Possibility

But suppose the tree, the person, is basically handicapped? Then he cannot change. Not because he doesn't want to, but because he can't.

But now a new possibility has opened up. For the first time, particularly in the West, man is free from his day-to-day needs. Now we can experiment with new possibilities for the mind. It was impossible to do this in the past, because bodily needs were such a heavy burden, so unfulfilled. But now the possibility is there. We live on the threshold of a deep revolution, a revolution such as human history has never encountered. A revolution in consciousness is possible now. With more facilities to know and understand, we can change. Much time will be needed, but the possibility is open to us. If we dare, if we have courage, it can become an actuality. The whole humanity is at stake. Either we will go back to the past or to a new future. It is not a question of a third world war, not a question of…

Osho, can heaven be brought down to earth? Can there ever be, in the future, a healthy, unambitious, unexcited, and loving society? Experience from the past suggests that here and there a few rare individuals attained liberation while the rest of society remained the same. You are certainly unique; your experiment is original and revolutionary. You say humanity, too, has matured. This time, can we hope for something new?

But how long can they obstruct? If even eight people sit—those eight are my sannyasins—if even eight sit, the train will start. Once it starts, the number of passengers will keep growing. Today the whole world rides; no one worries whether the train will stop or not. No one asks how to stop it, where the horses are, the oxen, who is driving, whether there are ghosts inside, whether the devil’s hand is in it. The engine even looks a bit devilish, like Yama’s messenger—thundering along with such force—who knows what will come of it? In the last five thousand years humanity has discovered all the needed pieces—slowly. Something from Buddha, something from Patanjali, something from Mohammed, something from Christ, something from Moses, something from Lao Tzu, something from Zarathustra—countless explorers discovered countless fragments. What remains is to seat those fragments together. That is what I am trying to do.…

But Osho, as I understand it, there are certain subjects like chemistry, physics, or medicine where positive values are essential. What are your views about that?

Einstein was doing an experiment. He had failed seven hundred times, yet every morning he came into the laboratory laughing, ready to begin again. The young assistant with him was exhausted. “Is this old man mad? Seven hundred failures—and again he starts fresh!” The youth was tired; he said, “We should drop this now. How many times have we been defeated?” Einstein said, “Defeated? You’re crazy—each time we have won.” “Where have we won? Every experiment has failed.” Einstein answered, “In seven hundred directions we have searched, and we now know truth is not there. We have succeeded seven hundred times. Truth is being endlessly eliminated into nearness. Suppose truth will reveal itself on the seven hundred and fifteenth attempt; then fourteen more eliminations are needed. Then only that will remain; it cannot escape. Where will it go? We have searched seven hundred paths and found it absent. That much…

Osho, but what will happen after that?

I do not worry about what comes afterward; I don’t, because a thoughtful, reflective society continually faces things and finds their solutions. There is no need to hand out fixed solutions. There are two ways. Either we tell you: go left, walk ten steps, and on the eleventh step turn right—there is the door. That is one way. The other way is that we teach you the art of seeing with your own eyes and say: you look! And wherever you find a path, take it. The path and the door will be visible to your open eyes. The mentality the world has had till now has been to give people a fixed formula, to give them an organized religion, to give them an organized party, to give them an ideology to follow—but not to give them a mind with which they can think and move. There is a difference…