Posts from Life is a dream. Auto-translated

Question:
I understand that the witness is pure consciousness, and, untouched by the body and mind, it only temporarily resides in them.
So, firstly: how does the personality transfer its characteristic traits and conditioning from one life to another? And secondly: isn't this what makes us unique individuals, with the potential for growth?

Answer:
"Manisha, the first thing you must understand is that you have not only this body with its flesh, bones, and blood, not only this brain, which is part of your body. Inside your brain is hidden the mind – this is an abstract mind, and inside your body is hidden the astral body. The word 'astral' is related to the stars; it means light... This body radiates light, and it includes the mind.

When you die, you leave your physical body and physical brain. But your astral body travels with you, with the mind, with the memories of past lives, and with a body that remembers all the wounds and scars that your physical body has received. This abstract phenomenon travels with you, and deep within it is hidden your existential center.

Until you know the center, you will continuously travel from one body to another. You have already traveled through thousands of lives, the memories of which are stored in your astral mind, and there are more and more of them. And although your center is untouched, it is surrounded by the astral body, and this astral body passes from womb to womb, from grave to grave. This is your individuality, and it has a continuation. But the continuation will come to an end as soon as you become a Buddha.

When you penetrate deeply into the center, you also transcend your astral body; you go through the mind, beyond the mind, through the astral body, beyond it, to the center of your being. Once you penetrate it, the continuation of your individuality comes to an end. And then real life begins. You will never enter a womb again, and you will no longer be burned on a funeral pyre. Now you have become part of the whole."
Osho

Simplicity

Simplicity is life without ideals.
To be simple, you need a backbone. You need a backbone because you will live in constant rebellion. You need a backbone because you will never be adjusted to the so-called rotten society that exists around you. You will always be an outsider. But you will be simple, and in simplicity there is beauty. You will be in total harmony with yourself. Then there will be no conflict within you, there will be no
split within you.

Simplicity is life without ideals. Ideals create complexity; ideals create a division in you, and therefore complexity arises. The moment you try to become someone, you become complex. To be content with yourself — that is simplicity. The future brings complexity; when you are totally in the present, you are simple. Simplicity does not mean living a life of poverty. That is very stupid, because the person who imposes a life of poverty on himself is not simple at all. He is a hypocrite.

The need to impose poverty on yourself deep inside means that you crave the diametrically opposite; what other necessity is there to impose it? You impose a certain character upon yourself because you are its direct opposite. An angry person wants to become compassionate; a violent person wants to become non-violent. If you are non-violent, you will not
try to become non-violent. Why? The person who imposes poverty on himself is simply trying to live his life according to Others, not according to his own inner center, not according to his own spontaneity. And to live according to others means never to be simple. To live according to others means to live a life of imitation. Such a life will be plastic: on the surface you will be one thing, in your depths the opposite. And only the depth matters, the surface is never important. You will be a saint on the surface, and deep inside — a sinner. And it is this that will be decisive in you, because God only touches your depth, not the surface.

The surface is in contact with society, existence is in contact with the depth. Existence only knows who you really are, it never knows who you are pretending to be. Existence knows nothing about your actions. You can pretend to be a great saint, a mahatma, but existence never knows about it, because it never knows anything false. Everything that is false happens outside of existence. It only knows the real, your reality. Simplicity means — simply being yourself, whoever you are, in total acceptance, without a goal, without an ideal. All ideals are rubbish; throw them all away.

To be simple, you need a backbone. You need a backbone because you will live in constant rebellion. You need a backbone because you will never be adjusted to the so-called rotten society that exists around you. You will always be an outsider. But you will be simple, and in simplicity there is beauty. You will be in total harmony with yourself. Then there will be no conflict within you, there will be no
split within you. The ideal brings a split. The greater the ideal, the greater the split will be. The ideal means that somewhere in the future, someday, maybe in this life, maybe in the next, you will become a great saint. In the meantime, you remain a sinner. This
helps you to keep hoping; it helps you on the surface to keep hoping that tomorrow everything will be fine, that tomorrow you will be what you should be.
Today can be endured. You can ignore it, it can be disregarded, it can be overlooked. The most important thing will happen tomorrow.

But tomorrow never comes. Always today... today is always. And a person living in ideals continues to miss reality, because reality is now, here. To be now and to be here means to be simple: to be like trees, here now, to be like clouds, here now, to be like birds, here now — to be like buddhas, here now. The ideal needs the future. Simplicity is not an ideal. People have created
an ideal even out of simplicity, such is human stupidity.
Simplicity can never be an ideal, because no ideal can create simplicity. It is the ideal that poisons you and makes you complex, splits you, makes you two people — who you are, and who you want to become. Now a constant war continues within you, a civil war.

And when you fight with yourself — a violent person
tries to be non-violent, an ugly person tries to be beautiful, and so on, and so on — when you are constantly trying, striving to be someone else, your energy is dissipated in this conflict, energy constantly leaks away. And energy is joy. And to have energy means to be alive, to be fresh, to be young. Look at people's faces — how dull they appear. Look into their eyes — their eyes have lost all luster and depth. Feel their presence, and you will not feel any radiance, you will not
feel any energy flowing from them. On the contrary, you
will feel as if they are sucking energy from you. Instead of being overflowing with energy, they have become black holes: they suck you in, exploit your energy. Staying near them, you become poorer. That is why, when you enter a crowd and return, you feel tired, exhausted, drained, and you
need rest. Why? Why, after being in a crowd, do you feel as if you have lost something? Certainly, you have lost something, because the crowd consists of black holes. And the more unintelligent the crowd, the more it consists of the mob, the more you will feel exhausted. That is why, when a person is alone, sits in silence, and no one is with him — in absolute celibacy, in solitude — he again becomes
filled, renewed. That is why meditation makes you younger, more alive. You begin to share something with existence. A song arises in you.

But in a crowd you always lose. In meditation you always gain. Why? What happens in meditation? In meditation you become simple: the future no longer concerns you. That is what all meditation is about: dropping concern for the past and future, being here now. Only this moment exists. And, whenever it happens that only this moment exists — watching the sunrise, or looking at a white cloud floating across the sky, or just sitting next to a tree, in silent communion, or watching a bird soaring — whenever it happens that you forget about the past and the future, and the present moment grips you, when you are completely absorbed in the present
moment, you will feel renewed. Why?
The split disappears; the split was created by your ideals. In this moment you are one, whole; you are gathered together.

Simplicity is not an ideal; you cannot impose simplicity upon yourself. That is why I say that people like Mahatma Gandhi are not simple. They are not simple and cannot be simple. Simplicity is their ideal, and they try to achieve it. Simplicity is a separate goal in the distant future,
and they try, they strain, they make great efforts. How can simplicity be created by effort? Simplicity simply means that which is. By effort you try to improve existence.
Existence is perfect as it is, it does not need
improvement. So-called saints keep continuously improving themselves — dropping this, dropping that, suppressing this, imposing that, this and that is not good, this and that is good... constant effort, and in this very effort they are lost. Simplicity is a state without effort; it is humility — not humility created in opposition to arrogance, not humility created in opposition to ego, not humility opposite to a proud mind. No, humility is not the opposite of pride. Humility is simply the absence of pride. Try to see the essence. If your
humility is against pride, if you had to struggle to drop pride, ego, arrogance, then all you have done is suppression. Now you will be proud of your humility; now you will start to boast about how humble you are.

This is exactly what happens. Just look at so-called humble people — they are constantly advertising how humble they are. Truly humble people themselves do not know that they are humble; how can they boast about it? How can a humble person know that he is humble? A humble person —
is no longer a personality. A humble person is
a state of fana: the humble person has dissolved. Now he is only a presence. Humility is a presence, not a characteristic of personality, not a character trait, but only a presence. Others feel it, but you
cannot feel it yourself. The same is true of simplicity. Simplicity only means: living from moment to moment, spontaneously, not trying to conform to any philosophy whatsoever, not trying to conform to Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, not conforming to any
philosophy. When you live according to a philosophy, you betray yourself, become your own enemy. Simplicity means: being in deep friendship with yourself, living your life without the interference of any idea.

