When the shoe fits is a transcript of a conference given by Osho in 1974,
based on the teachings of the ancient Taoist Chuang Tzu. Osho is one of the
most famous modern Taoists who have achieved cult status as among his
followers. To remove the pain, he advises men not to reach and just allow
life to happen to you. This board is on an opposite plane, with respect to
what is taught in Western culture.
And whatever you do with the always remain a burden to you; it will always
be a conflict, an inner tension, and you can lose at any time. It must be
maintained permanently - and now we have the energy, keep you finally
dissipates. Only that which is achieved by effortlessness will never be a
burden to you, and what is not a burden can be eternal. Only what is in any
natural way can remain with you always and forever.
When you win something through effort, you feel a sense of fun, and have to
work constantly so that the gain and pleasure are maintained. If you do not
hold, you will lose the gain and the pain experience and equally opposed to
the received pleasure.
If I win $ 1 million, I feel pleasure, but if I lose, I will live an equal
amount of suffering in the face. While I don t lose money, trying to
remember the causes anxiety because of the important afraid I'll have to
lose in the future. If I go to the gym to get big muscles, I'm happy with
how I look, but if I lose these muscles, I mentally suffer every time I
look in the mirror and see a decline in my appearance . Any effort campaign
built overdue, because it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a
gain for your entire life.
Every child is born in Tao, we paralyze her society, civilization, culture,
morality, religion & # 8230; We lame on all sides. Then he saw, but he is
not alive.
Osho argued that if a human wasn & # 8217, t born in society, but grew up
among the animals of the forest, it would have no suffering if his survival
needs have been met. Because it would not be a human being to be compared
to, he would not need to compete, no need to take power, no need to prove
to others, and would exist in harmony with nature.
Allow Nature! And do not give profit nature. Who are you to create goals
and objectives? You are just a small part, an atomic cell. Who are you to
force the set to move for you?
[& # 8230;]
Look at nature, everything is so perfect. Can you improve a rose? Can you
improve on nature in any way? Only man has gone wrong somewhere. If the
rose is beautiful without any effort on his part, why not man? What's wrong
with the man?
Because you exist in a state of ignorant, imperfect, any goal that you
create is almost sure to create suffering because it is a place in society
instead of nature. You just do not have the awareness or knowledge to
create goals that are in harmony with your true nature and what you can
describe as success is & # 8212; on academic success & # 8212; the
beginning of a cycle of frustration or suffering.
Meditation will help you understand. He will not lead you to the truth, it
will destroy the spirit, so that whenever there is the truth, you can see.
Osho believes that the style of Buddhist meditation ashram is a natural
behavior that goes against the Tao, because he tries to put man in an empty
state of no mind & # 8221. Osho does not believe in the Buddhist
asceticism, and sees to the opposite extreme hedonists. Both sides lost
balance with the Tao.
You need a compass because you are not sure of life; you need morals,
precepts, principles, Bibles, Korans, Gitas directly to you because you are
not sure of inner strength. It's your life & # 8230;. So many precepts to
follow, so many principles to manage - so many moral concepts. You have so
many things imposed on you that your inner life can not be spontaneous.
People want to be told how to live. They want an instruction booklet as if
they were mounting Ikea furniture. Scriptures died books & # 8212; they
weren t written for your environment or your situation, and must be pressed
in modern life in some way (often after having been maliciously
interpreted), but it still does not eliminate the pain if you follow. Osho
believes that there is no need for rigid morality if the Tao is followed,
but since the balance with the Tao is subjective, I see a situation where
Tao alone can t stop us from sliding into a situation of degeneration as we
have the modern West.
Do not be against anything. Why? Because every time you are against all
this means that if you are to the bottom, why be against it? A man who is
not angry will not basically against anger. Why should it be? A man who is
not greedy in depth will not be against greed. Why should it be against?
for him there is no problem, this is not a choice, it does not distinguish.
Remember, it is always greedy people who are against greed, sexual people
who are against sex, angry people who are against the angry, violent people
who are against violence. So what do they do? They create an opposite
purpose.
If a man becomes emotionally engaged against a cause, it is a certainty
that this case is a part of him, somehow, and emotion is a sign either of
an inner guilt or deep love his ego refuses accept consciously. The most
violent members of society today are leftist protesters who say they are
against violence. Those most sexually degenerate today are those who say
that they stand against rape. I said my hatred for feminists in the past,
and criticized their loose sexual mores, while I am engaged in loose sexual
morals with feminist-minded women. What you hate is in you. What you're
apathetic does not.
