Osho's letters to his beloved disciples...

REST IS WORK

Work is rest. And the rest is relaxation - no past, no future. Osho shatters the myths about work and rest, fathers and sons, past and future in this extract from 'A Cup of Tea'.

Love.
Rest is the supreme goal, work is the medium.
Total relaxation, with complete freedom from
effort, is the supreme goal.
Then life is a play, and then even effort becomes
play.

Poetry, philosophy, religion are the fruits of
repose.
This has not been available to everyone
but technology and science will make it so in the
near future.
That is why I am in favour of technology.

Those who attribute intrinsic value to labour
oppose the use of machines -- they have to.
For me, labour has no such intrinsic value: on the
contrary, I see it as a burden.
As long as work is a prerequisite for rest it
cannot be blissful.
When work flows out of a state of rest voluntarily
then it is blissful.
So I cannot call rest a sin.

Nor do I support sacrifice.
I do not want anyone to live for anybody else, or
one generation to sacrifice itself for another.
Such sacrifices turn out to be very costly -- those
who make them expect an inhuman return.
This is why fathers expect the impossible from
their sons.
If each father lives for his son who will live for
himself?
For every son is a potential father.
No, I want everyone to live for himself -- for his
own happiness, his own state of rest.

When a father is happy he does much more for his
son -- and easily, because it comes out of his
happiness.
Then there is neither sacrifice nor renunciation;
what he does comes naturally out of his being a
father --
and a happy father at that.
Then he has no inhuman expectations of his son and
where there is no pressure from expectations,
expectations are fulfilled -- out of the son being a
son.

In short, I teach each person to be selfish.
Altruistic teachings have taught man nothing but
suicide. and a suicidal man is always homicidal; the
unhappy sow their sorrow amongst others.

I am also against the sacrifice of the present for
the future, because what is is always present; if you
live in it totally the future will be born out of it --
and when it comes it too will be the present.
For he who has the habit of sacrificing the present
for the future the future never comes because whatever
comes is again always sacrificed for that which has not
yet come.

Finally, you ask why i too work for others and for
the future.
First of all, I do not work.
Whatever I do flows out of my state of rest.
I do not swim, I just float.
No one can ever do anything for another
but if something happens to others out of what I
am,
that is something else,
and there too I am not the doer.

As for the future --
for me, the present is everything.
And the past too is also a present -- that has
passed away;
and the future too -- that is a present that is yet
to come.
Life is always here and now
so I do not bother about past and future.
And it is amazing that ever since I stopped
worrying about them they have begun to worry about me!


Osho
A Cup of Tea

Osho, on Making Truth Secondary to Love Sometimes

Intro: It comes up again and again. Am i doing someone a favour by being brutally honest? Whole ideologies and personalities are built on answering yes to this question, or at least rationalized by it. It fits with a certain strain of rejection of spiritual bromides, but . . .

The question:

BELOVED OSHO,
WE CAN PRACTICE RIGHT BEHAVIOR, AND BEHAVIOR ACCORDING TO DUTY, BUT THEN WE WILL BE WEARING FALSE FACES, AS WE ARE INWARDLY, AS YOU SAY, A MADHOUSE. SO SHOULD WE ACT AS WE FEEL, OR ACT AS WE OUGHT?

The first thing to be understood: you have to be authentic to yourself -- sincere, honest. But that doesn't mean that you have to hurt others through your honesty and sincerity, that doesn't mean that you have to disturb others, that doesn't mean that you have to disturb the rules of the game. All relationships are just rules of the game, and many times you will have to act and wear masks, false faces. The only thing to remember is: don't become the mask. Use it if it is good, and keep the rules, but don't become the mask, don't get identified. Act it, don't get identified with it.

This is a great problem, particularly in the West for the new generation. They have heard too much; they have already been seduced by this idea: be sincere and be honest. This is good, but you don't know how cunning and destructive the mind is. Your mind can find excuses. You can say a truth, not because you love truth so much but just to hurt somebody; you can use it as a weapon. And if you are using it as a weapon it is not truth, it is worse than a lie.
Sometimes you can help somebody through a lie, and sometimes relationship becomes more easy through a lie. Then use it -- but don't get identified with it. What I am saying is: Be a good player, learn the rules of the game; don't be too adamant about anything.

It happened: I came back from the university and my father and my mother were worried; they were worried about me, about what I was going to do. They were worried about my marriage. So my father started sending messages through his friends asking my opinion whether I was ready to get married or not. So I told his friends, "This is between me and my father, don't you come in. Tell my father that he can ask me."

And he was afraid, because I have never said no to him for anything. So he was afraid, he was afraid because I would not say no. Even if I didn't want to be married I would say yes -- that was the worry in his mind. Even if I didn't want to get into a householder's life, I would not say no, I would say yes. And that yes would be false. So what to do? He couldn't ask me -- he has not asked yet -- because he knew well that I would not break any rule. I would have said yes.

Then he tried through my mother. She asked me one night; she came to my bed, sat there, and asked me what I thought about marriage. So I said, "I have not married yet, so I have no experience. You know well, you have the experience, so you tell me. Take fifteen days: think over it, contemplate, and if you feel you have achieved something through it, then just order me. I will follow the order. Don't ask about my opinion -- I have none, because I have no experience. You are experienced. If you were again given a chance, would you get married?"
She said, "You are trying to confuse me."

I said, "You take your time, at your own ease. I will wait for two weeks, then you order me. I will just follow... because I don't know."

So for two weeks she was worried. She could not sleep, because she knew if she said to marry I would obey. Then she would be responsible, not I. So after two weeks she said, "I am not going to say anything, because if I look to my own experience, then I would not like you to move into that life. But I cannot say anything now."

So this is how I remained unmarried. Sincerely, authentically, I was not ready to marry, I was not intending it at all. But I could have acted. And nothing is wrong, because every experience helps you to grow. No-marriage helps, marriage also helps; there is not much difference. Everything helps you to grow in its own way.

The one thing to remember is: life is a great complexity. You are not alone here, there are many others related to you. Be sincere unto yourself, never be false there. Know well what you want, and for yourself remain that. But there are others also; don't unnecessarily hurt them. And if you need to wear masks, wear them and enjoy them, but remember, they are not your original face, and be capable of taking them off any moment. Remain the master, don't become the slave; otherwise you can be violent through your sincerity, unnecessarily you can be violent.

I have seen persons who are cruel, violent, aggressive, sadistic -- but sincere, very true, authentic. But they are using their authenticity just for their sadism. They want to make others suffer, and their trick is such that you cannot escape them. They are true, so you cannot say, "You are bad." They are good people, they are never bad, so no one can say to them, "You are bad." They are always good, and they do the bad through their good.

Don't do that, and don't take life too seriously. Nothing is wrong in masks also, faces also. Just as in the drama on the stage they use faces and enjoy and the audience also enjoys, why not enjoy them in real life also? It is not more than a drama. But I am not saying for you to be dishonest. Be sincere with yourself, don't get identified. But life is great; there are many around you related in many invisible nets. Don't hurt anybody.

I will tell you one anecdote. It happened, Buddha became enlightened, and then he came back to his town after twelve years. He had escaped one night from his house without even telling his wife that he was leaving. He had gone to her room. She was sleeping with Buddha's child, the only child, who was just a few days old.

Buddha wanted to touch the small child, to feel, to love and embrace, but then he thought, "If the wife is awakened she may start crying and weeping and may create a mess. The whole house will gather, and then it will be difficult to leave." So he simply escaped from the door; he just looked in and escaped like a coward. Then for twelve years he never came back.

After twelve years, when he had become enlightened, he came back. His chief disciple was Ananda. Ananda was his elder cousin-brother, and before he took initiation with Buddha he had asked for a few promises. He took sannyas, he took initiation from Buddha, but he was older than Buddha, "So," he said, "before I take initiation give me some promises as your elder brother, because once I have been initiated you will be the master and I will be the disciple. Then I cannot ask anything. Now I can even order you."

These are the rules of the game. So Buddha said, "Okay." He was enlightened, and this unenlightened man was saying, "I am your elder brother." So Buddha said, "Okay. What do you want?"

He said, "Three promises. One: I will always be with you, you cannot send me anywhere else; wherever you go I will be your shadow. Second: even in the night when you sleep in a room I can come in and out -- even while you are asleep. No rules will apply to me. And third: even at midnight when you are asleep, if I bring someone, a seeker, you will have to answer his questions."

Buddha said, "Okay. You are my elder brother, so I promise." Then Ananda took initiation, then he become a disciple, and Buddha followed these three things his whole life.

When he came back to his home, he said to Ananda, "Just make one exception, Ananda. My wife Yashodhara has been waiting for twelve years. She is bound to be very angry, and she is a very proud woman. Twelve years is a long time, and I have not been a good husband to her. I escaped from her like a coward, I didn't even tell her. And I know that if I had told her she would have accepted it because she loves me so much, but I couldn't gather the courage.

