Nothingness simply means you are not. And when you are not, then who
is there to suffer? Who is there to be in pain and anguish? Who is there to be depressed and sad? And who is there to be happy and blissful? Buddha says that if you feel you are blissful you will become again a victim of suffering, because you are still there. When you are not, completely not, utterly not, then there is no suffering and no bliss – and this is the real bliss. Then you cannot fall back. To attain nothingness is to attain all.The first thing to understand is that the concept of self is created by the mind – there is no self in you.
It happened: a great Buddhist, a man of enlightenment, was invited by a king named milinda to teach him. The name of the Buddhist monk was Nagasen, the king became interested; he invited him.
The messenger who went to Nagasen came back very much puzzled, because Nagasen said, ”Yes, if he invites, Nagasen will come – but tell him there is no one like Nagasen. If he invites I will come, but tell him exactly that there is no one like ’I am.’ I am no more.” The messenger was puzzled,
because if Nagasen is no more, then who will come? And Milanda was also puzzled. He said, ”This man talks in puzzles. Milanda said, ”This man seems to be irrational, gone mad. If he is not then how can he come? But
let him come, I will see. I will prove: just by coming he is proving that he is.
Then came Nagasen. Milanda received him at the gate and the first thing he asked, he said, ”I am puzzled: you have come and still you said that you are not.”
Nagasen said, ”Still I say. So let us settle it here.”
A crowd gathered, the whole court came there, and Nagasen said, ”You ask.”
Milanda asked, ”First tell me: if something is not, how can it come? In the first place it is not, then there is no possibility of its coming – and you have come. It is simple logic that you are.”
Nagasen laughed and he said, ”Look at this RATHA” – the bullock cart on which he had come. He said, ”Look at this. You call it a ratha, a cart.”
Milanda said, ”Yes.”
Then he told his followers to remove the bullocks. The bullocks were removed and Nagasen asked,
”Are these bullocks the cart?”
Milanda said, ”Of course not.”
Then, by and by, everything from the cart was removed, every part. Wheels were removed and he asked, ”Are these wheels the cart?”
And Milanda said, ”Of course not!”
When everything was removed and there was nothing, then Nagasen asked, ”Where is the cart I had come in?… and we never removed the cart, and all that we have removed you confirmed that this is not the cart. Now where is the cart?”
Nagasen said, ”Just like this Nagasen exists. Remove parts and he will disappear.” Just crisscrossing lines of energy: remove the lines and the dot will disappear. The cart is just a
combination of parts.
You are also a combination of parts, the ”I” is a combination of parts. Remove things and the ”I” will disappear. That’s why when thoughts are removed from consciousness, you cannot say ”I,” because there is no ”I” – just a vacuum is left. When feelings are removed, the self disappears completely.
You are and yet not: just an absence, with no boundaries, emptiness…..
~ OSHO – Tantra the Supreme Understanding – Chapter 1 – The Ultimate experience.
