OSHO on Truth, Awareness and Enlightenment

[heartbeatsalute]

Question - Can you please speak on your vision of an intelligent person?

Osho - Gyan Rasiko, EVERY CHILD is born intelligent, and every grown-up person behaves like an unintelligent person. This is one of the strangest things, because intelligence is a God-given gift and he is not a miser. He gives to everybody out of his abundance, out of his overflowing intelligence, bliss, love. Everybody comes so rich and everybody becomes so poor! What goes wrong?

The society does not want you to be intelligent. The wants you to be mediocre because it is easy for the society to enslave the mediocre person. It is easy for the manipulators, and they' are many -- the priest, the politician, the pedagogue, the pundit, they are all manipulators -- it is easy for them to manipulate you if you don't have intelligence, because you are bound to depend on them, you have to depend on them. You have to look up to them always for guidance. You will need leaders if you are unintelligent. You will need religious mediators between you and God if you are unintelligent. And you will always be afraid of powerful people because they know more. You will be continuously in fear.


Osho on Intelligence


The society functions in such a way: the whole educational system is created not to serve you but to serve the vested interests. From the kindergarten to the university they are serving the vested interests; they are making you more and more stupid.

It is said that when Henry Thoreau came out of the university, Emerson gave a great party to celebrate the occasion. And he told the participants, "I am giving this party not because Thoreau has attained great knowledge in the university but because he has been able to come back from the university and he is still intelligent. The university has not been able to change his intelligence. The university has failed, that's why I am giving this party! I respect this young man for the simple reason that he has escaped from the whole cunning strategy that our education is."

Intelligence simply means ability to respond, because life is a flux. You have to be aware and to see what is demanded of you, what is the challenge of the situation. The intelligent person behaves according to the situation and the stupid behaves according to the ready-made answers. Whether they come from Buddha, Christ or Krishna, it does not matter. He always carries scriptures around himself; he is afraid to depend on himself. The intelligent person depends on his own insight; he trusts his own being. He loves and respects himself. The unintelligent person respects others.

And you can see the point. Why are the vested interests interested in creating stupidity? -- because that is the way they will be getting respect. No parents really want their children to be intelligent, because if the children are intelligent they are rebellious too, they are disobedient too. Obedience has been imposed on you as a great value; it is not a great value. It is one of the basic causes of the destruction of your intelligence.
I am not saying be disobedient. I am simply saying when you feel like being obedient, be obedient; when you feel like being disobedient, be true to yourself. Your only responsibility is towards yourself and nobody else.

An intelligent person risks. He will be ready to die rather than to compromise. Of course, he will not fight, as the Desiderata says, with unnecessary things, with non-essentials, but as far as essentials are concerned he is not going to be obedient. And you have obeyed even about the essentials. What is your belief in God? You have simply obeyed. What do you know about God? You have simply obeyed; you have followed your parents, they followed their parents. And parents are happy with unintelligent children because they are obedient they have to be obedient. They know one thing, that whatsoever they do is bound to be wrong, so it is better to listen to the parents' advice.

For thousands of years every society has been telling children, "Respect your parents," because they are afraid of children -- they may not respect their parents. And I am not saying disrespect your parents. I am simply saying: the first respect has to be towards yourself. Out of that respect you can respect your parents, your teachers -- you can respect everybody. But if you don't respect yourself your respect for anybody else is going to be pseudo; deep down there will be hatred. Each child hates... deep down he knows that "The parents are my enemies." He can see how his intelligence is being cut.

Just the other day Laxmi was telling me that a few of our sannyasins had made a small drama, and Veereshwar, who is a Ph.D., was quoting me -- he was the chief actor. And Subhuti was there and he reported to Laxmi, "Of course he was quoting Osho, but when Osho says the same things they have a totally different flavor, and when Veereshwar was quoting, the words were the same, but the context was missing, and he made everything ugly." Subhuti felt almost sick; he felt like vomiting. What happened? Veereshwar was just quoting words, borrowed; of those words he has no experience.

Remember always: never be repetitive. Don't repeat anybody. Let your experience blossom. And just the other night Vivek told me that the kids, the ashram kids, small sannyasins, did the same kind of drama and it was tremendously beautiful. Little Siddhartha was acting like Shiva, a samurai, and he did perfectly well. And they were absolutely unselfconscious; they were not worried about the audience. The place was packed, and the kids were enjoying themselves immensely.

A very proper English girl comes into the ashram -- because the ashram was being enacted -- and Siddhartha is standing outside like a samurai, and he stops her and says, "This is darshan time and you cannot go in! And first you have to leave your mind where the shoes are left!" And he was not worried about the audience, what was happening. He was enjoying himself. And the whole thing was far more intelligent.

And a reporter comes into the drama, a small kid with a camera, and he wants to take photographs of the Encounter Group and Leela and Tantra. And he says, "I am from the Times of India and I am going to write a beautiful article." And the samurais throw him out, and they enjoy the whole thing! This was totally different. This has beauty.

A young mother says that after putting her two children to bed one night she changed into a floppy blouse and an old pair of slacks and proceeded to wash her hair. All during the shampoo she could hear the children growing wilder and noisier. Finishing as hurriedly as possible she wrapped a large towel around her head, stormed into their room and put them back to bed with a stern warning to stay there.
As she left she heard the two-year-old say to his sister in a trembling voice, "Who was that?"

This is intelligence! But the society is not interested in intelligent people. It is not interested in sannyasins, it is interested in soldiers. It wants to create soldiers. Soldiers are the most stupid people; unless you are stupid you cannot be a good soldier. The greater you are in your stupidity the better, as far as being a soldier is concerned.

As the last soldier was about to jump from the airplane, he panicked, grabbed hold of his sergeant and said, "What happens if my second parachute doesn't open either?"
"Don't worry," said the sergeant with a smile. "Just come back and I will give you a new one!"

Intelligence can be rediscovered. The only method to rediscover it is meditation. Meditation only does one thing: it destroys all the barriers that the society has created to prevent you from being intelligent. It simply removes the blocks. Its function is negative: it removes the rocks that are preventing your waters from flowing, your springs from becoming alive. Everybody is carrying the great potential, but society has put great rocks to prevent it. It has created China Walls around you; it has imprisoned you.

If you are a Christian you are imprisoned by the Christian priests. If you are a Hindu you are imprisoned by Hindu priests. Your prisons are different; maybe their architecture is different, the rooms are made differently, with different material. And maybe a few prisons are more comfortable than others, more sophisticated than others. Of course the American prison is better than the Indian prison, far better, more comfortable: the radio is available, the TV is available to the prisoner. The Indian prison is bound to be Indian. Indians are living in such an uncomfortable way, how can they provide television and radio and comfort to the prisoners? Impossible. They are there to be punished; they cannot be allowed to enjoy.