You choose always difficult because the hard gives you a challenge and the
challenge gives you the ego. Difficult is good for you; easy never right.
Because with ease no conquering ego can not feel fulfilled. The most
difficult task, the more the ego feels euphoric, ecstatic. It must be done
- Everest must be defeated, the Moon is to conquer.
[& # 8230;]
The tough draws. The harder it is, the more it attracts you. It becomes
more valuable, because through it, if you win, you will realize a larger
ego. Even if you fail, you will get a bigger ego because you at least
tried, while others have not tried at all.
I gave advice to men in the past stating that if they're faced with two
options, they should do the hardest because they'll become stronger and
achieve more than if they had managed the task easier. Osho PEGGED me in
this my strategy is one of ego satisfaction, to attempt more difficult to
achieve something more. From the perspective of Western materialism, my
advice will give more & # 8221 gain.
With non-stop messages in Western achievement and accomplishment that make
it easy to be considered & # lazy, 8221; it's hard not to see that the
whole of the West is based on a proposal of the ego, which is great for
society in terms of heights it achieves, but poor for the person who
suffers because of it .
If you win a war and kill millions of people you made history. If you are
brushing your teeth in the morning, how can you make history? And EASY
RIGHT! You take a bath, and sing you a little song, how can you make
history? You eat your food and you will quietly sleep without dreams. How
can you make history? No! The story does not know the people that are easy
and natural. The story takes knowledge of people who are crazy, obsessed
with something, that create problems in one way or another. And hard is
false, easy to right; be easy and not try to be in history. Leave it for
fools and madmen, you just stay out of it. Because you can not have both.
Either you can have life, or you can be remembered in history. If you have
life, you will just be an easy and simple man doing simple little things
and appreciate them. You will not create any problem for everyone, no one
will take notice of you; you will exist as if you never existed. This is
what is easy - existing as if you are existing, existing as if you are not,
not bothering anyone.
I want my work to leave a legacy if I slave on my computer every day,
typing in a storm, as I typed this review, and life quickly pass me by. I
will have my inheritance, but at what price? What I missed?
Do anything, if you feel easy to do, it just is. If you feel uncomfortable
to do something wrong. If you are tense, it means that you live a life
uncomfortable. If you can not sleep, can not relax, can not let go, it
shows you live a life uncomfortable - you're after things difficult,
impossible things.
If I had to take his advice, I work just the minimum to satisfy my physical
needs, then relax for most of the day. I & # 8217, to go for walks, do a
basic level of exercise that doesn t mean you have to have big muscles,
cook simple meals, and seek good company. Instead, I have a schedule for me
before I wake up, which means my day died before even opening my eyes. I
have strategies to maximize the amount of work I do. I exercise my right
wrist experiencing chronic pain due to excessive computer use. I have
special stretches for the lower back to fight against the effects of
sitting all day in front of a screen. I sacrifice my body for labor and
excess material gain.
Nature is vast, and all men are created narrow laws. They are like funnels
- more you move them they become narrowest, and a moment comes cul-de-sac,
you can not move anywhere, and the tunnel becomes your grave. Thus everyone
is stuck.
[& # 8230;]
& # 8230; laws and regulations can not protect you, they give you a sense
of protection. But nothing protects. The laws can not secure you, they give
a sense of security which is false. Death comes in the end and shattered
all your titles. Stay trembling, full of fear, unless you return to the
source - the inner turn of mind.
following scriptures, rules and laws are the same as following the dictates
of men before, and they decided life is good for you to live.
Achievement is by nature - not by the company. You wear your destiny in
yourself, but it's an unconscious thing. Am. No one will know you have
reached, but you will be aware. You can not get a Nobel Prize because he
has never been assigned to a busy person. Nobody was satisfied yet received
a Nobel Prize, no Buddha, no Jesus, and it will not happen in the future
either, because the Nobel Prize is given to someone who obeyed the society
sincerely, and which has achieved the objectives of the company - and not
his own. Look at the Nobel Prize winners and you will not find saddest men
as these. Most of them commit suicide, and this is not accidental, it has a
deep meaning in it. Most of them feel unsatisfied. Prizes can not satisfy
you. Leave the conscious nature, do not force consciously.
