Every moment is Diwali !

We have a few festive days.

Once a year we celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, and light many lamps in the darkness.

But our life is dry and dull; and it is just because this is so that man has had to create festivals.

The birds, the beasts, the plants, the rivers, the waterfalls – they have
neither Holi nor Diwali.

It is because man is sick that he is satisfied with just one Diwali.

One Diwali is just a consolation.

So on that day the new clothes, the firecrackers, the lighted lamps – and then

we return to the same gloominess, the same prison, the same misery, the same anxiety.

But do you think that a river that flows for one day of the year is going to reach the ocean? And even this one day is only an apology for the real flowing;

it is just a mockery of our real selves!

Look at nature: there is Existence enjoying Holi every day, and celebrating Diwali daily.

In nature the colors flow afresh every day, new flowers open each morning.

Even before the old leaves fall,
the new buds are bursting out and the new shoots are springing up.

The festival does not stop even for a moment.

It is non-stop, every moment is Diwali.

Such will be the life of a religious person.

He will be festive each moment – he is grateful that he is.

His every breath is an expression of gratitude and benediction.

OshO ❤️
Nowhere To Go But In

Gratitude !

Start the day with a great decisiveness.

And in the evening again feel gratitude that the day was given to you, and feel gratitude for all that happened.

Good and bad both, happiness and unhappiness both, because they are all teachers.

Everything is an opportunity.

Taken rightly, every moment is a stepping-stone.

Failure as much helps you to become alert as success; sometimes in fact failure helps you to become more aware than success.

Success helps you to fall asleep.
In happiness people forget; in happiness nobody remembers God.

In unhappiness suddenly the remembrance comes.

Fortunate is the man who can remember even when he is happy; fortunate is the man who can remember when everything is going good and smooth.

When the sea is rough,everybody remembers God; there is nothing special in it, it is just out of fear.

It happened: In the sea there was a ship, a ship which was carrying many Mohammedans to Mecca.

They were on a pilgrimage.
They were all surprised by one thing: because they were all pilgrims going to the holy of holies, each was praying all the five prayers prescribed for a Mohammedan every day -- except a Sufi mystic.

But the mystic was so radiant with joy that nobody dared to ask him why.

Then one day the sea was very rough and the captain declared, "There seems to be no possibility that we can be saved, so please do your last prayer.

The ship is going to sink.
"And everybody fell in prayer except the Sufi mystic.

Now this was too much. Many people gathered around the mystic.

They were really angry and they said, "You are a man of God. We have watched you, you have never prayed.

But we didn't say anything; we felt that this would be disrespectful -- you are thought to be a holy man.

But now it is unbearable.
The ship is sinking, and you are a man of God -- if you pray, your prayer will be listened to.

Why are you not praying?"
The mystic said, "To pray out of fear is to miss the whole point, that's why I am not praying.

"And then they asked, "Then why did you not pray when there was no question of fear?

"He said, "I am in prayer, so I cannot pray.

Only those who are not in prayer can pray.

But what is the point of their prayer?

Empty rituals!

I am in prayer, in fact I am prayer.

Each moment is a prayer.

OshO
The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1

21 Ways to be Happy !

Love Yorself & watch !

Love yourself...' says Buddha. And then immediately he adds: '... and watch.' That is meditation, that is Buddha’s name for meditation. But the first requirement is to love yourself, and then watch. If you don’t love yourself and start watching, you may feel like committing suicide.

Many Buddhists feel like committing suicide because they don’t pay attention to the first part of the sutra, they immediately jump to the second: watch yourself. In fact, I have never come across a single commentary on The Dhammapada, these sutras of the Buddha, which has paid any attention to the first part: Love yourself.

Socrates says: Know thyself, Buddha says: Love thyself. And Buddha is far truer, because unless you love yourself you will never know yourself – knowing comes only later on, love prepares the ground. Love is the possibility of knowing oneself. Love is the right way to know oneself.

“Love yourself and watch...today, tomorrow, always.”
Osho
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 5, Talk #5

To be really kind implies that you can be unkind too !

