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vikisss1

Would Enlightened People Find Storytelling Worthwhile?

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Hello again, as I am currently working on online game development ( similar to FarmVille, only online and simpler) I become more aware that storytelling plays a key role in games. And the question has arisen, whether enlightened person would find storytelling interesting and worthwhile? I mean as I am meditating more and more I see that storytelling is just merely an illusion... Despite that, I still view it as an conciuos asset, which involves a highly creative process. So I would like to hear your position even if you aren't enlightened, but had meditated long enough and are open minded :)

Thanks a lot !

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12 hours ago, vikisss1 said:

And the question has arisen, whether enlightened person would find storytelling interesting and worthwhile?

Enlightened masters tell stories. 

Excerpts from Osho talks :

As far as I am concerned, I am not what they call a speaker or an orator. It is not an art to me or a technique; technically I go on becoming worse every day! But our purposes are totally different. I don´t want to impress you in order to manipulate you. I don´t speak for any goal to be achieved through convincing you. I don´t speak to convert you into a Christian, into a Hindu or a Mohammedan, into a theist or an atheist. These are not my concerns.

My speaking is really one of my devices for meditation. Speaking has never been used this way: I speak not to give you a message, but to stop your mind functioning.

My purpose is so unique: I am using words just to create silent gaps. The words are not important so I can say anything contradictory, anything absurd, anything unrelated, because my purpose is just to create gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being.

Most of the people in the world don´t think that it is possible for mind to be silent. Because they don´t think it is possible, they don´t try. How to give people a taste of meditation was my basic reason to speak, so I can go on speaking eternally; it does not matter what I am saying. All that matters is that I give you a few chances to be silent, which you find difficult on your own in the beginning.

~ Osho, Don’t Bite My Finger, Look Where I’m Pointing, Chapter 16

Zen uses stories and Sufism also uses stories, but their stories have a different flavor, a different tone. The Zen story is absurd - it is a riddle, and a riddle which cannot be solved.

You can try, but you will NEVER be able to solve it. That insolubility is built-in; it is intrinsic to the Zen story. It HAS to be absurd because it is a device to destroy your mind, to shock your mind. It is a sword... to kill your mind. It drives you almost mad, because there seems to be no solution coming and you have to go on meditating on the story. It is a meditation device. Many solutions are given by the mind, but all solutions are rejected by the Master. The disciple goes on, day in and day out, with new solutions, and the Master goes on shouting at the disciple, "This is nonsense! Go and search again!" Sometimes months, sometimes years pass, and then a moment comes to the disciple when he sees that there is no solution. And remember, if you simply think there is no solution then you have missed the point. You have to come to a realization that there is no solution. In that state of no-solution, no-conclusion, a transcendence happens, a leap, a quantum leap - you have gone beyond the mind through the mind. The Zen story functions like a sword to cut the knot of the mind.

The Sufi story is not a riddle, it is a parable. It is not a shock, it is not a sword; it is persuasion, it is seduction. It is the way of the lover. It is very gentle and soft and feminine. Zen is very masculine, Sufism is feminine. The Zen story drives you mad: through creating a maddening state in the mind it helps you to go beyond it. It drives you crazy! The Sufi story intoxicates you slowly, slowly but inevitably.

The Sufi story has a poetry in it, a rhythm. The Sufi story has to be contemplated, not meditated upon. The Zen story has to be meditated upon. The Sufi story has to be imbibed, sipped like tea, enjoyed in a relaxed mood. The Zen story has to be penetrated with a very, very concentrated mind, in a very tense attitude, in intensity. You have to focus all your energies on the story. You have to forget the whole world; only that small absurd story exists. And you know it cannot be solved, and yet you have to put your whole energy into it. And all the time you know that this is absurd, it is not going to lead you anywhere, but the Master says, "Focus! Concentrate! Pay attention! Look into the riddle of the story!"

The Sufi story has to be listened to just like a story. Sufis are great storytellers. They will sip tea or coffee, they will sit together in a cozy place, warm. The story will start, and the Master will tell the story. And the story only gives glimpses, hints, but very potential, very penetrating. All that is needed on the part of the disciple is to listen, not attentively but sympathetically, with an open heart, not with any tension. The story has to be enjoyed. It reveals its mysteries when you are enjoying it.

~ Osho. The Wisdom of the Sands, Chapter 1

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"Enlightened" tell stories about the stories to distract others from believing the stories that distract from being aware of being.an aware being.

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