From Darkness to Light - 30

Does a flower need religion?

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

DOES A PAGAN LIVING A NATURAL LIFE NEED RELIGION?

It is one of the most basic questions that can be asked. The first thing to understand is, who is a pagan? It is not what Christians go on calling a pagan. The pagan is a natural man - sincere, not a hypocrite, living life naturally without an domination of the mind.

The pagan is part of existence.

He is not trying to go in some other direction but is always in a let-go and moving with existence wherever it leads.

There is no goal in the life of a pagan.

There is no question of any meaning in the life of a pagan. Life in itself is so beautiful that to ask the question of the meaning of life is simply nonsense. It has to be remembered - we ask about meaning only when something goes wrong.

If you have a headache, you certainly inquire why; you go to the doctor to find out the cause. But when you don't have any headache, what to say about headache? - you even forget about the head. Without the headache is there any head? There is no need even to remember it. When you

From Darkness to Light - 29

History repeats itself, unfortunately

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

AMERICA HAS BEEN LIKENED TO ROME PRIOR TO ITS FALL. IS IT APPROPRIATE TO SEE THE FALL OF THESE TWO POWERS AS BEING CONNECTED TO THE PREDOMINANCE OF CHRISTIANITY AT THE TIME?

History has moved, up to now, in circles. That is what is meant when it is said that history repeats itself. It need not be so, it should not be so, but unfortunately it has been so up to now.

There is a certain law behind this phenomenon of history moving in circles. I call it the law of mediocrity, because anybody who has any intelligence could have seen that we have been making the same kind of mistakes again and again and again. The mistakes are the same, the situations are the same. It is unbelievable how mediocre the human mind is.

First let me explain to you the law of mediocrity. I have said to you that religion comes into existence only when a society reaches the peaks of luxury.

Religion is the ultimate expression of all luxuries.

From Darkness to Light - 28

Either politicians remain or humanity remains

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

DO POLITICIANS HAVE BRAINS?

I am sorry, but I doubt it. If one has brains there are so many beautiful things in life to do; it is impossible for such a man to be interested in politics at all. Politics is for the lowest category of intellect. You can see it all over the world.

I am reminded of one of my friends who was a national figure in politics. His whole life he devoted to two things: one, which was his priority, that cow slaughter should be stopped; and the second was, that Hindi should become the national language.

I once asked him, "You go on calling the cow 'the holy mother'; then who is the bull - the holy father?"

He became angry. I said, "It is a simple thing. If the cow is your mother, then the bull has to be your father."

He said, "You always confuse me."

Another time I asked him, "What about Charles Darwin's theory that man is evolved out of monkeys?"

From Darkness to Light - 27

This time it can be one earth

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHY HAS IT HAPPENED THAT IN THE EAST, RELIGION CAME TO ITS HIGHEST FLOWERING, AND IN THE WEST THE SAME HAS HAPPENED TO SCIENCE? IS THERE SOME DIFFERENCE

OF CONSCIOUSNESS BETWEEN THE EASTERN MAN AND THE WESTERN MAN?

Consciousness is one and can only be one.

It is just like the light. East and West make no difference at all. Geography has no effect as far as consciousness is concerned.

But it is true that in the East religion blossomed, reached to the highest peaks. The same was not the case with science in the East. It began its journey but it never reached to the peaks the same way as religion reached.

Just the opposite has happened in the West. Religion is still primitive, just the beginnings, while science has taken a tremendous flight. Naturally the question is very relevant, but it has nothing to do with any difference between Eastern and Western man and his consciousness. It has to do with some other factors.

From Darkness to Light - 26

The enlightened and the endarkened

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

HISTORY SHOWS THAT WHEN A GREAT MASTER APPEARS ON THE EARTH, OTHER, LESSER LEADERS RECOGNIZE HIM AND BRING THEIR FOLLOWERS WITH THEM. DO YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING HERE?

It has never happened, and it cannot ever happen either. There is a fundamental reason why it cannot happen. The lesser cannot recognize the higher, the lower cannot recognize the higher. The higher can recognize the lower. So it is existentially impossible. What history are you talking about?

History cannot go against existence and its principles.

