THERE ARE NO QUESTIONS.THERE ARE NO ANSWERS.''OSHO''

BELOVED OSHO,

THERE ARE NO ANSWERS.

Anand Shari, yes, there are no answers, because there are no questions either. Life is not

a problem. Had it been a problem there would have been no need for religion --

philosophy would have solved it, science would have found all the answers. Because life

is not a problem it cannot be reduced to a question or to many questions. No question is

really relevant to life.

Life is a quest not a question, a mystery not a problem, and the difference is vast. The

problem has to be solved, can be solved, must be solved, but the mystery is insoluble; it

has to be lived, experienced. The question has to be solved so that it disappears;

encountering a mystery, you have to dissolve in it. The mystery remains, you disappear.

It is a totally different phenomenon. In philosophy the problem disappears, but YOU

remain; in religion the mystery remains, you disappear, you evaporate.

The ego is very much interested in questions and very much afraid of the mystery. The

questions arise out of the ego. It plays with the questions, tries to find out answers -- and

each answer in its own turn brings more questions. It is an unending process; that's why

philosophy has not come to any conclusion. Five thousand years of philosophizing, and

not even a single conclusion! It is proof enough that philosophy is an exercise in sheer

futility; its claims are very bombastic.

In India we have a proverb that you dig the whole mountain and in the end you find only

one rat -- but philosophy has not even been able to find the rat. It has been trying, and

with great effort, to find some way out of the questions, but it gets more and more lost in

the jungle. Now there are more philosophical problems than there were before, and they

will go on increasing because the moment you assert a single answer it immediately

explodes into many questions. It solves nothing, it simply gives you more work to do.

Religion takes life from a totally different vision. Its intrinsic quality is to be mysterious,

and a mystery is that which cannot be reduced into the game of questions and answers.

You have to be utterly silent to experience it, you have to be a no-mind to experience it. It

can be experienced, but the experience cannot be put into words; it remains inexpressible.

Hence Buddha has no answer. Not that he never answered questions -- he answered

questions for forty-two years just to be polite to you. But if you look deeply into his

answers you will find that rather than answering he is simply seducing you towards

silence. The answers are not answers but strategies to bring you to a point of deep

understanding that nothing can be solved. The moment you understand that nothing can

be solved, your mind simply dies. The mind can live on only with questions, problems,

puzzles, riddles. The moment there is nothing to be solved, the whole function of the

mind is destroyed. The very earth underneath its feet has been taken away. Questions are

nourishment for the mind.

I have been answering you, but none of my answers is an answer. It is simply a way of

bringing you to that ultimate jump from mind to no-mind, from thoughts to no-thought,

from questioning to living. And when you start living the mystery, I call it a quest. Then

it becomes a totally different phenomenon -- you are not standing outside it. When it is a

question, you are standing outside. You tackle the question, you look from all sides, you

search all the aspects, all the possibilities; you dissect it, you look in, you try to find some

clue; you propose some hypothesis, you experiment. The question is there outside you, on

the table, but you are not part of it.

In a quest YOU are the question; there is no division between you and the question. The

quest means you are diving deep within yourself. In a real quest there is only one

question: "Who am I?" All else fades away, and finally even "Who am I?" starts

dissolving. Then a great mystery descends on you; you are surrounded by miracles. The

whole of life is transformed; it becomes translucent. Then it is a song, a dance, a

celebration.

This is the whole approach of religion. Religion is anti-philosophical, and philosophy is

basically anti-religious. There can be no religious philosophy, and there can be no

philosophical religion.

Shari, you are right when you say, "There are no answers."

But before that, remember, there are no questions either.

MAN'S INTELLIGENCE IS THE ESSENCE OF HIS INTELLECT.WOME'S INTELLIGENCE ARISES OUT OF HER INTUITIVENESS.''OSHO"

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN A WOMAN SAYS SHE IS AFRAID OF A MAN?

Anand Prageet, if you had asked me what it means when a man says that he is afraid of a

woman, I would have answered you very accurately. But your question is such that it is

almost unanswerable. It is very difficult to say what it means when a woman says she is

afraid of a man -- the woman says one thing and means another thing! She may simply be

making you feel at ease, Prageet -- "Don't be afraid, I myself am afraid of you!" She must

see that you are trembling! She must be aware of your fear.

Every man is afraid of the woman -- he has to be. From the very beginning he is in the

hands of a woman, the mother, and the fear is created from those very early days. Your

first impression of a woman is that of a mother, and the mother has made you immensely

afraid. And you have seen that not only were you afraid, but your father was also afraid

of your mother. Outside the house he was like a lion, and whenever he came home he

started wagging his tail!

You have seen this. Children are very perceptive; they go on looking at what is

happening. They understand perfectly well who is really the master of the house. They

are afraid of the mother, the father is afraid of the mother, everybody seems to be afraid

of the mother, and naturally they become accustomed to the fear.

And then man is capable of tackling any problem intellectually. He is afraid of the

woman because her ways of tackling a problem are very intuitive, instinctive. No woman

is intellectual -- intelligent of course, but not intellectual. Man's intelligence is of one

kind, and hers, the woman's intelligence, is of a totally different kind. Man's intelligence

is the essence of his intellect, and woman's intelligence arises out of her intuitiveness.

There is no meeting ground -- there is no possibility of it. They are polar opposites, that's

why they are attracted to each other. Because they cannot understand each other there is

mystery between them; that mystery is of great appeal.

A frustrated man was staring hopelessly down the platform at the departing train. "If you

hadn't taken so long getting ready," he accused his wife, "we would have caught it."

"Yes," she replied, "and if you hadn't hurried me we wouldn't have so long to wait for the

next one!"

"Is this supposed to be art? Why on earth did they hang this picture here?" one woman

asked another in an art gallery.

"Maybe they couldn't find the painter," the other replied.

A beautiful blonde filled in the job application.

The personnel director looked it over, then said, "Miss Johnson, under `Experience' could

you be a little more specific than just `Oh, boy!'?"

A girl in a whorehouse of a red-light district told the madam one day that she was

quitting.

"You can't do that," protested the madam, "you're the best girl I've got. Why, I've seen

you go upstairs thirty and more times a night."

"That's right," the girl agreed. "That's why I'm quitting. My feet are killing me, and it's on

account of those damn stairs!"

It is very difficult for me, Prageet, to answer your question. You will have to ask your

woman yourself.

Schumann, the postman, was retiring. On his last day, as usual, he delivered to Mrs. Katz,

who invited him in for a fine breakfast.

When he finished and was about to leave, she beckoned him into the bedroom where they

made love for an hour. When he was getting ready to leave, she handed him an envelope

with a dollar bill in it.

Schumann was overwhelmed. "Look, Mrs. Katz," he said finally, "I've been delivering

your mail for the past twenty years and you have never so much as offered me a cup of

coffee. So why today did all this happen?"

"Well," she said, "I told my husband So that you were retiring today and he said,

 Give him a buck!' -- the breakfast was my idea!"

FEAR TELLS THE TRUTH.''OSHO''

BELOVED OSHO,
IF I LET GO I FEAR I AM GONE FOREVER.

You fear rightly: you WILL be gone forever; but you cannot escape now. The very fear shows that you cannot escape now. The VERY fear shows that you are understanding rightly: that you will disappear if you let go. But you are your misery, nothing else; you are your hell, nothing else. So how long can you cling to it? Sooner or later, you will have to let go.
I will tell you a story. The story is very old; the story is about King Midas.
Midas was hunting for the wise, for someone who could become his Master. He heard about a companion of Dionysus; the name of Dionysus' companion was Silenus. He searched, he searched long, and finally he caught him. But when he finally fell into his hands, the King asked,'What is the very best, the most preferable thing for man?'

The demon remained silent, stubborn and motionless, until he was finally compelled by the King, and then broke out into shrill laughter uttering these words:'Miserable, ephemeral species, children of chance and hardship; why do you compel me to tell you what is most profitable for you not to hear? The very best is quite unthinkable for you. It is: not to be born. It is impossible because you are already born. The very best is not to be born, not to exist, to be nothing. But the next best thing is: to die as soon as possible. The next best only is possible.'
Midas became very angry. He said,'I have come in search of life, not of death.'
Silenus said,'Nobody has ever come to know life until he dies.'
So I know your fear, I understand it, and the fear is perfectly true. It is not deceiving you, it is telling you the truth: that if you let go, you are gone forever. But there arises a need, when one NEEDS to drop completely and die completely, because only then is there resurrection. When you die, something bigger than you will be born, and that is the search. Out of death comes life. Allow death.
I understand your difficulty. In spite of your fear you will have to let go.
There was one very famous Zen Master, Tosan. A disciple asked him,'Master, what is Tao?'
The Master said,'A dragon singing in the dry wood.'
The disciple said,'I wonder whether there is anybody who can hear this.'
The Master said,'There is no one in the entire world who does not hear this.'
The disciple said,'I don't know what kind of composition the dragon's song is.'
The Master said,'I also do not know, but all who hear it lose themselves.'
Whatsoever I am singing is the song of that dragon in the dry wood. Whosoever hears me will disappear. Now it is up to you: either you hear me or you hear your fear, the fear that you have been hearing forever and ever. Through the fear you have lived up to now, and nothing has been attained. Your life is just an empty barrenness, a desert with not even a single oasis in it. You have listened too long to your fear; now don't be bothered by it. Say to it'Shut up!'; and in spite of it, move. You will disappear, but that is the only way to gain yourself. Says Jesus,'If you try to save your life you will lose it. If you lose it you will gain it in abundance, in eternity.'
Only the momentary is lost and the eternal is gained. Only the useless is lost and the ultimate is gained. Now it is for you to decide.
Either you decide for your fear, or you decide for my love.

