What happens when people misunderstand teachings?

Is there a possibility, sir, that people will misunderstand you?

You say a possibility? Every possibility, sir! At the best they will not understand me, at the worst they will misunderstand me. It is happening every day. Just the other day I talked about being natural and authentic in your relationship. So one sannyasin outside the camp jumped on another sannyasin and they beat each other up. They thought that I had said it -- I said be natural. They must have been feeling angry, they must have been feeling antagonistic to each other -- they must have been carrying it. Now I have said be natural, and I have said don't worry about the consequences -- so they were fighting about a woman and they were at each other's necks. And the woman ,was sitting and looking at the whole affair. She seems to have understood better. There is every possibility that I will be misunderstood. These words are…

[A sannyasin asks about the way in which people misunderstand what Osho is teaching, particularly in reference to sex.] It has always been so. People live in such an unconscious state that it is almost impossible for them to understand anything. Misunderstanding comes natural to them. The mind functions as a distorting mechanism. They cannot see what is. They project something onto it, and they never become aware that they go on seeing their own projection. If somebody is sexually obsessed, whatsoever he says, whatsoever he hears, whatsoever he sees, will somehow be coloured by his obsession. And humanity has lived under sexual obsessions. Religions have repressed so much that every human being is a victim so he cannot see what is. He distorts it and gives it a colour of his own.

I have begun to feel that there is another way to miss the point: rather than being too serious (which I carefully avoid) I have become too silly. I decided that I am too intelligent to take life seriously, so I moved to the opposite side of the pendulum. I had been feeling quite comfortable and different in that space, but now I'm feeling very very confused. The only thing I can see is that I am still missing the point.

One day as she was watching the farmer plowing in a distant field, he threw down the plow and came running into the house. He rushed up to her, tore off her clothes, and laid her right on the living-room floor. Things seemed promising at that point, but about a year went by with no more sex. Again, one day as she was watching him with the plowing, he threw down the plow and came running towards the house. Rather than have all her clothes torn off again, she undressed and found a comfortable place to lie down on the floor. The farmer burst in, took one look at her and shouted, "Get up, you sex fiend, the barn is on fire!" These people who live in polarities... One year fasting, and then this mad love-making. One year of no anger, and then a murder. One year of living in…

Question: OSHO, WHAT IS UNDERSTANDING AND WHAT IS MISUNDERSTANDING? Maulingaputta was offended. He said, "Why are you laughing?" Buddha said, "I am laughing because once I had stayed in a village for the rainy season..." In the rainy season Buddha used to stay for four months because traveling was impossible. You can think of the roads twenty-five centuries before -- Indian roads! Even now in the rainy season they are not worth traveling, and Buddha was traveling on foot and it was difficult, almost impossible. So he used to stay for four months in one place; eight months he will travel to spread his word. Buddha said, "Once I was staying in a village for four months.

Osho, this Zen master is echoing the words of Master Jesus. When Jesus spoke, the first thing he would say to his disciples was: “If you have ears, then hear; if you have eyes, then see; if you have understanding, then understand.” Or he would say, “Let those who have eyes, see; and those who have ears, hear.” Everyone who came to listen had ears. Everyone sitting before him had eyes. What could Jesus have meant?

Magidh said, “All that is in the scriptures is no more than the alphabet; everything is contained in it. And when I had recited it fully, I said to God, ‘Now You put it in order. You know my prayer. Here is the alphabet; You arrange it.’ And He arranged it—the prayer was complete.” If the heart is present, the alphabet becomes the Vedas. Without heart, even the Vedas are no more than the alphabet. If the mind is without thought, there is no need of mantras. In a thoughtless mind, even A, B, C becomes mantra. In a mind full of thought, no mantra is of use. Chant Om as much as you like—on the surface you repeat Om, but inside your desires are racing. Your desires warp your Om. Their smoke is so dense that the lamp of Om cannot burn there. This master rightly tells his disciples:…