All are beautiful togther

I am staying with Osho in Sohan’s home. Osho enjoys to eat lunch with us at the dining table. Sohan is really a great cook. After His morning discourse we reach home around 10:15am. Within one hour, Sohan prepares the lunch, cooking a variety of delicious dishes. By 11:30, we are all setting on chairs around a big rectangular dining table which is decorated with flowers in the middle. Every meal is a great feast. Osho likes to tell jokes while eating and creates much laughter around Him.

Today there are so many dishes, one is puzzled from where to start. Sohan is standing near Osho and starts serving Him food from different bowls. Osho is never miserly in appreciating the food He likes. Today, He enjoys eating Dahi-wada. It is an Indian dish made of little balls of crushed dal, fried and soaked in curd. He says to Sohan, “Sohan, Dahi-wadas are really delicious.” Sohan responds, “That means the other dishes are not delicious.” Osho looks at Sohan in surprise and says, “No, no! I don’t mean that. I will tell you a story so you understand what I mean.”

Then He tells this story:

Mulla Nasruddin was in love with two beautiful women. He was telling both of them separately that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. One day both the women meet and realize that he is saying the same thing to both of them. They go together to Mulla and asked him, “Now tell us the truth, who is more beautiful?” Mulla thought for a moment and said “You are both more beautiful than each other.”

We all cracked up in laughter and Osho says, “Sohan, all your dishes are more delicious than one another.” Sohan, now getting the point, also starts laughing.

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Osho on Heraclitus

Osho – I have been in love with Heraclitus for many lives. In fact, Heraclitus is the only Greek I have ever been in love with — except, of course, Mukta, Seema and Neeta!

Heraclitus is really beautiful. Had he been born in India, or in the East, he would have been known as a buddha. But in Greek history, Greek philosophy, he was a stranger, an outsider. He is known in Greece not as an enlightened person but as Heraclitus the Obscure, Heraclitus the Dark, Heraclitus the Riddling. And the father of Greek philosophy and of Western thought, Aristotle, thought that he was no philosopher at all.

Aristotle said, “At the most he is a poet,” but that too was difficult for him to concede. So later on he said in other works, “There must be some defect in Heraclitus’ character, something wrong biologically; that’s why he talks in such obscure ways, and talks in paradoxes.” Aristotle thought that he was a little eccentric, a little mad — and Aristotle dominates the whole West. If Heraclitus had been accepted, the whole history of the West would have been totally different. But he was not understood at all. He became more and more separate from the main current of Western thinking and the Western mind.

Heraclitus was like Gautam Buddha or Lao Tzu or Basho. The Greek soil was absolutely not good for him. He would have been a great tree in the East: millions would have profited, millions would have found the way through him. But for Greeks he was just outlandish, eccentric, something foreign, alien; he didn’t belong to them. That’s why his name has remained just on the side, in a dark corner; by and by he has been forgotten.

At the moment when Heraclitus was born, precisely at that moment, humanity reached a peak, a moment of transformation. It happens with humanity just as with an individual: there are moments when changes happen. Every seven years the body changes, and it goes on changing — if you live for seventy years, then your total bio-physical system will change ten times. And if you can use those gaps when the body changes, it will be very easy to move in meditation.

For example, at fourteen for the first time sex becomes important. The body goes through a biochemical change, and if at that moment you can be introduced into the dimension of meditation, it will be very, very easy to move because the body is not fixed, the old pattern has gone and the new has yet to come in — there is a gap. At the age of twenty-one, again deep changes happen, because every seven years the body completely renovates itself: all the old cells drop and the new cells come in. At the age of thirty-five again it happens, and this goes on. Every seven years your body comes to a point where the old goes and the new settles — and there is a transitory period. In that transitory period everything is liquid. If you want some new dimension to enter into your life, that is precisely the moment.

In the same way exactly it happens also in the history of humanity as a whole. Every twenty-five centuries there comes a peak — and if you can use that moment, you can easily become enlightened. It will not be so easy in other times because at that peak the river itself is flowing in that direction; everything is fluid, nothing is fixed.

Twenty-five centuries ago there were born in India, Gautam Buddha, Mahavira the Jaina; in China, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu; in Iran, Zarathustra; and in Greece, Heraclitus. They are the peaks. Never before were such peaks attained, or if they were attained they are not part of history, because history starts with Jesus.

You don’t know what happened these twenty-five centuries ago. Again the moment is coming, we are again in a fluid state: the old is meaningless, the past doesn’t have any significance for you, the future is uncertain — the gap is here. And again humanity will achieve a peak, the same peak as there was in Heraclitus’ time. And if you are a little aware, you can use this moment — you can simply drop out of the wheel of life. When things are liquid, transformation is easy. When things are fixed, then transformation is difficult.

You are fortunate that you are born in an age when things are again in a state of liquidity. Nothing is certain, all old codes and commandments have become useless. New patterns have not settled in. They will settle soon; man cannot remain forever unsettled, because when you are unsettled there is insecurity. Things will settle again, this moment will not last for ever; it is only for a few years. If you can use it, you can reach a peak which will be very, very difficult to reach in other times. If you miss it, the moment is missed for twenty-five centuries again.

Remember this: life moves in a cycle, everything moves in a cycle. The child is born, then comes the age of youth, then old age, then death. It moves just as seasons move: summer comes, then rains follow, then comes winter, and it goes on in a circle. The same happens in the dimension of consciousness: every twenty-five centuries the circle is complete and before the new circle starts there is a gap you can escape through; the door is open for a few years.

Heraclitus is a really rare flowering, one of the most highly penetrating souls, one of those souls who become like Everest, the highest peak of the Himalayas. Try to understand him. It is difficult; that’s why he is called Heraclitus the Obscure. He is not obscure. To understand him is difficult; to understand him you will need a different type of being — that is the problem. So it is easy to categorize him as obscure and then forget him.

There are two types of people. If you want to understand Aristotle you don’t need any change in your being, you simply need some information. A school can provide some information about logic, philosophy; you can collect some intellectual understanding and you can understand Aristotle. You need not change to understand him, you need only a few more additions to your knowledge. The being remains the same, you remain the same. You need not have a different plane of consciousness; that is not the requirement.

Aristotle is clear. If you want to understand him, a little effort is enough; anybody of average mind and intelligence will understand him. But to understand Heraclitus is going to be rough terrain, difficult, because whatsoever you collect as knowledge will not be of much help; just a very, very cultivated head won’t be of any help. You will need a different quality of being — and that is difficult — you will need a transformation. Hence, he is called obscure. He is NOT obscure! You are below the level of being where he can be understood. When you reach that level of being, suddenly all darkness around him disappears. He is one of the most luminous beings; he is not obscure, he is not dark — it is you who are blind. Remember this always, because if you say he is dark you are throwing the responsibility on him, you are trying to escape from a transformation that is possible through encountering him. Don’t say that he is dark. Say, “We are blind,” or, “Our eyes are closed.”

The sun is there: you can stand in front of the sun with closed eyes and you can say the sun is dark. And sometimes it also happens that you can stand with open eyes before the sun, but the light is so much that your eyes temporarily go blind. The light is too much to bear, it is unbearable; suddenly, darkness. Eyes are open, the sun is there, but the sun is too much for your eyes so you feel darkness. And that is the case — Heraclitus is not dark. Either you are blind, or your eyes are closed, or there is also the third possibility: when you look at Heraclitus, he is such a luminous being that your eyes simply lose the capacity to see. He is unbearable, the light is too much for you. You are not accustomed to such light so you will need to make a few arrangements before you can understand Heraclitus. And when he is talking he looks as if he is riddling, he looks as if he is enjoying riddles, because he talks in paradoxes.

All those who have known always talk in paradoxes. There is something to it — they are not riddling, they are very simple. But what can they do? If life itself is paradoxical, what can they do? Just to avoid paradoxes you can create neat and clean theories, but they will be false, they will not be true to life. Aristotle is very neat, clean; he looks like a man-managed garden. Heraclitus looks like riddles — he is a wild forest.

With Aristotle there is no trouble; he has avoided the paradox, he has made a neat and clean doctrine — it appeals. You will be scared to face Heraclitus because he opens the door of life, and life is paradoxical. Buddha is paradoxical, Lao Tzu is paradoxical; all those who have known are bound to be paradoxical. What can they do? If life itself is paradoxical, they have to be true to life. And life is not logical. It is a logos, but it is not logic. It is a cosmos, it is not a chaos — but it is not logic.

Source – Osho Book “The Hidden Harmony”

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Why enlightened masters are egoist ?

Question – Do all enlightened masters sound as egoistic as you do?

Osho – It is bound to be so. They sound egoistic because they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humility. Try to understand. It is a delicate point. Whatsoever you call humbleness is a function of the ego. It is a modified ego. The enlightened person has no ego so he cannot have a modified ego. He cannot be humble. In the sense you can understand it, he cannot be humble.

Otherwise Krishna would not be able to say to Arjuna: “Leave all, and come to my feet. I am the God who created the whole existence. SARVA DHARMAN PARITYAJYA MAMEKAM SHARANAM VRAJA. Come to my feet.” What egoism! Jesus would not be able to say: “I am the door, I am the way, I am the truth.” “I and my Father in heaven are one.” “Those who follow me will be saved… only those who follow me will be saved.” And when Buddha attained to Buddhahood, he declared to the skies, to the heavens: “I have attained the unattainable!”

They sound very egoistic. First, they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humbleness. Your humbleness is a modified, polished, cultured ego. But then why do they sound egoistic?

They are not humble and you know only two qualities, two ways of being: humble or egoistic. They are not humble — then they must be egoistic. You have only tWo categories. And egoism is easy for you to understand, it is your language.
When you say’I’, you mean one thing; when I say’I’, I mean something else. But when I say’I’, you will understand it in your way, not in my way. When Krishna said to Arjuna, “Come to my feet!” what did he mean? Of course you would understand your meaning if you said to somebody, “Come to my feet!” The same must be Krishna’s meaning. No, that is not his meaning. He has no’I’ left, he has no’my’ left.

But he has to use your language. And you understand it in your own way. So all enlightened masters sound egoistic because you are egoistic. You will understand their humbleness only when your ego disappears. Otherwise it won’t allow you. The only way to understand those who have awakened is to become awake.

Continuously I go on observing: I say something; you understand something else. But that’s natural. How can you understand my meaning? When I say something, the word goes to you not my meaning. My meaning remains in my heart. Then the word goes within you and you color it, you give it a meaning. That meaning is yours.

They sound egoistic, but they are not. Because if they are, then the enlightenment has not happened yet. The enlightenment happens only when the ego has disappeared. The ego is the darkness of the soul, the ego is the imprisonment of the soul, the’I’ is the barrier to the ultimate.

A Buddha is an emptiness and when he says, “I have attained to the unattainable,” he is simply saying that the emptiness has realized its emptiness, nothing else. But how to translate it into your terms? He is simply saying that the emptiness has realized its emptiness, but he has to say, “I have attained to the unattainable.”

When Krishna says, “Come to my feet! ” he is saying, “Here, look! The emptiness is standing before you. Dissolve into it! ” But that won’t be direct. He has to use Arjuna’s language. He says, “Come to my feet.” If Arjuna is ready and willing to surrender, if he trusts and surrenders, when he touches the feet of Krishna he will touch emptiness. Only then will there be a realization of what Krishna was saying. There are no feet, no Krishna — just a tremendous quality of emptiness. The temple of God is emptiness. Touching Krishna’s feet he will bow down to emptiness and the emptiness will pour down into him. But that will be possible only when he trusts.

Yes, many times I must be sounding very egoistic to you. But don’t be deceived, because if you cling to the idea that I am egoistic, you will never be able to let go, to surrender, and then your ego will go on. Then there is no need to be here with me because then the whole point is lost. You are wasting your time.

There is only one way to be here with me: if you want to surrender. Otherwise go away, find somebody somewhere else to whom you find it easy to surrender, because unless you surrender you will not come to know who you are. And without knowing yourself, you will not be able to know what has happened to a man whom we called enlightened. Only through your own experience will things become clear to you.

Yes, it sounds egoistic. Now there are two ways. If you think that it not only sounds egoistic, it is — then go away from me. The sooner you go the better, because all the time that you are here will be wasted. Or, if you think it simply sounds egoistic but it is not so, then surrender. Then don’t wait because sometimes waiting too long can become habitual, you can get addicted to it. Then you can go on waiting and waiting and waiting.