LOVE IS THE DYING OF EGO.''OSHO''

BELOVED OSHO,
LOVE IS THE POINT. WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LOVE, I FEEL LIKE I AM FACING A GUN. MAY I CALL YOU MY GANGSTER OF LOVE?

Exactly, that's what I am. And you are facing a gun; you are facing death.
To face love is to face death, because one who is not ready to die, to die to the ego, will not be capable of love. And you are not imprisoned by anybody else; it is your own ego, a false notion of yourself which is imprisoning you. Drop it! -- and the whole existence with all its beauty becomes available to you.
I will tell you one story. It happened: A man fell heir to some property near the seashore. He wandered for a while in quiet enjoyment of his land, then decided to stroll down to the ocean. With the pleasant anticipation of sighting waves and -- sand, he followed the downward path, but he came to a sudden halt as a tall wall blocked his; path. With disappointment, he reflected to himself, -- 'Someone does not want me to trespass on his property. Well, it is his wall. There is nothing I can do.'

Over the days, he felt a mounting urge to have direct access to the sea. He made up his mind to locate the owner of the frustrating wall. Checking land records, he identified the wall's owner. He then knew who blocked his path, and who could therefore open the way. The wall was on his own property; it was his own.
We block our own path; we can unblock ourselves.
Nobody is barring your path. You are heir to infinite possibilities. You are walling your own path blocking your own path. So whenever I talk about love, of course, you immediately become aware of the wall that surrounds you. Whenever I talk about love, you become aware of your imprisonment, naturally. Whenever I talk about freedom, if you are a prisoner you become aware of your prison. And you don't like that, because every time freedom is talked about you
become aware that you are a prisoner. That you don't like. People in the prison don't like to talk about freedom. That hurts.
Love is absolute freedom; it is freedom of consciousness. Love knows no bounds, no boundaries. And unless you drop all boundaries, you will not be able to know love. Love is another name for God, and a better name, because the name'God' has been corrupted by the religious people. It has already become a commodity in the marketplace. Love is another name for God, and I say, a better one.
And your feeling is right: that whenever I talk about it, you feel as if you are facing a gun. You are facing it; don't try to escape. Accept the death in love, accept surrender, trust. Because as you are, you 're just a beggar. I would like you to be emperors. Only lovers are emperors, nobody else.
But for that, you will have to pay a price. It is nothing in fact: the price is to drop the ego.

SCHOOL: LEARNING TO BE OURSELVES.''OSHO''

I SOMETIMES FEEL SUCH A FEAR OF MISSING, AS IF I WERE IN A SCHOOL, AND IF I DIDN'T DO THE RIGHT THING I WOULD FLUNK OUT.

Yes, you ARE in a school. This is a school. We are learning to be ourselves here; we are trying the greatest adventure there is -- of discovering oneself, of reaching to one's own innermost core. It is a learning place, it is a school. But the whole point is, the whole teaching of THIS school is not to be worried about right and wrong, not to be worried about good and bad, not to be worried about morality and difference, not to be worried about lower and higher.

The whole point of this school is to become choiceless.
Now I will read the question again:'I sometimes feel such a fear of missing, as if I were in a school, and if I didn't do the right thing I would flunk out.'
This is the right thing here: not to be worried about right and wrong. To accept oneself is the right thing here, to accept yourself, whatsoever you are, howsoever you are; to accept in totality and in deep humbleness that this is the way you are, that this is the way God intended you to be.
We are not trying to change you, we are not trying to improve you, we are not trying any ego-trip. We are simply trying to help you discover who you are. So the right thing here is not to be worried about right and wrong, not to be worried about this and that. We are not going to choose a character, a morality, a code of conduct. No, we are trying to find out who we are. Once you know who you are, no code of conduct is needed, no conceptions of right and wrong are needed. Once you know who you are, all that you do is right. And, if you don't know who you are, all that you do is wrong.
So, we are not worried about right and wrong.

KILLING SELF IS A NEW BORN.THAT IS IMMORTAL.''OSHO''

BELOVED,OSHO, PLEASE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?
This is from Madhuri.

