You want to share because kindness is growing in you; tell others what helped you, but don’t push—it works better and makes you happier too.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I have undoubtedly set out on the path, and the path itself is becoming the destination. But when I sit in discourse, my mind keeps collecting what you say so I can tell it to others. Why is there such eagerness in me to expound it before others—especially before my loved ones?
It is natural. Those whom we love—we want to give them what we have received, that in which we have known joy, in which we have caught a hint of truth. The taste we have savored, we want our loved ones to taste. We want to make them partners in it. Completely natural. Share! Whatever seems right to you, say it. Who knows—someone else may also find it right. Just keep one thing in mind. The eagerness to share is fine; insistence is not. Don’t sit on anyone’s chest saying, “I have accepted it, you must accept it too—because you are my wife; if you don’t agree with me, that’s not okay; or you are my husband.” Do not be insistent—non-insistence! Give full freedom to accept or not. But if a feeling rises in your heart, don’t suppress it either. If you feel joy, if you taste the essence, share…Read the full discourse →
Osho, whatever you say appears so wholly true and fruitful that an intense urge arises to tell it all to others, to the whole world. As a result the mind inevitably starts gathering your words; it keeps thinking about how to convey them to others. At the same time, I also feel: until I myself have attained something, how can I say anything to others? So what should we do?
Rightly so. This is exactly what I was saying: let meditation and compassion grow together. If meditation is completed and you attain, but in the meantime you have not laid the foundation of compassion, you will be lost. The day your boat is ready, you will simply leave. So do not wait, thinking, “When I am complete, then I will speak.” Because then you will not be able to speak at all. While you are not yet complete, begin to sow the seeds of compassion. This continuous urge rising in you to tell others—this is the feeling of compassion. Because there is nothing to take from others, only to give. You want others to receive what is coming to you—this is a tender, love-soaked state. Do not take it as something wrong. Remember: only if you keep practicing speaking now, will you be able to utter a few words even…Read the full discourse →
Osho, there is a confusion; if you understand it rightly, please be gracious enough to clarify it. Bhagwan Buddha and you both say: share the bliss that comes from meditation, share meditation. And on the other hand it is also said that the attainment of meditation should be kept secret, kept hidden.
Certainly both things are said, because both are right. There is no contradiction; if opposition appears, it is only an appearance. When meditation happens, share it. But until it has happened, protect it and keep it hidden. When it is, then you will share! Do not be in a hurry to distribute it. Often, even when it hasn’t happened, the desire to distribute arises. There is great relish in giving sermons. In explaining things to someone you get the taste of being knowledgeable. In telling someone—whether you know or not—for a few moments there is the illusion that you know. That is why so much advice is given in the world, and no one takes it. How many sermons are delivered—who takes them? Preachers roam after you; they catch hold of you and explain. It is hard to get past the preachers; they have blocked every road and path. Wherever…Read the full discourse →
Osho, both Narada and Shandilya have spoken the Bhakti Sutras. You have spoken on Narada’s Bhakti Sutras and are now discoursing on Shandilya’s Bhakti Sutras. To an ordinary mind like mine there seems to be a great difference in their approaches. Why so much difference on the same path?
Why do we have such a longing for sameness? Why can we not tolerate difference? Why do we want to paint the whole world in one color? And if all flowers were of one color, would this world be so beautiful? If all singers hummed the same song, would it not create boredom? If from all veenas the same note arose—one note, the same note resounding again and again—would you not start thinking of suicide? Why such a craving for non-difference? Why are we so frightened of difference? So many trees! This kind, that kind. Some small, some large. On some come little white flowers, on some colorful ones—blue, yellow, red—how many flowers! How many shades of green! How many birds! How many of their songs! Existence is diversity. In diversity there is beauty. In diversity there is richness. Just imagine—trees all alike, people all alike, birds all alike—life would…Read the full discourse →
Osho, since becoming sannyasins, the longing arises again and again in our hearts that what we have found be available to all. Is this possible?
Have you ever looked closely at a statue of Buddha or Mahavira? Whoever has truly looked—if he does not fall into meditation even for a moment, he does not know how to look at a statue. He has no eyes; he is blind. The moment you behold the image of Buddha or Mahavira, something in you also comes to rest. Those images embody that art. Over thousands of years, artists who have known have stored the felt essence of meditation into every vein of those statues—have given meditation a shape, a form, embodiment. They are not simply statues of Buddha and Mahavira. That’s why, perhaps, you’ve also felt perplexed: when you go to a Jain temple where the images of the twenty-four Tirthankaras are placed, they all appear the same. Are twenty-four men ever alike? Not even two are alike; how would twenty-four be? And separated by thousands of years…Read the full discourse →