Posts from Life is a dream. Auto-translated

An ordinary person has never been the goal of society until now. An ordinary person cannot be a goal, because you are born ordinary! Every child is ordinary; they are merely a blank slate. Then parents begin to write on this slate who the child should become. Teachers, priests, leaders—all of them continue to insist that you must become someone, otherwise your life will be wasted. But in reality, it is the opposite...©

Why has man created so many complexities and why does he not believe in the simple?
The simple is not a challenge to the human ego; the difficult is a challenge, the impossible is a wonderful challenge. To understand how inflated your ego has become, you need to look at what difficulties you have decided to fight. The ego is measurable by your ambitions. But the simple does not attract the ego. The simple is the death of the ego.

And man chose complexity even where there was no need for it, for the reason that in this way he can continue to grow and feed his ego. He continues to become more and more important in politics, in religion, in society—everywhere.

All psychology is geared toward making the ego stronger. Even those fools, the psychologists, emphasize that a person needs a strong ego. Therefore, education is programmed to create ambitions within you through the method of the carrot and the stick, forcing you to move in a certain direction. From the very beginning, your parents have too many hopes for you. They think that perhaps Alexander the Great himself was born to them, or that their daughter is a reincarnation of Cleopatra. From the moment of your birth, parents hammer into your head that until you have proven your worth, you are worth nothing. Ordinary people are considered simpletons.

An ordinary person has never been the goal of society until now. An ordinary person cannot be a goal, because you are born ordinary! Every child is ordinary; they are merely a blank slate. Then parents begin to write on this slate who the child should become. Teachers, priests, leaders—all of them continue to insist that you must become someone, otherwise your life will be wasted. But in reality, it is the opposite.

You are being. You do not need to become anyone else. That is the meaning of simplicity: when you are at ease with yourself, you do not strive to become someone—and such striving ends nowhere.

There is not a single place where you would feel: "Now my journey is over. I have reached the highest peak I strove for." No one in all of human history has been able to do this for the simple reason that man walks in circles. Therefore, someone is always ahead of you in something.

You can become the president of America, but you will feel inferior compared to Muhammad Ali. You do not have that animal strength. Muhammad Ali could give Ronald Reagan a good punch in the nose, and Ronald Reagan would lie motionless on the ground. You could continue the count: one, two, three—Ronald Reagan will not get up to be hit again. He is simply waiting for the count to reach ten so he can stand up and go to the hospital. You may be the prime minister of a country, but upon meeting Albert Einstein, you will feel like a pygmy—not a prime minister, but a pygmy.
Life is multifaceted. It is impossible to strive in all directions and be first in everything. It is simply impossible; existence does not work that way.

The ego is a human disease. Those in power want you to remain sick. They do not want you to be healthy and whole, because your health and wholeness represent a danger to their interests. That is why no one wants to be ordinary, no one wants to be nobody. And my entire approach is aimed at making you feel at ease with yourselves, so that you accept your being.

Becoming is a disease; being is health. But the simple, the whole, the healthy, the full of bliss—you know the taste of none of this. Your society leaves you not a single moment for yourself, therefore you know only one path: the path of the ego. You were told to become Jesus Christ. There are societies that set their goal for everyone to become a god. This mad world! You need to free yourself from all this programming. If you want to experience pleasure, relax, feel the peace and beauty of existence, this false ego must fall away.

I do not want to take anything else from you. I only want to take your ego, which in any case is merely a fantasy. It is not real, so in reality, I am taking nothing from you. And I want to give you that which you are. Of course, I do not need to give this to you: you already have it! You just need to be shaken and returned to the stunning beauty of innocence.
At that moment, you reach the state of a child.
You risk nothing. But you run after a shadow that you can never catch, forgetting all the treasures you brought with you into this world. Death will finish you before your ego is satisfied. Life is short; it should not be wasted on such foolish games.
Osho

All of humanity is in the same situation. For thousands of years, we have been working to turn the Earth into a giant madhouse, and, unfortunately, we have succeeded.

The same thing is happening everywhere, not just in Italy: people are killing each other. Everywhere there is violence for the simple reason that we, using various ingenious methods, do not allow human energies to be creative, and whenever the movement of creative energies is hindered, they become destructive. The real problem is not violence. The real problem is how to help people be creative. A creative person cannot be violent, because his energies move in the direction of God. We call God the creator. Whenever you create something, you participate in God's being. You cannot be violent, you cannot be destructive; it is impossible.
But for thousands of years, we have destroyed all possible paths for creativity. Instead of helping people to be creative, we teach them to be destructive. A warrior, a soldier – we have respected them too much. In fact, a warrior should be condemned, not respected – he destroys. A soldier should not be revered.

We need sannyasins, not soldiers. We need loving people, not fighters. But love is condemned, and violence is glorified. What is so great about Alexander the Great? Only violence. He is great because he was the most violent person of his time. He killed almost everywhere in the world known to him – he killed millions – and yet we continue to call him Alexander the Great. What is so great about your kings, emperors, and their history? Why do you continue to praise them? They should be completely forgotten. Nadir Shah, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane – why should they be remembered? Why should small children be told all these stupid things that people have done? Because we still want people to fight. A politician lives on violence, nations live on violence. If violence disappears, there will be no Italy, no India, no Japan. There will be only one humanity. What is the point of these borders? But without these borders, politicians must disappear, and they obviously don't want to disappear. They have invested a lot in borders, and the borders must be protected. The only way to protect them is to kill, and the one who kills more is the winner.

The same thing happens on a smaller scale in people's lives. People have been taught to be violent; if you are not violent, you will not succeed in life. You have to be very violent, only then will you be able to achieve your ambitions. A gentle person cannot succeed, he is bound to fail, because he does not know how to be competitive. He cannot make his way with elbows, he cannot walk on people's heads. All politicians are criminals for the simple reason that crime pays. You just have to be clever enough not to get caught. This is the most important rule of violent life: all means are good if they lead to the goal. And, of course, instead of arguing – because an argument may never end – it is better to draw a sword, it solves the problem immediately. It is easier to fight a person and find out who is right. "The strong is right." This principle is still alive – the principle of the jungle.

Do we call a person civilized? He still needs to be made civilized. Civilization is just an idea that has not yet been realized. A person is civilized only on the surface – less than even the depth of the skin. Just scratch a little, and you will see how an animal appears – a fierce animal, much more fierce than any of the wild animals, because wild animals, however wild they may be, do not produce bombs – atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs. In comparison with man and his violence, all animals are far behind.

This was the rule in the past as well. Buddhas are exceptions. They are certainly the only civilized human beings. The rest of the people, the crowd, are not civilized at all. This is not only happening in Italy, the same thing is happening here, in India. A great spiritual country, a very ancient religious heritage, and yet people are killing. People don't care. Right now, there are riots all over the country. And this is what is striking. In Moradabad, where the riots began, Muslims gathered for prayer. They had a religious holiday, Eid, and they gathered for prayer. And after this prayer meeting, violence broke out. This means that the people who came to pray brought weapons with them. One hundred and thirty people were killed immediately. What is this hypocrisy? What is this madness? People who came to pray are hiding knives, blades, bottles of acid. They came prepared. Everything seems to have been planned in advance. And they came to pray. What kind of prayer is possible in such a situation? The word "Islam" means "peace" – Islam has generated more violence in the world than any other religion, and the word means "peace." Christianity claims: "God is love," and Christians have killed millions of people, they burned people alive. And God is love! This is a very unconscious state of affairs. People live unconsciously, not knowing what they are doing, why they are doing it, not even thinking about it.

People need to be helped to be a little more aware, a little more vigilant. They need a little more clarity to see what they are doing. But there is no clarity, and the privileged circles do not want any clarity. They want even more confusion. The more confusion, the more power the politicians have. The more confusion, the more power the priests have. They do not want man to become aware, they want him to live as unconsciously as possible. And this is the case not only with ordinary people, but also with all the others – with the so-called intellectuals, the intelligentsia, politicians, monks. This applies to everyone, except for very few people, and these few people cannot help much.

That is why my efforts are aimed at creating a huge field of Buddha, to release as much energy as is released by an atomic explosion. Sannyas is an attempt to gather all those people who are willing to become aware, to become intelligent. And we will have to spread this color all over the world. This is the color of spring. Man needs a new life, a new birth. Everything that has been said to him and taught to him so far has failed. It was doomed to fail, because it was not intended to create a better humanity; it was intended to keep man in the state of slavery in which he is.

