Astrall
Auto-translated
Why is there so much disappointment in the world?
Because there are so many expectations. Live with expectations, and disappointment is inevitable. Expect nothing, and there will be no disappointment. Disappointment is a byproduct of expectations: the more you expect, the stronger your disappointment will be. So disappointment is, in fact, not the problem, but the result. The problem is expectation.
Disappointment is merely a shadow that follows expectation. If you live for even a single moment without expectations, if expectations vanish from your mind, everything becomes simple: you ask a question — an answer comes — you are satisfied. But if you ask with any expectations, the answer will disappoint you.
Everything we do, we do with expectations. If I am in love with someone, expectation arrives without me even knowing it. I expect love in return. I have not yet loved, I have not yet grown into love, but the expectation is already right here, and now it will destroy everything. Love breeds more disappointment than anything else in the world because, when you love, you immerse yourself in expectations, you drown in utopias. You haven't even started the journey, yet you are already thinking about returning home.
The stronger your expectation of love, the harder it will be for love to flow back to you. The one from whom you expect love will feel it as shackles; for them, loving you will be a duty, something they must do. And when love is a duty, it brings no satisfaction, for as a duty, love is dead.
Love can only be a game, not a duty. Love is freedom, and duty is shackles, a heavy burden that you must carry. And when you must carry something, it loses its beauty. The freshness and poetry vanish, and the other person instantly feels that they are being offered something dead. If you love with expectation, consider that you have killed love. It is barren — your love will be a dead child. And disappointment awaits you.
Let your love be like a game, not like a deal; love not because you want to receive something in return. Let your love for another person be an end in itself. Thank existence for the fact that you have loved, and do not think about whether you will be rewarded for it or not.
Do not turn love into a deal, and you will never be disappointed; your life will be filled with love. And when love blossoms in all its fullness, bliss arrives, ecstasy arrives.
I took love only as an example. The same law applies to everything. There is so much disappointment in the world that it is hard to find a person who is not disappointed. Even your so-called saints are disappointed: disappointed because of their disciples, disappointed because they had expectations regarding them: disciples should do this and not do that, disciples should be this way and not that way. With such an approach, disappointment will inevitably follow; it has already happened.
Your so-called workers are also disappointed, because they too have expectations. Whatever their ideal may be, society must conform to it; whatever their utopia may be, everyone must follow it. They expect too much. They believe that the whole world should immediately transform according to their ideals. But the world continues on its own path, therefore they are disappointed.
It is very difficult to find a person who is not disappointed. And if you find such a person, know this: they are a religious person. It does not matter what became the object, the cause, the source of disappointment. One can be disappointed in power, in prestige, in wealth. One can be disappointed in love. One can even be disappointed in the divine.
You want the divine to descend upon you. You begin to meditate, and expectation arises. I have met people who meditate for fifteen minutes every day for a week, and then come to me and say: "I meditate, but I have still not known the divine. It seems that my efforts are useless." They devote fifteen minutes to meditation for seven days, yet divinity has still not visited them. "I still don't feel the divine, so what should I do now?" Even in the search for the divine, we have expectations.
Expectation is poison. It is precisely because of it that disappointment arises; it must be so. Realize the hypocrisy, the toxicity of the expecting mind. Gradually, if you begin to realize this, expectations will vanish, and there will be no disappointments.
So do not ask: "Why is there so much disappointment in the world?" Ask: "Why am I so disappointed?" Such a question will change everything completely. If someone wonders why the world is so disappointed, expectation is already present: the world could be less disappointed. But regardless of whether the world is disappointed or not, you will remain disappointed.
The world is disappointed — that is a fact. But go and try to find out why you are disappointed. It will turn out that you are disappointed because of your own expectations. This is the source, the root cause. Stop it!
Do not think about the world, think about yourself. You are the world, and if you change, the world changes too. Its part, its integral part, has become different: the world has begun to change.
We are too preoccupied with changing the world. This is simply an escape. I have always felt that people who try to remake others are actually running away from their own disappointments, from their own conflicts, from their worries, from their sufferings. They focus their attention on something outside, they occupy their mind with something external, because they cannot change themselves. It is easier to try to change the world than to change oneself.
Do not forget that you need to find the cause of your own disappointments. And the sooner you do it, the better. Situations change, but the source of disappointment is always the same: expectation.
Osho
Because there are so many expectations. Live with expectations, and disappointment is inevitable. Expect nothing, and there will be no disappointment. Disappointment is a byproduct of expectations: the more you expect, the stronger your disappointment will be. So disappointment is, in fact, not the problem, but the result. The problem is expectation.
Disappointment is merely a shadow that follows expectation. If you live for even a single moment without expectations, if expectations vanish from your mind, everything becomes simple: you ask a question — an answer comes — you are satisfied. But if you ask with any expectations, the answer will disappoint you.
Everything we do, we do with expectations. If I am in love with someone, expectation arrives without me even knowing it. I expect love in return. I have not yet loved, I have not yet grown into love, but the expectation is already right here, and now it will destroy everything. Love breeds more disappointment than anything else in the world because, when you love, you immerse yourself in expectations, you drown in utopias. You haven't even started the journey, yet you are already thinking about returning home.
The stronger your expectation of love, the harder it will be for love to flow back to you. The one from whom you expect love will feel it as shackles; for them, loving you will be a duty, something they must do. And when love is a duty, it brings no satisfaction, for as a duty, love is dead.
Love can only be a game, not a duty. Love is freedom, and duty is shackles, a heavy burden that you must carry. And when you must carry something, it loses its beauty. The freshness and poetry vanish, and the other person instantly feels that they are being offered something dead. If you love with expectation, consider that you have killed love. It is barren — your love will be a dead child. And disappointment awaits you.
Let your love be like a game, not like a deal; love not because you want to receive something in return. Let your love for another person be an end in itself. Thank existence for the fact that you have loved, and do not think about whether you will be rewarded for it or not.
Do not turn love into a deal, and you will never be disappointed; your life will be filled with love. And when love blossoms in all its fullness, bliss arrives, ecstasy arrives.
I took love only as an example. The same law applies to everything. There is so much disappointment in the world that it is hard to find a person who is not disappointed. Even your so-called saints are disappointed: disappointed because of their disciples, disappointed because they had expectations regarding them: disciples should do this and not do that, disciples should be this way and not that way. With such an approach, disappointment will inevitably follow; it has already happened.
Your so-called workers are also disappointed, because they too have expectations. Whatever their ideal may be, society must conform to it; whatever their utopia may be, everyone must follow it. They expect too much. They believe that the whole world should immediately transform according to their ideals. But the world continues on its own path, therefore they are disappointed.
It is very difficult to find a person who is not disappointed. And if you find such a person, know this: they are a religious person. It does not matter what became the object, the cause, the source of disappointment. One can be disappointed in power, in prestige, in wealth. One can be disappointed in love. One can even be disappointed in the divine.
You want the divine to descend upon you. You begin to meditate, and expectation arises. I have met people who meditate for fifteen minutes every day for a week, and then come to me and say: "I meditate, but I have still not known the divine. It seems that my efforts are useless." They devote fifteen minutes to meditation for seven days, yet divinity has still not visited them. "I still don't feel the divine, so what should I do now?" Even in the search for the divine, we have expectations.
Expectation is poison. It is precisely because of it that disappointment arises; it must be so. Realize the hypocrisy, the toxicity of the expecting mind. Gradually, if you begin to realize this, expectations will vanish, and there will be no disappointments.
So do not ask: "Why is there so much disappointment in the world?" Ask: "Why am I so disappointed?" Such a question will change everything completely. If someone wonders why the world is so disappointed, expectation is already present: the world could be less disappointed. But regardless of whether the world is disappointed or not, you will remain disappointed.
The world is disappointed — that is a fact. But go and try to find out why you are disappointed. It will turn out that you are disappointed because of your own expectations. This is the source, the root cause. Stop it!
Do not think about the world, think about yourself. You are the world, and if you change, the world changes too. Its part, its integral part, has become different: the world has begun to change.
We are too preoccupied with changing the world. This is simply an escape. I have always felt that people who try to remake others are actually running away from their own disappointments, from their own conflicts, from their worries, from their sufferings. They focus their attention on something outside, they occupy their mind with something external, because they cannot change themselves. It is easier to try to change the world than to change oneself.
Do not forget that you need to find the cause of your own disappointments. And the sooner you do it, the better. Situations change, but the source of disappointment is always the same: expectation.
Osho