Archive for January, 2009

Osho – I am bankcrupt, Shall I just live on other People's Expenses

Question – I HAVE BECOME QUITE USELESS. NOW WHAT DO I DO ABOUT MY FINANCIAL SITUATION? SHALL I JUST LIVE ON OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPENSES?
Osho – If you have really become quite useless, you have attained; now there is nothing to attain. And if you have really become quite useless, you will not bother about your financial situation. Whenever somebody becomes quite useless, the whole takes care. Still, something of the world of utility must be clinging to your mind; hence the question arises. If you have really become useless then you don’t worry about it: whether the next moment you exist or not can’t be a worry to you if you have really become useless.

Why do you bother? If the whole needs you for his hide-and-seek, for his play, he will take care. That’s why Jesus goes on saying to his disciples, “Look at the lilies in the field: they toil not, they are not worried about the morrow — and they are more beautiful than King Solomon ever was in all his glory.” He goes on saying, “Think not of the morrow.”

Once you are really useless you surrender to the divine; and if you are surrendered you will not ask, “Shall I just live on other people’s expenses?” Then who is the other? Then there is nobody who is the other. Then your pockets are others’ pockets and others’ pockets are your pockets. The other exists because of the ego — because I exist, that’s why the other exists. If I am not there then who is the other?

I have been living on other people’s expenses for years; and I don’t even thank them. Because what is the point to thank oneself? It will look foolish. This is the way I am enjoying, and if the whole wills me to be here I will be here. If he does not will me, that I am not needed at all, he will take me away. It is his worry. And if he wants me to be here he will put in somebody’s mind the idea to donate something to me. That’s for him to decide. And if you give something to me, he has to thank you. Why should I thank you? I don’t come in between. I have never thanked anybody, because that looks foolish.

I go on doing whatsoever I enjoy. If they are benefited by it, they need not feel obligated. This is my joy. I go on talking to you; this is my joy. Not that I am trying to help you — this is the way I enjoy myself. If you go on helping me that is your joy. Somehow I fulfill your need; you fulfill my needs. Finished. There is no point in talking about who is grateful to whom. It is one whole. The feeling that the other exists is because you exist. If you disappear, the other disappears.

And, then, the next moment is not the point to be worried about. This moment is enough. This moment is enough unto itself.

Source: from Osho Book “Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 6″

Osho – Why You always carry a Napkin with you

Question – WHY DO YOU ALWAYS CARRY A NAPKIN WITH YOU, EVEN WHEN THERE IS NO USE FOR IT?
Osho – It is symbolic: that I am useless like my napkin. I don’t believe in utility. Utility belongs to the world, to the marketplace. I believe in nonutilitarian things: a flower. What is the utility of a flower? What is the use? It is absolutely useless; and hence beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Life to me is not purposive; there is no purpose in it. If there was purpose life could not be so beautiful. Purpose always creates ugliness. Purpose gives you commodities, not ecstasies. Purpose gives you factories, not temples. Life is not a factory; it is a temple. What is the use of a temple?

In the East, every village has a temple, at least one. More, then it is too good; otherwise one. Even a very, very poor village. When Westerners came for the first time to the East they could not believe the phenomenon, because the villages are so poor. They don’t have proper houses, just huts, you can call them houses in name only; but they have a beautiful temple in their town.

Their homes don’t have stone walls, just bamboo, but their god has beautiful marble walls, marble floors. A small temple, but beautiful. They couldn’t believe — when you live in such poverty, what is the use of making such a beautiful temple?

In the East we have always believed in uselessness. One can live in a house; it is a utility. God is not living there; he can live without the temple. Even if the temple is not existing, nothing will be lacking in the world. The world is not enriched by the temple. It is enriched by a factory, by a hospital, by a school — not by a temple. A temple is simply useless.

So when communists took over in Russia, they destroyed all the temples, all the churches — they converted them into factories, schools, hospitals, this and that — because a communist believes in utility. He does not believe in flowers. He does not believe in stars. He does not believe in poetries. He believes in prose, logical syllogisms.

I believe in poetry. I don’t bother a bit about logic; I’m absolutely illogical. And I have known life’s beauty through illogic, through irrationality. Through the heart, I have seen the temple of life; and I tell you, if you go on searching for God in your factories you will never find him.

