Astrall
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"Go serenely amidst the chaos..."
The world is full of noise and haste. Why is the world so full of noise? Because every mind creates noise, and the world is made of minds. That's why there is so much noise in it. The whole world has turned into something like a madhouse. Everyone is shouting, and no one is listening. Everyone is talking almost to themselves; another person is just an excuse. A psychologist observed two of his patients – both were philosophy professors. And since they were friends and had gone mad, in the madhouse they were placed in the same ward. The psychologist observing them was very puzzled. The strangest thing was that, although they were both completely insane, in one thing they remained very sane: when one of them spoke, the other was silent; when the other began to speak, the first fell silent. It was strange – two lunatics! Why should they worry about whether the other is silent or not, whether he speaks or not? This interested him.
And he asked them:
— I am very puzzled. Why, when one of you speaks, does the other fall silent?
They replied:
— We know how to have a conversation. That's how we did it when we were considered normal – it's just an old habit.
— Actually, I'm not silent, — said one of them. —
I am only outwardly silent because I know the rules and norms of conversation. Inside, I am chatting, talking, waiting for the right opportunity, waiting for this idiot to stop, waiting for the right moment when he says something that I can use as a pretext and start saying what I want to say to him. In reality, this is what you all do. Just look at your conversations: when the other person is speaking, you just pretend to listen – you only pretend to listen. Inside, you are only concerned with yourself. Then you find a word, a sentence, a phrase that you can use as a springboard, and then it's your turn to speak. What you say has nothing to do with what the other person said; it has to do with what is happening inside you, it is a continuous process inside you. The other person is just an excuse.
That is why people can never agree – they never hear each other. Husbands never hear what their wives say, wives never hear what their husbands say, children never hear what their parents say. No one hears; at most, everyone pretends to hear. The world is full of noise because the world is full of insane minds. The world will only become truly silent when there are many, many meditating people in it. Only when the world consists mainly of meditating people will a deep silence settle in it, an almost palpable silence. You will be able to touch it, you will be able to feel its fragrance. We live our lives in noise, everyone is in a hurry. Everyone is in a great hurry, everyone is rushing somewhere. No one knows where, no one knows why – just a deep need to move somewhere. You can't sit; if you sit down, those around you won't let you. They will say: "Why are you sitting, do something!" And I tell you: "Do nothing, sit!" Nothing is better than something. But people say the opposite; they say: "Something is better than nothing. Do something!"
One woman says to another:
— I heard that your son has become a sannyasin. Does he meditate?
The other woman replies:
— It's better than doing nothing.
The poor woman doesn't know what meditation is. Meditation means doing nothing. That is what I am teaching you here:
do nothing, just sit, just be.
Why such a hurry? Are you really trying to get somewhere? Do you know the goal, the destination?
The pilot says to the passengers:
— All the engines of our airliner are working, all the systems are working perfectly. There is only one bad news, otherwise everything is fine. The bad news is that we have lost contact with the ground and therefore do not know where we are and where we are going. The good news is that we are moving at full speed!
Everyone is moving at full speed – that's good news. Does anyone think about where? Does anyone have time to think about where he is going? When you see the whole world rushing somewhere, you start rushing. We force children to run. This is what our entire education system is designed for – from elementary school to university. Twenty-five years – almost a third of a lifetime – we spend teaching everyone to hurry. Then it turns out that all twenty-four hours a day are rush hour for him! He is never anywhere – not even for a moment. He cannot see the beauty of the trees because he cannot sit under the trees – Buddha must have known the beauty of the trees. A person cannot see the beauty of the stars, cannot see the beauty of people. In reality, when he is in Kabul, he is rushing to Kathmandu, when he is in Kathmandu, he is rushing to Pune, when he is in Pune, he is rushing to Goa! He is never where he is; the mind is always ahead of him, planning how to get somewhere. And if you ask him: "Why?" – he will say: "We will enjoy!" But he is not enjoying this moment – how can he enjoy any other moment? He has lost all ability to enjoy here and now; his only enjoyment is planning, constant planning, planning enjoyment. There are people who work all their lives and only wait for retirement; then they will be able to relax and enjoy. And they know very well: six days they work in the office and wait for the seventh day, the day off. They hope: "Soon Sunday will come, and we will be able to relax and enjoy life." But they cannot relax, they cannot enjoy – in reality, the weekends seem so long and so boring to them; they have to fill them with something. They go on a picnic.
Now they rush to a picnic spot miles away to eat the same foods that they could easily eat at home. They sit on the grass, and the ants are very smart; they know exactly where the picnic spots are. Their astrologers tell them: "Forward! This is the place!" And the mosquitoes – they are always there and waiting for you. They say:
"Hello! Here you are!" And then people quickly finish everything because they need to get home, and they rush, and the cars move bumper to bumper. On Sundays, there are many more accidents, there are many more deaths on the roads than on any other day. What a strange rest!
And these same people think that when they retire, they will rest – they will not be able to. Sixty years of habits – how can they be discarded? It is impossible: habits are so deeply ingrained that people, after retiring, suffer much more than ever before, because no one knows how to rest, how to relax. This is complete madness!
And these people continue to say beautiful things. They say: "Time is money." They have beautiful sayings to drive you crazy: "Time is money, so save time." And everyone looks at the clock – as if they are late somewhere...