The company prizes as trophies of money and equipment to continue to play
the game, but winning the game is Pyrrhic, because the moment after the
victory, once the cheering crowd disappears, you re disappointed that you
feel no different from before.
Be sincere to your inner nature and help others to be sincere to their
inner nature. This is what I call a religious man. A religious man is one
who is sincere in his inner nature and help others to be sincere to their
inner nature. You are here to fulfill your destiny, and others are there to
meet them. Do not expect anything from them, if you turn them into liars.
Do not expect anything to anyone, and do not meet the expectations of
others to you.
The only way to get around the company's network, build alliances, and
curry favor. Scrape the man's back and maybe he'll scratch yours in the
future. Pretending to be nice to this man maybe he won t criticize you to
others. When can we turn into actors, sacrificing who we are, for a future
gain that is even necessary?
Whenever others appreciate you - beware, you move on a dangerous path.
Sooner or later, they punish you. When people talk about your success -
beware, now failure is not far. When they put you on the throne, escape,
because sooner or later they throw you off. But you are so stupid and
stupid, you'll never see that someone else was there before the throne.
They put it there, and now, for you, they threw. Now they are welcoming you
and garlands, but sooner or later they will find another showman and they
throw you. This happens to everyone who lives through public opinion. Do
not ask any success in the outside world and you will not fail. Do not ask
people to respect you, then there will be no insult.
But how will I get the glory? How do I get rich? How do I feel I validated
it is & # 8221;? Most people are afraid of ordinary life as much as they
are afraid of falling from a high position, because they crave the
adoration of the masses allowing their egos to feel that they are a person
instead 'a person.
Nothing is missing and nothing is missing. You are perfect since there is a
possibility of perfection.
[& # 8230;]
It is difficult for you to think that at this point, you are gods, but I
ask you - what is missing? What is missing? You are alive, conscious
breathing - what do you need?
[& # 8230;]
If you say, "If these conditions are fulfilled then I will be happy," these
conditions will not be met. And, secondly, even if these conditions are
met, at which time you have lost even the ability to celebrate and enjoy.
And besides, when these conditions are met - if ever, because they can not
be met - your mind will create further ideals.
Something is always wrong with us. We're close to an ideal, but still far
away. must do more work; if we can not have this thing or that thing,
everything will be perfect, life will be complete, but imagine a carrot at
the end of the branch, and right after you jump and grab carrots, more
carrot suddenly appears, and branch is always moved so high so you have to
work harder to get it.
The set is large, you're just an atomic cell. The ocean is vast, you are a
drop of water in it. The whole ocean is salty, and you try to be gentle.
It's impossible!
When you fight with the world, you are fighting with you, because you are a
part of the world, part of the whole. Everything in this world you
influence in direct proportion to how you influence, so that you fight is
certainly already a part of you, because the part can not be separated from
the whole. You are not separate or unaffected by what you see around you.
If you fight the enemy impresses you, and remember you & # 8230; even
friends do not have such an impact that the enemies have. If you fight with
someone all the time, you will be influenced by them, because you have to
use the same techniques to combat them. In the end, the enemies become
similar.
If a general wins a war, the man who will meet HE General on the opposite
side, because it is hardly different from him. The uniforms are different,
but the man is the same. They're supposed to hate, but rather a mutual
admiration grows.
& # 8230; when you are ready to fight at any moment, you are a coward.
Combat is a cover. You want to prove that you are a brave man. The very
desire, the same desire to prove, means that you are not. A man who is
truly wise will never under any circumstances be looking for opportunities
to prove that he is wise. A fool is always looking for a way to prove that
he is wise. A man who is truly in love, who became the love, do not try to
prove that he is in love.
[& # 8230;]
When you think you are sure of your strength, remember well, you are hiding
something from yourself. What about when you want to say, I am confident?
If you are really trusting the word has no meaning. You are not sure you
claim. And not only to others, you repeat to yourself: I am confident. You
create a self-hypnosis. If you repeat it long enough, you begin to feel,
but this feeling does not have the inner energy in it.
To prove I'm good with women, I had to sleep with a lot of them, but the
fact that I needed this evidence is that the evidence of the fight I had
with them. And then finally I became good with women, I could sleep with
them fairly regularly, and the need to prove disappeared. I become unhappy
with my behavior and stopped. To find out what a man is, look it doesn t
try to prove. To know what it isn t, look what he's trying to prove.
