I AM NOT FOR AVOIDING ANYTHING IN LIFE — not even materialism. Life
has to be transformed, not avoided. IF YOU AVOID LIFE, you will remain
immature. Life is a great blessing, an opportunity to grow, a
challenge, a constant challenge that helps awareness, centering,
grounding. Nothing has to be avoided. THAT IS THE ANCIENTMOST
STUPIDITY. Man has been living under its shadow for so long that it has
become almost part of his blood, his bones, his very marrow.
MATERIALISM IS PERFECTLY GOOD IN ITS PLACE. If there is matter, matter
has to be absorbed in a total life view. It has not to be avoided; it
has to be used as a steppingstone towards spirituality. THERE IS NO
CONTRADICTION BETWEEN MATERIALISM AND SPIRITUALISM, although it has
been told again and again for thousands of years. You have been
conditioned so much — the conditioning has gone deep — that nobody
ever thinks about it again. It is one of the greatest calamities that
has happened to humanity. MATTER IS THE OUTER SIDE OF SPIRIT,
SPIRIT IS THE INNER SIDE OF MATTER. They are not separate. The outside
and the inside cannot be separate, they are inseparable, they are
inevitably together. Hence, a right vision, a total vision of life will
be a synthesis, a synchronicity between matter and consciousness.
MATERIALISM HAS ITS OWN BEAUTY, its own significance, just as
spiritualism has its own beauty. But don’t make “isms” out of them.
LIFE IS ONE — IT IS SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL. In fact, to use the word
“and” between spiritual and the material is not right; but languages
come from the past. Better will be to make one word out of the two:
“spirit-matter”. AND THEY ARE EXISTING TOGETHER IN PERFECT
HARMONY. In you they are existing together — your body, your mind,
your soul, they are all existing in deep at-onement, attunement. There
is a subtle rhythm. They are all part of one dance. OSHO
The Wild Geese & The Water
Ch #9: Bon Voyage Baby!
am in Buddha Hall
[part 1 of 3]
THE BODY IS NOT AGAINST THE SOUL — it is the temple of the soul.
But the so-called religious people go on condemning materialism. AND
WHEN THEY CONDEMN, THEY CREATE GUILT IN YOU; you start feeling that
whatsoever you are doing is wrong. And the moment you feel that
whatsoever you are doing is wrong, you are trapped, YOU ARE IMPRISONED
IN A DICHOTOMY. If you follow the so-called gurus, lamas, etc., you
will be constantly in trouble, in conflict, because you will be
avoiding something which is unavoidable. IF YOU FOLLOW THE BODY,
YOU WILL FEEL GUILTY; if you don’t follow the body, you will feel
unnatural. Something in you will remain missing if you don’t follow the
body. If you don’t nourish the body, if you don’t respect the body, if
you don’t love the body, then something in you will remain like a
wound: rejected, condemned. And it is part of you: you cannot throw it
away, you cannot get rid of it. It is going to be there. And it is
going to be heavy on you because you have a deep condemnation for it.
AND SOONER OR LATER THE BODY WILL TAKE REVENGE, the matter will take
revenge. You have created an enmity, a conflict, an unnecessary
struggle between yourself; you have created a deep tension. Hence the
so-called religious people live in immense tension, in immense anxiety
and anguish. What is their anguish? –The “shoulds” and the
“should-nots”…. BUT THESE FOOLS INFLUENCE MANY PEOPLE —
because there is a long tradition supporting them. Don’t be a
hypocrite! Both are ugly. To feel guilty is bad, it is a state of
sickness. But these are the only alternatives your religions leave for
you: EITHER FEEL GUILTY OR BE A HYPOCRITE. THE CUNNING ONES
AMONG YOU WILL BECOME HYPOCRITES. And the simple — the innocent ones
among you — will become guilty. AND THE HYPOCRITES WILL DOMINATE THE
SIMPLE-HEARTED. The hypocrites become the priests, the leaders of
people. They say one thing and they do exactly the opposite of it. They
have masks; they are hiding behind their masks. THEY HAVE DOUBLE LIVES
— but they are cunning. They are simply befooling you. So there is no
problem for them. Their only problem is that they should not be caught.
If they are caught, then they are in difficulty. So it is only a
question of how much cunning they are. The more cunning they are, the
safer. BUT MANY OF THEM ARE BOUND TO BE CAUGHT SOONER OR LATER. You can
deceive few people for few days, but you cannot deceive all the people
forever. How can you? Somebody is bound to know. Somebody is bound to
be aware of your dichotomy, aware of your double standards — that you
use a different standard for other people than you use for yourself.