And I will not be waiting here for long. A little while more and I will be gone. Then you will repent, then you will suffer, then you will be sad, but then it will be of no use. It will be easy for you to touch my feet when I am gone because then there is no surrender. You can go and touch the feet of a statue: the statue is dead; there is no surrender. When you touch the feet of an alive man — alive just like you, in the body just like you — then the problem comes. The ego resists.

So either believe in your ego or believe in me. These are the only two alternatives. Up to now you have believed in your ego. What have you attained? I open another alternative for you. Try it….

Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 2″

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why all the great scientists have come from the West.

Question – Beloved Osho, Why have all the great masters come from the East?

Osho – Because humanity has yet not been total. The East is introvert, the West is extrovert. Man is split, mind is schizophrenic. That’s why all the great masters have come from the East and all the great scientists have come from the West. The West has developed science and has completely forgotten about the inner soul; is concerned with matter, but has become oblivious of the inner subjectivity. The whole focus is on the object. Hence all the great scientists are born in the West.

The East has become too much concerned with the inner soul and has forgotten objectivity, matter, the world. Great religious masters developed out of this, but this is not a good situation, this should not be so. Man should become one. Man should not be allowed to be lopsided anymore. Man should be a fluidity, neither extrovert nor introvert. Man should be capable of being both together. The inner and the outer, if balanced, give the greatest ecstatic experience.

The person who is neither leaning towards the inner too much nor towards the outer too much is the person of equilibrium. He will be a scientist and a mystic together. That is something that will happen, that is something that is going to happen. We are preparing the field for it. I would like to see a man who is neither Eastern nor Western, because to be Eastern as against Western is ugly. To be Western as against Eastern is again ugly. The whole earth belongs to us and we belong to the whole earth. A man should be just man, a man should be just human — total, whole. And out of that wholeness will arise a new kind of health.

The East has suffered, the West has suffered. The East has suffered; you can see it all around — the poverty, the starvation. The West has suffered, you can see inside the Western mind — tension, anxiety, anguish. The West is very poor inwardly, the East is very poor outwardly. Poverty is bad. Whether it is inner or outer makes no difference, poverty should not be allowed. Man should be rich, inner, outer, both. Man should have all-dimensional richness.

Just think of a man who is an Albert Einstein and a Gautam Buddha both. Just meditate on that possibility — that IS possible. In fact if Albert Einstein had lived a little longer, he would have turned into a mystic. He had started thinking about the inner, he was becoming interested in the inner mystery. How long can you remain interested in the outer mystery? If you are really interested in mystery then sooner or later you will stumble upon the inner too. My concept is of a world which is neither Eastern nor Western, neither inner nor outer, neither extrovert nor introvert — which is balanced, which is whole.

But this has not been the case in the past. That’s why your question is relevant. You ask: “Why have all the great masters come from the East?” Because the East has been obsessed with the inner as against the outer. Naturally, when down the centuries you have been obsessed with the inner, you will create a Buddha, a Nagarjuna, a Shankara, a Kabir. It is natural.

If you are obsessed with the outer as against the inner, you will create an Albert Einstein, an Eddington, an Edison, that’s natural. But this is not good for the totality of human beings. Something is missing. The man who has inner growth and has not grown outwardly remains juvenile in the outside, remains stupid outside. And the same is the case with the man who has grown much, who has become mature, very mature, as far as mathematics goes and physics goes and chemistry goes, but who inside has not been even born yet, who is still in the womb.

This is my message to you: drop these hemispheres — East and West — and drop these hemispheres of inner and outer. Become fluid. Let movement, flow, be your very life. Remain available to the outer and to the inner both. That’s why I teach love and meditation. Love is the passage to go out, meditation is the passage to go in. And a man who is in love AND meditative is beyond schizophrenia, is beyond all kinds of split. He has become one, he is integrated. In fact, he has soul.

Source – Osho Book “The Diamond Sutra”
http://www.oshoteachings.com/osho-why-have-all-the-great-masters-come-from-the-east/

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Vivekanand is the prophet.

Osho : This is the oldest format: the Master is preceded by a disciple who functions as a predecessor and prepares the ground. Because of its defects and limitations, there has been another, the opposite. Ramakrishna is succeeded by Vivekanand; he is not preceded by anybody.

The Master comes first, then the disciple follows. This has its own benefits because the Master creates the whole climate, the Master creates the whole possibility of growth — how the thing is to go. He gives language, pattern, direction, dimension. But there are defects because the Master is infinite and when the disciple comes he is very finite.

Then the disciple has to choose, because he cannot move in all directions. The Master may be showing all the directions, he may be leading you towards infinity, but when the disciple comes he has to choose, he has to select, and then he forces his own pattern on it.

Ramakrishna was succeeded by Vivekanand. Ramakrishna is one of the greatest flowerings that has ever happened; Vivekanand is the prophet. Ramakrishna is the messiah, but Vivekanand set the whole trend. Vivekanand’s own inclinations were extrovert, not introvert.


His own inclinations were more towards social reformation, political change. He was more interested in bringing riches to the people, destroying poverty and hunger and starvation. He turned the whole trend around.

The Ramakrishna Mission is not true to Ramakrishna; the Ramakrishna Mission is true to Vivekanand. Now the Ramakrishna Mission functions as a social service. Wherever there is famine, they are there to serve people. Whenever there is an earthquake, they are there to serve people. Whenever there is flood — and there is no lack of these things in India — they are there. They are good servants, but Ramakrishna’s inward revolution has completely disappeared into the desert land of Vivekanand.

Ramakrishna functioned more freely than Jesus because there was no pattern for him. He lived more spontaneously than Jesus. There was no confinement anywhere; all the directions were open to him. He could fly just like a bird in the sky, no limitations existed. But then comes the disciple. He organizes it. He organizes, of course, in his own way.

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Accept your desire

Beloveds,
During my visit in India and particularly in the Osho Meditation Resort November-December 2002, I met several awakened sannyasins amongst meditators and workers. Some of us exchanged our favourite Osho quotes. This inspired me to compile these quotes with some encouraging notes in between, to take in what 

Osho says…
If you are already awake to the fact that we all are Consciousness Itself, the Whole, you might just enjoy the reading, and if not, my hope is that this might be of help…
My wish for this new year is that as many of us as possible will realize that we are Buddhas.

Osho says:
If you accept your desire, a moment of desirelessness is created. Accept your desire as it is. Now there is nothing to desire; desiring is not there. Accept everything as it is, even your desires.
(The Psychology of the Esoteric – Jan 1971)

You cannot “kill” your desires, as little as you can “kill” darkness. Accept every desire that appears in your mind – good or bad – all of it! And that YES functions as light. It will dispel the desires. Desires exist only out of ignorance, only out of believing that you are separate and that there is a shortage.

Osho says:
The body has its own life, and the body is completely unaware that a person has become enlightened. It continues, it has its own momentum, its own fuel.
(A Bird on the Wing, June 1974)

No need to expect your body to change with enlightenment, that suddenly you will walk as slowly as Osho, suddenly you will not blink your eyes as Osho seldom did, that you will like to sit alone in your room like Osho did. Your body will most likely continue to behave in a similar way as before.

Osho says:
To the actor, all roles are the same. What difference does it make whether you become Jesus or Judas in a drama? If you really know that this is a drama, and Judas and Jesus are all the same behind the curtain, behind the stage – it is just an act – then what is wrong in being a Judas? How can you dislike it? And what is good in being Jesus? How can you like it?
Likes and dislikes exist only when you think you are the doer. Then good and bad come in, then judgement, evaluation, then appreciation and condemnation. Then the duality enters.
Once you understand the point that life is just a great drama, you are finished with likes and dislikes. Then whatsoever the whole bids, you do it. You are not the doer: you fulfill the desire of the whole. You don’t choose, and when you are choiceless, you are free.
(Come Follow to You, Volume I, Oct 1975

Osho says:
When I say that I achieved enlightenment, I simply mean that I decided to live it. It is a decision that now you are not interested in creating problems – that’s all. It is a decision that now you are finished with all this nonsense of creating problems and finding solutions.
(Ancient Music in the Pines – Feb 1976)

It is essential to come to the point where you DECIDE that enough is enough. You decide that the seeking is over. You have already closed the door to problems and now you also stop seeking. All leaks are gone. You just live here-now, accepting life as it is… and WHAT a build-up of energy...

Osho says:
Enlightenment, the very idea of enlightenment, is the greatest joke there is. It is a joke because it is trying to get something that is already there. It is trying to reach somewhere where you are already. It is trying to get rid of something that is not there at all. It is an effort that is ridiculous.


You are enlightened from the very beginning. Enlightenment is your nature. Enlightenment is not something that has to be achieved. It is not a goal. It is your source. It is your very energy.
(Secret of Secrets, Vol. 2 – Aug 1978)


So there is no reason to put an enlightened being on a pedestal and think that he or she is different from you. Use the enlightened being to learn how you awake to who you are. Don’t let your parent cripple you, so you never grow up. Grow up and become an even more mature parent!

Osho says:
Just individual enlightenment is not enough. We have to start a process of enlightenment in which thousands of people become enlightened almost simultaneously, so that the whole consciousness of humanity can be raised to a higher level.
(Ah This! – Jan 1980)

That includes you too!

Osho says:
If you all put your energies together you can help to make millions of Buddhas in the world. We have to create millions of Buddhas. Only then a new man can be born.
(Glimpses of a Golden Childhood – 1984)

If you realize that you are that which always is present, that which never disappears – space itself, eternity itself, consciousness itself – and then help others to realize it, we can create a paradise.

Osho says:
So whoever becomes light has now the responsibility to raise humanity from the old, traditional way of surrendering to a master, because that has created many kinds of spiritual slaveries around the world. It has not enlightened man, it has darkened his soul ... It is easier and it is simpler when the master is a friend, because now between you and the master the relationship is of love. Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving. One gets much – but that is secondary, and that happens of its own accord.
(Light on the Path – Jan 1986)

So whoever is awake now, has to share it in such a way that it is not of the old hierarchy. If there is a flavor of “holier than thou”, then it is still a doer there – avoid it. If there is a declarer of enlightenment there, if the focus is on ” I am enlightened…” run as fast as possible. Lovingly, friendly, ordinary – no big deal – one simply enjoys helping someone to wake up… there is no joy greater than that.

Osho says:
You can take the help, and the beauty of help is – it is not binding. You can take my help and you can take anybody else’s help too. There is no question of commitment. You can accept help from every corner available. Why should you become attached only to one person? You should become available to all the wise people around you, from wherever any ray of light comes towards you. You should be ready and receptive. It does not matter from whom the ray of light comes. If it leads towards truth, if it makes you more free, more independent, more integrated, more of an individual, solid, like a rock… then you are absolutely free to accept all the help possible.
(The Sword and the Lotus – Feb 1986)


Never let your devotion to Osho become something that stops you from learning from whoever has some light to offer. There is no full stop in life, so that no more significant things can be expressed after Osho. If you put in a full stop there, then you meet the master on the way and you let him stop your evolution. That’s probably why Buddha used such a strong expression as, “If you meet the buddha on the road, kill him!” Nothing is more important than your awakening.

Osho says:
Those who are with me… it is as much their painting too. When I am gone, you have to continue to paint it. The painting has to go on growing new flowers, new foliage. Don’t let it be dead at any point.
(Beyond Enlightenment – Oct 1986)


We have to continue to paint. It means that we keep researching into the inner world, we keep finding even better ways to communicate it...

Osho says:
Your seeing me as a born buddha is right, but don’t forget your responsibility. It means you have to prove it too – that you are also a born Buddha. I don’t want you to worship buddhas, I want you to BECOME buddhas. That is the only right worship.
(Beyond Enlightenment – Oct 1986)

The only right way to worship Osho, to honor Osho, is to wake up, to realize that you are already all that you are searching.


Osho says:
This time the transmission of the lamp is going to happen to millions of people. The old buddhas had a very small company; my company is worldwide. I don’t belong to any nation, to any religion, and I don’t want you to belong to any nation or any religion. I want you to belong to the whole universe and spread the fire!
(The Original Man – Aug 1988)


It is going to happen to millions of people. Belong to the whole universe and spread the fire!


Osho says:
I want buddhas in every place, in every activity. I want the whole world full of buddhas. That is the only way we can transform the world into a paradise.
(Nansen: The Point of Departure – Oct 1988)


You can be part of transforming this world into a paradise!

Osho says:
All the vested interests are heading towards destroying this most beautiful planet. You can do only one thing to save it, and that is to become a buddha and spread your buddhahood – share it. We have to surround the whole globe with buddhas. They are our only hope. And I am not hoping in vain, you are going to be my witnesses.
(Christianity the Greatest Poison and Zen the Antidote to All Poisons – Jan 1989)


Are we not witnessing this mass-awakening taking off…?

