Astrall
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The foundation of happiness is unity with oneself, always. You must remember the main thing: accepting psychological pain opens the gates to transcending it. You must accept everything that causes you pain; you must engage in a dialogue with it. It is you. There is no other way to get rid of the pain; the only way is to accept it... People suffer, people are tormented – everyone seeks a state of happiness, a state of unity with life. A person feels lonely, unrooted. Hence, the desire to re-establish roots in existence, to become green again, to become blessed again. We need to understand something. Absolute unity with consciousness or life is unity with oneself. For this, we must not reject anything. This is the first thing to understand. Wholeness is the first step on the path to bliss. This is what all the wise men repeatedly insist on: wholeness is bliss. You need to accept everything. You don't need to reject anything. If you reject something, you create problems, and the problems become more and more complex.
• The first step is acceptance: The greatest desire in the world is the desire for inner transformation. Money, power, authority – nothing; the greatest desire is the so-called thirst for the spiritual. If you are consumed by this desire, you will never succeed. Transformation is possible. But not through desire. Transformation is possible through relaxation in the situation as it is. Transformation is caused by unconditional acceptance of oneself. We need to take this seriously, because this is the heart of the universal situation. People suffer, people are tormented – everyone seeks a state of happiness, a state of unity with life. A person feels lonely, unrooted. Hence, the desire to re-establish roots in existence, to become green again, to become blessed again. We need to understand something. Absolute unity with consciousness or life is unity with oneself. For this, we must not reject anything. This is the first thing to understand. For example, right now you are experiencing real fear. If you reject it, you suppress it, you wound your essence. You are afraid to face the truth. But this is a fact, this is reality. If you stop looking your fear in the eye, it will not disappear. You are acting like an ostrich. Seeing an enemy or mortal danger, the ostrich hides its head in the sand. But the enemy does not disappear because of this. The ostrich only becomes more vulnerable to the enemy. Thinking that there is no enemy – because it doesn't see anyone – the ostrich gets rid of fear. In fact, it exposes itself to even greater danger; an unseen enemy is more dangerous. If the ostrich did not hide its head in the sand, something could be done. People do the same. If you are afraid of something, you try not to notice it – but it is a fact, you are not accepting a part of your essence. You have divided yourself into parts. Then one day you will not want to accept anger, then you will not want to accept greed. And so on. Negative emotions do not disappear just because you do not want to perceive them. You yourself have destroyed your wholeness. The more you destroy yourself, the more unhappy you become.
• Wholeness is the first step on the path to bliss. This is what all mystics repeatedly insist on: wholeness is bliss. You need to accept everything. You don't need to reject anything. If you reject something, you create problems, and the problems become more and more complex. It's simple – if you are afraid, what do you do? You acknowledge: "Yes, I am afraid." That's all! If you acknowledge your cowardice, that is already courage! Only a brave person can admit their fear – you are already on the path to transformation. So, the first thing is not to reject anything that can be experienced. To achieve this, consciousness must stop identifying itself with obsessive, fixed ideas. This is the second. If your mind clings to ideas about who you are, it does not accept the reality that contradicts these ideas. If you have ideas about what you should be, you cannot accept yourself as you are. If you have the idea that you should be brave, it is difficult for you to accept your cowardice. If you have the idea of being a very compassionate person – like the Buddha – you cannot accept your anger. This is an ideal that creates problems. There is no ideal – there are no problems. If you are a coward, be a coward! Since you do not have the ideal of being brave, you do not judge yourself – you do not reject, you do not suppress your fear. If you drive fear into the subconscious, it will continue to create problems for you. This is like a disease driven inside. If it manifests, there is a chance that it will disappear. If the disease manifests, that is good. This is the path to healing – then it comes into contact with the sun and fresh air and can be healed. If you do not allow it to come to the surface, you drive it inside, it turns into cancer. Even a minor illness can become dangerous if you suppress it.