I am killing you Madhuri. I am a murderer, and you are trapped. You cannot escape me now because once you have tasted a little death, you cannot escape. Because now you know much more is going to come. Once you have tasted a little death of the ego, you know, you can imagine now, you can dream of what a beautiful space is going to be there when the whole ego disappears: when you look within yourself and you don't find anybody there, just emptiness, vast emptiness. If you have found a little empty corner in your being, then you cannot move away now. You have tasted.

Now, you cannot go back to the ordinary world. Unless you die, there is no going back. Once you die, I will send you back to the ordinary world, because
then nothing can corrupt you. Who can corrupt an emptiness? How can an emptiness be corrupted? It is open, absolutely vulnerable, and yet invulnerable, because nobody can corrupt it. It is incorruptible, it is virgin.

COMMITMENT AND UNATTACHMENT ARE TWO ASPECTS OF SAME COIN.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

YOU SEEM TO ADVOCATE COMMITMENT AND NON-ATTACHMENT IN LOVE, WHETHER WITH MASTER OR LOVER. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ONE CAN BE COMMITTED AND UNATTACHED AT THE SAME TIME.

In fact, they always happen together, they cannot happen separately. It is impossible to separate them, because they are two aspects of the same coin: commitment and unattachment. If you are attached, then it is not a commitment. Then you are using the other for yourself because it is an attachment.

You love a person and you say,'I am committed and attached.' What does attachment mean? It means that you are using the other person for yourself, you are using the other person as a means. How can one be committed to a means? Commitment is possible only towards an end, not towards a means. You cannot be committed to a car, you cannot be committed to a house. They are means; they have to be used. You can only Be committed to an alive person, because each person is the goal.

Love is not using the person for your own pleasure. Much pleasure comes through it, but that is a by-product. You love the person as an end; you are committed. You can give your very life to the person, but there is no attachment, because attachment means that you are using the person for yourself. Commitment with nonattachment means that now the other has become the goal, the end, the very end. They always happen together, and if they cannot happen together then you are missing something. If commitment is with attachment, then you are just deceiving yourself that it is a commitment. Sooner or later, if the person dies, you will find another person -- because you were using the person. Now that he is not available, you will find another person.

A commitment is eternal. Your wife dies: on that day, all women disappear from the world for you. You loved her as a goal. Now it is even impossible to conceive that you can love another. It was so total that nothing is left behind. And it was so total that only the body can die, not the soul of that being. Death cannot part two lovers. If they really loved, they had conquered death already. Love is immortal. But if there was only an attachment, then after a few weeks or a few days the wound is healed. You loved the person because of you, for your own pleasure. Now you will find another person. In fact, you love your husband, you say that you love, and he's dying -- or your wife -- and when the wife is dying,

on the deathbed, if somebody could open a window in your head and look, you are already planning and trying to find a new woman.

The mind, at the most, exploits. It can never become a deep commitment. Deep commitment is of being. It knows no time, it knows no death. I am not saying that it is permanent, because permanence is part of time. It is eternal. It has the fragrance of divineness.

Let me tell you one anecdote: A politician named Strange lay dying. A friend asked him what he would like inscribed on his tombstone,'Just put,' said the politician: Here lies an honest politician.

'But,' said the friend,'that doesn't tell who it is.'

'Oh yes, replied the politician,'the passer-by will say,'That is strange -- a politician, and honest?' -- no need to say the name. Passers-by will by themselves say,'That is strange.'

Attachment and love never go together; commitment and attachment never go together. Love goes with unattachment. Then love has a purity of the other world. Then love is absolute essence, absolute pureness, innocence. And then there is a commitment. That commitment is eternal.

I LEAVE YOU MY DREAM.I WILL BE HERE IN THE WINDS,IN THE OCEAN.''OSHO''

“Beloved Osho, the fruit falls on the ground when it is ripe. One day, You will leave us, and it will be impossible to have another master in Your place.How can anybody else be the substitute for the Master of Masters?0sho, when You leave the physical body, will Your meditation techniques help our inner growth as they do now?”

My approach to your growth is basically to make you independent of me. Any kind of dependence is a slavery, and the spiritual dependence is the worst slavery of all. I have been making every effort to make you aware of your individuality, your freedom, your absolute capacity to grow without any help from anybody. Your growth is something intrinsic to your being. It does not come from outside; it is not an imposition, it is an unfolding.All the meditation techniques that I have given to you are not dependent on me — my presence or absence will not make any difference — they are dependent on you. It is not my presence, but your presence that is needed for them to work. It is not my being here but your being here, your being in the present, your being alert and aware that is going to help.I can understand your question and its relevance. It is not irrelevant. The whole past of man is, in different ways, a history of exploitation. And even the so called spiritual people could not resist the temptation to exploit. Out of a hundred masters, ninety-nine percent were trying to impose the idea that, “Without me you cannot grow, no progress is possible. Give me your whole responsibility.”

