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 expectation: the more you expect, the stronger your disappointment will be. So disappointment is not, in fact, the problem, but the result. The problem is the expectation.
Disappointment is merely a shadow that follows expectation. If you live for even one 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 expectation is already 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 an obligation, something they must do. And when love is an obligation, it brings no satisfaction, for as an obligation, love is dead.
Love can only be a game, not an obligation. Love is freedom, and obligation is shackles, a heavy burden that you must carry. And when you have to 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. Be grateful to 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 transaction, and you will never be disappointed; your life will be filled with love. And when love blooms in all its fullness, bliss arrives, ecstasy arrives.
I used love only as an example. The same law applies to everything. There is so much disappointment in the world that it is difficult to find a person who has not been disappointed. Even your so-called saints are disappointed: disappointed because of their disciples, disappointed because they had expectations regarding them: the disciples should do this and not do that, the disciples should be such-and-such and not such-and-such. With such an approach, disappointment will inevitably occur; it has already occurred.
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, and therefore they are disappointed.
It is very difficult to find a person who has not been 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 be disappointed even 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 still have not known the divine. It seems that my efforts are useless." They dedicate fifteen minutes to meditation for seven days, and divinity has still not visited them. "I still do not feel the divine, so what should I do now?" Even in the search for the divine, we have expectations.
Expectation is poison. It is 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 figure 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 this!
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 concerned 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 this, 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 expectation: the more you expect, the stronger your disappointment will be. So disappointment is not, in fact, the problem, but the result. The problem is the expectation.
Disappointment is merely a shadow that follows expectation. If you live for even one 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 expectation is already 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 an obligation, something they must do. And when love is an obligation, it brings no satisfaction, for as an obligation, love is dead.
Love can only be a game, not an obligation. Love is freedom, and obligation is shackles, a heavy burden that you must carry. And when you have to 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. Be grateful to 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 transaction, and you will never be disappointed; your life will be filled with love. And when love blooms in all its fullness, bliss arrives, ecstasy arrives.
I used love only as an example. The same law applies to everything. There is so much disappointment in the world that it is difficult to find a person who has not been disappointed. Even your so-called saints are disappointed: disappointed because of their disciples, disappointed because they had expectations regarding them: the disciples should do this and not do that, the disciples should be such-and-such and not such-and-such. With such an approach, disappointment will inevitably occur; it has already occurred.
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, and therefore they are disappointed.
It is very difficult to find a person who has not been 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 be disappointed even 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 still have not known the divine. It seems that my efforts are useless." They dedicate fifteen minutes to meditation for seven days, and divinity has still not visited them. "I still do not feel the divine, so what should I do now?" Even in the search for the divine, we have expectations.
Expectation is poison. It is 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 figure 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 this!
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 concerned 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 this, the better. Situations change, but the source of disappointment is always the same: expectation.
Osho