OSHO Q AND A

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 17)

In reaction you just go to the opposite extreme.

In fact the same society that you are thinking you are revolting against goes on controlling you in a negative way. It decides what you should do. If the society expects this, you will not do this.

You will do just the opposite -- but the opposite is decided by the society.

If the society says, 'Don't do this,' and you do it, then too, the society has been too important to you because it has decided your action by saying not to do it. This is reaction.

Reaction appears to be like a rebellion, but it is not.

It is a pseudo-rebellion, a false coin, a counterfeit, and it can never be satisfying. Again and again you will feel that you have been against the society, but you have not been able to get rid of it.

It is said of Mulla Nasrudin, that from his very childhood he was thought to be a difficult child; they called him contrary.

If you say to him 'Sit down' he will not sit down. If you want him to sit down, tell him to stand -- and immediately he will sit down. Contrary.

One day he was crossing a small stream with his father. On his donkey they had loaded bags of sugar, which were leaning too much to the right and there was fear that they might fall into the river.

The father wanted to say, 'Balance them -- pull the bags to the left, but then the contrary mind of Mulla Nasrudin would do just the opposite; he would pull the bags to the right. Then they would fall into the river sooner than they would have done.

So the father said, 'Pull the bags to the right, Nasrudin. They are going to fall to the left side.'

He knew that he would pull from the left just to go against him. But this time something happened. Nasrudin pulled to the right, and all the bags fell in!

The father said, 'What have you done? This is not like you!'

Nasrudin said, 'Am I just going to be a reactionary all my life? By telling me to pull to the right, you want me to pull to the left? Now I am an adult. You have forgotten that today I completed my twenty-one years!'

Become an adult now. You revolted -- you thought you revolted, but it is not a real revolution, otherwise you would have been tremendously happy.

A rebellious man is the most blissful man in the world, but a reactionary is not.

OSHO




Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 17)

I am not saying whether homosexuality is good or bad, whether heterosexuality is good or bad -- these are foolish statements.

Just listen to your own being.

If you feel good, whatsoever it is, without any conditions, move with it. Be selfish.

Let that be the deciding factor: be selfish.

Always listen to your own self, its happiness, and wherever you can find it, find.

This is the beauty of it. If you are selfish you will become very altruistic because you will find that you can only be happy when you make people happy.

You will find by experimentation that you can be peaceful only if you don't make other people around you disturbed. Otherwise you cannot be peaceful.

One who is really selfish becomes automatically altruistic. A really selfish person becomes a servant of the people.

So this is what I would like. Drop the society as if it doesn't exist.

It is not worth that much; you have given it too much attention.

OSHO

OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS

Osho: ‘The one who questioned answers.’

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 13)

Many things happen through meditation, but you have to implement them in your life, otherwise they disappear.

A certain experience flowers, you see something -- try to implement it in your life.

It is not just about an experience but about implementation in daily life chores.

If you feel very loving, then be loving; don't keep it to yourself. Somehow relate it to people. If you relate, it will grow. If you keep it to yourself, it will disappear because it needs roots somewhere.

If you feel like sharing, share; don't just go on postponing it. Whatsoever happens inside, try, make every effort, to do the same outside also.

That's how a religious style of life is created.

But first it should happen on the inside, and the outer should follow like a shadow. One has to remember the outer. If you forget about it, you become lopsided.

Many things go on happening inside and you never implement them so they disappear. You have to give them roots in the earth.

So whatsoever experiences come, find out ways and means to bring them into your real life. If you are feeling a deep gratefulness during meditation... suddenly one day you feel God showering on you and you feel grateful... then remember that and feel grateful with whomsoever you come in contact -- as if all the forms are of God.

Remain grateful for as long as you can remember. If you forget, okay. When you remember again, feel grateful for small things.

Somebody just smiled at you -- feel grateful. Somebody said hello -- feel grateful.

If you can watch and hear and feel grateful, you will almost hear it as if it is coming from God. It is coming from Him. He uses many people as His vehicles.

So whatsoever experiences happen, you can always find a way to make it part of your ordinary life, the real life. Religion should not remain fictitious, and it should not become just part of your dreams. It should be brought to actual reality.

Once it comes to the actual reality you can forget about it and it will continue. It will hover around you... it will become your aura and you will always be in contact with it.

OSHO


Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 15)

Prem means love and Gyan means knowledge -- Knowledge that comes through love.

There are two types of knowledge. One needs no love -- the scientific knowledge.

You need not love the object you are going to know. In fact if you love, scientific knowledge will not be possible. For scientific knowledge an absolutely non-emotional attitude is needed. You should not be loving. You should be completely aloof, indifferent -- not for or against.

So for scientific knowledge a detached attitude is needed.

Religious knowledge is totally different.

If you are detached you will never be able to know what religion is. You have to be deeply in love with it because this is a knowledge that comes through deep participation. You cannot remain out of it.

The knower becomes part of the known. In fact the more the knower dissolves into the unknown, the more he comes to know.

A moment comes when the knower is completely lost. Only then knowledge is perfect.

Prem Gyan -- means knowledge that comes through love, personal knowledge; not objective but subjective knowledge.

All that is beautiful comes through love and all that comes without love is dangerous. It will bring Nagasaki, Hiroshima. It is going to be destructive because in the first place it has not been through love.

If the seed has not been loving, the fruit is going to be poisonous. That's why the whole scientific effort, and such a tremendous effort leads nowhere but to deeper and deeper misery -- to war, to technology, to ecological destruction.

