Osho – Awakening is possible even in a single moment. In that single moment, one can explode into the divine. That is possible, but generally it never happens. One has to struggle for continuous lives, because the task is arduous and one cannot awaken himself. It is very much like this: if one is asleep in the morning, there is every possibility that one can dream he is awake, though he will not be awake.
A group of persons decide collectively to make some effort. Then it is more possible that sleep can be broken. So awakening is really a group work. It can happen individually, and each individual is capable of doing it alone, but it never happens so. The actual working is different, because we never work to our utmost capacity. We never work beyond a ten percent part of the mind. Ninety percent remains just potential; it is never used.
There is no difference in your dreaming whether you are asleep or awake, dreaming goes on inside. This awakening, this awareness which we all have, is only superficial. Deep inside there is a dream, and that continues.
So one can have two things: either individual work is possible or group work is needed. The whole order of sannyas was created as group work. Awakening becomes more possible if there are ten thousand people working in a group, so even if one is awakened, he can create a chain of awakenings.
Buddha created a group order, Mahavira created a group order. Their orders were really an outward phenomenon; they were sannyasins, an order of sannyasins. Inwardly they were doing a group work, and that group work continues for lives.
For example, there are still persons alive of the Buddhist group of sannyasins. And they have an inner understanding and an inner oath — a promise to the group — that whenever someone is awakened, he will do his utmost to awaken the others, particularly those belonging to the group. Why those belonging to the group? Because every school has a particular technique.
If you have worked with a particular technique in your previous lives, you can work easily in this life. So, there are many persons who belong to me since their other births, their other lives. And that group of persons is more capable in many ways. It has worked something, it has done something, up to a point; it is not just a beginning for them. Otherwise, with every new person, you have to do more unnecessary and unessential work.
For example, intellectual work is needed for beginners. Those who have worked in their past lives with a particular technique, they will not need any intellectual work now. You tell them the technique, and they will begin to do it.
There will be no intellectual work, they will not ask superficial questions. That curiosity will not be there, and that curiosity takes much time and much energy. So one can work with beginners if one has so many lives ahead. But if one has no life ahead, he cannot work on beginners. He has to confine his work to the old ones who are somehow on the bank. They do not need any intellectual philosophy; they have no superficial inquiries. They will just go deep, directly.
The old requirement, the requirement that one should have faith, is really a trick. It is just to distinguish between the old ones and the new ones. With the new ones, faith is impossible; only doubt is possible. Only with the old ones is faith possible, and doubt is impossible.
So faith is just a technique, a trick, to choose between them and to know on whom more work can be done in less time. It is not that those who can have faith are in any way different than those who have doubts. It is only that those who have faith have worked somewhere, so intellectual curiosity is not there; it has been fulfilled. They have passed; they are not just entering the school, they have passed the entrance. So to ask for faith is to ask, “Have you worked in your past lives?” If you have worked, only then can you have faith; otherwise you cannot. And in today’s world doubt seems much more prominent, easier. Faith is very difficult. The reason is not that the human mind has been changed, the reason is only this: that the old traditions are running narrow.
Really, since Nanak there have been no new traditions. Now all the religions are old. They have been going on, the river is narrowing every day. With every new day, the tradition has fewer persons with it. Since Buddha there are now twenty-five centuries — the tradition is so old that almost all who were connected with the living master are liberated! And all those persons who have remained are really very third rate. They have had twenty-five centuries of continuous work.
All the traditions and their continuity are, in a way, so old now. That is why faith is less. There were so many living traditions and so many persons who have worked in their past lives. Faith was the root for each one, doubt was very difficult.
If you ask me, I am doing many things. One is working for those who have been in any way connected with me — and there are many. Another is to create a new continuity which we will be living in the coming days, because no old thinking is of use now.
And I would not like to change someone from his own continuity, because if we cannot liberate a man in a long tradition of twenty-five centuries, it is useless to change him now. It is better to let him go deep in his own tradition. It is better not to change him, but make his own tradition a living one. He can go deep in it. He will be another continuity with the old.
But previously, I was working for the new ones, so my emphasis was on doubt. I will always be concerned with doubt, because only through doubt can you attract the new one, never through faith. Faith attracts the old one. He has been doing something in his past lives. My emphasis has been on doubt only because I should work for a new tradition which will be living.
Now my emphasis will be on faith, and there is no contradiction. This is only changing the entrance and nothing else. When I was emphasizing doubt, no one came. Now I will emphasize faith. So I will work for those with whom I was connected in past lives.
So there will be no difficulty, because we never go deep in anything. We cannot go deep. There are levels. When I say doubt, when I say faith, this is inconsistent. Only the labeling may be different, only different words will come now. Whatsoever I was doing will continue. Now my emphasis will be for those who have worked for something. That is why this order of sannyas — because with doubt it cannot be created. Whenever there is doubt, one can be alone and can never work in a group. With a technique of doubt you can never work in a group, never. Doubts make you an island. But when you become a continent, then you are joined with others. Then there is no separation, and you can work in the group.
As far as man is concerned he is so weak that we cannot rely upon him individually. He cannot do anything, he can only deceive himself. So, if we are going to work on individuals we have to create mechanical helps. For example, you are asleep, and no one is there to awaken you. You will have to use an alarm clock, that is the mechanical device to help you. But no mechanical device will be very helpful for long because you will become used to it, and soon you will not be disturbed in your sleep by your alarm clock. Rather, sleep can be even more sound — and the working of the mind is such that you will change the alarm into a symbol in a dream, and it will be interpreted in a different way. Then it will not become a discontinuity in sleep. You will create a dream in such a way that the alarm becomes just a part of it, so that it is not against your sleep but a part of your dream.
I have tried with many persons individually. I have given mechanical devices also, but they have become accustomed to them and then a new fallacy arises. That is the greatest fallacy in spirituality: one can dream he is awake. That is the most fatal disease, the most dangerous: we can continue our sleep and we can dream we are awake. Then there is no need for devices, and you are in your dreams alone.
So my emphasis from now on will be on group work. So even if one is awakened just for a single moment, he can create shocks for others. He can shake you. And this order of sannyas will be just a group with inner faith.
When you feel, even for a single second, awareness coming to you, help others. And they will help you when the need is there.
Source – Osho Book “I Am the Gate”