Means

Question: Osho, today I would like to ask you about means and ends. Sir, in fact this issue has been very confusing for the world at large. Many scholars from the medieval period to the present have taken it up from many sides, giving different definitions and views. For instance, political philosophers have called it fundamental truth and diplomatic truth. Social philosophers have used it as ethical truth and social truth. Skeptical philosophers have spoken of actual truth and relative truth. Philosophers of science have framed it as scientific living and the art of living. But if I am not mistaken, sir, they all deal with the nine basic issues of living either subjectively or objectively, which are as follows: ...

Question: Maneesha's first question: BELOVED OSHO, ZEN SEEMS TO BE OF THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE END ALWAYS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. WOULD YOU PLEASE COMMENT? Maneesha, there is no beginning and there is no end. There is no means and there is no goal. Zen is this declaration. Your question has been discussed by the intelligentsia down the ages. What is important? -- the means or the end? Can one achieve the right end by wrong means? Or by achieving the right end, does it matter what kind of means you use to reach it? I can discuss your question only on the margin. It has nothing to do with the anecdote we are discussing. Nobody can reach the right end without right means, because the end is nothing but the ultimate flowering of the means. The goal is nothing but the road reaching to its fullness.

It is not a difficult process because the process of looking is the same, just the object changes: you start turning your consciousness upon yourself. You may have seen many pictures of snakes swallowing their own tails. Those pictures are very ancient symbols of mystery schools; they represent this inner transformation. When your consciousness starts turning upon itself you become a circle, and the moment you are a circle you are no more the same old person. Your life starts having a new grace, a new beauty, a new beatitude. You become golden, you become precious. For the first time you have a contact with god, and that contact is a magical transformation. It is sheer magic and a miracle. Enjoy the trip, don't be too fixated on the target, Osho said in conclusion. Bliss is not a pond, it is a river. It is not static.

Question: OSHO, IS THERE ANY POINT IN LIVING? MAN has been brought up by all the traditions in a schizophrenic way. It was helpful to divide man in every possible dimension, and create a conflict between the divisions. This way man becomes weak, shaky, fearful, ready to submit, surrender; ready to be enslaved by the priests, by the politicians, by anybody. This question also arises out of a schizophrenic mind. It will be a little difficult for you to understand because you may have never thought that the division between ends and means is a basic strategy of creating a split in man. Has living any meaning, any point, any worth? The question is: Is there some goal to be achieved by life, by living? Is there some place where you will reach one day by living?