Finding truth makes you pure and simple like a child, but most people will mistake that for being a fool.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
There is a dutch proverb which says: children and fools say the truth. Where do you fit in?
The proverb has great wisdom in it. The moment one comes to know the truth, he becomes both -- a child on his part, a fool in the eyes of others. They are not two things. A man who has seen the light starts behaving so innocently that he can only be called reborn. But because of his innocence, because his purity is like a child's, he can be deceived, cheated, exploited; hence, in the eyes of others he looks like a fool. The fact is, he is the only one who is not the fool; everybody else is. But the fools are in the majority and the man of truth is alone. Gautam Buddha became just like a child. Zarathustra became just like a child. When Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a book about the man of truth, a man of silence and innocence, he named the book THE IDIOT. He…Read the full discourse →
While practicing zazen, just sitting, I discovered that I had become the greatest fool on earth. But suddenly I remembered one proverb: when ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise. Though this stupidity has made me a fool, I have never been so full as I am now. I have now fallen in love with this zazen stupidity. I invoke your blessings so that I remain a fool till eternity.
I have heard about one man who made a will when he died. And in the will he said, 'Write on my tomb: Born such-and-such year, died when thirty, buried when seventy.' Almost always it happens that people die near about thirty, then they are buried at seventy. That's another thing: burial is one thing, dying is another thing. When society comes to know that you are dead that's another thing. I have heard about a priest -- a Catholic priest of course -- who died, and for three days he could not understand what had happened. Then he came to his church and tried to communicate with his successor, and said, 'Be aware. I died, but for three days I did not think that I was dead because I was more dead while I was alive. I was feeling more alive so I did not think that I was…Read the full discourse →
There is an old tradition that links wisdom and foolishness. Is a wise man simple-minded? Is the simplification that comes with age wisdom or fatigue? What is the difference between a wise man and a fool?
THE TRADITION IS RIGHT. There is a synthesis which goes beyond foolishness, which goes higher than wisdom itself -- a synthesis in which wisdom and foolishness disappear into one unity. Foolishness and wisdom are dualities, like all other dualities: man and woman, day and night, summer and winter, life and death. All dualities have to be transcended. Unless dualities are transcended you never come to know the one, the real, the universal. In that sense a wise man is also a fool -- because in that transcendence both are included. But he is not a fool in the ordinary sense -- he is not even wise in the ordinary sense. His wisdom is quite a separate reality, so is his foolishness. He is wise because he knows, and he is a fool because he knows that the mystery of life is such that it cannot be known. He is wise…Read the full discourse →
Lao tzu says: all the world says: my teaching, tao, greatly resembles folly. Because it is great, therefore it resembles folly. If it did not resemble folly, it would have long ago become petty indeed! I have three treasures; guard them and keep them safe. The first is love. The second is, never too much. The third is, never be the first in the world. Through love, one has no fear; through not doing too much one has amplitude of reserve power; through not presuming to be the first in the world one can develop one's talent and let it mature. If one forsakes love and fearlessness, forsakes restr
That's what Jesus says: Those who are first in this world will be the last in the kingdom of my God. And vice versa. Lao Tzu says: THE THIRD IS: NEVER BE THE FIRST IN THE WORLD. The very ambition of being first shows that you missed life. You are not blessed. You are not exalted. You are not fulfilled. Ambition is insanity. Ambition shows that you are not at ease with yourself, that you are not at home. Ambition shows that now you want that others should know you are very great. That is just to hide your smallness. You would like the whole world to know that 'I am the greatest man in the world'. This is just the opposite of what you feel inside -- you feel inferior. Only an inferior mind is ambitious. A superior mind need not be ambitious; there is no point in being…Read the full discourse →
Osho, can children understand the truth?
RAJ, CHILDREN CAN UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH but cannot understand that they understand it. They understand more clearly than you can understand because they are more clean, more innocent; but they are so innocent that they cannot understand that they understand. Hence you need another childhood, a second childhood. First you have to lose your first childhood. That is the whole meaning of the biblical story of Adam and Eve losing paradise: that is losing the first childhood. It is a tremendously significant story. It has so many meanings, it is such a multi-dimensional parable, that I don't think there exists any other parable comparable to it. You can look at it from many aspects. It is losing the first childhood -- which is inevitable. Adam and Eve are not committing a sin. In fact, the word "sin" comes from a root which means forgetting, and that is a beautiful meaning:…Read the full discourse →