Simplicity

Osho, the path of simplicity is the second one. What is it?

The first path is to try to be simple, to make an effort, to practice it. Cultivated simplicity is always false. Because to practice, by its very meaning, is to practice against your own mind; otherwise, what is the practice against? If being naked is blissful for me, I will not call it practice. If wearing clothes is blissful for me and then I start practicing being naked, will nakedness be a “practice”? And if being naked is simply blissful—if wearing clothes never gave me the joy that comes from being naked—then no one would call it a practice. It is my joy. We practice only that which is contrary to us; practice means repression. Practice is inevitably repression. And wherever effort is required, against whom is that effort made—against oneself? No effort made against oneself can ever win. How could it win? Who would win? How can I win…

Osho, you criticize Gandhism. But isn’t the Gandhian principle of simplicity correct?

I said to her, “You will at least grant that Krishnamurti has at least as much intelligence as you? He too could have thought before leaving home: ‘I, a renowned wise, enlightened man, will go buy a tie—what will people think!’ If he had held back, that would have been cunning, hypocrisy. And he wasn’t sneaking into some smuggler’s den like a thief; he was standing in a shop in the middle of the market. A small town—at least six thousand people had gathered there to hear him; they were all around. He bought the tie in front of all his devotees! Do you think it didn’t occur to him that “Six thousand of my devotees are here; what will they say if they see me buying a tie!” He could have had the shopkeeper bring them home, chosen in privacy. He wouldn’t have lost devotees; no harm done. But…

Dear master, what is simplicity?

The really humble people will not know that they are humble; how can they then brag about it? How can the humble person know that he is humble? The humble person is a person no more. The humble person is in a state of fana: the humble person has dissolved. Now he is only a presence. Humbleness is a presence, not a characteristic of personality, not a trait, but just a presence. Others will feel it, but you will not be able to feel it yourself. So is the case with simplicity. Simplicity simply means living moment to moment spontaneously, not according to some philosophy, not according to Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, not according to any philosophy. Whenever you live according to a philosophy you have betrayed yourself, you are an enemy to yourself. Simplicity means to be in a deep friendship with oneself, to live your life with no idea…

Beloved Osho, for years you have talked to us of simplicity: simplicity in love, the simplicity of enlightenment, and now the simple solution to the power game between the united states and russia. Why has man developed such complexity, and why does he show such mistrust and disbelief in the simple?

The yogis have not produced anything, have not created anything, have made no contribution to the world. What have your ascetics given to the world? What have your so-called saints been doing all along, except being parasites sucking your blood? And these are the people you have been worshipping. And why have you been worshipping them? For the simple reason that you cannot stand for twelve hours on your head. Try it -- even for twelve minutes it is difficult. In fact, when you first try you will fall many times; you may have a broken rib. The yogi is doing something difficult. A man is standing naked in the snow in the Himalayas, and people come from thousands of miles to touch his feet. All that he is doing is getting frozen and dead. What is his contribution? Nobody goes to touch the feet of Albert Einstein, or Bertrand…