In fact it is sabotaging the whole life rather than enhancing it.

Sooner or later ... humanity has to bring a revolution in the scientific attitude. It has to learn something from religion only then science can be a help to humanity, otherwise it is going to destroy everything.

OSHO

OSHO, OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS 2, 

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 12)

Once something is exposed, it evaporates. Hide a thing and it remains with you.

Expose it, it evaporates.

It is just like taking the roots of the tree out of the earth. Once you have exposed the roots to the air and to the sun, the tree is dead. If the roots remain deep down in the earth, you can go on cutting the tree again and again, but again it will sprout.

Never fight with branches.

My whole effort is to make you alert not to fight with branches and leaves. It is futile. Bring the roots up and see exactly where the problem is. Your problem is with yourself.

If you hate yourself, then hate. Don't avoid it, and don't be polite. Accept that you hate... let it be there and function. Let it be active so that you can see how it functions, how it possesses you, how it manipulates you.

The very understanding of how it functions, becomes a freedom.

Truth liberates, but the truth has to be brought up and out of the dark comers of your being.

Sannyas is not life-negative -- my sannyas is not. It is a simple inner trust.

It is a gesture of surrender -- that you love me and will allow me to love you... that if I shower my love on you, you will receive it in gratefulness.

Two piece robes divide the body into upper and lower. Below the belt is sex, above the belt is acceptable.

When you wear a one piece robe, your body is one -- nothing higher or lower. When your body flows as one, you will feel a certain aura of energy around you. The orange protects and seals this in.

One can meditate and can become enlightened in any colour. I am giving you something irrational just to test whether you are ready to go with me.

I put a mala around your neck just to make a fool of you. People laugh at you -- they think you have gone crazy.

That's what I want because if you can go with me, even while I am making you almost mad, then I know that when the real crisis comes, you will have trust.

These are crises artificially created around you. They are tremendously significant, with no reason. Their significance is deeper than reason.

My meditations are not just techniques. Joy is more basic.

So while doing them, don't carry any seriousness in the mind; don't carry the idea that you are doing great religious work. No -- you are enjoying them like a dance, a song.

OSHO

Osho: ‘The one who questioned answers.’

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 13)

This relationship has not helped so how can the other help?

You can go into a thousand and one relationships, and you will get more and more confused and fragmented. You will fall apart all over the place, but it is not going to help.

Rather, when you are feeling sexuality, close your eyes and meditate on it: where is it coming from, why is it coming, how is it coming? See that somehow the relationship with the woman with whom you are living is not very deep, not very satisfying.

Make it more satisfying, make it deeper. Make it more open and vulnerable.

Somewhere discontent is there -- so that has to be tackled. It is not going to be of any help to move into another relationship because with the same mind moving with you, the discontent will continue.

Discontent is within you. The way you relate is not total.

So make it total... make it more meditative. And don't hide.

Tell her that this is how things are happening, so then she can be helpful and you can move into a deeper relationship; you can make everything as deep as possible.

Rather than being attracted to every passerby -- you will become a driftwood if you do that -- tackle the problem where it is. It is somewhere deep inside you.

Otherwise it can create many problems. It can create bodily, physiological problems. You will feel depleted & dissipated.

Also remember the distance between you and me will depend on your inner quality of mind. Always continue to work on your quality of mind.

OSHO

 OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS 2

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 11)

(Osho talks to Vinod Khanna, who said, “Osho it is all futile”)

It is futile. Understand that it is futile... but everything is futile. If you start dropping out of things, then by and by you will see that everything is futile.

The wife is futile, the children are futile; the family is futile. Then one goes on shrinking, because wherever you go, everything is futile. One day one feels, 'What is the use of eating? Why get up every day in the morning?' That will become a suicide.

Die -- but don't commit suicide because that will be a slow type of shrinking in.

If you see that something is futile, understand it is futile and don't get disturbed by it. Whether you succeed or fail you know it is futile, so success and failure become the same. But now you are no longer worried.

One goes on doing the same things; knowing it is a dream, one goes on enjoying it. What is the point of disturbing it? It is just a dream so why disturb it?

The very idea that something is meaningless is a deep desire for something meaningful -- and there is nothing meaningful. Everything is meaningless except the witness. So the witness can be anywhere.

I don't see that there can be any better profession for witnessing than acting. Actors can move into meditation better than other people because their whole art consists of just creating a dream and being someone, knowing you are not that person.

You are playing the role of Rama. You know you are not Rama; you are acting it. The witnessing remains there spontaneously.

So whatsoever you are doing on stage, bring the same quality into the world also. When you come home, then too remember that this is acting. Be a husband and remember that this too is acting. Be a father and remember that this too is acting.

If the twenty-four hours of your day become an acting, your quality as an actor will become superb and your witnessing will increase.

This is my observation from working with so many people -- that a good actor can become very easily meditative. People are sometimes surprised that actors become so interested. The reason is their profession. Their very work by and by will give them the feeling that they are separate from their roles. One day or other they will see everything as a role.

So I would like you to remain there (in the film world). Don't get disturbed -- enjoy the whole thing. It is nonsense but why not enjoy it? It is futile but why ask for more? Why shouldn't it be futile?

Whatsoever it is, enjoy it as a gift. The day I feel that now there is no growth for you there I will tell you to get out of it. But be there, because much is possible there which will not be so easily possible outside.

OSHO


Osho: ‘The one who questioned answers.’

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 12)

Issues cannot be resolved by choosing one alternative, as both are valid needs.

It is like trying to decide between eating and sleeping -- both have to be integrated. To do either to excess is foolish and that one has to learn a balance -- this is the art of living.

I have heard about one Sufi mystic, Byazid. He came back home one day and he was very hungry, so he asked for food. The friend and disciple who was looking after him said, 'There is nothing in the house, and I have no money sol couldn't purchase anything.'

Byazid said nothing. He simply sat there, prayed to God and thanked him. The disciple couldn't believe what he was doing, for what he was thanking God. That was his master's usual habit -- to thank God after he had eaten, but today he had not eaten and he was still hungry!

So the disciple asked, 'For what are you thanking God?'

Byazid said, I am thanking him that at least I have a good appetite! Food will be coming tomorrow, but I have a good appetite. Think of those people who have food and no appetite. Are they, or I, more miserable?'

So always remember: two valid needs are not to be chosen in opposition And life has many valid needs. They are not contradictory to each other, but if you try to fix them in one time, they are contradictory.

Spread them and make your life more rich. Move with people... love people. Friendship is good, love is good -- but in proportion. Never take too much of anything. Be alone for a few hours and together with people for a few hours.

OSHO

OSHO, OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS 1

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 9)

Love and meditation are just like two wings, and if love is stuck, meditation is stuck. If meditation is stuck, then love will be stuck. They go together.

So one has to be very delicately balancing.

Love gives much turmoil, excitement, thrill -- and in the end you have empty hands if it is not joined with meditation.

This happens almost always -- that when a person is frustrated with love, he becomes interested in meditation. Then he avoids love because he is fed up with it so much and he just wants to meditate. That too is not going to fulfill you.

It may give you a silence, a stillness, but that stillness will be something dead. It will not throb with life... because without love, nothing throbs. Love is the very beat, the pulse; everything pulsates with it.

So my whole effort here is how to give you both.

Otherwise both are lopsided and create a sort of imbalance. You have to sort out your love affair, otherwise that will work like a load and you will not be able to soar high in meditation.

And the second thing -- about your meditation.

Technique are good, but only a beginning. I have never come across a man yet who has come to any fulfillment through it.

It is only the door. You can enter through it but you cannot reach anywhere. Good -- it introduces a new world to you -- but if you are caught by the door and you cling to the door, you will not be able to go deeper.

A technique is very structured... too much technique. Maybe that's why it is so appealing to the mind. The mind is now one of the most addicted to technology -- material or spiritual, it makes no difference.

A technique is just a technique. It is good... it has prepared you for something.

So now you have to make a much unstructured life ... more spontaneous.

And meditation should not be made a technique.

OSHO


Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 10)


It is difficult to love real people because a real person is not going to fulfill your expectations. He is not meant to.

He is not here to fulfill anybody else's expectations. He has to live his own life. And whenever he moves somewhere which goes against you or is not in tune with your feelings, emotions, your being, it becomes difficult.

It is very easy to think about love. It is very difficult to love.

It is very easy to love the whole world. The real difficulty is to love a single human being. It is very easy to love God or humanity. The real problem arises when you come across a real person and you encounter him.

To encounter him is to go through a great change and a great challenge.

He is not going to be your slave and neither are you going to be a slave to him. That's where the real problem arises.

If you are going to be a slave or if he is going to be a slave, then there is no problem. The problem arises because nobody is here to play a slave -- and nobody can be a slave.

Everybody is a free agent... the whole being consists of freedom. Man is freedom.

So remember -- the problem is real. It has nothing to do with you personally. The problem has to do with the whole phenomenon of love.

In the East people have escaped just seeing the difficulty in it. They started denying their love, rejecting their love. They became loveless and they called it non-attachment. By and by they became deadened.

The eastern man is less anxious, less tense... almost lives in his own inner cave, protected, with eyes dosed. He does not allow his energy to move. He makes a short circuit... a small energy movement inside his being and he is happy. But his happiness is a little dead. His happiness is not a jubilation... it is not a joy.

So in the East we have tried to live without love, to renounce the world -- that means to renounce love -- to renounce the woman, the man, and all possibilities where love can flower.

In the West just the opposite has happened. People have tried to find happiness through love and they have created much trouble. They have lost all contact with themselves.

They don't know where the path is, where their home is. So they feel meaningless, homeless, and they go on making more and more love efforts with this woman, with that man -- heterosexual, homosexual, autosexual.

They go on trying every way and again they feel empty, because love alone can give you happiness but there will not be any silence in it. And when there is happiness and no silence, again something is missing.

Both these ways have failed. The East has failed because it tried meditation without love. The West has failed because it tried love without meditation.

My whole effort is to give you a synthesis, the whole -- which means meditation plus love.

One should be able to be happy alone and one should also be able to be happy with people. One should be happy inside and one should also be happy in relationships.

One should make a beautiful house inside and outside too. You should have a beautiful garden surrounding your house and a beautiful bedroom too. The garden is not against the bedroom; the bedroom is not against the garden.

OSHO

                    OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS

There are many problems in life. Obviously they are there. When I say celebrate, I don't mean there are no problems. Problems are there. They have to be encountered; they have to be transcended. And celebration is a way to encounter them.

I am not saying there are no problems, I am not telling you fairy tales, I am not telling you that there are no problems and that life is simply beautiful and there are no thorns and only rose flowers. There are not. For every one rose, there exist one thousand thorns.

