Osho - Your consciousness is nourished by the cosmic consciousness

Osho - A Sufi story says: A man has purchased a cow, and he was not accustomed to dealing with cows. So he was trying to drag the cow along holding the cow's horns, and the cow was very resistant -- obviously, this man was new. She wanted to go to her home, she wanted to go to her old owner.

A Sufi mystic was watching. He said to the man, "It seems you are very new; you don't know how to deal with cows. This is not the right way."
The man said, "What should I do, because I am not that strong. The cow is stronger; she is dragging me with her."

The mystic gave him some beautiful green grass, and told him, "Leave her horns. You take this grass and just move ahead of her. Keep the grass very close, but don't allow her to eat it. As she moves towards the grass, you go on moving towards your home." And it worked.

The cow came because the grass was so close and so green and so fresh. She forgot all about the owner; the immediate problem was how to get this grass. And it is so close, just hanging in front of your eyes. But the man went on moving slowly, the distance between the cow and the grass remained the same. And she entered into the house of the new owner, and he closed the door.

Religions have been hanging carrots in front of you. Those hopes are never fulfilled, they are hopeless, those promises are empty. When I destroy your hopes and your expectations and your ideas of God and your relationship with the world, naturally there is bound to be a small gap before you choose the right path. And the right path is not the existentialism of the West. The right path is the meditation that the East has been using for centuries and has worked out completely into a science. You move inwards.

God was preventing you because he was outside. Your prayer was towards the God who was not there. You are here, there is no need of any evidence that you are here. There is no need for any argument to prove that you are here. So why not explore this "hereness", this presence that you are, this consciousness that you are. Why not explore it?

Those who have explored it have never come back saying they are outsiders. They have not even said that they are insiders, because even an insider is separate. They have come out and declared, "Aham brahmasmi!" -- I am the whole, "Ana'l haq!" -- I am the truth, I am existence itself. There is no question of outsider or insider. Those are two sides of the same coin. The whole coin is dropped, suddenly you find yourself one with the cosmic dance, a tremendous rhythm in which you disappear as a separate personality, and you become one with the whole.

Every wave in the ocean for a moment thinks it is an outsider, it does not belong to the ocean. But the next moment it disappears into the ocean. You will disappear in the ocean of consciousness the same way; you are just a wave. It does not matter that you exist for seventy years. Perhaps you have become frozen and all that is needed is melting. Every day I am saying, "Melt, melt, melt like ice melting and become one with the ocean that surrounds you. You are living in the very ocean."

I have told you about a young, very revolutionary fish. She started asking every other fish, "Where is the ocean? I have been hearing so much about it."

No fish could answer. They said, "You will have to find some wise fish, some enlightened fish maybe, but we don't know where this ocean is. We have also heard about it, and we believe it must be somewhere when everybody says so. For centuries our forefathers have been saying the ocean is. So we believe in it."

Then an old mystic fish got hold of the young fish and said, "You idiot! You are in the ocean. You are the ocean! You are born of the ocean, you will disappear in the ocean and you will live in the ocean. You are just a rather more solid wave, but you will disappear in the ocean."

This is the ocean in which you are living. Around you there is, just like air, the cosmic consciousness; you can't see it, but it is continuously nourishing you. Your consciousness is nourished by the cosmic consciousness, just as your heart is beating because of the breathing. The air that you cannot see is continuously giving you oxygen, keeping your body alive.

But you are not only body. Behind the body is your hidden splendor, the consciousness. That too needs nourishment continuously. And all around you just like air...

Once you are empty, just wait a little, don't take any decision. And suddenly you will feel a new rush of energy coming into you, from inside, from outside. You will suddenly feel you are surrounded with consciousness and you are melting into it. And then comes the realization that, "I was just ignorant about myself and the existence in which I am living, which has given me birth and which is going to be my ultimate home. I have to disperse in this home."

But it always happens that there is a small period when you are very shaky.

Source - Osho Book "God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth"