Ancient Nonsense is still nonsense; stupidity remains stupidity

Mukta, YOU ARE ALSO FORTUNATE that, although you have been born in Athens, in Greece, you remain out of the contagious disease of Aristotle and Euclid. It is not a misfortune, on the contrary it is a great blessing....

    You have misunderstood, otherwise listening to me for so long you could not have asked this question. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST ARISTOTLE because HE IS NOT A MYSTIC. He is not a POET, he is not a CREATIVE ARTIST, he is not a MUSICIAN, he is not a DANCER. He is not a SCIENTIST either.

    He had two wives, and HE WRITES IN HIS BOOK ON LOGIC THAT WOMEN HAVE FEWER TEETH THAN MEN. Now this is sheer stupidity. Having two wives, he could have said to Mrs. Aristotle 'A', or Mrs. Aristotle 'B', "Just open your mouth and let me count the teeth." That is a simple experiment -- it does not need an atomic energy commission or a nuclear lab.

    In his own home he had two labs already there; or if he was afraid HE COULD HAVE COUNTED THEIR TEETH WHILE THEY WERE ASLEEP, and he should have done so before he was going to write about it. BUT HE SIMPLY WROTE A SUPERSTITION which was prevalent in Greece and is still prevalent. It is simply a corollary of the belief that women cannot have equality with men, in anything, in any way... how can they have an equal number of teeth?

    It seems that for centuries nobody has bothered. Men can be forgiven because they are all male chauvinists, but what were the women doing? Standing for hours before mirrors, at least one woman could have counted her teeth. BUT NOT A SINGLE WOMAN HAS EVEN RAISED THE QUESTION. They also accepted the idea. Such is the mental slavery of the world. ONCE AN IDEA BECOMES ACCEPTED, YOU SIMPLY GO ON ACCEPTING IT. You stop inquiring whether it has any validity or not.

    And even a man like ARISTOTLE, who is called the father of Western logic... I cannot consider him as having a logical mind. He is as superstitious as anybody else. HE SIMPLY ACCEPTED THE IDEA THAT WOMEN HAVE FEWER TEETH THAN MEN. A scientific mind would have inquired into the fact.

    In fact, I may be the first man in the whole history of mankind who did count the teeth of a woman -- because my professor of logic was still insisting that when Aristotle says... and ARISTOTLE IS NO ORDINARY MAN -- A GREAT LOGICIAN, THE GREATEST THE WEST HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO, and he must be right. I said, "I don't bother about whether he is a great logician or not." And I stood up and I asked the girls in the class that, "Is any girl courageous enough to come out? I want to count her teeth."

    They looked at each other. I said, "This is significant not just as a logical question. IT IS A QUESTION OF WOMEN'S EQUALITY WITH MEN. Somebody must dare, and if you don't come up here then I am getting four persons ready, outside of the class, to catch hold of one of you and forcibly count your teeth, because I cannot accept this statement unless I have found it in truth, in reality."

    Then, a girl, feeling very shy, stood up. The professor said, "What nonsense is this?"

    I said, "This is not nonsense, you remain silent. If you want proof I will count your teeth also -- otherwise keep quiet." And I counted her teeth. They were an equal number, there was no difference at all. And the professor became so angry with me that he threatened he would resign from the college. I said, "You can resign, but that does not mean that I have to accept some nonsense -- even though the nonsense is very ancient and spoken and written by a great name."

    Stupidity remains stupidity.

OSHO
The Rebel
Ch #22: Laughter is divine
pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
[part 4 of 4]