I am not creating a dream for you, a utopia. I am utterly realistic and pragmatic.

But the way to get beyond the thorns is to celebrate life, is to celebrate that one flower.

In fact, that one flower is more precious because there are one thousand thorns. If there were all flowers and flowers and no thorns, flowers would be meaningless. It is because of darkness that the morning is so beautiful, it is because of death that life has such joy, it is because of illness that health is significant.

I am not saying there is nothing to be worried about. There are many things, but there is no need to worry about them. They can be encountered. They can be encountered without any worry; they can be encountered through celebration. There are only two ways to encounter them: one is the way of worry and the other is the way of celebration !

❤OSHO❤

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 8)

Nobody can frustrate you.

Always remember that you are your world.

And if you feel frustrated, just look into it; somewhere deep down you are frustrating yourself. You don't want to succeed in your analysis.

For example when a person is angry, he tries to analyse and go to the very root of it. It may be just a maneuver, just a superficial thing. He may not really want to go deep into it, because he may find something which he is not yet ready to face. Because behind every anger, you will find the ego.

So whenever there is anger, the mind doesn't really want to go into it, because if you go into it you will find yourself the culprit.

So you will learn a thousand and one things to avoid.

Nobody can prevent you from your inner analysis, nobody.

Go into your anger and find the root of it. You must be trying to find the root in your friend; then the friend will frustrate you because he will want to find the root in you. There can be no conclusion.

My emphasis is that the individual is wholly and solely responsible, and it is all his game that he is playing. If he allows others to participate, that too is part of the game.

Always try to find out how you are helping to create the problem -- because that's all that you can do. Then drop your participation.

... The problem is not really in the relationship, it is in the related persons, and reflected in the relationship.

OSHO

                                       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

                                       

 OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS SERIES

Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 4)

Anger and sadness are both the same. Sadness is passive anger and anger is active sadness.

It is difficult for a sad person to be angry. If you can make a sad person angry, his sadness will disappear immediately. It will be very difficult for an angry person to be sad. If you can make him sad, his anger will disappear immediately.

In all our emotions the basic polarity continues -- of man and woman, yin and yang, the male and the female.

Anger is male, sadness is female. So if you are in tune with sadness, it is difficult to shift to anger, but I would like you to shift.

If you can float between anger and sadness, both become, similarly easy.

You will have transcendence and then you will be able to watch. You can stand behind the screen and watch these games, and then you can go beyond both.

But first you have to be moving easily between these two. Otherwise you tend to be sad and when one is heavy, transcendence is difficult.

Remember, when two energies, opposite energies, are exactly alike, fifty-fifty, then it is very easy to get out of them, because are fighting and cancelling each other and you are not in anybody's grip.

Your sadness and your anger are fifty-fifty, equal energies, so they cancel each other. Suddenly you have freedom and you can slip out.

But if sadness is seventy percent and anger thirty percent, then it is very difficult thirty percent anger in contrast with seventy percent sadness means forty percent sadness will still be there and it will not be possible; you will not be capable of easily slipping out. That forty percent will hang over.

So this is one of the basic laws of inner energies -- to always let the opposite polarities come to an equal status, and then you are able to slip out of them.

It is as if two persons are fighting and you can escape. They are so engaged with themselves that you need not worry, and you can escape.

Don't bring the mind in. Just make it an exercise.

OSHO

Get Out of Your Own Way
 (Chapter # 5)

I talk about spontaneity, but to achieve that spontaneity, one has to pass through years of training and discipline.

That spontaneity is not available right now. Right now if you become spontaneous, you will just be a victim of the lower self, the instinctive.

Then you will not be rising higher in your consciousness, and you will not become integrated. On the contrary, you may just become a driftwood.

I was just reading about a great a king, Harun-al-Rashid. He had a buffoon in the court, as was the custom in the old courts.

He asked the buffoon, 'Don't you sometimes think that it would be good if you could become an emperor yourself?'

The buffoon said, 'No, never. I have never even dreamt about it. Nobody can tell me that I have ever been greedy in that respect.'

Harun-al-Rashid said, 'Why? Everybody wants to be somebody.'

The buffoon said, 'Think of yourself in a desert, thirsty for one glass of water. How much will you be ready to give?'

Harun said, 'I will give half my kingdom.'

And the buffoon said, 'If you are not satisfied and another glass is needed, and the same price is asked, what are you going to do?'

Harun said, 'I will give the other half.'

The buffoon laughed and said, 'So your whole kingdom is worth nothing more than a glass of water!'

All that we achieve in life is dreamstuff, unless you come across something -- something which is deathless and which death cannot destroy.

But to come to that, one has to work hard. It is an uphill task. So don't remain just interested -- move into it.

Whenever a good interest is there, do something to materialise it.

OSHO

OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS

Osho: ‘The one who questioned all answers.’

Get Out of Your Own Way

I am not saying that every couple has to remain together -- no need. But I am not saying the opposite either -- that every couple has to separate. One has to be understanding.

There are people who are divorce-addicted, so even before the marriage they are thinking about how to divorce.

The moment they think of marriage, they also think of divorce -- as if their meeting is only for separation; separation is the goal. Don't become that way. Just watch what you are doing.

If you go on this way nothing will settle. This is taking the plant up again and again and looking at the roots to see whether they are growing or not. The plant will die! And nobody else will be responsible.

So when you are with a person, try to be a little more alert.