Christianity may be a little better prison than Mohammedanism, but a prison is a prison. And in fact a better prison is far more dangerous because you may start clinging to it, you may not like to get out of it; you may start loving it as if it is your home. But these are all prisons. And sometimes people get fed up with one prison and they change their prisons. The Hindu becomes the Christian, the Christian becomes the Hindu. Now there are many foolish Christians who have become Hare Krishna people -- the same stupidity but masquerading in a new form. There are many Hindus who have become Christians, but the same superstitiousness persists; there is no difference at all. I have seen those Hindus who have become Christians -- no change. I have seen those Christians who have become Hindus -- no change. They have just changed the prison.

To come out of all prisons is intelligence -- and never to get into another again. Intelligence can be discovered through meditation because all those prisons exist in your mind; they cannot reach your being, fortunately. They cannot pollute your being, they can only pollute your mind -- they can only cover your mind. If you can get out of the mind you will get out of Christianity, Hinduism. Jainism, Buddhism, and all kinds of rubbish will be just finished. You can come to a full stop. And when you are out of the mind, watching it, being aware of it, just being a witness, you are intelligent. Your intelligence is discovered. You have undone what the society has done to you. YOU have destroyed the mischief; you have destroyed the conspiracy of the priests and the politicians. YOU have come out of it, you are a free man. In fact you are for the first time a real man, an authentic man. Now the whole sky is yours. Intelligence brings freedom, intelligence brings spontaneity.

A little colored soldier tried to break out of camp and was stopped by the guard. Our hero challenged the guard with: "I've got a mother in Heaven, a father in Hell, and a girl in Harlem, and I'm gonna see one of them tonight!"

Must have been an intelligent person -- as if the whole army training has failed! YOU see his response.

Annalisa and Roberta, two Rome hotel chambermaids, were talking when the bell rang and Annalisa had to go up to the room of an American tourist. He pushed her down on the bed, took his will, and in less than five minutes she was back downstairs.
"What did he want?" asked Roberta.
"I dunno. I think he must-a forgot-a himself!"

People go on living in such an unconscious way. They become accustomed to things, when they don't see. They become accustomed to certain rituals; their whole lives are ritualistic. They go on making empty gestures; they don't mean anything. A stupid person behaves mechanically: an intelligent person behaves consciously. It is only through meditation that it will be possible for you to get back, to claim back your intelligence. The society has repressed your greatest treasure; it has hidden your greatest energy from you. It has deprived you of your true being; it has perverted you. And it goes on saying that it is done for your sake. Man has been exploited, oppressed in every possible way.

The time is ripe now for a great rebellion to destroy all these walls, all these rocks, to destroy all this repressed structure, because whenever anything is repressed... If intelligence is repressed it becomes stupidity. If sex is repressed then it starts moving into directions of perversion: it may become homosexuality, it may take some other forms, it may become greed.

Greed means now you feel excited only, sexually excited, with money -- money is your object of love. It may become politics; then power is your object of love. Then you are simply living an unnatural life, because power cannot fulfill your love, neither can money fulfill your love. But you have completely forgotten what has happened, why you have become so much interested in money. Why do people cling to money so deeply? Use the money, but don't cling to it. Why do people become so ambitious? And why is there so much sexual perversion in the world? It is because of repression. Every repression destroys something in you.

Gino went to an optometrist and asked for a new pair of glasses.
"But you just got a new pair last week."
"I know," said Gino, "but I got them-a broken in an accident."
"How?" asked the optometrist.
"I was kissing my girl," said the Italian.
"How the hell could you break your glasses kissing a girl?"
"She crossed her legs!"

Fitzgerald went to a bar for five consecutive nights and watched Manzini sitting over in a corner booth. It was an incredible sight. Good-looking, wildly-shaped girls, alone or in groups of two or three, would wander in and soon make their way to the weird-looking Manzini.
"I don't understand it," grumbled Fitzgerald to the bartender. "I don't see how the Eye-talian does it."
"Me either," says the barkeep. "I been watching him for weeks. He certainly ain't handsome, he is a lousy dresser, and he hardly never says a word. The guy just sits there, licking his eyebrows!"

Meditation can bring you to your nature. It can help you to drop all the perversions. It can make you intelligent, it can make you loving, it can make you spontaneous, it can make you responsible. It can make you a benediction to yourself and to existence. Except meditation there is no other method which can help. This is the key, the master key.
Let me repeat: intelligence is your nature. All that is needed is to discover it, because it has been hidden from you for certain reasons by people who are powerful and who want to remain in power. Of course they will not like it.

That's why they are against me. They CANNOT like it -- I am creating trouble for them. The more people become meditators, the more people become sannyasins, the less is the possibility of oppressing them, of exploiting them. And the orange people are spreading all over the world. It is an atomic explosion! Within six years thousands of people around the world have been transformed to a new vision, to a new lifestyle. They have been given back their individuality, their authenticity, their intelligence.

Now nobody can exploit them. Hence it is certainly a rare phenomenon that I am condemned by Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Jainas, Sikhs, Parsis, Jews, everybody -- I am condemned by the religious, the so-called religious -- AND by the politicians, by the journalists, by the so-called intelligentsia, the writers, the critics, because they are all part of a conspiracy against man. And I want to destroy that conspiracy totally. Only then can a new man be introduced on the earth. And the earth is waiting for the new man. The new man will be the salt of the earth. He will bring with him joy, dance, celebration.

Source - from Osho Book "Guida Spirituale"

[heartbeatsalute]

[heartbeatsalute]

LEAVE YOUR MIND WHERE YOUR SHOES ARE.

[heartbeatsalute]

An Indian went to Singapore to buy a video. He went into a shop and asked, "What is the price of this video near the window?" The seller answered, "Sorry sir, we don't sell to Indians."
The Indian went back to his hotel and dressed in his best clothes. Back at the shop, again he asked, "What is the price of this video near the window?"
To his dismay, the seller replied, "Sorry sir, we don't sell to Indians."
The Indian went back to his hotel and dressed in Western-style clothes -- shorts, T-shirt, sunglasses. Returning again to the shop, the Indian was most upset to receive the same answer to his enquiry. In exasperation he asked, "How do you know that I'm an Indian?"
"Oh," said the seller, "that's easy. The machine near the window is not a video, it is a washing machine."

[lonestar]

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

.

