Mind is nothing but desire

Meditate over these tremendously significant sutras of Gautama the Buddha. He says:

    Mistaking the false for the true
    And the true for the false,
    You overlook the heart
    And fill yourself with desire.

    MIND IS NOTHING BUT DESIRE. THE HEART KNOWS NO DESIRE. You will be surprised to hear it, that all desires belong to the head. The heart lives in the present; it pulsates, beats, in the here-now. It knows nothing of the past and it knows nothing of the future. It is always now, here.

    And I am not talking about a certain philosophy. I am simply stating a fact so simple you can observe it within yourself: your heart is beating now. It cannot beat in the past, it cannot beat in the future. THE HEART ONLY KNOWS THE PRESENT, HENCE IT IS UTTERLY PURE. It is not polluted by the past memories, by knowledge, by experience, by all that you have been told and taught, by the scriptures, by the traditions. It knows nothing of all that nonsense! And it knows nothing of the future, of the morrow. For it, past exists no more, the future not yet. It is utterly here. It is immediate.

    But the mind is just the opposite of the heart: THE MIND IS NEVER NOW, HERE. Either it thinks of beautiful experiences of the past or it desires the same beautiful experiences in the future. It goes on shuttling between past and future, it never stops at the present. It is utterly unaware of the present. FOR THE MIND, THE PRESENT EXISTS NOT. See the point: THE PRESENT IS THE ONLY THING THAT EXISTS, BUT FOR THE MIND THE PRESENT IS THE ONLY THING THAT EXISTS NOT. Past is nonexistential, future is nonexistential, but those are the things which are existential for the mind.

    The head is the problem...and the heart is the solution. THE CHILD FUNCTIONS FROM THE HEART. As you start growing, YOU START MOVING FROM THE HEART TO THE HEAD. When you graduate from the university you have completely forgotten about the heart. You are hung up in the head, your whole energy has moved to the head. NOW YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING OF REALITY. You are full of garbage -- scholarly garbage, academic nonsense. You may be a Ph.D., a D.Litt. You know much, knowing nothing at all! -- because REAL KNOWING HAPPENS IN THE HEART, NOT IN THE HEAD. And the universities exist to distract your energies from the heart to the head.

    ALL THE UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD UP TO NOW HAVE BEEN ENEMIES OF HUMANITY. Their whole function is TO SERVE THE STATE AND THE CHURCH. They are AGENTS OF THE STATUS QUO, they are agents of THE VESTED INTERESTS. They don't serve you, they serve the powers, the masters, the oppressors, the exploiters. Whosoever happens to be in power the universities serve. They are not in the service of humanity yet.

    IF THEY WERE REALLY IN THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY, THEN THE UNIVERSITY WOULD BE THE PLACE TO LEARN REBELLION. The university would create revolutionaries. The university would not create conventionalists, conformists; the university would create nonconformists, nonconventional people. It would create rebels -- adventurous, ready to risk their lives for truth. That has not happened yet.

    It is a sad fact that IN THE NAME OF EDUCATION SOMETHING UGLY IS CONTINUED, something very ugly. Behind a facade, something very criminal continues. And this is the crime: that they divert your energies from the heart to the head, THEY DESTROY YOUR CAPACITY TO LOVE AND THEY FORCE YOU TO LEARN LOGIC. Logic is more important than love for them, thinking is more important than sensitivity. This is just putting the bullocks behind the cart. IT IS TOTALLY TOPSY-TURVY.

    THAT'S WHY HUMANITY IS IN SUCH A MESS: THE UNTRUE SEEMS TO BE TRUE AND THE TRUE SEEMS TO BE UNTRUE. They have succeeded in distorting your vision. The Buddhas have been fighting against all these vested interests.

    Buddha says: Mistaking the false for the true and the true for the false, you overlook the heart and fill yourself with desire.

    MIND IS DESIRE, and YOU GO ON FILLING YOURSELF WITH MORE AND MORE DESIRE, more and more AMBITION, more and more LONGING FOR POWER, PRESTIGE, WEALTH. And you completely forget that there is a beating heart within you which already lives in God, which is already part of the ultimate law -- aes dhammo sanantano -- which is already part of the inexhaustible, eternal law. You are joined from the heart to God.  YOUR HEARTS ARE THE ROOTS IN THE SOIL OF GOD.

    Your hearts are still being nourished by God, by truth, but you are not there. You have vacated the place. YOU LIVE IN YOUR HEAD. Day in, day out, you live in your head; you never descend from there. Even in the night while asleep you go on rumbling in the head... dreams, and dreams upon dreams. In the day thoughts, in the night dreams. They are not different.

    The dream is only a translation of thinking in the language of sleep, and vice versa: thinking is nothing but a translation of dreaming in the language of the day. You go on moving between these two: dreaming and thinking. Both are desiring. What do you think? WHAT IS THERE TO THINK EXCEPT DESIRE? And what do you dream except desire?

    Buddha says the false appears to be true because you have become false to your own truth, to your own heart. COME BACK TO THE HEART, and then YOU WILL BE ABLE TO KNOW THE TRUTH AS THE TRUTH, AND THE FALSE AS THE FALSE. That is enlightenment, that is coming home.

OSHO
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
Vol 1, Ch #3: True or false
am in Buddha Hall