Treat all that is beautiful, good and true, like a seed. Give him a little
earth, a hidden place in the heart, does not display. But the opposite is
done by everybody: what is wrong, you hide it, you do not want it to be
known by others. Whether it is ugly you hide and all that is beautiful,
even if it's not, you try to advertise, you expand, you see.
What is a first date but a grotesque display of acting? The woman shows her
ephemeral and transitory beauty, enhanced by makeup, clothing and special
effects, with a politeness that will be the climax of you his experience,
and man packs in his best jokes, statements, travel and stories into a
clown show he hopes Just enter in his pants. Two actors pretend to be
someone they aren t, and fall for it isn t.
So if you want to prove something, it shows that you are doubtful about it.
You want to destroy your doubt through the eyes of others, for their
opinions. You are not really convinced of your beautiful person, you want
others to say that you are beautiful.
This advice is often done in the opposite direction, where positive quality
must be displayed immediately, and once it is praised and talked about the
magic and beauty of it is lost, and now you do the race to find another
trait to display to garner the same amount of praise, until you run out of
shows and the public gets bored and moves on to someone else.
You can go on thinking yourself a nice person, but no one thinks that way
about you because everybody is concerned about its own beauty, not with
yours. And if someone nods and says, "Yes, you're beautiful," he or she is
waiting for you to nod about its beauty. It is a good mutual business: You
complete my ego, I do yours. I know that you are not beautiful, you know
I'm not beautiful, but I fulfill your ego, you are doing mine.
[& # 8230;]
If you are an exhibitionist then you remain a commodity, a thing. You can
never become a person because "person" is hidden deep in the recesses of
being. It is the deepest possibility in all of existence.
The most insecure people in the world are actresses and models. Their whole
design of the car is based on the external validation, not the satisfaction
or inner understanding. Once validation is drying up, and he always does,
they are also confident, and begin to mutilate with plastic surgery to
regain the praise they lost.
You see a musician you want to be a musician; you see a player and you want
to be an actor; you see a doctor and want to be a doctor. You want to be
anything but yourself - and that's all you can be, nothing else. Nothing
else is possible, and no one else like you, no one can become your ideal.
Western philosophy teaches you that you're becoming a thing, not something
that has already become. There are many parts of you that are wrong and you
need to learn, tender, work, and exist in the constant need to be the last
thing you need to instantly give the eternal fulfillment, but this is a
lie, and the goal that you treasure is a deadlock because of anything
outside will give you satisfaction. Already become something.
It is good to try to understand leaders of men because they are apes. And
you think that you follow? In fact, deep down, they follow you. A leader is
always a follower of his own disciples because he always has to watch where
you go, what you do. They need to know in advance where the wind blows for
it to be just before.
[& # 8230;]
There are several ways to crucify a man, crucifixion alone. You can also
put on the throne, then as he is crucified, and in a more subtle way; very
not you kill him violently. Whenever you begin to respect a person that you
have started to kill him, because now he has to pay; it must look at you -
what to do, what not to do.
A leader is a victim of his own disciples, because his status may be
immediately revoked if its supporters believe it is in their interest to
follow someone else. The talented chef is that he knows what his followers
want before they know. It comes with a slogan that deeply touches their
heart, and the disciples cry out in pleasure they found their leader, only
when they found someone who holds a mirror themselves.
A man of Tao absolutely anywhere without identity. Why? Because if you show
talent then people can not forgive you. People can forgive fools, but they
can not forgive the wise men. That is why Jesus was crucified, Socrates was
poisoned. You feel so utterly inferior before Jesus or Socrates, how can
you forgive them! It's natural, you will make a concerted attack. You all
make a concerted attack to kill that man. Then you will feel that a charge
has been laid.
One of the easiest ways to be loved by others is not to walk on their egos.
Allow them to think of you as an inferior man, a simple man, and they hit
you. The second assert your superiority over them showing the virtue or
talent, resentment is built, and they will wait for their chance to harm
you, to prove that they are not inferior to you.
And a man who did not know his innermost being is always as something,
always on display in the window of a shop; always waiting for someone to
come and use it with all his certificates, distinctions, talents; always
shouting Come use me, do me one thing. I am a most valuable thing, you will
never be anything better than me. Come and use me!
To be useful is to be enslaved by them that you found useful. They have
expectations of you to continue to be useful, and your life becomes a
mission to ensure that you are always helpful, always someone in the eyes
of others, but be that someone is an illusion, because one day you will not
be useful, and any validation and attention will be removed. The illusion
of your superiority will be broken while watching another man receiving the
admiration you have ever had.
