Sit quietly and watch your mind; as many do this, we naturally become kinder and live beyond group labels or ego fights.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
How to evolve out of the collectivity, the nations, without falling into the barbarity of single egos fighting against each other?
All your questions are centered on one thing. I would like to give you one answer. I am reminded of a parable.... A great master was sitting on the seashore, on the beach, and a man who was seeking for truth came to him, touched his feet and asked, "If I am not disturbing you, I would like to do anything that you suggest which can help me to find the truth." The master simply closed his eyes and remained silent. The man shook his head. He said in his own mind, "This man seems to be crazy. I am asking him a question and he is closing his eyes." He shook the man and said, "What about my question?" The master said, "I answered it. Just sit silently... don't do anything, and the grass grows by itself. You need not bother about it -- everything will happen. You just…
Ichazo reckons that our culture, the whole society, is now raising its consciousness, that we are no longer on an individual trip but that humanity is beginning to awaken. And he says that the utopian vision of humanity as one enormous family is now a practical necessity.
A real Master wants a disciple to become a Master in his own right. But ordinarily you don't want that independence yourself, you want somebody to cling to. You are a clinger. You want somebody to be very authoritative, somebody to sit on a high throne and say to you, 'You don't worry, I will take care of you. You forget all about everything. I am here so I will take care. You simply come and follow me.' But if somebody is like that remember that this is a sure sign -- this authoritativeness, this taking other people's responsibility -- this is a sure sign that the man himself wants people to depend on him. He is dependent on his dependents. He enjoys it. He loves the idea that so many people are dependent on him. He himself is a dependent, remember; he is not different from you. It is…
On man's path of evolution is it possible that at some time in the future humanity as a whole can attain enlightenment? At what point of evolution is man today?
The conscious choice to evolve is a great adventure, the only adventure there is for a human being. The path is arduous; it is bound to be so. Errors are bound to be there, failures, because nothing is certain. This situation creates tension in the mind. You do not know where you are, you do not know where you are going. Your identity is lost. The situation may even reach such a point that you become suicidal. Suicide is a human phenomenon; it comes with human choice. Animals cannot commit suicide, because to choose death consciously is impossible for them. Birth is unconscious, death is unconscious. But with man -- ignorant man, unevolved man -- one thing becomes possible: the ability to choose death. Your birth is not your choice. As far as your birth is concerned, you are in the hands of unconscious evolution. In fact, your birth is…
What does your movement signify about the condition of society? Is it an escapist and self-regarding cult? Or do vou propose through changing human nature to change society and the world?
WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE IS NOT A movement: it is a mutation. It has no concern with the society: its whole concern is with the individual. It is a revolution in the true sense of the word. There is no idea of changing the society or the world, because there is no society at all. Only individuals exist -- society is an illusion. And because we believe in society, all the revolutions have failed. The belief that the society exists has sabotaged all efforts to change man -- because the belief is rooted in illusion. Ask the scientist: he says there is no matter but only electrons. Matter is an illusion. In exactly the same way, those who understand human consciousness will say that society is an illusion like matter. Electrons are true, so are individuals. The individual needs a mutation. And what we are doing here is utterly individualistic;…
Osho, as I understand your teaching, you want every individual to be aware and to understand life in its totality. But today’s society is very complicated. Our environment is so complicated that it does not allow us to live a free life, to love people, or to live in the state in which we could live a very clean and smooth life.
Society is as it is; only by accepting this truth can anything be done. Society is like this—but if a person can see that apart from a simple, loving, joyous, clean life there is no life at all; if he sees that without becoming loving he will remain deprived of life’s joy; if he sees that without becoming simple there is no path to reach truth—then he will drop worrying about what society is like. For what can society give him—what is it giving? Once he sees that in another direction—which society does not offer and in fact obstructs—there lies the doorway to his life’s bliss, he will begin to move toward it. Certainly the social order will create obstacles. But for such a person they will not be obstacles; they will turn into challenges, and he will try to make steps out of them. The stones thrown onto his…