OSHO Q AND A

OSHO Q AND A

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 19)

A real life is so comprehensive that day and night, summer and winter, god and devil, all are in it.

A god who is without the devil is not much of a god; he will be a very poor god. And a devil who has no divinity in him will simply be worth nothing.

The day is rich because you have rested deeply in the night... the darkness allowed you rest.

There are joys of work, but if you have worked hard, only then is the night beautiful. Otherwise you just go on changing from side to side the whole night and there is no sleep.

This is what I mean when I say be a whole person. Nothing should be excluded... nothing should be excluded.

Everything should be included, and in that inclusion of everything, you start soaring.

Otherwise every human being is crippled because something has been excluded. Somebody has excluded his anger, somebody has excluded his sex, somebody has excluded something else

No human being seems to be whole, but wounded, cut, fragmented.

This is my whole work; to help people to become whole.

Whatsoever is in you has to be included in your higher synthesis... it has its role to play. In the higher orchestra of your being, nothing should be left behind.

All notes have to fall in tune, in harmony. Then something arises which is more than the total of all -- and that is the whole. The whole is more than the total. Whole and total do not mean the same thing.

Total is the way towards the whole, but the whole is more that the total. If all your parts are added together it will be total. If all your parts fall into a symphony, then it will be whole.

OSHO


Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 20)

‘Vaikhari’ is like a flower... the word means flowering.

When you express something in thought it is ‘Vaikhari’. Just below it is ‘Madhyama’. Madhyama means the medium, the bridge. The thing is clear to you as a feeling but it has not yet become a thought.

A feeling needs to become a thought only when you want to convey it to somebody, otherwise there is no need.

So the fourth stage of flowering is when the fragrance starts spreading, moves away from the flower. The third stage is of ‘Madhyama’. It is like a bud whose petals are closed. The flower is not yet available to others. The fragrance is inside, hidden. If you don't express, it will remain like a bud.

That's why expression is tremendously useful. If you are feeling very very angry, just express it on a pillow, but don't just go on feeling. Beat the pillow... be angry. Let it come to a flower.

Suddenly the fragrance is gone and you will feel unburdened. The whole method of psychoanalysis is bringing a thing from ‘Madhyama’ to ‘Vaikharia’, from the bud to the flower.

Below the ‘Madhyama’, there is another space we call ‘Pashyanti’. Feeling is still not clear. It has not even become a feeling yet; just a vagueness. Sometimes it looks as if it is there; sometimes it is not there.

It is like a plant whose buds have not yet come... they are hiding inside the plant. You know they will be coming. You feel the first footsteps, but very vague, far away. That is the state of no feeling -- just sheer existence.

Below even that is ‘Para’.

Para means not even existence. A thing is still in non-existence. ‘Pashyanti’ is like a seed... everything is closed, and the plant has not sprouted yet. When the plant has not sprouted, buds cannot be. When buds are not there, the flower is not possible.

‘Pashyanti’ is like the seed and ‘Para’ is the very source. In scientific terminology you can call it the black hole... the non-being. Even the seed has not come up.

Or think of it in this way. Somebody dies and the soul roams around, wanders around. This is ‘Para’.

Then the soul is conceived in a womb; this is ‘Pashyanti’.

Then the child grows and the mother starts feeling the existence of the child after a few days. That is ‘Madhyama’.

One day when the nine months are over, the child is born; this is ‘Vaikhari’.

OSHO

OSHO, OSHO Q AND A,

OSHO, OSHO Q AND A,

Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 20)

I am not saying don't be in love. Be in love, but never make love an alternative to meditation; it is not.

Love and meditate -- they are two different things.

Some day a higher synthesis comes, but that day has not come yet. When love becomes meditation, meditation becomes love. That is very difficult to attain -- only when all polarities dissolve.

This is a deep polarity -- love and meditation.

Meditation is happiness in your absolute aloneness; love is happiness with somebody else. In love, the other is important; in meditation, only you.

Love is ‘I and thou’. Meditation is complete... getting out of the ‘I-thou’ world. It is just being yourself -- not even ‘I’.

Meditation is solitude, love is relationship. They are totally different; diametrically opposite.

When people start moving into meditation, they start moving out of love. This I watch happening every day. When your love becomes a frustration, you come to me for meditation.

Meditation is needed -- one is feeling very unhappy. And when you start a love relationship, you simply forget all about meditation. You think of love as meditation.

Be balanced -- both wings are needed. Love, meditate, and don't create a conflict between them.

When it is time to meditate, meditate. And there is enough time -- twenty-four hours. I am not saying to meditate for twenty-four hours. Give just two hours for meditation; a few hours for love, and a few hours for other things in life.

Never make anything monotonous, otherwise sooner or later you will get fed up with it.

That guilt has a message -- don't try to get rid of it. Try and listen to the message... and start meditating.

OSHO




Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 21)

Once the disease is known, once it is diagnosed, then changing is not difficult.

The most difficult part is the diagnosis: how exactly to know what the problem is.

This is my observation, that the mind has become so cunning in hiding, that when there is a problem, it never allows the actual problem to come to you; it changes the problem.

If you want to kill your father, the mind dreams of killing your uncle, not your father. The uncle looks like the father, is a little fatherly, and yet he is not the father. The mind diverts your attention to something similar -- but the problem is pseudo.

You wanted to do something and this may not be the real desire. You may really have wanted to do something else, but the mind played a trick and distracted you.

Many people feel that their problem is religious and it is not. Sometimes it is sexual, sometimes it is some sort of obsession, neurosis, or something else.

Many people think that they want to be silent, peaceful, and they think this is their problem. But the deeper you go, you find that that is not the problem. The problem is greed or ambition, or something else. They have become so afraid of facing reality that they go on deceiving themselves, because when the problem is falsified, treatment becomes impossible.

You have a headache and you say you have a stomach ache. All the treatment goes to the stomach and the head is saved, the headache continues.

This treatment can be dangerous, because if there is no problem in the stomach and some medicine is given, problems will arise. If there is a problem, the medicine will solve it. If there is no problem, it will create a problem, an illness. It will become toxic, poisonous or something.

So the basic thing is to first face the real problem, naked.

OSHO

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 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