Darshan 9 April 1977

[Osho asks a sannyasin couple who is leaving when they will be coming back. The man answers:

God knows... maybe fall.]

In the fall? Have you heard the famous Mulla Nasrudin story?

Mulla had saved up to buy a new shirt. He went to a tailor's shop, full of excitement. The tailor measured him and said, 'Come back in a week, and - if Allah wills - your shirt will be ready.'

The mulla contained himself for a week and then went back to the shop. 'There has been a delay, but - if Allah wills - your shirt will be ready tomorrow.'

The following day Nasrudin returned. 'I am sorry,' said the tailor, 'but it is not quite finished. Try tomorrow, and - if Allah wills - it will be ready.'

'How long will it take,' asked the exasperated Nasrudin, 'if you leave Allah out of it?'

So it is better to leave god out, mm? It is dangerous to bring god in. So if you leave god out, when will you be coming?

[The man answers: I don't know!]

Mm, that's better! Ordinarily that's what we do: whenever we don't know, we say 'God knows!' In fact to hide the fact that we don't know, we say 'God knows!' It is better to say 'I don't know', because the moment you say 'God knows' ignorance appears as if it is knowledge - it is very dangerous.

[A sannyasin asks: I don't know what I have to do, or if I have to do nothing. I don't know if I should just wait at this point.]

Mm mm. If you can do nothing, that is the best, mm? Doing is next best, nothing is the best - and I would like you to do nothing. It needs much courage to do nothing. To do does not need much courage, because the mind is a doer. The ego always hankers to do something - worldly, other- worldly, the ego always wants to do something. If you are doing something the ego feels perfectly right, healthy, moving, enjoying itself.

Nothing is the most difficult thing in the world and if you can do that, that's the best.

The very idea that we have to do something is basically wrong. We have to be, not to do. All that I say to people to do is just to help them to come to know the futility of doing, so that one day out of sheer tiredness they flop on the ground and they say 'Now it is enough! We don't want to do anything.' And then the real work starts.

The real work is just to be, because all that you need is already given, and all that you can be you are. You don't know yet, that's true. So all that is needed is to be in such a silent space that you can fall into yourself and see what you are. It is not a question of seeking and finding, it is a question of not seeking and finding!

The very urge to seek, postpones: tomorrow becomes important. And tomorrow never comes - it cannot come, in the very nature of things.

When you seek, the future is important, the goal is important. And when you don't seek, the present moment is all that is there - all in all. Then the moment is the only reality and you have to be here.

Now that is your choice: if you want to be sad, you can be sad; if you want to be happy, you can be happy. And there is no future, so you cannot postpone - you cannot say 'Tomorrow I will be happy.'

Through tomorrow we destroy today; through the fictitious we destroy the real. So you can say 'Okay, if I am sad today, nothing to be worried about - tomorrow I will be happy.' So today can be tolerated, you can bear it. But if there is no tomorrow and no future and nothing to seek for and find, there is no way to postpone - the very postponement disappears. Then it is up to you to be happy or not to be happy. And the moment, this moment, you have to decide. And I don't think anybody is going to decide to be unhappy. Why? For what?

The past is no more and the future is never going to be, so this is the moment. You can celebrate it:

you can love, you can pray, you can sing, you can dance, you can meditate, you can use it as you want. And the moment is so small that if you are not very alert it will slip out of your hands, it will be gone. So, to be, one has to be very very alert.

Doing needs no alertness, it is very mechanical. But don't use the word 'wait' - because that means the future has entered again from the back door. You follow me?

If you think that you should just wait, then again you are waiting for the future. So doing or waiting are not separate things. There is nothing to wait for. The existence is as perfect this moment as it will ever be. It is never going to be more perfect, remember - god is not going to be more perfect.

This moment existence has all the perfection that is needed: you are perfect and so is everybody else.

If you can live this moment in its perfection, in its beauty, and celebrate it, there is nothing to wait for.