"Now after twelve years, if you come with me when I go to meet my wife, she will feel even worse. She will think that this is a trick; that I have brought you with me so that she cannot express her mind, her suppressed anger, and the many things of these twelve years. And she will behave in a ladylike way, because she belongs to a very good family, a royal family. She will not even cry, no tears will come to her eyes; she will keep the rules of the game. So please, Ananda, only one exception I ask you, and I will never ask any other exception. You just wait outside."

Ananda said, "Bhante, I think you are enlightened. You are no longer a husband and she is no longer a wife, so why play this game?"

Buddha said, "I am enlightened, she is not. I am no longer a husband, but she is still a wife, and I don't want to hurt her. Let her keep her mind a little while and I will persuade her. I will persuade her to take a jump and become a sannyasin. But give me a chance. I am enlightened, she is not."

So Buddha went inside the palace. Of course, Yashodhara was mad. She started saying things; she was angry, crying, weeping, tears coming down, and Buddha stood there, silent, listening to everything patiently, with deep compassion. When all her anger was out she looked at Buddha; when her tears were no more there in her eyes then she looked at Buddha. Then she realized that this man was no longer a husband and she had been talking to a ghost of her memory. The man who left her was no more there. This was totally a different man.
She surrendered, and she said to Buddha, "Why have you come? You are no longer a husband."

Buddha repeated again, "I may not be a husband, but you are still a wife, and I have come to help you so that you can also transcend this misery, this relationship, this world."

Others are there, consider them, and don't try to be violent through so-called good things. So when it is said, "right conduct," it means right relationship with others. You need not be false. When you can be true without hurting anybody, be true. But if you feel that your truth is going to hurt many and is unnecessary, it can be avoided, then avoid it, because it is not only going to hurt others, it will create patterns of cause, and those causes will return as effects on you, they will become your karmas. Then you will get entangled, and the more entangled you are the more you will have to behave in wrong ways.

Just stop. Just see the situation. If you can be true without hurting anybody, be true. To me, love is greater than truth. Be loving. And if you feel that your truth will be hurtful and violent, it is better to lie than to be true. Wait for the right moment when you can be true, and help the other person to come to such a state where your truth will not hurt him. Don't be in a hurry.

And life is a big drama; don't take it too seriously -- because seriousness is also a disease of the mind, seriousness is part of the ego. Be playful, don't be too serious. So sometimes you will have to use masks, because there are children around you and they like masks, they like false faces, and they enjoy. Help them to grow so they can face the real face, they can encounter it. But before they can encounter it, don't create any trouble. Right conduct is just consideration for others.

And look: there is a great difference. You may misunderstand what I am saying. When you lie, you lie for yourself. And I am saying: if you need, and if you feel the need to lie, only lie for the consideration of others. Never lie for yourself, don't use any mask for yourself. But if you feel it is going to help others, it will be good for them, use the mask. And inside remain alert that this is just a game you are acting, this is not real.

Sometimes you may need to be angry to your child, to your son, to your daughter. There are situations when anger helps. If you say something to your child coldly, it is not loving. If you say to your child, "Don't do this," in a cold manner, it is not loving, it is not going to help. When you say, "Don't do this!" to your child in anger, deep anger, it reaches the child, and he feels that you love him, that's why you are angry.

A father who has never been angry with his son has never been loving; anger means that you consider him, you can even be angry. You love him, you feel for him. Sometimes even when you are not feeling angry but you see the need, show the anger, have the face of anger -- but remain the master. And if you are the master, then the faces are beautiful, you can use them. But don't become the face; if you become the face you have become the slave. The whole thing is not to get identified. Remain aloof, distant, and capable at any time to put it on and off -- the face is just a device. It will be difficult and complex. It is easy to be untrue, it is easy to be true. The most difficult thing is to be the master of yourself to such an extent that if you want to be untrue you can be untrue, and if you want to be true you can be true.

Gurdjieff's disciples have written many books about him, and every disciple describes him in a different way. This is very mysterious, it has never happened with any other person in that way. Sometimes it happened that a person went to see Gurdjieff, then left, and then his friend went to see him. They would report to each other and would both give a different picture.

Gurdjieff was a master of changing faces. It is said that he had become so capable that a person sitting by his right side would feel one thing, and a person sitting by his left side would feel differently. He may have been very loving with his left eye, and that half-face was showing love, and with the other side he may have been angry. And both persons would report to each other outside: "What type of man is this? He was so loving." The other would say, "You are in some illusion... because he was so angry."

That is possible and such a mastery is beautiful. It is said that no one reported Gurdjieff's real face, because he never showed anybody his real face. He was always acting, but helping in a way; in many ways he was helping. He would show you the face that was needed by you for your consideration; he would never show you the face that was not needed by you.

