31 Mar These were the times when intelligence was at its peak (OSHO)
There were many philosophers in Buddha’s time. Really, there has never been such a flowering of intellect as happened at that time.
Not only in India, all over the world. Buddha was there; Mahavira was there; Prabuddha Katyayan, a great logician; Ajit Keshakambal, a great philosopher; Makkhali Goshal, a rare intellect; Sanjay Vilethiputta and many others were there in Bihar.
Now their names are not well known because they never created any following.
Exactly at the same time in Greece there was Socrates, Plato, Aristotle — the three who created the whole Western mind.
Exactly at the same time in China there was Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Mencius. It seems at that peak, all over the world, mind was at its Everest.
There are only three cultures: one is Chinese, another is Indian, and the other is Greek.
Only three cultures exist, all the others are just byproducts.
The whole West originated with the Greek mind in Athens.
The whole Chinese civilization, a totally different type of civilization, arose out of Confucius’ and Lao Tzu’s confrontation, and all that is beautiful in India came out of Buddha, Mahavira. And all these people existed at a single moment of history.
Historians say that history moves like a wheel: there are moments when intelligence is at its peak, there are moments when intelligence goes down. These were the times when intelligence was at its peak. Many were the philosophers, particularly in India; the whole country was philosophic. People moved from this corner to that corner seeking for truth — millions of seekers!
Only when there are millions of seekers, then a few can become enlightened, because it is a pyramid-like thing.
And in those days when systems were being created everywhere, and such complicated, complex systems that there has never been anything to compare with them….
Historians of philosophy and religion say that at that time India knew all that has been known in philosophy — every shade and nuance of thought, every approach.
India has looked at all the paths and possibilities, and every possibility has been finished. Now, since that time, there has been nothing new in philosophy; and if you think there is something new, it only means that you are not well acquainted with India.
There has been nothing new since Buddha, because at that time everything was searched, almost every possibility finished.
And if you think… In the West many people come to realize something and think that they are giving something new. It looks new because they are unacquainted with it, they don’t know it. And now the whole of this treasure is hidden in Pali, in Prakrit and in Sanskrit, languages not spoken, not used.
But every nuance of thought..
For example, when Sigmund Freud said for the first time that, “I suspect that the conscious mind is not the whole mind. Deep down below the conscious there is a subconscious layer. And even beyond that, I suspect an unconscious layer,” it was thought that it was a very revolutionary discovery.
But in Buddha’s time this was known; not only this – Buddha talks about still further layers. He talks about seven layers of the mind. These three are there, as Freud says – but four more… and if he is right up to the third, there is every possibility he will be right beyond them, because he is on the right track.
Then Jung suggested that beyond the unconscious there seems to be a collective unconscious – that is the fourth layer of Buddha. Now the whole of psychology has come to this fourth layer.
All four are suggested by Buddha.
But three more are there.
Sooner or later we will discover them.
No Water, No Moon
OSHO