In the spiritual world no traces are left. It is like heaven: a bird flies
- no traces are left, no one can follow. Just take a pleasure in me, be
happy with me and you absorb. And it will become a light in you and show
you the way. But do not copy, do not believe or do not believe, do not be
facing the head. Do not be a monkey - be a man.
[& # 8230;]
You may know that in the total freedom - and the rules are the prisons.
They are prisons because nobody can do other rules for you; he may have
discovered the truth by those rules, but they were for him. The nature is
different - they helped, but they will not help you; instead, they hinder
you.
There is the fear of being your own man, because you can fail, you
embarrass, be hated, be considered inferior. So men are turning to other
guidance and training men to help ensure their success, but the only result
is that they become a copy of a copy, a man who imitates another man's life
for material gain and ego satisfaction.
If you are a little understanding, give others around you the freedom to be
themselves and do not allow anyone to interfere with your freedom. Do not
nobody slave of you and do not become a slave to anyone.
We rarely accept people for who they are. The second we met a girl, we
think about how it can be improved. The second connection with another man
that we, we think how it can be more useful for us to achieve our goals. We
meet people and make calculations in our heads about how we can extract
from them, benefit, and they are doing the same. And relationships
Friendships become simple trade agreements.
The first thing to understand is not to take life as a question. Once you
take it as a question you'll be in trouble; you have already moved on a
wrong path - it will be a cul-de-sac. Somewhere, in theory, you will be
stuck. Everyone is stuck somewhere in a theory, and it is very difficult to
drop the theory. You cling because the question scares you - at least one
theory is a consolation, at least you feel you know.
[& # 8230;]
& # 8230; life is waiting for you and your theories, it moves quickly. Soon
death will arrive and you will die with your theories in your hand; and
they will not help, they are just dead ashes.
The first thing you do once you notice things in life is to build a theory
based on your habits. Not only your help in theory your ego's need to feel
superior, since you share this theory to all who will listen, but is also
an attempt to alleviate the anxiety of living in a world where everything
can go wrong at a time s notice. You hope your theory will predict the
future with some precision to keep your security, but no theory has stood
the test of time. They all have flaws, they all failed, but the man will
not stop trying to build the ultimate theory, theory of everything, to feel
that he thought of it and is safe from the spontaneous nature of life.
Buddha said that when you find an old man happy as a young, there is
something there - and worshiped him, to listen and learn from him. In
India, it was the tradition that every time we found an old man happy,
dance, we make him a master.
It is very easy to be happy when you are in your prime. You're at your peak
health, beauty and physical fitness. Tout est nouveau, avec un monde
d'expériences avant, et la stimulation quotidienne de la nouveauté et de
découverte vous assure gagné t vous ennuyer. Mais pour être heureux quand
vous êtes vieux, quand la rivière est asséchée, c'est quelque chose de
spécial. Lorsque votre santé est parti, votre beauté est parti, votre
phallus ne fonctionne plus, vos muscles sont atrophiés, votre dos est
tordu, votre prostate est la taille d'une orange, et quand les gens autour
de vous vous voyez comme un fardeau, en attendant avec impatience pour vous
de mourir; si vous pouvez être heureux à ce moment-là il doit y avoir
véritable accomplissement intérieur. Montrez-moi un vieil homme heureux, un
homme qui a été mis de côté par les générations qui l'ont précédé. Il est
quelqu'un que je veux apprendre.
Ce qui est fait ne peut pas être à jamais; ce qui est peut être toujours
sans cause. Rappelez-vous que chaque fois que vous êtes toujours heureux;
rappelez-vous & # 8230; est-il quelque chose ou fait sans cause? Si elle
est causée alors il est préférable d'être triste, car il va être enlevé. Il
est déjà sur le chemin, il a déjà quitté vous - tôt ou tard, vous vous
rendrez compte qu'il a disparu.
Tout ce qui vous rend heureux, une fois enlevé, ensuite vous causer la
souffrance, et si elle est causée par quelque chose, il sera certainement
supprimé. Si vous pensez jamais que d'avoir une personne ou d'une situation
dans votre vie vous apportera le bonheur, vous générez l'énergie pour les
souffrances causées par son retrait. Rien dans le monde matériel peut
donner satisfaction, car ils seront tous pris loin de vous. S'il y a
quelque chose fait que vous rend heureux, j'espère pour vous, il est
quelque chose de simple qui est difficile à enlever & # 8212; une tasse de
thé, une bouffée d'air froid croustillant, être seul avec vos pensées, une
bonne nuit et # 8217; le sommeil, ou une conversation agréable avec une
personne de confiance.
