Life is a pure journey, a pilgrimage from nowhere to nowhere
MEDITATION has no goal. Doing something without a goal seems to be a strange thing -- why do it anyway? MEDITATION IS WITHOUT GOAL. It is just being silent, BEING NATURALLY PRESENT in this moment, PERCEIVING WHAT IS THERE, perceiving that which has always been there if noticed or not.... RELAXATION is not a consequence, is not a result of some activity; it IS THE GLOW OF UNDERSTANDING.
This is the first thing I would like to relate to you: LIFE IS PURPOSELESS. It is very hard to accept it. And why it is so hard to accept that life is purposeless? It is hard because without purpose the ego cannot exist.
It is hard to conceive that life has no goal because WITHOUT ANY GOAL BEING THERE, THERE IS NO POINT IN HAVING A MIND, in having an ego. THE EGO CAN EXIST ONLY IN A GOAL-ORIENTED VISION; THE MIND CAN EXIST ONLY IN THE FUTURE.
THE PURPOSE BRINGS FUTURE IN; the goal creates the space for thoughts to move, desires to arise. And then naturally there is hurry, because life is short. Today we are here and tomorrow we are gone -- maybe the next moment.
Life is very short. IF THERE IS A GOAL TO BE ACHIEVED, THERE IS BOUND TO BE HURRY. And there is bound to be worry, a constant worry "whether I am going to make it or not" -- a trembling heart, a shaking of the foundations. You will remain almost always in an inner earthquake, YOU WILL BE ALWAYS ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Have a goal, and sooner or later you will end up on the psychoanalyst's couch.
MY VISION IS THAT OF A GOALLESS LIFE. That is the vision of all the Buddhas. Everything simply is, for no reason at all. Everything simply is utterly absurd. If this is understood, then where is the hurry, and for what?
THEN YOU START LIVING MOMENT TO MOMENT. Then this moment is given to you, a gracious gift from godliness or the whole or whatsoever you want to call it -- Tao, dhamma, logos.
THIS MOMENT IS AVAILABLE TO YOU: sing a song, live it in its totality. And don't try to sacrifice it for any other moment that is going to come in the future. Live it for its own sake. Life is not going anywhere; there is no goal to it, no destination. Life is non- purposive, it simply is.
They say art is for art's sake. It may be so, it may not be so -- I am not an artist. But I can say to you: LIFE IS FOR LIFE'S SAKE -- EACH MOMENT IS UTTERLY FOR ITS OWN SAKE. To sacrifice it for anything else is to be unintelligent.
And once the habit of sacrificing settles, then this moment you will sacrifice for the next, and the next for the next, and so on, so forth -- this year for the next year, and this life for the next life! Then it is a simple logical process: ONCE YOU HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP, THEN THE WHOLE JOURNEY STARTS -- the journey that leads you into the wasteland, the journey that makes your life a desert, the journey that is self-destructive, suicidal.
LIVE IN THE MOMENT FOR THE SHEER JOY OF LIVING IT. Then each moment has the quality of an orgasm. Yes, it is orgasmic.
This is how my sannyasins have to live, with no should, with no ought, with no must, with no commandment. You are not here to be with me to become martyrs, you are here to be with me to enjoy life to its fullness. And the only way to live, love, enjoy, is to forget the future. It exists not.
AND IF YOU CAN FORGET THE FUTURE, if you can see that it is not there, there is no point in constantly getting ready for it. The moment future is dropped, past becomes irrelevant on its own accord.
WE CARRY THE PAST SO THAT WE CAN USE IT IN THE FUTURE. Otherwise who will carry the past? It is unnecessary. If there is no future, what is the point of carrying the knowledge that the past has given to you? It is a burden which will destroy the joy of the journey.
And let me remind you, IT IS A PURE JOURNEY. LIFE IS A PILGRIMAGE TO NOWHERE, from nowhere to nowhere. And between these two nowheres is the now-here. Nowhere consists of two words: now, here. Between these two nowheres is the now-here.
OSHO
The Book of Wisdom
Ch #18: Dropping out of the Olympics
am in Buddha Hall