But the moment you give your whole responsibility to somebody, unknowingly you are also giving your whole freedom. And naturally, all those masters had to die one day, but they have left long lines of slaves: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Mohammedans. What are these people? Why should somebody be a Christian? If you can be someone, be a Christ, never be a Christian. Are you absolutely blind to the humiliation when you call yourself a Christian, a follower of someone who died two thousand years ago?The whole of humanity is following the dead. Is it not weird that the living should follow the dead, that the living should be dominated by the dead, that the living should depend on the dead and their promises that `We will be coming to save you.’? None of them has come to save you. In fact, nobody can save anybody else; it goes against the foundational truth of freedom and individuality.As far as I am concerned, I am simply making every effort to make you free from everybody — including me — and to just be alone on the path of searching. This existence respects a person who dares to be alone in the seeking of truth. Slaves are not respected by existence at all. They do not deserve any respect; they don’t respect themselves, how can they expect existence to be respectful towards them? So remember, when I am gone, you are not going to lose anything. Perhaps you may gain something of which you are absolutely unaware.Right now I am available to you only embodied, imprisoned in a certain shape and form. When I am gone, where can I go? I will be here in the winds, in the ocean; and if you have loved me, if you have trusted me, you will feel me in a thousand and one ways. In your silent moments you will suddenly feel my presence. Once I am unembodied, my consciousness is universal. Right now you have to come to me. Then, you will not need to seek and search for me. Wherever you are… your thirst, your love… and you will find me in your very heart, in your very heartbeat.~Osho

AUTHENTICATION HAS LIMIT,BORROWED IS LIMITLESS.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

SO MANY QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ASKED OF YOU. IS THERE A LIMIT AFTER WHICH NO MORE NEW QUESTIONS CAN BE FOUND?

If your question is authentic, then there is a limit. But if your questions are borrowed, borrowed from the books, borrowed from others, borrowed from knowledge and information, then there is no limit. If your question is true, relevant to your being, then there is a limit. Sooner or later you will come to it; they are finished. But if they are scholarly, then there is no limit to it

Let me tell you one anecdote.

It happened: The lady of the house was out when her new maid called at her home and rang the bell. The pet parrot answered by calling,'Who is that?'

'It is the new maid,' was the reply. There was a pause. Then the girl rang the bell again, and the parrot answered,'Who is that?'

'It is the new maid,' came the reply once more. She was a little annoyed. This went on until the exasperated girl fell on the ground and fainted, because she would say,'It is the new maid,' and the parrot would ask again,'Who is that?'

because that was the only question he could ask. That was a borrowed question; it was not his question. He didn't even know what it meant.

Returning home, the householder stumbled across the body, and exclaimed,'Who is that!'

'It is the new maid,' answered the parrot, because by now he had learned it.

HURRY REFLECTS DEEP WORRY.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

WITHOUT ANY REASON I DO SOME JOBS IN A HURRY; ESPECIALLY EATING.

This is from Vishnu Chaitanya.

Vishnu Chaitanya, something is eating you: some deep worry is inside that creates hurry; some deep tension which does not allow you to relax.

So, the next time you are eating something, watch what is eating you. When you are hurrying, just watch. Are you escaping from somewhere? Are you trying to avoid some situation? Are you trying not to see something which is there inside you? Are you trying to suppress something? Is there some worry and you don't even want to accept that it is there? Is there some wound which you are hiding in flowers? Watch deep down. All people who are in a hurry simply show that they are carrying some deep worry, and they are not even courageous enough to face it. Bring it up, let it surface. Encounter it, and you will be simply surprised. If you can encounter any problem face to face, directly, it disappears. In the inner world, to know that a problem is, to know exactly what it is, to diagnose, is to treat. There is no other medicine in the inner world. A problem only exists if you go on suppressing it. If you don't allow it to be confronted, it exists. And people go on piling many problems, and then they are always in a hurry. In their hurry they are trying to evade; because if they rest, silently sit, they Will have to face. So they are CONSTANTLY in a hurry, running, doing this and that. Only when they fall asleep, then apparently are they at rest; but deep down not even then. Then, in their dreams and in their nightmares, they are travelling, and hurrying, and running.