Vous ne pouvez pas trouver la réponse dans le passé parce que rien est le
même aujourd'hui. Vous ne pouvez pas trouver la réponse dans le passé parce
que la réponse est pas la chose, il meurt toujours avec l'homme qui l'a
découvert. Mais les fantômes vont sur obsédante. Votre Vedas, Corans,
Bibles, Gitas, ils sont des fantômes. Ils ne sont pas des réalités
maintenant, ils sont morts depuis longtemps.
[& # 8230;]
Chaque fois que vous êtes trop engagé avec le passé, vous êtes engagé avec
de la terre, avec des tombes, vous êtes un fossoyeur. Vous vivez dans un
cimetière, vous n'êtes plus une partie du phénomène de la vie que la vie
est.
Si les grands hommes du passé, seraient-ils étaient encore en vie
aujourd'hui partagent toujours les mêmes conseils et les connaissances
qu'ils ont quitté? Est-ce qu'ils ont les mêmes enseignements, malgré un
environnement différent? It s peu probable. Ils étaient des hommes de leur
temps, et nous continuer à apprendre sur le passé et la façon de vivre dans
cet homme s le temps, au lieu de regarder avec nos propres yeux dans le
présent.
Les besoins peuvent être satisfaits, mais les désirs ne peuvent pas être.
Le désir est un besoin devenu fou. Les besoins sont simples, ils viennent
de la nature; désirs sont très complexes, ils ne viennent pas de la nature.
Ils sont créés par l'esprit. Les besoins sont à chaque instant, ils sont
créés à partir de la vie elle-même. Desires ne sont pas à chaque instant,
ils sont toujours pour l'avenir. Ils ne sont pas créés par la vie
elle-même, ils sont projetés par l'esprit. Desires sont des projections,
ils ne sont pas vraiment besoin. Ceci est la première chose à comprendre,
et plus vous comprendre, mieux. Qu'est-ce que le désir? Il est le mouvement
de l'esprit dans l'avenir.
La plupart souffrance en Occident vient d'essayer de satisfaire les désirs.
La seconde vous satisfaire un, et saisir la carotte de la fin du bâton, la
carotte apparaît immédiatement plus. Pour toujours vous travaillez à saisir
ce que s à la fin du bâton, mais toujours vous sentez un manque. Une fois
que vous avez satisfait vos besoins matériels, et d'atteindre le confort de
base, vous êtes maintenant libre de trouver votre chemin, pour explorer la
vie, mais la plupart des gens au lieu immédiatement s'ensnare à un nouveau
désir, et de garder eux-mêmes coincés dans sa poursuite jusqu'à ce qu'ils
meurent.
Les besoins sont belles; désirs sont laids. Les besoins sont corporels;
désirs sont d'ordre psychologique. Mais regardez vos soi-disant saints et
sages: ils condamnent toujours vos besoins et toujours aider vos désirs à
projeter. Ils disent: Que fais-tu? Juste manger? En train de dormir? Perdre
votre vie? Essayez d'atteindre le ciel! Le ciel est le désir ultime.
Paradis vous attend et vous perdez votre vie sur des choses ordinaires -
juste végéter. Levez-vous et courir, parce qu'il n'y a pas laissé beaucoup
de temps! Atteindre! Knock at the door of heaven! Reach God! But don't
stand there!
I’ve shamed men in the exact same way, particularly in my essay
Thoughts On Being An Excellent Man, where I package Western ideas of ego
gratification in a pompous display of telling men to essentially be like me
in order to be “excellent.” Your ego will have you believing
that you are the most superior man in the world if you let it, better than
billions of people. Who am I to tell other men what greatness or excellence
in manhood is? I can only teach what I’ve learned about being a man,
without value judgements, and no more.
Life is dangerous, but that is the beauty of it – it is insecure, because
insecurity is the very nature of movement, aliveness, vitality. The more
dead you are, the more secure. When you are in your grave there will be no
danger. What can happen to you anymore? Nothing! Nobody can harm you when
you are dead. But when you are alive, you are vulnerable, you can be
harmed. But I tell you, that is the beauty of life.
