Thursday, June 21, 2012
Osho - Renounce To Enjoy
You
get just as much as you are ready to give up and let go, says OSHO.
Give it up if you want to enjoy it. But no, that is not our belief. On the contrary, we believe that we can enjoy only that to which we hold fast. But the “Upanishadic” sage instructs us to do quite the opposite. He says that they alone can enjoy things who renounce them. The statement is antithetical to our belief. They alone become real masters who refuse to be masters. Everything falls into the hands of those who have no desire to hold onto things.
Renounce To Enjoy
A good analogy is the attempt to hold air in your hand. You can comprehend the real meaning of this “Ishavasya Upanishad” sutra — renounce to enjoy — if you simply try to hold air in your hand. As soon as you tighten your grip, the air escapes. The tighter you clench your fist, the less air you hold, until in the end there is no air left. Loosen your grip and air will rush towards your open hand. There is always air in an open hand, but from the closed fist it flees. One who keeps his hand open has it always full of air; it is never empty, every moment the air is fresh. Have you ever observed this? An open hand is never empty, and a closed hand is always empty; and if a little air remains in the closed fist, it is stale and old and decayed. They alone are able to enjoy who renounce.
Life Is a Paradox
In this world, in this life, we get as much as we are willing to give up & let go. This is paradoxical — but all the rules of life are paradoxical. They are not opposites; they are paradoxes. It only appears that they are opposites. The person, who wishes for honour & respect, is sure to find dishonour & disrespect. An individual desires to be rich, but when he begins to accumulate wealth, he becomes as poor and mean within as he appears rich without. He, who thinks or dreams of immortality, is worried about fear of death 24X7. Death never visits the house of the person who is willing to welcome it: one who is willing to meet death tastes nectar, while one who is afraid of death dies every hour of the day. He dies all the time because he does not know at all what life is.
One who says, “I will become the master,” will soon become a slave; and one who says, “I am willing to be a slave,” will have infinite mastery. But these are contradictory statements so it is very difficult to understand them, and when we try to interpret them, we do so in such a way that we are saved from the paradox in them — and hence we miss the point.
Thus people have misinterpreted these sutras. “Enjoy through renunciation” has come to mean that if you give charity, you will be rewarded with heaven. Give a paisa to a beggar sitting on the bank of the Ganga and you will be rewarded a thousand-fold. Nothing else in this world is as badly treated as are sutras such as these, and similarly, nobody is as unjustly treated as are the sages — because it is difficult to comprehend them in their true spirit. Instead, we interpret them from our own perspective.
We think we understand the sutra: if you give away something in charity, you will go to heaven after death. But pay attention: the sutra says, “He who renounces, receives.” It does not say, “He who gives up with a view to getting, will receive.” In fact, he who gives up with a view to getting does not give up, because he is just working out how to get the reward.
Tightening Of Fists
The person who gives charity here so that he may get the reward in heaven is not renouncing at all. He is simply tightening his fist for the future. If rightly understood, his action is not only a tightening of his fist in this world, but a tightening of it also for the next world. He is telling others by his action, “This action is not very important here, it is quite ordinary, but it is very important there in the next world.” If he is quite sure, if he is one hundred per cent certain that he will be rewarded in the next world for his good actions in this world, then he is prepared to make some investment. He is prepared to risk some of his property if he is assured fully of his reward in the next world.
This sutra makes a straight, simple statement that he who renounces, enjoys. It does not say, “Give up if you desire to enjoy.” It announces that if you can give up, then you can enjoy; but if you are nursing the idea of enjoyment, you can never renounce.
Give it up if you want to enjoy it. But no, that is not our belief. On the contrary, we believe that we can enjoy only that to which we hold fast. But the “Upanishadic” sage instructs us to do quite the opposite. He says that they alone can enjoy things who renounce them. The statement is antithetical to our belief. They alone become real masters who refuse to be masters. Everything falls into the hands of those who have no desire to hold onto things.
Renounce To Enjoy
A good analogy is the attempt to hold air in your hand. You can comprehend the real meaning of this “Ishavasya Upanishad” sutra — renounce to enjoy — if you simply try to hold air in your hand. As soon as you tighten your grip, the air escapes. The tighter you clench your fist, the less air you hold, until in the end there is no air left. Loosen your grip and air will rush towards your open hand. There is always air in an open hand, but from the closed fist it flees. One who keeps his hand open has it always full of air; it is never empty, every moment the air is fresh. Have you ever observed this? An open hand is never empty, and a closed hand is always empty; and if a little air remains in the closed fist, it is stale and old and decayed. They alone are able to enjoy who renounce.
