Life exists, when we are aware
Osho : Every buddha in his past was as ignorant as you are; and everybody who is ignorant has a future. Any day suddenly, light; and in that light all the past, maybe millions of years, disappear like dreams. Buddha used to measure people’s age from the time they became enlightened. He did not count the previous age.
One day, a great emperor of those days, Prasenjita, was sitting by the side of Buddha asking him questions. And an old monk – he may have been seventy-five years old at least – asked Prasenjita, ”Forgive me please. I have been waiting because I have to leave before sunset. I have to reach the other village” – a buddhist monk cannot travel in the night – ”so I am in a hurry. I have to disturb you just for a moment, just to touch Buddha’s feet and ask if there is any message. I may not be seeing him again and who knows about tomorrow?”
So he touched the Buddha’s feet and Buddha asked, ”How old are you?”
And the old man said, ”Four years.”
Prasenjita could not believe that and could not resist the temptation either to interfere. He said, ”What? Four years? You must be at least seventy-five.”
Buddha said, ”Prasenjita, you don’t know. In my commune we count only those years which he has lived as an enlightened being. Before that was just darkness and dreams, nightmares, misery, not worth counting. You are right, he is seventy-five years old according to the ordinary world, but this is not an ordinary world. He is living in an extraordinary commune. As far as I am concerned he is four years old. I was just asking him whether he remembers or not. He remembers. He knows what is real life – only four years. And the seventy-one years were just fake, they do not matter, have no meaning at all. There is no need to count them.”
Buddha said, ”With my blessings you can go because your remembrance is correct.”
Source: “God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth” – Osho