Buddha’s religion works on an inner benediction. Most of us worship God because we are afraid of what might come next, because we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We are under constant threat; death is coming and we don’t know what to do, how to protect ourselves. We need someone to protect us. Unlike most other religions, Buddha’s religion is based in an inner benediction, in an inner blessing, it has nothing to do with fear.
How do we know that? Because the first thing he asks us to do is to drop all beliefs, including those of the fear. Osho says, “Dropping the beliefs you will become aware of your fear, and that is good, to become aware of your fear. You will become aware of your death. You will become aware of this whole infinite cosmos — nowhere to go, nobody to guide, nowhere to find any security. In that fear, in that awareness of fear, the only place left will be to start going withinwards — because there is no point in going anywhere. It is so vast.”
The interior journey begins once we have dropped all our beliefs and we have become aware of the fear, death, desire. “And once you are in, suddenly you see fears are disappearing; because in the deepest core of your being there has never been any death, there cannot be. Your innermost core is absolutely a non-self.”, says Osho.
He also adds that, “A self can die. The no-self cannot die. If there is something, it can be destroyed. That’s why Buddha says there is nothing inside you — you are a pure nothing. That nothing cannot be destroyed. And once you have understood it, that death cannot destroy, that this nothingness is in itself so beautiful, there is no need to go on stuffing it with money, power, prestige, fame. This nothingness is so pure and so innocent and so beautiful that you are blessed in it. You start dancing in that nothingness. That nothingness starts a dance. Buddha hints you towards that dance.”
When Buddha was dying, Ananda started crying and he said, “What will I do now? You are leaving and I have not yet become enlightened.”
Buddha said, “Don’t cry, because I cannot make you enlightened, only you can do that miracle to yourself. Be a light unto yourself (App Deepo Bhava).“
Buddha urges humanity to walk towards its core because there is nowhere else one can go. The shrine lies within, so go! The more we walk inwards, the more a conscience of worship begins to grow. And this conscience is not addressed to anybody and so when you pray, what arises is a pure prayer, out of bliss, out of being, out of inner benediction.