If you go on searching for your God in the hospitals and schools you will miss him for ever and ever, because God is not a purpose. In India we don’t even call this world his creation — we call it his leela, play. Play is purposeless; it is not even a game. He simply goes on playing hide-and-seek with himself, with no purpose to attain. It is sheer delight to be. The value is intrinsic. The value is not in the end; the value is in you. You are right: why do I always carry a napkin with me, absolutely purposeless? Even I don’t know why, but I carry it. It is a symbol… illogical.

Source: from Osho Book “Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 6″

Osho – One womb is the Mother's womb; another womb is the Master's womb

Question – To Feel Good, Human Beings look always for a Womb. We all feel Good with you; Did we find a Womb?
Osho – Of course. A Master is nothing but a womb: through him you are reborn. You die in him; you die with him. The Master is the cross and the resurrection. That is the meaning of Jesus’ story: in him you die, and through him you are reborn. The Master is a womb.

One womb is the mother’s womb; another womb is the Master’s womb. The mother sends you into the world, the Master sends you beyond it. The Master is a mother.

Osho – If you are Aware of Yourself you become Aware of others

Question – In Being Selfish does one Still remain Aware of others or Not?
Osho – If you are aware of yourself you become aware of others. How can it be otherwise? If you are not aware of yourself, how can you be aware of others? Awareness first must happen within you. The light must be lighted there first. The flame must arise within you; only then can the light spread and envelop others. You live in darkness, unawareness — how can you be aware of others? You go on thinking, you dream — you are not aware of others.

The husband may say, “I am aware of my wife and her feelings.” Simply not possible, because the husband is not aware of himself. He lives in deep darkness and unconsciousness. He does not know from where his anger comes, he does not know from where love arises, he does not know from where comes this existence, flowing. He is not aware of himself — and that is the closest thing you can be aware of — and he says, “I am aware of my wife and her feelings.” Foolishness.

He may be thinking, dreaming that he is aware. Everybody lives surrounded in his own dreams; and hidden behind the dreams, one’s own projections, one goes on thinking: “I am aware.”
Ask the wife; she says, “He is never aware of me.” The wife thinks she is aware of her husband, his needs; but those needs that she thinks she is aware of are not her husband’s needs. That’s what she thinks are his needs. The conflict continues, and both are aware and both feel for each other and both are careful about each other.

Nobody can be careful about anybody else unless one has learned the lesson first in the deeper, inner core of his being. First be careful about yourself. That is the nearest, closest point. Learn awareness there; then you will be aware of others. Then for the first time you will not project. You will not interpret; you will look directly. You will look at the other as he is, not as you would like him to be or as you think him to be. Then you will look at reality.

When dreams drop from your eyes and your eyes are not full of dreams, only then can you be aware. Otherwise your eyes are cloudy; many clouds and much smoke exist there. You look, but you look from behind screens, and those screens pervert everything that you see. They distort. They don’t mirror; they project. When your dreams have disappeared and you are alert — alert, aware, mindful — then your eyes become like the eyes of a camera.

You simply see that which is; you don’t project. You don’t do anything to the reality; you simply allow the reality to be revealed. Your eyes are simple, innocent passages. They simply look. Right now, as you are, you can’t look. Your eyes are filled already with prejudice, ideas, conceptions, beliefs. You cannot look. Your eyes are not empty enough to Look.

How can you be aware of others? Only a Buddha is aware, one who has awakened within himself. But a Buddha is a very selfish man, a Mahavir is a selfish man, a Patanjali, absolutely selfish — but they help millions. They become a benediction to millions. All those who are in need and in search can use their light. But they are lighted. That is the meaning of enlightenment: their flame is burning. You can partake of it. You can light your own inner flame through it. You can become a participant.

Awareness has to be learned within. When you awake inside yourself you awake to the whole world, to the whole existence. Suddenly shrouds fall. Suddenly your eyes are no longer filled… empty, receptive, naked. You see. You don’t project, you don’t interpret. You have nothing to project. You have become just space, an inner emptiness.

Source: from Osho Book “Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 6″