Many people come to me and they say that a certain dream occurs continuously. And this is one of the most common dreams: that one is hurrying in the dream towards the station, and by the time one reaches the platform, the train leaves. This is a very common dream. What does it mean? It means that you are always and always missing the point, missing the target. And the whole point of worry is that it needs to be recognized, it needs to be paid attention to, it needs to be brought into the consciousness.

All the group therapies that we are doing here are nothing but to bring out all that is repressed, to help it to surface so that it comes into the consciousness. Once any problem comes into the consciousness, it disappears. It is just as if you watch, sit near a river and watch. If the water is clean you can see bubbles coming up. A few bubbles, just on the bottom, go on clinging; they will remain. If any bubble comes up, the closer it comes to the surface the bigger it becomes; because with less pressure of the water, it becomes bigger. When it comes to the surface, it is the biggest. It may have been just a small bubble at the bottom, but on the surface it is a big bubble. But then within seconds it erupts, it is gone.

The same, exactly the same happens whenever you are suppressing something. It may be a very small thing, and you are afraid to bring it to consciousness because when it comes towards the conscious it starts becoming bigger and

bigger; the repression is less and less, and the pressure is less. It becomes bigger, you become afraid. You force it back again. Many people who start meditating here come to me and they say,'We were never so worried as we are now.' Or they say?'We were never so sad,' or,'We were never so miserable,' or,'We were never so much in anguish and anxiety.' Their bubbles are becoming bigger because they are coming nearer to the surface. This is a good sign, a healthy sign that something is happening I tell them: Be happy, feel grateful that something is happening. The bubbles are leaving the bottom of your being and coming to the surface. Once they come to the surface, they explode, because then there is no pressure on them and they cannot exist.

A problem can exist only through pressure. No problem can exist without pressure; it disappears. The whole point of all the therapies here is to bring all your problems to the surface. Know, watch, become aware, and the problem disappears. Knowledge -- rather, knowing -- is transformation. Don't ask,'Once we know the problem is there, what has to be done?' If you really know it, it is no more there.

This is the beauty of the inner world: once you know a thing, it is no longer there. It remains only if you go on forcing it, repressing it, avoiding knowledge, avoiding recognition.

Problems exist through your ignorance, through your unconsciousness. Consciousness is the solution. Remember, I call it the SOLUTION. It has nothing to do with any particular problem. Every and all problems disappear through it -- it is THE SOLUTION.

EXPECTATION IS A BARRIER TO WHOLE.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

THE CLOSER I COME, THE THIRSTIER I GET. WHEN IS THE QUENCHING GOING TO START?

The very expectation will function as a barrier. You forget about the quenching; you simply be thirsty and enjoy it. When the thirst becomes total, it disappears.

I would like to read a few lines from T. S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration.

And the end of all our exploring

will be to arrive where we started,

and know the place for the first time;

when the tongues of flame are enfolded

into the crowned knot of fire

and the fire and the rose are one...

... and the thirst and the quenching are one; and the rose and the fire are one. When the fire is total, suddenly it is transformed and there is only a rose, not the fire. When the thirst is total, its very totality changes its quality -- it becomes quenching; infinite contentment. The quenching is not something separate from thirst, remember it.

Thirst. Become so total that you disappear in your thirst; and then, the fire and the rose are one.

IF YOU CAN ACCEPT SADNESS,IT IS NOT SADNESS.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

DAY BY DAY, NEAR YOU, I FIND MYSELF LIKING MY SADNESS. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME, OSHO?

That's how it should be. If you can like your sadness also, then the sadness is no longer sad. The sadness is sad because you dislike it. The sadness is sad because you would not like to be in it. The sadness is sad because you reject it. Even sadness becomes a flowering of tremendous beauty, of silence, of depth, if you like it. Nothing is wrong; that's what I want you to be: to like everything that happens, even sadness. Even death has to be loved; only then will you transcend death. If you can accept death, love and welcome it, now death cannot kill you; you have transcended it.

When sadness comes, accept it. Listen to its song. It has something to give to you. It has a gift which no happiness can give to you, only sadness can give it.

Happiness is always shallow; sadness, always deep. Happiness is like a wave, sadness is like the innermost depth of an ocean. In sadness you remain with yourself, left alone. In happiness you start moving with people, you start sharing In sadness you close your eyes; you delve deep within yourself. Sadness has a song -- a very deep phenomenon is sadness. Accept it. Enjoy it. Taste it without any rejection, and you will see that it brings many gifts to you which no happiness can ever bring.

And if you can accept sadness, it is no more sadness. You have brought a new quality to it. You will grow through it. Now it will not be a stone, a rock on the path blocking the way; it will become a step.

