on challenge
Many came - Sariputta came, Moggalayan came, Mahakashyap came - to Buddha. All these people were great philosophers with thousands of disciples, and they came to challenge Buddha. His simple process throughout his whole life was, “If you know, I am happy. You can consider yourself to be victorious. But do you know? I know, and I don’t think that I have to challenge anybody. Because there are only two types of people - those who know and those who don’t know. Those who don’t know, how can I challenge those poor fellows? It is out of the question. Those who know - how can I challenge those rich fellows? That is out of the question.”
Buddha asked Sariputta, “If you know, I am happy - but do you know? And I am not challenging you, simply inquiring. Who are you? If you don’t know, then drop the idea of challenging me. Then just be here with me. Someday, in some right moment, it may happen - not through challenge, not through discussion, not even through expression.”
And people were really honest. Sariputta bowed down and said, “Please forgive me for challenging you. I don’t know. I am a skillful arguer and I have defeated many philosophers, but I can see you are not a philosopher, And now the time has come for me to surrender and to see from this new angle. What am I supposed to do?”
Buddha said, “You have to be silent for two years.” That was a simple process for every challenger who came - and many came: “Two years complete silence and then you can ask any question.” And two years’ silence is enough, more than enough. After two years they have even forgotten their own names, they have forgotten all challenge, all idea of victory. They have tasted the man. They have tasted his truth.
Osho
Intuition: knowing beyond logic
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