Does the circular movement of life imply that we keep repeating ourselves?

Question: Second question: Osho, if the movement of life is circular—like day and night, like months and seasons—does it mean we, too, keep merely repeating ourselves again and again? Generally, yes. So long as you are unconscious, you belong to nature; you wander in circles like the seasons, the year, the month, day and night—the same thing repeats, again and again. That is why Hindus have called life a wheel—samsara. Samsara means the wheel. You keep revolving like the wheel of a bullock cart. Nothing new happens. Born many times; the same desire, the same greed, the same craving, the same anger. Grown old many times, died many times. The same fear. Then born again. It goes on revolving exactly like a wheel—childhood, youth, old age, birth, death; then birth again, death again—nothing new is happening in it. But the new can happen—if you wake up.

Question: In this regard a friend has also asked: Osho, can we know our past lives? To the friend who has asked, I would certainly say that if he wishes, he can be led into past-life remembrance. But one should enter that experiment only after much thought. The anxieties of this life are enough; its troubles are many. To forget this very life, a person drinks, watches movies, plays cards, gambles. Just to forget the day, he drinks at night. One who cannot even remember the day that has just passed, who lacks the courage to face life as it is—how will he muster the courage to remember past lives? It may surprise you to know that all religions have opposed alcohol.

Question: Osho, as with the ocean: clouds rise from it, its water rains down, ice forms, and then it all returns to the ocean—so there is a cycle. In the same way, would liberated souls, in some manner, keep going back even to nigod? No, no. There is no such cycle, no such cycle. Because water, steam, and the ocean are not three things. They are not three things; they are a single thing in a mechanical cycle. A mechanical cycle. No droplet can free itself from water and be outside it; the wheel keeps turning. As far as moksha is concerned, returning from there is difficult. Only when mechanicalness breaks, when the mind becomes fully conscious—wholly conscious—can one reach moksha. From total consciousness, returning is impossible. Yes, within the world one can go round and round—many rounds.

Question: Osho, when we are reborn, where is the accounting kept? What remains? We are all bundles of habits. If you want to change these habits, resolve is needed. And the beginning of resolve is this: that it dawns on you that they can be changed. If you think they cannot be changed, your resolve will die completely. A German Jew, Frankl, during the last world war was imprisoned in a great camp. He has written—he has written very astonishing things—in his memoirs. Because he is a psychologist, he kept observing what was happening. December was approaching; the festival days were near. All the prisoners hoped that at least around Christmas there would be release; that around Christmas Hitler would show mercy and people would be freed. Frankl writes: until Christmas, however many tortures the prisoners were given, no one died.

Question: THE BUDDHA SAID: "THOSE WHO ARE FOLLOWING THE WAY SHOULD BEHAVE LIKE A PIECE OF TIMBER WHICH IS DRIFTING ALONG A STREAM. IF THE LOG IS NEITHER HELD BY THE BANKS, NOR SEIZED BY MEN, NOR OBSTRUCTED BY THE GODS, NOR KEPT IN THE WHIRLPOOL, NOR ITSELF GOES TO DECAY, I ASSURE YOU THAT THIS LOG WILL FINALLY REACH THE OCEAN. IF MONKS WALKING ON THE WAY ARE NEITHER TEMPTED BY THE PASSIONS, NOR LED ASTRAY BY SOME EVIL INFLUENCES, BUT STEADILY PURSUE THEIR COURSE FOR NIRVANA, I ASSURE YOU THAT THESE MONKS WILL FINALLY ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT." THE BUDDHA SAID: "RELY NOT ON YOUR OWN WILL. YOUR OWN WILL IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY. GUARD YOURSELVES AGAINST SENSUALISM, FOR IT SURELY LEADS TO THE PATH OF EVIL. YOUR OWN WILL BECOMES TRUSTWORTHY ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE ATTAINED ARHATSHIP." Everything is moving in a circle!