Why does understanding not translate into practice?

Osho, even when I understand everything theoretically, why does it not come into practice? Please explain.

Someone told Mulla Nasruddin, “Stop smoking, otherwise you’ll die early. Scientists say it takes a year off your life.” Nasruddin said, “We’ll live sixty-nine instead of seventy—but to live one extra year at the cost of a whole life without the joy of cigarettes, that I don’t understand.” That’s the double-talk. He accepts that scientists are probably right: a year less. A doctor told him—because his illness kept worsening—“Brother, stop drinking, stop smoking; now you’re old—stop running after women, or you’ll die soon.” Nasruddin said, “What you say is fine, doctor. But if I stop all that, what would be the point of staying alive? Tell me that too. Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t chase women—then sit like a dummy! What would I live for?” And it isn’t only with men. I read a story: A man died—must have been a Christian. He reached the gates of heaven; Saint Peter…

Osho, Lao Tzu says, nothing needs to be done; understanding is enough. Explain when and how understanding becomes being?

Your inner attachments to anger are intact. You have not yet seen anger’s poison. For if poison is seen, you won’t say, “Granted, it is poison, but to reform the child a little dose may be given.” Who gives poison to reform anyone? Has anyone ever been improved by poison? Has any child ever been improved by anger? You know the truth: he can be spoiled, yes; he is never improved by anger. Has any order ever been truly established by anger? It may be disturbed—that is likely; how will it be created? And even if some order is produced by anger, it will be deception, false. If your wife becomes quiet out of fear of your anger, that quiet is not peace; inside her fire will go on burning. From such quietness no love can be born. She may become your slave, but not your beloved. And a slave…

Lao tzu says: my teachings are very easy to understand and very easy to practise, but no one can understand them and no one can practise them. In my words there is a principle. In the affairs of men there is a system. Because they know not these, they also know me not. Since there are few that know me, therefore I am distinguished. Therefore the sage wears a coarse cloth on top and carries jade within his bosom.

Have you watched children? Have you told them stories? You tell them a story and the next day they are again asking: Tell us the same one again. You feel bored, but they are asking for the same story again. If you tell it to them, and if they are not feeling sleepy, they say: Once more! Tell us the story again! Because the number of times you tell it does not make much difference. They don't become knowledgeable. They don't gather dust. They remain clean, their mirror remains fresh. Again, some day it can happen that you are sitting with a man who is very boring. You are perfectly bored; then you.turn on the music and that same symphony starts filling the room. You have heard it many times but suddenly now again it is enchanting. It has a magic. What has happened? That boring man was creating so…

Osho, Lao Tzu says that understanding is enough; with understanding, revolution happens. It seems to us that something does seem to be fully understood, yet no revolution happens from it. What is the reason? Please explain!

Understanding means a thing reaches your innermost layer. But reason will never let it reach. And we insist on understanding through reason. Reason is the mischief-maker—the guard. It says, “Explain to me first. If you convince me, I’ll take you to the master. If you can’t convince me, how can I take you in?” And the trouble is: when it is convinced, it thinks it is the master and that it has understood. Then it finds nothing changes—because the intellect has no power to act. The force to act lies hidden behind it on another plane. Hence the obstruction. If you want to reach that plane and it doesn’t happen directly—if it does for someone, fine—then first you must find ways to break the guard of the intellect. You must do certain meditations that make you non-intellectual, irrational. For example, the meditation I use is utterly beyond the intellect. A…

Why is it that no revolution takes place even after understanding? If we practise non-action, what will happen to labour? How is perfection in emptiness attained? If the vessel is empty, it will also disintegrate? What is the way to empty the mind? Question: lao tzu says that understanding is enough and that transformation takes place together with understanding. We feel that we have understood well but feel no transformation within us. What is the reason? Kindly explain.

Bhagwan Sri: Lao Tzu says that once a matter becomes perfectly clear, there is nothing more to be done, for then the understanding leads all our actions and makes us do what is worth doing. What is not worth doing, falls of its own, just as dry leaves fall from a tree. Nothing is required to be done in order not to do what should not be done. What should be done, happens on its own, and what should not be done, stops happening also. What is this understanding? Since you say that you feel you understand and yet the transformation that Lao Tzu talks of, does not take place! This then can mean only two things: either what Lao Tzu says is wrong or what we call understanding, is not understanding. What Lao Tzu says is not wrong because not he alone but all those who have ever known…