The Empty Boat: Encounters with Nothingness (OSHO Classics) by Osho

Author:Osho [Osho]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780880502122
Publisher: Osho Media International
Published: 2011-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

When an archer is shooting for fun he has all his skill. When you are playing, you are not trying to prove that you are somebody. You are at ease, at home. While playing, just for fun, you are not worried what others think about you.

Have you seen a father in a mock fight with his child? He will be defeated. He will lie down and the child will sit on his chest and laugh, and say, “I am the winner!” – and the father will be happy. It is just fun. In fun you can be defeated and be happy. Fun isn’t serious, it is not related to the ego. Ego is always serious.

So remember, if you are serious, you will always be in turmoil, inner turmoil. A saint is always in play, as if shooting for fun. He is not interested in shooting at a particular target, he is just enjoying himself.

One German philosopher, Eugene Herrigel, went to Japan to learn meditation. In Japan they use all types of excuses to teach meditation, including archery. Herrigel was a perfect archer, one hundred percent. He would never miss the target. So he went to a master to learn meditation through archery, because he was already skilled in it.

After three years Herrigel started feeling that it was a waste of time, because the master went on insisting that he should not shoot. He told Herrigel, “Let the arrow leave by itself. You should not be there when you aim, let the arrow aim itself.”

This was absurd. For a Western man particularly, it was absolutely absurd: “What do you mean, let the arrow shoot by itself? How can the arrow shoot by itself? I have to do something.” And he continued. And he would never miss the target.

But the master said, “The target is not the target at all. You are the target. I am not looking at whether you are hitting the target or not. That is a mechanical skill. I am looking at you, to see whether you are there or not. Shoot for fun! Enjoy it, don’t try to prove that you never miss the target. Don’t try to prove the ego. It is already there, you are there, there is no need to prove it. Be at ease and allow the arrow to shoot itself.”

Herrigel could not understand. He tried and tried and said again and again, “If my aim is a hundred percent correct, why don’t you give me the certificate?”

The Western mind is always interested in the end result and the East is always interested in the beginning, not in the end – in the archer, not in the target. The end is useless. So the master would say, “No!”

Then, completely disappointed, Herrigel asked to leave. He said, “Then I will have to go. Three years is too much and nothing has been gained and you go on saying no, and you go on saying that I am still the same.”

The day he was to leave, he had just gone to say goodbye.

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