In the superior man there won't be any idle chatter or empty discussion about religion, because religion will be his way of life. We talk about things that are not part of our lives, and don't talk about the things that are. We don't talk about sex because it is the way we live, but we keep talking about God because the way we live has nothing to do with God whatsoever. In fact, we keep ourselves satisfied by talking about the very things we can neither attain nor obtain.
Haven't you ever noticed that women talk more than men? Women are always busy talking about something or other -- with their neighbors, with anyone who will listen. No offense is meant, but it is said that it is very difficult to imagine two women sitting together for a time without talking to one another.
from my heart of hearts, I desire that the lust inside each of us may become a ladder with which to reach to the temple of love, that the sex inside each of us may become a vehicle to reach to superconsciousness
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To attain truth it is necessary to free yourself from all doctrines, from all formal structures. The realization of truth only happens when one is totally free. Attachment is a sign of dependence; it indicates a lack of confidence in oneself. Faith in others and none in oneself is a form of slavery. Only the man who is free from faith in others is really free. Faith in priests, in sects or in scriptures means you are dependent; faith in words or in creeds is dependence too. I tell you, only real freedom leads to truth. You have to discard all thoughts and all beliefs you have acquired from others, no matter from whom.
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The Psychology of Anger
The psychology of anger is that you wanted something, and somebody prevented you from getting it. Somebody came as a block, as an obstacle. Your whole energy was going to get something and somebody blocked the energy. You could not get what you wanted.
Now this frustrated energy becomes anger...anger against the person who has destroyed the possibility of fulfilling your desire.
You cannot prevent anger because anger is a by-product, but you can do something else so that the by-product does not happen at all.
In life, remember one thing: never desire anything so intensely as if it is a question of life and death. Be a little playful.
I am not saying, don’t desire – because that will become a repression in you. I am saying, desire but let your desire be playful. If you can get it, good. If you cannot get it, perhaps it was not the right time; we will see next time. Learn something of the art of the player.
We become so identified with the desire, then when it is blocked or prevented our own energy becomes fire; it burns you. And in that state of almost insanity you can do anything, for which you are going to repent. It can create a series of events that your whole life may get entangled with. Because of this, for thousands of years, they have been saying, “Become desireless.” Now that is asking something inhuman. Even the people who have said, “Become desireless” have also given you a motive, a desire: if you become desireless you will attain to the ultimate freedom of moksha, nirvana. That too is a desire.
You can repress desire for some bigger desire, and you may even forget that you are still the same person. You have only changed the target. Certainly, there are not many people who are trying to get moksha, so you will not have any great competition. In fact, people will be very happy that you have started going towards moksha – one competitor less in life. But as far as you are concerned nothing has changed. And if anything can be created which disturbs your desire for moksha, again the anger will flare up. And this time it will be far bigger, because now the desire is far bigger. Anger is always proportionate to desire.
I have heard....
There were three monasteries, Christian monasteries, very close together in the forest. One day three monks met at the crossroads. They were coming from the villages back to their monasteries; each belonged to a different monastery. They were tired. They sat down under the trees and started talking about something to pass the time.
One man said, “One thing you will have to accept is that as far as scholarship is concerned, learning is concerned, our monastery is the best.”
The other monk said, “I agree, it is true. Your people are far more scholarly, but as far as austerities are concerned, discipline is concerned, spiritual training is concerned, you don’t come anywhere near to our monastery. And remember, scholarship will not be able to help you realize the truth. It is only spiritual discipline, and we are the best as far as spiritual discipline is concerned.”
The third monk said, “You are both right. The first monastery is best in learning, scholarship. The second monastery is best in spiritual discipline, austerities, fasting. But as far as humbleness, egolessness is concerned, we are the tops.” Humbleness, egolessness...but the man seemed to be absolutely unaware of what he was saying: “As far as humbleness, egolessness is concerned, we are the tops.”
Even humbleness can become an ego trip. Egolessness can become an ego trip. One has to be very aware. You should not try to stop anger. You should not, in any way, keep the anger controlled, otherwise it will burn you, it will destroy you. What I am saying is: you have to go to the roots. The root is always some desire which has been blocked, and the frustration has created the anger. Don’t take desires very seriously. Don’t take anything seriously.
It is unfortunate that no religion in the world has accepted the sense of humor as one of the basic qualities for the religious man. I want you to understand that a sense of humor, playfulness, should be the fundamental qualities. You should not take things so seriously, then anger does not arise. You can simply laugh at the whole thing. You can start laughing at yourself. You can start laughing at situations in which you would have been angry and mad.
