Abundance

Osho, Buddha says: live on the minimum, only on what is absolutely necessary. You say: don’t live stingily or lukewarm; live to the maximum, in excess. How are we to reconcile the two?

Movement doesn’t happen like that. Movement is in one direction. Choose west—then west it is. Forget that the other three directions even exist. Granted, they exist. Granted, some people are walking there. But you have left those directions. Now you go west. Don’t let one hand go east, the other west, and one leg south. That “coordination” won’t set; in attempting it, you will be badly fragmented. This has become humanity’s condition. Earlier, when the world was not so close-knit—before the earth became a small village, before religions were mutually familiar—many realized the ultimate. As the earth shrank and people became acquainted with one another’s religions, religiosity declined. Why? Because all directions entered everyone’s mind. You read the Quran and you read the Gita. You drown in neither. When you read the Quran you remember the Gita; when you read the Gita you remember the Quran—and you keep trying to…

A friend has asked: earn more money in order to give more?

Greed is not related to money. Nor is it related to charity. It is related to the obsession with “more—more.” One who is busy earning more is stuck in “more.” Tomorrow he may give more too, and he will still be stuck in “more.” Charity is good, but only as penitence. It has no creative, positive value. Just as asking forgiveness is good, but it does not mean you should first do something that makes you ask for forgiveness—first abuse someone, then apologize—because apologizing is so good. Apologizing is good as atonement; it is no virtue in itself. Charity is not a virtue; it is only atonement for the hoarded wealth. There is nothing creative in charity; it carries no positivity. So when people say, “Give generously,” if what they mean is “first pile up wealth, then donate it,” that is just a clever arithmetic: first commit plenty of sin,…

Osho, the sense of insecurity in the inner life is quite difficult, yet perhaps one can manage it. How can that sense of insecurity be applied in practical or outer life? In business, in a job, in the external life—how can we use the feeling of insecurity?

I understand. In truth the question is not about outside and inside; the question is about knowing this truth that we are insecure. You don’t have to create a feeling of insecurity; it is a fact, simply a fact, that we are insecure. What is secure—outside or inside, anywhere? Are relationships secure? They are not. Is it certain that what was yours yesterday will still be yours today? That what is yours today will be yours tomorrow morning? Nothing is certain. Is respect secure? Not in the least. Yesterday a crowd stood behind someone—today you can’t even tell whether that man is alive or dead. What is secure? Is wealth secure? Insecurity is not a feeling; insecurity is the awareness of the truth that life is insecure. As life is, it is insecure. No guarantee of birth, of youth, of the body—no guarantee of anything. Awareness of this truth—and to…

Osho, from your powerful discourse yesterday it was clearly felt that you are awakening India to its limitless potential. It is India’s supreme good fortune to have a guide like you, and yet why does it not accept what you say? Why does it not move on the path of all-round development? Why instead does it scorn and ignore you? Osho, I request you to say something.

I heard of a circus man whose act was to lie on a bed of nails. Sharp spikes that would leave your hand bleeding if you touched them—he would lie on them. There is an art to it; there are points on your back where there is no sensation. If you don’t believe it, ask someone—your wife will enjoy it—to prick your back with a needle. Wherever you feel pain, say “Ram! Ram!” and wherever you feel nothing, have her mark it. There are many points where you won’t feel the prick—no sensitivity. The art is to align those points; the spikes must touch only those spots. One day, on a day off, he was laying out his bed of nails at home. His wife was shocked: “What are you doing? It’s a holiday!” He said, “It is—but how will I sleep? I’m habituated. Unless I lie on this spiked…