Osho – Heraclitus loves the symbol of the river, Buddha loves the symbol of the flame. That symbol of the flame is even more subtle. The flame appears to be the same but it is not. Every moment it is disappearing; the old is going and the new is coming. Buddha says that in the evening you light a candle, and in the morning you blow it out — but never think that it is the same candle. It cannot be. The whole night it burnt and burnt and burnt. The whole night the flame disappeared and disappeared and disappeared, and a new flame was constantly being supplied. But the difference between the two flames — the old going out and the new coming in, the gap — is so subtle that you cannot see it.
Buddha says, “The self that is born will not die — it has died already. The man you were born as and the man you will be when you die are not the same.” Buddha says, “It is the same continuum, but not the same thing.” The flame in the evening and the flame in the morning constitute the same continuum, the same series of flames, but not the same self. The Ganges looks the same; it is not the same. And everything is changing…
The nature of the reality is change.
Permanence is illusion.
And this is a deeper insight than the Hindus’. This is the deepest ever attained… because the mind would like to have a permanent home, to have a permanent standing ground, to have permanent roots. Permanence is false; it appears because of the sameness of things. Your face remains the same in the evening and the morning, so we think you are the same person. You were here yesterday, the day before yesterday; your face appears to be the same, but are you the same?
When you came to see me this morning you were different, you have already changed. And when you leave you will not be the same person — because you listened to me and something else has entered into you. Your self has already changed. New rivers falling into the Ganges, new rivulets, new streams. I have fallen into you. How can you be the same again? You will never be the same. There is no way. Every moment millions of streams are falling into your consciousness. You pass by the road and a flower smiles — the flower is changing you. And a cold breeze comes and gives you a cool bath — the breeze is changing you. And then the sun rises, and you feel a warmth — the sun is changing you. Every moment, everything is changing. And there is no permanent thing.
What will happen if you can understand this? If you can understand this, this becomes the greatest situation to drop the ego. When everything is changing, why cling? And even by your clinging you cannot make change stop. You cannot stop the river. It flows! Stopping is not possible. And because we like to stop things, to make them permanent, we create a hell around us. Nothing can be stopped. I love you this morning — who knows what will happen tomorrow morning? But you would like to stop the love: as it is this morning, tomorrow also. If you cling and stop, you are dead. Tomorrow morning nobody knows — the unknown, the unexpected.
You can only expect if things are permanent. If nothing is permanent expectation drops. When there is no expectation because things are moving and moving and moving, how can you be frustrated? If you expect, there is frustration. If you don’t expect, there is no frustration. You expect because you think that things are permanent. Nothing is permanent.
Source – Osho Book “The Hidden Harmony”