Osho says:
I predict that the third world war is not going to happen, because of you, because of my people around the earth! Millions of buddhas are capable of creating the atmosphere for peace, for love, for compassion, for celebration.
(I Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now here – Feb 1989)


Millions of Buddhas…

Osho says:
Whenever you have found the truth, spread it, don’t keep it in your heart. If you keep it, it will die. Spread it wide, sow it in as many fields as possible. The more you spread it, the more it grows, the more you have it.
(The Zen Manifesto: Freedom from Yourself – Apr 1989)


If you keep it, it will die. If you spread it, more will be coming.
And last a poem by Jalaluddin Rumi:
This being human is a guesthouse.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness.
Comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture
Still treat each guest honorably.
He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight!
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing,
And invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
Because each has been sent.
As a guide from the beyond.
source:

http://www.sannyasnews.com/Articles/Rabia.html

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Just a little patience is needed.

Osho occupies the window seat and I sit next to Him. He tells me that He needs to rest and I have to make sure no one disturbs Him. I nod my head in assurance and He closes His eyes.

After about half an hour our breakfast of tea and toast has arrived. I keep the tray on the little shelf which is attached to the back of the seat in front. I am confused wondering if I should disturb Him or not. I just look at Him and to my surprise He opens His eyes and smiles. I can’t believe this, He looked like He was sleeping deeply. Without saying anything, He fixes the shelf in front of Him and I place the tray on it. He eats the toast and tea with such a joy as if He is eating the most delicious breakfast. When I sip the tea it is like cold water. I tell Him, “The tea is very cold, You should not be drinking it. I will call for fresh hot tea.” He says, “Don’t be bothered, it is okay.” To my surprise, at the very moment the waiter comes rushing to us with a fresh hot tea pot and says, “Have this fresh tea and return the previous one.” Osho gives the waiter a big smile and thanks him. As I am pouring the fresh tea for Him, Osho says, “Just a little patience is needed.”

After finishing His tea, He looks at His watch and closes His eyes again.

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Expectation leads to frustration

I look outside the window, the train is passing through Khandala. It is a very beautiful scene with vast green fields surrounded by a range of mountains, and clouds are floating in the valleys. It all looks magical. My mind is diverted by a man who is standing near me calling me by my name. Seeing me puzzled, he introduces himself as having met me at Sohan’s home and says that he is specially traveling by this train only to have a little talk with Osho.

I ask him to come again after a while, I look at Osho and He is sitting in the same posture with His eyes closed like a marble statue. It is quite noisy in the train, but Osho seems to be totally cut off from the outside world. And here I am, sitting next to Him, and starting to feel uneasy without any apparent reason. I watch my disturbed mind and try to relax. Just to occupy myself, I start reading the newspaper.

The train stops at Karjat station and some hawkers enter. It is very noisy but Osho is still sitting motionless with His eyes closed. This man comes again and seeing Osho with closed eyes, goes back.

After he has left, Osho opens His eyes, looks at His watch. I ask Him if He would like to drink a soda. He simply nods in affirmation. I get a soda for Him, which He drinks a little and returns the bottle to me. I tell Him about this man and He says, “Yes, I know he’s traveling on this train. When he comes again, allow him to sit in your seat for ten minutes to talk to me.” Then He asks me, “What about you? Are you enjoying the journey?” I tell Him how uneasy I was feeling and had started reading the newspaper.
Osho says, “You should meditate at least one hour daily, sitting silently and watching your thoughts.” I ask Him, “I feel frustrated without any apparent cause.” He replies, “Expectation leads to frustration. Don’t expect but accept. Accept yourself also as you are. Just relax in your being, that is all meditation is.” Seeing me serious, He laughs and adds, “Now don’t be serious about the meditation. Just learn to accept and enjoy everything and report back to me when I come next time.”

I hold His hand in mine and kiss it in gratitude and thankfulness. We create mountains out of mole hills and He has the art of dissolving the whole mountain; not even a mole hill is left.

I ask Him if He would like to drink more soda and He says, “You can finish it.”

He closes His eyes again and I start enjoying drinking soda from His bottle.

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Spiritual dog

Osho is conducting a meditation camp at Matheran hill station. Near about five hundred people are participating in the camp. He is staying at Rugby Hotel which has a big open ground in the middle where the camp is arranged.

One dog comes regularly and sits silently near the podium while Osho is speaking. I watch him. He comes a little early and has reserved his seat near the podium on the floor. He sits at the same place every day like a great meditator and looks very attentive with his ears raised while Osho is speaking.

When Osho comes and namastes everyone, he raises his neck and looks at Osho and Osho greets him with a great smile. It is the fourth morning today and Osho is standing at arrived at the station to see Him off. I am surprised to see this dog standing near Osho. Osho looks at the dog with such love that he starts wagging his tail.
After a few minutes, this mini train running between Matheran and Neral station is about to leave. Osho namastes everyone and enters the train. The train starts slowly, everyone has left except the dog who is walking with the train. The train picks up speed and the dog starts running with the train. Osho is watching him running and with the gesture of his hand blesses him and tells him to stop running.

The dog stops and looks up at Osho. I can’t resist waving my hand towards him saying good-bye. Osho remarks, “He is a very evolved soul.”

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Love the Stranger

It is very hard to burn this kerosene stove. It is giving lots of trouble. I have to clean its nipple with a pin very often and pump it for a while and somehow miraculously it burns up.

First I prepare tea and then keep the lid directly on the stove to make toast. Osho is having His breakfast on a little rectangular table placed in one corner of the kitchen. I keep the kitchen door open to keep the kerosene smell out. Today the watchman, who is a young handsome Muslim, comes to the door and bowing down towards Osho says, “Aleikum Salaam.” Osho greets him with His big heavenly smile and asks me to give him toast and tea.

But to my surprise the next day also this watchman comes at the same time and the whole incident is repeated again. Now I am sure it will repeat every day while we are there.

My intuition is not wrong, he comes every day for his tea and toast and I observe Osho is enjoying it. I feel Osho must be knowing my inner turmoil and anger against this man and is trying to bring it to the surface without saying a single word to me directly. Today I hear Him talking in discourse about unconditional love, loving strangers without any motive. Hearing this, I feel myself utterly stupid remembering the morning incident, and something clicks.
Next morning for the first time I receive the watchman with a open heart and give him toast and tea with love. Osho is watching it and when I look at Him, He gives me a sweet smile, acknowledging the change in my attitude towards the watchman

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Where are You going ?

The series of discourses on Mahavira is arranged in Kashmir for eighteen days.

Osho will be coming from Jabalpur to Delhi by train and will fly from Delhi to Srinagar. From Bombay, we are nearly thirty friends who will be meeting Him there. One other group of about twenty friends from Delhi will join us in Srinagar.

In Srinagar, on the little hill near Dal Lake, cottages known as “Chashme-Shahe” are booked to accommodate the whole group. Somehow the Bombay group has reached there early and we have this opportunity of choosing our cottage. It is a very beautiful place. I go around looking for the cottage which has the best view. Each cottage has two bedrooms, one bathroom and quite a big living room.
I choose the last cottage in the row. It has an open verandah on the back side. The view is the best. One side is over-looking the lake and on the other side are vast fields with a range of mountains behind them. I think this open verandah will be the best place for Osho to sit and enjoy the scenery without any disturbance. I check the bathroom, flush the toilet, running hot water. Finding everything in order, my girlfriend, Sheelu, and I occupy one of the rooms of this cottage with the idea that when Osho arrives we will vacate this room for Him. The other room is occupied by a Bombay couple.

The Delhi friends have also arrived. Everyone looks happy and excited. This is a rare opportunity of being with Osho for a continuous eighteen days. Two cars have gone to the airport to receive Osho. We have a cook with us from Bombay, who is busy setting the kitchen up in one of the huts.

At 2:00pm, Osho arrives with Kranti in the car of a friend from Delhi. He looks quite tired, but still meets everyone individually without any hurry. The Delhi friends invite Osho to the cottage which they have reserved for Him. I silently walk behind Him. I feel Osho has some magnetic energy which always pulls me towards Him. Whenever I enter in His energy field I become more relaxed and silent. He enters the cottage and looking around asks me to check the bathroom. I go in the bathroom and finding there is no hot water, I feel very happy. I come back and suggest to Him to have a look at the cottage I have reserved for Him and to take a shower. The Delhi friends get annoyed with me but my whole concern is Osho’s comfort. I ignore them. Osho agrees and I take Him to the cottage chosen by me. It is quite hot, and we have to walk for about five minutes in the sun. He covers His head with a little napkin. I am walking by His side, feeling proud of my act. He tells me, “Seeing the two cars at the airport I knew this trouble is going to happen between Bombay and Delhi friends.” We reach the cottage. He looks around, sees the back verandah and smiles at me. We come back to the room where He sits on the bed and says, “I will stay here.” I am overjoyed to hear it. Someone is sent to bring His suitcase. In the meantime, I pull my suitcase out from underneath the bed and carry it to the living room. He asks me, “Where will you be living?” I answer, “Osho, I don’t know. I will move to some other cottage.”
He smiles and says, “There is no need to move. You can stay in the living room.” I can’t believe it, to have this unexpected gift of love from Osho. My heart starts dancing with joy and tears overflowing with gratitude. I touch His feet and placing His hand on my head, He says, “Very good.”

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How much Osho is Compassionate ?

There are two separate kitchens of Bombay friends and Delhi friends. Bombay friends’ cook is preparing Gujrati food and Delhi friends are cooking Punjabi food, which is very different. They both want Osho to eat their food. So finally it is decided that Osho will eat lunch with Delhi friends and dinner with Bombay friends. I feel angry at the stupidity of the friends who are behaving so unconsciously with Osho. These two types of food can make anyone sick.

After morning discourse, at 11:30 am, Osho has to walk in the sun nearly five minutes to go to the cottage where lunch is arranged for Him. Walking behind Him I always feel I am walking behind Buddha. I tell this to Kranti and we discuss about the theosophical society’s experiment on J. Krishnamurti. We both agree on one point, that Buddha’s soul has chosen Osho’s body as a vehicle.

Osho’s compassion and acceptance is infinite. He accepts every situation so easily that hardly anyone ever thinks about His comfort. After lunch, while coming to the cottage, I talk to Him about this. He simply laughs and tells me not to be serious about such things.

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How to have a Heart of an emperor ?

Today is the last day in Pahalgaon. With Osho, sometime it feels the time has
stopped and at other times it feels it is running very fast. While I am busy packing, I hear the voice of this Muslim watchman, who is standing at the door. I ask him to come after an hour to help us carry our luggage to the car. As a token of his services, I give him twenty rupees, which he receives with thanks and leaves.

We are sitting on the verandah with Osho, ready to leave. The watchman comes and salutes Osho saying, “Aleikum Salaam”. Osho smiles at him. He asks Osho if he can come to Bombay to serve Him. I can see tears in his eyes. He is deeply touched by Osho’s love. Osho blesses him by placing His hand on his head, and asks me if I have given him some money. I tell Osho about giving him twenty rupees. Osho says, “Give him twenty more”. Twenty rupees is quite an amount in these days. People hardly give five rupees as baksheesh to their servants. Osho has the heart of an emperor who is always ready to share to the maximum. I give the watchman twenty rupees more. While receiving it he holds my hand and starts crying. It touches me deeply and tears overflow from my eyes also. Thank you beloved master, for giving me this opportunity to open my heart to a stranger.

Almost having tears in my eyes when reading. Love you for sharing such a nice story.

Source

http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Simply osho

After the meditation camp at Nargol, Laxmi has started wearing orange color Lunghi and Kurta. Osho has appointed her as secretary and she comes to C.C.I. Chambers at 7:00am. Anyone wanting to see Osho has to take appointment from her. This is beyond my imagination. My mind is not ready to accept this new arrangement.

Everyday I am buying some roses from a blind boy who is selling them in a local train. Before starting dynamic, I am visiting Him in His bedroom to offer the flowers. I ask Osho about this appointment business started by Laxmi.

He laughs and says, “Don’t make it a problem. Just come before Laxmi arrives.” I appreciate this great idea of my master and start coming fifteen minutes before Laxmi—and walk straight to His room. I feel it is not only me who wants to see Him, He is also waiting to see me.
Tonight, I heat Him saying in discourse, “The master is like a heavy cloud full of water, showering on those who are thirsty and ready to receive Him in their hearts. The disciple may feel grateful or not, but the master feels grateful towards those who have opened their heart towards Him.”

