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The First Principle

Talks on Zen
Copyright Osho International Foundation.
Translation manuscript only not for distribution in any form.
English Series of Talks 10 Chapters
Chapter #1 Catching the First Principle
Once a tyro asked a Zen master, Master, what is the first principle? Without hesitation the master
replied, If I were to tell you, it would become the second principle.
Yes. The first principle cannot be said. The most important thing cannot be said, and that which can
be said will not be the first principle. The moment truth is uttered it becomes a lie; the very utterance
is a falsification. So the Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran, they contain the second principle, not the
first principle. They contain lies, not the truth, because the truth cannot be contained by any word
whatsoever. The truth can only be experienced the truth can be lived but there is no way to say it.
The word is a far, faraway echo of the real experience; and it is so far away from the real that it is
even worse than the unreal because it can give you a false confidence. It can give you a false
promise. You can believe it, and that is the problem. If you start believing in some dogma, you will
go on missing the truth. Truth has to be known by experience. No belief can help you on the way; all
beliefs are barriers. All religions are against religion it has to be so by the very nature of things. All
churches are against God. Churches exist because they fulfill a certain need. The need is: man does
not want to make any efforts; he wants easy shortcuts. Belief is an easy shortcut.
The way to truth is hard; it is an uphill task. One has to go through total death one has to destroy
oneself utterly-only then is the new born. The resurrection is only after the crucifixion.
To avoid the crucifixion we have created beliefs. Beliefs are very cheap. You can believe and you
remain the same. You can go on believing, and it doesnt require any basic change in your life
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It does not require any change in your consciousness, and unless your consciousness changes, the
belief is just a toy. You can play with it, you can deceive yourself with it, but it is not going to
nourish you.
Visualize that a child is playing in the garden of his house, playing with imaginary lions, and then
suddenly he has to face a real lion who has escaped from the zoo. Now he does not know what to do.
He is simply scared out of his wits. He is paralyzed; he cannot even run. He was perfectly at ease
with the imaginary, but with the real he does not know what to do.
That is the situation of all those people who go on playing with beliefs, concepts, philosophies,
theologies. They ask questions just to ask questions. The answer is the last thing they are interested
in. They dont want the answer. They go on playing with questions, and each answer helps them to
create more questions. Each answer is nothing but a jumping board for more questions.
The truth is not a question. It is a quest! It is not intellectual; it is existential. The inquiry is a gamble,
a gamble with your life. It needs tremendous courage. Belief needs no courage. Belief is the way of
the coward. If you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan you are a coward. You are avoiding
the real lion, you are escaping from the real lion. If you want to face the real, then there is no need
to go to any church, there is no need to go to any priest, because the real surrounds you within and
without. You can face it it is already there.