Human Tendencies

Osho, the famous psychologist Erich Fromm has said that after peering into the human mind I am astonished that in human society there are even acts of friendship, love, and charity. Kindly tell us which among human tendencies is more fundamental and stronger—love or hatred, violence or nonviolence, pleasure or pain?

So let us not begin with a wrong question. Wherever you see an extreme in life, understand that in the middle there will be a bridge as well. Is the night anywhere separate from the day? Is death anywhere separate from life? Death does not happen outside life; it happens within life. You do not die before death comes; you remain alive. When death comes, it finds you alive. It is not that first you die and then death comes. Death is within life, not outside it. And death is not even opposed to life. When you move aside, you make space for someone else—someone else can live. An old person dies, and a child can be born. Old leaves fall and new leaves sprout. If the old leaves do not fall, the new leaves will not appear. Think a little like this: had your elders not died, you could…

Osho, you say that love and hate are one; but I see more hate in the world than love. At the same time, you say that enlightenment is neither love nor hate. Are you speaking of two different qualities of love? How does this fit with your message of love?

And it is only you who can find what is right for you and what is wrong for you. Then keep the thread of awareness running through all your actions, and in your life you will not find any hate, any anger, any jealousy. Not that you have dropped them, not that you have repressed them, not that you have somehow got rid of them, not that you have practiced doing something against them. No, you have not done anything, you have not even touched them. This is the beauty of awareness: it never represses anything; but there are things which simply melt in the light of awareness and change. And there are things which become more solid, more integrated, more profound, more strong: love, compassion, kindness, friendliness, understanding. All the religions up to date have been focusing people's minds on actions; and labeling -- this is bad, this is…

Osho, many beings in this creation live a natural, spontaneous life in accordance with nature, but the human race is living a base life. Will human life turn toward spontaneity or not? What is our duty?

It is both man’s misfortune and his good fortune that he is not spontaneous. Misfortune—because the peace and ease available to plants and birds is not available to man. Good fortune—because if he wishes, man can become a Buddha, a Krishna, a Christ. Plants and animals cannot become a Krishna, a Buddha, or a Christ. Man’s defining trait is his freedom. Man is entitled to choose the order of his life. A dog is born a dog and dies a dog. A rosebush is born a rose and dies a rose. No revolution occurs in its life. Life remains confined within a fixed mold. There is dependence. There is peace, yes, but it is the peace of slavery. There is naturalness too—no cunning, no hypocrisy; a rose is simply a rose. It never cheats by posing as champa, nor does it contrive to be a lotus. It is content with…

A friend has asked: Osho, you said that love is necessary for hatred. But many times, just on seeing a man with whom we have no acquaintance, we feel hatred; we don’t even feel like meeting him or talking to him. So in such moments, is hatred possible without love?

And there is another reason, deeper than this; keep it in mind. You often hate precisely those things—those qualities in others—which you hate in yourself. This is a little deeper; it is a layer even deeper than the previous one. When, suddenly on seeing a man, hatred arises in your mind, investigate whether this is not a part of self-condemnation. For what you find bad in yourself you will also find bad in the other. This is projection. What you wish were not in you—when you see it in another—hatred arises. Hence every expansion of hatred is, somewhere deep down, a part of self-hatred. Understand this. You do not want to be angry, yet anger happens. And you hate anger. So whenever you see a glimmer of anger in someone, hatred will arise. You do not want to steal, and yet you steal. So whenever you see a thief somewhere,…