Ungan remained with Yakusan for some time, then one day decided to leave: he explained to Yakusan that he had made a vow to stay with Hyakujo. Yakusan agreed, and Ungan set off down the mountain, Dogo accompanying him a little way, and then returning to Yakusan, who asked, “Did you see your brother off?”
“Yes, I did,” replied Dogo, and then added, “Is it alright for my brother to leave you?”
“You don’t have to ask such a thing,” said Yakusan. “We have been very intimate for such a long time – we can do or say whatsoever we would like to. So there is nothing for you to ask me.”
“No, Osho,” said Dogo. “Your word can become a reference for the future, so please say something.”
“Okay, I will say one thing,” replied Yakusan. “The eyes are alright, only the discipline is lacking.”
Hearing this, Dogo immediately left the monastery in pursuit of his brother. When he caught up with him the following day, Dogo told Ungan what Yakusan had said. The two brothers turned around and went back to Yakusan, and remained with him till his death.

Friends,

One of the would-be sannyasins, Graeme McIntyre, has left his body in deep meditation in this Gautama the Buddha Auditorium, amongst other meditators, in deep peace and silence. He had expressed his desire to become a sannyasin that very evening.

Sannyas does not need to be an outward thing, just the longing for it is enough. He died as a sannyasin because there was deep longing for sannyas.

He was doing a therapy group. After the group he said to the leader, “I would like to remain here my whole life.” He will be here now his whole life – and not only this life, but for eternity.

This place, this space that you are creating by your meditations, is the right space in which to live, love, laugh, and it is also the right space in which to leave the body and go into the beyond, disappear into the ultimate existence.

It is a moment of rejoicing. So tomorrow, when you say good-bye to him on a funeral pyre, rejoice, and dance, and celebrate. Such a death is rare. Very few human beings are so blessed.

And when the funeral pyre’s flames start moving upwards, remember why in this country for thousands of years we have chosen not to bury the dead, but to give them to fire. There is a special reason for it.

Fire is the only thing you know which does not allow any gravitation. It always goes upwards. The fire is a symbol of your spirituality; it always goes upwards. No gravitation can pull it down.

Secondly, when you have lived in your body for so many years there arises naturally a certain attachment to the body. The body is prone to be attracted by gravitation. But when the consciousness sees the body burning – with the body burning, all your attachments with the body, all your prisons that have taken you to many bodies in many lives, start disappearing. One feels a tremendous freedom rising with the flames towards the sky.

And you know…. You see flames, and soon they disappear. They are visible only for a few moments, then they become invisible. Fire is a great symbol of purification, of detachment, of rising vertically towards the ultimate space which is our home.

We come from there, and we go back there.

Now, Christianity…