But no, I haven't seen them yet, not really interested in yesterday's paper LOL

thats funny.

as far back as yesterday huh? you're only lying to yourself heartbeat. LOL

sorry my ego was starting some trouble (it does that a lot) a few seconds ago, but now thats just water under the bridge.

[openwide333]

Originally Posted by marina2012

We come from the unknown and we go on moving into the unknown. We will come again; we have been here thousands of times, and we will be here thousands of times. Our essential being is immortal but our body, our embodiment, is mortal. Our frame in which we are, our houses, the body, the mind, they are made of material things. They will get tired, they will get old, they will die. But your consciousness, for which Bodhidharma uses the word 'no-mind'--Gautam Buddha has also used the word 'no-mind'--is something beyond body and mind, something beyond everything; that no-mind is eternal. It comes into expression, and goes again into the unknown. This movement from the unknown to the known, and from the known to the unknown, continues for eternity, unless somebody becomes enlightened. Then that is his last life; then this flower will not come back again. This flower that has become aware of itself need not come back to life because life is nothing but a school in which to learn. He has learned the lesson, he is now beyond delusions. He will move from the known for the first time not into the unknown, but into the unknowable.

Osho Bodhidharma, the Greatest Zen Master Chapter 5

Does anyone have any evidence that shows a consciousness can exist without a living brain? I understand energy can't be destoyed, it changes form but is there any evidence of it existing in any other form?

I'm not after definative proof but I'm also not interested in hypotheticals or personal experiences, by definition experiences don't qualify as evidence as it isn't something you can demonstrate. Many people kill and die based on the convictions of their differing, often mutually exclusive, beliefs so we can see how unreliable "following your heart" and ignoring logic and rationale can be.

[lonestar]

Originally Posted by openwide333

Does anyone have any evidence that shows a consciousness can exist without a living brain? I understand energy can't be destoyed, it changes form but is there any evidence of it existing in any other form?

I'm not after definative proof but I'm also not interested in hypotheticals or personal experiences, by definition experiences don't qualify as evidence as it isn't something you can demonstrate. Many people kill and die based on the convictions of their differing, often mutually exclusive, beliefs so we can see how unreliable "following your heart" and ignoring logic and rationale can be.

"Emotional honeybees and brainy jellyfish: More "surprises" in animal behavior Honeybees display pessimism and jellyfish make complex decisions using a brain


Just when you think you've heard it all, two recent research projects have discovered that honeybees have emotional lives and the nervous system of jellyfish and their behavior is far more complex than previously thought "

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...-animal-behavi

[openwide333]

Originally Posted by lonestar

"Emotional honeybees and brainy jellyfish: More "surprises" in animal behavior Honeybees display pessimism and jellyfish make complex decisions using a brain


Just when you think you've heard it all, two recent research projects have discovered that honeybees have emotional lives and the nervous system of jellyfish and their behavior is far more complex than previously thought "

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...-animal-behavi

and?

[heartbeatsalute]

Osho - Live in the world but don't allow the world to Live in you

Osho - If you live rightly, in twenty-four hours' time you will cross many times to this shore from that, from that to this, from this to that -- many times God will penetrate you, radiate you. Many times you will be suddenly on the other shore. Walking on the street... and suddenly he is there. The sun is falling on you, the sunrays falling behind the trees... and suddenly the other shore is there. It is not somewhere far away near other galaxies; it is always here. It is a quality of your awareness, it is a quality of your understanding, it is a quality of your meditation. If you are unburdened here, unobsessed with the worldly things....

Live in the world but don't allow the world to live in you. And then you will be alone even in the crowd... and even in the crowd you will see the other shore. The other shore becomes so close that you can cross the barrier any moment you want. It is so easy, like breathing -- but the art has to be learnt. It is a question of art, skill. Be skillful. Love, but don't allow your love to become lust. Love, but don't allow your love to become attachment. Love, but don't allow your love to become a dependence, a slavery. And then... then love tremendously. Then there is no fear. And loving, you will be able to cross to the other shore without any difficulty.

Use money, but don't become money-minded. I'm not saying escape from money, and I'm not saying escape from your wife and children and desert them and go to the Himalayan caves -- I am not teaching any sort of foolishness to you. And neither is Kabir in favor of that. Kabir is tremendously life-affirmative, he's absolutely for life. In fact, anybody who knows God will be for life, because this life is of God. If you escape from life you are escaping from God himself -- from the very opportunity where he was available. Don't escape anywhere. Rather than putting effort into escaping, put more effort into becoming aware. That will be the REAL escape: without escaping anywhere, you will create a cave in your heart... and you will start living there.

And the other shore is always by the corner. Any moment you want, you can move... and you can have as many drinks out of God in the day as you like. Looking at a flower, you can drink him... and the other shore opens. It is a vision -- it is not a material thing. Looking at a roseflower, silently, lovingly, without any verbalization inside -- total silence... and the silence becomes luminous, and the silence becomes a song, and a vision arises. The flower disappears, you disappear... and God is there. In the disappearance of the subject and the object, the gap arises. Between the two notes, the pause... and suddenly you are on the other shore.

Source - Osho Book "The Divine Melody"

[heartbeatsalute]

Originally Posted by lonestar

thats funny.

as far back as yesterday huh? you're only lying to yourself heartbeat. LOL

sorry my ego was starting some trouble (it does that a lot) a few seconds ago, but now thats just water under the bridge.

By yesterday's paper I meant to call the MANIPULATORS who live in utilitarian time, not in the now.
No pun intended. Didn't want to be a slave of my words ATM and did not elaborate lonestar. LOL

[heartbeatsalute]

Science & Consciousness

An article by Anando published in the italian Osho Times

As science develops more and more sophisticated ways to study the brain, in particular how and why we respond the way we do, it has opened the way for a whole new science - neuroscience. The current ‘hot’ topic of neuroscience, and indeed of philosophy, is to discover the code of consciousness – how the material brain produces our immaterial sense of awareness. Many feel this is something we will never be able to be understand, but others are ploughing ahead with research in this field.

Along the way, the new “discoveries” being made are giving a scientific basis to what Osho and other mystics have been saying down the centuries.

It may hasten their work if the scientists and the philosophers actually experiment with techniques of meditation, to make what Osho describes as the experience that you are not the body and not the mind, but just a witnessing awareness or consciousness. At the least meditation will give them a far better possibility to access and experience the conscious mind, than poking around in someone else’s head.

As Osho says, ‘All that can be experienced is not necessarily explainable, and all that can be explained is not necessarily experienceable. Mathematics can be explained easily, but there is no corresponding experience. Science can be explained easily, but even the greatest scientist is not transformed by his knowledge.’