And remember always: a person who has not known deep sadness is a poor person. He will never have an inner richness. A person who has lived always happy, smiling, shallow, has not entered into the innermost temple of his being. He has missed the innermost shrine.

Remain capable of moving with all the polarities. When sadness comes, be REALLY sad. Don't try to escape from it -- allow it, cooperate with it. Let it dissolve in you and you be dissolved in it. Become one with it. Be really sad: no resistance, no conflict, no struggle. When happiness comes, be happy: dance, be ecstatic. When happiness comes, don't try to cling to it. Don't say that it should remain always and always; that is the way to miss it. When sadness comes, don't say,'Don't come to me,' or,'If you have come, please go soon.' That is the way to miss it.

Don't reject sadness and don't cling to happiness. and soon you will understand that happiness and sadness are two aspects of the same coin. Then you will see that happiness also has a sadness in it, and sadness also has a happiness in it. Then your inner being is enriched. Then you can enjoy everything: the morning and the evening also, the sunlight and the dark night also, the day and the night, the summer and the winter, life and death -- you can enjoy all.

I AM THE VAST EMPTY SPACE AND DEEP AS SEA.''OSHO''

I WANT TO COME CLOSE TO YOU, OSHO, BUT I ENJOY BEING IN OPEN SPACES AND BY THE SEA. SO WHAT TO DO?

I don't see the problem. Can you find a more open space than me? And can you find a more wild sea than me?

I am absolute lawlessness.

There is no problem. Don't try to create a problem where none exists. Just look into my eyes: I am the sea you are seeking, and I am the vast empty space you have always been searching for through many of your Lives. Now by chance, just coincidentally you are close to me. Don't miss this opportunity. There are many ways to miss it, there is only one way not to miss it. There are a thousand and

one ways to go away from me, there is only one way to come near me. So it is almost impossible that you will be able to come near me, because the possibility to go astray is more -- one thousand and one. You can find so many reasons to go away from me, and you can justify them, you can rationalize and you can feel perfectly right in going away from me. But to come close to me is going to be arduous and difficult, because everybody wants freedom. At least, everybody THINKS that they want freedom. But I rarely come across a man who really wants freedom; he thinks he wants freedom. Because to be free means to be nobody. If you are somebody, that 'somebodiness' will be your imprisonment.

To find infinite space means that you will have to dissolve. Because you create, you go on creating your boundaries around you. To move to the wild sea, uncharted, you will have to throw all your maps, all your scriptures, all your religions, all your concepts and ideologies. To move into space which has no boundaries to it, is to die: to die to the known and to trust the unknown, which is the most difficult thing in the world.

I will tell you one story. It is a very ancient story, and one of the most beautiful I have ever come across.

There was a very wise king. His own prime minister committed a betrayal: he delivered some secrets to the neighboring country, to the enemy. The prime minister was caught red-handed. There was only one punishment for it, and that was death. But the old king had always loved this man. He was sentenced to death, but the old man gave him an opportunity. The last day, he called his whole court. On one side there was a gun ready to kill the man, on the other side there was a black door. And the king said,'You can choose, either to die -- you have to die -- or you can choose this black door. It is up to you.' The prime minister asked,'What is behind that black door?' The king said,'That is not allowed. Nobody knows, because nobody has chosen it before. In the times of my father, in the times of my grandfather, many times the opportunity had been given, but nobody has chosen and nobody knows. And nobody is allowed; even I don't know. I have the key, but when my father died he said to me,'I will open the door and you can go in and I will close it. Don't look into it.' But you can see because -- you can choose. You can discover what is there. It is up to you.'

The prime minister brooded and brooded, and then he chose the gun. He said,'Kill me with the gun. I don't want to go behind that black door.' The prime minister was killed. The queen was very curious. She persuaded the king somehow to see what was behind it. The king laughed. He said,'I know -- there is nothing behind it. It's simple freedom; there is not even a room. This door opens to the wide world. There is nothing, but nobody has chosen it yet.'

People even choose death before choosing the unknown. People even choose to be miserable before choosing the unknown. The unknown seems to be more dangerous than death itself. And freedom is the door unknown. Freedom means moving into the unknown, not knowing where one is going, not knowing what is

going to happen the next moment. It is a black door. Rarely, sometimes a Jesus or a Buddha choose the door; all else choose the gun.

You are dying every day, but you still cling to this life which gives you nothing except death. You choose death, you don't choose real life. Real life is hazardous, insecure. You talk about wild seas, you talk about infinite spaces: look into me, and you will get scared. Look deeply into me, and you will become afraid. There is only one way to come near me, and that is to love. To love me is to die to the past. To love means to trust, to surrender. And there is no problem. If you really love open spaces and the wild sea, I invite you.