For this, certainly, a backbone is required, because you will live in constant insecurity. A person living in ideals is secure. He is predictable; in that is his security. He knows what he is going to do tomorrow. He knows, if a certain situation arises, — he will react in such and such a way. He is always certain. A person who is simple
knows nothing about tomorrow, knows nothing about the next moment, because he is not going to act from the past. He will respond from his present awareness.

A simple person has no "character"; only a complex person has character. Good or bad, it doesn't matter. There are good characters and bad characters, but both are complex. A simple person is without character, he is neither good nor bad, but there is a beauty in him that cannot be in either good or bad people. Both good and bad people
are not very different from each other; they are two sides of the same coin. Behind the character of a good person lies a bad one, and a bad person — a good one.

A simple person is simple. He lives from moment to moment, without any idea of how to live; he has no philosophy of life. He trusts his intelligence. What need is there to have a philosophy? Why should a person have a philosophy? — to guide him.
This means that if you are stupid, you need a philosophy of life so that it can guide you. If you are intelligent, you do not need any philosophy of life. Intelligence itself is enough — it is a light unto itself.

To be simple means to be intelligent. Simplicity is intelligence, life without ideals, without directions, without maps, just living from moment to moment, without any backup. Our concern for rightness and fear of wrongness is nothing but the fear of insecurity. Right makes us secure, wrong makes us insecure, but life is insecurity. There is no security anywhere. You may have a bank account, but the bank can go bankrupt any moment. You may have certainty in marriage, a husband or wife, but the wife can leave you any moment, she may fall in love; or the husband may die.

Life is full of insecurity. Security is only an illusion with which we surround ourselves, a cozy illusion. And for this cozy illusion we kill intelligence. A person who wants to live will simply have to live in insecurity, will have to accept the fact that nothing is exact or
certain, that we are making a journey into the unknown, that no one can be certain where we are going, and no one can be certain where we came from
In fact, except for stupid people, no one suffers from illusions of security. The more intelligent you are, the less certain. The more intelligent you are, the more you waver — because life is vast. Life is boundless, immeasurable, mysterious. How can you be certain? To live in uncertainty, to live in insecurity — that is simplicity.
Live a life without ideals, without character, a life not rooted in the past, not motivated by the future; a life that is utterly here and now.
Osho

"The very word Buddha means 'enlightened mind.' The word buddhi, 'intellect,'
is also derived from the same root. The root budh has many meanings. There is no single English word that conveys its meaning. It has many meanings; it is very fluid and poetic. In no other language does the root budh
have so many meanings. The root budh has at least five meanings.

The first meaning is 'to awaken, to awaken oneself and to make others awaken, not to be in a dream.' As such, this word denotes a state opposite to sleep, to illusion, from which the enlightened one awakens

as from a dream. This is the first meaning of the root budh - 'to achieve enlightenment.' Usually, people live in a dream. Even if you think you are not sleeping, you are. You are walking down the road and you think you are not sleeping - in your mind. But from Buddha's point of view, you are sleeping soundly because thousands of thoughts and desires are swirling in your
consciousness. Your inner light is in a dense haze; it is like a dream. Yes, your eyes are open, but people can walk in a dream with their eyes open. And Buddha says that you too are walking in a dream with your eyes open. But your inner eye is closed. You do not yet know who you are. You have not yet looked
into your own reality. You have not awakened. A mind full of thoughts has not awakened; it cannot awaken. Only a mind that has discarded thoughts and ideas, that has dispelled the clouds and in which the sun shines and the sky is clear - an awakened mind

Mind is the ability to be in the present. The more you are thinking about the past or the future, the less mindful you are. Mind is the ability to be here now, to be in this moment, and nowhere else. Only then have you awakened from the dream.

For example, you are in a house, and suddenly the house catches fire - your life
is in danger. For a moment, you become enlightened. At that moment, your mind becomes clear. At that moment, you forget what happened to you before. At that moment, you will not be distracted by extraneous thoughts - that you loved a woman 30 years ago and it was wonderful! Or how a few days ago you went to a Chinese restaurant
and you still feel the taste and aroma of the freshly prepared food.

No, when your house is on fire, you cannot afford such
reflections. Suddenly, you return your thoughts to the present second: your house is burning and your life is at stake. It no longer matters what will happen tomorrow, it no longer matters what happened
yesterday, even today no longer has any meaning. There is only this moment, only this instant. This is the first meaning of the root budh -

'mind.' A person who wants to be truly enlightened, to be a Buddha in truth, must every
moment of his life live as we live very rarely - only in moments of danger. The first meaning is 'a state opposite to sleep.' And it is quite clear that you can only see reality when you are not sleeping. You can meet it face to face, you can look truth in the eye - or call it 'God' - only when you are enlightened. You understand the meaning of life.
Osho

About Time: (Part 1)

For me, being in the moment is meditation, the ultimate state of being in the moment. And then everything is so beautiful, so fragrant, so fresh. Nothing ages. Nothing goes anywhere. It is we who come and go; existence remains as it is. It is not time that passes; it is we who come and go. But here is the illusion: instead of seeing that it is we who pass, we have created a great invention, the clock—and now time passes. Time is an invention of the mind; at its core, time exists only when there is yesterday and tomorrow; the present moment is not part of time. When you are simply here, simply now, there is no time. You breathe, you live, you feel, you are open to everything that is happening around you. Everything is silent. Then you can see the present, and you can see that only the present exists, and nothing else. And the present is eternal; essentially, the present is not part of time at all... Today is all there is; now is the only time you are in, the only time you will ever be in. If you want to live, it is now or never. Osho (“Children of the Universe”)

Deep inside me, there is a sharp longing for constant love. Is this foolish?

Love can exist in two dimensions—either horizontally or vertically. We are familiar with the love that exists in the horizontal dimension; it is the same dimension in which time flows. The vertical dimension is the dimension of eternity. This sharp longing in the heart is not for constancy. Here, you have misunderstood, but this misunderstanding is almost universal, because we are only familiar with one plane—the horizontal, the dimension of time. In this dimension, there are only two possibilities: something is either transient, momentary, or constant. But this constancy is nothing more than a multitude of moments; it also begins and ends. Constancy is not eternal; it cannot be eternal. Nothing can be eternal in time. What is born at one time must inevitably die at some time. If there is a beginning, there must also be an end. And your love begins—it begins at a certain point in time—and then it must inevitably end. Yes, it may end sooner or later. If it ends quickly, you call it transient. If it takes a little longer to end, you call it constant. But constancy will not satisfy the heart either, because the heart passionately desires something that does not end at all, something that is eternal. This is a longing for the divine.

The divine is another name for eternal love. Jesus says, “God is love”—and this is one of the greatest statements ever made. Love becomes synonymous with God. If you have been able to know eternal love, you have known God. Nothing remains; everything is realized. But the mind knows nothing about eternity. The heart longs for the eternal, but the heart is constantly interpreted by the mind, and the mind knows either very short-lived love or love that lasts a little longer. But even if the love lasts a little longer, there is always the fear that it will end, and this fear of yours is justified—it will end. In fact, it will last longer if you are unreasonable. If you are very, very foolish and very, very unreasonable, it will take you a long time to understand the futility of it all. If you are very wise, love may end quickly, because you will see that there is nothing special about it. The more intelligent a person is, the less durable their love will be—the love that you know. That is why, as humanity becomes more intelligent, love becomes an increasingly transient phenomenon. In the past, it was almost constant; there was no such thing as divorce. In uneducated countries, there is still no such thing as divorce. The more educated, cultured, and sophisticated a country becomes, the greater, in the same proportion, the percentage of divorces—the reason is simple: people see that they are tired of each other. Then there is no point in dragging on this burden; then it is better to end this story. But the mind can end one illusion and immediately replace it with another, and so on. The mind learns nothing. Even an intelligent person learns nothing, and the mind becomes so powerful that everything that comes from the heart never reaches you, your being, without being interpreted by the mind. The heart says “eternity,” and the mind interprets it as “constancy.” This is where you miss the point.


The heart longs for the vertical dimension, that is, the dimension of meditation. The mind lives in the horizontal plane, and mystics of all ages have realized that the mind and time are not two different things; the mind is time. The mind cannot live in the vertical dimension; the mind lives in the past, in the future. There is no present for the mind. The mind is constantly moving from the past to the future. The present seems to be only a transition from the past to the future: A hunter was going to hunt in the jungle. His comrade, who also dreamed of becoming a hunter, but was very clumsy and inexperienced, wanted to go with him. “Okay,” said the hunter. And he led his comrade to a pond where tigers and lions usually came to drink. So, the friends hid in the bushes. The hunter gave his comrade instructions: “When you see something, don’t hesitate and shoot immediately.” A tiger passed by. The hunter was surprised because his comrade remained as if frozen; he didn’t even move, he didn’t do anything to shoot the tiger. The hunter asked: “What happened?” The comrade replied: “It passed so quickly that I only saw it when it was already out of sight.” This is exactly what the present is: you only see it when it is already out of sight. You see it only when it is already gone. You never see it as the present—the mind is not that fast. The mind is not vigilant; it is not aware. The mind is asleep. It is always surrounded by the past and the future, and this small, brief moment of the present passes quickly. It must move faster than light itself, because we can never grasp it. By the time we are aware of it, it is already gone. We spend the whole moment becoming alert, and that is why it escapes. You always become aware of it when it is already out of sight. Therefore, all you know is the past, which is no more, and the future, which is not yet. You live between these two non-existent things.......

on time: (part 2)

The vertical dimension is a completely different phenomenon: you leap out of your mind. This is exactly what meditation is: you exit the mind, you exit the past and future, you exit time. You no longer think, you no longer sleep, you no longer desire. There are neither memories nor imagination. All is silent. Then you can see the present, and you can see that only the present exists and nothing else. And the present is eternal; in essence, the present is not a part of time at all. The present is a part of eternity; it is always now, it is never anywhere else. This is exactly what the heart longs for. Osho (“Children of the Universe”)

…This longing of the heart does not mean that you are foolish. You misunderstand it. You want love that is born from meditation, not from the mind. This is the love I speak of constantly. This is the love Jesus speaks of: ≪Love is God≫. This is not your love; your love cannot be God. Your love is merely a mental phenomenon—it is biology, physiology, psychology, but it is not eternity. The eternal belongs to essential being. Desiderata would call my love essential and your love non-essential. The non-essential cannot become eternal. Even if you try to make love permanent and succeed, sooner or later it will die. You may even deceive yourself, believing that love is still alive; you may pretend that it somehow exists. Millions of married couples around the world live as if it exists. They live in a world of ≪as if≫. Of course, how can they be happy? Their energy has run dry; they try to extract something from a fake love. It cannot give what is required—hence the disappointment, hence the constant boredom, hence the constant nitpicking and conflicts between lovers. They are both trying to do something impossible; they are trying to make their romance something eternal, but it cannot become so. It arose from the mind, and the mind cannot give you any glimpse of eternity. Here is my proposal: if you are truly ready to fulfill the passionate desire of the heart, then completely forget about love.

First go into meditation, because love will arise from meditation. Love is the fragrance of meditation. Meditation is the flower, the thousand-petaled lotus. Let it bloom, let it help you enter the vertical dimension, into non-mind, into non-time, and then you will unexpectedly discover this fragrance. Now it is eternal love; now it is unconditional love. Now it is not even directed at anyone in particular; it cannot be directed at anyone specifically. Love is not a relationship; it is rather a quality that surrounds you. It has nothing to do with another person. You love, you are love—and then this love is eternal, it is your fragrance. It surrounded Buddha, Zarathustra, Jesus. This is a completely different kind of love, qualitatively different. You ask only for a slightly longer duration—not one day, but two days, three days, four days; not one life, but several lives—but love will end anyway. And the more you prolong it, the weaker it becomes, the more boring it becomes, because it wants to die, yet you prolong it. Sometimes it dies, but you are unable to let it go; you continue to drag the corpse. It stinks! Once it was a beautiful phenomenon; now it is just a corpse, and it stinks. When love dies, it dies. If one lives in time, then one must accept death and say goodbye—without complaints, without dissatisfaction. When something ends, what can you do? Such is the nature of things in the temporal dimension: they begin, and they end.

Buddha says: ≪Everything that happens in time is doomed to death, so accept this—such is the way things are≫. But if your heart truly longs for something eternal, then I can show you the way. Then discard the idea of love. Before you can give, you must possess it. You try to give something you do not have; you try to take something from someone who simply does not have it. How then can this be something eternal? Sooner or later, illusions will inevitably be shattered. How long can you harbor these illusions, how long can you remain in delusion? This is why I say that the more rational you are, the faster such love will slip through your fingers.

Only foolish people can live in marriage thinking it is something permanent. Rational people cannot live in so-called marriage, and if they do live in it, they will have to change partners many times in their lives. But every time the same thing will happen. Exit the mind. Completely forget about love. You have no understanding of love—you cannot have any understanding of love. Only through meditation will you change the dimension of your being. From the horizontal dimension, you will move to the vertical. From a life in the past and future... By the way, where does this permanence come from? Permanence means that you are trying to calculate love even into the future. You want it to remain as it is, even in the future—but why? In reality, it must have already left; a person begins to think of permanence only when love departs. When two lovers are truly immersed in this illusion, they do not think of permanence. Ask any two lovers during their honeymoon—they don't care, they know they will be together always. But the moment love begins to slip from your hands, the mind says: ≪Now cling. Make it permanent. Do whatever it takes to make it permanent. Do not look at the cracks appearing here and there. Do not look, avoid them, completely forget about them. Keep hiding them—somehow take care of that≫. But you are asking for the impossible.

I can teach you meditation, and from meditation a different quality of love will arise. Then it will not be playing the fool. Then it will be wisdom—not foolishness. Then you will not fall in love*, you will rise, grow in love. Then love will be a quality for you. Just as light surrounds a flame, love will surround you. You are love. And then eternity is present in love; it is not addressed to anyone specific. Everyone who approaches you will absorb it. Everyone who approaches you will be enchanted and enriched by it. A tree, a stone, a person, an animal—it does not matter. Even if you sit alone... Buddha, sitting in solitude under a tree, radiates love. Love continuously pours out of him. This is eternal love, and this is the genuine longing of the heart...
(Osho from the book "Children of the Universe")

I so desperately want to save this incredible, beautiful planet, but I feel fear, because the advantage seems to be far from our side. And I feel so insignificant and helpless to do anything! So, is there anything that can be done?

I understand your despair, your helplessness. These are probably the feelings everyone who is aware of the existing crisis experiences right now. However, you are not aware of a greater power: destruction is a power of a lower order, creation is a power of a higher order. Destruction feeds on hatred, creation feeds on love.

You have seen what hatred can lead humanity to — ultimate self-destruction; but you have not seen the possibility that love, striving to grow to its highest degree, can simply prevent this crisis. No person is insignificant, because everyone has a heart, everyone has love, and everyone has sensitivity and consciousness, and everyone is capable of reaching the ultimate peak of existence. A single person can prevent this great crisis, let alone millions of people filled with love, joy, and silence.

Let me remind you of the story from the Old Testament about two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. The people in these cities became extremely depraved, all kinds of vices flourished there. This is a beautiful story; it will give you courage and dispel your despair. It will help you establish yourself as an individual representing life and love, whom no nuclear weapons, no politicians can destroy. Even God could not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you recall, according to the Old Testament, He destroyed these cities. The people who lived there could no longer be changed; they had become too accustomed to a vicious way of life. But there is another version of this story, where it takes a completely different turn — and it is this one that deserves our attention. In Judaism, there is a small movement, revolutionary and rebellious; its followers are called Hasidim. The Orthodox do not recognize their teachings as authentic because they oppose everything in the orthodox tradition that is not directed towards the heart, reason, sensitivity, and consciousness. They wrote their own story.

* * *

There was a man — a Hasid, a mystic — who lived alternately six months in Gomorrah and six months in Sodom. He turned to God and said to Him:

"Do You not allow that a hundred completely normal, wise people might live in these two great cities? Do You intend to destroy them as well — just because the rest are wicked? But that would be a great injustice, a complete injustice, and it would be unmerciful of You. Think again!"

God had not considered that surely in these two great cities, almost like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there would be a hundred reasonable, non-perverted, consciously living people. They too would perish, but this would not align with His divine plan; it would be simply terrible. Then God said:

"If you can prove that there are a hundred good people, I will not destroy these two cities."

"And if only fifty are found, will you destroy them?" asked the Hasid.

God was disconcerted by the mystic-Hasid's question. He said:

"Even if you find fifty..."

"And if only twenty-five?" said the mystic. "What difference does it make? Do You care about quantity or quality? Do You care about the number or the quality?"

"Of course, about quality," replied God.

And the Hasid said:

"If quality matters, then, in truth, I am the only person who is not perverted, who lives a natural, righteous life. But I live alternately six months in Gomorrah and six months in Sodom. And do You still intend to destroy these two cities?"

God had never met such a clever person. The Hasid made one equal a hundred for Him. Only a Jew could do that! Jews know how to bargain, and he bargained. According to the orthodox version of this story, God destroyed these cities, but according to the mystics' version — no. The people were saved because even one person full of dignity, even one person full of wisdom, God could not destroy, even if the entire city was mired in vice.

* * *
All that is needed is to be conscious. There is no need to succumb to despair and no need to fear. One person managed to convince existence itself to preserve two cities, and among us there are thousands of such Hasidim. Every sannyasin is a Hasid. Existence will not allow a handful of brainless politicians to destroy this world.

But this does not mean you should simply remain silent. You must create a great atmosphere of love around you, which will serve as protection. You must learn to dance and sing. Let these politicians know that the Earth is still full of beautiful people — so many songs, so much music, so much creativity, and so many meditating people… this will make them think.

For our part, we do not need superior stockpiles of nuclear weapons to stop war — that is the point. We need something completely different. Love will provide energy, meditation will endow you with immense power. Then you will not feel so insignificant; you will feel dignity and significance within yourself, because your love, your meditation, your bliss are capable of saving the world.

And do not worry that you are too helpless to do anything. The thought of your own helplessness arose because no one ever told you what your resources are. You have never turned to your resources — to your love, silence, peace, compassion, joy. You have never turned to this inexhaustible potential of your being. And if thousands of people open up in love, music, and dance, and celebration envelops the entire Earth, then no mad politician will be able to destroy the world. He will be helpless; he will not dare to destroy such a beautiful planet and such beautiful people.

You ask: "Can anything be done?"

Your love, your silence, your joy are enough. Nothing more is needed — more will only plunge you into unnecessary anxiety. And anxiety is like a rocking chair — it is constantly in motion but takes you nowhere! There is no need to worry, and no need to feel despair and helplessness. A handful of idiots have plotted the destruction of the planet, but there are millions of sensible people who can prevent it only with their love, their joy, their awareness of their own beauty, their ecstasy. The power of these experiences is a hundred times greater — because atomic energy, or nuclear energy, is only a part of the material world. It is the explosion of an atom, the smallest particle of matter.

We have not yet understood that nature has an absolute equilibrium. If the explosion of a tiny atom can cause such destruction… Have you ever thought about the living atom of your being and the possibility of its explosion? In other words, we call this enlightenment. It is nothing other than the explosion of your being, releasing light. With it, you suddenly have a much greater, higher power. It does not need to fight the lower — its very presence renders the lower powerless.

This is not something that happens every day and to many — it occurs only from time to time. But even these rare cases undoubtedly prove that any person, if they try, can experience the explosion of consciousness — giving them energy of a higher order — and thereby render all this nuclear weaponry completely useless and put to shame the people who possess it.

There are a few examples that will help you. They seem implausible because such cases are rare and experienced by few. * * *

One of Gautama Buddha's followers — Devadatta, who was also his cousin — was jealous of the immense fame and the ability to impress and influence people that Gautama Buddha possessed. No one who came to him left unchanged. Something changed in the very essence of a person. Buddha knew how to plant a seed — and the person returned to the true times when the first clouds were just about to release rain. But in his blindness, Devadatta did not see this. He was blind not physically, but spiritually. He could not understand what the matter was. He was as handsome as Gautama Buddha — after all, they were cousins — as educated, as knowledgeable in the arts of his time. But there was no doubt that Gautama Buddha was close to perfection, while he was not, because he could not grasp the fragrance of perfection that surrounded Gautama Buddha.

Finally, one day Devadatta said:

"I want you to declare me your successor."

Buddha replied:

"Whoever is capable of following me will become my successor, and I do not intend to name them. In any case, I am still alive; I have only reached the middle of my life. And it is not for me to choose! Who am I to choose a successor? Existence itself will choose."

Devadatta was so wounded that he left the community and made several attempts on Gautama Buddha's life. These attempts may seem like fiction, but only because we do not know the power of love, we do not know the power of awareness, and we do not know the beauty of ecstasy and its incredible protective power.

Usually, Buddha meditated on a small rock at the foot of a huge mountain. One day, Devadatta decided to push a large stone from the mountain slope, aiming it at Gautama Buddha. The stone would surely kill him, and no one could be blamed — no one would even think it was murder. The stone rolled down the mountain, and all who were present were amazed and could not believe what happened next: just two feet from Buddha, the stone stopped, changed direction, and rolled away from him. Then it continued its fall. For a stone, this was very strange; no one could expect a stone to behave like that. Even Devadatta was baffled.

Devadatta himself ruled a small kingdom, and he had a very dangerous, mad elephant. This elephant was kept in a cage, in chains, because it had already killed several people. And in this, Devadatta saw a new opportunity. The elephant was led to the place where Gautama Buddha was and released. It rushed towards Gautama Buddha just as it had rushed at other people. But as it approached, it suddenly stopped, with tears in its eyes, bowed before Gautama Buddha, and touched its head to his feet.

Who would believe that this mad elephant… what difference did it make to it? But the blind are blind! Devadatta did not see what the stone had seen, what the mad elephant had seen — the subtle invisible aura of love.

* * *

When millions of people are filled with love and meditation, there is no reason to feel despair or helplessness. You are naturally endowed with immense power that can neutralize any nuclear weapon.

This is precisely what I am trying to do: to teach you to love unconditionally; to teach you to be friendly even with strangers; to prepare you to reject official religious teachings because they create conflict, and to reject even your own national identity. You will still have passports, but for you, it will already be a mere formality. In the depths of your being, you should not be a Hindu and should not be an Indian, you should not be a German and should not be a Christian.

If this wave spreads — and I have every reason to hope that it will spread — then you can forget about World War III. The second was the last. The third is possible only if there is not enough love and meditative energy to prevent it.

We are born alone, we live alone, and we die alone. This is our nature, but we never seem to realize it. Because we don't realize it, we remain strangers to ourselves, and instead of seeing aloneness as a beautiful and blissful state, a state of silence and peace, a state of being at ease with existence, we see it as something to be avoided.

The feeling of being lonely is mistaken for aloneness. As soon as you realize that aloneness is not the same as loneliness, everything changes. Aloneness is a state of being that is full of beauty and wonder, a state of positivity. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a state of emptiness and negativity. It is a feeling of being cut off from the world, of being alone in a vast and uncaring universe. When you are lonely, you feel like something is missing. You feel like you need something to fill the void, but nothing ever seems to work. This is because loneliness is a false state, a state that is based on a misunderstanding of what it means to be human. As you get older, the gap between aloneness and loneliness grows wider. Those who have learned to embrace aloneness say that it is the most beautiful and peaceful state of being. They say that there is nothing more joyful than being alone with oneself.

Aloneness is the ultimate reality. We come into the world alone, and we leave it alone. In between, we create all sorts of relationships and attachments, but these are all just ways of avoiding the truth: that we are ultimately alone. But aloneness is not something to be feared. It is something to be embraced. It is a state of being that is full of potential. There are two words that are often used interchangeably, but which have very different meanings: aloneness and loneliness. Aloneness is a positive state of being, while loneliness is a negative state of being. Aloneness is a state of being at peace with oneself, while loneliness is a state of feeling isolated and disconnected from the world.

To be alone is not to be lonely. To be alone is to be free. To be alone is to be able to connect with oneself on a deeper level. To be alone is to be able to find peace and happiness within oneself. We are born alone, we live alone, and we die alone. Aloneness is our natural state, but we often try to avoid it. We fill our lives with distractions, with relationships, with work, with possessions, all in an attempt to escape the feeling of being alone. But the more we try to escape aloneness, the more we find ourselves running away from ourselves. Those who have learned to embrace aloneness say that it is the most beautiful and peaceful state of being. They say that there is nothing more joyful than being alone with oneself. The ordinary person tries to avoid being alone, but the meditator seeks it out. The meditator sits in silence, alone with his or her thoughts, and in this silence, he or she finds peace and happiness. The meditator knows that aloneness is not something to be feared, but something to be embraced. Those who have learned to embrace aloneness have found the greatest bliss that is possible for human beings. They have found that the self is not something to be feared, but something to be loved. They have found that the self is the source of all joy and happiness.

When you find yourself, you find the meaning of life. You find the purpose of life. You find the joy of life. You find the beauty of life. To find yourself is the greatest discovery that a person can make, and it is a discovery that can only be made when you are alone. When your mind is free from all distractions, when your mind is empty, it is then that you can begin to see the truth about yourself. And the truth is that you are a beautiful and wonderful being, full of potential. But the first step is to learn to be alone. To learn to be comfortable with your own company. To learn to love yourself. Once you have learned to love yourself, you will be able to love others. You will be able to connect with others in a way that is deep and meaningful. You will be able to create relationships that are based on love and respect. But the first step is to learn to be alone. To learn to be comfortable with your own company. To learn to love yourself. This is the most important thing you can do in your life. It is the key to happiness and fulfillment. Jesus said:

"Blessed are those who are alone, for they shall find the kingdom of heaven."


This is the experience that all mystics have been seeking for centuries. It is the experience of being alone with God. It is the experience of being one with the universe. It is the experience of being completely and utterly at peace. This experience transforms your entire outlook on life. It changes the way you see the world. It changes the way you see yourself. It changes the way you relate to others. When you have had this experience, you will never be the same again. You will be a new person, a person who is full of love and joy and peace. You will be a person who is connected to the divine. You will be a person who is living in the present moment. You will be a person who is free from fear. You will be a person who is living a life of purpose and meaning. Because of this experience, the prophets of the Upanishads declared people to be amritasya putra – “sons and daughters of immortality.” Until you recognize yourself as an immortal being, a part of the whole, you will remain in fear of death. The fear of death exists simply because you are not aware of the eternal source of life. Once you become aware of the eternity of your being, death becomes the greatest lie in existence.

Death has never happened, is not happening, and will never happen, because what is, always remains – in different forms, at different levels, but there is no break in the continuity. Eternity in the past and eternity in the future belong to you. And the present becomes the point of meeting of two eternities: one pointing towards the past, and the other towards the future. The memory of aloneness should not only be in the mind; every fiber of your being, every cell of your body should remember it – not as a word, but as a deep feeling. To forget oneself is the sin, the only one of all possible sins, and to remember oneself is the only virtue.
Osho

“Gautama Buddha emphasized one single word, constantly, for forty-two years, morning and evening; this word is sammasati — it means 'right mindfulness' (right remembering).”

You remember many things — you can become a British Encyclopedia; your mind is capable of remembering all the libraries in the world — but this is wrong remembering. There is only one right remembering — in that moment when you remember yourself.

Gautama Buddha illustrated this with an ancient story about a lioness who jumped from one hill to another, and between the two hills passed a flock of sheep. The lioness was pregnant and gave birth during the jump. Her cub fell into the flock, and the flock raised him, and naturally, he began to consider himself a sheep. It was a bit strange that he was so large, so unlike anyone else — but perhaps he was a freak of nature. He was raised as a vegetarian. He grew up, and one day an old lion in search of food approached the flock of sheep — and could not believe his eyes. Among the sheep, he saw a young lion in all his splendor, and the sheep were not afraid of him. He forgot about food; he chased after the flock of sheep... and it became more and more strange, because the young lion also ran along with the flock. Eventually, he caught the young lion. The latter cried and sobbed, and said to him: —

Please, let me return to my kin!

But the old lion dragged him to the nearest lake — a quiet lake, without any ripples, which was exactly like a clear mirror — and made him see his own reflection in the lake and beside it the reflection of the old lion. It was a sudden transformation. In the moment the young lion saw who he was, he let out a great roar — the entire valley echoed the roar of the young lion. He had never roared before because he had always considered himself a sheep and had never doubted this. The old lion said: — My work is done; now everything depends on you.

Do you wish to return back to the flock?

The young lion laughed. He said: — Forgive me, I completely forgot who I am. And I am infinitely grateful to you for helping me remember…

“Gautama Buddha usually said:

— The function of a master is to help you remember who you are.

You are not part of the mundane world; your home is the home of the divine. You are lost in oblivion; you have forgotten that God is hidden within you. You never look inside — because everyone looks outside, and you too look outside. To be alone is a great opportunity, a blessing, because in your solitude you will inevitably stumble upon yourself and for the first time remember who you are. To know that you are part of divine existence means to be free from death, free from suffering, free from anxiety; free from everything that for many lives was a nightmare for you. Become more centered in your deep solitude. This is exactly what meditation is: to become centered in your solitude. Solitude must be so pure that not even any thought, any feeling disturbs it. In the moment your solitude is complete, your experience of it will be an experience of enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that comes from outside; it is something that grows within you.

To forget oneself is the only sin. And to remember oneself, in one's full beauty — is the only virtue, the only religion. You do not need to be a Hindu, you do not need to be a Muslim, you do not need to be a Christian — all you need is to be religious within yourself.

And actually we are not separate, even now — no one is separate; all existence is an organic unity. The idea of separateness is caused by our oblivion. It is as if every leaf of a tree began to consider itself separate, separate from the other leaves... but deep inside they are nourished by the same roots. It is one tree; there may be many leaves. It is one existence; there may be many manifestations.

When you know yourself, one thing becomes absolutely clear: no man is an island — we are a continent, a boundless continent, an infinite existence without any borders. The same life flows through everything, the same love fills every heart, the same joy dances in every being. Only due to our lack of understanding do we consider ourselves separate. The idea of separateness is only our illusion. The idea of unity will be our experience of the ultimate truth. It takes just a little more reason, and you can emerge from the darkness, suffering, hell in which all humanity lives. The secret of how to get out of it is to remember yourself. And this remembering will be possible if you understand the idea that you are one.

You may live with your wife — or husband — for forty years; still, there are two of you. Your wife is one, you are one. You tried to create a facade: “We are not alone,” “We are a family,” “We are a society,” “We are a civilization,” “We are a culture,” “We are an organized religion,” “We are an organized political party.” But all these illusions will not help.

You must admit, however painful it may seem at first: “I am alone in an unfamiliar country.” This admission — for the first time — is painful. It takes away all our illusions — which were our great consolation. But as soon as you dare to accept reality, the pain disappears. And behind this pain is hidden the greatest blessing in the world: you know yourself. You are the intelligence of existence; you are the consciousness of existence; you are the soul of existence. You are part of this infinite divinity that manifests in thousands of forms: in trees, in birds, in animals, in human beings... but it is the same consciousness in different stages of evolution. And the person who recognizes himself, feels that the god he sought throughout the whole world dwells in his own heart, reaches the highest point of evolution. There is nothing higher than this. This for the first time makes your life meaningful, significant, religious. But you will not be a Hindu, you will not be a Christian, you will not be a Jew; you will simply be religious. By remaining a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian, a Jain or a Buddhist, you destroy the very beauty of religiosity — it has no need for adjectives.
Osho

(Part 1) Enchanted by the song of a bird, singing carefree in the branches of a tree, one king ordered it to be caught and placed in a cage... Even a simple song can be a mistake in the presence of evil people... The poor little bird had no idea that its song would imprison it behind iron bars. The bird, which had recently soared freely in the heavens, flitted from branch to branch, doing as it pleased, now sat in a golden cage, adorned with precious stones. But what are all the golden treasures and precious stones worth to one who has tasted the freedom of the heavens? A cage is a cage, whether it is made of gold or iron. The bird cried out, but the king and his retinue thought it was singing loudly with joy! Some people cry and weep just like this bird, but those who do not understand it think their cries are an expression of joy. The bird's heart was filled with longing and anxiety; it thought, "Will my wings be able to fly, will they remember how to do it if I stay in this cage too long?" If the bird forgets the sky, what is the point of being freed from the cage? Only those who have known, who have felt the joy of freedom within their souls, know what it is. However, one cannot know freedom simply by becoming independent. The bird longed to be free before it lost its memory of the sky. One morning, the bird heard a fakir singing: "For those who seek freedom, there is only one way – the path of Truth. What is Truth?—the beggar asked in his song. Truth is seeing things as they are, it is the ability to know things as they are, and to try to live with them, and to reveal them as they are—this is Truth; he who attains Truth is free." This was the fakir's song, and he sang it on the streets every day. No one paid attention to him, except for this little bird, which still remembered the vastness of its flights. But man—he has completely forgotten about them. Man has completely forgotten about the wings he possessed, which could carry him into unknown spaces. Many saints and prophets in their time tirelessly called out to humanity, but who listened to them? But on that very day, the bird understood the fakir's song and decided to try... The king was in the palace when someone came to visit him. He sent word through his servant that there was no one home for the visitor. The bird cried out: "No, no! The king is in the palace; he ordered his servants to say that he is not home!" The king was furious. People tend to be displeased when the truth is told, as all people live in lies. And those who possess all the fullness of power—whether it be royal power, the power of money, or religion—those who have any kind of power in their hands, they hate the truth, because power always sits on the throne of lies. Thus, those who hold power in their hands always crucify the truth, because if it is allowed to live, it will become a cross for the powerful. The king ordered that the bird be immediately removed from his sight—how can Truth be inside the palace? Truth may find a place on a branch of a tree, but in no case in the royal chambers. The bird was thrown out of the palace—but this was its deepest desire! In freedom, the bird began to dance and sing: "The fakir is right: for those who want to be free, there is only one way—the path of Truth." A sparrow, sitting nearby, watched the bird. It cried out: "Silly bird, you lost your golden cage and are happy about it? Not everyone is lucky enough to have a golden cage! But you—you are an ignorant fool; you do not know the art of living in a golden cage! The first, and most important rule, is to do exactly what the master commands, without thinking about whether it is right or wrong: because whoever makes this mistake, tries to determine what is true and what is not, cannot stay in the cage. Reflection breeds protest, and whoever begins to think cannot remain a prisoner. Why did you make the mistake of reflection, you unfortunate bird? Thinking is dangerous. Reasonable people never think. They sit in their prisons and call them their refuge, their temple. Moreover, you can decorate your refuge from the inside. A decorated cage gives the impression of a home." Remember, most people decorate their cages in this way and consider them their homes. The bird paid no attention to the sparrow's words: it was beside itself with ecstasy; its wings trembled slightly in the gentle breeze—it was free again, in the open space. But the sparrow continued to give its unsolicited advice. "Learn the art of guarding the golden cage from us, the sparrows. We always say what the master says. What he does is not up for discussion. We look at the world through the master's eyes and think his thoughts. We never use our own eyes or our own mind." Having said this, the sparrow quickly flew into the golden cage and took its place. The servant slammed the door shut... Osho (from the book _The Beginning is Always Now_)

(продолжение)

The sparrow still sits in a golden cage and says what its master tells it to say. It will remain locked in the cage forever, because the sparrow says anything but the truth. The sparrow is, after all, just a bird, but there are many sparrows among people. These "Sparrows" have also been repeating what their master says for thousands of years, repeating and re-repeating what they have been told.

There are sparrows of sacred scriptures, sparrows of various sects and cults, sparrows of temples – the whole of humanity is annoyed by the noise that these sparrows make. Their voices, heard continuously, capture our minds, so gradually we too become sparrows. Thus, we don't even know about things like the soul and Bliss. If you want to maintain peace in your captivity, don't even mention the word "Truth." If you perceive life as existing in submission and confinement, never try to turn your gaze to the Truth, don't make this mistake! Treat anyone who speaks of Truth as your enemy, because Truth is dangerous. Truth leads to freedom, and freedom does not provide security. Security provides slavery. How reliable is a saving cage! There is nothing to fear from storms and strong winds in it. Running clouds and flashing lightning do not reach the one sitting in it. There is no fear in the cage; a person will be saved behind the bars of his cage.

The open sky is full of dangers. Imagine: a small bird in the infinite sky with its terrible storms and strong winds – there is no protection, no security. That is why most people prefer slavery! If you want security, ask yourself if you want to be a prisoner. If so, then never speak of Truth. Then captivity, slavery will be your only answer. For those seeking security, it is best to depend on politics, religion, and well-being. The search for Truth is not for those who believe in salvation and safe existence. It is a search for the impatient, fearless souls... for those who have not forgotten about their wings and the open sky! Deep within such people lies a memory of the vastness of the sky – they break down walls and fly... they fly to where there are no walls. But how few people feel the excitement and desire to know the Truth! Look into thousands of eyes – the longing for freedom, perhaps you will only see it in one in a million! Knock on millions of hearts, and perhaps only one heart beats in resonance with the Truth! What has happened to humanity? Security has become everything in life. Security has become our religion – live in security and die in security! Here is a story about a king who once built himself a wonderful palace.

He made it so impregnable that no enemy could even think of breaking into it! So too, in our lives, we build similar castles to protect ourselves from enemies and be completely safe. What does a person do all his life, in the end? Why does he accumulate wealth? Why does he dream of a career and fame? Because then he can feel his security, he can feel safe! Life then does not threaten him. But the funniest thing is, and this is no secret, that the more effort he puts into making himself safe, the stronger his fear becomes. And this dependence is directly proportional.

