Uselessness !

It happened to me. I am a useless man. In my childhood days I would be sitting down just next to my mother. She would look around her and say, "I would like to send someone to fetch vegetables from the market, but I cannot see anyone to send" -- and I would be sitting there just next to her! She would say, "I can't see anyone here!" And I would laugh inside myself -- she couldn't send me to the market, I was so useless that she was not aware that I was there.

Once, my aunt came to stay, and she was not aware of my uselessness. My mother was saying, "Nobody is in to go to the market. All the children have gone out and the servant is ill, so what can I do? Some-one has to be sent."

So my aunt said, "Why not send Raja? He is sitting there, not doing anything."

So I was sent. I asked the market vendor there, "Give me the best vegetables you have got, the best bananas, the best mangoes." Looking at me and the way I was talking he must have thought I was a fool, because nobody ever asks for the best. So he charged me double and gave me all the rotten things he had, and I came home very happy.

My mother threw them away and said, "Look! This is why I say nobody is here."

Chuang Tzu insists very much: Be alert and don't be very useful; otherwise people will exploit you. Then they will start managing you and then you will be in trouble. And if you can produce things, they will force you to produce all your life. If you can do a certain thing, if you are skillful, then you cannot be wasted.

He says that uselessness has its own intrinsic utility. If you can be useful for others, then you have to live for others. Useless, nobody looks at you, nobody pays any attention to you, nobody is bothered by your being. You are left alone. In the marketplace you live as if you are living in the Himalayas. In that solitude you grow. Your whole energy moves inwards.

-OSHO

(Chapter 8-The Useless, The Empty Boat)

Attachment - Spiritual Slavery !

whatever you do comes back to you !

One day you comprehend that the
sorrow we give others makes us equally sad; the joy we give others makes us equally happy.

But we think in opposite terms – saving joy for ourselves and wishing sorrow on others. And we feel, perhaps, that in that way our own quota of happiness will be greater.

The end result is that you find your own life filled with sorrow because whatever you give returns to you. If you have sown thorns
for others, your own life gets surrounded by thorns. And if you go about sowing flowers unconcerned with what others are doing, your life becomes filled with flowers.

You reap what you sow.

But we do not seem to understand this formula of life.

A woman came to me wanting to divorce her husband.

I will never forget what she asked of me.
She said, ”Show me a way of getting a divorce so that my husband remains miserable for all time to come.”

She knows very well that her husband will be the happiest person in the world the day she
divorces him; she has pestered him
endlessly.

Now she wants that he be made miserable even after she leaves.

When we are together we wish to give sorrow; when we are apart we wish to give sorrow.

Together or apart, if our aim in life is to create sorrow and pain for others, then it can only gradually create a painful wound within ourselves.

The wound is of our own making. It comes out of constant attention to provoking pain.

This is what we call karma, the process of actions. Fate, destiny, only mean that whatever you do comes back to you.

Though there may be a certain lapse of time, eventually it is bound to bounce back to affect you.

Therefore do only what you want to obtain for yourself.

If you find yourself in a veritable hell, it is of your own making – the fruit of what you have been doing for countless births.

People come to me and say, ”Bless us so that we may attain happiness.” There would be no problem if it were so easy, if one man could just bless everyone and they would find happiness.

How could my blessings wash away your misery?

Try to understand me and not ask for blessings; that would be mere deception.

You have given pain and suffering to others, now you must reap the fruits of your actions; and you come to ask for blessings?

And your attitude is that you suffer because I do not give you my blessings.

No blessings can remove your suffering.

If somebody’s blessings help to improve your understanding and sow seeds of love within you, that is more than enough.

Sins can be washed away only with love, and suffering can end only when you give happiness to others.

OshO ❤️ 
CHAPTER 9. DYED IN HIS HUE
The True Name, Vol 1

Nobody knows from where the help will come !

It happened: Vivekananda, before he went to America and became a world-famous figure, stayed in Jaipur Maharaja’s palace. The Maharaja was a lover of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. As maharajas go, when Vivekananda came to stay in his palace he made a great festival out of it, and he called prostitutes to dance and sing in reception… as maharajas go: they have their own minds. He completely forgot that to receive a sannyasin with the singing of prostitutes and dancing of prostitutes doesn’t suit. But he couldn’t know anything else. He always knew that when you have to receive somebody, drinking, dancing has to be done.

And Vivekananda was still immature; he was not a perfect sannyasin yet. Had he been a perfect sannyasin, then there was indifference — no problem — but he was not indifferent yet. He has not gone that deep into Patanjali even. He was a young man, and a very suppressive one who was suppressing his sex and everything. When he saw the prostitutes, he simply locked his room and would not come out of it.

