Religion

Osho, why do all religions exaggerate in praising their respective spiritual masters?

O embodiment of color, O embodiment of light, O embodied tenderness and warmth— What need was there to come from the moonlit assembly? Where you were, in that very paradise your beauty would have blossomed— What need was there to people this hell? These dimples and moles, this body carved from dreams— And a heart for which even the softness of dimples would be sacrificed. Here it is only thorns, only sparks everywhere— Step carefully, O springtime of spring, tread with care. When thirst is upon you, even poison is drunk like nectar— Who knows on which goblet that innocent gaze might come to rest? I have seen even the tavern drown in those eyes— Whether the thirst of those eyes will be quenched or not, who knows! All are lovers of beauty, people of vision, people of heart— Someone at home, someone in an assembly will adorn you. You…

Why did gurdjieff use to say that if you want to get rid of religion live close to a priest?

It is simple. The priest remains significant only if you don't know his heart, if you don't know his reality. If you start knowing his reality you will be surprised: the priest is the last person to believe in religion. He never believes, he only pretends. It is his profession to believe. The priest is the only person who knows that God does not exist, but he cannot say it because his whole business depends on it. It is his trade secret. Gurdjieff is right. You listen to a few stories. That will do! A member of the Catholic Church approached her priest and said, 'Father, my dog died, and I want to know if you think it is all right to have a funeral for him.' The priest said, 'Yes, I think it's all right, if you desire one.' 'And who do you think would be a good minister…

Osho, what is the greatest harm that the so-called religions have done to humanity?

Just a single hit, and what you are -- you may be acting a Buddha, a Christ, a Krishna -- it will disappear, just by a simple hit on your head. Imitation cannot go to your being, it is going to remain just on the surface. You can practice it for thirty years, forty years.... There are monks who have been practicing for fifty years. There are monasteries, Catholic monasteries, where once a monk enters, he never comes out; and thousands of people are living in such monasteries. What are they doing? Continually trying, making an effort somehow to become a little bit like Christ; if not the whole Christ, even a partial Christ will do. But that imitation is not going to help. It may give you a pseudo, phony mask, but scratch it just a little bit and you will find your real person is still there. You…

Osho, is it not true that in the absence of the enlightened—and those rare ones are not always around—it is the scholars and priests who keep the torch of religion burning?

Priests have great interpretations—how will you decide what Krishna said? There is only one way: go within. Krishna still speaks there. Become an Arjuna—Krishna still speaks. Become an Ananda and Buddha will speak again. He will speak the very same thing that was spoken then. It is not about Buddha or Krishna—dharma speaks. Buddha is one mode for dharma to speak; Krishna is another. The same is said as Buddha said—the same! The language will differ, the feeling is the same. The hues of expression will differ, but that which is expressed is the same. Only one thing has ever been said, again and again. Times change, languages change, symbols change, stories change, parables change. But that toward which the finger points does not change. The fingers that point change, but the moon they point to is the same. No one preserves that. Yet priests do preserve something, certainly: the…