I have heard about a Zen Master who was driving a carriage with a woman and her child in it. Much snow was falling and the morning was very cold and there was no sun in the sky, it was cloudy. The Master started freezing and the woman in the carriage did too. By and by he saw that she was becoming blue and was losing consciousness. So he took away the child, pushed the woman out of the carriage and drove away.

The woman was shocked. She was left standing there in the falling snow, her child had been taken away – what type of man was this? And he had taken the carriage. She started running and shouting and screaming and cursing – and within half a mile, because of all the running and cursing and shouting and screaming, she was perfectly okay!

Then the Master stopped the carriage, took her in and said, ’Now it is okay. I had to do that otherwise you would have died.’

Sometimes to be really kind implies that you can be unkind too. If you cannot be unkind then your kindness is not of much worth. It is cultivated. It is not out of awareness.

Now think. If you had been that driver you could not have done that. It looks immoral. But it is not.

Osho

~Chap 7, Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 2

Individuality !

It is very difficult to please all, and if you go on trying to please.

All you will be simply wasting your life.

And nobody is pleased, nobody can be pleased, it is impossible to please anybody.

Stop fulfilling expectations of others, because that is the only way you can commit suicide.

You are not here to fulfill anybody's expectations and nobody else is here to fulfill your expectations.

Never become a victim of others expectations and don't make anybody a victim of your expectations.

This is what I call individuality.

Respect your own individuality and respect others' individuality.

Never interfere in anybody's life and don't allow anybody to interfere in your life.

Only then one day you can grow into spirituality.

Otherwise, ninety-nine percent of people simply commit suicide.

Their whole life is nothing but a slow suicide.

Fulfilling this expectation, that expectation...

Someday it was the father, some day it was the mother, some day it was the wife,husband, then come children -- they also expect.

You have to fulfill their expectations.

Then the society, the priest and the politician, and all around everybody is expecting.

And poor you there, just a poor human being -- and the whole world expecting you to do this and that.

And if you don't fulfill their expectations... and you can't fulfill all of their expectations, because they are contradictory.

I was staying in a family and I asked the small boy, 'What are you going to become?

'He said, 'I don't know. I think I will go mad.''What do you mean?'He said, 'My father wants me to become an engineer, my mother wants me to become a doctor.

My uncle says, "Be a businessman, only then you can...."'Another uncle, he says be a professor because that is the most simple profession.

And I don't know.
But this much I know -- that if all expectations are fulfilled, I Will go mad.'

That's how many people have gone mad. And when I am saying many people have gone mad, don't make an exception of yourself.

You have gone mad fulfilling everybody's expectations.

And you have not fulfilled anybody's; nobody is happy.

This is the beauty.
You are lost, completely destroyed, and nobody is happy.

Because people who are not happy with themselves cannot be happy in any way.

Whatsoever you do, they will find ways to be unhappy with you, because they cannot be happy.

Happiness is an art that one has to learn.

It Has nothing to do with your doing or not doing.

OshO 
The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1

A little more patience !

I have heard: Once it happened a man renounced the world while he was very young and went to the Himalayas. For almost twenty years he meditated there. Now he was forty. He was sitting and meditating, sitting and meditating, not doing anything at all. Even birds, wild animals, by and by lost their fear with him. He was there, and a very peace-loving man, simply sitting. Animals would come and sit, and when they would have to go hunting they would leave their children near him to be taken care of. His hair became very long, and birds would nest in his hair and put their eggs there, and he would have to take care of them.

After twenty years he got fed up with the whole thing. He said, ”If I am to take care of others’ children – animals, birds – why shouldn’t I go and marry a woman and take care of my own children? This is absurd, and I am reaching nowhere. These twenty years are lost. Now there is no more time to lose because I am forty, and soon life will have ebbed!”

What was the problem? He was really meditating. What was the problem? Twenty years is a long time but the mind was continuously fragmented. One part was meditating, another was continuously saying, ”Useless! Why are you wasting your time? Others are enjoying. Go back down to the plains. People are happy there – dancing, drinking, eating, lovemaking. The world is in ecstasy and you are sitting here like a fool.” Continuously hearing this other fragment for twenty years, the first fragment by and by became weak.