Use playfulness, a sense of humor, laughter. It is a big world, and there are millions of people. Everybody is trying to get to something. It is very natural that sometimes people may get into each other’s ways – not that they want to, it is just the situation, it is accidental.
I have heard about one Sufi mystic, Junnaid, who every day in the evening prayer used to thank existence for its compassion, for its love, for its care.
Once it happened that for three days they were traveling and they came across villages where people were very antagonistic against Junnaid, because they thought his teachings were not exactly the teachings of Mohammed. His teaching seemed to be his own, and, “He is corrupting people.”
So from three villages they had not got any food, not even water. On the third day they were really in bad shape. His disciples were thinking, “Now let us see what happens in the prayer. How can he now say to existence, ‘You are compassionate to us; your love is there. You care about us, and we are grateful to you.’ ?”
But when the prayer time came, Junnaid prayed the same way. After the prayer the followers said, “This is too much. For three days we have suffered hunger, thirst. We are tired, we have not slept, and still you are saying to existence, ‘You are compassionate, your love towards us is great, and you take so much care that we are grateful to you.’ ”
Junnaid said, “My prayer does not depend on any condition; those things are ordinary. Whether I get food or not I don’t want to bother existence about it – such a small thing in such a big universe. If I don’t get water...even if I die, it does not matter, my prayer will remain the same. Because this vast universe...it makes no difference whether Junnaid is alive or dead.”
This is what I mean when I say, don’t take anything seriously...not even yourself. And then you will see anger simply has not happened. There is no possibility of anger. And anger is certainly one of the great leakages of your spiritual energy. If you can manage to be playful about your desires, and still be the same whether you succeed or you fail.
Just start thinking about yourself at ease...nothing special; not that you are meant to be victorious, not that you have to succeed always in every situation. This is a big world and we are small people.
Once this settles in your being then everything is acceptable. Anger disappears, and the disappearance will bring you a new surprise, because when anger disappears it leaves behind it tremendous energy of compassion, of love, of friendship
MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS
TWO SEPARATE THINGS?
mind is that part which has been given to you. It is not yours. Mind means the borrowed, mind means the cultivated, mind means that which the society has penetrated into you. It is not you.
Consciousness is your nature; mind is just the circumference created by the society around you, the culture, your education.
Mind means the conditioning. You can have a Hindu mind, but you cannot have a Hindu consciousness. You can have a Christian mind, but you can't have a Christian consciousness. Consciousness is one; it is not divisible.
Minds are many because societies are many; cultures, religions are many. Each culture, each society, creates a different mind. Mind is a social by-product. And unless this mind dissolves, you cannot go within; you cannot know what is really your nature, what is authentically your existence, your consciousness.
The effort to move into meditation is a struggle against the mind. Mind is never meditative, it is never silent, so to say 'a silent mind' is meaningless, absurd. It is just like saying 'a healthy disease'. It makes no sense. How can there be a disease that is healthy? Disease is disease, and health is the absence of disease.
There is nothing like a silent mind. When silence is there, there is no mind. When mind is there, there is no silence. Mind, as such, is the disturbance, the disease. Meditation is the state of no-mind. Not of a silent mind, not of a healthy mind, not of a concentrated mind, no. Meditation is the state of no-mind: no society within you, no conditioning within you. Just you, with your pure consciousness.
In Zen they say: Find out your original face. The face that you are using is not original; it is cultivated. It is not your face; it is just a facade, just a device. You have many faces, each moment you change your face. You go on changing it. The changing has become so automatic by now that you don't even observe it, you don't notice it.
When you meet your servant you have a different face from when you meet your boss. If your servant is sitting on your left side and your boss is sitting on your right, you have two faces. The left face is for the servant and the right face is for the boss. You are two persons simultaneously. How can you have the same face for your servant? Your one eye has a certain quality, a certain look. Your other eye has a different quality, a different look. It is meant for the boss and the other one is meant for the servant. This has become so automatic, so mechanical, so robot like that you go on changing your faces, you have multi-faces, and not a single one is the original.
In Zen they say: Find out your original face, the face you had before you were born, or the face you will have when you are dead. What is that original face? That original face is your consciousness. All your other faces come from your mind.
Remember well that you don't have one mind; you have multi-minds./MANY STREAMS.
Forget the concept that everyone has one mind. You don't have, you have many minds: a crowd, a multiplicity; you are poly-psychic. In the morning you have one mind, in the afternoon a different mind and in the evening still a different mind. Every single moment you have a different mind.
