... than others, you feel good; others have more than you, you feel bad. It is a game. But what is the meaning of it? What do you gain from it? Even if you have all the money the world contains, at the moment of death you will die as a beggar. So the whole wealth of the world cannot make you rich. Games cannot make you rich. Sober up! Somebody is after power, prestige, somebody is after sex, and somebody...

..., so death is an awakening. That which remains in death is real, that which disappears was a dream: this is the criterion. And when this monk used to call, "Sober up!" he meant this: Remember death and don't fool around. You go on in such a way as if you are not going to die, ever. Your mind says, "Death always happens to others, never to me; it is always a phenomenon happening to...

... others, never to me." Even if you see a man dying you never think that you are dying in him. His death is symbolic: the same is going to happen to you. If you can see that you are going to die, will you be able to play these games so seriously, putting your whole life at stake for nothing? The monk was right to call in the morning, "Sober up!" Whenever you start playing a game again...

... then will you be happy. They will go on pulling you up to your death. Until you die, those advertisements, that propaganda, will go on pulling you. This monk was right. This must be part of your alertness -- that you should not be befooled by others. The whole society exists on exploitation, exploiting the other. Everybody is exploiting, and this exploitation is not only in the market, it is in the...

... the master turned to him and said, "Look, you say that you get absorbed in chess, so now get totally absorbed -- because this is a question of life and death. If you are defeated I will cut off your head, and remember, I cannot promise heaven for you. This man is okay, he will go anyhow, but I cannot promise any heaven for you. If you die hell is the place -- immediately you will go to the...

... because you are not aware of how you waste time, how you waste energy -- how life is wasted you are not aware. It is going down the drain. Everything is going down the drain. Only when death comes to you, you may become aware, alert: What have I been doing? What have I done with life? A great opportunity has been lost. What was I doing fooling around? I was not sober. I never reflected upon what I was...

... that before he was going to die, he told his court, "When you carry my dead body in the streets let both my hands hang out. Don't cover them." This was rare -- nobody was carried that way. The court couldn't understand, so they asked, "What do you mean? This is not the usual way. The whole body is hidden.... Why do you want both your hands hanging out?" Alexander replied, "I...

... want it to be known that I am dying with empty hands. Everybody must see it, and nobody should try to be an Alexander again. I have gained much and still gained nothing; my kingdom is great but I am still poor." You die a beggar even if you are an emperor; then the whole thing seems like a dream. Just as in the morning the dream is broken and all emperorhoods disappear, all kingdoms disappear...

... nothing in the world, knowing well that only misery awaits there, death. But this is my type of mind. I cannot continue, I cannot persist in anything, so before you choose something, remember this." The master said, "Then it will be very difficult if you cannot persist, because long effort will be needed to undo all that you have done in the past. You will have to travel back. It will have to...

... be a dangerous game. If you are defeated by this young man, the sword is here and I will cut off your head, because I wouldn't like a meditative monk -- who has been meditating for twelve years -- to be defeated by an ordinary young man. But I promise you, if you die by my hand then you will reach the highest heaven. So don't be disturbed." The young man became also a little uneasy, and then...

... seventh hell." For a moment the young man thought to escape. This was going to be a dangerous game, and he had not come here for this. But then it looked dishonorable; he was a samurai, a son of a warrior, and just because of death, imminent death, to escape was not in his blood. So he said, "Okay." The game started. The young man started trembling like a leaf in a strong wind, the whole...

... body trembling. He started perspiring, and cold perspiration came to his body; he started sweating from his head to the soles of his feet. It was a question of life and death, and thinking stopped, because whenever there is such an emergency you cannot afford thought. Thought is for leisure. When there is no problem you can think; when there is really a problem thinking stops, because the mind needs...

... time, and when there is an emergency there is no time. You have to do something immediately. Every moment, death was coming nearer. The monk started, and he looked so serene and calm that the young man thought, "Well, death is certain!" But when the thoughts disappeared, he became totally absorbed in the moment. When thoughts disappeared, he also forgot that death was awaiting -- because...

... death too is a thought. He forgot about death, he forgot about life, he became just a part of the game, absorbed, totally immersed in it. By and by, as the mind disappeared completely, he started playing beautifully. He had never played that way. In the beginning the monk was winning, but within minutes the young man got absorbed, started beautiful movements, and the monk started losing. Only the...

