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

The last poem !

One of my most-loved books is by Rabindranath Tagore, AKHARI KAVITA, ”The Last Poem.” It is not a book of poetries, it is a novel – but a very strange novel, very insightful.

A young woman and a man fall in love and as it happens, immediately they want to get married. The woman says, ”Only on one condition....” She is very cultured, very sophisticated, very rich.

The man said, ”Any condition is acceptable, but I cannot live without you.”

She said, ”First listen to the condition; then think it over. It is not an ordinary condition. The condition is that we will not live in the same house. I have a vast land, a beautiful lake surrounded by beautiful trees and gardens and lawns. I will make you a house on one side, just the opposite from where I live.”

He said, ”Then what is the point of marriage?”

She said, ”Marriage is not destroying each other. I am giving you your space, I have my own space. Once in a while, walking in the garden we may meet. Once in a while, boating in the lake we may meet – accidentally. Or sometimes I can invite you to have tea with me, or you can invite me.”

The man said, ”This idea is simply absurd.”

The woman said, ”Then forget all about marriage. This is the only right idea – only then can our love go on growing, because we always remain fresh and new. We never take each other for granted. I have every right to refuse your invitation just as you have every right to refuse my invitation; in no way are our freedoms disturbed. Between these two freedoms grows the beautiful phenomenon of love.”

Of course the man could not understand, and dropped the idea. But Rabindranath has the same insight as Kahlil Gibran... and they were writing at almost the same time.

If this is possible – to have space and togetherness both – then the winds of heaven dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love.

It should be a free gift, given or taken, but there should be no demand. Otherwise, very soon you are together but you are as apart as faraway stars. No understanding bridges you; you have not left the space even for the bridge.

-OSHO

{Chap 8,The Messiah, Vol 1}

Stop listening !

The self is a shadow of unconsciousness, of darkness, of blindness !

It happened once ... Kahlil Gibran has a beautiful story.

In an ancient village there were two wells. One was in the palace, which was not available for anybody else than the royal family, and the other well was in the marketplace, which was available for everybody else except the royal family.

But one day a witch came into the town, and she chanted some gibberish and threw something inside the well. People watched but they could not understand what was happening. But by the time the sun was setting, everybody had drunk water from the well -- except the royal family -- and everybody had gone mad. The whole capital was mad, from the smallest child to the oldest man -- except the king and the queen and the prince.

And a strange thing happened .... The whole crowd gathered around the palace and they started shouting that the king has gone mad. They were all mad, obviously, and they all agreed on the point that "The king does not seem to be the same as we are."

The king immediately asked his prime minister what to do. "Even our armies have gone mad. They are all dancing and they are asking, `Come out of the palace! We will choose a new king who is sane just like us!'"

The prime minister was very old, an ancient wise man. He told the king, "The only way is to run from the back door. I will keep them engaged at the front door, telling them that `I am bringing the king, he is getting ready.' You run to the well that they have been drinking the water from. Drink the water -- you, your wife, your son -- and you all get drunk. Unless you are mad this crowd is going to kill you!"

The advice was absolutely correct. The king and his family ran from the back door, drank quickly the water of the well that the witch had changed with a certain alchemical phenomenon. They did not come to the back door, they came dancing and rejoicing to the front gate, and the crowd was very happy that their king had become sane.

That night there was a great festival in the capital. "Our king, our queen, our future king - - all have become sane!"

The crowd is living so unconsciously. You cannot expect from this crowd any act of virtue, any act of unselfishness. It is simply not possible. It is categorically impossible. First comes meditation, then everything else follows.

So when your parents or your priests tell you that you are doing a selfish act, tell them clearly that you are the only one who is going to drop the self, and there will be no selfishness left, and out of that state virtue will follow -- "not from your prayers, not from your Bible or your Koran or your Gita, not from your teachings, but from my own exploration into whether there is a self."

The self is a shadow of unconsciousness, of darkness, of blindness. It has never been found by those who have entered deeper into themselves.

-OSHO

(Chapter 3, Christianity: The Deadliest Poison and Zen: The Antidote to All Poisons)

YOU KNOW YOUR OWN WORTH !

This is the whole process that we call our life!!

IF YOU KNOW YOUR OWN WORTH you need not be worried what others think about you, whether they accept you or reject you.

If you are worried about others’rejection and acceptance, that simply shows one thing – that you don’t know your own worth, that you don’t know your own being, that you don’t know God resides in you, that you are an abode ofthe divine.

Hence you are worried what people are thinking about you – because on their thinking, on their opinion, will depend much.

Your ego depends on others’ opinions: your being depends on nobody.

That’s why the man of being is always a rebel, and the man who lives in the ego has to compromise very much with the society.

The egoist has to compromise, because if he does not compromise,nobody is going to fulfill his ego.

The ego needs others’ support, it needs props from others: the more people like you, the better and more polished and refined an ego you can have.

That’s why people read books like Dale Carnegie’s HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, or Napoleon Hill, and others.

There are thousands of these so-called philosophers who go on teaching people how to polish the ego in a better way, how to decorate it.

The modern mind is very much concerned about it, how you look to others.

Why?
Because we have lost all sense of our own being. Now all that we have is the ego, and the ego needs others’ support.

If you don’t fulfill their expectations about you, they will withdraw their support. and the more you fulfill their expectations, the more of a slave you become.

Whatsoever they want you to do, you do.
You are just obedient, constantly compromising.

Whether you like it or not does not matter to you; the whole question is whether others like it.

If they want you to smile, you smile.
The smile may be phoney, but that is not the point – because people like it.

