Chapter #10
Even Bein Gawd Ain T A Bed Of Roses #10
Date:
1979-10-10
(pm)
Place:
Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Osho's Commentary
OSHO (to Charlotte) : Charlotte also means of noble spirit. Love brings a new nobility into your being; a new spirituality is born. Love is the seed of all that is beautiful, divine. Love is the only proof of God. If you know what love is, you know what God is; there is no other way to know God.
OSHO (to Tim) : God may not even be mentioned in it, but God enters into it, God becomes the very heart of such rejoicing.
Real worship is playful. It is sincere but not serious, sincere but not sad. The real worship never asks for anything; on the contrary it offers one to the service of the whole. It is an offering, not a demand, not a desire, but a thankfulness, a gratitude expressed.
Hence my sannyasins have to learn how to sing, how to dance, how to love, how to rejoice in the ordinary things of life you transform those ordinary things into something extraordinary, the mundane is transformed into the sacred. That is the alchemy of worship: you worship a stone and the stone becomes God; you worship a tree and the tree becomes God; you dance to the stars and the stars become Gods. Wherever you pour your worship it transforms the object. Immediately it is no more mundane, no more material: it becomes something spiritual, something of the beyond.
OSHO (to Michael) : My effort here is to teach you how to transform love into prayer. Of course I have to begin from where you are. So if somebody is in the biological stage I have to begin my work on him from there. If somebody is a monk -- there are born monks as there are born poets because if somebody practised a certain kind of discipline, monkhood for many lives, he is born as a monk, he is born stagnant, frozen -- then I have to start from there.
And this is our whole humanity -- almost the whole. It is very rare to find a person who is not confined by these two and is ready to just take the plunge into the ultimate, a plunge towards the heights.
But if one remembers continuously that there is a possibility, sooner or later one starts seeking and searching for it. Unfortunately many people are not even aware of the possibility. Become aware that love can take you to the very door of the divine. Love is the most godly phenomenon in existence, the bridge between the human and the divine.
OSHO (to Rosalynne) : People ask for it, hence they never become aware of what it is. People go on seeking to be loved and so they go one missing. Love cannot be begged for, cannot be asked for; it can only be given. In giving it you know what it is and in giving it you get it a thousandfold.
One has to become a waterfall of love, a continuous flow with no conditions attached to it. Give for the sheer joy of giving and you will get so much love that it is impossible to contain it. It starts showering from all directions -- the whole sky opens up. That's the experience of all the mystics of the world and it is possible for every human being. It is just that we start our journey with the wrong step. Ask for love and then your life is going to be a frustration. And if the first step goes wrong then all the other steps go wrong. Then the whole journey is a sheer wastage of time and life and opportunity. The first step has to be right because the first step is almost half the journey and the right step is to give it.
The economics of love is very different, not only different but just the contrary of the ordinary economics of life. In the ordinary economics you get things only by taking them: you have to fight and struggle and to snatch. You have to compete and you have to be hard in you competition, only then can you have things: money, power, prestige. But the economics of love is just the opposite. You cannot fight for it; it is not for the soldiers, it is for sannyasins.
The sannyasin is just the opposite of a soldier. He lives in let-go, with no competition, with no struggle, with no ambition. The moment your let-go is total something inexpressable starts happening. That is love. It starts flowing from you just like a waterfall. And it has infinite resources, it can never be exhausted. You can go on giving it, and the more you give it, the more you have it,
OSHO (to Cameron) : You watch happiness coming and going, unhappiness coming and going, the sunrise and sunset, the light and the dark, the cloudy day and the sunny day; you simply watch. You don't become identified, you remain aloof, distant, cool. That coolness is bliss.
And remember coolness is not coldness. Bliss is neither hot nor cold, it is simply cool. From one side you can call it cool: if you compare it with the heat of bliss, with the heat of happiness, then bliss is cool. If you compare it with the coldness of death then it is warm. Those are relative terms but one thing is certain: that it is neither -- it is something different, totally different. And all the meditations are nothing but techniques to attain to this third angle of your life.