LOVE AND EGO ARE AGAINST.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE? -- I'M AFRAID WHEN I FEEL YOUR LOVE DEEP INSIDE ME.

Love always creates fear because love is death, a greater death than the ordinary death you know of.

In an ordinary death the body dies, but that is not death at all. Body is just like a dress: when it is tatty and old you change for a new one. It is not death, it is just a change: a change of a dress, or a change of a house or abode. But you continue, the mind continues -- just the same old mind in new bodies, just the same old wine in new bottles. The form changes but not the mind, the shape changes but not the mind. So the ordinary death is not a real death; love is a real death: the body does not die but the mind dies, the body continues to be the same but the ego disappears.

If you love, you will have to drop all the conceptions that you have about yourself. If you love, you CANNOT be the ego because the ego will not allow love. They are antagonistic. If you choose the ego you will not be able to choose love. If you choose love you will have to drop the ego. Hence, the fear.

A greater fear than death grips you whenever you are in love. That's why love has disappeared from the world. Rarely, very rarely does the phenomenon happen that love descends. What you call love is just a false coin: you have invented it because it is so difficult to live without love. It is difficult because without love, life carries no meaning; it is meaningless. Without love, life has no poetry in it. Without love, the tree exists but never flowers. Without love, you cannot dance, you cannot celebrate, you cannot feel grateful, you cannot pray. Without love, temples are just ordinary houses; with love an ordinary house is transformed, transfigured into a temple. Without love you remain just possibilities -- empty gestures. With love, for the first time you become substantial. With love, for the first time, the soul arises in you. The ego drops but the soul arises.

It is impossible to live without love, so humanity has created a trick. Humanity has invented a trick, a device. The device is: to live in a false love so that the ego continues on its own. Nothing is changed and you can play the game of being in love: you can go on thinking that you love, you can go on believing that you love. But look at your love -- what happens out of it? -- nothing except misery, nothing except hell, nothing except conflict, quarrel, violence. Look deeply into your love relationships. They are more akin to hate relationships than to love.It is better to call them hate relationships than to call them love relationships. But because everybody is living in the same way, you never become aware. Everybody is carrying the false coin; you never become aware. The real coin of love is Very costly: you can purchase it only at the cost of losing yourself. There is no other way.

So the question is perfectly relevant. It is from one that I know. I know her love towards me, I know her deep possibilities. She is just on the brink. Any moment the ego can collapse, but she is somehow holding herself together. She will not be able to for long though; she will have to collapse. Hence, the fear.

'How is it possible?' she asks.'I'm afraid when I feel your love deep inside me.'

She thinks it is a sort of contradiction: if she loves so much, then why this fear? And I tell you, the fear is there because she loves so much. There is no contradiction in it. It is an absolutely consistent thing -- whenever you love you are afraid. Moving towards love is moving towards an abyss. One starts wavering, one feels dizzy. Go to a height in the Himalayas and look down at the valley; that valley is no-thing. When you look down at the valley of love, a TREMENDOUS fear grips you. You are almost paralyzed: you cannot run away, you cannot take the jump. You simply tremble in infinite fear. What to do? Going back is not possible because love attracts: love calls your depth, love calls your future, love calls your potentiality; love gives you a glimpse of what you can be.

You cannot run away from it, and you cannot jump because the cost is too high. You will have to drop yourself -- all that you have been thinking yourself to be -- the image, the past, the identity.

But I tell you, the cost only seems to be too much BEFORE the jump. Once you take the jump... then you will know that whatsoever you have given up is nothing, and what you have attained is INFINITELY valuable. Let me tell you a paradox: love demands that you drop that which you don't have, and love offers you that which you already have. Love wants you to get rid of that which you don't have.

The ego is a false entity, just a notion, a cloud in the sky of your being; just smoke, nothing substantial; a dream. Love requires you to drop that which you don't have, and love is ready to give you that which you have and have always had. Love gives you your self back; the ego goes on hiding you from your self, love reveals you to your self. But the fear is there. The fear is natural, and one has to go in spite of the fear.

Be courageous, don't be cowards. The real mettle of your being is tested only when love arises. Never before it do you know of what mettle you are made. In ordinary life, in the marketplace, doing this and that, in the world of ambition and power politics, your real mettle is never really tested. You never pass through the fire.

Love is the fire.

If you are really gold you will survive it. If you are not real gold, you will be gone. But I tell you that you are real gold.

Trust me -- pass through the fire. Hesitation is natural, but don't make hesitation a barrier. Even with the hesitation, pass through it. In spite of the fear pass through the fire. And only through the fire will the rose of your consciousness flower. There is no other way.