The first thing to be remembered - which is very simple - is, the man who has eyes can recognize the man who has no eyes; he can see that this man is blind. But do you think the blind can recognize that this man has eyes? That is sheer impossibility. And this is about the physical eyes ....

When you think of the inner eye, the third eye, then it becomes absolutely impossible. Those who live on higher planes of consciousness are simply beyond your grasp. You cannot see them, you cannot understand them. Your intelligence is not capable of understanding planes of silence, meditation, experience of bliss.

From Darkness to Light - 25

The bell always tolls for somebody else

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

I KNOW IT IS CERTAIN THAT ONE DAY I AM GOING TO DIE, BUT I DON'T FEEL ANY FEAR - WHY?

It is not something exceptional, it is almost the rule. Nobody is afraid of death; otherwise living will become impossible. There is a natural safety measure, and that is something of a very basic nature to be understood.

You know that it is always the other who dies, never you. It is always somebody else, but never you.

That gives an unconscious foundation for the hope that perhaps you are the exception, everybody dies except you.

That's why you don't feel fear. Nature does not want you to feel fear of death for the simple reason that if fear of death becomes overwhelming, you will not be able to live. Life can be lived only if somehow you can go on believing that you are going to be here forever. Things will change, people will die, but you will remain outside all this change. And it is based on your experience.

From Darkness to Light - 24

The third alternative: the whole man

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY THAT TRIBES WHICH ARE NOT SEX-REPRESSIVE REMAIN POOR, AND SOCIETIES WHICH ARE SEX-REPRESSIVE BECOME RICH AND CREATIVE. 

OSHO,

YOUR COMMUNES ARE NOT SEX-REPRESSIVE AND YET THEY ARE RICH AND CREATIVE.

CAN YOU COMMENT?

It is one of the most sensitive areas of life because it is concerned with the very life force - sex.

The word has become too condemned. The reason sex became condemned was because all the religions had to be against everything that man can enjoy. It was their vested interest to keep man miserable, to destroy every possibility of his finding some kind of peace, solace, a moment of oasis in the desert. This was absolutely necessary for religions, that man be made completely devoid of any possibility, of any potentiality for rejoicing.

From Darkness to Light - 23

Our way is of humour our way is of bliss

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

IF PEOPLE DON'T LIKE WHAT WE ARE DOING, WHY DON'T THEY JUST LEAVE US ALONE TO DO IT?

There are many reasons for it, and of great importance. First; why do people not like what we are doing here? It is none of their concern in fact. We are not doing anything to them. If we are doing anything at all, we are doing it to ourselves. Particularly my whole philosophy is selfish, self-centered. Why do they not like it?

There is tremendous fear behind it, because we are doing something they have stood against for the whole past history of humanity.

If we succeed, their whole history, all their religions, culture, civilizations, are proved to be wrong.

Our success is risky.

Our success is dangerous, it is a challenge - and not to a single individual, not to a single society, not a single religion, but to all that they have been doing; their philosophy, their religion .... If you just see the great implication: you are standing against the whole history of man - your success cannot be allowed. Somehow or other they want you to fail; in your failure is their success. That's why they are against it. It is a great question - who is right?

From Darkness to Light - 22

Truth is here but you are not

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT IS TRUTH? AND WHATEVER IT IS, WHY ARE MOST PEOPLE NOT INTERESTED IN IT?

The way the question is formed says more than is apparent. The first thing it says is that you are not interested in truth at all. It is strange that sometimes the formulation of the question has much more significance than the question itself.

You are asking: "What is truth? and whatever it is ...." Does this show any inquiry? Does it mean that you are committed to seek and search for truth? If it were so, you could not have said "whatever it is." It shows such an indifference, just like government office letters - "whomsoever it may concern."

"Whatever it is ...?" It makes no difference to you. And you are asking why people are not interested in it. Why blame people? Why can't you be sincere and say, "why am I not interested in it?" Who are these people you are talking about? What concern do you have about these people? They don't have any names; it is just a word, empty: "people."

With me be honest, be sincere, be direct. Don't bring anonymous people into the question. The question has to be yours. You are asking for an answer, and the question is not even yours. And how is it possible to answer you when the question belongs to "people"? Who are these people? I don't know, and I don't think you know either.