And "cameron" is really a difficult word. I must have given at least one hundred thousand names to people, but your name seems to be the most difficult! Vivek was asking me "How are you going to get through it?" It means crooked nose (much laughter)
CAMERON : What does it mean?
Crooked nose! (more laughter) But it is beautiful! And don't be worried, because all noses are crooked. The nose represents the ego and all egos are crooked. But once you start becoming blissful... you can leave it to me: I am going to make it straight!
OSHO (to Johannes) : Drop all armor, all defense measures.
We are living behind subtle, transparent iron walls. Unless you become very alert you will never know that you are living in a prison cell. It is not made of bricks, it is made of concepts, ideologies, religions, philosophies; it is made not of bricks but words.
Once you become aware of it you can start dropping it slowly slowly. Or if you are courageous you can simply jump out if it completely, in a single move. And the moment you are free of words and all that words have created -- philosophies, systems of thought -- truth descends in you; it comes as a gift. You cannot think it, you cannot logically arrive at it. You need not go anywhere; it comes to you on its own -- you just have to make a little space for it inside you.
We are too full of rubbish, there is no space; hence truth cannot enter. Truth is not a concept: truth means the whole of existence, it is another name for it. If you are really open, spacious, then the existence starts flowing through you. That is truth. And to become a vehicle of existence is the greatest joy in life.
OSHO (to Susan) : People love only in their search for bliss. People create poetry, music, sculpture, because while creating they feel blissful. If we look minutely, deeply, then each act is a search for bliss.
The name Susan consists of two words.... The first part means white lily and the second part means grace. Bliss will make you a white lily. White represents the whole spectrum of colors, white represents totality. It is the whole rainbow; all the colors of the rainbow mixed together create white. The light is white; passing through a spectrum it becomes divided into seven colors. White represents oneness, totality.
And the lily represents beauty, innocence. To function from innocence, to function from a state of not-knowing, is the right way to function in life. That's what Jesus means when he says: Unless you are born again, unless you become like small children, you will not enter into my kingdom of God. He is saying to function from the state of not-knowing, function from the state of innocence.
The lily simply represents innocence; and certainly wherever there is bliss and beauty and innocence, grace follows as a shadow; it comes of its own accord.
OSHO (to Frank) : Once it becomes a constant undercurrent inside you so that even while you are asleep it goes on there -- not verbally, but just so that the feel is there that bliss is God, that God is not in the churches, in the temples, in the mosques, that God is in your heart, but only when your heart is dancing and singing.... When you are in misery you are as far away from God as you can be.
Don't choose misery -- it is our choice. And never make others responsible for your misery -- that is a trick to continue in the old pattern. Be responsible. Remember that "I have chosen to be miserable." It is hard in the beginning to recognize, to accept, that "I am responsible for all the hell that I have created around myself," but it begins a new life. You have taken a great step by being responsible for all your miseries because now you can start dropping them; you can start choosing bliss, joy, celebration. To be responsible means to be free. Responsibility is not a burden but the very essence of freedom. It means that we choose our lives, we create our lives, that ultimately nobody else is responsible -- not fate, not God.
This is the first step of being a sannyasin: be responsible. Once you have understood the phenomenon of responsibility the change is very easy. Don't choose! Life gives you all kinds of opportunities: it gives you thorns and it gives you roses. There is no need to pick the thorns, you can pick the roses.
OSHO (to Prakash) : Your name will remind you again and again that light has to be found. And of course, becoming a sannyasin means moving into the world of mystics. It means moving into meditation, it means going inwards, exploring your own interiority. The day you have come to the center of your being, as a great mystic, Kabir says: "It feels as if one thousand suns have suddenly risen up -- the light is so much, so dazzling." One cannot believe it, it is unbelievable. And when one sees it for the first time, one almost goes blind -- it is too much! Slowly slowly one becomes accustomed to it. Slowly slowly one becomes aware that "I am not separate from it, I am one with it."