You should never suppress an illness. However, suppression is natural if you have an ideal. For example, if you have the ideal of maintaining celibacy, sex becomes a problem. This is easy to see. If you do not have the ideal of maintaining celibacy, you do not refuse sex. There is no separation between you and your sexuality. There is unity between them. This unity, this union, brings you joy. The foundation of happiness is unity with oneself, always. So, the second thing to remember is to give up ideals. Just think – if you have an ideal, you must have three eyes. Because you have two, not three eyes (as your ideal suggests), a problem arises. You want to have a third eye. You have created an unsolvable problem! The most you can do is draw a third eye on your forehead. But a drawn third eye is just a drawn third eye; it is a fake. Ideals make people fake. It turns out to be absurd: although people's ideal is not to be fake, it is the ideals that bring about falsehood. If all ideals disappear, falsehood will disappear.
Why does falsehood exist? It is a consequence of having ideals. The higher the ideal, the more falsehood. In India, there are more hypocrites than anywhere else in the world. Why? Because for many centuries, India has lived with great ideals. Crazy, strange ideals… For example, a Jain monk is unhappy if he cannot, like the mythological Mahavira, eat very rarely. It is said that out of twelve years, Mahavira ate only one year. That is, he ate once every twelve days. If this is your ideal, you doom yourself to great unhappiness. If this is not your ideal, there are no problems.
• The cause of the problem is the ideal. Understand this. A Christian monk is not worried about this problem. The Jain monk is constantly suffering – he cannot achieve the ideal; he fails. If you are truly, genuinely pure, you do not sweat. This is a Jain idea. Now you have this stupid idea! Your body will continue to sweat, you will continue to suffer. The more ideals you have, the more hypocritical you are – if you cannot achieve the ideal, you must pretend. This is where falsehood comes from. If we accepted reality as it is, there would be no hypocrisy in the world. If we live with what is, and not with what we "should" or "must," where can hypocrisy come from? Once, someone asked me: "Are you a hypocrite? You live in comfort, you have a beautiful house, a wonderful car. You live like a king." He does not understand what the word "hypocrisy" means. Everything I teach is to live as well as possible. I am not a hypocrite. I live in accordance with what I teach. Hypocrisy would be if I taught to live in poverty, and lived in a palace. But I do not teach to live in poverty; that is not my goal. I live naturally: living in comfort and convenience is very natural. Not living in comfort, if possible, is stupid. It's just that it may not be possible. Live comfortably in the conditions that are available to you...
Osho
• The first step is acceptance: The greatest desire in the world is the desire for inner transformation. Money, power, authority – nothing; the greatest desire is the so-called thirst for the spiritual. If you are consumed by this desire, you will never succeed. Transformation is possible. But not through desire. Transformation is possible through relaxation in the situation as it is. Transformation is caused by unconditional acceptance of oneself. We need to take this seriously, because this is the heart of the universal situation. People suffer, people are tormented – everyone seeks a state of happiness, a state of unity with life. A person feels lonely, unrooted. Hence, the desire to re-establish roots in existence, to become green again, to become blessed again. We need to understand something. Absolute unity with consciousness or life is unity with oneself. For this, we must not reject anything. This is the first thing to understand. For example, right now you are experiencing real fear. If you reject it, you suppress it, you wound your essence. You are afraid to face the truth. But this is a fact, this is reality. If you stop looking your fear in the eye, it will not disappear. You are acting like an ostrich. Seeing an enemy or mortal danger, the ostrich hides its head in the sand. But the enemy does not disappear because of this. The ostrich only becomes more vulnerable to the enemy. Thinking that there is no enemy – because it doesn't see anyone – the ostrich gets rid of fear. In fact, it exposes itself to even greater danger; an unseen enemy is more dangerous. If the ostrich did not hide its head in the sand, something could be done. People do the same. If you are afraid of something, you try not to notice it – but it is a fact, you are not accepting a part of your essence. You have divided yourself into parts. Then one day you will not want to accept anger, then you will not want to accept greed. And so on. Negative emotions do not disappear just because you do not want to perceive them. You yourself have destroyed your wholeness. The more you destroy yourself, the more unhappy you become.
