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

OSHO, OSHO QUESTION AND ANSWERS

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

It is not a question of compromise! It is a question of understanding.

Compromise is not the right word... it is a question of understanding.

For example you have come to me. If you are here for one hour, you are losing many more things. In that one hour you could have done many other things.

You could have gone to the movie; you have missed the movie. You could have gone to see friends. You could have gone to a coffee-house; you have missed that. You could have danced; you have missed that. You could have read; you have missed that.

You have missed a thousand and one things to come to me. You may not be aware, but you have missed -- because there were millions of alternatives.

This is how life is. You cannot do all the things together. It is not a question of compromise... it is a question of alertness.

If you become alert, things become very easy and one finds a way. One always finds a way.

That's what one should try to do --  to live life as much as possible... to gain as much out of life as possible. Out of everything, going on choosing the best -- the best that is humanly possible so you become enriched.

But the attitude of just being against society is not going to help. Society does not bother about it, and you will be crippled by it.

Forget about rules, forget about society. Just think about yourself, your possibilities, alternatives -- what can be chosen and what will be the best choice.

If you feel that you have made a mistake, change it. Learn by trial and error.

That's how it has to be. Don't get obsessed by small things; they are not that important.

Life is a big thing. It is not equivalent to going naked in the sun or the river. Life and freedom of life does not mean going naked in the sun or the river. This is all nonsense.

Life is big, very complicated thing. Don’t reduce it to nonsense.

OSHO


[11:27, 10/17/2017] Manish Sitar Popular Height: Osho: ‘The one who questioned answers.’

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

The frustrations are there because there was some expectation in you that something was going to happen. That created the whole trouble.

If you have some expectation you will be frustrated and nothing will come out of it. But one has to learn by doing it; there is no other way.

So forget about it. Whatsoever it could do it has done.

But always remember while doing the meditations , never go with an expectation.

Just go to see what happens, and allow it to happen.

Don't go on looking out of the corner of the eye and don't go on waiting for something to happen, because that will become a constant barrier and it won't allow you to be there totally. It won't allow you to be herenow.

That expectation will constantly hover around your head and you will say, 'It has still not happened. Up to now it has not happened and one day is gone. Another day has gone -- what are you doing? Nothing has happened!'

That becomes an auto-hypnosis. Nothing has happened and the time is running out! You miss.

Simply do it. If the mind says that nothing is happening, tell the mind that nothing is going to happen! For what are you looking? Nothing is the goal!

Once you cannot be frustrated by the process, you will be tremendously benefited by it.

That's the rule: if you cannot be frustrated by it, you will be benefited.

The frustration simply shows that you've a deep desire, a deep undercurrent of desire, that is frustrating you -- not the meditation.

But it is nothing to worry about. It happens to almost everybody. One starts rationalising, in many ways, about what is the point and why are you wasting your time. Many times the idea will come to leave; that's natural.

But one learns, don't carry any expectations and much is possible.

OSHO


Abridged from:
Get Out of Your Own Way
(Chapter # 18)

It is your life, you have to decide about it.

This is one of the most basic things to understand -- that you are responsible for yourself, nobody else.

You have to take the responsibility. If you want to grow, open. If you don't want to grow then remain closed -- but it is your responsibility.

When I use the word responsibility, I don't use it in the ordinary sense, in the sense of duty -- no. It is exactly the opposite of duty.

Duty is always something that you don't want to do and you do it.

The duty to your father, the duty to your mother, the duty to the country, the duty to this and that is that which you don't want to do, but you do it because it has been forced on you, taught to you, and if you don't do it you will feel guilty. If you do it you will not feel happy but at least you will not feel guilty. You will gain nothing out of it.

When I say responsible, I mean respond to the situation in which you find yourself.

If you don't respond, that is your decision. Remember always that if you don't want to grow, there is no way to help you.

It is nobody else's business.

If you see that it is foolish to hide, foolish to hold on, then drop that nonsense. And don't ask how to drop it.

There is no how to it. You simply see the point -- that it is useless -- and you drop it. By dropping it one learns how to drop it.

Whatsoever you are trying to hide is not worth it. It is not a treasure to hide! It is your disease.

And why be afraid of these people?

Just watch people... they are just like you; they also have the same problems. Nothing human is alien.

Whatsoever problem you have, they are just the same; maybe degrees differ.

When people are being angry and their hate is coming up, their sexuality is coming up, their greed is coming up -- they are crying and weeping and laughing and things are opening, pent-up energies are finding release -- watch!

Get caught up in the flow! Ride on the wave! Take a jump!

It will happen. There is no technique in it, just courage!

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 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