Here are three examples which show how science is coming closer and closer to what Osho and other mystics have described from their own experience.
Does Consciousness Continue after Death?

Scientists in the US have started a huge 3-year project to explore the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. They want to find out exactly what happens in the brain and the consciousness after the body dies (so-called ‘clinical death’). The Human Consciousness Project will examine around 1,500 people all over the world who survived after their hearts stopped functioning.

When the heart stops beating no blood gets to your brain, and after about 10 seconds brain activity ceases. That is normally the official death point. Yet around 10% or 20% of people who are brought back to life from that point, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, report having consciousness. They all report being able to see what is happening after that point, as if they were floating on the ceiling. The scientists want to confirm whether these are real experiences or hallucinations, by cross-checking what the patients’ report that they saw happening from above, with the doctors and nurses who were present. So far, hundreds of cases have been confirmed as accurate, to the amazement of the medical staff.

If the rest of the study continues in the same direction, it will confirm that consciousness continues even when the brain is not functioning. In other words, consciousness is something separate from the physical brain and body.

Dr Sam Parnia, a fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center and one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death, says, “We're pushing through the boundaries of science here, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment - you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions.

“If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy - even Einstein himself didn't believe in it.

“Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics.”

[openwide333]

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

Science & Consciousness

An article by Anando published in the italian Osho Times

As science develops more and more sophisticated ways to study the brain, in particular how and why we respond the way we do, it has opened the way for a whole new science - neuroscience. The current ‘hot’ topic of neuroscience, and indeed of philosophy, is to discover the code of consciousness – how the material brain produces our immaterial sense of awareness. Many feel this is something we will never be able to be understand, but others are ploughing ahead with research in this field.

Along the way, the new “discoveries” being made are giving a scientific basis to what Osho and other mystics have been saying down the centuries.

It may hasten their work if the scientists and the philosophers actually experiment with techniques of meditation, to make what Osho describes as the experience that you are not the body and not the mind, but just a witnessing awareness or consciousness. At the least meditation will give them a far better possibility to access and experience the conscious mind, than poking around in someone else’s head.

As Osho says, ‘All that can be experienced is not necessarily explainable, and all that can be explained is not necessarily experienceable. Mathematics can be explained easily, but there is no corresponding experience. Science can be explained easily, but even the greatest scientist is not transformed by his knowledge.’

Here are three examples which show how science is coming closer and closer to what Osho and other mystics have described from their own experience.
Does Consciousness Continue after Death?

Scientists in the US have started a huge 3-year project to explore the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. They want to find out exactly what happens in the brain and the consciousness after the body dies (so-called ‘clinical death’). The Human Consciousness Project will examine around 1,500 people all over the world who survived after their hearts stopped functioning.

When the heart stops beating no blood gets to your brain, and after about 10 seconds brain activity ceases. That is normally the official death point. Yet around 10% or 20% of people who are brought back to life from that point, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, report having consciousness. They all report being able to see what is happening after that point, as if they were floating on the ceiling. The scientists want to confirm whether these are real experiences or hallucinations, by cross-checking what the patients’ report that they saw happening from above, with the doctors and nurses who were present. So far, hundreds of cases have been confirmed as accurate, to the amazement of the medical staff.

If the rest of the study continues in the same direction, it will confirm that consciousness continues even when the brain is not functioning. In other words, consciousness is something separate from the physical brain and body.

Dr Sam Parnia, a fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center and one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death, says, “We're pushing through the boundaries of science here, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment - you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions.

“If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy - even Einstein himself didn't believe in it.

“Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics.”

So what have they discovered?

[heartbeatsalute]

Originally Posted by openwide333

So what have they discovered?

Well, scientists have said that matter does not exist and that all is energy.

Behaviourists say that if the body dies all dies, that man is a machine with no soul. rational versus meditative, its each one's choice.

One of the reasons humanity remains uncivilized is the division between mind, body and soul. And unless all three work in unity , we cannot be whole.

Life can be lived as calculation and poetic, bridging both hemisperes, left, reason, right, intuition.

Scientists seem to be searching if there is consciousness after the death of the physcial body, I am very sure very soon, don't know when they will be saying all is consciousness.

You seems to have lots of answers, what do you think?

[heartbeatsalute]

http://www.osho.com/online-library-t...7cc2b0cdf.aspx
The new dawn

[openwide333]

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

Well, scientists have said that matter does not exist and that all is energy.

Behaviourists say that if the body dies all dies, that man is a machine with no soul. rational versus meditative, its each one's choice.

One of the reasons humanity remains uncivilized is the division between mind, body and soul. And unless all three work in unity , we cannot be whole.

Life can be lived as calculation and poetic, bridging both hemisperes, left, reason, right, intuition.

Scientists seem to be searching if there is consciousness after the death of the physcial body, I am very sure very soon, don't know when they will be saying all is consciousness.

You seems to have lots of answers, what do you think?

All you're telling me is that scientists are looking into it, they haven't discovered anything to back up that consciousness is anything other than brain activity.

Why do I seem to have all the answers? I don't just believe ideas I like the sound of, thats being gullible, I ask question and appreciates logic and rationale.

We percieve everything via consciousness this doesn't mean everything is consciousness.

[lonestar]

Originally Posted by openwide333

I don't just believe ideas I like the sound of, thats being gullible, I ask question and appreciates logic and rationale.

We percieve everything via consciousness this doesn't mean everything is consciousness.

being a gullible person thats about as far from logic as you can get i doubt i will be able to answer your questions. but i appreciate your questions, cause they give me an emotion that i want to respond to. and that feeling we get by just reading some letters standing next to each other is who i believe we really are. maybe like the feeling a jellyfish gets when it responds to sunlight.

[my hero]

Oh no, it's Osho: a villain speaks from beyond the grave
The Baltic Times/February 06, 2008
By Talis Saule Archdeacon
Riga - It is hard to walk into a bookstore in Riga without seeing Osho's name. Prominent displays featuring his books abound - offering customers a little bit of Far East spiritualism in hard cover or paperback.

A quick glance through the bookshelves in most Latvian's homes will reveal why the stores have him on display - the man sells. His works have become the most popular self-help books around.

When The Baltic Times got in touch with the major bookstores operating in Latvia, there was no hesitation. Everyone knew who he was and was quick to discuss his growing popularity.

"Last year he started to publish his books in Latvian, now there are quite many titles and they are some of the bestsellers. We now have six titles available in Latvian," said

Laura Briviba, head of the imported books division at Janis Roze, one of the biggest book stores in Riga.

Valters un Rapa, Riga's other major book store, is also seeing Osho fly off the shelves. The sales manager there said the store sold more than 67 copies of one of his books in just one month. The store currently sells five different titles by Osho.

