27 Jul It’s as if inside you are dead (OSHO)
Buddha was camping outside a village called Amravan with his monks. He had come with ten thousand monks. The king of the village was told by his friends of Buddha’s arrival. They urged him to meet Buddha, so the king went to meet him.
It was evening and beginning to get dark. They had nearly reached the place where Buddha was staying with his monks, when suddenly the king drew his sword and said to his friends: “It seems you want to trick me. We are so near the place where ten thousand people are supposed to be staying, and yet there is no noise. It appears so peaceful. Are you leading me into a trap?”
His friends replied: “You are not familiar with Buddha and his followers. You have so far seen only the peace of the graveyard; now see the peace of the living. There are ten thousand people in those gardens. Please come, do not mistrust us.”
With each step he took in the dark the king was becoming more fearful – was he being led into a trap? But his friends kept saying: “Please come, please don’t worry; there really are ten thousand people there. Ten thousand people, but a silence as if no one were there!’
When he reached, he bowed his head to Buddha’s feet and exclaimed: “I am astonished, ten thousand people! There are ten thousand people sitting under the trees and there is absolute silence as if there is no one around!’
Buddha then replied: “It seems you have only known the peace of the graveyard. There is also the peace of the living.”
In one sense, people who live at the level of the body are at peace. Animals are at peace, they do not feel unrest. Some men, too, will be at peace merely by living at the body level. They will eat, put on clothes, sleep, and again eat, put on clothes, and sleep. But this kind of satisfaction is not peace; it is merely absence of awareness. You are not aware. It’s as if inside you are dead; your state is like that of a dead man.
OSHO