Power is in the hands of the wrong people, and the people of intelligence are devoid of power. [Story]

But the misfortune is that power is in the hands of the wrong people, and the people of intelligence are devoid of power. I will tell you a small story to make it clear….

A great mystic heard that one of his friends, a childhood friend — they had played together, studied together — had become the prime minister of the country. Just to congratulate him, the mystic came down from the mountains. It was a long journey, tiring. By the time he reached the prime minister’s palace, the prime minister was getting ready to go somewhere.

He recognized the mystic, but he said, “I’m sorry, I have some appointments. I have to go to three places, and I would love it if you can come with me. On the way we can talk and remember the golden old days.”
The mystic said, “I would love to come with you, but you can see my rags are full of dust. It would not look right to sit by your side on a golden chariot.”

The prime minister said, “Don’t be worried. The king has presented me with a very costly overcoat. I have never used it; I have been keeping it for some special occasion. I will give you the coat. You just put it on; it will cover your clothes, the dust and everything.” The coat was given to him.
They reached the first house. They entered the house. The prime minister introduced his friend: “He is a great mystic. He lives in the mountains.
 

Everything that he has is his own, except the coat — that is mine.”
The mystic could not believe it: “What kind of stupidity is this?”
Even the family was shocked, to insult the mystic in such a way.
 

Outside the house the mystic said, “It is better I do not accompany you. You insulted me. What was the need to say that it is your coat? They were not asking.”

He said, “I am sorry, forgive me. And if you don’t come with me to the next appointment, I will think you have not forgiven me.”
 

The mystic was a simple-hearted man. He said, “Then it is okay, I am coming.”
 

Entering the second house, the prime minister introduced him: “He is a great mystic who lives in the mountains. Everything is his — even the coat is his!”
 

The mystic could not believe that this man had any intelligence at all. Outside he simply refused: “I cannot go to your third appointment. This is too much.”

But the politician said, “I have said that the coat is yours!” The mystic said, “It is unbelievable how unintelligent a man can be. Your assertion, emphasis, that the coat is mine, creates suspicion: there is something you are hiding. What is the need to mention the coat at all? I don’t see the point that in any introduction coats need to be introduced.”

And the politician said, “Forgive me, but if you don’t come to the third appointment I will never forget that I have hurt you. Please, there is only one more appointment, and I will not say that the coat is yours or the coat is mine. Don’t be worried about it.”

The simple mystic, innocent, agreed to go with him. At the third house he introduced the mystic in the same way, “He is a great mystic from the mountains. All the clothes are his, but as far as the coat is concerned, it is better not to say anything!”

The politician is not the most intelligent part of humanity. Otherwise there would not have been five thousand wars in three thousand years. The politician has destroyed, but has not created anything. It is the politician who is creating the atomic weapons, the nuclear missiles. With what face can he make the people of the world aware that the future is dark, dismal?

Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, Talk #3

Mind goes on asking for more? There is no end to it. [ Story ]

One of the great kings, Yayati, was dying. He was a hundred years old, ripe enough to die -- one should be ready by that time -- but not grown-up enough; the seed of renewing life was not yet burnt. So when death came, Yayati fell at the feet of Death -- a great king, a great conqueror! -- and he said to Death, "Spare me only one hundred years more. I don't ask for more, just one hundred years more. And it is nothing for you, you can do it. All my desires are still unfulfilled because I had never thought about you. I was simply preparing and preparing. I have not enjoyed my life. Now that everything is ready -- I have conquered the whole world, I have all the riches, the most beautiful women, the most intelligent and courageous sons, the best army in the world, everything is settled, all enemies killed -- I was just thinking to relax and enjoy. Is this the time to come? All these hundred years have been spent simply in preparing for these moments. Spare me just one hundred years more so that I can live to my heart's content."

Image Source : Wikipedia

Death laughed and said, "I am ready to spare one hundred years more to you, but I will have to take one of your sons because I have to go with somebody who resembles you; if not you, at least one of your sons. I can't go empty-handed, I have to give the account to my boss himself. He will ask, 'Where is Yayati?' What am I going to say? Such a thing has never been done before, but I feel sorry for you. Just ask one of your sons."

Yayati had a hundred sons; he must have ha d a hundred wives too. He asked his sons.

The oldest was eighty, but he started looking downwards, was not ready to say yes. Why should he? He had lived only eighty years; if his father is not contented with a hundred years, how can he be contented with only eighty years? At least twenty years more he is entitled to live. In those days, the story says, people used to live a hundred years. Why should he die a premature death, an untimely death? And this old fellow has lived enough! He did not want to hurt the old man so he didn't say anything, he kept quiet.

The father was very much shocked; he used to think that his sons were ready to sacrifice themselves. But in this world nobody is ready to sacrifice himself for anybody else. He looked around. His sons also started looking at each other, meaning "Why don't YOU go?"

The youngest, who was only twenty years old, stood up and he said, "I am ready. Take me with you, I am coming with you."

Even Death felt sorry for the boy. Death came close to the young man and said, "Are you a fool or something? Your other brothers -- one is eighty, one is seventy-five, one is seventy, sixty, sixty-five, fifty -- these people are not ready to go and you are the youngest, you have not lived at all. Why are you ready to go?"

The young man said, "If my father could not live in a hundred years, if my eldest brother could not live in eighty years, if my other brothers... nobody has been able to live, then the whole project is nonsense. I don't want to waste time. If I have to die it is better to die now. Why wait for eighty years? If THESE people have not been able to manage, it is absolutely certain it is unmanageable. And let my father try a hundred years more."

Death tried to convince him, but he wouldn't listen. Death had to take him away. After a hundred years, Death came back and the situation was the same. Again Yayati fell at his feet and started crying and weeping and he said, "I know that now I should be ready, but nothing is fulfilled yet; all the desires are the same. I have LIVED all the desires, I cannot say that I have not lived them, but nothing is fulfilled. I want more! Now that I have lived a hundred years a new desire has arisen -- I want more! I want to live at least one time more, a hundred years more, just one time more."

And this went on happening again and again. When Yayati became one thousand years old and Death came, he was just going to fall at his feet. Death said, "Wait -- enough is enough! Can't you see the point, Yayati? Are you so blind? You have lived one thousand years, and you have been doing the same things again and again. You have done nothing new in these one thousand years, and still you want more? Can't you see the simple point that mind lives in the more, it goes on asking for more? There is no end to it. Now you come with me -- I am not going to listen anymore. Now even my boss is feeling angry with me. He says, 'This is too much! This man has been given too much time.' But I also wanted to try -- let us see what you can make out of one thousand years. You have not made any progress, you are exactly in the same place, going in circles."

Buddha calls this tanha -- going in circles -- this constant desire for more. One becomes a master when this desire for more disappears, when the seed is burnt in the fire of awareness. HE IS CALM. Then of course he is calm.

When there is no desire, when the winds of desire are blowing no more, there are no waves in the inner ocean, then the ocean becomes absolutely calm. In fact, the ocean is not the cause of waves -- the cause is the invisible winds. You see the waves in the ocean so you think the waves are caused by the ocean; they are not. The waves are caused by invisible winds blowing over the ocean. If the winds stop the ocean will be absolutely calm.

Why are you in a turmoil? Why are there constantly so many waves inside you, so many thoughts and so many memories, fantasies? Why does this whole circus go on? For the simple reason that there are invisible winds of desire blowing upon you.

The watchful person, the intelligent person, becomes aware of the root cause: it is in the winds, the winds of desire. He stops desiring. Seeing the futility of desire he drops desiring. The seed is burnt and then there is calm. This calm is not the calm of your so-called polished, cultured man. This calm is totally different, its quality is different, its source is different -- it comes from the innermost core.

The Buddha is calm because the winds are not blowing anymore. And they cannot blow because the very seed has been burnt. HE HAS CONQUERED ALL THE INNER WORLDS. There are worlds upon worlds inside you too, just as outside there are worlds upon worlds. Scientists go on discovering new solar systems, new stars, new galaxies of stars, new milky ways. They go on discovering, there seems to be no end. There seem to be universes and universes unending. So it is in the inner world: there are also many planes and many universes, but all are rooted in a single seed.  

Story-By-Osho

Love Yourself First [ Quotes ]

Buddha says this is one of the most difficult things - to try to share that which you don't have - and that's what people are doing. They go on trying to love without ever considering the fact that love has not yet grown in their heart. In fact, you don't love yourself - how can you love others? The basic is missing, the very basic is missing.

You are not happy alone - how can you be happy together with somebody else? If you are unhappy alone, when you come together with somebody, you will bring your unhappiness to be shared. That's all you have - your poverty, your rottenness, your misery, your depression, your sadness, your angst, anxiety, anguish... your disease.

Try to possess something - that which cannot be taken away by anybody, not even by death. Difficult, but possible. It looks impossible. How to be loving without finding a lover? Our whole mind has been conditioned in a wrong way.

You can dance without the audience; why can't you love without there being somebody? You can sing without a listener; why can't you love without a lover?
Your mind has been conditioned wrongly. You think you can love only when there is somebody to love.

Practise love. Sitting alone in your room, be loving. Radiate love. Fill the whole room with your love energy. Feel vibrating with a new frequency, feel swaying as if you are in the ocean of love. Create vibrations of love energy around you.