What's more, many Latvians are starting to change their lives based on Osho's works. The Baltic Times spoke with one avid Osho fan who said the works are changing both the way he acts and the way he thinks about life. For the purposes of privacy, this article will refer to him simply as A.

A.'s face lit up when he spoke about Osho, pointing to how he sees aspects of the book's teachings in everyday life, and how the books are changing his view of the world.

"After reading the book, I quit smoking. I now see things differently; I try to be in harmony with myself, not with others. I must be honest with myself, and why should I care what other people think?" A. said.

Osho may have helped convince A. to give up smoking, but behind his name lies a long list of dark secrets.

The Dark Side

All is not as it appears with Osho. His real name - at least up until he changed it a year before his death - was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He has been dead for more than 15 years.

In the 80s, Rajneesh was a cult leader living in Oregon in the north-western United States - a self-proclaimed "rich-mans guru." The new books which are released in his name are printed versions of recorded speeches he gave to his cult decades ago.

The cult bought a 65,000 acre commune near Antelope, Oregon, for about 6 million dollars. Cult supporters, who soon outnumbered Antelope's local inhabitants, renamed the town 'Rajneeshpuram' in honor of their leader. The borders of the plot were patrolled by AK-47 wielding guards.

At the time, media reports accused the cult of holding massive drug induced orgies. It was well-known that Rajneesh used drugs, particularly valium and nitrous oxide for chronic pain brought on by long-standing health problems, though he publicly denied that he was physically addicted to the substances. On numerous occations, Rajneesh would publicly brag about the hundreds of women he had slept with, earning him the title of "sex-guru" in the media.

Reports indicate that he had somewhere around 90 top quality Rolls Royce cars, all bought with money "donated" by his dedicated, and often quite rich, devotees. The cult members reportedly wanted to eventually buy him 365, one for every day of the year.

But Rajneesh's life wasn't all about fraud and unsafe sexual practices. He had far more nefarious things up his sleeve for the small Oregon town.

Things get much, much worse.

In 1984, a massive outbreak of salmonella poisoning swept through the county in which Rajneesh's cult was located. The Center for Disease Control traced the poisoning, which affected 751 people but thankfully killed none, to 10 different salad bars throughout the county, according to the U.S. News and World Report on Health.

Though they initially blamed the local restaurants of mishandling the food, overwhelming evidence soon convinced the authorities that the poisonings were deliberately carried out by Rajneesh's cult in a misguided effort to take control of the county.

It is suspected to be the first case of large-scale biological terrorism in the United States.

Rajneesh blamed the poisonings, along with a host of other crimes of which he was accused, on Ma Anand Sheela, his personal secretary. Sheela eventually confessed to the terror attacks, along with the attempted murder of Rajneesh's personal doctor and a prominent Oregon judge.

Authorities failed to pin any of the attempted murder charges on the cult leader, however, and he was eventually charged with violating immigration laws. Rajneesh was made to pay a $400,000 fine, given a 10-year suspended sentence, placed on probation for five years and forced to leave the country - only able to return after five years and with special permission from the Supreme Court.

He moved back to India, changed his name to Osho, and opened a "meditation" center where he could continue to operate his cult. He died soon after.

His followers then took recording of his lectures, many of which were taped during his time as a cult leader in America, and transcribed them to build the publishing empire which is now taking hold of the minds of so many Latvian soul-searchers.

Followers

Though it may seem that such a man is far from qualified to write self-help books, A. didn't care much about the prophets troubled past.

"I don't care. I read his ideas, and they make me happy. It is the ideas that are important, not the person. Everybody makes mistakes, even the best people," he said.

Osho held a similar disdain for his own public image.

"I have been misunderstood perhaps more than anyone else ever, but it has not affected me, for the simple reason that there is no desire to be understood. I am not going to waste my sleep because millions of people are misunderstanding me," Osho said in one of his many recorded speeches.

Those misunderstandings, however, have left a large number of his former disciples feeling disillutioned and abused. Some have even begun to publicly speak out against their former leader.

"The issue is very straightforward: What is more important - truth or feeling good? I am writing about Osho because his lies and his deceit caused an enormous amount of pain for a lot of beautiful people. Most of these beautiful people have no idea that a sophisticated fraud was carried out on them and blame themselves for their deteriorating mental and physical health. Many of my Hindu sannyasin friends have great trouble sustaining this illusory happy fog [which they gained from Osho] and are taking more and more desperate measures to continue feeling good," former disciple Christopher Schelle wrote in a 2006 posting on rebelliousspirit.com, a Web site devoted to Osho's teachings.

One of Osho's most outspoken critics today is Christopher Calder, formerly one of the cult leaders most enthusiastic followers.

"Ask yourself what did Rajneesh want and get? The answer is millions of dollars, absolute power, a harem of women, and a daily supply of drugs. Rajneesh used myths of the occult and his natural ability to influence people to achieve the same goals [as a Mafia boss]. He could look you directly in the eye and lie without flinching, and that helped him become a financially successful guru," he wrote in a 2004 article available on his Web site.

It is difficult to reconcile many of Osho's words with his actions. It is hard to imagine that the horrible life he led and the atrocious crimes that were committed in his name don't cast a shadow of doubt across the whole of his teachings.

"Pleasure is a sort of oblivion, a kind of forgetfulness. Pain is remembrance, you cannot forget pain," the cult leader told his followers. Odd words coming from a man who caused so many people so much pain.

The Ross Institite Internet Archives for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements. http://www.rickross.com

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A great King, Yayati

Osho : In India we have a very beautiful story.

A great king, Yayati, was going to die. Death came.... It is an ancient story; in those days things were simple and the other world was not so far away. Death came and knocked on the door. Yayati opened the door and he said, ”What? I have lived for only a hundred years, and here you are – and with no notice! At least some time should be given. I have not fulfilled my real desires yet. I have been postponing: tomorrow, tomorrow; and now you are here, and there will be no tomorrow. This is cruel! Be kind!”

Death said, ”I have to take somebody, I cannot go empty-handed. But seeing your misery, your old age, I will grant you a hundred years more. But then one of your sons has to go with me.” Yayati had one hundred sons – he had one hundred wives – so he said, ”That is simple!” It was not so simple as he had thought. He called his hundred sons and asked one to go. ”Save your old father’s life! Many times you have said, ’Father, we can die for you.’ Now the time has come to prove it!” But these things are always said; they are polite nothings. The sons started looking at each other.