From Darkness to Light - 21

I am a man who hopes against hope

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY THAT RELIGION AND POLITICS ARE OPPOSITE DIMENSIONS: A RELIGIOUS MAN CANNOT BE INTERESTED IN POLITICS, AND A POLITICIAN CAN NEVER BECOME RELIGIOUS WHILE REMAINING A POLITICIAN. IF THIS IS TRUE, IS THERE NO CHANCE FOR A BETTER WORLD?

I have said that, and I repeat it: the really religious person cannot be interested in politics. And the politician, remaining a politician, cannot have any religious experience, any taste of that flight to the unknown.

But I have never said that there is no hope for a better world.

This is true, that the politician cannot become religious - for the simple reason that politics, all politics, politics as such, is power politics. It is will-to-power. One wants to dominate, one wants to possess, one wants to be the decisive factor in people's lives. These are the qualities of the ego.

Obviously this type of person cannot be religious because religion is basically the experience of egolessness.

From Darkness to Light - 20

Don't drop - transform!

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHY DO I CLING TO MY MISERY? WHY CAN I NOT DROP IT?

The I, the ego, is not something separate from the misery, that's why it is absolutely impossible for anyone to drop it. Who is going to drop it? They are not two, the dropper and the dropped.

The ego is nothing but a complex of all your miseries, sufferings, anxieties, anguishes, wounds; your anger, your jealousy, your hate - they are, all together, one complex.

The problem arises because when you start feeling miserable, it is not the whole complex which is feeling miserable - just a part, a fragment, and the remaining whole becomes your "I"; a false division is created. you want to drop the misery; you think yourself separate from the misery.

The same goes on happening with everything else: you feel anger - then anger is taken as a separate thing from you. Or jealousy .... It never happens that all these things, this whole hell, you want to drop completely.

From Darkness to Light - 19

Where nothing is right and nothing is wrong

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

YOU HAVE SAID THAT RIGHT AND WRONG ARE DETERMINED BY EACH SOCIETY. IS THERE NO UNIVERSAL RIGHT AND WRONG?

There is no possibility of any division between right and wrong on the highest level of universal consciousnesses, for the simple reason that there are no divisions at all. It is one.

In the East, those who have attained universal consciousness are not even willing to say that it is one, because "one" implies two, three, four - the whole infinity of numbers; one is only the beginning.

Hence they have used a very strange concept. They say in universal consciousness there is not-two; it is non-dual. To avoid the implications of one they have used a negative: not-two.

The concepts of right and wrong are local, social, cultural. In every society, in different times they had to change their concepts continuously because circumstances change, climates change; then naturally, something that was right becomes wrong, something that was wrong becomes right: Let us take a few examples.

From Darkness to Light - 18

Meditation: the door from slavery to freedom

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

MODERN SCIENCE HAS DISCOVERED A NUMBER OF LAWS SUCH AS THE LAW OF GRAVITY, WHICH DESCRIBE THE BEHAVIOR OF THE MATERIAL WORLD. DOES THE SCIENCE OF THE INNER SOUL ALSO HAVE LAWS WHICH APPLY TO CONSCIOUSNESS AND BEING?

It is one of the most fundamental differences between the outer and the inner.

The outer is ruled by laws:

The inner is just freedom.

Consciousness knows no laws. It is matter that needs laws. Without laws, the material existence is impossible. And in the same way, with laws, the world of consciousness is impossible.

Consciousness can exist only in absolute freedom, with no limits, with no conditions, with no laws.

Matter will immediately fall apart without laws, for the simple reason that it has no individuality. It has no center of being which can hold it together if there are no laws. Matter is without a center, or in other words, without a self. Just because there is no center in it, it cannot remain together unless it is surrounded by all kinds of laws, conditions, rules.

Science goes on discovering laws because it deals only with dead matter. It has not yet come to encounter consciousness. Perhaps the very existence of consciousness is beyond its scope. It can discover laws, it cannot discover freedom.

From Darkness to Light - 17

Love is a very unscientific idea

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY THAT SCIENTISTS ARE ONLY NOW DISCOVERING THINGS THAT PEOPLE IN THE EAST KNEW FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. HOW DID WE COME TO GO

BACKWARDS?