It has already arrived!

So simply do nothing, just celebrate... and celebrating is not doing anything. Small things have to be celebrated - sipping tea has to be celebrated. Zen people have made a tea ceremony out of it.

That is the most beautiful ritual that has ever evolved in the world. There are many great religions and many great rituals are born, but there is nothing like the tea ceremony - just sipping tea, but celebrating it! Just cooking food and celebrating it ! Just taking a bath - lying down in the tub and celebrating it or standing under the shower and celebrating it!

These are small things - if you go on celebrating them, the total of all your celebrations is what god is! If you ask me what god is, I will say the total of all the celebrations - small, mundane celebrations.

A friend comes and holds your hand. That will be part of your god, so don't miss this opportunity - because god has come in the form of the hand, in the form of the friend. A small child passes by and laughs. Don't miss this, laugh with him - because god has laughed through the child. You pass through the street and the fragrance comes from the fields. Stand there a moment, feel grateful - because god has come as fragrance.

If one can celebrate moment to moment, life becomes religious - and there is no other religion, there is no need to go to any temple. Then wherever you are is the temple and whatsoever you are doing is religion.

So no need to do...

[An visitor asks: Osho, do things in nature's pattern happen exactly the way they're meant to be or do we have a choice, free will?]

There are two planes of thought: the highest plane is that everything is happening as it should - nothing ever goes wrong, nothing has ever been wrong, nothing can ever go wrong and effort makes no difference. That is the highest truth, that everything is as it is, and to understand this is to become silent.

The moment you understand this, there is no turmoil. Then whatsoever happens there is an acceptance, because this is how things are bound to happen. There is no fight; a great surrender comes. Everything is god's will and we don't have any other will: his will is our will.

This is the highest truth. But if people cannot understand this, then there is a lower truth which is just for the name's sake a truth - it is not true, it is a fiction, a fiction to help people.

To those who cannot understand this high stand-point, to those who still live in their egos, it is said 'Yes, you have to do, and by doing, things will happen. If you work hard you will be awarded, rewarded; if you don't work hard you will miss. It is your will, and wherever there is will there is a way....' These are lower truths. A lower truth means a lie - but there are people who need that lie; they cannot understand the highest truth.

So if you can understand the highest there is no need for the second. The second is just a lie, a consolation for people who cannot relax. They have to do something or other; they will burst forth if they don't have anything to do!. For them, the lower truth.

One day they will also realise that it is all nonsense; things happen on their own accord, nobody is doing anything and nobody can do. But the day they understand this, the higher truth penetrates their consciousness.

So if you can understand the highest, there is no problem - simply relax. That does not mean that one stops doing. One goes on doing but one knows that it is god who is doing. Then if you succeed, it is god who succeeds; if you fail, it is god who fails - and how can god fail? So it must be some misunderstanding. Then there is no problem, no anxiety.

There is one province in Russia - a very small, hilly place where people have lived the longest.

There are still two thousand people over one hundred and fifty, and five thousand people over one hundred. There are a few who are nearing two hundred and one person who has gone beyond two hundred.

The whole scientific world is puzzled as to why they live so long. And they are poor people - their food is not very rich, they don't eat much, they continuously work hard. Even after one hundred and fifty years they work continuously; they don't have any idea of retirement.

So scientists have been searching for any clues. One of the clues that they have found is that those people believe in fate. They have never bothered about will; they believe it is god's will. So they do their work, they do all that can be done, but they don't have any tensions, they have no anxieties.

Not a single man suffers from insomnia and it has not been known in that community that anyone has ever gone mad.

By the evening, as the sun sets, they take their food and go to sleep. The whole community falls asleep and in the morning they start working. But the idea is that it is god who works.

The moment you can understand that it is god who works, all anxiety is dropped; then there is no anguish.

So live according to this highest truth! When one has to choose, why not choose the highest?