Come Follow Me
I myself am a question. I know not who I am. What to do? Where to go?
Remain with the question. Don′t do anything, and don′t go anywhere; and don′t start believing in any answer. Remain with the question. That is one of the most difficult things to do - to remain with a question, and not to seek the answer; because the mind is very cunning, it can supply a false answer. It can console you; it can give you something to cling to; and then the question is not answered but suppressed. Then you go on believing in the answer, and the question remains deep down in your unconsciousness like a wound. The healing has not happened.If you remain with the question, I′m not saying that you will receive the answer. Nobody has ever received any answer. If you remain with the question, by and by the question disappears. Not that the answer is received; there is no answer. There cannot be, because life is a mystery. If there is any answer, then life will not be a mystery.
It has no answer to it, it cannot be solved. It is not a puzzle, it is a mystery. And that is the difference between a puzzle and a mystery. A puzzle can be solved, howsoever difficult it is to solve. A mystery cannot be solved - not that it is difficult. It is very simple, but its nature is such that it cannot be solved.
Remain with the question - alert, aware, not seeking, not trying to find an answer. Very arduous it is, but if you can do that... it can be done. I have done it. And all those who have dissolved their questions have done it. The very awareness, the fire of awareness, burns the question. The sun of awareness melts the question; it disappears, it evaporates. One day, suddenly, you find you are there, and the question is not there. Not that the question is replaced by an answer. There is none. But the question has simply disappeared. You are there and without a question. That is the answer.
You, without a question, is The answer. Not that you will be able to say who you are - you will laugh at the very question. The question has become absurd. In the first place, the very asking was wrong. But right now you cannot understand that; you have to ask. You have to ask very intensely. Ask the question, but don′t ask for The answer.
That is the difference between theology and religion. Theology gives you the answer; religion gives you awareness. Theology supplies you answers - ready-made, manufactured, polished, perfect. Religion doesn′t give you any answer; it simply helps you to penetrate deep into the question. The deeper you go into the question, the more you find it is melting, it is disappearing. And when the question has disappeared, a tremendous energy is released within you. You ARE there, with no question.
And when there is no question, of course, there is no mind. Mind is the questioner. When there is no questioning, the mind has also disappeared - pure consciousness - just the sky without any clouds, the flame without any smoke.
That′s what God is. That′s what a Buddha is; that′s what a Christ is. Remember, I repeat it again and again, Buddha has not found the answer; that′s why Buddha never answers. You ask him, "God exists?" He will avoid, he will not answer. You ask him, "What happens when a Buddha dies?" He will avoid, he will start talking about other things. He will not answer.
He is not a metaphysician. He is not a philosopher. He has come to face the question, and the question has disappeared. The question disappears as darkness disappears when you kindle a light, when you bring a lamp. Bring more awareness to the question.
You ask me:
I myself am a question.
Beautiful - that′s how it should be - reduce all questions to the basic question and that is: Who am I? Don′t go on moving on the periphery, like - "Who made the world? Why did he make The world?" - all nonsense questions. Come to the basic question, the most fundamental question: Who am I?Who? Let your consciousness penetrate into it, like a deep arrow going deeper and deeper and deeper. And don′t be in a hurry to find the answer - because the mind is cunning. If you are in a hurry, impatient, the mind can supply you with it; the mind can quote scriptures; it is the devil. It can say, "Yes, you are god, you are Brahma, you are pure consciousness, SatChitAnanda, you are The ultimate truth, the eternal soul, the deathless being." Those answers can destroy your very search.
A seeker has to be aware of ready-made answers. They are available; from every side they are being supplied to you. In fact, your mind has already been conditioned: the answers have been given to you before you had even asked the question.
A small child - he has not asked who God is, and he is being supplied with the answer; he is being conditioned. He has not asked - the question is still not there, and the answer is being given. Many people go on believing in these answers, and they never ask the question themselves.
If you have not asked the question, whatsoever you know is. just rubbish. Throw it on the rubbish heap, all your knowledge - because there is no knowledge; there is only knowing. There is no answer, only a state of consciousness where the questioning disappears; only a clarity, a clarity of vision and perception, a clarity of eyes, you can see through and through; not that you find an answer somewhere. Existence is so vast, so mysterious.
And it is good that it is so. Just think of the misfortune if you could have found the answer. Then life would not be worth living; then it would not have any meaning. Because you cannot find the answer, the life goes on having infinite meaning. God is not the answer. God is the state of being where the question has disappeared. God is the state of no-mind.
Remain with the question. I am here to help you to remain with the question. I am not going to give you any answer; you already have too many. I am not going to burden you any more. I am to teach you how to unlearn the answers that you have learned, so that the question becomes crystal pure; so the question becomes authentic and yours; so the question arises from your innermost being.
And remain with it. Don′t go here and there; don′t be in a hurry. Be patient. Let this question become your constant companion. This is the only discipline I teach you: the discipline of questioning, and without being in any hurry for the answer.
And it is beautiful to remain with the question because answers corrupt. They destroy your innocence; they destroy your pure ignorance. They fill your mind with words, theories, dogmas; then you are no more a virgin. They corrupt you. The question is pure; it does not corrupt you. In fact, it intensifies your purity; it makes you more and more clear.
Become aware of the question. Not that you have to continuously ask, "Who am I?" Not that you have to verbalize it. Let the question be there without any verbalization. Let it be like your breathing; let it be like your being. Let it be there, silent, but continuously, as if you are pregnant with it. One day, if you have lived enough with the question, it starts disappearing. It evaporates, just as when the morning comes and the sun rises, and the dewdrops start disappearing. When the consciousness has become a fire, an intense light, the question starts disappearing.
And when the question has disappeared, you cannot say who you are, but you know. It is not a knowledge; it is a knowing. You cannot answer, but you know. You can dance it; you cannot answer it. You can smile it; you cannot answer it. You will live it, but you cannot answer it. (Osho - Come follow me Vol.3)