Life Is a Paradox
In this world, in this life, we get as much as we are willing to give up & let go. This is paradoxical — but all the rules of life are paradoxical. They are not opposites; they are paradoxes. It only appears that they are opposites. The person, who wishes for honour & respect, is sure to find dishonour & disrespect. An individual desires to be rich, but when he begins to accumulate wealth, he becomes as poor and mean within as he appears rich without. He, who thinks or dreams of immortality, is worried about fear of death 24X7. Death never visits the house of the person who is willing to welcome it: one who is willing to meet death tastes nectar, while one who is afraid of death dies every hour of the day. He dies all the time because he does not know at all what life is.
One who says, “I will become the master,” will soon become a slave; and one who says, “I am willing to be a slave,” will have infinite mastery. But these are contradictory statements so it is very difficult to understand them, and when we try to interpret them, we do so in such a way that we are saved from the paradox in them — and hence we miss the point.
Thus people have misinterpreted these sutras. “Enjoy through renunciation” has come to mean that if you give charity, you will be rewarded with heaven. Give a paisa to a beggar sitting on the bank of the Ganga and you will be rewarded a thousand-fold. Nothing else in this world is as badly treated as are sutras such as these, and similarly, nobody is as unjustly treated as are the sages — because it is difficult to comprehend them in their true spirit. Instead, we interpret them from our own perspective.
We think we understand the sutra: if you give away something in charity, you will go to heaven after death. But pay attention: the sutra says, “He who renounces, receives.” It does not say, “He who gives up with a view to getting, will receive.” In fact, he who gives up with a view to getting does not give up, because he is just working out how to get the reward.
Tightening Of Fists
The person who gives charity here so that he may get the reward in heaven is not renouncing at all. He is simply tightening his fist for the future. If rightly understood, his action is not only a tightening of his fist in this world, but a tightening of it also for the next world. He is telling others by his action, “This action is not very important here, it is quite ordinary, but it is very important there in the next world.” If he is quite sure, if he is one hundred per cent certain that he will be rewarded in the next world for his good actions in this world, then he is prepared to make some investment. He is prepared to risk some of his property if he is assured fully of his reward in the next world.
This sutra makes a straight, simple statement that he who renounces, enjoys. It does not say, “Give up if you desire to enjoy.” It announces that if you can give up, then you can enjoy; but if you are nursing the idea of enjoyment, you can never renounce.
Osho - Suffer Joyfully & Observe
You don’t have to be
a masochist, says OSHO
When I say suffer joyfully, it looks paradoxical and your
mind starts thinking how to compromise both, because to you they are
contradictory. They are not, they only appear contradictory. You can enjoy
suffering.
The Secret
What is the secret? How to enjoy suffering? The first thing
is: if you don’t escape, if you allow suffering to be there, if you are ready
to face it, if you are not trying somehow to forget it, then you are different.
Suffering is there but just around you; it is on the periphery. It is
impossible for suffering to be in the centre; it is not in the nature of
things.… A subtle joy spreads all over your being because you have realised one
of the basic truths of life: that you are bliss and not suffering.
So when I say enjoy it, I don’t mean become a masochist. There are people of that type and many of them have become ascetics, and they are creating suffering for themselves. They are masochists, they are ill. They are very dangerous people. They wanted to make others suffer but they are not so courageous, so their whole violence has turned within. Now they are torturing themselves, and enjoying it.
So when I say enjoy it, I don’t mean become a masochist. There are people of that type and many of them have become ascetics, and they are creating suffering for themselves. They are masochists, they are ill. They are very dangerous people. They wanted to make others suffer but they are not so courageous, so their whole violence has turned within. Now they are torturing themselves, and enjoying it.
Just Watch It
Suffering is already there; life by its very nature creates
suffering. Look at it with a very dispassionate eye. Don’t escape. Immediately
the mind says, “Escape from here, don’t look at it.” But if you escape then you
cannot be blissful.
Next time you fall ill and the doctor suggests to remain in bed, take it as a blessing. Close your eyes and rest and just look at the illness. Watch it, what it is. Don’t try to analyse it, don’t go into theories, just watch it, what it is. The whole body is tired and feverish — watch it. Suddenly, you will feel that you are surrounded by fever but there is a very cool point within you; the fever cannot touch it, cannot influence it. The whole body may be burning but that cool point cannot be touched. Watching, you will recede towards the source. Watching, not doing anything.... What can you do? The fever is there, you have to pass through it; it is no use unnecessarily fighting with it. You are resting, and if you fight with the fever, you will become more feverish, that’s all. So watch it.