• Wholeness is the first step on the path to bliss. This is what all mystics repeatedly insist on: wholeness is bliss. You need to accept everything. You don't need to reject anything. If you reject something, you create problems, and the problems become more and more complex. It's simple – if you are afraid, what do you do? You acknowledge: "Yes, I am afraid." That's all! If you acknowledge your cowardice, that is already courage! Only a brave person can admit their fear – you are already on the path to transformation. So, the first thing is not to reject anything that can be experienced. To achieve this, consciousness must stop identifying itself with obsessive, fixed ideas. This is the second. If your mind clings to ideas about who you are, it does not accept the reality that contradicts these ideas. If you have ideas about what you should be, you cannot accept yourself as you are. If you have the idea that you should be brave, it is difficult for you to accept your cowardice. If you have the idea of being a very compassionate person – like the Buddha – you cannot accept your anger. This is an ideal that creates problems. There is no ideal – there are no problems. If you are a coward, be a coward! Since you do not have the ideal of being brave, you do not judge yourself – you do not reject, you do not suppress your fear. If you drive fear into the subconscious, it will continue to create problems for you. This is like a disease driven inside. If it manifests, there is a chance that it will disappear. If the disease manifests, that is good. This is the path to healing – then it comes into contact with the sun and fresh air and can be healed. If you do not allow it to come to the surface, you drive it inside, it turns into cancer. Even a minor illness can become dangerous if you suppress it.
You should never suppress an illness. However, suppression is natural if you have an ideal. For example, if you have the ideal of maintaining celibacy, sex becomes a problem. This is easy to see. If you do not have the ideal of maintaining celibacy, you do not refuse sex. There is no separation between you and your sexuality. There is unity between them. This unity, this union, brings you joy. The foundation of happiness is unity with oneself, always. So, the second thing to remember is to give up ideals. Just think – if you have an ideal, you must have three eyes. Because you have two, not three eyes (as your ideal suggests), a problem arises. You want to have a third eye. You have created an unsolvable problem! The most you can do is draw a third eye on your forehead. But a drawn third eye is just a drawn third eye; it is a fake. Ideals make people fake. It turns out to be absurd: although people's ideal is not to be fake, it is the ideals that bring about falsehood. If all ideals disappear, falsehood will disappear.
Why does falsehood exist? It is a consequence of having ideals. The higher the ideal, the more falsehood. In India, there are more hypocrites than anywhere else in the world. Why? Because for many centuries, India has lived with great ideals. Crazy, strange ideals… For example, a Jain monk is unhappy if he cannot, like the mythological Mahavira, eat very rarely. It is said that out of twelve years, Mahavira ate only one year. That is, he ate once every twelve days. If this is your ideal, you doom yourself to great unhappiness. If this is not your ideal, there are no problems.
• The cause of the problem is the ideal. Understand this. A Christian monk is not worried about this problem. The Jain monk is constantly suffering – he cannot achieve the ideal; he fails. If you are truly, genuinely pure, you do not sweat. This is a Jain idea. Now you have this stupid idea! Your body will continue to sweat, you will continue to suffer. The more ideals you have, the more hypocritical you are – if you cannot achieve the ideal, you must pretend. This is where falsehood comes from. If we accepted reality as it is, there would be no hypocrisy in the world. If we live with what is, and not with what we "should" or "must," where can hypocrisy come from? Once, someone asked me: "Are you a hypocrite? You live in comfort, you have a beautiful house, a wonderful car. You live like a king." He does not understand what the word "hypocrisy" means. Everything I teach is to live as well as possible. I am not a hypocrite. I live in accordance with what I teach. Hypocrisy would be if I taught to live in poverty, and lived in a palace. But I do not teach to live in poverty; that is not my goal. I live naturally: living in comfort and convenience is very natural. Not living in comfort, if possible, is stupid. It's just that it may not be possible. Live comfortably in the conditions that are available to you...
Osho