OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS SERIES

Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 6)

Whatsoever can be done under the limits, you have to do. And don't be too worried about too many problems.

Because this is my observation -- that if you wait just a little, ninety-five percent of problems disappear on their own. Nothing is to be done; they disappear on their own. It is just as they say about the common cold. If you treat it, it takes seven days. If you don't treat it, it goes in one week -- but it goes!

More problems are like that. They are momentary.

It happens every day -- somebody has a problem and he goes to the office for an appointment. After two days the appointment is given. By the time he comes, he says the problem is gone!

Just time. The mind is so momentary that whenever something arises, it takes it and becomes excited about it.

There is a simple sutra, a simple sentence: 'This too will pass.' Just this much. Remember it.

Almost ninety-five percent of problems will pass; they just need a little time. Don't be worried about them.

Then five percent are left. Four percent can be solved by methods. They are like diseases which can be cured by allopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy -- anything. They just need the attention of the therapist.

So it doesn't matter what type of medicine is being used. If the doctor knows how to tackle the patient, how to give attention to him, how to be caring about him, these four percent will be solved.

Remaining one percent is the real problem. That goes only when understanding arises.

Nobody can help that, nobody.

That one percent goes only when you try to understand, when you rise in awareness, when you become so understanding that you don't create that problem.

Otherwise it remains, it continues. This has to be understood.

If you are alert, aware, conscious then there is no problem. Cannot be.

OSHO

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 7)

If the desire is there, it is there; there is nothing wrong in it. When you start doing something you have already taken the standpoint that something is wrong in it.

It may be simply that you have come to feel the illusoriness of life, and the desire for it has disappeared or is disappearing. You interpret it as a desire to die. It is not a desire to die.

This is how the mind goes on giving wrong interpretations.

When life seems illusory, when nothing seems worthwhile -- and nothing is -- then suddenly the mind says, 'What is the point of living? Die!' --  as if death is going to be more meaningful than life! When life is not meaningful how can death be meaningful? When even life is illusory, death is going to be more of an illusion. So what is the point in choosing?

One simply understands that life is illusory. Finished!

No enlightened person has ever committed suicide. They should all commit suicide because they say life is meaningless; it is an illusion; there is nothing in it. So why should they go on living?

They go on living because they say in death also there is nothing left to be chosen. The whole of life is meaningless -- death included!

When death comes they will accept. If it is not coming they will not do anything to bring it about.

Then one becomes absolutely serene and tranquil. One lives, but as if in a drama.

Somebody asked Lin-Chi, 'What did you used to do before you became enlightened?'

He said, 'I used to chop wood and carry water.'

And then the man asked, 'What have you been doing since enlightenment?'

Lin-Chi said, 'I am doing the same -- chopping wood, carrying water. But before I used to do it with great expectations. Now I simply do it -- there is nothing else to do! I chop wood because I know how to, and I know how to carry water. The activity remains the same -- the quality of awareness changes.'

OSHO

Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 8)

Relationships bring up many things which are hidden in you. A relationship never creates anything. It can only bring out something which is already there.

So never throw the responsibility on the other. The other is, at the most, a help to show the undercurrents of your mind. And that's how a relationship helps. It is almost a mirror -- you see your face.

Whatsoever we do, we are the source.

So whenever you feel angry, remember -- it is you who is feeling angry. Never make the other feel guilty. That's the strategy of the mind. That's how one goes on avoiding one's own encounter.

When you feel angry just say, 'I am feeling angry.' Don't say; 'You have made me angry.' And that is the same with all emotions.

You are feeling sad. Say, 'I am feeling sad,' but never say to the other, 'You have made me sad.' Nobody can make you sad; nobody can make you happy. If you decide to be happy, you are.

So use the relationship as a mirror and become more and more aware and alert.

But always fall back on yourself; then it can become a very very great situation for growth. And if you love, love is capable enough of surviving everything: sadness, anger, unhappiness, a little conflict here and there.

If love is there it will survive all. And through surviving all these situations it becomes intense... more understanding, more mature.

If you love a person you can be patient. And love is so valuable that anything else is, at the most, a cost to be paid for it. But it is worth it.

The problem arises only when you don't have love. Then there is only anger and sadness and unhappiness. If you see that in some relationship, drop out of it.

To be miserable is not only bad for you, it is bad for the other. Just for the other's sake, get out of it. Don't cling, and don't continue in it because that will be destructive.

And once a person learns how to cling to misery -- that means once a person starts taking a morbid interest in misery, in fact has learned how to be happy in unhappiness -- then it is very difficult.

You may change the partner but with the other partner you will do the same. Or you may be alone, but with yourself you will be the same.

So just watch. Love and watch and be aware.

OSHO