It is said that Buddha was born standing up.+

It is said that Buddha was born standing up. His mother was standing under a tree; she gave birth standing and he was born standing up. He didn't fall to the ground but started walking! He took seven paces and on the eighth, he stopped and proclaimed the four noble truths -- that life is suffering....! He took just seven steps on earth and proclaimed that life is suffering, that it is possible to be free from suffering, that there is a way to become free of suffering, that there is a state free of suffering -- the state of nirvana.

Buddha's story contains the essence of what he taught his whole life... Buddha taught the eightfold path, so he took seven steps and stopped on the eighth. There are eight parts in all; the last step is that of right Samadhi, and only in that state of Samadhi is the whole truth of life known. So he proclaimed the four noble truths.

Buddha returned to his village. And the father -- what the whole world could see, the father could not see. The world was experiencing an illumination, the news was spreading far and wide, people began coming from distant countries. But when Buddha came back to his home after twelve years, his father said, "I can still forgive you. Though what you did was wrong, you tormented us, you have certainly done a crime, I have a father's heart -- I will forgive you. The doors are open for you. Throw away this begging bowl, remove these monk's clothes. None of this will do here. Come back -- this kingdom is yours. I have become old; who is going to look after it? Much childishness has gone on, now stop all this play!"

Buddha said, "Please look at me. The one who left has not returned. Someone else has come, the one who was born in your house has not come back. Someone else is here, the seed has returned as a flower. Look deeply."

The father said, "You are going to teach me? I have known you since the day you were born! Go and deceive others; go and lecture other people and delude them -- you cannot deceive me. I repeat again, I know you perfectly well -- don't try to teach me. I am willing to forgive you."

Buddha said, "You say you know me? I didn't even know myself before. Only recently have the rays of light descended and I have come to know myself. Excuse me, but I have to say that the one you saw is not me. Whatever you saw is not me. You saw the outer shell, but did you look inside me? I was born out of you, but you did not create me. I came via you as traveler comes via a certain route, but what do the traveler and the road have to do with each other? Suppose that tomorrow the road says 'I know you, your being has come from me' -- just as you are saying.

"I existed before you. I have been on this journey for many lives. I certainly passed through you, as I have passed through others. Others too have been my father, others too have been my mother. But my being is completely separate."

It is very difficult, extremely difficult: If you saw the seed you cannot believe the flower is in front of you.

One way of looking is that of the distrustful, the rational, and the skeptical. They say, "We know the seed so this flower is not possible. We know the mud: how can a lotus come from it? It is all false -- a dream, an illusion. He must have fallen into a kind of hypnosis. Someone deceived him; some magic, some spell...."

This is one way. The other is the way of trust -- of the lover, the devotee, of the heart filled with empathy. He sees the flower and from the flower begins traveling backwards. He says, "When the flower has become so fragrant, when such radiance appears in the flower, when there is such beauty in the flower, when such fresh innocence is seen in the flower, then certainly it must also have been present in the seed -- because it is not possible that what is present in the flower was not already in the seed."

It is not that these stories actually happened. Those who saw flowers bloom in Ashtavakra concluded that what has happened today must have also been present yesterday -- it was hidden, screened, behind a veil. What is here in the end, must have been present at the beginning also. What is seen at the moment of death must also have been present at the moment of birth; otherwise how could it arise?

So one way is to look backwards from the flower, and the other is to look forward from the seed. If you look carefully their essence is the same, their foundation is the same, but what a difference: like between earth and sky! The one who knows the seed says, "How can what is not in the seed be in the flower?" This is his argument. The one who knows the flower says the same thing. He says, "What is in the flower should be in the seed too." They have the same argument. But each has a different way of looking. :~OSHO.