Failure

Question: Fourth question: Osho, why is failure inevitable in the world? The nature of the world. The nature of dream. A dream is not real; therefore there can be no success in a dream. You are asking a question like someone who mistakes the word “food” written on paper for actual food; he tears pages from a cookbook, chews them, and says, “The cookbook contains every kind of dish—then why doesn’t chewing its pages satisfy me?” “Food” written on paper is not food. Money found in a dream is not money. Whatever is obtained in the world is not truly obtained—only seems so. Because you are asleep—and your being asleep is what is called the world. What does “world” mean? These trees, this moon, these stars, this sun, these people—is this the world? Then you have misunderstood.

Beloved Osho, why is it so hard to accept being a failure? I would rather sacrifice my well-being than admit that I have failed.

I said, "Make it fun. Don't be worried." I had once seen a wrestler ... the village where I lived was famous throughout the area for wrestlers. There were so many gymnasiums in that small village and wrestlers from outside used to come to fight with the wrestlers of the village. Once I had watched a wrestler and had become very friendly with him. His style was very new. First he would dance around. The other wrestler is standing in the center, looking embarrassed, and he would dance. And he had a very beautiful body. He would dance all over the place. And his dance made the other man feel embarrassed and a little afraid also: "If this man is dancing with such joy, there must be some strategy that will defeat me." And then he would suddenly jump to the ground. He was not a very strong man, but…

Beloved Osho, have we failed you in any way, that you have to start speaking again?

The story is that Bodhidharma was determined to remain awake for twenty-four hours. But the body is the body, the eyelids get tired, and when they get tired the eyes close. He became so angry that he cut off his eyelids and threw them in the grass. Then his eyes could not be closed. It is a symbolic story. It did not happen, it cannot happen -- because I know Bodhidharma perfectly well.... He is the last person to do such a thing. But the story is significant, although it is just a story: those eyelids grew into a plant that became the tea plant. And because those were the eyelids of a man like Bodhidharma, the tea still carries the quality of awareness. That is the significance of the story. In every Buddhist monastery, the first thing is the tea. But in Gandhi's ashram, if somebody was caught drinking…

Beloved Osho, why do I feel that I have failed? Is it because I still hanker to be perfect, superhuman, special? Osho, please don't spare me anything!

Surabhi, the answer that I gave to Suraj Prakash is also the answer for you. Only people who want to be somewhere, somebody, have to suffer the sadness of failure. But a person who never wants to be anybody, never wants to be anywhere else, cannot suffer the sadness of failure -- he is always successful, just like me. From my very childhood, my parents, my well-wishers, my neighbors, my teachers, everybody was saying that, "You are going to be utterly worthless, a good-for-nothing." I said, "If that is my destiny, I am perfectly happy. Why should I try to be somebody else? Utterly useless? -- perfectly good! Good for nothing? I don't see anything wrong in it." And they would say, "Can't you ever talk reasonably?" I said, "It is just a question of reason. Whatever is going to happen, I am going to be successful.... Because I have…