He has difficulties, you have difficulties -- everybody has difficulties. So don't be cruel and don't be violent and aggressive. Try to understand -- as you have difficulties, he also has difficulties.

Sort them out together; figure out where the problem is It is easier to sort them out together rather than separately. And don't hide problems... everything should be opened. There should be no secret.

In the meditation and therapy group learn things, but don't expect things from people that you have seen in the groups. You will never find that anywhere -- and then you will have to go again and again into meditation and therapy groups.

There are many people who live from one group to another. Their whole life consists of marathons, encounters, tathata, kundlinees. That's not life! These are holidays from life... Sundays.

Don't make the week a week of Sundays, or else it will be difficult to live. One day it is good to go to the beach and rest in the sun, but for six days even God has to work!

OSHO


Get Out of Your Own Way


I never say what to do -- that is not my way.

I say whatsoever you do, do it, but do it totally.

If it is good it will become part of you. If it is not good you will come out of it. That is the beauty of being total... that is the secret of being total. You cannot be totally with the devil. You can only be totally with God. So totality is the criterion.

I don't say don't commit a sin. I have no commandments. I don't say, 'Do this. This is moral and virtuous' -- nothing I say whatsoever you want to do, do.

If you want to be a thief, be a total thief. If it is virtue it will become part of you. If it is not virtue you will come out of it.

If you want to be angry, be totally angry. If it is worthwhile you will enjoy it. If you feel it is simply nonsense, it will simply drop of its own accord.

Totality is the criterion. So drift -- but don't resist.

If you want to resist, then resist it totally and don't drift!

Remember always that I never give you direction. Who am I to give you direction? And people who direct you are manipulators. I simply give you an understanding.

So choose. With one foot on one boat and another foot on another boat you will be in trouble.

And the boats are moving in diametrically opposite directions; you will be torn apart

That's what is happening to millions of people -- torn into pieces, everything falling apart. Then life becomes a misery, has to become.

Life is happy when you are together. Happiness is a function of togetherness. Misery is a function of dividedness, fragmentariness. So just decide

OSHO

 OSHO QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Osho: ‘The one who questioned all answers.’


[A sannyasin who has Hodgkin's disease and TB says: I'm really scared about the idea that I might die... I tried witnessing it and it just stays there... ]

No, no, witnessing won't help because you will be using witnessing just as a trick to avoid it. Just accept it and then it will disappear.

So what? One is going to die, so one is going to die. What can you do about it? Accept it, and simply by accepting it there is no problem in it. And then it will become a great experience.

Everybody dies but death comes to very few people this way. Death takes you very unawares: one day you are caught in it, it doesn't give you any chance to think about it. Then there is no opportunity to grow into it. You are fortunate; death is coming making much noise.

And it is a bogus death; it is not coming either.

It is just your fear... but the fear has to be accepted: yes, it is okay. If you are going to die, you are going to die. What difference does it make whether it is today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?

It does not make much difference. Some day one has to die... any day is a good day. Just by postponing it for a few years, what difference will it make?

It does not make any difference whether you live for fifty years or seventy years or one hundred years: one day one dies. So don't miss this opportunity. Accept it! -- It is perfectly okay. And the moment you accept you will suddenly feel that the fear has disappeared.

Fear is because of non-acceptance -- fear is not of death, remember.

What is there to fear in death? That's something strange -- that people go on being afraid. People should be afraid of life because life brings problems. Death brings no problems; it simply solves all problems.

So now accept it. And tonight, just relax. Entertain the idea of death.

If it is coming, let it be beautiful -- make it a joy; give it a good reception. At least get ready! I don't think it is coming but why not get ready?

Someday it will come, and then you can use that reception again. I may not be here to tell you next time. It is better you prepare now.

Accept it.

OSHO

 Osho: The one who questions all answers.


We have killed people's soul, utterly destroyed them. People are just zombies, just dead bodies walking around, managing somehow, dragging somehow, waiting only for death, and there is nothing else to happen.

Understand it, and if you love each other -- and that is my feeling, that you love; that's why I am saying this -- it is possible. Only if you love is this understanding possible.

You love each other, you understand each other, you give total freedom to each other. It is perfectly good sometimes if she moves with somebody and it is perfectly good when you want to move with somebody. You will find that you are becoming again fresh, young, green. Love will start flowing again... and then there is no need to separate.

The need to separate arises because you don't allow her to be free, she does not allow you to be free; then finally every marriage is on the rocks. Either accept this deadness or escape from it. And I think the people who accept it are impotent people but those impotent people have dominated the whole world.

And when a certain philosophy continues for many centuries it becomes part of our presuppositions; we don't think about it. Now nobody thinks about it; we simply accept it and we believe in it: it is part of our blood and bones.

It is very natural. If you live with a person for seven years and you are not fed up, then something is wrong; if you are not bored, then something is wrong.

You can live in the same room, you can sleep in the same bed, but you are not together -- that's pointless!

Sometimes when you feel like being together, be together. When you feel like moving alone, perfectly good; accept it with great love and understanding. And I don't see that there is any problem.

OSHO
 Osho: The one who questions all answers



I don't ask you to be prayerful -- prayer comes on its own when one is loving; and I don't ask you to go into a temple, because those are just outer things.

The inner temple consists of love.

And I don't ask you to think of a god. Only contemplate love and by and by you will see that god is becoming more and more visible to you. It is through love that we reach god; there is no other way.