On the surface he was repeating mantras: Ram, Ram, Ram. But deep down this was the mantra: the other part of the mind continuously saying, ”Useless! Sitting like a fool and everybody is enjoying life and now life is ebbing. Soon you will not be able to enjoy anything. You are becoming old.” This was the real mantra. On the surface, ”Ram, Ram, Ram” – but deep down this was the real mantra.

When your mind is divided you cannot pray, you cannot meditate, because one part is always against it, and sooner or later it will win. Remember this: that the part that is engaged is losing energy every moment. And the part that is not engaged, but which is the critical part, is not losing any energy. Sooner or later it will be more powerful.

You love a woman, and another part hates. You may hide this – everybody is hiding the other part – but unless you become enlightened, the other part is there. This loving part sooner or later will become weak because it is being used, the energy is being applied. The other hidden part, the hate part, will become stronger. So every marriage leads to divorce. Whether you do it or not, that’s another thing – but every marriage becomes divorce, unless you are married to an enlightened person: that is very difficult.

This man got fed up one day. He started coming down from the Himalayas. He thought, ”From where to start?” – he had completely forgotten the ways of the world, he had been so long out of it. ”From where to start? If you want to start in the world you will need a guide, just like when you want to start in the other world you will need a guide. Who can be the right guide for this world?” Then he remembered that in the old days, kings would send their sons and princes to the prostitutes, just to learn how to enter this world.

There is no better guide than a prostitute for this world. She is the world incarnate. Even love has become business for her – this is the last thing in the world – even love has become a profession, a commodity; she sells love. Money has become more important than love. This is the last thing in the world, and this can become the door.

So he went directly to a prostitute. It was evening and the prostitute was getting ready to go to a king. She said, ”You are welcome, but I have been invited by a king. He is a miser, I don’t hope that we will get much, but still – who knows? Sometimes even misers give. You come with us, come along.” So the monk followed.

The whole night the prostitute danced, sang. And the king sat silently, he didn’t give anything to her. Then the last part of the night was dissolving, soon there would be light, and the woman was so tired. She said in a song to her husband, who was playing the tabla, she said to him, ”Now, all that can be done I have done.” She sang it so no one would understand, it was in a code. She said, ”All that can be done I have done; now there seems to be no hope. It is better we should leave.”

Inside his mind the monk thought, ”This was the situation I was in: all that can be done has been done. Nothing more can be done, and I should leave.” So he listened very attentively.

The husband said, ”All that we could do we have done, but still a little of the night is left. Who knows? We must see the whole business through, so a little more, be patient.”

Hearing this, the monk thought, ”Now what should I do? Maybe I was just on the brink when I left the Himalayas – a little more patience.”

He had only one blanket, he was naked underneath. He became so enthralled that he threw his blanket at the feet of the prostitute and started running out of the palace. The king said to him, ”Stop! This is against the convention.” This was the convention, that when a rich man is present, he should contribute first; otherwise this is insulting – that a king is present and this man has contributed.

The monk said, ”You can kill me if it is against the convention, but she has saved my life. And it was such an ecstatic moment for me, I had to give something. I have nothing else, just that blanket, and I cannot wait for you, I am going to the Himalayas. This woman and this man who is playing the tabla, they have revealed a secret to me: a little more patience.” And it is said the man became enlightened then and there. He never went to the Himalayas. Just coming down the steps of the palace he became enlightened.

What happened? For the first time the two parts became one. That is the meaning of patience. Patience means, don’t allow the other part to fight; patience means that you are ready to wait for infinity. If you are ready to wait for infinity, there is no possibility for the other part to say, ”It has not happened yet.” There is no sense in saying, ”Why are you wasting your life?” If you are ready to wait for infinity then nothing is wasted. And if your waiting is eternal, infinite, then the other part cannot have its say.

~Osho

~Chap 5, No Water, No Moon