Fear

If you have fear, you have fear- why make a problem out of it? You know that you have fear, just as you have two hands. Fear is there: accept it, note it. What will happen? Suddenly you will feel it has disappeared. And this is the inner alchemy — a problem disappears if you accept it, and a problem grows more and more complex if you create any conflict with it. It is there and nothing can be done about it. And when I say nothing can be done about it, don’t think that I am talking about pessimism to you, in fact I am giving you the key to solve it.

Fear is nothing but absence of love. Do something with love, forget about fear. If you love well, fear disappears. If you love deeply, fear is not found. Whenever you have been in love with someone, ever for a single moment, was there any fear? It has never been found in any relationship – if even for a single moment two persons are in deep love and a meeting happens, they are tuned to each other, in that moment fear has never been found. Just as if the light is on and darkness has not been found There is the secret key: Love more. If you feel there is fear in your being – love more. Be courageous in love, take courage. Be adventurous in love, love more, and love unconditionally, because the more you love the less will be the fear. And when I say love I mean all the four layers of love: from sex to samadhi. Love deeply.

Knack

A knack comes when you do many many things on the path -- trial and error, falling and rising, going astray and coming back -- thousands of experiments in living, and then suddenly one day you have the knack of it. A knack is the essence of many errors, mistakes, of trial and error. Something grows in you, and once you know it you can forget about it, you have it always. You need not remember it. If you need to remember it, it is still not a knack; it is something in the mind. If it is a knack it goes into the blood, into the bones, into the very marrow, into the very being. Then you can forget about it.

The Poetry of the Heart by Osho

The intelligence of the head is not intelligence at all; it is knowledgeability. The intelligence of the heart is the intelligence, the only intelligence there is. The head is simply an accumulator. It is always old, it is never new, it is never original. It is good for certain purposes: For filing it is perfectly good! And in life one needs this– many things have to be remembered. The mind, the head, is a bio computer. You can go on accumulating knowledge in it and whenever you need it you can take it out. It is good for mathematics, good for calculation, good for the day-to-day life, the marketplace. But if you think this is your whole life then you will remain stupid. You will never know the beauty of feeling and you will never know the blessings of the heart. You will never know the grace that descends only through the heart, the godliness that enters only through the heart. You will never know prayer, you will never know poetry, you will never know love.

The intelligence of the heart creates poetry in your life, gives a dance to your step, makes your life a joy, a celebration, a festivity, a laughter. It gives you a sense of humor. It makes you capable of love, of sharing. That is true life. The life that is lived from the head is a mechanical life. You become a robot– maybe very efficient. Robots are very efficient, machines are more efficient than man. You can earn much through the head, but you will not live much. You may have a better standard of living but you won’t have any life.

Life is of the heart. Life can only grow through the heart. It is the soil of the heart where love grows, life grows, spirit grows. All that is beautiful, all that is really valuable, all that is meaningful, significant, comes through the heart. The heart is your very center, the head is just your periphery. To live in the head is to live on the circumference without ever becoming aware of the beauties and the treasures of the center. To live on the periphery is stupidity.

To live in the head is stupidity. To live in the heart and use the head whenever it is needed is intelligence. But the center, the master, is at the very core of your being.

The master is the heart, and the head is just a servant– this is intelligence. When the head becomes the master and forgets all about the heart, that is stupidity.

It is up to you to choose. Remember, the head as a slave is a beautiful slave, of much utility. But as a master it is a dangerous master and will destroy your whole life, will poison your whole life. Look around! People’s lives are absolutely poisoned, poisoned by the head. They cannot feel, they are no longer sensitive, nothing thrills them. The sun rises but nothing rises in them; they look at the sun empty-eyed. The sky becomes full of the stars– the marvel, the mystery!– but nothing stirs in their hearts, no song arises. Birds sing– man has forgotten to sing. Clouds come in the sky and the peacocks dance, and man does not know how to dance. He has become a cripple. Trees bloom– and man thinks, never feels, and without feeling there is no flowering possible.

Watch, scrutinize, observe, have another look at your life. Nobody else is going to help you. You have depended on others so long; that’s why you have become stupid. Now, take care; it is your own responsibility. You owe it to yourself to have a deep, penetrating look at what you are doing with your life. Is there any poetry in your heart? If it is not there, then don’t waste time. Help your heart to weave and spin poetry. Is there any romance in your life? If there is not, then you are already in your grave.

Come out of it! Let life have something of the romantic in it, something like adventure. Explore! Millions of beauties and splendors are waiting for you. You go on moving around and around, never entering into the temple of life. The door is the heart.

The real intelligence is of the heart. It is not intellectual, it is emotional. It is not like thinking, it is like feeling. It is not logic, it is love.

Love is available only to those who go on sharpening their intelligence. Love is not for the mediocre…love is not for the unintelligent. The unintelligent person may become a great intellectual. In fact unintelligent people try to become intellectuals; that is their way of hiding their unintelligence. Love is not for the intellectual. Love needs a totally different kind of talent– a talented heart, not a talented head.

