Zen

Osho, what is the zen approach towards sex? The zen people seem to have a neuter gender, or asexual aura about them.

Remember, the business people are ascetic people. They have devoted everything to money. Now a man who knows love and has known the thrill of love and the ecstasy of it will not be competitive. He will be happy if he can get his daily bread. That is the meaning of Jesus' prayer: "Give us our daily bread." That is more than enough. Now Jesus looks foolish. He should have asked, "Give us a bigger bank balance." He asks only for the daily bread? A joyous man never asks for more than that. The joy is so fulfilling. It is only unfulfilled beings who are competitive, because they think life is not here, it is there. "I have to reach to Delhi and become the president," or to the White House and become this or that. "I have to go there, joy is there" -- because they know here there…

What is the difference between waiting for godot and waiting for god?

It is as if the sun has risen in the morning and you are sitting in your room with closed doors and windows, in darkness. Open the doors, you become available to the sun. The sun was already available -- just the meeting happens. You cannot wait for God. All waiting is for Godot. Godot means the one who never comes, who CANNOT come, whose arrival is impossible. And the only impossible thing is that which has already happened -- how can it happen again? You are alive, and you are waiting for life, Now, this is ridiculous. The real man of religion does not think in terms of God. He thinks in terms of life or, even better, of living -- because life can again become an abstract idea. Living, moment-to-moment living. In that very living, one knows what God is, because one knows who one is. Your idea…

Osho, why have you called this series of discourses: "walking in zen, sitting in zen"?

Concentration is not meditation, concentration is an effort of the mind to focus itself. It has certain purposes of its own. It is a method in science -- useful, but it is not meditation. Contemplation is a little vague, more abstract. In concentration, the object is more visible; in contemplation, the object is abstract. You concentrate on a flame of light; you contemplate on love. And in Christianity, contemplation and meditation have become synonymous. Meditation should be given a new meaning, a new fragrance -- the fragrance of Zen. Concentration is of the mind, meditation is not of the mind at all, and contemplation is just in between, in a limbo. It is something of the mind and something of the no-mind, a mixture; a state where mind and no-mind meet, the boundary. One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, HOW DOES THE MAN OF ZEN TAKE HIS TEA? For the man of Zen everything is sacred -- even taking a cup of tea. Whatever he does, he does as if he is in a holy space. There is a story about Moses. When he went on Mount Sinai to meet God and to receive the Ten Commandments, he saw a miracle happening: a green bush, lush green, and inside it a beautiful flame, fire. As he approached it somebody shouted from the bush, "Take your shoes off. This is holy ground." The Judaic interpretation is that the flame was God himself. That's why the bush was not burning, because God's fire is cool. And Moses unconsciously was entering into the area which was like a temple or a synagogue: the living God was there. He took his shoes off and went in.