Osho's Commentary
OSHO (to Tim) : God may not even be mentioned in it, but God enters into it, God becomes the very heart of such rejoicing.
Real worship is playful. It is sincere but not serious, sincere but not sad. The real worship never asks for anything; on the contrary it offers one to the service of the whole. It is an offering, not a demand, not a desire, but a thankfulness, a gratitude expressed.
Hence my sannyasins have to learn how to sing, how to dance, how to love, how to rejoice in the ordinary things of life you transform those ordinary things into something extraordinary, the mundane is transformed into the sacred. That is the alchemy of worship: you worship a stone and the stone becomes God; you worship a tree and the tree becomes God; you dance to the stars and the stars become Gods. Wherever you pour your worship it transforms the object. Immediately it is no more mundane, no more material: it becomes something spiritual, something of the beyond.
OSHO (to Michael) : My effort here is to teach you how to transform love into prayer. Of course I have to begin from where you are. So if somebody is in the biological stage I have to begin my work on him from there. If somebody is a monk -- there are born monks as there are born poets because if somebody practised a certain kind of discipline, monkhood for many lives, he is born as a monk, he is born stagnant, frozen -- then I have to start from there.
And this is our whole humanity -- almost the whole. It is very rare to find a person who is not confined by these two and is ready to just take the plunge into the ultimate, a plunge towards the heights.
But if one remembers continuously that there is a possibility, sooner or later one starts seeking and searching for it. Unfortunately many people are not even aware of the possibility. Become aware that love can take you to the very door of the divine. Love is the most godly phenomenon in existence, the bridge between the human and the divine.
OSHO (to Rosalynne) : People ask for it, hence they never become aware of what it is. People go on seeking to be loved and so they go one missing. Love cannot be begged for, cannot be asked for; it can only be given. In giving it you know what it is and in giving it you get it a thousandfold.
One has to become a waterfall of love, a continuous flow with no conditions attached to it. Give for the sheer joy of giving and you will get so much love that it is impossible to contain it. It starts showering from all directions -- the whole sky opens up. That's the experience of all the mystics of the world and it is possible for every human being. It is just that we start our journey with the wrong step. Ask for love and then your life is going to be a frustration. And if the first step goes wrong then all the other steps go wrong. Then the whole journey is a sheer wastage of time and life and opportunity. The first step has to be right because the first step is almost half the journey and the right step is to give it.
The economics of love is very different, not only different but just the contrary of the ordinary economics of life. In the ordinary economics you get things only by taking them: you have to fight and struggle and to snatch. You have to compete and you have to be hard in you competition, only then can you have things: money, power, prestige. But the economics of love is just the opposite. You cannot fight for it; it is not for the soldiers, it is for sannyasins.
The sannyasin is just the opposite of a soldier. He lives in let-go, with no competition, with no struggle, with no ambition. The moment your let-go is total something inexpressable starts happening. That is love. It starts flowing from you just like a waterfall. And it has infinite resources, it can never be exhausted. You can go on giving it, and the more you give it, the more you have it,
OSHO (to Cameron) : You watch happiness coming and going, unhappiness coming and going, the sunrise and sunset, the light and the dark, the cloudy day and the sunny day; you simply watch. You don't become identified, you remain aloof, distant, cool. That coolness is bliss.
And remember coolness is not coldness. Bliss is neither hot nor cold, it is simply cool. From one side you can call it cool: if you compare it with the heat of bliss, with the heat of happiness, then bliss is cool. If you compare it with the coldness of death then it is warm. Those are relative terms but one thing is certain: that it is neither -- it is something different, totally different. And all the meditations are nothing but techniques to attain to this third angle of your life.