And you will start feeling immediately that something is happening - something in your aura is changing, something around your body is changing; a warmth is arising around your body... a warmth like deep orgasm. You are becoming more alive. Something like sleep is disappearing. Something like awareness is arising.

Sway into this ocean. Dance, sing, and let your whole room be filled with love.
In the beginning it feels very weird. When for the first time you can fill your room with love energy, your own energy, which goes on falling and rebouncing on you and makes you so happy, one starts feeling, 'Am I hypnotising myself?

Am I deluded? What is happening?' Because you have always thought that love comes from somebody else. A mother is needed to love you, a father, a brother, a husband, a wife, a child - but somebody.

Love that depends on somebody is a poor love. Love that is created within you, love that you create out of your own being, is real energy. Then move anywhere with that ocean surrounding you and you will feel that everybody who comes close to you is suddenly under a different kind of energy.
People will look at you with more open eyes. You will be passing them and they will feel that a breeze of some unknown energy has passed them; they will feel fresher. Hold somebody's hand and his whole body will start throbbing. Just be close to somebody and that man will start feeling very happy for no reason at all.

You can watch it. Then you are becoming ready to share. Then find a lover, then find a right receptivity for you." -- Osho--

Power is one - Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

A man came to Ramakrishna and said I can walk on water, what can you do? Ramakrishna said, you really can walk on water? How much time did it take for you to learn this art?

He said, it took eighteen years. Ramakrishna started laughing. He said, idiot of idiots! I give two cents to go across the river. You took eighteen years to walk across water? What’s the use? Go and walk on water, keep on walking. You really can walk on water, can’t you? Just give two cents to sit in a boat and you can go across. For this two cent crossing you wasted eighteen years?

Let go of powers, only then will you receive power, will you attain realization. There is a beautiful difference between powers and power. Powers means: I can do miracles, I receive nectar, I can change iron to gold, I can fly in the sky, I can walk through walls. These are powers. If you drop all of these you will find power. Power is one. The meaning of power is, totally merge into what is hidden within. There is no need to fly in the sky, nor any need to walk through walls. The door is sufficient. And birds go on flying in the sky – none of them has become awakened. And if you really have your heart set on it, there are airplanes. Sit in one.

Drop this kind of things. These are all new ways for the ego. Story-by-OSHO

Just be insane

A journalist came to visit Gurdjieff. He came for an interview. Gurdjieff was drinking tea. He sat the journalist down next to him. Then Gurdjieff said to a disciple sitting nearby, what day is it today?

 
The disciple said, today is Sunday.

Gurdjieff banged his fist hard on the table and said, how can it be Sunday? Yesterday was Saturday.

When the journalist heard this he was shocked out of his wits – what kind of man is this? He got so angry he banged the table with his fist saying how can it be Sunday? Who are you trying to befool? Who do you think you are? Yesterday was only Saturday, and today is Sunday?

The journalist stood up. He said, good-by, I’ll be going now.

When he left he looked quite ridiculous. Gurdjieff laughed. The disciples too were very happy. They said, you were outrageous! He said, what’s the use wasting time with this idiot?

Until a true seeker comes, be a complete idiot, as if you can’t speak, a deaf-mute. Mad, be a madman, so that people don’t start to ask you on their own – why ask that madman?

Just be insane if you see that some muddled, stinking, superfluous person etc... just be insane. He will go on his own and will never come back again. -- Story-by-OSHO

Do you recognize yourself?

The ancient parable in the East is that a lioness was jumping from one hillock to another hillock and just in the middle she gave birth to a kid. The kid fell down on the road where a big crowd of sheep was passing. Naturally he mixed with the sheep, lived with the sheep, behaved like a sheep. He had no idea, not even in his dreams, that he is a lion. How could he have? All around him were sheep and more sheep. He had never roared like a lion; a sheep does not roar. He had never been alone like a lion; a sheep is never alone. She is always in the crowd – the crowd is cozy, secure, safe. If you see sheep walking, they walk so close together that they are almost stumbling on each other. They are so afraid to be alone.

But the lion started growing up. It was a strange phenomenon. He was identified mentally with being a sheep, but biology does not go according to your identification; nature is not going to follow you. He became a beautiful young lion, but because things happened so slowly the sheep also became accustomed to the lion while the lion was becoming accustomed to the sheep. The sheep thought he is a little crazy, naturally. He’s not behaving – a little cuckoo – and he goes on growing. It is not supposed to be so. And pretending to be a lion... but he is not a lion. They have seen him from his very birth, they have brought him up, they have given their milk to him. And he was a nonvegetarian by nature – no lion is vegetarian, but this lion was vegetarian because sheep are vegetarian. He used to eat grass with great joy.