He further adds, “This has never been said by masters before, but it is so. I am saying it from my own experience.”
My head bows down in gratitude and I can’t find any words to thank Him. I know He understands those hearts, which are beating in rhythm with His heart.

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Who is the real Sannyasin

As I come out of the room, I see Chaitanya Bharti standing there with his camera. I ask him if he will take a picture of me with Osho after discourse. He agrees to it. I tell him that after discourse I will go near Osho, where he should be available.

I sit down on the floor in the audience near the podium and close my eyes. I am in an “Aha” space. I have no clue of what is going on. There are about 400 to 500 people sitting in pin drop silence waiting to receive their master. In a couple of minutes I feel Osho’s presence near me and I open my eyes. He is right in front of me, standing with His folded hands, greeting His friends. I look upwards to see His face one more time to quench my unending thirst. He speaks nearly two hours, answering all kinds of questions.

After discourse, I walk towards Him and say, “Osho, I want to have a picture with you.” He immediately agrees to it and I stand next to Him on His right side, and Chaitanya Bharti clicks his camera in seconds. This picture is my real treasure. When I receive it in the mail from Delhi, I take it to show to Osho.

Osho gazes at the picture for a minute and signs it with the message; “One who lets go of everything is a real Sannyasin.”


source
http://oshospeak.blogspot.com

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Thy will be done, Oh Beloved of my heart

After wearing this orange dress for two days, I wash it and go to the morning discourse in my ordinary clothes. When He looks at me, I feel He is not happy about my wearing other clothes. There is a question in His look, “What has happened to the orange dress?”
I can’t understand it. How can I wear one dress for all these days?

After discourse, I am called in His room. I am scared as if I have committed some crime and I have to face the judge in the court. I enter in His room like a sheep. He is sitting on a chair with His eyes closed, and I sit on the floor near His feet. I feel relaxed, wrapped in His invisible fragrance. I can’t resist fazing at His radiant face. He opens His eyes and smiles at me. All my fear vanishes away.

He says, “You have to distribute all your other clothes to your friends and wear only orange.” I ask Him, “How can I go to the office in orange dress? People will laugh and think I have gone mad.” He laughs and says, “You are mad. Let people laugh, you can also laugh with them.” Seeing me confused, He says, “It is up to you. You decide whether you want to be a Sannyasin or not.” His voice is strong and He is really serious about Sannyas. He gets up and goes to the bathroom, leaving me in total confusion.
A special meeting is arranged in the evening in His living room, where He explains to us about His Neo-Sannyas movement. I leave the meeting with a heavy heart. I can’t digest this heavy dose. We have to live in our homes, continue our jobs and wear orange clothes and Mala around our neck. It sounds easy but does not seem practical. I am unable to sleep the whole night. When I visualize the whole scene of going to my home and office in orange clothes, my mind simply freaks out.

Lying in my bed, I can see my mind, wrestling with Osho. Finally, my love and trust for Osho wins and realizing its utter failure, my mind calms down and surrenders to the master. I whisper to myself, “Thy will be done, Oh Beloved of my heart.”

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Flying kiss How ??

Osho has already moved to His new apartment in Woodlands building. I am seeing Him almost every day, narrating Him all kinds of incidents. He enjoys and laughs and tells me not to take anything seriously.

I narrate to Him how college boys throw flying kisses from the running buses when I am standing at a bus stop. I feel very awkward when people standing in the queue start looking at me as if I am a fool.

He tells me, “If someone is sending you a flying kiss, just stretch your arm and give him flying blessings. What else can you do?”


By and by, I get used to all such incidents. Osho is already very notorious and is known as ‘Sex Guru’ and people think of us as prostitutes.

By now, I have become very strong inside and don’t care a bit about others’ opinions. One morning I am waiting at the platform to catch the train. One so-called gentleman walks towards me and asks me if I would like to be with him tonight. I just tell him, “Sorry, you are too late. I am already engaged.” He takes it seriously and asks, “How about tomorrow?” I reply to him, “Tomorrow never comes.” He can not get the point and utterly confused, walks away.

When I tell this incident to Osho, He really enjoys it and says, “Well done, Jyoti. Just be playful like that and there will be no problem.”

http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Sexually suppressed society

Osho has started speaking every evening from 8:00pm at His apartment in Woodlands. Sometimes discourse goes on for a couple of hours. It takes me more than an hour to reach my home in the suburbs. It is quite an odd time. There are hardly any women traveling by local train at that late hour. Men give me funny looks and sometimes pass ugly remarks. But at any cost, I don’t want to miss His discourse.

As usual, I am going back home by local train and for some reason the train stops between two stations nearly half an hour. I am getting worried. It is going to be too late tonight. By the time the train reaches Andheri station it is already 11:45pm.

I walk out of the station and wait at the bus stop. One man standing by my side starts talking to me very gently and offers me a lift in a taxi. First I hesitate, but finding no other way, I agree to it. He hires a taxi and opens the door for me. I enter first and he sits by my side. As the taxi starts, he puts his arm around me and tells me to introduce myself. I can smell his vibe and feel myself stupid for accepting his offer. My mind stops working. I don’t know what to do now. He comes more close and says I look tired. If I would like to eat and have some drink first… I gather myself together and tell him, “It is too late, I want to go straight home.” He laughs and whispers in my ear, “tonight, you are not going home.” He presses my hand. I simply freeze and remember Osho. To my utter surprise, suddenly something clicks. I become very much aware and tell him, “Yes please. I am feeling very hungry. Let us get down here and have some food.” He asks the taxi driver to stop and we get out of the taxi. He is looking at the meter to pay the taxi fare. And really a miracle happens. One bus arrives and halts right in front of me. I rush and enter into the bus from the exit door, which the driver does not object to at all. My heart is still throbbing fast in fear, though I have reached home safely. I promise to myself never to take a ride again in my life.

What an incident! But it proves what Osho is saying about our sexually suppressed society.

http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Nothing can stop spirituality ?

By and by, people have started to understand us. My office people don’t give me any funny looks. Some have started reading Osho’s books and are coming to listen to His discourses also. The whole atmosphere has changed. My boss is no longer angry at me. On the contrary, he helps in whatever way possible.

Morning discourses are arranged in Patkar Hall for eighteen days from 8:30 to 10:00am. Osho is going to speak on Mahavira. My office starts at 9:00am and I have no leave to my credit. I feel desperate and go to see Osho. I tell Osho about my office timings and ask Him what to do. He is never in favor of resigning my job.

He asks me, “What is the name of your boss and how does he look?”

I tell Him the name and describe his personality. I don’t understand at all what He is up to. He closes His eyes for a couple of minutes and then tells me to inform my boss that I will be coming at 10:30 for eighteen days. I am surprised. It looks impossible. I tell Osho, “It won’t work. We have a time card punching system in the office. Only one minute late is allowed.” Listening to this, Osho again repeats the same message and asks me to do what He is saying.

I go to the office, working out how to put it to my boss. I know him as a very strict man of discipline in the office. My mind says, “He will think that I have lost my sanity, asking for such a concession.”

Somehow, I gather courage and go to see him. He greets me with a smile on his face, which is very unusual, and asks me what he can do for me. Hesitantly, I ask him if I can come one hour late in the morning and work one hour more in the evening for a few days. To my great astonishment, he says he has seen the advertisement in the paper and knows that Osho speaking from 8:30 to 10:00 every morning for eighteen days. Then he asks me, “How will you manage to reach by 10:00 in the office?” I tell him, “I will leave the discourse a little early and will manage to reach by taxi.”

He laughs and says, “There is no need to leave the discourse early. You can come by 10:30 and don’t punch your time card. I will take care of it and don’t sit late also.”

I can’t believe my ears! What a miracle! I am sure that Osho has done some telepathy with this man which I can’t conceive.

When I tell Osho about this, he laughs and does not comment on it. I think He is not in favor of making any gossip about His miraculous powers.

Same kind of thing I have also experienced. 

http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Truth will reveal itself.

After this taxi incident, my girl friend, who is also coming for discourse every evening and I decide that either she will come to stay with me in the night or I go to her house. In the morning, we can depart. She likes to come to my home; I have arranged an extra bed for her in my room. It works out fine.

People living in the neighborhood notice it and not knowing the facts, start the rumor that I am bringing girls in my home at night, who leave in the morning. When I hear this gossip from a friend, I am really shocked. What a rotten society we are living in. How people project their minds on us! They won’t even dare to come and talk to me about this.

Sometimes I decide to stay at my friend’s home and come to my home in the morning. And again the gossip: I am not coming home the whole night; surely I am doing some night business. I tell to Osho about all these rumors about us. And His answer is, “It is your fire test. You have not to react, but ignore such people. Be indifferent. One day the truth will reveal itself.”

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Jesus loves me .

“A man just got married and was returning home with his wife. They were crossing a lake in a boat when suddenly a great storm arose. The man was a warrior, but the woman became very much afraid because it seemed almost hopeless — THE BOAT WAS SMALL AND THE STORM WAS REALLY HUGE, AND ANY MOMENT THEY WERE GOING TO BE DROWNED. But the man sat silently, calm and quiet, as if nothing was happening.

The woman was trembling and she said, “Are you not afraid? This may be our last moment of life! IT DOESN’T SEEM THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH THE OTHER SHORE. Only some miracle can save us, otherwise death is certain. Are you not afraid? Are you mad or something? Are you a stone or something?”

THE MAN LAUGHED AND TOOK THE SWORD OUT OF ITS SHEATH. The woman was even more puzzled — what he is doing? Then he brought the naked sword close to the woman’s neck — so close that just a small gap was there, it was almost touching her neck.

He said, “ARE YOU AFRAID?”

She started to giggle and laugh and said, “WHY SHOULD I BE AFRAID? If the sword is in your hands, why should I be afraid? I know you love me.”

He put the sword back and said, “This is my answer. I know God loves me, and the sword is in His hands, and the storm is in His hands — so WHATS OEVER IS GOING TO HAPPEN IS GOING TO BE GOOD. If we survive, good; if we don’t survive, good — because EVERYTHING IS IN HIS HANDS, AND HE CANNOT DO ANYTHING WRONG.”

This is the trust one needs to imbibe. SUCH TREMENDOUS TRUST IS CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING YOUR WHOLE LIFE! And ONLY such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your life — less than that won’t do.”

~ Osho

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Osho touches mothers feet

Osho is giving discourses on Mahavira at Patkar Hall in Bombay. It is the eighteen-day religious festival of the Jainas called Paryushan.

Today Osho’s mother and aunt, who have arrived from Gadarwara, will be taking Sannyas before discourse. The auditorium is over-full. Osho has arrived two minutes early today, and after greeting everyone with folded hands, sits in lotus posture with His eyes closed. Suddenly, two elderly women in orange saris, walking through the auditorium, reach to the podium and bow down to Osho. Osho slowly gets up and touches their feet first and then puts Malas around their necks. The whole scene is so touching; many friends in the auditorium start sobbing. It blows my mind away, watching Osho touching the feet of His mother and aunt. I feel as if the sky has come down to touch the earth. Such a man of heights and so simple and humble, is unbelievable. I guess it has never happened in the past history that a mother gets initiated by her enlightened son. Thank you beloved master, for giving me this opportunity of being a witness to this memorable event.

http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Where is God ?

It is evening, peak rush time of vehicles on the roads in Bombay. I am waiting for a taxi to reach Cross Maidan, where Osho is giving discourses on Bhagavadgeeta at 6:30pm. I am getting desperate after waiting for fifteen minutes. So many taxis are passing before me, but all are already occupied. I wonder where all these people are going, why someone is not giving me a ride. It getting too late and I feel frustrated and helpless. As a last chance, I start praying in my heart, asking existence to help me to reach in time for discourse. I relax and let go and the miracle happens. A car stops near me. Someone opens the front door. I peep in.

I can’t believe my eyes. Osho sitting in the back seat greets me with a smile and Ma Laxmi, who is driving, asks me to sit by her side in front. My mind is blown away. There is deep silence in the car and I feel drowned in it. My eyes close with gratitude and tears start flowing.

In a few minutes we reach Cross Maidan. I get out of the car and rush to touch His feet, but there is already a big group of people surrounding Him. Everyone is touching His feet and He is bending every time to touch their heads. It is too much. So many people are surrounding Him; it is difficult for Him to move even an inch. Laxmi looks at me and we both start pushing people to the sides, and stretch our arms, working like a wall on both His sides. Still two minutes distance takes about ten minutes for Him to reach the podium. He greets the audience with folded hands and sits cross-legged in Buddha posture with His eyes closed. I find my place in the front row on the ground. I look at Him. There is no sign of any tiredness on His face. He looks so fresh and luminous like an angel who has just arrived on the earth.