Love has its own intelligence, its own way of seeing, perceiving, its own way of understanding life, its own way of comprehending the mystery of existence. The poet is far closer to it than the philosopher. And the mystic is exactly inside the temple. The poet is on the steps and the philosopher is just outside. At the most he can approach the driveway, but never the steps. He goes on round and round. He goes on moving around the temple, studying the outer walls of the temple, and becomes so enchanted that he forgets completely that the outer walls are not the real temple and that the deity is inside.

The poet reaches the door, but the door is so beautiful that he becomes hypnotized. He thinks he has arrived– what more can there be? The philosopher is lost in guessing what is inside. He never goes there, he simply thinks, philosophizes. The poet tries to penetrate into the mystery but gets hooked near the door. The mystic enters into the very innermost sanctum of the temple.

The way is love, and the way is a loving intelligence. When love and intelligence meet together you create the space in which all that is possible to a human being can become actual. A loving intelligence is what is needed. Intelligence alone becomes intellectual, love alone becomes sentimentality, but a loving intelligence never becomes intellectuality or sentimentality. It gives you a new kind of integrity, a new crystallization.

What is the meaning of life?

Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning. Meaning has not to be discovered: it has to be created. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is a poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.

Meaning is a dance, not a rock. Meaning is music. You will find it only if you create it. Remember it. Meaning comes out of creativity.

Meaning comes through participation. Participate in life! Participate as deeply, as totally, as possible. Risk all for participation. If you want to know what dance is, don’t go and see a dancer -- learn dancing, be a dancer. If you want to know anything, participate! That is the true and the right way, the authentic way, to know a thing. And there will be great meaning in your life. And not only one-dimensional -- multi-dimensional meanings. You will be showered by meanings.

Don’t allow your life to become just a dead ritual. Let there be moments, unexplainable. Let there be a few things which are mysterious, for which you cannot supply any reason. Let there be a few doings for which people will think you are a little crazy. A man who is a hundred percent sane is dead. A little bit of craziness by the side is always a great joy. Go on doing a few crazy things too. And then meaning will be possible.

One World

The collective is a very dangerous word. In the name of collective, the individual, the real has always been sacrificed. Nations have been sacrificing individuals in the name of nation – and “nation” is just a word. The lines that you have drawn on the map are not any where on the earth. They are just your game! But on those lines that you have drawn on the map, millions of people have died – real people, dying for unreal lines. And you make them heroes, national heroes! If we want really a world of freedom, then we have to understand that in the name of collectivity so much massacre has happened that now it is time to stop it.

Wisdom and Philosophy

Philosophy, the very word, means love for wisdom, and they have nothing to do with wisdom at all. Wisdom happens only through meditation; it never happens by collecting information. It happens by going through a transformation. Wisdom is the flowering of your consciousness, the opening of the one-thousand-petaled lotus of your being. It is the release of your fragrance, the release of the imprisoned splendor. Real philosophy has nothing to do with thinking; on the contrary it has everything to do with transcending thinking, going beyond and beyond thinking, going beyond mind, reaching to the pure space of no-mind. Out of that space something flowers in you. You can call it Christ-consciousness, Buddhahood, or whatsoever you like. That is true philosophy.

Accept Yourself

Accept yourself as you are. And that is the most difficult thing in the world, because it goes against your training, education, your culture. From the very beginning you have been told how you should be. Nobody has ever told you that you are good as you are.

Don't be obsessed with yourself -- but a natural self-love is a must, a basic phenomenon. Only then out of it, you can love somebody else. Accept yourself, love yourself.

Nobody else has ever been like you and nobody else will ever be like you; you are simply unique, incomparable. Accept this, love this, celebrate this -- and in that very celebration you will start seeing the uniqueness of the others, the incomparable beauty of the others. Love is possible only when there is a deep acceptance of oneself, the other, the world. Acceptance creates the milieu in which love grows, the soil in which love blooms.

Conditioning

Parents should be aware of what they are conditioning their children -- and the children should be given every freedom to experience the good, the bad, so they can decide on their own. Let them find their way. You simply watch carefully that they don't fall in a ditch. Never say anything to your children that is not your existential experience. Accept your ignorance. That will give more respect to you, more trust in you, but the parental ego wants to pretend that they know everything. Be respectful to the child. Parents expect respect from the children, but they forget that this is something mutual. You respect the children and they will respect you. You trust the children and they will trust you. And then there is a possibility of communication.

Ecology

We are all guests, but don't use this beautiful planet as a railway-station guest house. It is not a waiting room. It is our home for the time being and it will remain the home for somebody else. Don't be so miserly that, "I will be gone -- after ten minutes my train is coming, so who cares if I leave the waiting room dirty?"

