Ownership

Neither life nor death are yours. Some mysterious drama is being enacted within you. Someone is at play inside you. Someone speaks through you; someone expresses through you. Someone is born within you; someone dies within you. You are a playground, a playing field where players come and go. You are just a flute though which someone plays beautiful music. "I am no more than a hollow piece of bamboo." said Kabir, "and the songs of love directed to God are all his." The man who realizes this understands. The man who has used the two keys I have already mentioned will be able to comprehend this easily and will be able to realize that there is no such thing as individuality in this world. Whatsoever exists, exists together -- collectively, jointly. Nothing exists in isolation.

Osho, saints have always been against possessions. But one cannot get by without possessions. Then how much should a seeker of truth keep?

And if he were to shower down gold coins, breaking the roof, we would not refuse, saying, “I am not a sensualist, I am a renunciate—what are you doing? What injustice is this!” Or if today he were to carry everything off from the house—God is a robber indeed; that is why we call him Hari: Hari means the one who takes away, who steals. He is a thief indeed—here he gives, there he also snatches away. Today he gives, tomorrow he may take. And in between you will get into great, unnecessary entanglements. There is a Sufi story. A fakir had two beloved sons, twin boys. They were the pride of the town. Even the emperor, seeing those boys, was filled with envy. The emperor’s sons were neither so handsome nor so gifted. Those two boys were the light of that village; their conduct was equally gracious and noble.…

Osho, there is one more thing I want to understand in the first question: how is it that objects—possessions—hypnotize and possess their owner, the possessor? What are the reasons?

In the very desire to become a master lie the seeds of slavery; because whatever we decide to master, we also, unknowingly, have to become its slave. We become slaves because our mastery depends upon that which we own. Without it, our ownership cannot exist. And when ownership depends on something, how can we be the owner of our ownership? The real master is that upon which it depends. If I have ten slaves, I am the master of ten slaves; but my mastery depends on those ten slaves being there. If these ten slaves are lost, my mastery will be lost with them. The key to that mastery is not in my hands; it is in the hands of those ten slaves. In a very deep sense they have become my masters, because without them I cannot be a master. And how can we be masters of those without…

Knowing oneself as sakshi pratyagatma, the inner witnessing soul, of one's intellect and all its dispositions, and acquiring the disposition that "that am I," giving up the claim of 'mine' over all things.

GIVING UP FOLLOWING LOK, THE SOCIETY, HE GIVES UP FOLLOWING THE BODY ALSO. GIVING UP FOLLOWING THE SCRIPTURES, HE GIVES UP THE ILLUSION OF THE SOUL ALSO. BEING ROOTED IN HIS OWN SOUL, AND THROUGH TECHNIQUES, THROUGH LISTENING AND THROUGH SELF-EXPERIENCING, THE YOGIN COMES TO KNOW HIMSELF AS THE SOUL OF ALL AND HIS MIND IS ANNIHILATED. WITHOUT GIVING OPPORTUNITY TO SLEEP, TO SOCIETY'S TALKS, TO SOUND, TOUCH, FORM, TASTE, AND SMELL -- THE OBJECTS OF THE SENSES -- AND TO FORGETFULNESS OF THE SOUL, CONTEMPLATE THE SOUL WITHIN YOU. <q>GIVING UP FOLLOWING LOK, THE SOCIETY, HE GIVES UP FOLLOWING THE BODY ALSO.</q> Not only does he stop following others, as the realization of the witness deepens he drops the slavery of the body too. Then he does not do things because the body is saying so, now he does what he wants to and the body follows him like…