So, the king conquered everything he could conquer, but fear forced him to build a palace to protect himself from enemies, because even defeated enemies remain enemies. He tried to enslave everyone, and in doing so, he made everyone his enemies. Only someone who is willing to accept defeat from another can be his friend. The king wanted to conquer the whole world, so the whole world became his enemy, and his fear increased a thousandfold! When fear increases, it is necessary to ensure one's safety. The king built himself a palace with only one door. The palace had no windows, no openings, except for the single door through which an enemy could enter the palace. There was only one door, guarded by a thousand guards with drawn swords. From a neighboring kingdom came another king to see the wonderful palace, about which rumors had spread. He was deeply impressed and decided to build a similar palace for himself – for his safety.

Leaving the country of his neighbor, he praised the king for his foresight and wisdom, saying that he would follow his example. Their conversation was heard by an old beggar sitting on the side of the road. The owner of the palace, seeing a smile on the beggar's face, looked at him reproachfully and said: "What made you laugh, fool?" "Since you addressed me with a question, O lord, I have the right to answer you," said the beggar. "In this beautiful structure, there is only one flaw. It is impregnable, if not for the door! An enemy can enter through it. If you enter inside and brick up the door or marble it, then security will be complete. No enemy will be able to break into the palace." "You are a fool! If I do what you suggest, this palace will become my tomb!" said the king.

"It already is a tomb," replied the beggar, "if not for the door. Through this door, an enemy can enter the palace, and if not an enemy, then death will enter it." "But I will die before that happens," the king said angrily. "Then realize this," said the beggar. "How many doors did you have in the palace, so many lives did you have. By reducing the number of doors, you reduce the number of lives within yourself. Now you have only one door left – only one door is open to life. Close it, and your life will end forever. Therefore, I say that your palace has only one flaw." And the beggar laughed again. I also had castles, O my lord! But then I realized that they are nothing more than prisons. Then I began to expand the doors and move the walls. But no matter how much I expanded the doors, moved the walls, the walls still remained walls! Then I went beyond the walls and stepped into the open space.

Now I stand under the open sky, and I am alive, and I am in complete harmony with the world." Are we not building walls around ourselves, each according to our abilities? Walls are built of marble and brick, wood and bamboo – but they are not so dangerous, because they can be seen! But there are also other walls: invisible, imperceptible walls... These are thick barriers and curtains of concepts, doctrines, scriptures. These walls are completely invisible.

These walls we have built around our souls for complete safety. The thicker these walls, the further we are from the open sky of Truth. Then the soul becomes more and more lazy and relaxed. The more anxious our soul, the harder we try to strengthen the walls. But then we are overcome by horror: perhaps the relaxation of our soul is due to the presence of these walls? The answer is yes! The longer our soul is confined, the longer it cannot reach bliss. There is no greater suffering than being in captivity.
Osho

"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

Pure consciousness... Is it possible to somehow make the legs look like Katya Gamova's?

Therefore, psychology, with all its schools of psychoana
lysis, psychosynthesis, Gestalt, and so on...
it gropes around in the dark because it still doesn't under
stand the fact that a person can transcend the mind. There
are psychologists, such as B. F. Skinner or Delgado, who be
lieve that a person is nothing more than behavior. In other
words, a person is nothing more than physics, chemistry, phy
siology. Science is capable of explaining everything; nothing
more is needed; a person is a body and nothing more. This is
the view held by most of modern psychology, and it is the
only psychology in communist countries.

There are a few people who try to go a little further, but
they fall into clever traps of the mind. They begin to think
that psychology is nothing more than the mind. Freud,
Adler, Jung – they all believe that psychology is nothing
more than the study of the mind, the exploration of the mind.
The word "psychology" is wonderful: it comes from the word
"psyche," and "psyche" means "soul." But no psychologist
agrees with the idea of the soul. In fact, they have no right
to call their reflections psychology; they are using the wrong
word – a word that means something more.
They all either believe in the body or believe in the mind,
but the body and the mind are not really separate things.
Body-mind
is one phenomenon. In fact, we shouldn't use the conjunction
"and" between them.
Body-mind
should be one word,
because the difference is not so great that we can use the
conjunction "and." Even a hyphen is not needed between them;
there is no space even for a hyphen. The body is the mind
viewed from the outside, the mind is the body viewed from the
inside. Or, in other words, the body is the external expres
sion of the mind, and the mind is the internal expression of
the same phenomenon – simply in two different dimensions.

Until a person transcends both of them, he knows nothing
about the breakthrough. And people all over the world are
really torn apart by the foolish idea that a person is nothing
more than a body, or nothing more than a mind, or, at most,
both. The breakthrough is possible if a space opens up inside
you in which you can discard the mind and still continue to
exist.

But when the shell of all the past, all the memories, is
discarded, there arise moments, very subtle moments, when
you find yourself nowhere. You are no longer "there," but not
yet "here"; you are simply passing through the birth canal. This
is painful because the old personality is disappearing, and the
new one has not yet appeared. You may become very afraid,
so you need a master. The master's task is to help you in such
critical moments. Socrates said that the master's task is to
be a midwife, and I completely agree with him. It is the same
as helping a child leave the womb in which he has been for
nine months... and in which he was in unimaginable comfort.
In fact, throughout his life, the child will seek the same com
fortable conditions. There was no responsibility, no anxiety,
no problems. He needed nothing; existence took care of
everything. Some unknown energies continuously flowed from
the mother to the child. The mother did everything necessary,
and the child simply luxuriated inside the womb. For people
who are outside the womb, nine months is nine months; for the
child, however, it is almost infinity, because he is not aware
of time; he cannot be aware of time. You begin to be aware of
time when events occur.

Have you noticed this? If many events occur on a certain day,
you have one sense of time; if nothing happens on another day,
you have a completely different perception of time. The sense
of time depends on what is happening. Time is measured by
events. But in the womb, nothing happens; everything is calm.
The child cannot feel that it is only nine months: it is infi
nity, it is a state of timelessness. And to float in the mother's
womb in warm liquid is unimaginably pleasant.

That is why we have a desire for bliss – because we have
already experienced it. Otherwise, you would not be seeking
it; something must remain deep in your subconscious – some
experience, some nostalgia, that makes you seek bliss.

All the search for God is, in essence, the search for the
mother's womb. And a meditating person really enters the
womb of God.
In a Hindu temple, the inner part is called
garbha – "womb." When you enter a Hindu temple, into its
deepest part, where the statue of the god is located, you enter
the garbha – "womb." This is very significant, full of great
meaning. To re-enter the universe in deep relaxation is to
find peace, bliss, a problem-free existence. This is the break
through.

If you come to a psychoanalyst, he will try to return you
to your former personality. This is the whole task of psychol
ogy in the West: to help people come back into alignment,
because they have become a little out of alignment with their
past. And, of course, as soon as you become out of align
ment with your own mind, you become out of alignment with
society, because your mind is part of the collective mind of
society. You are no longer in alignment with your

religion, you are no longer in alignment with your political
ideology. You simply discover that – in a way – you have
been uprooted. And you are overcome with great fear: you
have ceased to be part of the collective mind; you are alone,
and you long to be part of the crowd, to feel a little warmth,
a little comfort, and to be back on familiar ground.

This is what psychology does in the West. All its work is
directed against religion. Religion tries to give you a new
individuality, a new birth, while psychology returns you to
your old personality. It forces you to somehow squeeze back
into the skin that, like a snake's skin, has been shed. In fact,
it is impossible to do this, because that skin can never again
become yours. You can live with it, but it will simply hang
on you; it will be a burden; it will no longer be part of you.
Osho

Avoid noisy and bellicose people; they disturb the spirit.