To me, and to the Upanishads also, right conduct means just the right rules of behavior with others. You are not going to be here forever. You cannot change the whole world, you cannot change everybody; you can at the most change yourself. So it is better to change yourself inwardly, and don't try to be in a continuous fight with everybody. Avoid fight -- and faces can be helpful. Avoid unnecessary struggle, because that dissipates energy. Preserve your energy to be used for the inner work. And that work is so significant and it needs all your energy that you can give to it, so don't waste it in unnecessary things.

For the outside world remain an actor, and don't think that you are deceiving anybody. If they like deception, that's what they need, that's what should be given to them. If children like toys to play with, you are not deceiving them. Don't give them a real gun; let them play with the toy gun, because they like the toy. And don't think that the toy gun is false; don't think, "I must be true, I must give a real gun to the child. If he needs a gun, then I must give the true thing. How can I give the toy? This is a deception."

But the child needs the toy, there is no deception; he doesn't need the real gun. So just look at the other, at what he needs, and give him that which he needs. Don't give out of your own consideration, give out of consideration for him. Look at him, study and observe him, and behave in such a way that will be helpful to him and will not be unnecessary trouble for you. This is all that is meant by right conduct.

-- from Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi, © Osho.com

Osho: Nature of Love

If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don’t demand anything—because the other has no obligation to love you.
Rather than thinking how to get love, start giving. If you give, you get.

Become individuals, that’s the first thing. The second thing is, don’t expect perfection and don’t ask and don’t demand. Love ordinary people. Nothing is wrong with ordinary people. Ordinary people are extraordinary! Each human being is so unique; have respect for that uniqueness. Third, give, and give without any condition—then you will know what love is. I cannot define it. I can show you the path to grow it. I can show you how to put in a rosebush, how to water it, how to give fertilizers to it, how to protect it. Then one day, out of the blue, comes the rose, and your home is full of the fragrance. That’s how love happens.
Love is the only religion, the only god, the only mystery that hs to be lived, understood. When love is understood, you have understood all the sages and all the mystics of the world.
If you understand that it will change, that once in a while your partner may become interested in somebody, and you have to be understanding and loving and caring and allowing her to go the way her being feels—this is a chance for you to prove to your partner that you love her. You love her; even if she is going to love somebody else, that is irrelevant. With understanding, it is possible that your love may become a lifelong affair, but remember it will not be permanent. It will have its ups and downs, it will have changes.

The flower of love can blossom only when there is no ego, when there is no effort to dominate, when one is humble, when one is trying not to be somebody but is ready to be nobody. Then awareness will come of its own accord and this is the most beautiful way…this love will not be falling in love; I call it rising in love.
The moment your love is without any jealousy, without any conditionings, but just a sharing of the dance of the heart, you will experience centering…love is their science, centering is their result.

Love never hurts anybody. And if you feel you have been hurt by love, it is something else in you, not your loving quality, that feels hurt.
Love in its purest form is a sharing of joy.

Osho: Living The Truth

At least don’t corrupt love. It is not corrupted by hatred, remember; it is corrupted by falsity. It is not destroyed by anger, never, but it is destroyed by an inauthentic persona, a false face. Love is possible only when there is freedom to be oneself without any guarding, without any reserve.

Live more authentically. Drop the masks; they are a weight on your heart. Drop all falsities. Be exposed.
Once you are true, everything else becomes possible.
Risk is there. If you become true, nobody know whether this relationship will be capable of understanding truth, authenticity; whether this relationship will be strong enough to stand in the storm.

At the most, the relationship can break, at the most. But it is better to be separate and to be real rather than being unreal and together because then it is never going to be satisfying. Remember, being never happens comfortably; otherwise it would have happened to all. It cannot happen conveniently; otherwise everybody would have their own, authentic being without any problem. Being happens only when you take risk, when you move into danger. And love is the greatest danger there is. It demands you totally. So don’t be afraid, go into it. If the relationship survives truth, it will be beautiful.

Osho: Love and Fear

Fear is never love, and love is never afraid.
People ordinarily think hate is the opposite of love. That is wrong, absolutely wrong. Fear is the opposite of love.
Love is outgoing, fearlessly reaching to the other, tremendously trusting that it will be received—and it is always received. Fear is shrinking within yourself, closing yourself, closing all the doors, all the windows so that no sun, no wind, no rain can reach you, you are so afraid. You are entering into your grave alive.


Be afraid of your ego, be afraid of your lust, be afraid of your greed, be afraid of your possessiveness; be afraid of your jealousy—but there is no question of being afraid of love. Love is divine! Love is like light. When there is light, darkness cannot exist. When there is love, fear cannot exist.
I don’t see that anything in life has the quality of being permanent. Love cannot be an exception. So don’t expect that love has to be permanent. It will make your love life more beautiful, because you know today you are together, tomorrow perhaps you will have to depart.