The English word 'religion' is not as good as 'dharma', because religion gives the feel of a doctrine, a dogma, scripture, theology. Dharma exactly means 'the way'; it does not give the idea of a dogma.

Religion means Christianity, Islam, Hinduism; dharma does not mean, cannot mean, Islam, cannot mean Christianity, cannot mean Hinduism. Dharma means the essential of all religions, the very essence of religion... just the fragrance of all the religions, the core of it.

And if you want to know the core of religion, there is no other way to know it except through love.

Love is the bridge between the human and the divine.

The moment you are totally in love you are no more here. You are no more part of the world of things -- you are raised high; you move into another dimension, you are transported. When you fall from love you are again in the world of things. When you rise in love you are in the world of persons; that is the revolution.

When you are in this world without love you live among things; even persons are like things then. Your wife is a thing, your friend is a thing; you use them.

But when you rise in love even things are no more things. Even the chair has a personality, even the pillar is no more just a thing. You cannot neglect it, you cannot ignore it.

Then the whole existence is full of personality... throbbing with it. Everything has a soul because everything deep down exists in god, everything participates in god. How can it be otherwise? Everything partakes of god. In that very partaking it becomes a person.

OSHO

Osho: The one who questions all answers



Money is not power, prestige is not power, respectability is not power, political status is not power. These are ways to hide our deep-rooted inferiority complex from the world.

There is only one thing that makes a man really powerful -- that is love.

And another strange thing: when love makes you powerful you become humble. A powerful man is always humble. A powerful man is naturally, inevitably unpretending; he is not presumptuous.

He does not claim... he need not claim. He never tries to prove; he is so there is no point in proving.

People who try to prove are the people who know they are not. The man of power is unassuming. The really powerful man is one who has no need to prove to anybody that he is powerful.

He knows he is powerful -- he will not feel insulted; nobody can insult him.

People can insult you only because deep down you know their insults are true. But when you know they are not true, then they don't relate to you, they don't refer to you; they are just pointless, meaningless.

So love gives power but in a very new way. The quality is different: the quality is that of a humble man.

Jesus is powerful but so humble. His disciples were waiting thinking that he might show them some miracle when he was crucified.

But Jesus simply died. Nothing happened. That is the miracle! He didn't try to prove; that's the miracle. If he had done something he would have been an ordinary man on a power trip. No, he simply relaxed and died; he died like such an ordinary man.

That is real power.

OSHO

Osho: ‘The one who questioned all answers.’

In Zen, they say that if you want to become a real painter, for twelve years learn painting then for twelve years forget all about it. Throw the canvas, throw the brush, throw the colours and forget all about painting.

For twelve years do something else -- gardening, farming, anything will do -- and after twelve years start painting again. And then there will be something original... because when you don't know the technique you may be original but you will be amateurish and your art cannot be very valuable; it will be childish, juvenile.

When you only know the technique your art will have the technical quality in it but it will not have the genuineness of the heart. The technique has to be known and then forgotten so the technique enters in your bloodstream -- it becomes part of you; you don't know what it is.

First you learn, then you unlearn. Now you are again like a child but not really a child; you have all the expertise hidden in your bones.

It will work but it will not work any more like a technology. It will not dominate you, it will not be predominant, it will not be dictatorial. It will simply serve you, and it will serve in a very unconscious way... and then original things are born.

So everything has to be learned and then forgotten, unlearned. Then one is innocent and yet technically correct; that is the right process.

Start being a little more inventive, intuitive, liquid... go by the feeling. Do not attach much importance to the technique and do not follow a rigid pattern.

Become more innovative.

OSHO


A fifteen-year-old tells Osho he left school, in the West, because he had some problems there.

Osho: “Very good, the earlier the problems start, the better, so one can start solving them.”

The boy said: “I always imitate people -- talk the way they do, make the same gestures as them, the body says. It just happens.”

Osho: “Do it more perfectly, that's all, make it an art. If it is unconscious it is bad, so do it very consciously and you can become a great actor. It can become a great experience because your consciousness will grow: you will have to be aware when you are studying someone.

Select one sannyasin each day to imitate. Make it perfect, in fact, improve it. Do it so well that the  person feels as if he is imitating you! Let imitating happen through you.

And remember when I say, 'Let things happen', I don't mean don't do, otherwise how will they happen?

I am simply saying that while you are doing things let them happen through you. I'm not saying to just sit silently and let things happen; then how will they happen?

And when I say, 'Let things happen', I don’t mean that you become lazy and drop all doing; then nothing happens. Never be lazy.

When I say to let things happen, I mean let things happen through you. They cannot happen from anywhere else, they will not happen out of the blue. You will have to do but you need not become a doer. Doing will be there, the doer will disappear  -- that's the whole point -- and then you are never trapped.

And sometimes you would like to do too much because in that moment it may be your natural desire to do. Then go into it -- just don't become a doer; don't pay too much attention to doing.

Doing is okay; just remember that you are not to become an ego. Don't say, 'I have done this'. Keep the attitude, 'It has happened through me; god has done it'.

When you imitate say, 'God is imitating through me; I was instrumental'. That's all... it is simple.

OSHO


'Tat Twam Asi', intellectually there is no way to understand it; it has nothing to do with intellect and it is not a philosophical statement. It is just an exclamation, a realisation.

It is not a theory -- it has no logic behind it; it is very illogical but it is an experience, an existential moment when you see it as: 'That Art Thou'.

It is a realisation that you are not separate from existence. 'That' means the existence; you and the existence that surrounds you are not separate.