Somebody was seventy, somebody was seventy-five, somebody was sixty; they themselves were getting very old. The youngest was just twenty. The youngest son stood up and he said, ”I am ready to go.” Nobody could believe it! His ninety-nine brothers could not believe it; they thought he was a fool. And he had not lived yet, not at all. He was only twenty, just on the threshold of the beginning. Even Death felt compassion. Death took the young man aside, whispered in his ear, ”Are you a fool? Your older brothers are not ready, they have lived long. Seventy-five years somebody has lived – he is not ready.

And you are ready? Your father does not want to die. He is a hundred years old, and you are only twenty.”

The young man said something very beautiful, something of tremendous import. He said, ”Seeing this, that my father has lived one hundred years and he has ALL that one can have, and he is still not satisfied, I see the futility of life. What is the point? I may live one hundred years and the situation will be the same. And if it was only my father then I would have thought, ’Maybe he is an exception.’ But my brothers – seventy-five, seventy, sixty-five, sixty – have also lived long. They have enjoyed every kind of thing; now what else is there to enjoy?

They are getting old and they are not satisfied. So one thing is certain: this is not the way to become satisfied. Hence I am ready, and I am coming with you, not in any despair but in tremendous understanding. I am coming with you with great cheerfulness that I have not to pass through this torture, these one hundred years of torture which my father has had to suffer. He has not yet become able enough to go with you.” And the story continues. One hundred years again passed; they came and were gone, nothing was noticed.

Again Death knocked. When Death knocked, only then did Yayati become aware again that one hundred years had passed. He said, ”But I am not ready!” And this went on happening, and each time a son went with Death, and for one thousand years Yayati lived. This is really a symbolic story. After one thousand years Death came, and Death said, ”What do you think now?” Yayati said, ”I am coming. Enough is enough! I have seen that nothing can ever be fulfilled here. Desires go on growing; you fulfill one desire and ten others arise. It is a process ad infinitum.

Now I am coming willingly, and now I can say that my first son who went with you and was only twenty years old had intelligence. I was stupid. It took one thousand years for me to see it and he could see it when he was only twenty. That is intelligence! ” If you are intelligent you will see the futility of greed. If you are intelligent you will start living rather than preparing to live. Greed is preparing to live. And you can go on preparing, and the time to live will never come. If you are intelligent you will not miss today for tomorrow. You will not sacrifice this moment for another moment, you will live this moment in its totality.

You will squeeze the whole juice out of this moment. Jesus says to his disciples, ”Think not of the morrow.” He is simply saying, ”Don’t be greedy” – because whenever you think of the morrow you become greedy. It is greed that thinks of the morrow. Jesus says to his disciples: Look at the lily flowers in the field. What is their secret? Why are they so beautiful? Even Solomon attired in all his grandeur was not so beautiful. What is their secret? Their secret is simple: they think not of the morrow, they live in the moment. This moment is all and all. There is nothing behind, nothing ahead. They enjoy this moment with their total being. Greed means postponing your life for tomorrow.

Try to see your greed. It can take so many forms: it can be worldly, it can be other-worldly. Beware! It may take the form of: ”This life is not worth living so I will prepare for another life. This earth is not worth living on, I will prepare for paradise.” But this is greed! Of your so-called saints ninety-nine percent are greedy people, far more greedy than the people you will find in the marketplace. The greed of the people who live in the marketplace is not that great, their greed is very ordinary. They are asking for more money – that is very ordinary. Your saints, your mahatmas say, ”This is temporary.

We ask for something permanent, we want something eternal. We will sacrifice the temporal for the eternal.” There is a great motivation; out of the corner of their eyes they are waiting for paradise. There they will enjoy and there they will show these fools who were rushing in the marketplace, ”Look, we had told you before, we had warned you. Now you have to suffer in hell, and we will enjoy all the heavenly joys.” But this is greed, and wherever greed is, there is no heaven. Greed is hell; it may be worldly, it may be otherworldly.

Source: "The Guest" - Osho

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Osho Teachings Osho Discourses
Osho on Fatalistic Attitude – The fatalist is one who has not understood life

in Negative Mind Traits

Osho on Fatalistic Attitude

Question – What is the difference between being a fatalist and just floating, feeling everything is beautiful?

Osho – A vast difference, a lot of difference. And the difference is not of quantity, the difference is of quality. The fatalist is one who has not understood life, but who has felt failure. A fatalist is one who feels helpless, frustrated. In fatalism he seeks consolation. He says, “It was going to be so.” He’s trying so avoid that he has failed. It was going to be so, so what can he do? He is throwing the responsibility on fate, on God, on XYZ. “I’m not responsible, what can I do? It was written in my fate. It was predetermined, predestined.” He is saying, “I’m not responsible.” He has failed. In deep frustration he is trying to find some refuge, some shelter. Fatalism is a consolation.

And the other thing,’just floating, feeling everything is beautiful’, is not a consolation — it is an understanding. It is not fatalism; it is not failure; it is not helplessness. It is simply a deep insight into reality, as things are. It is to understand that you are a very small part of the cosmic whole. And you are not separate. You are one with the continent — you are not an island.

The understanding that the ego is false, the understanding that the separation is false, the understanding that you don’t have a separate destiny than the whole, that a drop in the ocean need not worry about its own destiny — the ocean has to worry about it — is not helplessness. In fact it releases tremendous power. Once you are unburdened by yourself, once you are no more worried about yourself, you become a tremendous energy. Then the energy is no more struggling; now it floats. Now you are not fighting with the whole, now you are with the whole, marching with the whole. Then you are not trying to prove anything against the whole, because that is simply foolish.

It is as if my own hand starts fighting with me and starts trying to have its own destiny, separate from me. I am going to the south, and my head starts going to the north. It is so foolish, it is impossible — foolish, and impossible — and frustration is bound to be there. Sooner or later the hand will see that the hand wanted to go to the north, but it is going to the south. Deep in frustration, the hand will say, “It is fate. I am helpless.”

In fact, the feeling of helplessness arises because of the struggle. When you understand that you are part of the whole, that you are not separate at all, that in fact the whole has been trying to attain some heights through you; you are only a passage, a vehicle — suddenly all frustration disappears. When you don’t have a goal of your own, how can you be frustrated?. When you don’t have to prove anything against anything; when you don’t have to struggle, there is no need for fatalism; you need not have any consolation. You simply dance with the whole; you flow with the whole. You know you are the whole.

That is the meaning when the Upanishads say: AHAM BRAHMASMI — I am God. That is the meaning when Jesus says, “I and my God are one” — not fatalism, not settling in helplessness; rather, knowing the fact that we are one with the whole. Then your atomic tinyness disappears. You become cosmic…. JUST FLOATING,FEELING EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL. Then it happens; then you just float; there is nothing else to do. The same energy that was trying to fight surrenders. Then you are not pushing the river: you simply float on the river, and the river takes you. The river is already going to the ocean. You are unnecessarily worried. You can simply Leave that responsibility to the river. Whether you leave it or not, it is already going.