Mind is a flux: river like, flowing, changing. Consciousness is eternal, one. It is not different in the morning and different in the evening. It is not different when you are born and different when you die. It is one and the same, eternal. Mind is a flux. A child has a childish mind, an old man has an old mind; but a child or an old man have the same consciousness, which is neither childish nor old. It cannot be.
Mind moves in time and consciousness lives in timelessness. They are not one. But we are identified with the mind. We go on saying, insisting, 'My mind. I think this way. This is my thought. This is my ideology.' Because of this identification with the mind, you miss that which you really are.
Dissolve these links with the mind. Remember that your minds are not your own. They have been given to you by others: your parents, your society, your university. They have been given to you. Throw them away. Remain with the simple consciousness that you are ¯ pure consciousness, innocent. This is how one moves from the mind to meditation. This is how one moves away from society, from the without to the within.
This is how one moves from the man-made world, the maya, to the universal truth, the existence.
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Live each emotion that you feel. It is you.
Hateful, ugly, unworthy whatever it is, actually be in it. First give the emotions a chance to come totally up into the conscious.
Right now, by your effort of watchfulness you are repressing them in the unconscious. Then you get involved in your day-to-day work and you force them back again. That is not the way to get rid of them.
Let them come out; live them, suffer them. It will be difficult and tedious but immensely rewarding. Once you have lived them, suffered them and accepted them that this is you, that you have not made yourself in this way so you need not condemn yourself, that this is the way you have found yourself. Once they are lived consciously, without any repression, you will be surprised that they are disappearing on their own. Their force on you is becoming less; their grip on your neck is no longer that tight. And when they are going away there may be a time when you can start watching.
Go Deep and Explore: Beyond the Hit-and-Run Mentality
Don't be afraid, move deeper. The more relaxed you become, the more possibility there is to enter into a relationship deeply. Go deeper. Nobody is hindering the path.
(A Rendezvous with Osho)
There is a fear about the girl I am with. I am afraid to lose her and that won't allow me to have a deep relationship. Maybe I'm afraid to be alone, something like that.
No, don't be afraid, move deeper. It will happen because the more you become centered, the more relaxed you become, the more possibility there is to enter into a relationship deeply.
In fact it is you who goes into a relationship. If you are not there, tense, crippled, worried and fragmented, who is going to go deep? Because of our fragmentedness, we are really afraid of getting deeper into a relationship, into deep layers, because then our reality will be revealed. Then you will have to open your heart, and your heart is just fragments. There is not one man inside you you are a crowd. If you really love a woman and you open your heart, she will think you are a public, not a person that is the fear.
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Are you Unconditional in Love?
Loving warmth is not only a poetic phenomenon. It is a reality of great importance.' Love is the greatest alchemy.
(A Rendezvous with Osho)
Osho,
You have talked about the superiority/inferiority dialectic as the basis of authoritarian and fascist relationships. It is one of the miracles of being with you that in spite of having been constantly persuaded of our unworthiness by our parents, teachers and priests, you are able to shed light on all our unconscious habits without ever making us feel bad about it. You allow us to be aware of our potential for enlightenment in a way that does not make us feel superior, and yet simultaneously you never make us feel inferior because we are not enlightened. In groups, too, while you are present, we can reveal our notions of inferiority but because you are there and simply not part of the egotistic inferiority/superiority game, dependency and spiritual slavery cannot happen. But what happens in groups where you are absent? Surely, if the therapist has a trace of ego, then doesn't this kind of psychological fascism inevitably emerge?
You have seen something so significant that everybody must be made aware of it.
There is only one possibility for sanity to exist in relationships so they don't turn into inferiority and superiority games, so they don't become sado-masochistic tortures. And that only possibility is in the presence of an unconditional love. Love is the greatest alchemy.
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Misunderstanding Love
No love can be permanent and that's why it is so precious. It is a mystery.
Reading about the sad story of Jiah Khan I was reminded of the Osho wisdom about human love and its frailty. His comment echoes truth ,
Lovers love only while they are not yet in a fixed relationship. As the relationship settles, love disappears. Once the relationship is fixed, instead of love, something else takes place: possessiveness.
One comes across this mishap again and again. Every love story ends in a sob story, or even worse, a suicide story. More often love is sacrificed at the altar of marriage for the sake of security, social recognition.They still go on calling it love, but it is hate, not love.
It is adjustment, not love.
