21 Nov ‘Master, there is only one thing wrong with you: you think too much. You come with me.’
One day Zorba says to his master—which is Kazantzakis himself—‘Master, there is only one thing wrong with you: you think too much. You come with me.’ It was a full-moon night. Kazantzakis tried—‘No, no. What are you doing?’ But Zorba pulled him out to the beach and he started dancing, playing his instrument. And he told Kazantzakis, ‘Try. Jump! If you cannot dance, do SOMETHING.’ And with Zorba’s energy and his vibe, Kazantzakis also started dancing. For the first time in his life he felt that he was alive.
Zorba is the unlived part of every so-called religious person.
And why was the church so much against it when ZORBA was published? It was just a novel; there was nothing for the church to be worried about. But it was so clear that it is the unlived Christian in every Christian, this book could be a dangerous book. And it is a dangerous book.
But Zorba is tremendously beautiful. Kazantzakis sends him to purchase some things from the city, and he forgets all. He drinks and goes to the prostitutes and enjoys, and once in a while he remembers that it seems many days have passed but still, the money is with him. Unless all the money is finished, how can he return? The master will be very angry, but nothing can be done about it—it is his problem.
And after three weeks he comes back—and he had gone only for three days—and he does not bring anything that he was sent for. And he comes with all the stories—‘What a great journey it was, you should have been there. I met such beautiful bubalinas… and such good wine.’
And the master said, ‘But what about the things? For three weeks I have been sitting here boiling.’
He said, ‘When there are so many beautiful things available, who bothers about such small things? You can cut my salary every week, by and by, slowly, and take your money back. I am sorry I could not come earlier. And you should be happy that I have come—because the money was finished I had to come. But next time when I go, I will bring all the things.’
Zorba’s whole life is a life of simple, physical enjoyment, but without any anxiety, without any guilt, without any botheration about sin and virtue and…
I would like this man Zorba to be alive in everybody, because it is your natural inheritance.
But you should not stop at Zorba. Zorba is only the beginning. Sooner or later, if you allow your Zorba full expression, you are bound to think of something better, higher, greater. It will not come out of thinking; it will come out of your experiences—because those small experiences will become boring.
Buddha himself had come to be Buddha because he had lived the life of a zorba.
It was out of the zorba that the search, for Buddha, started.
Not everybody becomes a buddha; and the basic reason is that the zorba remains unlived. Do you see my argument? My argument is: live Zorba fully, and you will naturally enter into the life of a buddha.
Enjoy your body, enjoy your physical existence. There is no sin in it. Hidden behind it is your spiritual growing, is your spiritual blissfulness. When you are tired of physical pleasures, only then will you ask, ‘Is there something more?’ And this question cannot be only intellectual, it has to be existential: ‘Is there something more?’ And when the question is existential, you will find within yourself something more.
There is something much more. Zorba is only the beginning.
There is no fight between Zorba and Buddha. Zorba is the arrow—if you follow it rightly, you will reach the Buddha.
Zorba the Buddha
Osho
