What is the trade secret of the priests and how have they exploited man?

What is the trade secret of the priests? How have they been able to exploit man for so long?

IT IS VERY simple.Just a few stories will make it clear to you: Two music students were discussing their part-time jobs. Said one, "I work in the opera at night and carry a spear in one act." His friend asked, "How do you manage to keep awake so late at night?" "It's simple," replied the first. "The man behind me carries a spear too." The second story: Preacher Pitts had undertaken that morning to describe the terrors of hell to his congregation. "Brothers and sisters," he intoned, "some of you have seen melted iron running out of a furnace, haven't you? It's white, sizzling and hissing. Well, in the place I'm talking about, they use that stuff for ice cream." Reverend Walker stood before his congregation and in dynamic fashion pontificated on the wickedness of intercourse. After twenty minutes of ranting about the sin of sex, he raised himself to…

You said that priests, pundits, and religious authorities have kept people from moving toward God and the knowing of God. The question is: Do priests know nothing at all? In thousands of years have they learned nothing? Are they utterly ignorant?

No; priests know a great deal. That is precisely the danger. If they were ignorant, there would be far less danger. They know a lot—and the danger lies in what they know. Let me tell a small story; perhaps it will make my point clear. Early one morning a royal court was filling, and a stranger arrived—a traveler from a distant land, it seemed. His dress was unfamiliar, his face unknown. But he carried himself with great dignity and presence. Everyone in the court found their eyes drawn to him. He wore a magnificent turban—unlike anything seen in that country—rich with multicolored patterns and glittering ornaments on top. The king asked, “Honored guest, may I ask how expensive this turban is and where you bought it?” The man said, “It is very expensive. I had to spend a thousand gold coins.” The vizier, seated beside the king—and viziers are naturally…

Osho, please talk about the antichrist and tell us what it could be. I have always heard it being commented upon with great fear and with no explanation. People don't know what it is and yet they fear it.

In the middle of the night the archbishop came with a candle in his hands, fell down on the earth in the feet of Jesus and said, "I had recognized you, but I cannot do it in a public place. You will destroy our whole business! Forgive me, and listen to my advice: you are no more needed -- we are doing perfectly well -- and if you don't listen to my advice, we will have to crucify you again." Jesus could not believe his eyes, his ears, what he is seeing, what he is hearing. He said, "You belong to me, you serve me, you pray to me... I have seen you kneeling down before my statue. And now I am here alive in front of you, and you say you have recognized me -- and still you don't want me to appear before the people?" The archbishop said,…

Beloved Osho, this morning you talked about the misery implanted in our minds by society, priests and so on that is not ours. But how could this game develop -- priests on the one hand, people on the other? What qualities are there in man so that things develop this way?

And a mother can be persuaded very easily, because she is nothing but love, she is nothing but heart. The father is head, logic, reason, discipline. The father is man, and the society is man-made. My mother even used to enjoy it when I would come and say to her, "I have done something, and I am in urgent need of help." She would say, "But first tell me what you have done. I will save you, I will try my best, but first tell me the whole story. You bring such juicy stories that I wonder why your father gets angry. He should enjoy them." The priests, the father in heaven, the parents here on the earth, the teachers, the political leaders, they all want absolute obedience from everybody so that there is no question of any rebellion, no revolution, no change, so their vested interests are protected. We…

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…