Tradition

Another friend has asked: you say religion is not tradition; but isn’t tradition necessary? Has tradition only caused harm, or has there been some benefit too?

It is recorded of Albert Einstein that he went to a friend’s house. He was forgetful. They talked; dinner happened; they talked on. The friend kept looking at his watch, kept yawning. Einstein too looked at his watch, yawned—but didn’t get up. Finally the friend said, “It’s two o’clock—your wife must be waiting.” Einstein said, “What do you mean?” The friend said, “I mean your wife must be waiting. Otherwise no harm—do sit.” Einstein jumped up, shocked: “Extraordinary! I was wondering when you would leave so I could sleep. I thought I was in my own house!” Both were watching the clock and yawning. Time felt very long. When you cannot merge with an action—the same action, exactly the same... You dance—for someone else; you don’t want to dance—then time will be there. You dance for yourself, or for someone for whom you want to dance—time vanishes. Time is tension.…

Osho, you are quoted as being here to proclaim a new tradition, not to perpetuate the old. Why is this, and how do you see the future?

First: the creation of a new tradition is the only way to perpetuate the old, the only way. The old has to become new again and again. Only then can it be perpetuated. It is like Buddha attaining enlightenment sitting under a Bodhi tree near Bodhgaya.... That tree has existed, not exactly the same tree, but again and again branches of the tree were planted -- three times it has happened. The old tree died and when the tree was dying a branch was planted. Then that tree also died, but before it died another branch was planted. It comes in the same conti-nuum. It is not the same tree in a sense, just as your son is not you in a sense, but it is the same tree in another sense -- just as your son is another you in a sense, your continuity. Each time the world consciousness…

Osho, you are always immersed in bliss—what is the secret of it? When will I be able to attain this ecstasy?

Yogananda, I have given you the name Yogananda; the whole secret is in it. A human being can live in two ways: either cut off from existence, or in oneness with it. Whoever lives separate will live in sorrow—anxiety and anguish. That is natural, for to live apart from existence is like a tree pulling its roots out of the earth and trying to live. It will wither; the leaves will droop, flowers will cease to bloom. Spring will come and keep coming, but that tree will never become a bride, never a bridegroom. For it there will be no spring. If the roots have been torn from the soil, what remedy can even the honeyed month of spring offer? Then where is bliss, where is ecstasy! Then there is no dawn—only a dark new-moon night, a night with no morning. Such a life is called ego. And the tree…

A friend has asked: Osho, you said about a wayward son that one should let him pass through his experiences, and he will learn on his own. But even after experiencing, he still prefers the same thing—someone is asking about his wayward son—no matter how much suffering he has to endure, even if death itself should come, still he does the same. After stumbling again and again, he repeats it. What can be done? How to reform him?

You will not be able to reform him. If life cannot reform him, if even death cannot reform him, what will you be able to do? If what you say is true—that again and again, even after suffering, he does the same thing; even if death comes, he will still do the same thing, and he does not change—then take your hands off. You will not be able to reform him. You cannot be stronger than death. And one who does not learn from suffering—what will he learn from you? Do not call him a wayward son. You have found yourself a Jadabharata. Because those whom suffering does not reform, whom even death does not reform—these are great, arrived masters; they are in the ultimate state. Do not even try to reform such a one. And why are you so eager to reform another? It is enough to reform yourself.…