Leave this earth a little more beautiful, a little more fragrant, for those unknown guests who will be following you.

Ecstasy

Ecstasy is our very nature; not to be ecstatic is simply unnecessary. To be ecstatic is natural, spontaneous. It needs no effort to be ecstatic; it needs great effort to be miserable. That's why you look so tired, because misery is really hard work; to maintain it is really difficult, because you are doing something against nature.

You are going upstream -- that's what misery is. And what is bliss? Going with the river -- so much so that the distinction between you and the river is simply lost. You are the river. How it can be difficult? To go with the river no swimming is needed; you simply float with the river and the river takes you to the ocean.

The river is already going to the ocean. Life is a river. Don't push it and you will not be miserable.

Watching

Watching is meditation. What you watch is irrelevant. You can watch the trees, you can watch the river, you can watch the clouds, you can watch children playing around. The object is not the point. The quality of observation, the quality of being aware and alert -- that's what meditation is.

Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Action is not the question, the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alert. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alert. Listening to the words can be a meditation if you listen with awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is: one should not move in a sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.

Heaven and Hell

Heaven is here -- just you have to know how to live it. And hell too is here, and you know perfectly well how to live it. It is only a question of changing your perspective, your approach towards life. The earth is beautiful. If you start living its beauty, enjoying its joys you are in paradise. If you condemn everything, then the same earth turns into a hell -- only for you. It depends on you where you live, it is a question of your own inner transformation. It is not a change of place, it is a change of inner space. Live joyously, guiltlessly, live totally. And then heaven is no more a metaphysical concept, it is your own experience.

Death

Death is already happening. Whether you face it or not, whether you look at it or not, it is already there. It is just like breathing. With each inhalation you are born; with each exhalation you die. A person who is really living is not in any way afraid of death. Live life. In living life, death is avoided. In living life, you become so fulfilled that if this very moment death comes and the future stops, you will be ready. You will be happily ready. You have lived your life; you have delighted in existence; you celebrated it; you are contented. There is no complaint, no grumbling; you don't have any grudge. You welcome death. And unless you can welcome death, one thing is certain -- that you have not lived.

Life

Give life to things which are beautiful. Don't give life to ugly things. You don't have much time, much energy to waste. With such a small life, with such a small energy source, it is simply stupid to waste it in sadness, in anger, in hatred, in jealousy.

Use it in love, use it in some creative act, use it in friendship, use it in meditation; do something with it which takes you higher. And higher you go, more energy sources become available to you.

At the highest point of consciousness, you are almost a god.

It is in your hands.

Love and Aloneness

The capacity to be alone is the capacity to Love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is a existential truth. Only those people, who are capable of being alone, are capable of Love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person, without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, reducing the other into a thing and without becoming addicted with the other. They allow other absolute freedom, because they know if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.

Then why they want to be together? It is no more a need, it is a luxury. They enjoy sharing. They have so much joy; they would like to pour into somebody. They know how to play their life as a solo instrument. The solo flute player knows how to enjoy his flute alone and if he comes and finds a solo tabla player, they both will enjoy to be together and to create a harmony between the flute and the tabla.

Abundance

To live in abundance is the only spiritual thing in the world.

Just look at existence and its abundance. What is the need of so many flowers in the world? Just roses would have been enough, but existence is abundant: millions and millions of flowers, millions of birds, millions of animals. Nature is not ascetic.

Abundance is the very nature of existence, that richness is the very core, that existence does not believe in poverty. And my effort is to bring man back to his natural self.

Courage

To accept the challenge of the unknown is courage; in spite of all fears. The fears are there! But if you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly-slowly those fears disappear, because the experience of the joy that the unknown brings, the great ecstasy that starts happening with the unknown, makes you strong enough, gives you a certain integrity, makes your intelligence sharp. For the first time, you start feeling that life is not just a boredom, but an adventure. Then slowly-slowly fears disappear; then you are always seeking and searching for some adventure.

Courage is- risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, for some unknown destination. One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.

Maturity

A grown-up person is one who does not imitate, who starts feeling his own way, who starts being in his own way, who starts looking into his nature, who am I?

Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself, whatever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that’s what maturity is all about.

Maturity is a rebirth, a spiritual birth. You are born anew, you are a child again. With fresh eyes you start looking at existence. With love in the heart you approach life. With silence and innocence you penetrate your own innermost core.

We are all in the same boat

Remember, each human being, may be the human being is Alexander the Great or just a beggar on the roadside, each human being is as fragile as anybody else. Deep down he is the same-the same consciousness, the same fear, the same death, the same lust, the same love: all exists the same. Accept yourself; allow your unconscious to be revealed to you. This is how each human being is. By knowing it, you become a different kind of human being. By accepting it, cherishing it, you bring a revolution to your life. And when you look at others with that understanding, you will not find strangers; you will find all are friends. Nervousness disappears; what is there to be nervous about? We are all in the same boat.