Science as such has no intrinsic value like life, like love, like blissfulness. These are ends in themselves. Science is only a means. This is the most essential thing to be understood.

Science is concerned with providing you the means to make life richer, profounder, more comfortable, more healthy. But science can do just the opposite too; it can be destructive, it can move in directions which are anti-life. Hence, science cannot be left only in the hands of the scientists. Something higher, something which is an end in itself must be the decisive factor in determining in what direction science should move, in what direction it should not move.

The concern of science is things, objects; it is not concerned at all with being. The word "being" is just nonexistential for the scientific mind. This is very idiotic because the scientist is a being himself.

From Darkness to Light - 16

Till you live life totally

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF LIFE? WHY IS THERE A DESIRE TO CONTINUE TO LIVE FOREVER?

There is no goal of life, for the simple reason that life is its own goal. The goal is intrinsic, not something outside; not there, far away, but herenow, in this very moment.

The very idea of goal is future-oriented.

The moment you start living for a goal you stop living in the present, in the immediate. The goal becomes more important. Tomorrow becomes more important, and you have to sacrifice today for tomorrow; and the trouble is, tomorrow never comes, has never come, is not going to come ever.

But you go on sacrificing your today - which is your only treasure, which is all that you have got.

You risk that which you have for that which is only a mind desire.

From Darkness to Light - 15

The sweet taste of corruption

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

THE OTHER DAY I GAVE A TALK AT A COLLEGE WHERE A MIDDLE-AGED MAN IN THE AUDIENCE, VISIBLY UPSET, SAID, "BY SPEAKING AGAINST GOD, AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, AGAINST ALL RELIGIONS, YOU ARE CORRUPTING THE MINDS OF THESE YOUNG PEOPLE."

WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMMENT?

I have never spoken against God for the simple reason that God does not exist. How can you speak against someone who does not exist in the first place? I have never spoken against Christianity either, because there is no such thing in the world as Christianity.

What exists in the name of Christianity I have always called Crossianity. It is the worship of the cross, not of Christ. It is fear of death, not love of life. Just take a few things out of the life of Jesus and Christianity disappears. If he is not crucified can there be a Christianity? Jesus is not important; what is important is crucifixion. Even more important is the fiction of resurrection, but that is possible only if first Jesus is crucified. It is a corollary.

These so-called Christians worship Jesus because of resurrection. That is a great consolation against death. That's why I say they are worshiping the cross, the crucifixion, the resurrection - not for any love for Jesus and his teachings but because of a deep fear of death. This fear of death makes them believe in things which they know are impossible. But when you are in a psychological turmoil of fear you can believe anything, just as a temporary consolation.

From Darkness to Light - 14

The best government is no government

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT IS THE BEST GOVERNMENT?

No government.

The very idea of somebody governing somebody else is inhuman.

Government is a game, the ugliest and the dirtiest game in the world.

But there are people in the lowest state of consciousness who enjoy it: these are the politicians. The only joy of a politician is to govern, to be in power, to enslave people The greatest desire of all those who have reached to the peaks of consciousness has been the dream that one day we can get rid of all governments. That day will be the greatest in the whole history - past, present, future - of man, because getting rid of all governments will mean destroying the ugliest game, the game the politicians have been playing for centuries.

From Darkness to Light - 13

Truth is found in your own boutique

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHY SHOULD RELIGION AND STATE REMAIN SEPARATE?

Religion as such does not exist yet; hence, whatever is known as religion should remain separate from the state for the simple reason that it is not religion - it is pseudo, fake.

You cannot ask the same question in reference to science. Can you ask that science and state should remain separate? Nobody even thinks about science's separation for the simple reason that science exists, has come of age, has contributed immensely to human growth, welfare, health, longevity.

In every possible way science has been a blessing.

Hence, nobody will think of science remaining separate from the state.

From Darkness to Light - 12

A single humanity rejoicing

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

THE EUROPEAN PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT EASTERN RELIGIONS, WORRIED THAT THEIR VITALITY CAN DESTROY THE NATIONS. IS THERE THIS DANGER/BLESSING WITH YOUR RELIGION TOO?

Religion is not geography. It is neither Eastern nor Western. It cannot be divided in such a stupid manner; otherwise there will be a Southern religion, a Northern religion, and there will be no end to these divisions. The Middle East is not the East, and the Far East is also not the East.

Just a few days ago one South African politician said, "Now the conflict between East and West is over; now the real fight is going to be between South and North." Up to now nobody has been thinking in terms of a conflict between South and North, but basically, there is. Southern countries are all poor; northern countries are all rich. Southern countries are mostly black; northern countries are mostly white.

From Darkness to Light - 11

Science and religion - two petals of the same rose

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

ISN'T A SYNTHESIS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION NEEDED?

The very idea of synthesis already accepts that they are not only two but opposed to each other.

Unless there is an antithesis there is no question of synthesis at all.

For me, science and religion are two sides of the same coin. Science is looking outwards, religion is looking inwards, but both are the same kind of looking, the same kind of search. They may have different names - that does not matter at all.

Science calls it observation, religion calls it awareness.

Science calls it experiment, religion calls it experience.

From Darkness to Light - 10

Not spiritual guidance but spiritual presence

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

IS NOT SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR HUMAN GROWTH?

There are no absolutes in real life - including this statement too. Life is full of exceptions; that's one of its most beautiful things. Exceptions mean freedom. Exceptions mean you are not in a concentration camp. The absolute is nothing but complete bondage and slavery.

In the beginning days of scientific research scientists were thinking that in science there are no exceptions. That was one of the great prides of science, because that makes it absolutely certain. If there are exceptions you cannot be certain about the rules - and science needs certainty to be the base.

For the last three hundred years science went on proving that there were no exceptions, finding absolute rules. But Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity destroyed the whole three-hundred- year-long efforts of hundreds of scientists in a single blow. The theory of relativity means that nothing is absolute, everything is relative, and there are exceptions everywhere.

From Darkness to Light - 09

Your suffering makes you special

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET RID OF PAIN, MISERY, SUFFERING OR ANGUISH, WHILE KNOWING PERFECTLY WELL THAT ONE HAS JUST TO UNDERSTAND AND DROP THEM?

It is difficult to get rid of pain, misery, and suffering for the simple reason that they have been your companions for your whole life. Except them, you don't have any friends in the world.

It is easier to be in pain, misery, suffering, than to be utterly lonely, because there are ways you can have pain-killers, you can have drugs, as an escape from misery. You can get engaged in all kinds of stupidities to forget your suffering. But there is no way - no painkiller is going to help you out of your loneliness, no drug, no stupidity.

Loneliness is so deep that all these superficial methods cannot reach to it, cannot touch it. That's why it is so difficult to get rid of these few friends that you have got. This is your world, your family.

From Darkness to Light - 08

Agony is missing yourself, ecstasy is finding yourself

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT IS AGONY AND WHAT IS ECSTASY?

The same. They are not opposites as they are understood to be. They are complementaries, intrinsic parts of one organic whole. Neither can exist without the other.

It will be a little difficult to understand because they have always been thought to be polar opposites.

They are polar opposites, seen from the outside. But all polar opposites are joined together from the inside. The negative or positive poles of electricity, the body and soul - from the outside they are not only different but antagonistic. From the inside they are two aspects of one phenomenon.

Let us first try to understand their meaning.

What is agony?

It is not ordinary suffering, misery, pain.

From Darkness to Light - 07

Time is very short but my methods are very quick

Question 1:

BELOVED OSHO,

HOW DO YOU INTEND TO RAISE THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ENTIRE PLANET? DO WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME? DO WE HAVE A CHANCE?

I can only answer for myself. I cannot use the word "we."

That word is used by political leaders and religious priests. I am neither of them. I do not represent anybody in the world except myself.

The politician represents a certain crowd; hence his use of the word "we" has some meaning. He is no more than the total sum of the crowd. Withdraw the crowd and the politician disappears into a vacuum, into nothingness.

The same is true about a pope, a shankaracharya, or any other religious leader. The pope is simply the sum total of all the Catholics of the world. But remember, he is not a man but only a sum total - a number in arithmetic, but not an individual.