But this is an experience; there is no way to understand it intellectually.

Intellectually you are separate... in fact it is intellect that makes you separate, so how can you understand it intellectually? It is asking the very disease to prescribe the medicine. It is intellect that makes us separate.

When you are deep in your sleep, you are 'Tat Twam Asi'. You don't know you are separate; you are that, that is you.

When you are awake and intellectually functioning it is very difficult to think that you are that. How can you be this rock and how can you be this tree and how can you be me? You are certainly separate. If I am killed you will not be killed; if I die the whole existence is not going to die, so how can you be one with it? You are certainly separate.

Intellect creates separation, so intellect is the instrument to separate thou from that.

Now you are trying the absurd: you are trying to understand intellectually; then it becomes just a philosophy. Even if you understand intellectually it is of no use.

Intellectual understanding is not an understanding at all. The only understanding that can be called understanding is non-intellectual, intuitive.

Get absorbed in things.

Sometimes dancing, become the dance and you will know.

Not that somebody will shout at you 'Tat Twam Asi'... not that it will come like that statement written somewhere inside your mind. No god is going to give it to you as a commandment, nothing will happen, but you will simply know.

So start getting absorbed; that is my suggestion.

OSHO

PREPARING FOR MEDITATION

PREPARING FOR MEDITATION

Just sit comfortably. You can sit on a chair, on bed, on earth in lotus pose (cross legged) or in any way of your liking. 

Close your eyes and send thoughts of good will to everybody. Just say in your mind – ” I love everybody. My love compassion and kindness is for everyone. ”

It may be the case that somebody has hurt you. Somebody has deceived you or you have been the victim of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities.

 Even if such is the case, you must thank God for not making you like those people. 

Things could be worse. You could be one of them ! Forgive them honestly and say in you heart” Now I forgive them”

I know that it is really difficult to forgive many times. Sometimes we have to suffer badly for no faults of ours and it really hurts. 

However, I earnestly request you to please consider this golden advice that to err is human and to forgive is divine.

Please forgive those who have hurt you. Think over this: Had you been in their shoes, had you gotten the same kind of upbringing, education, had you been in the same sort of environment, then in all likelihood, you would be just like them . 

Please realize that we all are the result of our circumstances and thoughts. If people are bad, it is not that they have chosen to be bad. 

There are many factors like circumstances, financial & domestic conditions, educational background, friends-circle etc. that shape our lives.

Just think from the perspective that people are bad because of many external factors over which perhaps they do not have any control. 

Have sympathy with them, be compassionate and loving towards them and…….forgive them.

It appears difficult but is not very tough. To forgive somebody requires some real effort but the mental peace it provides is worth that effort. Now spread feelings of goodwill to all.

Say- “May I find true happiness.”
Say- “May all people who are close to my heart- my family, my parents, my very close friends; they all find true happiness.”
Slowly start expanding your area of goodwill.

Say , May all people on earth- whether I know them or not, whether I like them or not, they all find true happiness. 

“Spread this good will to not just people but to all living creatures in all directions.

“May they all find true happiness. I love them all. Everybody is my friend. No one is my enemy”

This internal preparation is a very powerful way of preparing body for meditation and will make you very calm. You must try it to feel its power.

BE YOUR OWN INNER MENTORS

Be your own inner mentors

　　Do not think in mind. Really, it should not be thinking. As long as the action. In some cases take a look. That is not easy, because old habits began to fall into thought. You have to be very alert: Do not think about but inwardly feel. There may be times you do not know what good comes from your inner guide, which is out from the surface of the mind. But soon you will understand the difference between these two feelings.

　　When some internal things appear, it comes from the top of your navel. You feel the flow and temperature from above the navel. When you use the brain to think, it only remains on the surface of the mind, and then sent down from the mind. If your mind decide something, you have to force it down. If you decide something intrinsic mentor, then it will boil up; it from the depths of your core Self transmitted to mind. Mind receives this message, it is not the mind of the decision.It comes from the transcendent place - that is why the mind afraid of it. It is easy to understand why the mind is so frightened at it: Because you never know when it will occur? There is no reason, without any verification. It is up to boil.

　　Any time when you are in a state of confusion and disarray direction, stop thinking; deep inner thinking back to non-space for your inner mentor to guide you. When at first you may feel scared, upset, but if every time you have to get the right result every time to find the right avenue, and soon you will become more daring and trust.

　　Trust occurs when I say that is the real religious belief - the inner mentors trust. Reasons, the inference is part of the self. Trust is their inner beliefs. When you enter the inner depth of that moment, you've come to the core of the soul of the universe. Your mentor is part of the inherent divinity guide, follow it, would be tantamount to follow the divine nature; If you follow your own mind, will only make things more complicated no solution, but do not know what they are doing. You might think yourself very wise. Not at all.

　　Local wisdom from the heart, from the depths of the nature of the core and not from the mind. Cut off your mind, follow your nature. No matter where it takes you brought, even if it brings lead you to dangerous place, follow it, that paved the way for you, it is your growth. You will grow through the dangerous and mature.

Osho: Adapted from the book Mystery of The Book of Secrets

WHY ACTIVE MEDITATION ?

WHY ACTIVE MEDITATION ?

Modern man is a very new phenomenon. No traditional method can be used exactly as it exists because modern man never existed before. So, in a way, all traditional methods have become irrelevant.

