Life is one - it is spiritual and material
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.
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.
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/
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.
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
The Wild Geese & The Water
Ch #9: Bon Voyage Baby!
am in Buddha Hall