Self-Perception

Beloved Osho, you have not been coming for so long that now the gossip has changed about me: that I am no more old, I am really ancient. What should I do now?

Both are innocent, the child and the old man. But their innocences have a qualitative change, a qualitative difference. The child is innocent because he has not entered yet into the dark night of the soul; the old man is innocent -- he has come out of the tunnel. One is entering into the tunnel; the other is getting out of the tunnel. One is going to suffer much; one has already suffered enough. One cannot avoid the hell that is ahead of him; the other has left the hell behind him. Devageet, your question is the question of almost every human being. Knowingly or unknowingly, there is a trembling in the heart that you are becoming old, that after old age the deluge -- after old age, death. And for centuries you have been made so much afraid of death that the very idea has become deep-rooted in your…

Will everyone count me a fool?

Yes, yes, they'll count you, they'll count you. And who can say whether the one whom everyone counts a fool—who lets himself be counted a fool—is wise or not? Who can say? Who can say?

Osho! Death does not frighten me as much as the thought of old age, or old age itself. Why is that?

Therefore I say to you: drop worrying about yoga. Enjoy bhoga so totally that by the very enjoyment you become free of enjoyment. And then yoga will kindle of its own accord. The lamp will light by itself. Then there is no death. Then even death brings only one message—release from the body. Then death is not an end—only the beginning of a new journey; only release from the body. And the body is narrow. The body is as if one were shut in a prison, as if a bird were trapped in a cage. Death brings the news that the cage has broken. And now the hamsa can fly. Let the hamsa go alone! Now—to Manasarovar! Now—let us go home! What message of death has arrived? By whose jewel-like voice has the music of rhythm been sung? What message of death has arrived? The body grew tired and worn;…

Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.

These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…