The Unbridgeable Gap
Next time you fall ill and the doctor suggests to remain in bed, take it as a blessing. Close your eyes and rest and just look at the illness. Watch it, what it is. Don’t try to analyse it, don’t go into theories, just watch it, what it is. The whole body is tired and feverish — watch it. Suddenly, you will feel that you are surrounded by fever but there is a very cool point within you; the fever cannot touch it, cannot influence it. The whole body may be burning but that cool point cannot be touched. Watching, you will recede towards the source. Watching, not doing anything.... What can you do? The fever is there, you have to pass through it; it is no use unnecessarily fighting with it. You are resting, and if you fight with the fever, you will become more feverish, that’s all. So watch it.
The Unbridgeable Gap
Watching fever, you become cool; watching more, you become
cooler. Just watching, you reach a peak, such a cool peak, even the Himalayas will feel jealous; even their peaks are not so
cool. This is the Gaurishankar, the Everest within. And when you feel that, the
fever has disappeared.... It has never really been there; it has only been in
the body, very, very far away.
Infinite space exists between you and your body — infinite space, I say. An unbridgeable gap exists between you and your body. And all suffering exists on the periphery. Hindus say it is a dream because the distance is so vast, unbridgeable. It is just like a dream happening somewhere else — not happening to you — in some other world, on some other planet.
Infinite space exists between you and your body — infinite space, I say. An unbridgeable gap exists between you and your body. And all suffering exists on the periphery. Hindus say it is a dream because the distance is so vast, unbridgeable. It is just like a dream happening somewhere else — not happening to you — in some other world, on some other planet.
Get Centred
When you watch suffering, suddenly you are not the sufferer,
and you start enjoying. Through suffering, you become aware of the opposite
pole, the blissful inner being. So when I say enjoy, I am saying: Watch. Return
to the source, get centered. Then, suddenly, there is no agony; only ecstasy
exists.
Those who are on the periphery exist in agony. For them, no ecstasy. For those who have come to their centre, no agony exists. For them, only ecstasy.
When I say break the cup, it is breaking the periphery. And when I say be totally empty, it is coming back to the original source, because through emptiness we are born, and into emptiness we return.
So when I say enjoy, I mean watch, and you will enjoy. When I say enjoy, I mean don’t escape.
Those who are on the periphery exist in agony. For them, no ecstasy. For those who have come to their centre, no agony exists. For them, only ecstasy.
When I say break the cup, it is breaking the periphery. And when I say be totally empty, it is coming back to the original source, because through emptiness we are born, and into emptiness we return.
So when I say enjoy, I mean watch, and you will enjoy. When I say enjoy, I mean don’t escape.
Osho - Money Mania
The more you hoard, the more futile it is, for we
simply cannot take it with us, says OSHO
Wealth means all that
which you go on collecting or accumulating according to your desire, even
knowledge. One person goes on counting how much money he has put in his locker,
another one is counting how much knowledge he has accumulated, how much
information he has gathered and how many scriptures he has read, but both of
them are accumulating.
Don’t Accumulate
The third person may
be accumulating renunciations, counting how many fasts he has done. The fourth
may be accumulating fame — he may be counting how many people have faith in
him, how many worship him and how many follow him.
Whatever you
accumulate and whatever can be accumulated is wealth. And this wealth is very
deceptive because outside you may go on accumulating, but you remain poor
within.
Whatever is accumulated outside cannot be taken inside, and death will snatch away what you cannot take inside, because you alone can go through death and nothing else.
Only your being will pass; flames will not be able to burn it, arrows will not be able to pierce it. Only you will be able to pass through the gate of death, you in your purity and nothing else.
Whatever is accumulated outside cannot be taken inside, and death will snatch away what you cannot take inside, because you alone can go through death and nothing else.
Only your being will pass; flames will not be able to burn it, arrows will not be able to pierce it. Only you will be able to pass through the gate of death, you in your purity and nothing else.
Outside Wealth
If you have accumulated
only outside wealth, you will remain poor while passing through the gate of
death. If death proves you to be poor, then it means that the wealth
accumulated during life was nothing but a deception. Wealth is only that which
can go with us; otherwise the rest is nothing but trouble.
What you are
accumulating appears like wealth to you, but actually it is not so, it is only
trouble. You also come to know after accumulating that the trouble has
increased. The real wealth would bring contentment; the real wealth would bring
peace, relaxation and fearlessness, and would resonate a paradise in your life.
