Gain

You have asked, Shrichand: “I don’t know what I have come to gain, but there is a desire to gain something. What will I receive? Please tell me.”

Here you will not find scholarship. Here you will not find knowledge. Here, you will have to lose—your scriptures will fall away; if you carry the Vedalankar to your name, that too will fall away; if you roam about with the ego of a brahmachari, that will fall away; if there is the conceit of being an Arya, that will fall away; if there is the pride of being a Hindu, a Jain, a Buddhist, that pride will fall away. I will take from you, so that within you only that remains which cannot be taken away. And the day only that remains which cannot be snatched away, on that day you have attained that which is worth attaining. And it is not attained by acquiring, not by running—it is attained by sitting, by stopping, by coming to rest.

Osho, I don’t know what my eyes keep searching for; in the heap of ashes there is neither flame nor spark. There is much in life, and yet by winning I gained nothing, nothing remained. The very thing I keep hoping for—why does it slip away again and again?

Mulla Nasruddin went to an eye doctor. His eyesight had begun to dim. The doctor said he would need glasses. The glasses were made; Mulla went to collect them. He asked the doctor, “Once the glasses are on my eyes, I will be able to read and write, right?” “Certainly,” said the doctor. “That is why they were made. You will read and write perfectly.” Mulla said, “That truly would be a miracle—because I don’t know how to read or write.” If you don’t know how to read and write, will spectacles make you literate? Even if the courtyard were perfectly square, every corner a neat ninety degrees, what would that do if you don’t know how to dance? You may have the most beautiful veena, and not know how to play it! Even if I were to give you Krishna’s very flute, what would you do with it? Krishna’s…

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…

Desire only that which is within you.

The body is felt only when it is ill. If your body is absolutely healthy you will not feel it. You will become weightless. Really, you will become bodiless. This is the only criterion of authentic health: that the body is not felt at all. Whenever the body is felt it means that there is some illness, some disturbance. Your attention is called. There are so many problems that come from the outside that your attention is constantly engaged and occupied there. That's why you forget that something exists right in the very center of your being that is deathless, that is divine, that is blissful. This sutra says: <q>DESIRE ONLY THAT WHICH IS WITHIN YOU. ... FOR WITHIN YOU IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD -- THE ONLY LIGHT THAT CAN BE SHED UPON THE PATH. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PERCEIVE IT WITHIN YOU, IT IS USELESS TO…