They accepted this little difference, that he is a little big and looks like a lion. A very wise sheep said, ”It is just a freak of nature. Once in a while it happens.” And he himself also accepted that it is true. His color is different, his body is different – he must be a freak, abnormal. But the idea that he is a lion was impossible! He was surrounded by all those sheep, and sheep psychoanalysts gave him explanations: ”You are just a freak of nature. Don’t be worried. We are here to take care of you.”

But one day an old lion passed and saw this young lion far above the crowd of sheep. He could not believe his eyes! He had never seen such a thing nor had he ever heard in the history of the whole past that a lion was in the middle of a crowd of sheep and no sheep was afraid. And the lion was walking exactly like the sheep, grazing on grass.

The old lion could not believe his eyes. He forgot he was going to catch a sheep for his breakfast. He completely forgot the breakfast. It was something so strange that he tried to catch the young lion. But he was old, and the young lion was young – he ran away. Although he believed that he was a sheep, when there was danger the identification was forgotten. He ran like a lion, and the old lion had great difficulty in catching him. But finally the old lion got hold of him and he was crying and weeping and saying, ”Just forgive me, I am a poor sheep.” The old lion said, ”You idiot! You simply stop and come with me to the pond.”

Just nearby there was a pond. He took the young lion there. The young lion was not going willingly. He went reluctantly – but what can you do against a lion if you are only a sheep? He may kill you if you don’t follow him, so he went with him. The pond was silent, with no ripples, almost like a mirror.

And the old lion said to the young, ”Just look. Look at my face and look at your face. Look at my body and look at your body in the water.”

In a second there came a great roar! All the hills echoed it. The sheep disappeared; he was a totally different being – he recognized himself. The identification with sheep was not a reality, it was just a mental concept. Now he had seen the reality. And the old lion said, ”Now I don’t have to say anything. You have understood.”

The young lion could feel strange energy he had never felt... as if it had been dormant. He could feel tremendous power, and he had always been a weak, humble sheep. All that humbleness, all that weakness, simply evaporated.

This is an ancient parable about the master and the disciple. The function of the master is only to bring the disciple to see who he is and that what he goes on believing is not true. OSHO

This is why everyone is skillful at condemning

In a village there was a fool. He was very upset because no matter what he said people laughed at him. People had decided he was a blithering idiot. Even when he said something right people still laughed at him. He lived cowering, not daring even to speak. If he didn’t speak people laughed, if he spoke people laughed. If he did something people laughed, if he didn’t do anything people laughed. A monk came to the village.

That night the fool fell at the monk’s feet and said, ”Give me some blessing. is my whole life to be spent shrinking and cowering like this? Will I die a blithering idiot? Is there no way I can become a little intelligent?”

The monk said, ”There is a way. Follow this sutra: condemn everything.”

He said, ”What will happen through condemning?”

The monk said, ”You do it for seven days then come again to me.”

The fool asked, ”How should I condemn?

The monk said, ”Whatever anyone says make a negative statement. For instance if someone says look what a beautiful sun is coming out, you say what’s beautiful about it? Prove it. Where is the beauty? What beauty? It comes out everyday, it has been coming out for billions of years. It is a globe of fire – what beauty? Someone says, looking at a beautiful woman, what a beautiful woman. You say: what of it? So what if her nose is a little longer? So what if her skin is a little whiter? Lepers are white too. What beauty? Prove it. You demand proof from everyone and remember to always remain in the negative. Put them in the positive, you remain in the negative. Come to me after seven days.”

After seven days when the idiot came, he did not come alone, many had become his disciples. They came on ahead. They had hung flower garlands around his neck. A band was playing. He said to the monk, ”The device worked. The whole village was forced to be silent. Wherever I went people lowered their heads. The news spread among the people that I am a great genius. No one could win against me. Now what should I do?”

He said, ”Now don’t do anything, just remain with this. If you want to save your intellect never fall into the positive. If someone speaks of god then immediately bring in atheism. Whatever is said, always make a negative statement. No one will be able to defeat you because to disprove a negative statement is very difficult. To prove a positive statement is very difficult.”

To affirm god great intelligence is needed, a very subtle sensitivity is needed. Total wakefulness of the heart is needed. A purified state of consciousness is needed. A little light is needed within. But to deny god nothing is needed. In denying god there is no commitment. This is why people in the world condemn.

The psychology of condemnation is cheap psychology, an easy way out. Your genius will be proven by it. And there is no cost. ”Using neither turmeric nor alum the dye came out fine.” There is no cost at all. There is no need to go anywhere to learn. There is no need for satsang. This is why everyone is skillful at condemning. -Story-by-OSHO