Sufism Is Not Philosophy
Talk #15 from Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol. 1
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"Sufism is existential, though not existentialist. 'Existential' is a contradiction in terms. The whole approach of existentialism is that existence is not a system and cannot be converted into a system. That existence remains an..."
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"Sufism is existential, though not existentialist. 'Existential' is a contradiction in terms. The whole approach of existentialism is that existence is not a system and cannot be converted into a system. That existence remains an..."
Osho continues:
"You can philosophize against philosophy, you can create a philosophy of no-philosophy, but then you are again lost in the mire of words, theories, hypotheses, propositions, logic…it is nonending.
"That's why I say that Sufism is existential, not existentialist. It has no 'ism,' it has no philosophy to teach, it has no proposition to propose, it has no doctrine to indoctrinate people with. It is just a finger pointing to the moon. It is an indication – an indication towards reality, not towards words. It is experience and experiment. It abhors all kinds of philosophies because philosophy is the deepest cause of man getting lost in language and linguistic patterns. Life has no language, life is silent; or, silence is its only language, it speaks only through silence. So when you are silent you are in communion with it.
"Life is meditative. It is not a kind of thinking, it is a state of no-thinking. When you are in that state of no-thinking, suddenly there is communion, all barriers between you and life disappear. You are no longer separate from it, no longer standing against it and thinking about it – you are it! And you know only when you are it, you know only when the knower is no longer there, you know only when all knowledge has disappeared. You know through being, not through knowing.
"So Sufism down the ages has been very condemnatory about philosophizing. Sufism is not scriptural, it is not logical; it is very realistic, it is very pragmatic. Hence its appeal to the modern mind, to the mind which is trained more in the ways of science than in the ways of philosophy.
"Science is experiment. You can't trust speculation, you have to experiment with reality. You have to see reality as it is, not through a certain prejudice of your mind. You need not have any belief; you can simply go into reality without any belief and the reality will conclude. Reality is conclusive. The conclusion comes not by thinking, but by looking into reality. And if you have a certain a priori idea, that very idea becomes a distraction. It won't allow you to see that which is."
"That's why I say that Sufism is existential, not existentialist. It has no 'ism,' it has no philosophy to teach, it has no proposition to propose, it has no doctrine to indoctrinate people with. It is just a finger pointing to the moon. It is an indication – an indication towards reality, not towards words. It is experience and experiment. It abhors all kinds of philosophies because philosophy is the deepest cause of man getting lost in language and linguistic patterns. Life has no language, life is silent; or, silence is its only language, it speaks only through silence. So when you are silent you are in communion with it.
"Life is meditative. It is not a kind of thinking, it is a state of no-thinking. When you are in that state of no-thinking, suddenly there is communion, all barriers between you and life disappear. You are no longer separate from it, no longer standing against it and thinking about it – you are it! And you know only when you are it, you know only when the knower is no longer there, you know only when all knowledge has disappeared. You know through being, not through knowing.
"So Sufism down the ages has been very condemnatory about philosophizing. Sufism is not scriptural, it is not logical; it is very realistic, it is very pragmatic. Hence its appeal to the modern mind, to the mind which is trained more in the ways of science than in the ways of philosophy.
"Science is experiment. You can't trust speculation, you have to experiment with reality. You have to see reality as it is, not through a certain prejudice of your mind. You need not have any belief; you can simply go into reality without any belief and the reality will conclude. Reality is conclusive. The conclusion comes not by thinking, but by looking into reality. And if you have a certain a priori idea, that very idea becomes a distraction. It won't allow you to see that which is."
More Information
| Publisher | Osho International |
|---|---|
| Duration of Talk | 100 mins |
| File Size | 0 MB |
| Type | Individual Talks |
| Edition/ Version | 2 |
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