For example, the body has changed so much. It is so drugged that no traditional method can be helpful. The whole atmosphere is artificial now: the air, the water, society, living conditions. Nothing is natural. You are born in artificiality; you develop in it. So traditional methods will prove harmful today. They will have to be changed according to the modern situation.

Another thing: the quality of the mind has basically changed. In Patanjali's [the most famous commentator on Yoga] days, the center of the human personality was not the brain; it was the heart. Before that, it was not even the heart. It was still lower, near the navel. The center has gone even further from the navel. Now, the center is the brain. That is why teachings like those of Krishnamurti have appeal. No method is needed, no technique is needed – only understanding. But if it is just a verbal understanding, just intellectual, nothing changes, nothing is transformed. It again becomes an accumulation of knowledge.

I use chaotic methods rather than systematic ones because a chaotic method is very helpful in pushing the center down from the brain. The center cannot be pushed down through any systematic method because systemization is brainwork. Through a systematic method, the brain will be strengthened; more energy will be added to it. Through chaotic methods the brain is nullified. It has nothing to do. The method is so chaotic that the center is automatically pushed from the brain to the heart. If you do my method of Dynamic Meditation vigorously, unsystematically, chaotically, your center moves to the heart. Then there is a catharsis. 

A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed. So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart.

Then catharsis is needed to unburden the heart, to throw off suppressions, to make the heart open. If the heart becomes light and unburdened, then the center of consciousness is pushed still lower; it comes to the navel. The navel is the source of vitality, the seed source from which everything else comes: the body and the mind and everything.

I use this chaotic method very considerately. Systematic methodology will not help now, because the brain will use it as its own instrument. Nor can just the chanting of bhajans help now, because the heart is so burdened that it cannot flower into real chanting. Consciousness must be pushed down to the source, to the roots. Only then is there the possibility of transformation. So I use chaotic methods to push the consciousness downward from the brain.

Whenever you are in chaos, the brain stops working. For example, if you are driving a car and suddenly someone runs in front of you, you react so suddenly that it cannot be the work of the brain. The brain takes time. It thinks about what to do and what not to do. So whenever there is a possibility of an accident and you push the brake, you feel a sensation near your navel, as if it were your stomach that is reacting. Your consciousness is pushed down to the navel because of the accident. If the accident could be calculated beforehand, the brain would be able to deal with it; but when you are in an accident, something unknown happens. Then you notice that your consciousness has moved to the navel.

If you ask a Zen monk, "From where do you think?" he puts his hands on his belly. When Westerners came into contact with Japanese monks for the first time they could not understand. "What nonsense! How can you think from your belly?

But the Zen reply is meaningful. Consciousness can use any center of the body, and the center that is nearest to the original source is the navel. The brain is furthest away from the original source, so if life energy is moving outward, the center of consciousness will become the brain. And if life energy is moving inward, ultimately the navel will become the center.

Chaotic methods are needed to push the consciousness to its roots, because only from the roots is transformation possible. Otherwise you will go on verbalizing and there will be no transformation. It is not enough just to know what is right. You have to transform the roots; otherwise you will not change.

When a person knows the right thing and cannot do anything about it, he becomes doubly tense. He understands, but he cannot do anything. Understanding is meaningful only when it comes from the navel, from the roots. If you understand from the brain, it is not transforming.

The ultimate cannot be known through the brain, because when you are functioning through the brain you are in conflict with the roots from which you have come. Your whole problem is that you have moved away from the navel. You have come from the navel and you will die through it. One has to come back to the roots. But coming back is difficult, arduous.

Traditional methods have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to us, but they were not irrelevant to Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali or Krishna. They were meaningful, helpful. The old methods may be meaningless now, but because Buddha achieved through them they have an appeal. The traditionalist feels: "If Buddha achieved through these methods, why can't I?”

But we are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man. The fact that the old methods don't work doesn't mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change. As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques.

Osho: The Psychology of the Esoteric, #4

MEDITATION IS PLAYFULNESS

Meditation is playfulness

"Meditation is not anything of the mind, it is something beyond the mind. The first step is to be playful about it. If you are playful about it, mind cannot destroy your meditation. Otherwise it will turn it into another ego trip; it will make you very serious. You will start thinking, 'I am a great meditator. I am holier than other people, and the whole world is just worldly – I am religious, I am virtuous.' That's what has happened to thousands of so-called saints, moralists, puritans: they are just playing ego games, subtle ego games.

"Hence I want to cut the very root of it from the very beginning. Be playful about it. It is a song to be sung, a dance to be danced. Take it as fun and you will be surprised: if you can be playful about meditation, meditation will grow in leaps and bounds. But you are not hankering after any goal; you are just enjoying sitting silently, just enjoying the very act of sitting silently – not that you are longing for some yogic powers, siddhis, miracles. All that is nonsense, the same old nonsense, the same old game, played with new words, on a new plane....

"Life as such has to be taken as a cosmic joke – and then suddenly you relax because there is nothing to be tense about. And in that very relaxation, something starts changing in you – a radical change, a transformation – and the small things of life starts having new meaning, new significance. Then nothing is small, everything starts taking on a new flavor, a new aura; one starts feeling a kind of godliness everywhere. One does not become a Christian, does not become a Hindu, does not become a Mohammedan; one simply becomes a lover of life. One learns only one thing, how to rejoice in life.

"But rejoicing in life is the way towards God. Dance your way to God, laugh your way to god, sing your way to God!" 

Osho, The Golden Wind. Tak #8