No relationship can truly grow if you go on holding back. If you remain clever and go on safeguarding and protecting yourself, only personalities meet, and the essential centers remain alone. Then just your mask is related, not you. Whenever such a thing happens, there are four persons in the relationship, not two. Two false persons go on meeting, and the two real persons remain worlds apart.
When change disturbs you, all your inner disturbances are stirred up. When you are both feeling disturbed and both are trying to throw the responsibility on the other, just try to see it. Inside yourself, try to see it; the other is never responsible. Remember that as a mantra: The other is never responsible.

Osho: Love and Freedom

Love can be sacrificed for freedom, but freedom cannot be sacrificed for love.
Love should be an absolute act of freedom.

For a lighter life, for a more playful life, you heed to be flexible. You have to remember that freedom is the highest value and if love is not giving you freedom then it is not love.
Love allows freedom; not only allows, but strengthens freedom…both are essential needs.

It as if we are trying to fly in the sky with one wing. A few people have the wing of love and a few people have the wing of freedom, but both are incapable of flying. Both the wings are needed.
If you love there is no need to destroy your freedom. They both can exist together; there is no antagonism between them.
Love the person, but give the person total freedom. Love the person, but from the very beginning make it clear that you are not selling your freedom.

Love is a basic need, as basic as freedom, so both have to be fulfilled. And a person who is full of love and free is the most beautiful phenomenon in the world. And when two persons of such beauty meet, their relationship is nota a relationship at all. It is a relating. It is a constant, riverlike flow. It is continuously growing towards greater heights.
If love cannot give freedom, then it is not love. Love as much as you can. Never think of the next moment; and if your lover goes somewhere else, you are also free. Keep freedom as a higher value than love itself. And if it is possible--and it is possible because it is natural--your life will not be a misery. Love each other totally, and occasionally allow each other freedom. But it has to be on both sides. Don’t have any secret, be absolutely open, and allow the other person also to be absolutely open, and respect openness. Never, even by your gestures, make the other person feel guilty.


When you fell in love with the woman, she was free; you fell in love with freedom. When you bring her home you destroy all possibilities of being free, but in that very destruction you are destroying the beauty.
Love means to give all that is beautiful to the beloved. Freedom is the most beautiful, the most cherished goal of human consciousness; how can you take it away? If you love a woman really, or a man, the first present, the first gift, will be the gift of freedom.

Osho: Love and Aloneness

When you are separated from your lover, look at it as a great opportunity to be alone. Then the vision changes. Look at it as an opportunity to have your own space. So in these days when you are alone, be a narcissist; love yourself, enjoy yourself! Delight in your body, in your mind, in your soul. And enjoy the space that is empty around you and fill it with love. Enjoy this space, aloneness. Don’t fill it with past memories and don’t fill it with future imagination and fantasy. Let it be as it is--pure, simple, silent. Delight in it; sway, sing, dance. A sheer joy of being alone. If you are not happy when you are alone, how can you be happy when you are together?

What is needed is not something in which you can forget your loneliness. What is needed is that you become aware of your aloneness, which is a reality…Look for your aloneness…the method is the same: just watch your mind, be aware. Become more and more conscious, so finally you are only conscious of yourself. That is the point where you become aware of aloneness.
Human growth requires that one moves from one polarity to another. Sometimes being alone is perfectly good: one needs one’s own space, one needs to forget the whole world, and to be oneself. One needs sometimes to be perfectly alone so that all boundaries disappear, as if the other does not exist at all, and the whole universe and the whole sky exists only for you. In that moment of aloneness one realizes for the first time what infinity is. But then if you live in it too much, by and by the infinity bores you, it becomes tasteless. There is purity and silence, but there is no ecstasy in it. Ecstasy always comes through the other. One then starts feeling hungry for love, and wants to escape for this aloneness, this vast expanse of space. One wants a cozy place surrounded by others, so that one can forget oneself.

Never make anywhere your home, neither relationships nor aloneness. Remain flowing and homeless, and don’t abide at any polarity. Enjoy it, delight in it, but when it is finished move to the other: make it a rhythm.
Lovers are alone, and a real lover never destroys your aloneness. He will always be totally respectful toward your individuality, toward your aloneness. It is sacred. He will not interfere in it, he will not try to intrude on that space…Aloneness means the feeling that you are complete…Lovers become alone. Through love you touch your inner completeness. Love makes you complete. Lovers share each other, but that is not their need, that is their overflowing energy.