The Maharaja came and he asked his forgiveness. He said, ‘We don’t know. We have never received any sannyasin. We always receive kings, so we know the ways. So we are sorry, but now it will be too much insulting, because this is the greatest prostitute in the country — and very costly. And we have paid, and to say her to move and go will be insulting to her, and if you don’t come she will feel very much hurt. So come out.”

But Vivekananda was afraid to come out; that’s why I say he was still immature, still not a seasoned sannyasin. Still indifference is not there — a condemnation: “A prostitute?” — he was very angry, and he said, “No” Then the prostitute started singing without him, and she sang a song of a saint. The song is very beautiful. The song says that “I know that I am not worthy of you, but you could have been a little more compassionate. I am dirt on the road; that I know. But you need not be so antagonistic to me. I am nobody — ignorant, a sinner. But you are a saint — why are you afraid of me?”

It is said Vivekananda heard from his room. The prostitute was weeping and singing, and he felt — he felt the whole situation of what he is doing. It is immature, childish. Why he is afraid? Fear exists only if you are attracted. You will be afraid of women if you are attracted of women. If you are not attracted, the fear disappears. What is the fear? An indifference comes without any antagonism.

He opened the door: he couldn’t contain himself, he was defeated by the prostitute. The prostitute became victorious; he had to come out. He came and he sat, and he wrote in his diary that “A new revelation has been given to me by the divine. I was afraid… must be some lust within me. That’s why I was afraid. But the woman defeated me completely, and I have never seen such a pure soul. The tears were so innocent and the singing and the dancing were so holy that I would have missed. And sitting near her, for the first time I became aware that it is not a question who is there outside; it is a question what is.”

That night he wrote in his diary that ‘Now I can even sleep with that woman in the bed and there will be no fear.” He transcended. That prostitute helped him to transcend. This is a miracle. Ramakrishna couldn’t help and a prostitute helped him. So nobody knows from where the help will come. Nobody knows what is evil and what is good. Who can decide? Mind is impotent and helpless. So don’t take any attitude: that is the meaning of being indifferent.

-OSHO, 
(Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega)

A CONSCIOUS DEATH IS ONE OF THE MIRACLES OF LIFE………

Enlightenment only means that your whole being is conscious: there are no dark corners left inside you.
Dying in such consciousness the body, the mind, the brain can be taken away from you, because you know now – not just as a theory, but as your authentic experience – that you have always been separate.
The involvement with the body was broken the day you became enlightened…..

Questioner : “ Is it possible to die consciously without being enlightened?”

OSHO : “ Nirah, existence follows certain laws – and there are no exceptions. If one wants to die consciously, the only way is to be enlightened.

Death is such a great surgery: your soul is being taken apart from the body and mind, with which it has been involved for seventy or eighty years. Even for a small operation you need anaesthesia; and this is the greatest operation in existence.

Unconsciousness is nothing but nature’s way of giving you anaesthesia. Unless you are completely unidentified with body and mind, you cannot die consciously – and a death which is not conscious is a great opportunity missed.

Enlightenment is an absolute necessity.

Enlightenment only means that your whole being is conscious: there are no dark corners left inside you. Dying in such consciousness the body, the mind, the brain can be taken away from you, because you know now – not just as a theory, but as your authentic experience – that you have always been separate. The involvement with the body was broken the day you became enlightened.

In the ancient scriptures of the Buddhists, enlightenment is called the “great death” – not that you are going to die, but the death is great because you will be able to see it happening, you will be a witness. Now you are no longer attached to the body, no clinging, and you have become aware of your immortality.

You can die consciously only when you know that you are immortal, that you belong to eternity, not to time; that deep within you is the beginning of existence and the end of existence – if there is any beginning or if there is any end. In fact there is no beginning and no end; you have always been here, and you will always be here.

A conscious death is one of the miracles of life, because after that you will not be born again in any form – as a man, as a bird, as a tree. You will remain in the eternal consciousness of the universe, spread all over the ocean. Hence, it has been called the “great death.”

But there are no exceptions. Existence follows absolutely definite laws, and this is a law of the highest order, because it concerns your consciousness, your life, your death.”

OSHO
The Rebellious Spirit. Chapter 17.

”Eat, drink and be merry,” was not enough !

There have been two traditions in the world. One consists of those who are life-negative, life condemners, life poisoners. They have been in the majority, because most people love the negative. To condemn anything is very easy. To criticize anything is very easy. But to appreciate anything needs intelligence.

THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL STORY by Turgenev, THE FOOL.

