Timing

Maneesha has asked: beloved Osho, is it true to say that timing is everything?

No, it is not true to say that timing is everything, because once you start thinking that timing is everything, you will stop seeking, searching. You will simply wait for the spring to come, you will become absolutely unaware of the fact that for enlightenment no season is right or wrong, no climate is right or wrong. Every moment is right, you just have to catch hold of your own being. But it has been said even by Gautam Buddha that timing is needed. I want you to know that Gautam Buddha is simply trying to console those who cannot gather courage in this moment. He does not want to discourage them by saying, "You will never become enlightened." He is saying, "You will become enlightened, just wait for the time, for the ripening, for the cause." But I say unto you, in spite of Gautam Buddha, that no timing…

Beloved Osho, you once said something like when we take sannyas it is either too early or too late. I have often wondered what you meant by this. Would you please comment?

Man is so unconscious that he does not know what he is doing, or for what he is doing it, or when the right time to do it is -- so perhaps someone takes sannyas too early. It is just accidental. He comes into the influence of a group of sannyasins, reads some books or listens to my world and feels that he is ready. A few people take sannyas too late. That too is accidental. It is sheer chance that they did not come across sannyasins, my message, earlier. It is a very rare coincidence that a person takes sannyas exactly at the right moment in his life for the simple reason that man is not conscious. The right moment comes and passes by, and he is lost in his dreams, in his ambitions, in his desires. But my statement simply describes a factuality. As far as you are…

Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, DOGEN SAID, THE BUDDHA SAID, IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUE MEANING OF THE BUDDHA-NATURE, YOU SHOULD CORRECTLY UNDERSTAND ITS MOMENTARY MANIFESTATIONS. WHEN THE RIGHT TIME COMES, THE BUDDHA-NATURE WILL MANIFEST ITSELF. DOGEN CONTINUED: MANY MONKS, BOTH PAST AND PRESENT, HAVE BELIEVED THAT THE PHRASE, "WHEN THE RIGHT TIME COMES," MEANS TO WAIT FOR THE BUDDHA-NATURE TO MANIFEST ITSELF IN THE FUTURE. THEY THINK THAT IF THEY CONTINUE TRAINING IN THE WAY, THE BUDDHA-NATURE WILL NATURALLY MANIFEST ITSELF AT THE RIGHT TIME. UNTIL THAT TIME COMES, THEY MISTAKENLY CONCLUDE THAT THE BUDDHA-NATURE WILL NOT MANIFEST ITSELF, EVEN SHOULD THEY VISIT A MASTER IN SEARCH OF THE DHARMA OR TRAIN DILIGENTLY. BASED ON THIS FALSE CONCLUSION, THEY MEANINGLESSLY RETURN TO THE ORDINARY WORLD AND VAINLY WAIT FOR THE RIGHT TIME TO COME.

Beloved master, when you told the story about gautam buddha waiting at the gate of paradise for the last human being, I cried -- and I saw you, waiting for us. My question is, if you will wait also for me? Right now, I'm putting all my energy into waking up, but everything takes time. Will there be enough time for me, too?

Nobody really believed it, they thought it was just to console them, a rationalization. But Sharada became very much aware and alert. One day when she brought the food in the room where Ramakrishna was resting... he used to jump out of his bed, and immediately would look into the plates, "What have you brought?" But today when he saw Sharada coming in, he turned his back towards her, did not jump out of the bed. This was the first time he had shown indifference. Sharada remembered what he had said a few years before; everybody else had forgotten it. The plates fell from her hands; the disciples gathered. They said, "What is the matter?" She said, "Perhaps you have forgotten, call the doctor immediately." And the doctor said, "He has cancer of the throat and he cannot live more than three days." He said, "I am puzzled, how he…