Source
http://oshospeak.blogspot.com/

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Never be faithful to your wife ?

Question – Osho, I know for sure that my wife is utterly faithful to me, but still doubt goes on lingering somewhere inside me. What should I do to get rid of the doubt?

Osho – Avinash,IN THE first place, why should you ask that she should be faithful to you? It is from there that doubt arises. The very desire that your wife should be faithful TO YOU is the beginning of doubt. Why? Who are you that she should be faithful to you? She should be faithful to herself, you should be faithful to yourself.

That’s what love is. If you love the woman, you would like her to be faithful to herself, because you would like her to be authentic. You would like her to be an individual in her own right. Why should you demand that she should be faithful to you? Who are you? – just a stranger.

YOU need not be faithful to her, you have to be faithful to yourself. This is my basic approach; it has to be understood well. Down the ages it has been said: be faithful to your husband, be faithful to your wife, be faithful to this and that. Nobody has told you: be faithful just to yourself.

And that’s exactly what my message is: be faithful to yourself. Then doubt disappears. Doubt is not good, but doubt is a by-product of a desire, a wrong desire – that she should be faithful to you. And how can you except anybody to be faithful to you? In that very expectation, you are asking something so unnatural that doubt will arise.

Who knows? – she may come across a beautiful man, far more beautiful than you are. And you know there are men who are far more beautiful. Fear, doubt, are bound to be there. Who knows? she may be getting fed-up with you!

In fact there is every possibility that you yourself are fed-up with yourself. You know how ugly you are, how ugly your habits are; she must have come to know by now. In the beginning things are different. When you meet a woman on the beach, just for a few hours things are different.

The full moon creates great illusions, and the ocean, and the vibrant air, and the silence, and the night, and the unknown territory… the woman. She is unknown to you, you are unknown to her; both would like to explore each other’s geographies. You are tremendously interested, she is, but once you have travelled the geography so many times, the same contours….

You know you are fed-up with your wife, so deep down the doubt arises that she may be fed-up with you. Don’t ask for faithfulness, ask for freedom. Give freedom so that you can have freedom. And if out of freedom you go on loving each other, it is beautiful. Out of freedom everything has beauty.

But out of a certain duty, if she even remains faithful to you, it has no value. When she comes across a beautiful man on the road and a longing arises in her heart to know this man, to be with this man, but she knows this is not right – she represses it. She has already gone away, she is no more with you. You may be holding her hand in your hand, but she is no more with you.

Her whole being has gone in that moment. She may not ever do anything, but in her fantasy, in her imagination… You cannot control her fantasy, you cannot control her imagination. In her dreams she may be making love to other people. And who makes love to one’s own husband in a dream? Have you ever heard of such a foolish woman or a foolish man? Have you ever made love to your own wife? – one always makes love to other people’s wives in dreams.

In dreams you are free and private. The magistrate is not there, the policeman is not there, the wife is not there, nobody is there. You are again free. So just on the surface you can fulfill formalities. The doubt is arising because you have a wrong expectation in the first place. I cannot help you to drop the doubt unless you drop the desire that your wife should be faithful to you.

Drop the desire that your wife should be faithful to you. Drop that, and then if you can create the doubt, it will be a miracle. Then how can doubt arise? We never go to the very root of problems, we only go on changing the symptoms. My help is available to you only to go to the deep root of the problem, to the very foundation of it. Change it there!

And you say, ”I KNOW FOR SURE THAT MY WIFE IS UTTERLY FAITHFUL TO ME.” How can you be so sure? You are just trying to convince yourself by using these words, that ”I am sure” – just using great words to hide something! You are not sure. See the cunningness of the mind. You are not sure, hence you are using the word ’sure’: ”I KNOW FOR SURE THAT MY WIFE IS UTTERLY FAITHFUL TO ME.”

Just faithfulness won’t do? Utterly faithful? Is there some doubt? Why UTTERLY faithful? A circle is simply a circle. You cannot say that this is a complete circle, UTTERLY circular. If it is a circle it is a circle! You cannot call it a perfect circle, because if it is not perfect it is not a circle, it must be something else. Watch, meditate on these words.

”BUT STILL,” you say, ”I DOUBT. SOMEWHERE DOUBT GOES ON LINGERING.” You doubt your wife? Are you certain about your faithfulness towards her? Maybe that’s why the doubt arises. You may be fooling around, if not actually, then in imagination. And then naturally the inference is there that your wife may be fooling around, if not actually, at least in imagination. And the male ego is such that it cannot allow even the wife to fool around in imagination.

The story is told of Mulla Nasruddin, who got married and spent a pleasant honeymoon with his bride. But one day he came to the office with a rather glum expression on his face. When his fellow clerks asked him what was bothering him he said, ”Gee, I pulled a terrible boner this morning. Getting out of bed I, like an absent-minded jackass, laid down a ten rupee note on the table.”

The other man consoled him. His wife wouldn’t think anything of it, they assured him.

”That isn’t what bothers me.” he answered. ”She gave me three rupees change!”

It may be your own mind. When a beautiful woman passes by, does something happen to you or not? Only in two cases will nothing happen: either you are dead or enlightened – which mean the same! Otherwise something is bound to happen. And then the suspicion: the same must be happening to your woman too, because she is as unenlightened as you are and as alive as you are. Maybe the doubt is there because you are not loving her as much as she would like you to love her.

And it happens to couples – how can you go on having the same peak of love that was there in the beginning, the honeymoon peak? One has to come down. Sooner or later one has to come down from the hills to the ordinary, mundane life.

Sooner or later one has to forget ali poetry, fantasy, romance. And then a fear arises: maybe I am not taking as much care as I should? Maybe this will become an opportunity for her to move with somebody else? Look into yourself….

A husband comes home and finds his wife in bed with a man. He is furious and wants to leave at once. The wife pleads, ”Give me a moment to explain. This man came to my door an hour ago and asked for something to eat. I gave him a sandwich.

I noticed that his shoes were worn out, so I looked in your closet and found a pair that you haven’t had on your feet for five years, and I gave him the shoes to put on. Then I saw that his jacket was very tom, so I went back to your closet and found a jacket that you haven’t worn for eight years. When he took his old jacket off to put yours on, I saw that his shirt was falling to pieces, so I opened your bureau drawer and gave him a shirt that you haven’t worn for the past twelve years.

Then as this man was going out of the door he turned to me and asked, ”Is there anything else around here that your husband doesn’t use?”

Avinash, it is not a question of your wife, it is a question of your own mind. Just look deep down… have you been with her? For how long have you not been with her? – I don’t mean physically, I mean spiritually. For how long have you not seen her face? – just remember; for how long have you not looked into her eyes? Figure it out, and you will be surprised that for years you have taken her for granted, and that may be the cause of your doubt.

Remember, problems are always part of your mind. Go deep into them. In the first place, don’t ask that she should be faithful to you; that is violent. Nobody has the right to ask anybody to be faithful towards him. Help her to be faithful towards herself.

And secondly, look inside your own being. Are you still in love with her? If you are, then the doubt is not possible. The doubt simply reflects that your love has disappeared. Life has become a drag; you have started taking her for granted.

Love is no more there. Now it is only a hangover, hence the doubt. Bring the love back, bring the poetry back, bring the romance back. And those who are intelligent, they can bring it back every day. Every morning they can look at the wife, at the husband, with fresh eyes.


Go on dying to the past experiences, so that you can remain available to the present, fresh, young, utterly intelligent, and then life has a totally different flavor. Then these stupid things don’t arise in the mind at all.

Source: from Osho Book “The Guest”

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How not to be bored ?

Question – Beloved Osho, don’t you get bored, bored and fed up, day after day answering the same questions, while we sit there with ears blocked, eyes tight, mouth sealed, never ever getting the message — that there are no answers? You continually astound me in your dewdrop freshness in the early morning light, and still i am blind, deaf and lame, cut off from sharing in your radiance except for brief moments.

Osho – The first thing: I am not, so I cannot be bored and fed up. First you have to be to be bored. The more you are the more you will feel bored. The less you are the less bored. That’s why children are less bored than old people. Have you not observed it? Children are almost not bored. They go on playing with the same toys, they go on running after the same butterflies, they go on collecting the same seashells. They are not bored.

Have you ever told a story to a child? After listening to it he says, “Tell it again… and again.” And whenever you will meet him again he will say, “Tell me that story. I loved it.” Why is a child not bored? — because he is not. Or he is in a very rudimentary way; the ego has not evolved yet. The ego is the factor that creates boredom.

Animals are not bored, trees are not bored, and what novelty is there in the life of animals and trees? The rosebush goes on producing the same roses year in, year out, and the bird goes on singing the same song every morning and every evening. The cuckoo knows not many notes, just a single note. It goes on repeating it; it is monotonous. But not a single animal is bored, not a single tree is bored. Nature knows nothing of boredom. Why? — because nature has no ego yet.

A Buddha is not bored, a Jesus is not bored, because they have dropped the ego again. Nature has not evolved it yet, Buddha has dropped it. Buddha and nature are almost the same. I say almost because there is only one difference — of great significance, but only one difference. The difference is that of awareness. Nature is without ego but unaware, Buddha is without ego but aware.

Once you know you are not there, who is going to be bored? who is going to be fed up? That’s why I can come every morning and go on answering your questions. I am not bored. I cannot be bored. For almost twenty-five years I have not tasted boredom. I have started forgetting the very taste of it, how it feels.

The second thing: the questions are not the same. They cannot be — they come from different people, how can they be the same questions? Yes, sometimes the words may be the same, but the questions are not the same. Two persons are so different from each other — how can they ask the same question? Even if the words are the same, even if the construction of the question is the same, yet I would like you to be reminded — they can’t be the same.

Now this question is asked by Anand Shaila; nobody else can ask it. Nobody else upon this big earth can ask it. To ask this question a Shaila will be needed. And Shaila is only one; there are not many Shailas. So remember, each individual has such uniqueness. To call those questions the same is disrespectful. I respect your questions. They are not the same. They have nuances of their own, colors of their own, but you need very penetrating eyes to see the difference, otherwise you may not be able to see.

When you look around and you see all the trees are green, do you think it is the same green? Then you don’t know how to look at color. Then bring a painter, then ask the painter and he will say, “They are all different greens. There are thousands of types of greens — different shades, different nuances. No two trees are the same green.” Just look around and you will see — yes, each green is a different green.

So are questions. And even if the same person asks the question again and again, then too it cannot be the same, because you go on changing. Nothing is static. You cannot step in the same river twice, and you cannot meet the same person again. Shaila cannot ask this question tomorrow, because there will be no more the same person tomorrow. The Ganges will have flowed, much water will have gone down. This moment it is relevant, tomorrow it may not be relevant, something else may surface in the consciousness.

No two persons can ask the same question, and not even the same person can ask the same question again, because the person goes on changing. A person is like a flame, constantly changing. But again you have to look very deep. I have never come across the same questions. I am always thrilled by your questions. I always wonder how you manage to ask. “Don’t you get bored, bored and fed up, day after day answering the same questions while we sit here with ears blocked, eyes tight, mouths sealed, never ever getting the message that there are no answers?”

Just because you sit there “ears blocked, eyes tight, mouth sealed, never ever getting the message,” it becomes a challenge to me. It is a great adventure. You persist, I also persist. The question is: Who is going to win? Whether you will remain always closed or some day you will take pity on me and you will listen… open your ears, your heart, a little bit? It is a struggle. It is wrestling that goes on between the master and the disciple — a constant fight.

And the disciple cannot win. It has never been heard that he can win. He can postpone, he can delay, but he cannot win. And the more you delay the more your defeat becomes certain. I am encroaching on your being in different ways. You just go on sitting there with your closed ears and closed eyes and closed heart — you just remain there, that’s all. You just be here. Sooner or later, one day, you will have heard the message.

How long can you go on remaining closed? They say if a man persists in his folly he becomes wise. You persist. Some day, in spite of you, you will have heard. That’s why I go on speaking every morning, every evening, year in, year out. And you say, “… never ever getting the message — that there are no answers.” You will get that message only when there are no questions in your mind, never before that. How can you get the message that there are no answers if you have questions yet? The very question presupposes an answer. The question is the search for the answer. The question has taken it for granted that the answer exists, otherwise how will the question exist? The question cannot exist on its own, it depends on the answer or at least on the possibility of the answer.

The day you realize that there are no longer any questions in you, only that day will the message be heard that there are no answers. And that day you will see that neither you have asked nor I have answered. There has been utter silence. All that questioning and answering has been like a dream.