A very simple statement, but it has immense

importance. It is filled with great meaning. “Avoid

noisy and bellicose people...” Who are these noisy people, and,

above all, why does a person become noisy? A person who

deep down feels inadequate is always noisy. He is afraid that

if he is not noisy, you will see his weakness; if he is not

noisy, you will be able to notice his inadequacy; if he is not

noisy, then, perhaps, he will be exposed. Through noise, he

creates a smokescreen around himself: he hides behind his

noisiness.

Adler is right in saying that all politicians, essentially,

suffer from an inferiority complex. No one would go into

politics if they did not suffer from an inferiority complex.


Politics is a noisy, very noisy occupation, very loud and

very bellicose. An inadequate person tries to prove that he

is adequate. He wants to hide his inadequacy by striving to

become prime minister or president, striving to acquire a lot

of money, to conquer the whole world.

Alexander the Great must have suffered from the

greatest inferiority complex, greater than anyone else, other

wise, why would he worry about conquering the world? When he

was heading to India – it was the last part of the world that

had not yet been conquered by him – he met an incredibly

beautiful man, Diogenes. And Diogenes asked him:

“Why are you striving to conquer the world? Why don’t you

conquer yourself?”

Alexander laughed – not very sincerely.

“You are absolutely right, but right now I cannot stop.”

I must finish what I have started. First, I must

conquer the world, and then I will do what you are talking

about.

Diogenes said:

“Then you will have no time left – the world is vast.”

By the time you conquer it, life will slip out of your

hands.

But Alexander didn’t listen. In fact, that’s exactly what

happened: he couldn’t return home. He died on his way back

from India; there was no time even to return home, let alone

return to his own center, to his true home? His whole life was

spent proving that he was a great conqueror. But what is the

point of trying to prove it? People are always trying to prove

something that they feel they lack. Therefore, “avoid noisy

and bellicose people...” They are empty; they have nothing.

You cannot learn anything from them. On the contrary, “...they

disturb the spirit.”

They will distract your mind. They will share their

stupid ideas with you. They will give you advice and guide

you. They have not gone anywhere; they know nothing, but they

will pretend to be wise, they will pretend to have achieved

something. They will pretend to be anything.

Seek the company of humble, simple, silent, non-

political, non-aggressive people, and you will be able to

learn a lot. But you can only learn something in the company

of innocent people. Yes, playing with children, you can learn

much more than by communicating with a politician. Even

being among animals and trees, you can learn much more than

in the company of the so-called rich man.

And people can easily distract you, because you are not yet

centered.

Ambition is contagious. Avoid ambitious people,

otherwise their fever will inevitably infect you, it will

inevitably affect you. Perhaps you will start moving in a

direction that is not yours; perhaps you will start doing

things that you would never have intended to do, but simply

because you found yourself in someone’s company...

Just look at your life – it is accidental in almost

everything. It is not essential; it is accidental. Your father

wanted you to become a doctor, and now you are a doctor. He

dreamed that his son would become a famous doctor; he

realized his dream. He used you as a means to realize his

ambitions. This is not love – this is exploitation.

My father wanted me to become an engineer, or a scientist,

or a doctor. I said to him:

“If you insist, if it will give you pleasure, I will do any

stupidity that you ask of me. But remember that this is not

love. If you love me, then let me be what I want to be. I do

not want to be a doctor, and I do not want to be an engineer.

I have no desire to be a scientist – that is not my path. I do

not feel any joy in the scientific way of thinking. I am

inclined to something completely different: I am deeply in

love with poetry, aesthetics, beauty, truth.”

He said:

“Then you will remain poor!”

I replied:

“Well, that’s fine; I can accept that. I will be poor, but

let me be what I want to be. Even in my poverty, I will be

rich, and following your desire and becoming a doctor, I may

be very rich, but I will remain poor and will always yearn for

what was my true passionate desire.”

He was a man of great understanding. He meditated on

this and said:

“Then that’s fine. Do whatever you like; I bless you.”

He could easily have forced me, because he had money. He

could have forced me to move in any direction, because I was

helpless. He showed love; he showed understanding. He

allowed me to be what I wanted to be.

If you are in the company of noisy people, they will

inevitably confuse you. He was not a noisy man – he was

very modest, completely non-aggressive. I never saw him

quarreling with anyone. He didn’t even shout at me when I

did something wrong, something that he didn’t like. I never

saw him angry. It was wonderful to be with such a person...

but such an opportunity comes rarely.


At least do one thing: avoid noisy, aggressive people. If

you cannot find loving, silent people – if you try, you will

find them – if you cannot find them, communicate with trees.

At least they are not noisy; at least they are not aggressive.

Learn to communicate with animals, communicate with

children. Or you can remain alone; there is no need to worry

about being with other people. Minimize contacts and remain

alone or be with those who are silent.


This is one of the greatest statements of Lao Tzu: “The

most beautiful company is when you feel with someone as if

you are alone.” Understand Lao Tzu – when you can be with

someone in such a way that you feel as if you are alone, when

that person gives you so much freedom and gives you so much

silence that you feel completely alone. His presence is not an

obstacle; his presence, in fact, enhances your solitude, enriches

your solitude.

Osho

Avoid noisy and warlike people; they disturb the spirit.

If you compare yourself to others, you may become filled with vanity or sadness...

And never compare. Comparison is a disease, one of the most serious diseases, but from the very beginning, we are taught to compare. Your mother starts comparing you to other children, your father starts comparing you to other children. The teacher compares you:

"Look at Johnny, how well he behaves, and you behave very badly! Look at others!" From the very beginning, you are forced to compare yourself to

others. This is the most serious disease; it is like cancer that constantly destroys your very soul. Every person is unique, and comparison is impossible.

I am just me, and you are just you. There is no one else in the world with whom you can be compared. Do you compare fingernails to roses? No. Do you compare a mango to an apple? No. You know they are different – comparison is impossible.

And a person is not just a representative of a biological species; every person is unique. There has never been a person like you before, and there will never be again. You are absolutely unique. This is your privilege, your exclusive right,

Thank God that he created you uniquely. Don't compare. Comparison will lead to difficulties.

If you compare yourself to others, you may become

filled with vanity or sadness because there will always be people

"greater or lesser than yourself."

If you fall victim to this disease of comparison, you will, of course, either become very arrogant or very sad; it all depends on who you compare yourself to. If you compare yourself to those who seem to you to be

greater than you, higher than you, more significant than you, you will be sad. You will begin to blame God, get angry: "Why am I so insignificant? Why am I not like that person? Why am I not as physically beautiful, not as strong? Why am I not as smart? Why am I not this, not that?"

And there are millions of things in the world...

If you compare yourself to people who are superior to you in some way, you will be sad, very sad. Your life will be poisoned by this comparison. You will always be in a state of depression, as if God has deceived you, betrayed you, abandoned you in trouble.

Or, if you compare yourself to people who are less significant than you, to those who are inferior to you in some way, then you will become very arrogant. This is one of the reasons why politicians are always surrounded by people less significant than themselves; they collect them, and this is their joy. They gather less significant people around themselves so that, in comparison with them, they can look more significant than they are. This is stupid, but you cannot

expect more from a politician. Rich people are always surrounded by those who are less great than they are. They feel good, very good, just wonderful in comparison with these people.

However, when people look at other people's homes, at other people's successes, at other people's achievements, they always feel a strong resentment, an offense to God. In our world, religion cannot flourish because people cannot pray to a God who betrayed them from the very beginning, who created them so insignificant, so ugly. How can they be grateful to him? It is impossible.

And without gratitude, there is no prayer, and without prayer, there is no religion. However, a person who understands that everyone is unique can be religious; he cannot help but be religious, as he feels great gratitude for everything that God has given him. If you do not compare, then you are neither more nor less great, neither ugly nor beautiful, neither smart nor stupid. If you do not compare, then you are just you. And in this ability to simply be yourself, spring comes, and flowers bloom, because deep acceptance of life and deep gratitude to God help spring to begin.
Osho