If violence disappears, there will be no Italy, no India, no Japan. There will be only one humanity...
The real problem is not violence. The real problem is how to help people be creative. A creative person cannot be violent, because his energies move in the direction of God. We call God the creator. Whenever you create something, you participate in God's being. You cannot be violent, you cannot be destructive; it is impossible.
Osho

I have always felt a need for a small reward at the end of the day: a few beers, cigarettes, or drugs. None of these bring me satisfaction anymore, and yet the craving for some form of gratification remains. What is this craving, and what will satisfy it?

Nothing will satisfy it. You should understand the subtle mechanism of desire. Desire works like this: desire sets conditions for your happiness. "I will be happy if I get this car, this woman, this house." The fulfillment of desires removes the conditions blocking your happiness. You feel relief and feel great. Essentially, all you have done is remove unnecessary obstacles to your happiness, but soon you will start thinking: "If I can create such an obstacle again, and then completely remove it again, I will experience the same relief I did last time, and feel great again." And thus, desires, even when fulfilled, lead again and again to the emergence of new desires.

Do you follow the thought? First, you set a condition. You say: "Until I get this woman, I will not be happy. I can only be happy with this woman." And you begin to strive for this woman. And the harder it is, the greater your delight, the more excited you become.

The harder it is, the more you feel challenged. The harder it is, the more you stake your entire being; you are ready to play. And of course, more hope arises, and a greater desire to possess this woman. It is so difficult, so hard. It must be something magnificent, that's why it's so difficult, that's why it's so hard. You pursue this woman, pursue, pursue, and finally get her. On the day you achieve this woman, the condition is lifted: "If I get this woman, I will be happy" — you set this condition first. Now you have the woman; you feel relief. No need to pursue anyone anymore; you have reached the goal, the result is in your hands, you feel good — good because of the relief.

I once saw Mulla Nasreddin walking, cursing and in great pain. I asked him: "What's the matter? Does your stomach hurt, or do you have a headache, or something else? What's wrong? You look like you're in a lot of pain."

He replied: "Nothing serious. The shoes I'm wearing are too small."

"But then why are you wearing them?" He replied: "This is the only relief I experience at the end of the day. It's my only joy, so I can't throw these shoes away. They are one size too small, and it's sheer hell, but in the evening it gives me heaven. When I come home, I take off my shoes, fall onto the sofa, and say I've arrived. It's so wonderful."

This is what they do. You create pain, you create suffering, pursuits, excitement, and then one fine day you come home, take off your shoes, and say: "Great, this is great. I've arrived!" But how long can it last? The relief lasts only a few moments. And then you will have desire again.

Now this woman is completely useless because you have her. You cannot set the condition again. You cannot say again: "If I get this woman, I will be happy." Because you are already with her. Now you start looking at someone else's woman. "If I get this woman..." Now you have learned this trick—first you set a condition under which you will be happy, then you desperately work to fulfill it, and then comes relief. Now it's useless.

An understanding person will realize that there is no need to set conditions. You can be happy without any conditions. Why wear shoes that are too small and suffer just to feel relief at the end? Why not feel relief all the time? But then you wouldn't feel it—that's the only problem. You need contrast to feel. You would be happy, but you wouldn't feel it. And here is the definition of a truly happy person: a truly happy person is one who knows nothing about happiness, who has never even heard of it, who is so happy, so happy without any conditions—how could they know they are happy? Only unhappy people say: "I am happy, everything is going great." These are unhappy people. A happy person knows nothing about happiness. It simply is; it is always there. It is like breathing.

You don't feel very happy when it comes to breathing. Then do this: pinch your nose. Do some yogic exercises and hold your breath in, keep holding and holding. Then it starts to hurt. And you keep holding. Be a true yoga student—keep holding. And then it bursts out, and you feel it, and there is such great joy. But this is foolish, yet this is what everyone does. That's why you wait for the result in the evening.

Happiness is here and now; it needs no conditions. Happiness is natural. Understand this. Do not set conditions on your happiness. Remain happy without any reason at all. There is no reason to seek a reason to be happy. Just be happy... ......If you cannot be happy, then do not set impossible conditions for yourself so that it is not difficult. Mulla is right—such a small thing. I understand. He is much smarter than you think. Such a small scheme—wearing shoes one size too small—such a small scheme, no one can stop you from doing it, and by evening you are happy. Just small schemes; think up small schemes and be as happy as you please.

And as you understand, there is no need to set conditions. Just understand the point—these conditions do not create happiness; they simply bring relief. But relief cannot be permanent; no relief can ever be permanent. It lasts only a few moments.

Haven't you noticed this many times? You wanted to buy a new car, and there it is at your doorstep, and you stand there very, very happy. How long will it last? Tomorrow it will already be an old car, one day old. In two days, it will be two days old, and all the neighbors have already seen it and appreciated it, and of course, now no one talks about it anymore. That's why car companies have to release new models every year—so that you can have new conditions.

People keep craving things just to get relief, and relief awaits them. Have you heard the story?

A beggar was sitting under a tree, and a rich man's car broke down.

The driver started fixing it, and the rich man got out. The beggar was enjoying resting under the tree. It was windy, sunny, and beautiful, and the rich man came over and sat next to the beggar and asked:

"Why don't you work?"

The beggar replied: "What for?"

The rich man felt somewhat irritated and said: "When you have money, you can have a big bank account."

But the beggar asked again: "What for?"

The rich man felt even more irritated. He said: "What for? Then in your old age, you can retire and rest."

"But," said the beggar, "I am resting now! Why wait until old age? And go through all this nonsense—earning money, putting money in the bank, and resting at the end. And don't you see? I am already resting. Why wait?"

Why wait for the evening? And why wait for beer? Why not drink water and enjoy it as you drink it?

You have heard the story about how Jesus turned water into wine? Christians didn't understand that story. They think he actually turned it into wine. That is not true. He must have taught his disciples the secret that I am teaching you. He must have said to them: "Drink it so joyfully that water becomes wine."

We can drink water so joyfully that it almost intoxicates us. Try it! You can get drunk on plain water. It depends on you. It does not depend on beer or wine. And if you don't believe this, ask a hypnotist—he knows. If a hypnotized person is given water and told it is wine, they will get drunk—on water.

Now doctors know about placebos, and the results sometimes greatly perplex them. An experiment was conducted in a hospital. A group of twenty patients with the same disease were given medicine, and another group of patients with the same disease were given just water—just to see how the water would work. Neither the doctors nor the patients knew which was water and which was medicine, because if the doctor knows, his behavior will change. Giving water, he wouldn't give it seriously, and that might arouse the patient's suspicion. So neither the doctor nor the patient knew. The information was kept under lock and key.

And the miracle was that water helped the same number of patients as the medicine. From both groups, seventeen patients recovered by the second week. But the most wonderful thing was that those who took water remained healthy longer than those who took the medicine. The people who took the real medicine started coming back after a few weeks.

What happened? Why did water help so much? The essence is that medicine helps, not the drug. And because water is pure water, it cannot harm; medicine can harm. That's why the people who took real medicine started coming back. They began to invent some new desires, some new illnesses, some new problems, because there is no medicine that doesn't affect your body in some way. And the body will react in its own way. Water causes no reaction; it is pure hypnosis.

You can drink water with such enthusiasm, with such prayer, that it becomes wine. You see how Zen Buddhists drink tea with such ceremony and ritual, with such awareness. Then even tea becomes something phenomenal. Ordinary tea is transformed. Ordinary actions are transformed—a morning walk can be intoxicating. And if a morning walk doesn't intoxicate you, something is wrong with you. Looking at a rose can be intoxicating. And if it cannot intoxicate you, then nothing can intoxicate you. A child's eyes can be intoxicating.

Learn how to experience a joyful moment. Do not wait for results; there are none. Life does not go somewhere; it has no goals. Life is not a means to achieve any end. Life is simply here and now. Experience it. Experience it fully, experience it consciously, and you will be satisfied.

Satisfaction cannot be postponed, or you will never be satisfied. Satisfaction must be achieved now—now or never.
Osho

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And ask questions! Challenge, question—question all Buddhas, question me, because if there is truth, truth will not be afraid of your questions. If the Buddhas are true, they are true; you don't need to believe in them. Keep doubting them... If you doubt and continue to doubt until the very end, until the very logical end, sooner or later you will stumble upon the truth… ©Osho

To doubt is to grope in the dark, but the door exists. If Buddha could go through the door, if Jesus could reach it, if I could reach it, why can't you? Everyone is capable of finding the door—but you are afraid to grope, so you sit in a dark corner and believe in someone who found the door. You haven't seen this someone, you've heard about them from others, and so on, and so forth.
Buddha did not tell people: "Believe in me." That is why his teaching disappeared from India—people want to believe. People do not want truth, they want belief.

Belief is cheap, truth is dangerous, heavy, difficult—a person must pay for it. A person must seek and investigate, and there is no guarantee that it will be found, no guarantee that there is any truth at all. It might not exist at all.

People want belief—and Buddha said, his last message to the people was: "Be a light unto yourself." His disciples wept, ten thousand sadhus surrounded him... of course, they were sad, and tears fell; their master was leaving. And Buddha told them:

- Do not weep. Why do you weep? One of his disciples, Ananda, replied:

- Because you are leaving us, because you were our only hope, because we hoped, and hoped for so long, that through you we would reach the truth.

And then, in response to Ananda, Buddha said:

- Do not worry about this. I cannot give you the truth; no one else can give it to you, it is untransferable. But you can achieve it yourself. Be a light unto yourself.


My approach is the same. You don't need to believe in me. I don't want believers here, I want seekers, and a seeker is a completely different phenomenon. A believer is not a seeker. A believer does not want to seek, and that is exactly why they believe. A believer wants to avoid the search, that is why they believe. A believer wants to be delivered, saved; they need a savior. They are always in search of a messiah—someone who can eat for them, chew for them, digest for them. But if I eat, it will not satisfy your hunger. No one can save you except yourself.

Jesus says: "Come, follow Me." Not only Jesus says this, Krishna says it too. All the old religions of the world are based on this statement. But this statement is the psychological exploitation of a human being.
I cannot say: "Come and follow me."
First of all, those who said this crippled humanity, they made humanity helpless.

They, of course, satisfied a certain human need. People do not want to be themselves. They lack the courage to blaze their own trail, to go and forge it. They want to be led.
But they do not know that if a person is led, then slowly, slowly, even if they have eyes, they will lose them. They will see through the eyes of Jesus, Krishna, Muhammad. Their own eyes will not be needed; in fact, their eyes will only cause them discomfort.
The leader wants you to give him your eyes and see with his eyes; give him your feet and walk with his feet; not believe in yourself, but believe in him.
From my point of view, this is a crime; it cripples, paralyzes, and destroys you. And this can be observed all over the world.

All of humanity is being destroyed by such statements and such people.

I tell you: "Come, and I will share with you," — but I do not say: "Follow me." Who am I that you should follow me?
And you also need to understand that every individual is so unique that if you start following someone, you will automatically imitate. You will lose your individuality. You will start turning into a deceiver, a hypocrite. You will not be yourself, you will be someone else. You will begin to split.

I need seekers here, researchers, not believers. Believers are the most mediocre people in the world, people of the lowest intellect in the world. Therefore, forget about belief; you are creating difficulties for yourself. Start believing in me, and disbelief will appear—it will inevitably appear, because I am not here to meet your expectations.

Think, seek, and look, and if as a result of your own experience you feel that there is some truth in my words, if through your own search, through looking into the window of your own mind, you feel that there is some truth in this, then that truth will become your own. Then it will not remain only mine. Then it will not be my understanding—it will become your own understanding. Then everything you do in your life will lead you toward wisdom and awakening. Doing something based on faith, you sink deeper into darkness and unconsciousness. It is useful to think carefully about this point as well…
Osho

A spiritual search is always a push toward something deep within you, a glimpse of something you have discerned. First, something must happen to you; somehow a ray must enter you... a touch, a breeze... something must come to you for the search to begin. Perhaps in love, perhaps in music, perhaps in nature, perhaps in friendship—it can happen in any union, in any communion. Something happened to you that became a source of bliss, and now it is only a recollection, only a memory. You have not interpreted this; your consciousness is unaware of it.

It could be a memory of satori from childhood, stored deep in the unconscious. It could be a blissful moment of satori in your mother's womb—a memory of a blissful existence without worries, without tensions, in a state of complete mental relaxation. That which pushes you may be a deep, unconscious feeling, a feeling unknown to your consciousness.

Psychologists agree that the entire idea of spiritual seeking originates from the bliss experienced in the mother's womb. It is so blissful, so dark; there is not a single ray of tension, for darkness is complete relaxation. There are no worries, nothing needs to be done. You do not even need to breathe; your mother breathes for you. You exist exactly as existence after achieving moksha is described. Everything simply is... and being is bliss. Nothing needs to be done to reach this state; it simply is. So perhaps within you there is a deep unconscious seed that knows what complete relaxation is.

It could be some childhood experience of aesthetic bliss, a childhood satori. Every childhood has satori, every childhood is full of satori, but we have lost it. Paradise is lost, and Adam is cast out of paradise. But the memory remains—an unknown memory pushing you toward the search...

QUESTION: What preparation is necessary to experience satori?

ANSWER: Satori proves possible for a vast number of people because sometimes no preparation is needed for it. Sometimes it comes by chance. A situation is created, but you are unaware of it. There are so many people who have known satori. They may not have known it was satori; they might not have called it satori, but they experienced it. A great, raging love can trigger satori. Satori is possible even through chemical substances. It can be induced by mescaline, LSD, marijuana, because thanks to chemical changes the mind can open up so much that a glimpse occurs. After all, everyone has a chemical body—the mind and body are chemical compounds—so this glimpse is possible through chemistry.

Sometimes an unexpected danger can strike you so hard that a glimpse becomes possible... sometimes a strong shock can push you into the present moment so forcefully that this glimpse arises. And for those who have aesthetic sensitivity, who have a poetic heart, whose relationship with reality is based on feeling (rather than intellect), this glimpse is possible. For a developed logical intellectual personality, such a glimpse is also possible. Sometimes it can happen to an intellectual person, but only through some concentrated intellectual tension, when suddenly that tension vanishes. This happened to Archimedes. He was in a state of satori when, jumping out of the bath into the street, naked, he began to shout: "Eureka, I have found it!" It was an unexpected release from the constant tension in which he had been while pondering his problem. He solved the problem, and the tension caused by the task suddenly vanished completely. Naked, he ran into the street and shouted: "Eureka, I have found it!"

For an intellectual person, if a great problem that filled their mind and brought them to the limit of "intellectual tension" is suddenly solved, it can lead to satori. But for the aesthetic mind, this is easier.

QUESTION: Do you mean that even intellectual tension can be a way of achieving satori?

ANSWER: It may be, or it may not. If you are intellectually tense during this conversation and the tension does not reach its limit, it will be a hindrance. But if your tension reaches fullness, a limit, and suddenly you understand something—this understanding becomes a liberation, and satori can happen. Or, if this conversation is completely free, if we are just chatting—completely untensed, completely unseriously—even this conversation can be an aesthetic experience. Not only flowers are aesthetic; even words can be aesthetic. Not only trees are aesthetic; human beings can also be aesthetic.

Satori becomes possible not only when you observe floating clouds. It is possible even when you participate in a conversation. But participation is necessary: either completely relaxed or tense participation. You can be relaxed from the very beginning, or relaxation comes when your tension has reached its limit and is then released... When either one or the other happens, then even a talk, a conversation, can become a source of satori. Anything at all can become a source of satori: it depends on you. It never depends on anything else. You are simply walking down the street, a child laughs... and satori can happen. There is a haiku telling of something like this: a monk crosses the street, and from a wall peeks an ordinary flower, a very ordinary flower, the kind you see every day, which is everywhere. He glanced at the flower. For the first time he truly looked at this flower because it is so ordinary, so inconspicuous. You always see it somewhere, so he had never before bothered to look at it truly. He looks at it... and there is satori.

One never looks at an ordinary flower. It is so commonplace that you forget about it. So the monk had actually never seen this flower before. For the first time in his life he saw it, and it shook him. This first encounter with the flower, with this ordinary flower, became a revelation. Now he felt sorry for this flower. It had always been here, waiting for him, but he had never looked at it. He feels guilty toward it, asks its forgiveness... and it happened! And there is the flower, and before it, a dancing monk. Someone asked him: "What are you doing?" He answered: "I saw something unusual in the most ordinary flower. The flower was always waiting. I had never looked at it before, but today the meeting took place." Now it is no longer just a flower. The monk entered into it, and the flower entered into the monk.

