OSHO International Foundation presents
ZEN — All Religions Are Now Out of Date
Bertrand Russell was writing the history of the world.
He was confronted with the idea
that it is absolutely unjustified to divide
the society with the name of Jesus.
The real division
happened twenty-five centuries ago with Gautam Buddha.
An authentic history should refer to Gautam Buddha.
Any accident, any incident
has to be either "Before Gautam Buddha," or "After Gautam Buddha."
Jesus is not a comparison to Gautam Buddha.
He was not even claiming that he was enlightened.
He had not heard even what meditation is.
He was claiming only that he was the last prophet of the Jews.
His contribution to history is nothing.
But Gautam Buddha's contribution to human consciousness is immense, immeasurable.
After or before Bertrand Russell, nobody has confronted the problem.
It still continues. Even the non-Christians have accepted the idea
that history is divided by Jesus Christ.
I want to make it clear to you
that Gautam Buddha
is the dividing line
from the past --
his past,
not our past.
Now the time has come again.
Twenty-five centuries are enough. And that is what his calculation was,
that after twenty-five centuries you should start a new humanity,
a new man,
a new culture, a new vision,
a new consciousness.
According to him we are living in a very fortunate time
of tremendous crisis, but of great challenges
and uncountable possibilities.
I am talking about Zen
simply for the reason to make it a point
that all religions are now out of date.
Zen
has no clingings with the past.
It is not a by-product of the past,
but rather an opening towards the future.
I am not wasting my time and your time unnecessarily.
It is not just by chance that I have chosen to speak on Zen.
We have come to a point to depart from the society we have lived,
a moment of tremendous departure of consciousness.
The way man has felt up to now
has not been healthy.
The way societies have structured themselves has been very sick.
The whole civilization is
almost non-existential.
From the series: The Buddha: The Emptiness of the Heart #03 Copyright © 1988, 2021 Osho International Foundation