Monday, January 21, 2008

Wait for twenty four hours

Amrit Sadhana

Anger is a great problem with everyone. No matter how much we try to suppress/express , it is lurking in the unconscious only to explode at the most inappropriate moment. We repent after the anger subsides but it is too late.
Osho is so creative, he has devised many tricks and techniques to trasform primal energies such as anger.
Here Osho suggests a remedy given to Gurdjieff, the great mystic of the 21st century, by his father. Gurdjieff was only nine years of age when his father died. He called his son to his deathbed and said, "Remember only one thing -- if you feel angry, wait for twenty-four hours. Then do whatsoever you want to do -- but wait twenty-four hours. If somebody insults you, you tell him, "I will come after twenty-four hours and do whatsoever is needed. Please give me a little time to think over it."
Of course the nine-year-old Gurdjieff could not understand what it is, but he followed it. By and by he became aware of the tremendous impact of it. He was completely transformed. Because two things he had to remember -- one, he had to be aware not to move into anger when somebody was insulting, not to allow himself to be manipulated by the other -- he had to wait for twenty-four hours. So when somebody was insulting or saying something against him, he would simply remain alert not to be affected. For twenty-four hours, he had promised his dying father, he would remain cool and calm. And by and by he became capable.
"And then he understood it -- that after twenty-four hours it is never needed. You cannot be angry after twenty-four hours. After twenty-four minutes you cannot be angry, after twenty-four seconds you cannot be angry. Either it is instant or it is not. Because anger functions only if you are unconscious; if you are this much conscious -- that you can wait for twenty-four seconds -- finished. Then you cannot be angry. "

Excerpted from The Discipline of Transcendence,Vol 1/copyright Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com/library



No comments: