One day we too would fall like a dry leaf

Lao Tzu was sitting under a tree when a dry leaf fell from the tree: he attained total awareness watching the dry leaf falling from the tree. The dry leaf became his master. He just watched everything – in that dry leaf he saw his birth, he saw his death. In the death of that dry leaf, everything died. One day he too would fall like a dry leaf – everything was finished.

It was the same for Buddha. He was shocked, seeing a sick old man on the road. And when he saw a corpse he asked, ”What has happened to this man?” His chariot driver said, ”The same will happen to you, and to everyone else. One day death will come.”

Buddha said, ”Then turn the chariot around and take me home. Now there is nowhere to go. If death is approaching, life has no meaning.” You have seen corpses being carried down the road for burning. You also have stood at the road side and felt sympathy for a moment. You might say, ”This poor guy has died. What a tragedy! He was still young, he left behind his young wife and kids. How tragic!”

You had pity for the dead person – you didn’t feel any pity for yourself. The dying person brought the message of your death. Today he goes carried out on a stretcher; tomorrow or the next day you will be loaded up and carried out. Just as you are standing at the roadside feeling sympathy for him, other people will also be standing along the road feeling sympathy for you. You will be so helpless that you won’t even be able to thank them. The dead body you see going down the road is yours. If you have the eyes, the vision, the depth, a profound awareness, then you will know that when one man dies, the whole humanity dies and life becomes meaningless.

Buddha renounced everything and went away. But when he became enlightened he thought that whoever is going to wake up, will wake up anyway without anyone awakening him. For him any excuse will be enough. 

OSHO