But because you question, I have to answer. That is the only way to help you to get rid of your questions. Remember, my answers are not answers but only devices. My answers are not answering your questions, because I know perfectly well that there are no questions. All questions are false. You have dreamed about them. But when you ask, I respect you. I answer. My answer is just a respect to you, and my answer is a device. It will help you to see that the question by and by disappears.

One day suddenly you will be awake with no questions. That day you will see that I have not answered a single thing. Nothing can be answered because there is not a single question in existence. Existence exists without any questions. It is a mystery — not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be loved, a mystery to be lived.

And Shaila says: “You continually astound me in Your dewdrop freshness in the early morning light and still I am blind, dead, lame, cut off from sharing in Your radiance except for brief moments.”

Those brief moments will do. Those brief moments are the hope. In those brief moments I will enter in you. Those brief moments will become bigger and bigger slowly. One day you will find those brief moments have won over you. Even if for a single moment there is a contact between me and you, it is enough, it is more than enough. Even that small insight will become a fire in you. That small spark is going to burn your whole mind utterly, to the very roots, root and all.

Source – Osho Book “The Diamond Sutra”

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How to go into third dimenssion ?

I have no name,
I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains.
I have no shelter;
I am as the wandering waters.
I have no sanctuary, like the dark gods;
Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples.
I have no sacred books;
Nor am I well-seasoned in tradition.
I am not in the incense
Mounting on the high altars,
Nor in the pomp of ceremonies.
I am neither in the graven image,
Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice.
I am not bound by theories,
Nor corrupted by beliefs.
I am not held in the bondage of religions,
Nor in the pious agony of their priests.
I am not entrapped by philosophies,
Nor held in the power of their sects.
I am neither low nor high,
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river
Calling for the open seas,
Wandering, wandering,
I am Life.
I have no name,
I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains.

Osho : Truth has no name, and truth is not confined in any system of thought. Truth is not a theory, a theology, a philosophy. Truth is the experience of that which is. Truth is not intellectual or emotional; truth is existential.

These are the three layers of human consciousness. The first is the intellectual: it theorizes, it spins and weaves beautiful words, but with no meaning at all. It is a very cunning part, very deceptive. It can make you believe in words as if they have some substance. It talks about God, truth, freedom, love, meditation, but it only talks; it is just words and words and words. Those words are empty shells; if you look deep down into them they are hollow.

This part goes on decorating; it uses big jargon to hide its inner emptiness. And our whole education — social, religious, cultural — consists only of words. It only cultivates the intellectual part of our being, which is the most superficial. Through the intellect you cannot reach to the divine, through the, intellect you will be lost in the jungle of words. That’s how millions of people are lost. Between you and God the greatest barrier is your so-called intellect. Remember, your intellect is not intelligence. Intelligence is a totally different matter.

Intellect is a pseudo coin; it pretends to be intelligence but it is not. And because you don’t know the real you are easily deceived by the unreal, by the pseudo. Beware of the intellectual layer of your being, which is the most developed; that is the danger. The most superficial is the most cultivated. The most superficial is the most nourished. From the school to the university, the superficial is being nourished, strengthened. And slowly, slowly you get caught up in it, you become entrapped. Then people think about love; they don’t feel, they only think.

Krishnamurti relates an incident which happened when he was travelling in a car. The car accidentally knocked down a poor animal, but two persons inside the car did not notice what had happened because they were engrossed in a conversation on how to be aware!
This is the situation of the majority of humanity.

God is present everywhere. Wherever you turn, He is Open your eyes, He is, close your eyes and He is — because nothing else exists. God means isness. Anything that participates in existence is divine. But you don’t see; you go on talking about God, discussing. You have become so clever in hair-splitting, in logic-chopping. You have become so full of rubbish, which you call knowledge, because you can repeat the Vedas, the Koran, the Bible, like parrots. You have to be aware of this dangerous layer that surrounds you like a hard shell.

Krishnamurti is right when he says, “I have no name…. “

The word ‘God’ is not God, and the word ‘love’ is not love either. If you become too much engrossed in the word ‘god’ you will go on missing God forever. If you become too much intrigued by the word ‘love’ then you can go to the library, you can consult all the books — and there are millions written about love by people who don’t know anything about love — you can collect great information about love, but to know about love is not to know love. Knowing love is a totally different dimension.

Knowledge about love is very simple; you can become a walking encyclopaedia. You can know all the theories of love without ever testing any theory in your experience, without ever living a single moment of love, without any taste of what love is.

“I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains…”

God is neither old nor new, or, God is the most ancient, and as fresh as the dew drops in the early morning sun — because only God is. God is non-temporal; it does not belong to the dimension of time. Hence you cannot call it old or new — it is fresh, virgin. You need not go into the scriptures. You certainly have to go into the breeze that is passing through the pine trees, you certainly have to go into the fragrance that is being released by the flowers.

Now…! You have to go into This moment with your total being, you have to relax here now, and all the scriptures will be revealed to you. The Vedas and the Gitas and the Korans will be sung in your deepest core of being. Then you will know that all the scriptures are true; but first your own inner scripture has to be known, understood.

“I have no shelter,
I am as the wandering waters.”
God is life — hence God is movement, hence God is constant change; that is the paradox of existence. It is something that never changes and yet constantly changes. At the innermost core everything remains the same, but on the circumference nothing is ever the same. God is change and no-change. God is eternity and flux.

If you look at the world, you look at the manifest God, which is constant change — it is like a river moving and moving — but if you look at the unmanifest, then God is always the same. God is both. This world is not separate from God. You need not go in search of Him anywhere else; He is hidden here, He is playing hide-and-seek here.

“I have no sanctuary
Like the dark gods;
Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples.
I have no sacred books;
Nor am I well-seasoned in tradition.”

Religion has nothing to do with tradition or sacred books, religion has something to do with existential experience. Your first layer is intellectual — that has nothing to do with religion. You have to bypass it, you have to take a jump out of it.

Your second layer is emotional, the layer of feeling, where intuitions arise, visions are revealed, dreams of the unknown descend; where poetry is born, and the dance, and the song. It is closer to God. The intellectual layer is perfectly good for the mundane world, for the marketplace. It is calculation, mathematics; it can become science, technology. It has its uses — use it, but don’t be used by it. The second layer is closer to God; it is the layer of feeling.

The first layer is masculine, the second layer is feminine. The first layer is aggressive, the second layer is receptive. The first layer believes in action, the second layer is a tremendous passivity. It is like a womb. It is an open door, it is a deep welcome. The first goes in search for truth in a very aggressive way; it thinks in terms of conquering. Even a man like Bertrand Russell writes a book, Conquest of Nature. Bertrand Russell remained confined to the first layer.

He had the intrinsic capacity to go far deeper into reality, but he remained concerned with words, logic, mathematics. He thought in terms of conquering nature: how the part could conquer the whole, how the drop could conquer the ocean, how the leaf could conquer the tree. It is utter nonsense! The very idea of conquest is ugly, but that’s how the male part of your being thinks. It is aggressive, it is violent, it is destructive, it is coercive, it is possessive, it is imperialistic.

The second layer is intuitive: that of feeling, that of dreaming. The second layer is poetic, aesthetic, of deep sensitivity. It is totally different, its approach is different — it does not analyze. The first part believes in analysis, the second part synthesizes.

Sigmund Freud remained with the first part, Assagioli moved to the second. Hence Sigmund Freud could create psychoanalysis, Assagioli could introduce a totally new concept, of psychosynthesis. But Sigmund Freud will look more scientific, obviously, more logical, rational. Assagioli will look like a visionary, a poet, but Assagioli goes deeper.

Poetry always goes deeper than prose. Singing always goes deeper than syllogism.

Become aware of the second layer in you, help it to revive. The society has repressed it, the society does not want it to function. The society is afraid of the second layer because the second layer is irrational, uncontrollable, unpredictable, because the second layer cannot be reduced to mechanical manipulations. The first layer is easily available for the politician, for the priest to dominate.

It is easily available for the educators, the pedagogues to condition, to hypnotize. The second is not available. The second is so deep that the hands of the priest and the politicians and the pedagogues cannot reach to it. You will have to help your second layer to become more prominent. The emphasis has to shift from the first to the second. And the second is not the last, the second is only the door. The third is the last.

The third layer is that of being.

The first is intellectual, the second is emotional, the third is existential. With the first you think, with the second you feel, with the third YOU ARE. With the third, thinking disappears, feeling disappears. Only a kind of witnessing remains, a pure consciousness, an awareness. That’s what meditation is all about.

All sacred scriptures are in the head, and all your rituals, religions, are in the head. Your rituals, your religions, your theologies, don’t even reach to the second. If you want to reach to the second you will have to learn from the painters and the poets and the singers, musicians, dancers. You will have to go into the world of art. But if you want to go to the third — and without going to the third you will never know what God is — you will have to go into a deep communion with a Master.

Only a mystic can make you attuned with your own innermost being. Only one who is in at-onement with his own being can infect you. Religion is something like a contagious disease. It is not disease, it is health, ultimate health, but health can become as contagious as any illness can ever become.

Religion has to be learned only in the vicinity of a Master. It cannot be learned from traditions, from scriptures. You will need somebody alive so that you can be in love, somebody alive who can by his presence trigger a process in your being. It cannot be taught, it can only be caught.

“I am not in the incense
Mounting on high altars,
Nor in the pomp of ceremonies.
I am neither in the graven image,
Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice.
I am not bound by theories,
Nor corrupted by beliefs.
I am not held in the bondage of religions,
Nor in the pious agony of their priests.
I am not entrapped by philosophies,
Nor held in the power of their sects.
I am neither low nor high,
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.”

That statement is of tremendous value: I am the worshipper and the worshipped. You are the seeker and the sought, you are the devotee and the deity, you are the temple and the Master of the temple. You need not go anywhere. If you need go anywhere it is only inwards, into your own interiority.

“I am neither low nor high,
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river
Calling for the open seas,
Wandering, wandering,
I am Life.”

Source: From book “the Guest” by Osho

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Please explain again

Osho – Once it so happened that a man came every day for twenty-one days to hear Lao Tzu. Every day he would tell Lao Tzu, ”I have forgotten what you said yesterday. Please explain again”. This went on for a few days. Lao Tzu’s one disciple Ma Tzu could bear it no longer. On the morning of the fifth day, he stopped the man outside Lao Tzu’s hut and said, ”What is your problem?”

The man replied, ”I have forgotten what was said yesterday and so have come to ask again.” Ma Tzu said, ”Go away, do not enter in for one mad person is you and another is this Lao Tzu. If you come with the same question for the rest of your life, he will keep on explaining to you. Since the last five days I have noted that you are where you are with your question and he is where he is with his answer!”

Personally I feel there is nothing to ask and there is nothing to answer. That person was right. Between master and this Person love is going on. Once you love some one. It does not matter what he says. You simply love to listen. You listen inner silence not the words. Words are a just a way to be with masters.

When this talk was going on, Lao Tzu came out of his hut and said, ”You have come brother? Come in. Have you forgotten? Then hear again.” For twenty-one days this went on. On the twenty-second day, he did not come. The story goes that Lao Tzu went to his house, fearing he might be ill. ”What is the matter? Why did you not come today?” Lao Tzu asked. The man replied. ”I have understood. Now I am a different man.”

Understand the difference: Had we gone twenty-one times to Lao Tzu it would not have been for the sake of understanding. The understanding, according to us, took place the very first day but life did not change. This man however says that: ”If I understand what you have said, my life must change.” And there the matter ends.

Whenever Buddha spoke – and this amazing fact came to be known when his books were edited – he repeated each line not less than three times. Now it is difficult to print the same matter three times. Besides, making the book three times its size, it proves burdensome to the reader also. Therefore when Rahula Sankrityayana first translated the vinaya pitarika, he put an asterisk after each line and in his notes he added another asterisk and yet another – the whole book is filled with asterisks.

What was the reason? Why did Buddha repeat so often? To explain a thing, a logic has to be given but to convey the thing to the innermost to those simple people, all that was needed was repetition, which then became mantra-like and suggestible and it quickly penetrated the innermost centre. Continuous repetition was enough. Each repetition helped it to penetrate more within.

Source: from Osho Book “The Way of Tao, Volume 1″

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How to keep excited in relationship?

[A sannyasin, returning to the West, says that the joy and fun has gone out of his relationship with his girlfriend, though the love is still there.]

Osho – There is some misunderstanding in your mind. The joy is not gone, joy has never been there – it was something else. It is excitement that has gone but you were thinking that excitement was joy. Joy will come now; when the excitement subsides only their does joy come. Joy is a very silent phenomenon. It is not excitement at all, it is not feverish at all.