It would bring the relief of reaching the destination, of reaching home; a
perfume of relaxation would arise in your life.
But there is no such
thing in you. With the increase of wealth, your life stinks more. It becomes unhappy
and more fearful. The amassing of wealth creates thousands of worries. Wealth
does not bring peace; it only disturbs peace. Why are people so mad about
accumulating?
Meditate For Awareness
Really, there is big
emptiness inside which has to be filled, and it has to be filled up with
anything, otherwise one feels very empty. If one possesses nothing then one
feels very empty inside. Just think: if you have nothing to possess, you will
be free and empty inside.
People come to me for
meditation. When they have meditated for some time, they start seeing that
emptiness inside themselves. That emptiness was always there but it was not
noticed.
Meditation makes you
more aware — awareness increases and then one becomes aware of the emptiness. A
very peculiar thing then happens. Whosoever feels that inner emptiness, starts
eating a lot. One or two cases of this type come to me every day. They say,
“What are we to do? We never used to eat so much food. The effect of the
meditation is such that we want to eat all the time.”
Just Be, It’s
Fulfilling
I explain to them that
the reason for this is that meditation has shown you the inner emptiness, and
this emptiness hurts so it has to be filled up. You, therefore, fill up this
emptiness with money, position and fame.
By accumulating things and sitting amongst them, one feels that one has
something. Those who do not have anything, have the desire of accumulating. But
those who have something, do not accumulate, they are sufficient unto
themselves.Just ‘being’ is so fulfilling, that there is no need to collect anything.
Osho - First Get To Know Each Other
Going on a honeymoon
before marriage could put things in perspective, says OSHO
Two people, separately
unhappy, create more unhappiness for each other when they come together. That’s
mathematical. You were unhappy, your wife was unhappy and you both are hoping
that being together you both will become happy? This is such ordinary
arithmetic, as two plus two makes four. You both will become unhappy…My
suggestion is that marriage should happen after the honeymoon, never before it.
If everything goes right, only then should marriage happen. The honeymoon after
marriage is very dangerous.
Ninety per cent of marriages are finished by the time the honeymoon is over. But then you are caught, you have no way to escape. Then society, law, courts — everybody is against you if you leave the wife or the wife leaves you. In fact, society should create all barriers possible for marriage and no barrier for divorce. Society should not allow people to marry so easily. The court should create barriers — live together for two years at least; only then the court can allow you to get married. Right now they are doing just the reverse. If you want to get married, nobody asks whether you are ready or whether it is just a whim…. Two people should be allowed to live together long enough to become acquainted, familiar with each other. And even if they want to get married, they should not be allowed to do so until some time has lapsed. Then divorces will disappear from the world.
Divorces happen because
marriages are wrong and forced — and because marriages are done in a romantic
mood.
A romantic mood is good if you are a poet..., poets are almost always bachelors. They fool around but they never get ‘caught’, and hence their romance remains alive. They go on writing beautiful poetry. One should not get married to a woman or man in a poetic mood. Let the prose mood come, then settle, because day-to-day life is more like prose than like poetry. One should become mature enough. Maturity means that you are no more a romantic fool. You understand life and the responsibilities that go with it as well as understand the possible problems of being together with a person. You accept all those difficulties and yet decide to live with the person.…
When you have become alert to all of these problems and still you decide that it is worthwhile to risk and be with a person rather than to be alone, then get married. Then marriages will never kill love, because this love is realistic. Marriage simply brings out whatsoever is hidden in you...I am not saying that love is destroyed by marriage. Love is destroyed by people who don’t know how to love. Love is destroyed because in the first place love is not. You have been living in a dream. Reality destroys that dream. Otherwise love is something eternal, part of eternity. If you grow, if you know the art, and you accept the realities of love-life, then it goes on growing every day. Marriage becomes a tremendous opportunity to grow into love.
Nothing can destroy love. If it is there, it goes on growing. If love is really love... just being in the presence of the other you feel suddenly happy, just the very presence of the other fulfils something deep in your heart. Something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you be together; you become more individual, centered, grounded. Then it is love.
Love is not a passion, love is not an emotion. Love is a very deep understanding that somebody somehow completes you. Somebody makes you a full circle. The presence of the other enhances your presence. .. it is enough to make you happy... a thousand and one lotuses bloom... then you are in love, and then you can pass through all difficulties that reality creates. And your love, by overcoming them, will become more and more strong.
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