THE FIRST PRINCIPLE: Talks on Zen

When a life is not a life of doing, but happening, then there is rest.

“what is the first principle, master?” And the master said: “If I were to tell you, it would become the second principle.” The real, the true cannot be conveyed through words. It cannot be asked or it cannot be answered. That which can be asked and that which can be answered will be the second principle. “God is the first cause, the uncaused cause, the most fundamental, the substantial, the substratum.” Zen people call it the first principle. This book is the transcribed version of Osho’s talks on Zen. 

“Zen”, according to Osho “is a crossbreeding of Taoism and Buddhism and it contains all that was beautiful in these two cultures.” Zen says the world is God, the creation is the creator and the very creativity is divine. The insistence of Zen is that doing is not important at all and what is important is being. The Zen people say this samsara, this world, is the other world too. The first principle is that samsara is nirvana i.e the way is the goal.

A man came to a Zen master and asked, “Sir, where should I go to find the truth?” And the Zen master said, “You just keep looking in front of your nose and go on, and you will find it.” The Zen master’s approach is that “Seek, and you will not find. Drop seeking and find it here-now!” Zen says, “Truth is not hidden, from the very beginning, so you are not to uncover truth, you are only to uncover your eyes.”

Zen’s vision of life and reality is unique; it is a quality that one has to attain to. “A Zen master, on a cold night, burned a Buddha statue, a wooden statue, because he was feeling cold and in the morning he was worshipping again.” According to Osho this playfulness, this non-seriousness, is of tremendous value . He asks whether a Christian, a Hindu or a Mohammedan can do such an act.

In one of the chapters of this book Osho explains the famous koan : “If a man puts a gosling into a bottle and feeds him until he is full grown, how can the man get the goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?” A koan is made in such a way that it cannot be solved.

Osho says that truth is found only when there is no “I” i.e. only when there is nobody to find it or nobody to seek it. He also explains that the “I” has seven layers; the first layer consists of memory, the past, the second layer consists of unawareness, the third layer consists of ambition, comparison with the others the fourth layer consists of future, the fifth layer consists of conditioning, the sixth layer consists of arrogance, of non-humbleness and the last layer of “I” consists of imitations. These seven layers are the “bottle”, the ego. When those seven layers of ego disappear one becomes a flame of awareness. Osho says; “If these seven layers are dropped, you will simply become aware of who you are. You are God, as everybody else is God.”

Some of Osho’s observations:

There are no bad habits and no good habits, because all habits are bad. 

To look at the mistake of the other is a way of avoiding your own mistake.

If you try the impossible you cannot enjoy the possible, and in trying the impossible you miss the possible too.

Time is not valuable, because eternity is available. There is no end to time and there is no beginning to time. So don’t be worried about it.