Loss

Osho, but why think of gaining after losing?

Yes—this is not a matter for you to think about. It happens. If you start thinking, you won’t be able to lose at all. If you become humble in order to attain the kingdom of God, then you have not become humble. That which is being said is not a promise; it is a consequence. That “second part” is the result. It is not an assurance for you. Because if someone says, “I am ready to renounce everything in order to get everything,” then how will he renounce? He is renouncing in order to get. He cannot really let go. No, that second part is not an assurance; it is a result. It has been seen that those who have left everything have found everything. But those who wanted to get everything have not been able to leave anything.

Questioner: why should one think of gaining after losing everything?

It is not a question of your thinking; it is so. If you think of losing, you cannot lose. If you try to be humble in order to gain the kingdom of God, you cannot be humble. What Jesus says is not a guarantee to you, it is just a statement of what happens. If someone says that he is ready to give up everything so that he gains everything, he cannot give up really. The last part of the statement is not an assurance, it is a consequence that follows renunciation. It has been found that those who give up everything become their own masters, and that is everything there is to gain. And it is also true that those who desire to gain everything cannot give up a thing.

The loss that has happened cannot be made up, can it?

Whatever loss has happened to you has no compensation. And this that you are thinking—that when we got angry and abused someone our ego was nourished, and now that we are asking for forgiveness our ego has been dissolved—do not fall into this mistake. Perhaps now the ego has been nourished even more. Then you were angry; now you have gone home as “forgiving” as well. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) Yes, then the pleasure you took in ego was through anger: you abused me, so I will hurl at you an insult twice as weighty. Now you are going home thinking, “How forgiving a being I am, how magnanimously forgiving I am, that I asked them for forgiveness...” Then the conceit was what you might call very natural; now it is very sophisticated. That is the difference. That was a simple, straightforward conceit: you abused…

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…