye again and entered

into the fourth state.

 

The story is very symbolic.... Up to this point it is absolutely historical. But

in the East it is a tradition that what cannot be said in ordinary ways, can be

related in parables, in stories. The story is: As Buddha died, the trees that

were dying, the trees whose leaves had become pale, suddenly became green; out

of season, bushes and plants and trees burst into flower. There was a tremendous

impact from his death -- people who had been with him for decades and had not

become enlightened, became enlightened in that moment.

 

Just as he dropped the body and his consciousness became unimprisoned, it spread

all over. Whoever was receptive, according to his receptivity, he was fulfilled.

Even the trees were not unaware. When he was dying the birds were silent, and

when he died they started singing their songs of joy.

 

Whenever an enlightened man dies, the whole world feels a rain of love, of

consciousness, of blissfulness, of peace.

 

So don't waste your time just in reflections. Those reflections are good as

fingers pointing to the real moon. Use those reflections to find the real which

is reflected, and you will reach home from this strange land of insane people.

 

Osho: The Rebellious Spirit, Session 26, Question 1