And when they like your smile, they will love you. And when they love you, they will give attention to you, they will respect you.

They will fulfill your need to be needed.

This is the whole process that we call our life.

And if this life remains a constant frustration, it is not a wonder.

The society, from the very beginning, teaches you, ”Listen to what others say about you, because that is what you are.”

Now this is so stupid, the whole idea.

Others don’t know themselves, and they decide who I am.

I don’t know about myself, who I am, and I decide about others, who they are.

This Is a mutual deception. 
I don’t know who I am, you don’t know who you are: you decide about me, I Decide about you.

Blind people deciding about each other. Blind people telling each other, ”You are beautiful; your face is so beautiful, or so ugly.”

Blind people deciding who is a sinner and who is a saint.

And such great fear is created from the very beginning in every child that your whole life you are tortured by it.

If somebody does not think well of you, you lose your whole night – you cannot sleep:somebody doesn’t think well of you.

How does it matter?
Who is he to decide about you?
But the reason is that you have forgotten yourself; you don’t know who you are.

You depend on him – if he doesn't think well of you, then something is wrong with you; you start losing self-respect.

When nobody respects you, how can you respect yourself?

Your self-respect is just a cumulative effect of many people pouring their respect towards you.

And these are the ignorant people, as ignorant as you are.

They know nothing, but this is their way of manipulating each other.

”I respect you, I am paying you, I am bribing you, to be manipulated by me.

You respect me because you want to manipulate me.”This is how it goes on.

The man who knows his self-worth, the man who knows who he is, will remain absolutely unconcerned.

And just see the point: when you are absolutely unconcerned with what people say about you, you have a freedom, a psychological freedom, you are out of the psychological slavery of the society.

Your soul is born.

OshO 
CHAPTER 3. THE DEATH OF THE SEED
Unio Mystica, Vol 2

Dont Judge Others !

I have told you the story of a Zen master ....

A thief entered his house without knowing that it was a Zen master's house -- it contained nothing. The Zen master felt very embarrassed. The night was cold and he had only one blanket that he used in the day to cover his body, and in the night to cover his body to go asleep. That was all that he had, and the whole house was empty.

He felt so compassionate towards the thief that when the thief was going out he threw the blanket on his shoulders and told him: "Please accept it. You came without informing me. If you had just informed me at least three days before, I would have gathered something for you. I feel for the first time really poor. I cannot give you anything; this house is empty."

And the thief was very much afraid of this man. He was standing naked in the cold winter night and he had given his only possession, the blanket. But the man was strange, he was saying to him, "You should first inform me and then you can come. But give me a little time so I can beg from people and keep something for you. This is not right for you to come so suddenly without any information."

The man certainly was strange. The thief had come across hundreds of people -- everybody was angry, everybody was handing him over to the police. He had suffered in jails so many times. Everybody was abusive, everybody was insulting. Out of jail, life was difficult. Nobody was ready to give him a job, so finally, he had to commit another crime just to enter into jail because that became his home. At least he had food, shelter, clothes.

This man was strange. He became afraid of this man -- he rushed out of the door. And the Zen monk shouted, "Stop! That's not right, come back. First give me a `thank you' so that you don't feel guilty that you have stolen anything -- I have given it to you. "And then close the doors. You have opened the doors, at least this is your responsibility to close the doors. I am naked, the door is open, and the cold wind is blowing ... and you don't have any compassion."

So he gave him a "thank you," and while he was leaving and closing the door, the saint said, "Perhaps some day this `thank you' will save you, this closing the door will be of much help to you."

He could not understand what help it could be .... But that night, looking from the window to the full moon in the sky, the Zen master wrote a small haiku which said:
I AM SO POOR.
I WOULD HAVE LOVED
TO GIVE THIS MOON TO THAT THIEF,
BUT I DON'T POSSESS IT.

Two years afterwards the thief was caught again in a very dangerous case -- perhaps he would get a life-long imprisonment.

The judge asked him, "Can you bring anybody as a witness that you are not a criminal? We don't have any evidence, only circumstantial evidence, that you have committed a crime. If you can produce a man of dignity to support you in that you are a man who is not capable of doing such a crime ..."

He remembered the Zen master because that was the only person who could support him. He told the judge the name of the Zen master.

The judge said, "You are referring to a Zen master -- I know him. If he says you are not a criminal the case is finished."

And the Zen master came and he said, "This man you are saying is a criminal -- this man is so nice. When I gave him a blanket he thanked me, and when I told him to close the door, he closed the door. He is so obedient, such a nice person. The blanket was not much, it had holes, it was old, but he received it as if I was giving him an empire. He was so grateful -- just leave him."

The case was dropped ... the Zen master was well known, even to the emperor.

The thief followed the Zen monk, and the Zen monk asked him, "Where are you going?" The thief said, "I am not going anywhere, I am coming with you. I have found a man who has no judgments and who has returned my dignity to me. For the first time I feel I am a human being and there is someone who loves me, there is someone who feels for me, and there is someone who has compassion even for a man who has never done anything good."

The Zen master said, "Don't judge yourself."

This is the trouble. People judge others and they judge themselves too. When they judge themselves they feel guilty; when they judge others they take people's dignity and honor. This judgmental mind is a double-edged sword, it cuts both the ways. It cuts you, it cuts others. It has destroyed the whole humanity.

Drop this judgmental mind, and with this judgmental mind you will drop all your religions, all your moralities. You will become an innocent child, rejoicing in everybody and his uniqueness.

-OSHO

(Chapter-3,I Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now Here)