It is tranquil, calm and cool. But in the West that misunderstanding has become very prevalent. People think that excitement is joy It is a kind of intoxication one feels occupied, tremendously occupied. In that occupation one forgets one’s worries, problems, anxieties. So it is like alcohol: you forget your problems, you forget yourself; at least for the moment you are far, far away from yourself. That is the meaning of excitement: you are no more inside; you are outside yourself, you have escaped from yourself.

But because of this being outside yourself, sooner or later you become tired. You miss the nourishment that comes from your innermost core when you are close to it. So no excitement can be permanent; it can only be a moment’s phenomenon, a momentary thing. All honeymoons end, they have to end, otherwise you will be killed. If you remain excited you will go berserk. It has to subside, you have to be nourished there again.

It is just as one cannot remain awake for many nights. For one night, two nights, three nights, it is okay, but if you remain awake for too many nights you will start feeling tired, utterly tired, exhausted. And you will start feeling dull and dead too; you will need rest. After each excitement there is a need for rest. In rest you recapitulate, you recover; then you can move into excitement again.

But excitement is not joy, it is just an escape from misery. Try to understand it very clearly: excitement is just an escape from misery. It gives only a pseudo experience of joy. Because you are no more miserable you think you are joyous – not to be miserable is equivalent to being joyous. Joy is a positive phenomenon. Not to be miserable is just a forgetfulness. The misery is waiting back home for you: whenever you come back it will be there.

When excitement disappears, one starts thinking ’Now what is the point of this love?’ In the West love dies with excitement, and that is a calamity. In fact love had never been born. It was just love of excitement, it was not real love. It was just an effort to move away from oneself It was a search for sensation. You rightly use the word ’fun’; it was fun but it was not intimacy. When excitement disappears and you just start feeling loving, love can grow; now the feverish days are over. This is the true beginning.

To me, the true love begins when the honeymoon is over. But by that time the western mind thinks that all is over, finished: ’Search for another woman, search for another man. Now what is the point in continuing? – there is no more fun!’

If you go on loving now, love will take on a depth, it will become intimacy. A great grace will arise in it. It will have a subtlety now, it will not be superficial. It will not be fun, it will be meditation, it will be prayer. It will help you to know yourself. The other will become a mirror, and through her you will be able to know yourself. Now is the time, the right time for love to grow because all the energy that was being channelled into excitement will not be wasted: it will be poured into the very roots of love and the tree will be able to have great foliage.

If you can go on growing in this intimacy, which is no more excitement, then joy will arise: first excitement, then love, then joy. Joy is the ultimate product, the fulfilment. Excitement is just a beginning, a triggering; it is not the end. And those who finish at excitement will never know what love is, will never know the mystery of love, will never come to know the joy of love. They will know sensations, excitement, passionate fever, but they will never know the grace that is love. They will never know how beautiful it is to be with a person with no excitement but with silence, with no words, with no effort to do anything.

Just being together, sharing one space, one being, sharing each other, not thinking of what to do, what to say, where to go, how to enjoy; all those things are gone. The storm is over and there is silence. And it is not that you will not make love but it will not be a making really; it will be love happening. It will happen out of grace, out of silence, out of rhythm; it will arise from your depths, it will not be bodily really.

There is a sex which is spiritual, which has nothing to do with the body. Although the body partakes in it, participates in it, it is not the source of it. Then sex takes on the colour of Tantra, only then.

So my suggestion is: watch yourself. Now that you are coming closer to the temple don’t escape. Go into it. Forget excitement, it is just childish. And something beautiful is ahead. If you can wait for it, if you have patience and can trust in it, it will come. And to know love is to know God….

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How to do Meditation ?

Osho – Meditation is not achieved through effort, it is achieved through surrender. All the effort that is made, is made to make surrender possible. Once surrender becomes possible then you are ready to receive the gift.

Effort is needed, but not for meditation; effort is needed only to prepare you to receive the gift. Meditation always comes as a gift; hence it is never food for the ego, it cannot be because it is not your achievement at all. On the contrary, it happens only when the ego has been totally surrendered. You cannot say ‘I have found it,’ you can only say, ‘God has found me.’ You cannot say, you cannot brag ‘This is my achievement, my realisation,’ because it happens when you are not, hence how can it be your realisation and your achievement? It is god’s grace.

But it is a very complex phenomenon. There are two kinds of misunderstandings about meditation. One is that no effort is needed. Then why make any effort? Whenever it is going to happen it will happen — what can we do about it? That is a misunderstanding. You can do something, not to achieve meditation but to prepare yourself to be receptive.

Till now my feeling is same. I do not want to do anything in the name of meditation. I feel it has to happen. Basically I am very lazy. I do not want  to do anything. let the happens what ever has to happen. Even I am so lazy i don’t care about enlightenment. sometime i have felt some glimpses of mediation and i know meditation can not done it happen. But still when it happens before that i have to wait, i have to do some preparation. I know feeling is beautiful Some time I prepare have some good moments. But I am not regular two reason i feel lazy and other thing is i don’t feel intense desire to prepare for mediation.

The other misunderstanding is that because effort is needed to prepare, then effort is essential, and you achieve meditation through your effort. So: go on making effort. If you are not achieving it, that means your effort is still not enough, so make more effort, put more intensity into it, put more energy into it, get more involved. Both are misunderstandings.

Effort is needed but not for meditation. Effort is needed only up to a point. It has nothing to do with meditation, but it is very essential too, because unless you are ready you will miss the gift. The gift is arriving every moment, it is showering on everybody, but people are missing it because they don’t have any space to absorb it, they don’t have any place to allow it entry into their being. It is all full of rubbish, all full of junk.

This has to become one of the most important understandings, that effort is needed, yet meditation is a gift. it is needed for surrender and surrender is needed for meditation. So there is no direct connection with the effort, but a very indirect connection is there.

So avoid both pitfalls and just be in the middle. It is a razor’s edge: if you fall here, you fall into a lake, if you fall on the other side you fall into a well. You have to keep yourself like a tightrope walker; avoiding both pitfalls, avoiding both extremes, maintaining a balance between effort and no-effort. Once that balance is there, meditation comes like a spring and you become full of flowers. Your life has all the splendour and all the joy that existence can give to you — it is infinite.

A sannyasin has to transcend all hardness. He has to become soft, vulnerable, open. We are had because we have been told that life is a struggle. We are hard because we are prepared to fight for sheer survival. But that is not the way to find god. Maybe that is the way to find money, power, prestige, but that is not the way to find god. We cannot conquer god, we have to be conquered by him, we have to allow him to conquer us. In fact, to be defeated by god is to be victorious. In that very defeat is victory.

The sannyasin is just the opposite of a soldier. The soldier has to be hard, aggressive, violent, ambitious, and the sannyasin has to be soft, receptive, non-ambitious so that god can conquer him. And god is always ready: he goes on waiting patiently for us to get ready.

Source – Osho Book “The Imprisoned Splendor”

http://www.oshoteachings.com/osho-meditation-is-not-achieved-through-effort-it-is-achieved-through-surrender/

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Nature of truth

Osho – Appearances are very deceptive. Appearances may give you respectability but they cannot give you contentment. And some day or other, in some way or other, the truth has a way of surfacing.

Truth cannot be repressed forever. If it can be repressed forever, eternally, then it is not truth. In the very definition of truth one should include the fact that truth has a way of bubbling up. You cannot go on avoiding it forever and ever. One day or other, knowingly or unknowingly, it surfaces, it reveals itself.

Truth is that which reveals itself. And just the opposite are lies. You cannot make a lie appear as truth forever and ever. One day or other the truth will surface and the lie will be there condemned.


You cannot avoid truth. It is better to face it, it is better to accept it, it is better to live it. Once you start living the life of truth, authenticity, of your original face, all troubles by and by disappear because the conflict drops and you are no more divided. Your voice has a unity then, your whole being becomes an orchestra. Right now, when you say something, your body says something else; when your tongue says something, your eyes go on saying something else simultaneously.

Many times people come to me and I ask them, ‘How are you?’ And they say, ‘We are very, very happy.’ And I cannot believe it because their faces are so dull — no joy, no delight! Their eyes have no shining in them, no light. And when they say, ‘We are happy,’ even the word ‘happy’ does not sound very happy. It sounds as if they are dragging it. Their tone, their voice, their face, the way they are sitting or standing — everything belies, says something else. Start watching people. When they say that they are happy, watch. Watch for a clue. Are they really happy? And immediately you will be aware that something else is saying something else.

And then by and by watch yourself. When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing. Your breathing cannot be natural. It is impossible. Because the truth was that you were. not happy. If you had said, ‘I am unhappy,’ your breathing would have remained natural. There was no conflict. But you said, ‘I am happy.’ Immediately you are repressing something — something that was coming up, you have forced down. In this very effort your breathing changes its rhythm; it is no longer rhythmical. Your face is no longer graceful, your eyes become cunning.

First watch others because it will be easier to watch others. You can be more objective about them. And when you have found clues about them use the same clues about yourself. And see — when you speak truth, your voice has a musical tone to it; when you speak untruth, something is there like a jarring note. When you speak truth you are one, together; when you speak untruth you are not together, a conflict has arisen.

Watch these subtle phenomena, because they are the consequence of togetherness or untogetherness. Whenever you are together, not falling apart; whenever you are one, in unison, suddenly you will see you are happy. That is the meaning of the word ‘yoga’. That’s what we mean by a yogi: one who is together, in unison; whose parts are all interrelated and not contradictory, interdependent, not in conflict, at rest with each other. A great friendship exists within his being. He is whole.

Sometimes it happens that you become one, in some rare moment. Watch the ocean, the tremendous wildness of it — and suddenly you forget your split, your schizophrenia; you relax. Or, moving in the Himalayas, seeing the virgin snow on the Himalaya peaks, suddenly a coolness surrounds you and you need not be false because there is no other human being to be false to. You fall together. Or, listening to beautiful music, you fall together.

Whenever, in whatsoever situation, you become one, a peace, a happiness, a bliss, surrounds you, arises in you. You feel fulfilled. There is no need to wait for these moments — these moments can become your natural life. These extraordinary moments can become ordinary moments — that is the whole effort of Zen. You can live an extraordinary life in a very ordinary life: cutting wood, chopping wood, carrying water from the well, you can be tremendously at ease with yourself. Cleaning the floor, cooking food, washing the clothes, you can be perfectly at ease — because the whole question is of you doing your action totally, enjoying, delighting in it.

The society is not in favour of an integrated man, so remember, society cannot help you. It will create all sorts of hindrances for your growth. Because only a disintegrated man can be manipulated — the politicians can dominate him, the teachers can dominate him, the religious priests can dominate him, the parents can dominate him. Only a disintegrated soul can be forced into slavery.

Integrated, you are free; integrated, you become rebellious; integrated, you start doing your own thing; integrated, you listen to your own heart, wherever it leads. Such types of individuals can be dangerous for the dead so-called society. They can create trouble — they have always created trouble. A Jesus, a Socrates, a Buddha… they have always been troublesome because they are so integrated that they can be independent. And they are living so blissfully that they don’t bother about other nonsense.

Try to understand it. If you are unhappy, you will become ambitious; if you are happy, ambition will disappear. Who bothers to become a prime minister unless you are a little insane? Who bothers to become the richest man in the world unless you are mad? Who bothers about fame? You cannot eat it, you cannot love it, you cannot sleep with it. In fact, the more famous you become, the more difficult it becomes to be happy.

The richer you are, the more worries you have — problems of security, future. Whatsoever you have, you have to hold it. You have to hold it against others because they are constantly watching for a right opportunity to take it back. Whatsoever you hold, you hold out of violence. And of course, if you have been violent then others can be violent to you. They are just waiting for the right moment. The richer you get, the more worries, more problems, more fears you have. Who bothers, if one is happy?

Source – Osho Book “Dang Dang Doko Dang”

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Purpose in Life

Question – Is the only purpose in Life Self-Realization?

Osho – No sir, not even that. Even self-realization is not the purpose. Somehow, you cannot live without purpose. You have an obsession with purpose, some purpose HAS to be there. Now if there is no other purpose, let it be self-realization. And you will feel good, you will feel very good – at least there is some purpose: self-realization. Again you have settled, again you have started thinking in terms of means and ends. Again desire will flower, you have to attain to self-realization. Again the future enters in, again you can dream.

Before, it may have been money, power, prestige. It may have been God, moksha, nirvana, the kingdom of God. Now it is self-realization. But you have to keep some goal there. And Hakuin says all is here. You want to have something on the other shore. And Hakuin says this is the only shore. The other shore is hidden in THIS shore. You are not to go anywhere, you are not to seek and search, it is already the case. You have just to be here, for a single moment be here, and…THIS VERY BODY THE BUDDHA.