And "cameron" is really a difficult word. I must have given at least one hundred thousand names to people, but your name seems to be the most difficult! Vivek was asking me "How are you going to get through it?" It means crooked nose (much laughter)
CAMERON : What does it mean?
Crooked nose! (more laughter) But it is beautiful! And don't be worried, because all noses are crooked. The nose represents the ego and all egos are crooked. But once you start becoming blissful... you can leave it to me: I am going to make it straight!
OSHO (to Johannes) : Drop all armor, all defense measures.
We are living behind subtle, transparent iron walls. Unless you become very alert you will never know that you are living in a prison cell. It is not made of bricks, it is made of concepts, ideologies, religions, philosophies; it is made not of bricks but words.
Once you become aware of it you can start dropping it slowly slowly. Or if you are courageous you can simply jump out if it completely, in a single move. And the moment you are free of words and all that words have created -- philosophies, systems of thought -- truth descends in you; it comes as a gift. You cannot think it, you cannot logically arrive at it. You need not go anywhere; it comes to you on its own -- you just have to make a little space for it inside you.
We are too full of rubbish, there is no space; hence truth cannot enter. Truth is not a concept: truth means the whole of existence, it is another name for it. If you are really open, spacious, then the existence starts flowing through you. That is truth. And to become a vehicle of existence is the greatest joy in life.
OSHO (to Susan) : People love only in their search for bliss. People create poetry, music, sculpture, because while creating they feel blissful. If we look minutely, deeply, then each act is a search for bliss.
The name Susan consists of two words.... The first part means white lily and the second part means grace. Bliss will make you a white lily. White represents the whole spectrum of colors, white represents totality. It is the whole rainbow; all the colors of the rainbow mixed together create white. The light is white; passing through a spectrum it becomes divided into seven colors. White represents oneness, totality.
And the lily represents beauty, innocence. To function from innocence, to function from a state of not-knowing, is the right way to function in life. That's what Jesus means when he says: Unless you are born again, unless you become like small children, you will not enter into my kingdom of God. He is saying to function from the state of not-knowing, function from the state of innocence.
The lily simply represents innocence; and certainly wherever there is bliss and beauty and innocence, grace follows as a shadow; it comes of its own accord.
OSHO (to Frank) : Once it becomes a constant undercurrent inside you so that even while you are asleep it goes on there -- not verbally, but just so that the feel is there that bliss is God, that God is not in the churches, in the temples, in the mosques, that God is in your heart, but only when your heart is dancing and singing.... When you are in misery you are as far away from God as you can be.
Don't choose misery -- it is our choice. And never make others responsible for your misery -- that is a trick to continue in the old pattern. Be responsible. Remember that "I have chosen to be miserable." It is hard in the beginning to recognize, to accept, that "I am responsible for all the hell that I have created around myself," but it begins a new life. You have taken a great step by being responsible for all your miseries because now you can start dropping them; you can start choosing bliss, joy, celebration. To be responsible means to be free. Responsibility is not a burden but the very essence of freedom. It means that we choose our lives, we create our lives, that ultimately nobody else is responsible -- not fate, not God.
This is the first step of being a sannyasin: be responsible. Once you have understood the phenomenon of responsibility the change is very easy. Don't choose! Life gives you all kinds of opportunities: it gives you thorns and it gives you roses. There is no need to pick the thorns, you can pick the roses.
OSHO (to Prakash) : Your name will remind you again and again that light has to be found. And of course, becoming a sannyasin means moving into the world of mystics. It means moving into meditation, it means going inwards, exploring your own interiority. The day you have come to the center of your being, as a great mystic, Kabir says: "It feels as if one thousand suns have suddenly risen up -- the light is so much, so dazzling." One cannot believe it, it is unbelievable. And when one sees it for the first time, one almost goes blind -- it is too much! Slowly slowly one becomes accustomed to it. Slowly slowly one becomes aware that "I am not separate from it, I am one with it."