YOU HAVE TWO DOORS TO YOUR BEING. The front door is just a facade to
receive the innocent ones and to make them feel guilty. And you have a
back door, too, where you receive totally different people. But those
people you receive from the back door are bound to be aware of your
duality, of your deceptiveness, of your cunningness. SO THE ONLY
FEAR THAT THE PRIESTS AND THE HYPOCRITES AND THE MAHATMAS FEEL is that
they may be caught. And they are caught. But the stupidity is such, the
unconsciousness of humanity is such, that again and again they are
caught, and again and again we go on listening to the same kind of
stupidities. OSHO
The Wild Geese & The Water
Ch #9: Bon Voyage Baby!
am in Buddha Hall
[part 2 of 3]
IT IS TIME TO GET RID OF THIS WHOLE DIVISION BETWEEN MATTER AND
SPIRIT; they are not divided anywhere. They are not divided in you;
your body and your soul are functioning totally together in deep
synchronicity. You can experience it. If your body is sick, your
innermost core also becomes sad. And if your innermost core is joyous,
your body also wants to dance. I am not for any escapist
attitude. I AM NOT FOR ANY SPLIT IN YOU, I want you to be one. I want
you to be integrated. I want you to be totally natural, accepting,
affirming. I teach you a materialist/spiritualist approach to life. It
has never been done before — that’s why I am so much condemned. I
accept it. I don’t feel any trouble with it, because that is natural….
THE EAST HAS REMAINED POOR, STARVING. Its outside is ugly. It has
found some inner secrets, but its outside is sick, its outside is almost
not worth living. It has committed a suicide on the outside, just as the
West had committed a suicide on the inside.
THE WEST has enough technology, enough science, enough affluence,
enough money, but something of the inner is missing. There is no peace,
no silence, no joy, no bliss, no meditativeness, no experience of
godliness. It is time we should see that up to now humanity has lived
dividedly.
A NEW HUMAN BEING IS NEEDED ON THE EARTH, a new human being who
accepts both, who is scientific and mystic, who is all for matter and
all for the spirit. Only then we will be able to create a humanity
which is rich on both the sides. And if it is possible to be rich on
both the sides, WHY CHOOSE POVERTY IN ANY WAY? — the outer poverty or
the inner poverty. I TEACH YOU RICHNESS: richness of the body,
richness of the soul, richness of this world and that world. And both
are possible, there is no problem at all. What I am saying, I am living.
And I don’t see there is any conflict. I can be as meditative in my
Rolls Royce… in fact, more meditative than in a bullock-cart. I have
been in a bullock-cart, I have been on a camel, I have used all kinds
of vehicles — and to be meditative on a camel is really difficult.
Camels don’t like meditation at all. They are very non-meditative
animals. And in a bullock-cart on an Indian road… I DON’T SEE
ANY POINT OF DIVIDING THE OUTER AND THE INNER. I have been poor, I have
lived in utter poverty, I have lived in richness. And believe me,
richness is far better than poverty. I am a man of very simple
interests: I am utterly satisfied with the best of anything, I don’t
ask for more…. BEWARE OF ALL THESE LAMAS AND RABBIS AND IATOLAH
KOMANIACS. Beware! These are the people who have caused so much misery
for humanity that it is incalculable. Either they have created
cunningness or they have created guilt. And both are ill states. One
should neither be cunning nor guilty. In fact, both are related
together, they have a deep connection: THE PEOPLE WHO CREATE GUILT ARE
BOUND TO BE CUNNING. They ARE cunning, that’s why they create guilt.
ONCE THEY HAVE CREATED GUILT IN YOU, you can be exploited, you are
vulnerable. It is to exploit you that they create guilt. We have
to put a full stop to all this nonsense — enough is enough! BE SIMPLE,
BE NATURAL, BE SPONTANEOUS; FOLLOW YOUR OWN LIGHT. Don’t be bothered by
others’ “shoulds” and “should-nots”. That’s the freedom a sannyasin has
to live. MY SANNYASINS have not to be cunning, and they have not
to be guilty either. The moment you are free of guilt and cunningness,
you have the door of the divine opened for you; you are welcomed by
existence itself. To me, that is true religiousness. OSHO
The Wild Geese & The Water
Ch #9: Bon Voyage Baby!
am in Buddha Hall
[part 3 of 3]