Don’t fight, because in fight there is going to be frustration — in fight is the seed of frustration, and in frustration you will seek some way to console yourself. Then fatalism is born. If you don’t fight then everything is just beautiful. Why? Because then you don’t have any idea of your own to compare it with. Everything is beautiful for how could it be otherwise? You don’t have any conflict; hence everything is beautiful. If the river turns to the right, you turn to the right — beautiful. If the river turns to the left — perfectly beautiful, you turn to the left. If you have some idea and some goal, if you say, “I am a leftist,” then there is going to be trouble. When the river starts turning towards the right, you will say, “Now this is going too far; now I cannot surrender — I am a leftist.” Then you will start fighting against the river, and then the river will not be beautiful because your notion, your idea, your ideal, has come in.

Whenever ideology comes in, things become ugly. All idealists live in hells. Ideology creates hells. If you don’t have any ideology you have nothing to compare: you don’t have any criterion. Then whatsoever is happening, is happening — you have nothing to compare it with. Then wherever the river is going, that is the only way to go. Then one simply allows existence to have its own way. One never comes in the way; a deep let-go.

Then everything is beautiful. And then you realize that it has never been otherwise. Everything was beautiful, always. Look at the animals; look at the birds; look at the clouds; look at the trees. Ask the trees; ask the stones. Everything is beautiful. The trees must be very much surprised that you look so sad. The trees must be puzzled that man looks so burdened, when everything is so light and so floating. The birds must be laughing at you that you go on carrying such a load — the load seems to be nowhere except in your mind.

So much burdened, you miss life. So much burdened, you miss love. So much burdened, you miss celebration. So much burdened, you miss laughter. You cannot sing; you cannot dance; you cannot laugh. And because of this, you become desperate and you start fighting more. You think you are not fighting as much as you should. That’s why you are not so happy.

Once a man came to me, a very rich man, but very reluctant to accept the fact that he was not happy. People don’t accept that they are not happy. They are unhappy, but they won’t accept it because that is very ego shattering. They, and unhappy? Impossible.

I looked into that rich man. I see thousands of unhappy men, but he was rare — I have not found another so unhappy. And he had everything. And he tried to smile. The smile was absolutely false, painted, just on the lips, not coming from anywhere; not coming from the inner being; just mentally created, a facade, a trick of the mind. I immediately looked at the man and felt that he was so unhappy, but also unable to accept being unhappy. So I said to the man, “You look so happy. What are the reasons for your happiness?”

He looked surprised. He was never expecting that. He said, “What do you say — I, and happy?”
“Yes, I have never seen such a happy man. And that’s why I would like — enlighten me a little — what are the causes of your happiness?”

The man started enumerating, “I have so much money, a beautiful wife, children, palaces, cars, swimming pools, this and that.” But while he was enumerating, deep down, there was only hell and darkness. And he knew it, and he could not believe that he had deceived me. But still he was trying.

Then I asked one question more: “You say that because of these things you are happy; just one question more. You say that you are happy. I would like to know, how much happiness has your happiness given you? How much happiness has your happiness really given you?”

Then he caught the point. He started crying and he said, “I am not happy. And you have caught me. I go on deceiving myself that I am happy. I go on deceiving others. I am desperate to prove that I am happy.”

Remember, only an unhappy man tries to prove that he is happy; only a sad man tries to prove that he is not sad; only a dead man tries to prove that he is alive; only a coward tries to prove that he is brave. Only a man who knows his inferiority tries to prove that he is superior. You go on trying to prove the opposite of what you are, and the possibilities are ninety-nine out of a hundred that you are just the opposite. When you smile, I can see hidden tears. When you try to dance, I can see the rocklike heart within that cannot move. Dancing is impossible.

Why is man in such a plight? The whole world laughs. The trees laugh at you. You may not hear; you may be escaping; you may have become deaf. The birds laugh; the animals laugh. Something has gone wrong with man. What has gone wrong with him? Only one thing: the whole of nature is flowing and man is fighting. In nature the ego does not exist. Trees are there, but without any egos — only man is with the ego. And that ego is the whole hell.

That ego needs continuous fight, because it feeds on fight. The more you fight, the stronger your ego becomes. It is a fighter. That’s why surrender is so difficult. But unless you surrender you will remain in misery. Surrender is the door to bliss, to beauty, to truth, to love, to life, to God. Surrender is the door. And when I say ‘surrender’, I don’t mean that surrender has to be towards someone. That is just an excuse; because you cannot surrender unless you have someone to surrender to — that’s why someone is needed. Otherwise there is no need; you can simply surrender, and the door is open.

That’s what Buddha says. He said,”Simply surrender.” But that looks very difficult for the mind. You need some excuse. Jesus says, “Surrender to God.” If you cannot just surrender, then surrender to God. Krishna says, “If you cannot surrender, then surrender to me. Let me be the excuse.” But when you surrender, then you know that Krishna tricked you. When you surrender you will not find Krishna there: you will find the whole cosmos and you floating in it, part of it. Then you are no more separate — not going on your way. Then everything is beautiful, blissful. Without conflict ugliness disappears; without conflict sadness disappears; without conflict sorrow disappears. Then whatsoever is, is beautiful.

And it is so. But it is not fatalism. It is not an ‘ism’ at all. It has nothing to do with a faith or predetermination or any nonsense. It has simply something to do with the insight that I belong to the whole and the whole belongs to me; that I am in my home, I am not a stranger. And there is no need to fight.

With whom are you fighting? All fight is foolish, is stupid. Surrender is wisdom. Fight is stupid. Float; flow with the flow; move with the whole. Don’t have private dreams and don’t have private goals. Don’t have a private ideology. Then this moment you live; and when the next moment comes, you live in it. If life is there, you live life; if death comes, you live death. Whatsoever happens, you are grateful.

I have heard about a Sufi mystic who used to pray and every day thank God. His disciples were worried. Many times they were very much puzzled, because sometimes it was okay to thank God because things were going well. But the man was absolutely unconcerned about things — sometimes when things were going very badly, then too he would give thanks.

