Osho On Films,Media.

Books are very old media. The days for books are gone. People don't have that much time to read, because reading is active; you have to do something. Television is perfectly okay. You have nothing to do; you simply sit and see.

So something that is active is not going to spread very fast -- rather, something that people can simply sit and see. And eyes are more powerful than ears. When you listen to something you tend to forget it, but when you see something, you remember. Seeing is the most primitive language, so through TV the most primitive has become the most modern.

Children see... their language is pictorial. If you talk about mangoes, you have to show them the picture; the picture comes first. Through the picture they learn the word cat. By and by the picture is forgotten; superimposed by the word. Then we talk about a cat, never realising that there is no corresponding picture inside.

Mind has become more verbal on the superficial level, but deep down it remains pictorial. If you think of love, you start visualising... imagination starts working. Hence the appeal of pornography -- because you can see something. And it has been realised for centuries that the eyes are very potential. That's why we say, 'Never believe a word that you have heard. But if you have seen it, then it is true.' But why? Why so much preference for the eyes and not for the ears?

Whatsoever is seen, people think is true, so TV is used by all sorts of people; because when people see, they believe. Seeing is believing. The moment you see, you cannot doubt -- hence all the advertising that goes on. In fact TV shows are not meant for shows; they are just in between two advertisements. The real thing is the advertisement.

When you are relaxed and in a passive mood, anything that is said to you or you see, impresses deeply. You are vulnerable, almost in a hypno-sleep. And when you are watching for hours together, the eyes become focused, hypnotised. TV is the latest hypnosis. People become almost glued to their chairs; they cannot move -- and then the advertisement.

In the past also, we have always talked about seers. Those who have realised the truth, we call seers. In India, philosophy is called vision -- darshan. The truth has been seen. But why seen? Why not heard? Why not touched? Why not smelled? Why not tasted? Because eyes are just a member of this whole operation of senses, but they are very dominating.

Almost eighty percent of your personality is dominated by the eyes, so the book is almost out of date. Now people would like to see, and soon people will be seeing books also; they will not be reading. Sooner or later books are going to disappear. There will be microfilms of books so you can just put them on the projector and see the books moving on the screen; you can simply sit.

Film is one of the most potential things that man has yet invented. It has given people their childhood again... again they can think in pictorial language.

So go back home and think about it, mm? And continue meditating....