Why is meditation proposed for ordinary people and their children?

Surely meditation is for mystics. Why do you propose it for ordinary people and their children?

First, I have never come across an ordinary person; they do not exist. They are only created by egoistic people. The egoist has to create the ordinary -- that is the only way the ego can exist, persist. Not a single human being is ordinary because each human being is so unique. Each human being is created by God -- how can he be ordinary? God never creates the ordinary. All his creation is rare. Each individual is so unique that he is never repeated. You never were before, you will never be again. You cannot find anybody who is just like you. Forget about human beings.... Not even animals, not even trees, not even pebbles on a seashore -- not even two pebbles -- are alike. Wherever you find God's signature, it is always the original, never the ordinary. God is not a manufacturer, he is a creator. He…

How to introduce meditation to the daily life of so-called ordinary people?

The question is good because it says "so-called ordinary people." In fact, there are only so-called extraordinary people; ordinary people are just real people, not so-called. Extraordinary people are so-called; they are phony, unreal. There is no problem in introducing meditation into people's lives -- I will not call them ordinary because I don't see anybody who is extraordinary. The whole distinction is created by egoists. Everybody is a unique individual; either everybody is ordinary or everybody is extraordinary, but there is no distinction between the two. I will just use the word `people'. Gautam Buddha was just like you before he became enlightened. I was just like you before I entered into my innermost core. There is no speciality in it. Only one thing is missing: you have never endeavored, you have never tried -- you have been looking only outside. Your education teaches you to look outside, your…

Osho, you have called training a child’s intellect essential. But should training in meditation also be given simultaneously? Many sannyasins have families. What outlook should they have toward their children? Where should the emphasis be? Please shed light on this.

Jesus tells a very sweet parable—understand it. Jesus used to say, and because his whole emphasis was on love, the story is indicative. He said: A father had two sons. The father was very rich. One son was obedient; the other was rebellious. One increased the wealth; the other broke and wasted it. At last there was no way but to separate them. The father divided the wealth in halves. The elder stayed with the father, invested, bought fields, made orchards. The younger disappeared from the village as soon as he got his share. Soon news began to come that he had squandered everything in gambling, drank it away, lost it in the dances and songs of prostitutes—everything turned to dust. The father sent word: come back home. The younger, who had left, a gambler and drunkard, could not believe that after wasting everything his father could still call him…

Osho, if parents meditate before conception and during pregnancy, what effect does it have on the child?

And if, for the full nine months, the mother carries the child in meditation—does nothing contrary to meditation, and does everything that supports meditation—then certainly, in these nine months, a Buddha can be born. These nine months are the formative moments of the child. And in these nine months let him have only the experience of love, of peace, of light. If in these nine months he has only one experience—the experience of his own inner power—then at birth he will not be an ordinary child; he will be extraordinary. We will have laid the foundation of his life, and the temple that rises on that foundation cannot be different from it. Therefore whenever parents come to me with complaints about their children, I have told them: you may feel hurt, but you are responsible. You must have laid the wrong foundation. Today your child is a bandit; today your…

Osho! You say meditation is a rebirth and one becomes gifted like small children. Are little children really so full of talent?

I find sense, consistency, and honesty in Sartre’s stance—though he is an atheist; he believes neither in God nor in any inherent meaning of life, nor in any soul that survives. Yet his courage, his boldness, his strength! One thing is clear to him: “Since I oppose the values of this society, how can I accept honors from it?” If someone conferred on me the title Bharat Ratna, how could I accept it? Impossible. Because I oppose nations. I cannot be the jewel of any nation—at best, a pebble. I cannot be any country’s jewel; that would amount to accepting nationalism. I do not believe the earth should be divided. I do not believe there should be passports. I do not believe there should be any barriers to people going from one country to another. Every constitution proclaims freedom of movement. But what freedom is this? Is there freedom of…