Speaking

Osho, does the same apply to food too?

The Quakers hold meetings that are silent. In their meetinghouse they gather at the appointed time and sit quietly. There is no preacher—because a preacher will always come prepared. Friends sit; darkness deepens. Then a happening: if someone feels moved to say something, he says it. Many times months go by and no one says anything. People sit and depart—“today there was nothing to say, so nothing was said.” Then if someone feels there is something to say, he stands up. No introduction, no identity, no formalities. He simply stands and says, “This is what I feel; this I want to say.” There is only one condition: no one should ever come prepared. What the Quakers have collected from three hundred years of such silent meetings is worth seeing—words that seem to come straight from God; from utterly ordinary people, sometimes such words arise. But the more education and the…

Osho, you have been speaking continuously for twenty years. How is it possible to keep speaking like this? What is the secret of this art?

Rajendra! There is no secret at all. A small story will make it clear to you. A certain leader was contesting an election. As far as elections were concerned, he was rather new to the game. He didn’t really know how to give speeches. During the campaign a friend said to him, “Brother, why be so shy? You’re a leader and you’re feeling shy!” He replied, “Brother, I’m new to this field, and I don’t know the art of public speaking—how one should speak.” His friend laughed and said, “Arrey, is speaking even an art? Just keep drawing one thing out of another—that’s the secret of a speech.” After that, the speech the leader gave on stage went like this: “Brothers and sisters, I am neither a speaker nor a loudspeaker! The speaker used to be Kallan Miya from our neighborhood, and these days he is in his grave. Two…

Beloved Osho,

EVERY DAY WHEN I SIT HERE, I TRY SITTING WITHOUT A QUESTION IN MY MIND, STAYING IN THE MOMENT WITH WHAT I M HEARING, NOT REHEARSING, AND TRYING NOT TO REHEARSE. THEN YOU SAY, "ANYTHING MORE?" AND IT'S AS IF A SHIELD COMES DOWN AND I CAN'T REACH YOU. I AM TALKING TO MYSELF, AND THE MIND IS ALWAYS MAKING THINGS SAFE FOR ME. My answers are not the real thing so they go on changing. People feel that I am inconsistent. I go on saying things - today something, tomorrow something else - they are irrelevant. I am not concerned with consistency; my answering is like music being played on a guitar. You never ask inconsistently; you play the same thing again and again. The musician goes on changing, and if you get absorbed into the music you will have some gaps of silence. In those gaps, you will…

Osho, how do you define a good speech?

DIFFICULT TO SAY. I have never delivered a single speech in my life. You are asking a wrong person. But I have heard a definition that I liked and I would like you to know it: A good beginning and a good ending make a good speech -- if they come really close together, the beginning and the end. Of course, the best speech has no middle at all, and the very best is never delivered. And I have always been delivering the very best, the undelivered one. I have never delivered a single speech in my life, because I deal in silence, not in words. Even when you hear words, that was not the purpose. Even when I use the words, the words are used only as necessary evils -- because they have to be used, because you cannot understand silence yet. I am not talking to you. I…