OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS

QUESTION: Osho, what are you doing here exactly ?
OSHO: Selling water by the river.
Master Sogaku Harada died at the age of ninety-one. At his funeral service hung a piece of calligraphy written by himself :
FOR FORTY YEARS I HAVE BEEN SELLING WATER BY THE BANK OF A RIVER. HO, HO! MY LABOURS HAVE BEEN WHOLLY WITHOUT MERIT.

He says 'Selling water by the river' - where there is no need really.
The river is flowing - you can simply jump into the river and drink your fill. But people are so foolish, they need somebody to sell water even by the river.

Secondly he says:
''Ho, ho! My labours have been wholly without merit.''
That is a great statement. First we go on selling water by the side of the river. If you are a little intelligent you can jump yourself. And finally we know all effort is meaningless, in vain. Because even if you become enlightened, nothing is gained. You were always enlightened. Nobody needs to be enlightened, because everybody is already enlightened. It is such a ridiculous thing for people to keep trying to enlighten you. It is so ridiculous for me to go on enlightening you every day.

And you are stubborn... and you will not become enlightened.
And I go on selling the water by the river....
And you PAY for the water!
And you won't look at the river, and the river is flowing by the side.
It has always been there - before the thirst is created, the river is there. Before the desire, the fulfilment.

So you ask, ''What are you doing here exactly?''
-- SELLING WATER BY THE RIVER. HO, HO !!

BELOVED OSHO,
WHY DOES ONE WANT TO MARRY?

I don’t know exactly.
Because I never wanted to, so I am utterly inexperienced.

You should not ask me such difficult questions.

But I guess – these are just guesses.
I guess because people like to live in institutions, in prisons.

People don’t want to live an open life, they want to live a closed life.

That’s why they want to get married.
I guess people don’t love, that’s why they want to get married.

The love is not enough, so the law is needed to help.

If love is enough there is no point in getting married. If you trust your love,that’s enough; no other thing is needed to keep you together.

Marriage is finding ways to keep you together. Because you cannot trust that your love is enough to keep you together.

People who don't love, they want to get married.

Although people are very cunning – they say, ’We want to get married because we love.’ But why should one want to get married if one loves?

Love is more than enough.

How can marriage help? It can destroy, it cannot enhance.

The very idea of marriage is the beginning of divorce. The moment you think to get married you should beware – you have already started planning for divorce.

The fear is coming, the fear of divorce is coming – and before it takes possession of you, you want to get married.

So there will be the law and the police and the court and the society to prevent you escaping from this woman or to prevent this woman escaping from you.

Love is enough, more than enough.

And if love cannot keep you together then nothing can keep you together. And nothing should keep you together.

People like to get married because they cannot bear happiness.

They want some misery.

Whenever you see a couple, a man and woman, thoroughly unhappy you can trust they are married – but they have to be thoroughly un happy.

It is very difficult to see a married couple happy, whatsoever their pretensions.

They may show happiness but that is not the truth. You should see them when they are not pretending, when they are not wearing their public face.

They are always quarrelling, always fighting, always at each other’s necks.

People can’t bear happiness.
Love is such a joy, it is unbearable.
It is so unbearable you want to crush it. And marriage is the sure way to crush it.

All marriages are destructive to love. The very idea is destructive.

Love should be your only trust.

OshO 💕
CHAPTER 3. NOW IS THE ONLY TIME FOR THE HEART
This Very Body the Buddha