An ordinary thing can become the source, even a fragment of stone. For a child, a pebble is a source, but for us it is no longer a source because it has become so ordinary to us. Everything unusual, everything rare, everything that enters your field of vision for the first time can be a source of satori, and if you are reachable, if you exist, if you are present, it can happen. Satori happens to almost everyone. You may not know what it is; you may not know that it is satori, but it occurs. And this occurrence is the cause of all soulful seeking. Otherwise, spiritual seeking would be impossible. How can you seek that which you have never once cast a glance upon?

First, something must happen to you; somehow a ray must enter you... a touch, a breeze... something must come to you for the search to begin. Spiritual search is possible only when something has happened to you without your knowledge. Perhaps in love, perhaps in music, perhaps in nature, perhaps in friendship—it can happen in any union, in any communion. Something happened to you that became a source of bliss, and now it is only a recollection, only a memory. This may not even be a conscious memory; it could be unconscious. It may be waiting, like a seed, somewhere deep within you.

This seed will become the source of seeking, and you will seek and seek that which you do not know. You do not know, but still, somewhere, even unknown to you, some experience, some blissful moment became an integral part of your mind. It became a seed, and now this seed is carving its path, while you seek something you cannot name, something you cannot explain. What are you seeking? If a person of spirit is sincere and honest, they cannot say: "I am seeking God," because they do not know if there is a God. And the word "God" is completely meaningless until you have known. So you cannot seek God or moksha (liberation). You cannot. A sincere seeker will have to return back to themselves. This search is not a search for something external; it is a search for something internal. Somewhere you know something that you caught a glimpse of, which became a seed and which pushes you, forcing you to go toward something unknown. Spiritual search is not an attraction to something external; it is a push from within. It is always a push from within. And if it is an attraction to the external, then such a search is insincere, unauthentic. Then it is nothing other than a search for new types of satisfaction, another turn of your desires! A spiritual search is always a push toward something deep within you, a glimpse of something you have discerned...
Osho

You didn't even catch that moment, you didn't even realize it, and it was already gone. Just a click of the camera, click - and it's all gone... • QUESTION: What is the difference between experiencing satori (in Zen - a glimpse, enlightenment) and samadhi (cosmic consciousness)? ANSWER: Samadhi begins as a break, but it never ends. A break always begins and ends; it has a boundary: a beginning and an end - but samadhi begins as a break, and then it is eternal. It has no end. So, if it comes as a break, and it has no end, then it is samadhi, but if this break is completed: it has a beginning and an end - then it is satori, and that is something else. If it is only a glimpse, only a moment, and this moment is lost again, if something is put in parentheses, and the parentheses are closed (you peeked at something and turned away, jumped into it, but came back out), if something happened, and it is lost again - this is satori. It is a glimpse, a glimpse of samadhi, but not samadhi. Samadhi means the beginning of knowing without any end. In India, we don't have a word that corresponds to satori, so sometimes, when this break is very large, one can mistake satori for samadhi. But it is never the same. It is just a glimpse, a brief look. You approached the cosmic and glanced into it, and then it was all gone again. Of course, you will no longer be the same. Something has penetrated you, something has been added to you, you will never be able to be the same again, but still, what changed you is not with you. It is only a memory, it is a remembrance. It is just a brief look. If you can remember it, if you can say, "I experienced a moment," it is only a glimpse, because as soon as samadhi happens, there will be no you to remember. Then you will never be able to say, "I experienced a moment..." - because when knowing comes, the knower is not there. The knower remains only if it was a glimpse. So, the knower can keep this glimpse in memory, can cherish it, strive for it, desire it, try to experience it again - but he is still there. The one who looked, who saw the glimpse, is still there. It has become a memory. And now this memory will haunt you, will follow you and demand that it happen again and again. As soon as samadhi happens, you are no longer there to remember it. Samadhi never becomes a memory, because the one to whom it belongs is no longer there. As they say in Zen: "The old man is gone, a new one has come..." - and these two never met, so there is not even the possibility of preserving some memory. The old one disappeared, a new one appeared, and they never met, because the new one can only come when the old one is gone. Then there is no memory. Then it does not haunt you, and you do not cling to it. There is no striving for it. Then you are what you are, you feel free, easy, and you have no desire. This is not the same as killing desire - no! It is a lack of desire in the sense that the one who could desire is no longer there. It is not a state without desires, it is a lack of desire, because the one who could desire is no longer there. Then there is no striving, no future, because the future arises from our aspirations, it is a projection of our desires. If there are no desires, there is no future. And if there is no future, there is no need for the past, because the past is always that foundation, that springboard from which we strive for the future. If there is no future, if you know that in this very moment you are dying, that you will die now, there is no need to remember the past. Then there is no need to even remember your name, because there is meaning in a name only when there is a future. It may be needed. But if there is no future, then you simply burn all the bridges to the past. They are no longer needed. The past has completely lost any meaning. Only in relation to the future or for the future does the past have meaning. As soon as samadhi happens, the future becomes non-existent, insignificant. It is not there, there is only this moment. It is the only time you have. There is not even any past. The past is gone, the future is gone, and the single moment, the instantaneous being, becomes everything, a whole being. You are in it, but not as something separate from it. You cannot be separate from it, because you have become a whole being, without your past or your future. The past and the future, crystallized around you, are the only barrier between you and the moment that is happening right now. So, when samadhi happens, there is no past and no future. Then you are not in the present, but you are the present, you have become the present. Samadhi is not a glimpse. Samadhi is death, but satori is a glimpse, not death. And the possibilities for satori are so diverse! An aesthetic experience can be a source of satori, music can be a source of satori, love can be a source of satori. In any intense moment, when the past does not matter, in any intense moment when you feel in the present: in the moment of music, or love, or poetic feeling, or in the moment of any experience in which the past was not hidden, in which there is no desire for something in the future, satori becomes possible. But it is only a glimpse, a brief look. This glimpse is important because through satori you can first feel what samadhi might mean. For the first time, the sensation of taste or the first scent of samadhi comes from satori. Therefore, satori is useful. But everything that is useful can become an obstacle if you cling to it, and you think that this is all. There is bliss in satori that can deceive you, it has its own bliss. Because you did not know samadhi, satori is the highest thing that happens to you, and you cling to it. But by clinging, you can turn what is useful, what is friendly to you, into an obstacle and an enemy. So, you need to understand the fundamental danger of satori. If you are aware of this, then the experience of satori will be useful. The only instantaneous glimpse is something that cannot be known in any other way. No one can explain it. No words, no messages can give a hint of it. Satori is important, but only as a glimpse, as a surge, as a one-time instantaneous surge into being, into the abyss. You didn't even catch that moment, you didn't even realize it, and it was already gone. Just a click of the camera, click - and it's all gone. Then a desire arises, you will risk everything for this moment, but do not strive for it, do not desire it. Let it sleep in your memory. Don't make it a problem, just forget about it. If you can forget about it and not cling to it, these moments will come to you again and again, glimpses will happen again and again. A demanding mind becomes closed, and the window slams shut. It always comes when you are not aware of it, when you are not looking for it, when you are relaxed, when you are not even thinking about it, when you are not even meditating. Even when you are meditating, this glimpse becomes impossible, but when you are not meditating, when you simply let everything go its own way - in this moment of relaxation, satori happens. It will happen more and more often, but don't think about it, don't strive for it. And never mistake it for samadhi... Osho

there are other moments when the ego disappears on its own. IN MOMENTS OF IMPENDING DANGER: you are driving and suddenly realize that an accident is unavoidable. You have lost control, and it seems there is no chance of survival. You are about to crash into a tree or a speeding truck, or fall into a river – for sure. In such moments, the ego leaves you.

That is why DANGEROUS SITUATIONS are so attractive. People climb Everest. It is a deep meditation, whether they realize it or not. There is great meaning in mountaineering. Climbing a mountain is dangerous – and the more dangerous it is, the more beautiful it is. You will experience flashes, bright flashes of egolessness. When danger comes, the mind stops.

The mind can only function when there is no danger; in the moment of threat, it has nothing to say, it awakens spontaneity in you, AND IN THIS SPONTANEITY, you suddenly realize that you are no longer the ego. (Osho)

Or, for someone – because everyone is different – a subtle nature can OPEN THE DOORS TO BEAUTY

OR THE SIGHT OF A LOTUS IN A POND, A SUNSET, OR A SOARING BIRD – anything that touches your inner sensitive string, anything that captures you for a moment completely, so that you forget about yourself, as if you cease to exist, as if you leave yourself – then the ego also leaves you. It is a fiction; you are forced to feed it. But as soon as you forget about it for a moment, it evaporates.

And it is wonderful that there are moments when the ego disappears and you feel glimpses of the true and real. It is thanks to these glimpses that religion is still alive. Not thanks to priests – they have done everything to kill it. And not thanks to these so-called believers, crowding in churches, mosques, and temples. They are not believers at all, but hypocrites.

Religion has not died thanks to such rare moments that happen in the life of almost every person. Listen to them, absorb the spirit of these moments as intensely as possible, let them in as often as possible, create a space where they happen more often. This is the surest way to find Happiness.

Times of adversity force you to realize reality as it is. It is always transient, everyone is constantly in danger. But in ordinary times, you sleep soundly and do not see this. You continue to dream, to imagine beautiful things for the coming days, for the future.

But in those moments when you are in danger, you suddenly realize that there may be no future, no tomorrow, that this is the only moment you have.

Times of adversity reveal a lot. They do not bring anything new into the world; they simply make you realize the world as it is. They awaken you. If you do not understand this, you may go mad; if you understand, you can become enlightened.
Worrying is pointless, because you will only miss the present moment and be unable to help anyone. So, this is the secret of how to overcome danger.
Here is the secret: start living more fully, more completely, with greater awareness, so that you can find within yourself something that is invulnerable to death.
This is the only refuge, the only protection, the only security.

So, the problem is to use everything. Whatever it is, use it correctly.
Adversity is great, danger is great, but so is the opportunity.
No illusion can withstand reality. Reality will destroy it sooner or later.
Osho

"Wars are started and sustained by serious people, murders are committed by serious people, and they are the ones who commit suicide...

Allow yourself to be joyful, allow yourself to play freely, let go of control, and when your inner child comes alive again and starts dancing, your entire life will change. The quality of your life will change. A sense of humor will awaken in you, a beautiful laughter, and no trace will remain of your overthinking. You will learn to live by the heart.
Those who live in their heads do not truly know what it means to be alive. Only those who truly live are those who listen to their hearts, sing songs that make absolutely no sense to the mind, and dance in a way that seems insane... simply because they are overflowing with joy, energy is spilling over, and they can no longer hold themselves back. Be like that! Do what you desire! You will come alive, you will be able to taste life, you will discover what life truly is.

A serious person is a walking corpse. They are already dead before dying. Life offers us so many priceless opportunities that it is simply a crime to exchange them for seriousness. Save your seriousness for the real death. Bury seriousness, let it wait for your last day. But do not become a walking corpse while still alive.
This reminds me of a story involving Confucius. One of his disciples asked him a typical question, a question that thousands of others had asked him: "Will you tell us a few words about what happens after death?"

Confucius replied: "Leave all these questions about death until the actual death. You can ponder about them there in the grave. But live now!"
There is a time to live, there is a time to die. Do not mix them up, otherwise you will miss both. Live totally and intensely right now, and when the time comes to die, be total in death. Do not die halfway, where only one eye is dead while the other still keeps looking; where one hand is dead while the other continues to search for truth. When you are dying, die completely... and only then ponder over what death truly is. But right now, do not waste time thinking about something so distant. Live in the present moment.

Children know how to live an intense, full life; they are not afraid of losing control. Be yourself, do not restrain yourself. Start living moment by moment, totally, joyfully, playfully, and you will see: there is nothing that can slip out of your control. On the contrary, your mind will become sharper, you will grow younger, and your love will become deeper. Wherever you go, spread life, lightness, and joy around you as much as possible. Let the most hidden corners of the earth be illuminated by your light. If the whole world begins to laugh, to enjoy life, to rejoice, it will be a true revolution.

Wars are started and sustained by serious people, murders are committed by serious people, and they are the ones who commit suicide. Asylums are full of serious people. Just look at the enormous harm serious people have inflicted on humanity. But you will jump out of your seriousness, you will allow the child within you to play, sing, and dance!

I teach you how to live with a light heart, how to play and create. Existence itself is our home: trees and stars are our brothers and sisters, rivers, mountains, and oceans are our friends. In this profoundly friendly universe, do you sit like a stone Buddha? My teaching is not for stone Buddhas; I want you to become a dancing Buddha. Buddhists would not appreciate such a statement, but I do not care at all what anyone thinks. What concerns me is the truth. If truth cannot dance, it is incomplete; if a Buddha cannot laugh, he is lacking something; if a Buddha does not know how to play with children and cannot become a child himself, then perhaps he has approached the state of a Buddha, but he is still not fully awakened. Some part of him is still asleep."
Osho

When a person simply plays, they are always a winner. Everyone becomes a winner. But when they take it seriously, it becomes impossible to win – everyone only loses.

Even when you meditate, you become too serious. Don't take everything so seriously. Meditation can only happen in a state of lightness, playfulness, only in utter playfulness, when you are not seeking anything, not expecting anything, when you are simply dancing or singing, or reciting poetry, when you are not asking about anything, when your action is just a response, there is no future, there are no ideas about the future... only then can meditation happen. Meditation is what happens right now. You cannot snatch this process from the hands of existence. You cannot desire it and be able to have it. You can only do one thing: become empty, to receive, to let energy flow through you – that is what happens when you are playful.

Meditation is fun! Does the combination of meditation and fun sound absurd? For centuries, we have been taught that spirituality is the most serious thing in life: go to church and become serious, and if there is no church nearby, then at least put on a serious face, pretend that you are going to church. Don't laugh, don't dance, don't have fun, don't play! Life is a serious matter, you are standing before God.

This God of yours is rather strange! He doesn't allow you to laugh. He doesn't allow you to dance. He doesn't allow you to love. He doesn't allow you to rejoice. The gods of the past are very vengeful, jealous, cruel, they are always ready to destroy you, tear you to pieces, send you to hell. Even the very idea of God is repulsive.

You need to learn a new language: meditation is fun, prayer is love and laughter, and temples, churches, mosques are places created specifically to enjoy life, to revel in life, to dance, to hold hands, to share what God has given you; places where you can be totally in the present, where you can immerse yourself in the present moment. That is the meaning of fun, laughter, joy – total presence here and now, as if there is no other moment. Then why think about the result? The result implies the future.

Be like small children – dance, sing, shout – and the divine will come to you on its own. At some point, you will discover that everything around you is divine, suddenly you will begin to understand that you are not holding the hand of a woman – your hand is being held by the Goddess; that you are not holding the hand of a man, but God. Looking into the eyes of another person with joy, with playfulness, you suddenly find yourself at a depth you never dreamed of. You dissolve into this depth.

That is what God is! God does not live in scriptures, he lives in the eyes of people, in flowers, in rivers, and in the moonlight. God is everywhere! You don't need scriptures. If you don't see God in living trees, green, red, gold, you won't find him in the Bible, the Quran, or the Vedas. How can you find him there if you don't see him here? Once you discover him here, you will feel his presence everywhere... Then everything will become divine.

Once you have experienced the divine, you will see it everywhere and in everything. But you must find it in life, in playfulness.

Playfulness makes you as alive as possible, to the maximum. Seriousness, on the other hand, disfigures you. You shrink, you turn into ice. You close yourself off and feel lonely. You become selfish. People strive to be serious because seriousness makes their ego grow, while playfulness takes away the ego.

Have you ever noticed this?

When you laugh, look inside yourself: "N" disappears. That is why people with egos cannot laugh – it is impossible for them! When you dance, there comes a moment when "N" disappears. But people with egos cannot dance, they cannot allow "N" to disappear. Naturally, they remain within narrow limits, living like prisoners. But that is your choice!

If you want to preserve your ego, you will have to live in a prison, you will have to accept the limitations. If you want your ego to become bigger and bigger, then you will find that the prison will become smaller and smaller, its walls will move closer and closer to you. If you want your ego to become the greatest in the world, then soon nothing will remain of you but the prison itself, on all sides you will be surrounded by the Great Wall of China, you will live in a straitjacket behind iron doors.

But if you want to be alive, you will have to give up your ego. The ego distracts you from life.
Osho

Inside me lives a wonderful little boy that I haven't noticed for a long time. This boy is playful, curious, and knows how to enjoy life. However, most of the time, I don't let him be free. Please say a few words about this.

Playfulness, lightness – these are the most suppressed qualities of human nature. All societies in the world, all cultures and civilizations have suppressed carefree and playful behavior throughout time, because a playful person cannot be serious. And if a person doesn't take life seriously, they cannot be controlled; they will never be ambitious, they cannot be forced to desire power, money, or status in society.

The child doesn't die. He lives in each of you. You grow up, but the child inside you doesn't die; he continues to live inside you and will live there until your last breath.

Society has always feared unserious people. Unserious people don't know ambition; they don't need money, they don't need power; they prefer to enjoy existence. But enjoyment doesn't give you status in society or political power; it cannot satisfy your ego, and all of humanity revolves around the EGO.

Playfulness is the opposite of ego – try it and see for yourself. Just play with children, and you will see that your ego has evaporated; you will discover that you have become a child yourself. And this applies not only to you; it applies to all people.
Because you suppress the child inside you, you will also suppress your own children. People don't allow children to dance, sing, jump, or shout for very simple reasons – children might break or damage something, they might stain their clothes, they might get their feet wet if they run in the rain. These ordinary little things destroy great spirituality: playfulness and lightness.

Parents, teachers – all adults – pray for an obedient child, while a mischievous child is constantly punished. His playfulness may be completely harmless, but adults condemn such a child because he possesses a spirit of disobedience. It may not be fully manifested yet and is only in its nascent stage, but when the child grows up, considering that he has had complete freedom to express himself as he wants, it is likely that such a child will turn into a rebel. He will never become a slave; he will not go into the army; he will not kill. He will never destroy himself.

The rebellious child will grow up and become a rebel. He will never marry a woman he doesn't love; he will not do a job he doesn't like; he will not fulfill the unfulfilled desires and aspirations of his parents. The rebellious young man will live his own life. He will live according to his inner, most cherished desires, and not according to the desires of other people.

A rebellious person is usually very natural in his manifestations. An obedient child is practically dead. His parents are extremely happy – they can control him.
A person is sick with a strange disease: he wants to control other people. By controlling people, he satisfies his ego, feeling like a special person. And at the same time, he wants someone else to control him because then he doesn't have to take responsibility.

Because of all this, playfulness is suppressed, destroyed at the very beginning.

You say: "Inside me lives a wonderful little boy that I haven't noticed for a long time. This boy is playful, curious, and knows how to enjoy life. However, most of the time, I don't let him be free." What are you afraid of? Fear is imposed on you by others: control yourself, behave properly, respect your elders, listen to priests, parents, teachers – they know what is right for you and what is not. No one has ever given a voice to your nature.

Gradually, step by step, the child inside you dies. And at the same time, your sense of humor also dies. You can't laugh wholeheartedly; you can't play; you can't enjoy the little things. You become so serious that instead of expanding, your whole life shrinks, withers, and slowly leaves you.
Osho

If you want to become someone in this world, you must prove that you are not an ordinary person, but an extraordinary one. But to what end? What purpose does this serve? It serves only one purpose – you gain power, and others become subordinate...

The moment you accept yourself as you are, without any comparison, all superiority and all inferiority disappear.

People judge you, and you accept their opinions without any reflection. You suffer from all sorts of judgments, and you cast these judgments upon other people. This game has gone beyond all limits, and all of humanity suffers from it.

Society creates fear in everyone – the fear of being rejected, the fear of being ridiculed, the fear of losing one's respectability, the fear of what people will say. You have to adapt to the various forms of blindness and unconsciousness of people; you cannot be yourself.

Every individual is unique because there is no one who is like anyone else. One could compare if all people were alike – but they are not. Even twins are not exactly alike. It is impossible to find another person who is exactly like you. So, by comparing unique people, we create all the difficulties.

Great things are happening behind the fence: the grass looks greener, and the roses are more pink. It seems that everyone is happy except you. You continue to compare. The same is true for others; they also compare. Everyone envies someone else…

Because of envy, you constantly suffer and treat others badly. And because of jealousy, you begin to become false, because you begin to pretend. You begin to claim things that you do not have, you begin to claim things that you cannot have, which is unnatural for you. You become more and more artificial. You imitate others, compete with others, and what else is left for you to do?

A jealous person lives in hell; drop comparison, and then jealousy, the feeling of worthlessness, and falseness will also disappear. But you will only be able to drop this if you begin to cultivate your inner treasures, and there is no other way.

A person is fulfilled if he is in harmony with the universe. If he is not in harmony with the universe, then he is empty, completely empty. And from this emptiness comes greed.

There are only two ways to feel fullness within yourself. Either you enter into harmony with the universe... and then you are filled with the whole, all the flowers, all the stars. And this is a real fulfillment. But you cannot do this – millions of people do not do this – and then there remains another way: to fill yourself with any junk. Greed simply means that you experience a deep emptiness and want to fill it with everything possible – it doesn't matter with what.
Osho

I teach harmony – to be in tune with life, with trees, with the wind, with the rain, with the sun. Be in tune with it. And if you catch yourself thinking that you disagree with it in some way, remember – you are always wrong. Life is always right, so whenever you feel unhappy, know that you are wrong about something. Correct yourself, but don't try to change life; it's impossible to do, and since it's impossible, it's better not to even try, because your efforts will be in vain.

People talk about conquering nature, people talk about subduing one thing or another – how can you conquer nature? You are a part of it. How can a part conquer the whole? See how unreasonable and foolish that is. You can be with the whole, in harmony; or in conflict with the whole, in disharmony. Disharmony leads to suffering, harmony leads to bliss. The natural results of harmony are deep silence, joy, and contentment. The natural results of conflict are anxiety, longing, stress, and tension.

The universe is a deep harmony. Only man has forgotten the language of harmony, and my work here is to remind you. We don't create harmony; harmony is our reality. The only thing is that you have forgotten about it. Perhaps it is so obvious that people tend to forget about it. Perhaps you were born into it; how can you think about it?
Osho

Our education is oriented toward ambition. And our entire society is ambitious, and an ambitious society cannot help but be corrupt. Ambition is developed in every person, but not everyone is capable of satisfying it. One could say, for example, that anyone can become president, but at the same time, only one person can be president. When you are taught that anyone can be president, ambitions arise: if anyone can be president, then why not me? But since in reality only one person can be president, a mad race begins. Any means are used—even dishonorable ones.
Ambition corrupts; an ambitious mind will inevitably be corrupt. Ambition is the seed of madness. And yet, our education is oriented toward ambition. Your fathers say: "Become this or that!"—and a fever arises, you fall ill. Only one person can be president, but thousands of unlucky people are gripped by ambition. They can no longer be reasonable—they become mad. Because such enormous tension has been created, you sell yourself: you will use any means to achieve your goal.

It is contagious. Someone else uses dishonorable means, and you think that if you do not use them yourself, you will be left behind. So you have to use the same dishonorable means. Then someone next to you sees that you are acting dishonorably, and they too must act dishonorably. It becomes a matter of survival. But within this structure, within this society, only this is possible. If you study the foundations of our society, you will see that vice is a natural product of our upbringing, our education, our development.

Our social structures are extremely complex, and successful people can hide their corruption. It is noticeable only if someone fails. If you have succeeded, no one will know that you were dishonorable; success hides everything. You only need to succeed, and you will become an example of virtue, the embodiment of everything good, pure, and innocent. This means you can succeed by any means, but you must succeed. And as soon as you have succeeded, as soon as you have achieved success, everything you did will be considered right.
Our entire history confirms this.

A man is considered a thief only if he is a petty thief. If he is a great thief, he becomes Alexander the Great, a hero. No one sees that there is no qualitative difference between thieves, that the difference is only quantitative. No one will call Alexander the Great a great thief because our measure of virtue is success: the more successful you are, the more virtuous. Means are taken into account only if you are a loser; then you will be called both dishonorable and a fool.

How can an incorruptible society be created with such an attitude? It is absurd to ask a person to be moral in such an immoral situation. In an immoral society, an individual cannot be moral. If he tries to be moral, his morality will make him selfish, and the ego is just as immoral and vicious as everything else.

This situation is a human creation. We created a society with a mad craving for wealth, power, politics; we continue to sustain this, and then we ask why vice exists. Where there is ambition, vice is a logical consequence. It is impossible to stop corruption until the basic structure that encourages ambition is destroyed.

Ambition manifests even in the society of so-called saints. Saints will encourage you toward ambition in the manifestation of compassion; they will say: "Become better than others. Be virtuous so that you may go to heaven and be beloved by God, while others burn in hell." The poison of ambition can easily be used to make a person virtuous.

But in reality, such virtue will be fake. A man can be ambitious and dishonorable—this is natural and logical—but he cannot be ambitious and virtuous. It is impossible. If a man wants to be virtuous, he must not think in terms of comparison, because the flowering of true virtue occurs only when there are no comparisons.
Comparison hinders virtue because comparison creates division, creates violence. As soon as you say: "I am humbler than you"—you have become aggressive. You used a subtle, sophisticated way to stab another in the back. You killed him. This is a lethal weapon—and far more subtle than the weapons of politicians or capitalists. If you say: "I am better than others, I am a greater righteous person than the rest"—your goal may differ from that of politicians, but you are on the same path of ambition. Not only criminals and sinners are vicious; so-called virtuous people, "saints," are also vicious—in a more subtle way.

Our entire society is vicious. It creates sinners with ambitions and saints with ambitions. And they are interdependent because they are on one axis—the axis of ambition. A person who understands this will fall completely out of society. He will be neither sinner nor saint, he will not fit into any category, and it will be difficult for you to assess who he is or what kind of person he is. We need a society that is not ambitious.

God has nothing to do with this, but if you are ambitious, even God becomes part of your ambitions. You will strive toward him; you will try to achieve God.
An ambitious person is incapable of comprehending the divine. He is never relaxed, never loving, because ambition is violence. A person who does not know what peace and love, silence and serenity are, can never know what the divine is. Because the divine cannot be known intellectually; it can only be felt.
When you are calm, completely relaxed, striving for nothing, when the mind is quiet and at peace with itself, then you know what existence is. Then you know the bliss and beauty of the divine. Not that beauty which is opposed to ugliness; there are no opposites, and there are no comparisons. Simply the world becomes beautiful, existence itself is beautiful. Then a cactus is as beautiful as a rose. Then every individuality is beautiful, incomparable.

Then for the first time you begin to love. Not with that love which is opposite to hate. That love is not actually love, but a softened form of hate, a less intense form of hate, its opposite pole: love exists on one pole and hate on the other, and you constantly oscillate between them. Your hate means a smaller dose of love. Your love means a smaller dose of hate.

The question may arise whether there is a way beyond love and hate... Beyond this duality stands the one who is no longer ambitious, not tense, who is relaxed, strives for nothing, seeks absolutely nothing, who simply exists. He knows divinity and simultaneously knows love. Love is a consequence of the harmony of your existence with the infinite; it is like a shadow, it follows after.

Buddha never sought love; love simply came to him. Jesus never thought about love; he lived love. Love cannot be sought directly—it is such a subtle fragrance that you will not be able to detect it. Love comes following the realization that all is one, like a reward for understanding that the divine is present in both your friends and your enemies.

You are not separate, not separated from existence; you are part of all that exists. You are merged with existence not mechanically, but organically, just as a whale is organically connected to the ocean and always one with it, just as my hand is organically one with me. Once you realize this—you can know love.
But this realization comes only if you are not ambitious. Only an unambitious mind is religious. It does not matter what your ambitions are—be it wealth, power or fame, or even liberation, or divinity. If you are ambitious, it means that your mind strives for something, chases after something. It is occupied with achievement; it does not want to be simply itself.

Ambition is tension, and tension prevents the encounter with the divine. But if the encounter happens, you are no longer there. The encounter with the divine completely purifies you, completely absorbs you. Only then does love come. The death of your ego is the birth of love.
Usually, we mistake for love something opposite to hate. But he who knows the truth understands that love is the opposite of the ego. The true enemy of love is not hate; the true enemy of love is the ego. And hate and what we usually understand as love are two sides of the same coin.

Love comes when you are not there, when there is no ego. And the ego is gone, you are gone, when you are not ambitious. The moment of absence of ambition is the moment of meditation. In the moment of absence of ambition, when you strive for nothing, ask for nothing, pray for nothing, when you are completely satisfied with who you are, comparing yourself to no one—in such a moment you touch the deepest source of the divine. And you do not just touch it; you are immersed in it, you are one with it.

Then love flows. Then you can only be loving—nothing else remains for you. Then love is no longer the opposite of hate. There is neither love as we knew it nor hate; both have disappeared. Now a completely different quality grows within you, love in a completely new dimension.
Now your love is a certain state of mind, not a relationship. It is directed at no one. One cannot say that you love someone; rather, you are simply loving. There is no other person, no beloved; you simply love everything that comes into contact with you. You yourself are love; you live in love. It has become your fragrance."
Osho

A revolutionary is part of the political world; he views everything through the prism of political life. He thinks it is enough to change the structure of society, and man will change as well. A rebel, however, as I understand the word, is a spiritual phenomenon. In his worldview, he relies on the individual. He believes that if we want to change society, we must start with the individual. Society as such does not exist; it is merely a concept. Take the word "crowd," for example. Try to find it — you won't succeed. Did you bump into someone? That wasn't a crowd; you bumped into a person. "Society" is just a collective name. It is not a reality, but merely a notion; it cannot be seen or held in your hands. An individual has a soul; an individual can evolve, change, transform. So the difference between them is immense. A rebel expresses the essence of religion.

He brings a change of consciousness into this world — and when consciousness changes, the structure of society is forced to change along with it. But the opposite does not work; all revolutions have proven this, for they all ended in failure. No revolution has ever succeeded in changing man, but it seems we still haven't realized this. The ideas of revolution, changing society, overthrowing the government, reforming the bureaucracy, altering legislation and political systems still live in our heads. Feudalism, capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism — all of them were revolutionary in their own way. But they all failed, and spectacularly at that, because MAN did not change…
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Gautama Buddha, Zarathustra, Jesus — these people were rebels. They believed in the individual. They too failed, but for a completely different reason. Their failure differs from the failure of revolutionaries. Revolutionaries tried to implement their ideas in many countries and through various means — and they got nowhere.

But the ideas of Gautama Buddha didn't work because no one actually tried to implement them. Jesus failed because the Jews crucified Him, and the Christians buried Him. His teachings were not brought to life — they were never given a chance. The rebel remains an unknown quantity to this day. We must be rebels, not revolutionaries. A revolutionary belongs to very mundane realms; a rebel and his rebellious spirit belong to the realm of the spirit. A revolutionary cannot be alone: he needs a crowd, a political party, a government. He needs power. But power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power has spoiled all revolutionaries who managed to seize it. They did not change the nature of power and its institutions — they couldn't. It was power that changed their souls and consciousness, it spoiled these people. Only the names changed, while society remained the same.

Human consciousness has not changed for centuries. Only occasionally does someone succeed — but for millions of people, one person's success is not the rule, it is the exception. And because such a person is always alone, the crowd does not accept him. His very existence humiliates you. You feel that his presence insults you, for he opens your eyes, shows you your potential and your future. Your ego is wounded; you realize you have done nothing for your spiritual growth, your consciousness has not expanded, there is no more love, joy, creativity, or silence within you — the world around has not become better. You have given nothing to this world: your existence here is not a blessing, but a torment. And you give free rein to your anger and cruelty, your jealousy and drive to be first, your thirst for power.

You turn the world into a battlefield: you thirst for blood and infect everyone around you with this feeling. You strip human nature of its humanity. You help man forget his human qualities and fall lower than animals. That is why Gautama Buddha and Zhuangzi bother you so much — they succeeded, while you are still stuck in place. Years pass, yet nothing ignites within you. Birds do not fly to you, do not build their nests near you, and do not sing their songs beside you. It's easier to crucify Jesus and poison Socrates — better they not exist, so you don't have to feel your spiritual inferiority.

History knows few rebels. But now the time has come: if humanity cannot give the world hundreds and thousands of rebels, if the rebellious spirit does not ignite, then our days on earth are numbered. Then the coming decades may be our last. We have come very close to this line. We must change our consciousness, must give the world more meditative energy, give it more love. We must destroy the past — its ugliness, its rotten ideology, its stupid discrimination and foolish prejudices. We must create a new human being with a fresh view of the world and new values. Refusal — that is the meaning of rebelliousness. Here are three words that will help you understand: reform, revolution, and rebellion. Reform means modification.

The old remains, and you give it a new form, a new appearance — it's like renovating an old house. Its structure remains unchanged; you touch up the paint a bit, clear out the debris, knock in a few new windows and doors. Revolution goes further than reform. The old remains, but the changes are more profound, they even affect the basic structure of the house. You not only change the color or punch in new windows and doors but perhaps add new floors, and the building rises upward. But the old is not destroyed; it remains, hidden behind the new; by and large, it remains the foundation of the new. Revolution maintains ties with the past.

Rebellion breaks these ties. It is not reform and not revolution; you simply break with everything old. Old religions, old political ideologies, the old human being — all of this has outlived its time, and you renounce it. You start life from scratch, from a clean slate. The revolutionary tries to change the old; the rebel simply says goodbye to it and, like a snake slithering out of its old skin, never looks back. If we do not create people with such a rebellious spirit on Earth, humanity will have no future. The man of the past has led us to the final line. Old thinking, old ideologies, old religions — all of them together have brought us to a state of global suicide.

Only a new human being can save the human race, our planet, and life on this planet. I teach rebellion, not revolution. For me, rebelliousness is the most important quality of a religious person. It is spirituality in its primordial purity. The times of revolutions are over. The French Revolution ended in failure, the Russian revolution suffered a fiasco, the Chinese revolution failed. In India, even Gandhi's revolution failed, and it happened right before Gandhi's own eyes. All his life he taught "non-violence," and before his eyes the country was divided, millions of people were killed and burned alive, millions of women were raped. Gandhi himself was shot. A strange end for a saint who preached non-violence.

Along the way, he himself forgot everything he had taught. Even before the Indian revolution was complete, the American thinker Louis Fischer asked Gandhi: "What are you going to do with the weapons and armies when India becomes independent?" "I am going to throw all the weapons into the ocean, and I will disband the armies and send the soldiers to work in the fields and gardens," said Gandhi. "Have you forgotten? Your country could be attacked!" exclaimed Louis Fischer. "We will welcome the invaders warmly. If someone attacks us, we will receive them as guests and say to them: 'You can live here too, just as we live here. We have no need to fight,'" replied Gandhi.

And then he completely forgot his entire philosophy — that's how revolutions fail. How wonderful it is to talk about such things, but when power is in your hands… At first, Mahatma Gandhi refused any government posts. The reason was fear, because he would have to answer if asked about the weapons he intended to throw into the ocean. And about the armies working in the fields. When Gandhi saw what huge problems this would entail, he walked away from the responsibility he had fought for all his life. If he had agreed to take a government post, he would have had to come into conflict with his own philosophy. But his disciples, people he had chosen himself, entered the government. And Gandhi did not ask them to disband the army. When Pakistan attacked India, he did not tell the Indian government: "Let us go to the border and welcome the invaders as guests."

Instead, he blessed the first three planes that flew to bomb Pakistan. These planes flew over the villa in New Delhi where Gandhi was staying. He went out into the garden and blessed them. With his blessing, the planes flew on to kill his former fellow citizens, who just a few days earlier had been "our brothers and sisters." He did this without any pangs of conscience and saw no contradiction in his action…

The Russian revolution failed before Lenin's eyes. Following Karl Marx, he declared: "When the revolution triumphs, we will abolish marriage, because marriage is a manifestation of private property. When private property disappears, the institution of marriage will disappear. People can love each other, can live together, and society will take care of the children." But everything changed when the communist party, which Lenin led, seized power. When people come to power, they start thinking differently. Now Lenin reasoned thus: it is dangerous to give such independence and freedom from responsibility — people might become too individualistic. Therefore, they must be burdened with family — he completely forgot about abolishing the institution of marriage. It is amazing how revolutions failed right before the eyes of the revolutionaries who created them. And all because, as soon as power fell into their hands, they began to reason completely differently. Over time, they became too attached to their power. The only thing that concerned them was how to hold onto power forever and how to keep the people under control.

The future does not need any more revolutions. The future needs a new experiment, one that has not yet been conducted. For thousands of years, rebels have been born, but they always remained alone. Perhaps the time for them had not yet come. But now the time has not only come… if we do not hurry, it may end. In the coming decades, either humanity will disappear, or a new man with a new way of thinking will appear on Earth. And this new man will be a rebel.
Osho (The Book of Awareness)

Society cultivates your ambitions, your desire for power, the desire to be rich. This is an absolutely wrong society. It is a society of mentally ill, insane people. And when they achieve the goal set before them by society and the educational system, they find themselves at a dead end.The road ends, there is nothing beyond it. Therefore, they either become pseudo-spiritual people, or they go insane, or they commit suicide and destroy themselves. Meditation cannot be bought, love cannot be bought. Friendship and gratitude cannot be bought. But no one is interested in all this. Everything else, this entire world—can be bought. That is why every child begins to climb the ladder of ambition, and from infancy they already know that if they have money, they can do anything...

The Nobel Prize involves very large sums of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the prize constantly increases because money is becoming more and more depreciated. And Nobel most likely earned a huge pile of money, because all the prizes distributed annually are paid only from the interest—the principal amount remains untouched. The annual interest is so great that it is possible to award the prize to twenty candidates.

All charity is, in reality, an attempt to wash away a sense of guilt. Literally. After Pontius Pilate ordered Christ to be crucified, the first thing he did was wash his hands. Strange! An order for crucifixion does not make the hands dirty, so why did he decide to wash them? It's very simple: he felt guilty. It took people two thousand years to understand this. For two thousand years, no one even noticed it, no one bothered to comment on the fact that Pontius Pilate washed his hands. But Sigmund Freud discovered that people experiencing guilt often wash their hands. It is a symbolic act. As if their hands were stained with dirt, with blood.

Therefore, if you have money, you will feel guilt. Charity is a wonderful way to wash your hands. Various religions use these feelings of yours. They manipulate the feeling of guilt very skillfully—they support your ego by claiming that by engaging in charity, you are on a spiritual path. However, all of this has nothing to do with spirituality; these are merely attempts to comfort criminals. There are also cases where a person feels so guilty that they either go insane or commit suicide. Their existence turns into unbearable torment. It becomes hard for them to breathe. The strangest part is that they spent their life earning all this money, all because society aroused in them the desire to get rich, the desire to obtain power. Money indeed gives power; you can buy literally everything with it, except for a very few things. But no one cares about those trifles.

Meditation cannot be bought, love cannot be bought. Friendship and gratitude cannot be bought. But no one is interested in all this. Everything else, this entire world—can be bought. That is why every child begins to climb the ladder of ambition, and from infancy they already know that if they have money, they can do anything.

Society cultivates your ambitions, your desire for power, the desire to be rich. This is an absolutely wrong society. It is a society of mentally ill, insane people. And when they achieve the goal set before them by society and the educational system, they find themselves at a dead end. The road ends, there is nothing beyond it. Therefore, they either become pseudo-spiritual people, or they go insane, or they commit suicide and destroy themselves.

Money can become something beautiful if it is not in the hands of individuals, if it is part of a commune, part of a society in which everyone cares for each other. Everyone creates something, everyone makes their contribution, but no one is paid money; people are repaid with respect, love, gratitude, and are given everything necessary for life.

Money should not be in the hands of individuals. Otherwise, the problem of guilt arises. And money does not make people's lives richer. If a commune owns the money, it can give you everything you need; it will give you both education and the opportunity to engage in Creation. Society will be rich, and no one will feel guilty. Because society has done so much for you, you will want to repay it with your services, your work.

If you are a doctor, you will try your hardest; if you are a surgeon, you will do everything to save the patient, because society helped you become a surgeon, gave you an education, gave you everything you needed, and cared for you since childhood.

This is what I mean when I say that children should belong to the commune, and the commune should care for everyone. Everything created by people will not be secretly accumulated in the hands of individuals; it will be a common resource. It will be yours, it will be for you, but it will not be in your hands. Then you will have no reason to manifest ambitions; on the contrary, it will help you become more creative, more generous, more grateful, and then society will become better and more beautiful. Then money will cease to be a problem.
Osho