Most of what we do in life is an attempt to remove all insecurities,
spontaneities, and anxieties—to make life a dead thing that will
never harm or surprise us. By living safe routines, we succeed instead at
deadening life while the anxieties never go away, because merely by trying
to address them, you give them power over you. Kill one anxiety and another
will appear, just like with desire, and so we live in cage as if we were a
scared chicken, imposing artificial limits and rules just to avoid the
dangers of life.
Life is insecure! Let this truth penetrate deeper and deeper in you. Let it
become a seed deep in your heart – life is insecure. It is its nature and
nothing can be done about it – all that you do will be poisonous. You can
only kill. And the more secure you feel, the more dead you will be. Look at
people who are really secure with wealth, prestige, castles around them –
you can see they are
dead. Just see their faces, the eyes look as if they are made of stone.
The most fearful people in the world are the rich. They have elaborate
security systems, bunkers, panic rooms. You don’t build a bunker
unless you fear for your life, unless you believe catastrophe is around the
corner. You don’t lobby the government for power unless you deep down
fear another man coming to take away your wealth or the poor masses putting
your head on the chopping block. You hire professionals to guard that
wealth, a team of lawyers to protect it, and are more fearful than a
homeless man who has nothing to lose, who knows that no one can take
anything away from him.
Insecurity is the nature of Tao. Don't make securities – otherwise you are
cutting yourself off from nature, from Tao. And the more secure you are,
the further away you will be. Move into the unknown and let the unknown
have its own way.
This quote remains me of Jesus feeding bread to the multitude:
When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place
apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out
of the cities.
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with
compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a
desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they
may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And
they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said,
Bring them hither to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five
loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and
brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the
multitude.
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments
that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five
thousand men, beside women and children. Matthew 14:13-21
Don’t be afraid. God, Jesus, nature, Tao, or whatever great force you
believe in, will provide for your needs. As a creation of this Earth, you
were given the ability to attain your bread, and as evidence of that, I bet
that you have never gone a full day without food. You will endure until you
must die, like all other creatures must, and your being, soul, spirit, and
molecular composition transforms into a different energy or state that
allows the entire cycle to continue existing as it has.
You love thinking because thinking can become instrumental in achieving
something: you can become a great thinker, or, through thinking, you can
become a great leader. Through sleeping have you ever heard of anybody
becoming a great leader? They all condemn sleep, they all condemn laziness.
They all condemn people who simply enjoy life and are not too active – they
call them hobos or bums, vagabonds, and condemn them. But have you ever
observed the fact that the world has never suffered from any lazy man?
Because no lazy man can become a Hitler, no lazy man can become a Nixon, no
lazy man can become a Mao, a Ghengis Khan, a Napoleon. No lazy man can
become active. Action has brought all the wars. Action is the most
mischievous thing in the world. But still we go on saying that action is
needed – because everybody is ambitious.
If you are plugged into the rat race, into the Western mentality, you will
react with anger to Osho’s teachings. You will say, “But look
at India, where people defecate on the streets!” You will exclaim,
“Look at Africa and the laziness that one can witness!” You
will yell, “But we are the most advanced civilization in the
world!” And you would be correct in that the West does not have
sewage problems, and its technology and skyscrapers are a sight to behold,
but at what cost to the individual? What has the individual man in the West
had to endure to have such splendid material marvels, to have clean
streets? What is going on in the homes on those streets, in the minds of
those who have to live in this splendor?
We arrive at the conflict between individual fulfillment and societal
magnificence. What’s good for the individual may not be good for
society, and what’s good for society may cause suffering to the
individual. I agree we must have standards within a society to prevent it
from succumbing to every degenerate cause under the sun, but it’s a
danger to place it above that of the individual.
Osho’s words help me check myself during the times I’m blindly
carrying on in life, stacking my plate full of multiple projects, aching to
make a difference in the world to mold it into my imagined image of
righteousness. He helps me realize that my ego is a parasite that steers me
onto paths that serve me little or no benefit, that all my needs are
already achieved and I can stop and enjoy life for what it is instead of
creating tension, conflicts, and distractions that put me on a path to
misery.
I see Tao as a logical extension of Stoicism, because while the latter
insinuates that are you a thing-becoming, Tao argues that you have already
become. If you do get value out of Stoicism, I believe you will enjoy this
book by Osho.
This article was originally published on Roosh V.
Read More: “When The Shoe Fits” on Amazon
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