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Sex is Natural, Sexuality is Not
Osho on AwarenessOsho on RelationshipsOsho on SexMay 12, 2013 28 9817
Sex is a simple phenomenon as hunger or thirst
Sex is beautiful, sexuality is ugly, and the difference has to be understood. Sex is a natural phenomenon. Sexuality is unnatural, abnormal and pathological. When sex becomes cerebral, when sex enters in your head, it becomes sexuality.
Now, the head is not the center for sex. It is getting into confusion, it is getting upside down, it is getting deranged. Sex is not the function of the head, but when sex enters in through the head it becomes sexuality. Then you think about sex, then you fantasize about sex. And the more you think, the more you fantasize about it, the more you will get into trouble because then nothing real will ever satisfy you because there is no limitation on fantasy, and reality is limited.
For example, if you start thinking too much about sex you can create beautiful women which are only your fantasy; you will never find them anywhere in the world. Or men you will never come across them.
I am responsible for my life
The ordinary mind always throws the responsibility on somebody else. It is always the other who is making you suffer. Your wife is making you suffer, your husband is making you suffer, your parents are making you suffer, your children are making you suffer, or the financial system of the society, capitalism, communism, fascism, the prevalent political ideology, the social structure, or fate, karma, God you name it!
People have millions of ways to shirk responsibility. But the moment you say somebody else X, Y, Z is making you suffer, then you cannot do anything to change it. What can you do? When the society changes and communism comes and there is a classless world, then everybody will be happy. Before it, it is not possible. How can you be happy in a society which is poor? And how can you be happy in a society which is dominated by the capitalists? How can you be happy with a society which is bureaucratic? How can you be happy with a society which does not allow you freedom?
Bliss
When you have satisfied all your so-called needs, you will suddenly realize that the real need was only one: the need for meditation. All the other needs were only of your body, not yours.
This sutra says: Meditation is the seed. On your inner journey, on your quest for life, on your pilgrimage to the temple of truth, meditation is the seed. And what is meditation, that it is so valuable that you will become godly if it flowers, and if it remains dormant your life will become a hell?
What is meditation?
Meditation is a state of thoughtless consciousness, where consciousness is totally there but there are no thoughts; where you are, but there is no mind. The cessation of the mind is meditation. Right now you are not there at all, only the mind is. Just the opposite should be the case – that you, and only you, are there and not the mind. Right now, the mind consumes all your energy. Right now the mind is absorbing all your life energy.
Have you ever seen the amarbel, the creeper that never dies? It attaches itself to trees and lives off of them, feeding on their life juices. The tree then starts to dry up and die and the creeper keeps growing and spreading. This creeper is really something! It is exactly like the mind. It has no roots; it needs none because it thrives by exploiting the plant it lives on. It sucks the tree dry as it nourishes itself. Hindus have given it an apt name: amarbel, the undying creeper. It does not die. As long as there is nourishment available to exploit, it can live forever.
Your mind is the same – an undying creeper. It does not die, it can live on forever; and it will follow you for countless lives. And the interesting thing is that it has no roots, no seeds. Its existence is rootless. It should die this very moment, but it doesn’t. It lives on exploitation.
And your mind has enveloped you from all sides. You are completely buried under this undying creeper. All your life energy is sucked by the mind, nothing remains. You live almost dried up, impoverished. Your mind lets you live only as much as is necessary for its own life. The creeper also does not completely kill its host tree, because if it did then it too would die. It leaves the tree only enough life juice that it needs to keep it alive. The owner of a slave also does not kill his slave totally; he gives the slave only as much food as is essential to keep him alive.
Your mind gives you just enough so that you can survive, and it sucks ninety-nine percent for itself. This is the non-meditative state: you are just one percent and your mind is ninety-nine percent. When you become ninety-nine percent and your mind only one percent, that will be the state of meditation. And if you become one hundred percent and the mind is zero, it is the state of samadhi, of superconsciousness or enlightenment. You are liberated. The seed has become a full-grown tree and now there is nothing left to be attained. All that could be attained has been attained, all your potential has become the reality, all that was hidden has become manifest.
Then existence is filled with your fragrance. Then the music of your dance can be heard in all corners of the earth, as far away as the moon and the stars. Then it is not you alone who is thrilled – with you, the entire life-stream of the universe is thrilled. The existence goes into celebration. Whenever a buddha is born, the whole existence celebrates because the whole of existence is eager to help you transform your seed into a tree.
Meditation is a state where the mind is almost not there at all. Enlightenment is a state where the mind is completely empty and only you remain.
