Sentimentality

And the second question: if someone is more sentimental than necessary, how appropriate is it? How can it be gotten rid of?

So do not ask, “How can I get rid of sentimentality?” Ask, “How do I give it the right direction?” You are a homemaker; you feed people. In a hotel, food is served like a mathematician serves; at home, it is served like a poet serves. In a hotel, a meal is being served—it is the mathematician serving: everything is in the language of mathematics—spend the least, serve the least, get the eater up as quickly as possible. A homemaker is serving food—not in the language of mathematics but of poetry: eat more, linger longer, give the best she can, keep you at the plate a little while—this is her effort. If a homemaker is emotional and her feeling expresses itself toward a guest, while feeding her husband, while putting the children to sleep, while praying in the morning—her emotionality will make the home a temple. But if her emotionality…

Osho, meditation increases sensitivity. But as sensitivity grows, living seems to become more difficult—because the mind’s reactions become sharp and intense, and it feels as if one’s whole life is at stake at every small turn. In such a state, how can one find and hold the point of balance?

Certainly: as meditation deepens, sensitivity will also deepen. And with heightened sensitivity, problems grow too. Sensitivity means you will experience everything—every event—in its full velocity, with full intensity. If someone insults you, the way that hurt reverberates inside a meditator will not be the same for a non-meditator. If a thorn pricks, the meditator’s awareness of that sting will be much clearer than that of the non-meditator—because the non-meditator lives in a kind of stupor, a haze of unawareness. The duller the awareness, the less the pain is consciously felt. Perhaps that is exactly why we reduce our awareness—so we can feel less pain. Ask a psychologist and he will say: every child learns early how to numb their awareness. All children are born sensitive. Then they begin to kill their sensitivity—because living with raw sensitivity is very difficult. A certain blunting of feeling becomes “necessary.” That is why, at…

Beloved Osho, with meditation sensitivity increases, making life more difficult because one's reactions are so sharp and intense, and at every step it feels as though one's very life is at stake. How to attain the golden mean, the balance point, in this situation?

A very rich industrialist in Japan has erected a statue of himself outside his office. A very clever man! His psychologists counselled him to keep a statue of himself opposite his office. In his factory there are some ten thousand employees, and it has been announced to them that they should all feel free to maltreat the statue any way they choose! And it is an easy matter for anyone -- especially an employee -- to get angry. He does not need a reason. To have to serve someone else, to be someone's paid slave, is enough in itself to provoke anger. The workers, and even sometimes the managers, habitually abuse and mistreat the statue before they enter the factory, and this has had important results. What it has done is to create a psychological equality between the owner and his employees. We all behave like this. Even today we…

Beloved Osho, a therapist once told me that we can get stuck in our feelings just as much as in the mind and that feelings too have to be dropped or gone beyond. I often wonder about this, as my feelings are usually my guide in life and also, I feel things very intensely. Would you please comment?

Anand Trinda, it is a significant question you have asked: "A therapist once told me that we can get stuck in our feelings just as much as in the mind and that feelings too have to be dropped or gone beyond. I often wonder about this as my feelings are usually my guide in life and I feel things very intensely." There are three centers from which all your actions come: the head, the heart, and the being. The head is the most superficial. It has to think about things -- even if you fall in love the head thinks about it, am I really in love? And if it decides that yes, it seems you are in love, the head is going to propose to the woman, "I think I am in love with you." But thinking is base. Man functions from the head. It has its utilities --…