Osho
The world is full of noise and haste. Why is the world so full of noise? Because every mind creates noise, and the world is made of minds. That's why there is so much noise in it. The whole world has turned into something like a madhouse. Everyone is shouting, and no one is listening. Everyone is talking almost to themselves; another person is just an excuse. A psychologist observed two of his patients – both were philosophy professors. And since they were friends and had gone mad, in the madhouse they were placed in the same ward. The psychologist observing them was very puzzled. The strangest thing was that, although they were both completely insane, in one thing they remained very sane: when one of them spoke, the other was silent; when the other began to speak, the first fell silent. It was strange – two lunatics! Why should they worry about whether the other is silent or not, whether he speaks or not? This interested him.
And he asked them:
— I am very puzzled. Why, when one of you speaks, does the other fall silent?
They replied:
— We know how to have a conversation. That's how we did it when we were considered normal – it's just an old habit.
— Actually, I'm not silent, — said one of them. —
I am only outwardly silent because I know the rules and norms of conversation. Inside, I am chatting, talking, waiting for the right opportunity, waiting for this idiot to stop, waiting for the right moment when he says something that I can use as a pretext and start saying what I want to say to him. In reality, this is what you all do. Just look at your conversations: when the other person is speaking, you just pretend to listen – you only pretend to listen. Inside, you are only concerned with yourself. Then you find a word, a sentence, a phrase that you can use as a springboard, and then it's your turn to speak. What you say has nothing to do with what the other person said; it has to do with what is happening inside you, it is a continuous process inside you. The other person is just an excuse.
That is why people can never agree – they never hear each other. Husbands never hear what their wives say, wives never hear what their husbands say, children never hear what their parents say. No one hears; at most, everyone pretends to hear. The world is full of noise because the world is full of insane minds. The world will only become truly silent when there are many, many meditating people in it. Only when the world consists mainly of meditating people will a deep silence settle in it, an almost palpable silence. You will be able to touch it, you will be able to feel its fragrance. We live our lives in noise, everyone is in a hurry. Everyone is in a great hurry, everyone is rushing somewhere. No one knows where, no one knows why – just a deep need to move somewhere. You can't sit; if you sit down, those around you won't let you. They will say: "Why are you sitting, do something!" And I tell you: "Do nothing, sit!" Nothing is better than something. But people say the opposite; they say: "Something is better than nothing. Do something!"
One woman says to another:
— I heard that your son has become a sannyasin. Does he meditate?
The other woman replies:
— It's better than doing nothing.
The poor woman doesn't know what meditation is. Meditation means doing nothing. That is what I am teaching you here:
do nothing, just sit, just be.
Why such a hurry? Are you really trying to get somewhere? Do you know the goal, the destination?
The pilot says to the passengers:
— All the engines of our airliner are working, all the systems are working perfectly. There is only one bad news, otherwise everything is fine. The bad news is that we have lost contact with the ground and therefore do not know where we are and where we are going. The good news is that we are moving at full speed!
Everyone is moving at full speed – that's good news. Does anyone think about where? Does anyone have time to think about where he is going? When you see the whole world rushing somewhere, you start rushing. We force children to run. This is what our entire education system is designed for – from elementary school to university. Twenty-five years – almost a third of a lifetime – we spend teaching everyone to hurry. Then it turns out that all twenty-four hours a day are rush hour for him! He is never anywhere – not even for a moment. He cannot see the beauty of the trees because he cannot sit under the trees – Buddha must have known the beauty of the trees. A person cannot see the beauty of the stars, cannot see the beauty of people. In reality, when he is in Kabul, he is rushing to Kathmandu, when he is in Kathmandu, he is rushing to Pune, when he is in Pune, he is rushing to Goa! He is never where he is; the mind is always ahead of him, planning how to get somewhere. And if you ask him: "Why?" – he will say: "We will enjoy!" But he is not enjoying this moment – how can he enjoy any other moment? He has lost all ability to enjoy here and now; his only enjoyment is planning, constant planning, planning enjoyment. There are people who work all their lives and only wait for retirement; then they will be able to relax and enjoy. And they know very well: six days they work in the office and wait for the seventh day, the day off. They hope: "Soon Sunday will come, and we will be able to relax and enjoy life." But they cannot relax, they cannot enjoy – in reality, the weekends seem so long and so boring to them; they have to fill them with something. They go on a picnic.
Now they rush to a picnic spot miles away to eat the same foods that they could easily eat at home. They sit on the grass, and the ants are very smart; they know exactly where the picnic spots are. Their astrologers tell them: "Forward! This is the place!" And the mosquitoes – they are always there and waiting for you. They say:
"Hello! Here you are!" And then people quickly finish everything because they need to get home, and they rush, and the cars move bumper to bumper. On Sundays, there are many more accidents, there are many more deaths on the roads than on any other day. What a strange rest!
And these same people think that when they retire, they will rest – they will not be able to. Sixty years of habits – how can they be discarded? It is impossible: habits are so deeply ingrained that people, after retiring, suffer much more than ever before, because no one knows how to rest, how to relax. This is complete madness!
And these people continue to say beautiful things. They say: "Time is money." They have beautiful sayings to drive you crazy: "Time is money, so save time." And everyone looks at the clock – as if they are late somewhere...
Osho