This sutra of Shiva says: Meditation is the seed. So, you will have to start with meditation. Right now, asleep or awake, conscious or unconscious, the mind has you in its grip. Thoughts invade you in the day and dreams in the night. Around the clock your mind is in a state of deliberation, thinking. And the most amazing thing is that nothing comes out of it. No matter how much the chattering continues, nothing is achieved through the mind. What have you achieved? Where have you reached through your thinking for all this time? Think about this. Pay attention to this fact: that you have made such a long journey, and where have you reached? What have you achieved by thinking?
When you have satisfied all your so-called needs, you will suddenly realize that the real need was only one: the need for meditation. All the other needs were only of your body, not yours.
This sutra says: Meditation is the seed. On your inner journey, on your quest for life, on your pilgrimage to the temple of truth, meditation is the seed. And what is meditation, that it is so valuable that you will become godly if it flowers, and if it remains dormant your life will become a hell?
What is meditation?
Meditation is a state of thoughtless consciousness, where consciousness is totally there but there are no thoughts; where you are, but there is no mind. The cessation of the mind is meditation. Right now you are not there at all, only the mind is. Just the opposite should be the case – that you, and only you, are there and not the mind. Right now, the mind consumes all your energy. Right now the mind is absorbing all your life energy.
Have you ever seen the amarbel, the creeper that never dies? It attaches itself to trees and lives off of them, feeding on their life juices. The tree then starts to dry up and die and the creeper keeps growing and spreading. This creeper is really something! It is exactly like the mind. It has no roots; it needs none because it thrives by exploiting the plant it lives on. It sucks the tree dry as it nourishes itself. Hindus have given it an apt name: amarbel, the undying creeper. It does not die. As long as there is nourishment available to exploit, it can live forever.
Your mind is the same – an undying creeper. It does not die, it can live on forever; and it will follow you for countless lives. And the interesting thing is that it has no roots, no seeds. Its existence is rootless. It should die this very moment, but it doesn’t. It lives on exploitation.
And your mind has enveloped you from all sides. You are completely buried under this undying creeper. All your life energy is sucked by the mind, nothing remains. You live almost dried up, impoverished. Your mind lets you live only as much as is necessary for its own life. The creeper also does not completely kill its host tree, because if it did then it too would die. It leaves the tree only enough life juice that it needs to keep it alive. The owner of a slave also does not kill his slave totally; he gives the slave only as much food as is essential to keep him alive.
Your mind is just a vagabond, a wandering. It is never at one point. It is always going, moving, reaching, but never at any point. It goes from one thought to another, from A to B.
But it is never at the A; it is never at the B. It is always on the move. Remember this: mind is always on the move, hoping to reach somewhere but never reaching. It cannot reach! The very structure of the mind is movement. It can only move; that is the inherent nature of the mind. The very process is movement — from A to B, from B to C… it goes on and on. If you stop at A or B or any point, the mind will fight with you. The mind will say, “Move on,” because if you stop the mind dies immediately. It can be alive only in movement.
The mind means a process. If you stop and do not move, mind suddenly becomes dead, it is no more there; only consciousness remains. Consciousness is your nature; mind is your activity — just like walking. It is difficult because we think mind is something substantial. We think mind is a substance — it is not, mind is just an activity. So it is really better to call it “minding” than mind. It is a process just like walking. Walking is a process, if you stop, there is no walking. You have legs, but no walking. Legs can walk, but if you stop then legs will be there but there will be no walking.
Consciousness is like legs — your nature. Mind is like walking — just a process. When consciousness moves from one place to another, this process is mind. When consciousness moves from A to B, from B to C, this movement is mind.
If you stop the movement, there is no mind. You are conscious, but there is no mind.
You have legs, but no walking. Walking is a function, an activity; mind is also a function, an activity. If you stop at any point, the mind will struggle. The mind will say, “Go on!” The mind will try in every way to push you forward or backward or anywhere — but, “Go on!” Anywhere will do, but do not stay at one point.
If you insist and if you do not obey the mind… it is difficult because you have always obeyed. You have never ordered the mind; you have never been masters. You cannot be because, really, you have never disidentified yourself from the mind. You think you are the mind. This fallacy that you are the mind gives the mind total freedom, because then there is no one to master it, to control it. There is no one! Mind itself becomes the master. It may become the master, but that mastery is just seemingly Try once and you can break that mastery — it is false. Mind is just a slave pretending to be the master, but it has pretended so long, for lives and lives, that even the master believes that the slave is the master. That is just a belief. Try the contrary and you will know that that belief was totally unfounded