A sage came to a village where the village idiot was condemned by everybody; the moment he opened his mouth people would start laughing, expecting him to say something stupid. The poor man came to the sage and told his misery, that he is the laughingstock of the whole village. As far as possible he keeps completely quiet, but even his quietness is condemned: ”Look at that idiot. He thinks that we are all fools who are talking and
he is something spiritual; being silent, meditative!” ”If I talk, I am condemned; if I don’t talk, I am condemned. Show me the way to get out of this miserable state.”

The sage said, ”I will give you the secret. And after one month I will be coming back; then you can tell me what happened in this month.”

The secret was very simple. The secret was: ”Do not say anything on your own account, but whenever somebody says something, immediately criticize. If somebody says, ‘Look, how beautiful
is the full moon,’ don’t miss the opportunity. Immediately say, ‘What is beautiful in it? Prove what is beautiful in it. Do you know what beauty is?’

”It is very difficult to define it. Everybody knows that the full moon is beautiful. But perhaps you have never asked yourself, ‘Do you know what beauty is?’ And if you don’t know what beauty is, how can you say anything is beautiful? The statement that something is beautiful implies that you know the definition of beauty. So immediately jump in and ask, ‘What is the definition of beauty?’”

Not even the greatest philosophers who have been thinking all their lives about beauty and nothing else, like Croce who has written volumes upon beauty, end up with anything definable. The whole effort, hundreds of pages, and the conclusion is that it is indefinable.

”Just go on this way. If somebody says, ‘That man is very virtuous,’ immediately ask, ‘What is virtue? How do you know, on what grounds, what authority?’

”Never make any statement of your own, so nobody can criticize you. And you go on criticizing everybody, don’t miss a single opportunity, and ask for a definition.”

And after one month the sage came and the idiot fell at his feet and said, ”Your secret has done miracles. Now I am supposed to be the wisest man in my village. In just one month!”

To negate, needs not much intelligence. To affirm, needs tremendous intelligence. So there has been a majority tradition of condemners. That is the easiest way to prove yourself superior. They condemn everything, they condemn the whole world.

There has been a small stream of affirmers also. But they are looked upon in a very derogatory way. These are the materialists. The majority thinks itself spiritualist. Yet there is a small stream which says, ”Eat, drink and be merry. This is all. There is nothing else to seek and search for.”

My situation is a little complex. I accept the materialist as far as he is saying, ”Eat, drink and be merry.” But I deny that this is all. I accept the spiritualist’s search for something higher, but I refute
the spiritualist for his condemnation of life, enjoyment, the small joys of life.

I am a materialist-spiritualist. Begin with this very earth and rise up to the sky, to the highest stars. This is one single universe. There are not two universes, one materialist and one spiritualist. Matter and spirit are continuously meeting with each other, dancing hand in hand.

You have to be a materialist to begin with. But don’t stop there. That is only a beginning. The second thing that will make your journey complete is the search for significance. Otherwise every enjoyment is going to become boredom sooner or later. If you don’t know the significance, if you don’t know the eternal meaning of life, if you simply live superficially – I am not saying it is evil, I am saying it is incomplete. It is getting lost in the very beginning. It is very superficial.

Life has depths beyond depths, and unless you reach to the very bottom and touch something eternal, you will not know the significance of existence, the splendor and the glory and the
abundance of blessings. Your enjoyment will pay well for a long time. But then you will know that, ”Eat, drink and be merry,” was not enough. It was good enough, but not enough.

-OSHO.
(CHAPTER 26. NOBODY IS A GERMAN, Sat Chit Anand)

Money matters !

Mulla Nasrudin's daughter came home and she said she was pregnant and the richest man of the town was the father of the unborn child. Mulla Nasrudin was, of course, mad. 

He rushed with his gun towards the rich man's house; he forced the rich man into a corner and said, "Now you can breathe your last, or if you have any prayer to say to God, say it!" 

The rich man smiled and he said, "Listen, before you do anything neurotic. Yes, I know your daughter is pregnant by me -- but if a boy is born I have kept one lakh rupees in the bank for the boy. If a daughter is born I have kept fifty thousand rupees in the bank for the daughter."

Mulla took his gun away and said, "Sir, if something goes wrong, if there is a miscarriage or something, are you ready to give her another chance?"

Once the money is there, then suddenly you are no more yourself; you are ready to change.

This is the way of the worldly man. I don't call those people worldly who have money -- I call those people worldly who change their motives for money. I don't call those people unworldly who have no money they may be simply poor. I call those people unworldly who don't change their motives for money.

Just being poor is not equivalent to being spiritual; and just being rich is not equivalent to being a materialist.

-OSHO
A Sudden Clash Of Thunder