Now you are creating another…Can’t you live without problems? Can’t you drop the goal-oriented approach? Can’t you be in the present? Can you only be in the future? And to be in the future is to be false, because the future has not come yet. People know only two ways to be: either they are in the past or in the future. Their identity comes either from the past or from the future. In the present they feel very shaky because in the present the identity disappears the self disappears. In the present there is nothing like ego.

Just look into it, this very moment. You are utterly here, not a single thought stirring, silence all around: where are you? In this silence, how can you exist? It effaces you, you become a tabula rasa, you become a child again. To hold to identity, either you have to look to the past…it supplies identity. You have a Ph. D. from a university, you are a doctor or an engineer, a scientist, a poet, you have written so many books. Or you belong to a royal family, or this and that. You have done these things and those things – all those accumulated acts, they become the sum total of your being. And you are not the sum total of your acts. There is another man hidden behind your acts – the real man, the essential man. The essential man has never done a thing. It is simply there, it is not a doer.

But you will cling to the identity. You have been appreciated, you will ding to it. Even if you have been condemned you will ding to it. The saints cling to their past, and so ding the sinners. The good man dings to the past, so dings the bad man, because they both need identity. And people prefer to have a bad identity than no identity. At least one knows who one is: ’I am a prisoner, I have been put in the prison for twenty years, I am a thief or a murderer. At least I know something about myself.’

Then somebody else is a saint and he has renounced the world and he fasts every month and he eats only once a day. He sleeps only three hours, thousands of people worship him, his paradise is certain, he has so many virtues. But both are clinging to identity. And both are in the same boat, the sinner and the saint.

Or you start gathering identity from the future. You are going to do this, you are going to BE this – you will become the president of a country, or you will become very famous, or you will write a book soon and you are going to win a Nobel prize. You go on thinking of the future, and that gives you a feeling who you are.

But both are false. The true is only the present. Time knows no past, no future; past and future are mind things. Time knows only one tense, and that is the present. But to be in the present means to destroy all goals, to have no future-involvement. Otherwise your energy will be flowing in that direction.

Now you say: IS THE ONLY PURPOSE IN LIFE SELF-REALIZATION?
I go on repeating every day that there is no purpose in life, life is purposeless. Hence it is beautiful. Purpose makes everything business-like. Life is poetry, it is not business. Now you have found a word – you must have thought I would like this word, ’self-realization’. All nonsense; there is no self to realize. Nothing has to be realized. The real is real – what are you going to realize! The real is already real and the unreal is unreal. ’Realization’ means something is not real yet and you are going to make it real. How can you make something which is unreal real somewhere in the future? How can you transform a lie into a truth? A lie will remain a lie, and truth has always been truth. Nothing has to be realized.

Then what has to be done? The question arises again and again in your mind. In fact nothing has to be done, you have only to see the futility of doing. In that seeing, action stops, mind stops. And that which has been with you for ever, you come to feel it, to know it. Not that you realize it, you simply recognize it. A forgotten thing is remembered again, that’s all.

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The purpose of these talks: Osho

“The way I talk is a little strange. No speaker in the world talks like me. Technically it is wrong; it takes almost double the time! But those speakers have a different purpose – my purpose is absolutely different from theirs. They speak because they are prepared for it; they are simply repeating something that they have rehearsed. Secondly, they are speaking to impose a certain ideology, a certain idea on you. Thirdly, to them speaking is an art; they go on refining it.

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.

I speak nothing prepared. I don´t know myself what is going to be the next word; hence I never make any mistake. One makes a mistake if one is prepared. I never forget anything, because one forgets if one has been remembering it. So I speak with a freedom that perhaps nobody has ever spoken with.

I am not concerned whether I am consistent, because that is not the purpose. A man who wants to convince you and manipulate you through his speaking has to be consistent, has to be logical, has to be rational, to overpower your reason. He wants to dominate through words.

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.

I cannot force you to be silent, but I can create a device in which spontaneously you are bound to be silent. I am speaking, and in the middle of a sentence, when you were expecting another word to follow, nothing follows but a silent gap. Your mind was looking to listen, and waiting for something to follow, and does not want to miss it – naturally it becomes silent. What can the poor mind do? If it was well known at what points I will be silent, if it was declared to you that on such and such points I will be silent, then you could manage to think; you would not be silent. Then you know: ‘This is the point where he is going to be silent; now I can have a little chit-chat with myself.’ But because it comes absolutely suddenly…. I don´t know myself why at certain points I stop.

Anything like this, in any orator in the world, will be condemned, because an orator stopping again and again means he is not well prepared, he has not done the homework. It means that his memory is not reliable, that he cannot find, sometimes, what word to use. But because it is not oratory, I am not concerned about the people who will be condemning me – I am concerned with you.

It is not only here, but far away…anywhere in the world where people will be listening to the video or to the audio, they will come to the same silence. My success is not to convince you, my success is to give you a real taste so that you can become confident that meditation is not a fiction, that the state of no-mind is not just a philosophical idea, that it is a reality; that you are capable of it, and that it does not need any special qualifications.

With me, to be silent is easier because of one other reason. I am silent; even while I am speaking I am silent. My innermost being is not involved at all. What I am saying to you is not a disturbance or a burden or a tension to me; I am as relaxed as one can be. Speaking or not speaking does not make any difference to me.
Naturally, this kind of state is infectious.

Because I cannot go on speaking the whole day to keep you in meditative moments, I want you to become responsible. Accepting that you are capable of being silent will help you when you are meditating alone. Knowing your capacity…and one comes to know one´s capacity only when one experiences it. There is no other way.

Don´t make me wholly responsible for your silence, because that will create a difficulty for you. Alone, what are you going to do? Then it becomes a kind of addiction, and I don´t want you to be addicted to me. I don´t want to be a drug to you.

I want you to be independent and confident that you can attain these precious moments on your own.

If you can attain them with me, there is no reason why you cannot attain them without me, because I am not the cause. You have to understand what is happening: listening to me, you put your mind aside.

Listening to the ocean, or listening to the thundering of the clouds, or listening to the rain falling heavily, just put your ego aside, because there is no need… The ocean is not going to attack you, the rain is not going to attack you, the trees are not going to attack you – there is no need of any defense. To be vulnerable to life as such, to existence as such, you will be getting these moments continuously. Soon it will become your very life.”

Osho, The Invitation, Talk #14
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Osho on Philosophy

Philosophy means knowing something about the unknown without knowing it. It is just preconceptions, hypotheses, man-constructed ideologies.

Philosophy tries to explain things — never succeeds. At the most, it can succeed only in explaining away things, but it never succeeds in explaining them. Religion makes no effort to explain life. It tries to live it. Religion does not take life as a problem to be solved — it takes life as a mystery to be lived. Religion is not curious about life. Religion is in awe, in tremendous wonder about life.

Philosophy is a substitute for religion. Those who go into philosophy are lost to religion, and those who want to go into religion, they have to drop all kinds of philosophizing.

Philosophy is just intellectual gymnastics, it has nothing to do with reality. It talks, argues, creates magnificent systems of thought, but it does not change the man who is creating all this. He remains the same man.

Philosophy is baseless. It makes castles in the air. Ideas are just ideas. You can project an y idea you like, nobody can prevent you; and once you project the idea you can find all kinds of rationalizations to support it. There is no difficulty.

Science grows out of doubt. Religion grows out of wonder. Between the two is philosophy; it has not yet decided — it goes on hanging between doubt and wonder. Sometimes the philosopher doubts and sometimes the philosopher wonders: he is just in between. If he doubts too much, by and by he becomes a scientist. If he wonders too much, by and by he becomes religious. That’s why philosophy is disappearing from the world — because ninety-nine percent of philosophers have become scientists. And one person — a Buber somewhere, or a Krishnamurti somewhere, or a Suzuki somewhere — great minds, great penetrating intellects, they have become religious. Philosophy is almost losing its ground.

Beware of getting lost in philosophy and religion if you really want to know what truth is. Beware of being Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, because they are all ways of being deaf, blind, insensitive.

RELIGION IS NOT CONCERNED with philosophical questions and answers. To go on looking this way is stupid, and a sheer waste of life, time, energy and consciousness, because you can go on asking and answers can be given — but from answers only more questions will come out. If in the beginning there was one question, in the end, through many answers, there will be a million questions. Philosophy solves nothing. It promises, but never solves anything — all those promises remain unfulfilled.

Still it goes on promising. But the experience which can solve the riddles of the mind cannot be attained through philosophical speculation. Buddha was absolutely against philosophy — there has never been a man more against philosophy than Buddha. Through his own bitter experience he came to understand that all those profundities of philosophy are just superficial. Even the greatest philosopher remains as ordinary as anyone. No problem has been solved by him, not even touched. He carries much knowledge, many answers, but he remains the same in his old age — no new life happens to him. And the crux, the core of the matter is that mind is a question-raising faculty: it can raise any sort of question, and then it can befool itself by answering them. But YOU are the questioner, and You are the one who solves them.

Philosophy is a disease, and it is like a cancer: no medicine exists for it yet, you have to go through surgery, a great operation is needed. And philosophy has a similar type of growth, a canceric growth: once it is in you it goes on growing by itself, and it takes all your energies. It is a parasite. You go on becoming weaker and weaker and it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger. Every word creates another word — and it can go on infinitely.

Philosophy means that a man has become completely head-oriented. He looks towards existence through the eyes of logic and not through the eyes of love.

The philosophy of positive thinking means being untruthful; it means being dishonest. It means seeing a certain thing and yet denying what you have seen; it means deceiving yourself and others. Positive thinking is the only bullshit philosophy that America has contributed to human thought — nothing else. Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, and the Christian priest, Vincent Peale — all these people have filled the whole American mind with this absolutely absurd idea of a positive philosophy. And it appeals particularly to mediocre minds.

I do not believe in any philosophy of positive thinking; nor do I believe in the opposite, in the philosophy of negative thinking — because both are there. The positive and the negative make one whole. My philosophy is holistic — neither positivist, nor negativist, but holistic, realistic. You see the whole in its totality, whatever it is. Good and bad, day and night, life and death, they both are there. My approach is to see exactly what is the case. There is no need to project any philosophy on it.

Think about truth — that is allowed! That’s why in the West philosophy has grown to great heights and depths. But it is always thinking about truth. It is like madmen thinking about sanity, blind men thinking about light. However the blind man tries to think about light… he may create a big system of thought about what light is, but it is not going to be anything like light. For light, you need eyes.

You cannot think about truth, because thinking will be done by your mind — which is full of lies, nothing but lies. How are you going to think about truth? Truth can be found only when you have put the mind aside. In the East we say truth is the experience that happens in the state of no-mind or in the state of beyond mind. But in the West the very idea has not existed. And that will make one thing clear to you: philosophy is a Western thing. In the East there is nothing like philosophy.

It is very strange: the East is far older, at least ten thousand years old, but there is nothing like philosophy in the East. What is called Eastern philosophy is a wrong name. In the East it is called darshan — darshan means “to see.” It has nothing to do with thinking. The very word darshan means “to see.”
I had to coin my own word for it: I call it philosia, as against philosophy, because philosophy means “to think,” and philosia means “the love of seeing.” Philosophy means “the love of thinking” — but what can you think? Just to avoid the danger of people going beyond mind, and becoming dangerous to the society, a substitute, a toy has been created. That is philosophy.

Life is a quest not a question, a mystery not a problem, and the difference is vast. The problem has to be solved, can be solved, must be solved, but the mystery is insoluble; it has to be lived, experienced. The question has to be solved so that it disappears; encountering a mystery, you have to dissolve in it. The mystery remains, you disappear. It is a totally different phenomenon. In philosophy the problem disappears, but YOU remain; in religion the mystery remains, you disappear, you evaporate. The ego is very much interested in questions and very much afraid of the mystery. The questions arise out of the ego. It plays with the questions, tries to find out answers — and each answer in its own turn brings more questions.

It is an unending process; that’s why philosophy has not come to any conclusion. Five thousand years of philosophizing, and not even a single conclusion! It is proof enough that philosophy is an exercise in sheer futility; its claims are very bombastic. In India we have a proverb that you dig the whole mountain and in the end you find only one rat — but philosophy has not even been able to find the rat. It has been trying, and with great effort, to find some way out of the questions, but it gets more and more lost in the jungle. Now there are more philosophical problems than there were before, and they will go on increasing because the moment you assert a single answer it immediately explodes into many questions. It solves nothing, it simply gives you more work to do.

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