One day it was too much: the disciples for three days were hungry and starving, and they were not given refuge in any town. They were thrown out. The people were very orthodox, and the master was a revolutionary, a very unorthodox, non-traditional man, unconventional, nonconformist; so no village would allow them even to have shelter in the night. And they were without food. On the fourth day, in the morning, when the master started praying, the disciples said, “Now it is going too far — he said to God,’How wonderful you are! You always give me whatsoever I need.’ ”

Then one disciple said, “Wait, one minute. Now it is becoming absurd. What are you saying.? Three days we have been hungry. We are dying; no shelter in any town, and you are thanking God that whatsoever you need he always gives!”

And the mystic started laughing, and he said, “Yes, for these three days we needed starvation; for these three days we needed to be rejected. He always gives whatsoever we need. For these three days we needed to be poor, absolutely poor. Whatsoever we need he always gives, and I am thankful.” And he started praying and thanking God and being grateful. If you are not fighting, then an understanding arises that everything is beautiful and whatsoever is needed is happening, whatsoever is needed for your growth. Sometimes poverty is needed; sometimes starvation is needed; sometimes illness is needed. In fact, I have not come across anything which is not a need sometimes to someone. If you understand, you accept. If you accept, you grow. If you reject, your whole energy becomes a wastage in fighting. The same situation could have been a growth — now it is simply a wastage, a leakage. Don’t be a fatalist, because in the first place don’t fight. If you fight and get frustrated, then fatalism enters in. In the first place, don’t fight.

One man came to me and he was in much trouble because he got married and he found a woman, as almost all people find, a very quarrelsome woman, continuously fighting and creating hell for him. He came to me and said, “Have compassion on me.” And he said, “I would like to ask one question. What would you have done in my place?”
I told him, “In the first place I would not have been in your place! Why should I be?”

A man who is floating, accepting, understanding, has no need of fatalism. In the first place he is not fighting, so there is no need to seek some consolation. Fatalism is the end of a wrong life, and the feeling of let-go is the beginning of a right life. They are vastly different, tremendously different, qualitatively different. Remember the difference, because it happens that you would also like to say good things about your failures. When you fail, you start saying, “Now I am in a let-go.” Don’t try to deceive yourself, because you are deceiving only yourself; the existence is not deceived. If you have failed, try to understand why you have failed. In the first place you started fighting, that’s why.

If you understand that, then even your successes will look like failures. They are. Sooner or later each success becomes a failure. It is only a question of time. What you call success is failure on the way. So if every man is given enough time to fight then success and failure will all disappear and everybody will become a fatalist. That’s why in old conditions, ancient conditions, fatalism exists — not in new countries. For example, in America fatalism does not exist. It is a child country, a baby country, just three hundred years of history; it is nothing. In India, fatalism exists:thousands and thousands of years of history, so old and so ancient that it has known all success, all failure; it has known all types of frustration. Now, finding no other way, it seeks consolation in fatalism.

As a country grows old, it becomes fatalist. As a man grows old, he becomes a fatalist. Young people are not fatalists: they believe in themselves. Old people become fatalists, because by that time they have come to know at least one thing, that they have failed. Then they find consolation. The whole basis is wrong. In the first place don’t fight, then there will be no need to fail; there will be no need to succeed; there will be no need to fight and there will be no need to console yourself Each moment is such a blessing if you don’t fight.

Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 3″

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Osho on Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis is a Buddha

in Osho Stories

Osho on Saint Francis of Assisi

Osho - The extraordinariness of a Buddha is his utter ordinariness. His ordinariness is his extraordinariness. To be ordinary is the most extraordinary thing in the world.

Just the other night I came across a very beautiful story about Saint Francis, a Buddha. Saint Francis of Assisi lay on his deathbed. He was singing, and singing so loudly that the whole neighborhood was aware. Brother Elias, a pompous but prominent member of the Franciscan order, came close to Saint Francis and said, ‘Father, there are people standing in the street outside your window.’ Many had come. Fearing that the last moment of Francis’ life had come, many who loved him had gathered together around the house.

Said this brother Elias, “I am afraid nothing we might do could prevent them from hearing you singing. The lack of restraint at so grave an hour might embarrass the order, Father. It might lower the esteem in which you yourself are so justly held. Perhaps in your extremity you have lost sight of your obligation to the many who have come to regard you as a saint. Would it not be more edifying for them if you would, er, die with more Christian dignity?”

“Please excuse me, Brother,” Saint Francis said, “but I feel so much joy in my heart that I really can’t help myself. I must sing!”

And he died singing. In the whole Christian history, he’s the only one who has died singing. Many Zen people have died singing, but they don’t belong to Christianity. He is the only Zen master amongst Christian saints. He didn’t care a bit about Christian dignity.

Now what happened? This brother Elias wants to prove to people that Saint Francis is a saint. Now he is afraid that people will not think that he is a saint; they may think he is mad or something. A saint has to be sad by the very definition. Christians believe only in sad saints. They cannot believe that Jesus ever laughed. That is below Christian dignity. Laughter? — so human, so ordinary? They know only one thing, to put Jesus there high above humanity — but then all that is human has to be taken out of him. Then he becomes just a dead, bloodless thing.

This brother Elias is worried. This is the last moment, Francis is dying, and he will leave a bad name behind him. People will think either he was not a saint or he was mad. He is worried because he wants to prove. In fact he is not worried about Saint Francis, he is worried about himself and the order: “It will be very embarrassing for us later on. How are we going to answer these people? What happened in the last moments?” He is worried about himself. If the master is mad then what about the disciple? He is a disciple.

But see two different planes, two different dimensions together. Elias is concerned with public opinion. He wants to prove his master to be the greatest master, to be the greatest of saints, and he knows only one way to prove it — that he should be serious, that he should take life seriously, that he should not laugh and should not sing, should not dance. They are too human, they are too ordinary. Ordinary mortals can be forgiven, but not a man of the stature of Saint Francis.

But Saint Francis has a different vision — he is just ordinary. He says, “Please excuse me, Brother, but I feel so much joy in my heart that I really can’t help myself. I must sing!” In fact, it is not that Francis is singing, Francis has become the song. That’s why he cannot help, he cannot control. There is nobody left to control it.

If the song is happening it is happening. It is not within control, it can’t be, because the controller has disappeared. The self, the ego, no more exists. Saint Francis does not exist as an individual. There is absolute silence inside. Out of that silence this song is born. What can Francis do? That’s why he says, “I can’t help it. I must sing!”

And he died singing. And there can be no other better death. If you can die singing, that proves that you lived singing, that your life was a joy and death became the crescendo of it, the culmination.

Saint Francis is a Buddha. The characteristic of a Buddha is that he is ordinary, that he has no ideas about himself of how he should be, that he simply is spontaneous, that whatsoever happens, happens. He lives on the spur of the moment, that is his authenticity.

Source – Osho Book “The Diamond Sutra”