Don’t follow a rule to look simple—be real, and true simplicity will happen on its own.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you criticize Gandhism. But isn’t the Gandhian principle of simplicity correct?
I said to her, “You will at least grant that Krishnamurti has at least as much intelligence as you? He too could have thought before leaving home: ‘I, a renowned wise, enlightened man, will go buy a tie—what will people think!’ If he had held back, that would have been cunning, hypocrisy. And he wasn’t sneaking into some smuggler’s den like a thief; he was standing in a shop in the middle of the market. A small town—at least six thousand people had gathered there to hear him; they were all around. He bought the tie in front of all his devotees! Do you think it didn’t occur to him that “Six thousand of my devotees are here; what will they say if they see me buying a tie!” He could have had the shopkeeper bring them home, chosen in privacy. He wouldn’t have lost devotees; no harm done. But…
Dear master, what is simplicity?
The really humble people will not know that they are humble; how can they then brag about it? How can the humble person know that he is humble? The humble person is a person no more. The humble person is in a state of fana: the humble person has dissolved. Now he is only a presence. Humbleness is a presence, not a characteristic of personality, not a trait, but just a presence. Others will feel it, but you will not be able to feel it yourself. So is the case with simplicity. Simplicity simply means living moment to moment spontaneously, not according to some philosophy, not according to Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, not according to any philosophy. Whenever you live according to a philosophy you have betrayed yourself, you are an enemy to yourself. Simplicity means to be in a deep friendship with oneself, to live your life with no idea…
Osho, have I learned correctly that simplicity is a state of effortlessness, and that wherever there is effort there is no simplicity?
Only the person who has not made efforts for simplicity can be simple in the true sense. But what does this mean? Does it mean we should do nothing for simplicity? No, it does not mean that. I am saying: do not make effort—but you will have to be aware. And being aware is not effort, because in awareness we are not suppressing anything. In awareness we are not repressing anything. In awareness, the light of our consciousness, which lies asleep in dark corners, we lift it up; we awaken it. A man is asleep; we wake him. We are not making him repress anything; we are only breaking his sleep. Our consciousness within is asleep—deeply asleep in many ways. We are awakening it. This awakening may look like a kind of effort, but it is not effort in that sense. Therefore the Zen masters call it effortless effort—actionless action,…
It will happen on its own. And when it happens on its own, you don’t even know it. If you know, “I don’t add oil, I can’t add it,” then you are a complex-minded person, not a simple one. A simple person is one who, if oil is available, adds it; and if it isn’t, he says, “Alright.” Or if you say, “Go ahead, add it,” he says, “Alright, let’s add it.” And if you say, “Don’t add it,” he says, “Okay, let it be.”
A simple person is one who has no insistence, no stubbornness. If you tell him, “Have a sweet,” he eats the sweet. And if you say, “Today it’s vegetables,” he eats the vegetables. The person who says, “Only if there are twenty-five kinds of dishes will I eat,” is also complex. And the one who says, “I will eat only one kind of vegetable; remove the others from here,” he too is complex. A simple person is a very different kind of person. Simplicity means there is no stubbornness, no insistence; he accepts life as it is. Now, for example, if you were to put a velvet shirt on Gandhi-ji then...
Chapter 2: sutra 2 so it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to the idea of the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one the idea of the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that the idea of height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relationship of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another.
The child has the greatest amount of energy. This old man is the weakest of all. If it was left to us to decide, then like Bernard Shaw, we would want our children to be absolutely weak and the elders to be strong for they are experienced. But the inexperienced child has the energy to develop, to expand -- while the experienced old man has none. What is the reason? The reason is significant. Actually, the accumulation of experiences is the advance of death, Aggregation of experiences means approach of death. It means, life's work is over and one should depart. It is now time to leave the University of Life. So now you need strength no more. No energy is required to go to the grave. You have only to slip into the grave. The inexperienced require strength, for strength is required to gain experience. There will be many…