... question of choice -- if the master says it is going to be so, it is okay. He said yes with his whole heart. That was why there was no perspiration, no trembling. He was playing chess; death was not a problem. And the master said, "You have won, and your victory has been greater than this monk's. Now I will initiate you. You can be here, and soon you will be enlightened." Both basic things had...

...;Because death was so imminent, you couldn't think, thoughts stopped. Death was so close by, thinking was impossible. Death was so near, there was no gap between you and death, and thoughts need space to move. There was no space, so thinking stopped. Meditation happened spontaneously. But that was not enough, because that type of meditation which happens because of emergency will be lost; when the...

... and he knew that sooner or later he would have to leave the branch - it was going to be difficult to keep on holding it. His hands were getting so frozen that they were already slipping from the branch. Death was absolutely near. Any moment he would fall and die. And then the last moment came. You can understand how terrified he was. Dying moment by moment, then the last moment came and he saw the...

... than into your own self, so it is not long. It is just near. The only barrier is your holding on, holding to the periphery, afraid that if you leave it you will be lost. The fear feels just as if you are going to die. Moving to the inner center is a death - death in the sense that your identity with the periphery will die, and a new image, a new feeling of your being will arise. So if we want to say...

... safety and you go on asking for more freedom. Both cannot be together. If you want freedom you will have to lose safety, security - in any case the safety is just illusory, it is not really there. Because death is going to happen - whatsoever you do, you are going to die. All your safety, security, is just a facade, nothing will help. But afraid of insecurity you create boundaries, you create big walls...

... leave him. The whole world can leave him, he is not afraid. You cannot harm him. He is secure. The moment you love someone, insecurity has entered because life has entered. And with life, death has entered. The moment you love you have become afraid: this person can die, this person can leave, this person can love somebody else! Now to make things secure, you must do something - you must get married...

... wavering. Because of that wavering, because of that movement, death is always there. It gives intensity to love. Love is possible only because there is death. Love becomes intense because there is death. Think... if you know your beloved is going to die the next moment, all meanness will go, all conflict will go. And this one moment will become eternity. And there will be so much love that your whole...

... they are immortal, so there is no charm. They are really dead." They are really dead because there is no death to make them alive. They will always be there. They cannot die, so how can they be alive? That aliveness exists against death. A man is alive because death is there constantly, fighting. Against the background of death life exists. So Urvashi said, "Give me permission to move to...

.... Now you fight. Now love has disappeared, there is only conflict. That is what happens because of the hankering for security. And this has happened in everything. Remember it as something basic: life is insecure. This is the very nature of it. So when there is love, suffer the fear that the beloved can leave you, but don;t create security. Then love will grow. The beloved can die and you cannot do...

... anything, but that will not kill love. Security can kill. Love will grow more. Really, if man were immortal, I say love would be impossible. If man were immortal it would be difficult to love anybody. It would be so dangerous to fall in love. Death is there and life is just like a dew drop on a trembling leaf. Any moment the breeze will come and the dew drop will fall and disappear. Life is just a...

... really. Life exists here on earth, where death exists. Whenever you make anything secure, life disappears. Remain insecure, that is the very quality of life itself. Nothing can be done about it. And it is beautiful! Just think if your body was immortal - it would be ugly. You will start finding ways and means of committing suicide. And if it is impossible, against the law, you will suffer so much you...

... them the right. It cannot be denied them. Sooner or later suicide will be one of the birth rights. You cannot deny it if a person wants to die - not for any reason, just because now life has no meaning. It has been too long already. A person living at a hundred doesn't feel like living. Not that he is frustrated, not that there is no food. Everything is there, but life has no meaning. So think of...

... immortality. Life will be totally meaningless. The meaning comes with death. Love has meaning because love can be lost. Then it throbs, vibrates, pulsates. It can be lost! You cannot be certain about it! You cannot think anything about it for tomorrow because it may not be there. You have to love the lover and the beloved with the view that tomorrow may never be there at all. Then love becomes intense. So...

... get accustomed to this new freedom. This freedom will make you more alive, more flowing, more open, more rich, more radiant. But the more radiant you are, the higher the peak of your aliveness, the deeper will be the death near you. Just near. You can rise only against death, the valley of death. The peak of life and the valley of death are always near and in proportion. That's why I always say that...

... is the problem. Live dangerously and be ready to live in insecurity. And the beauty is that even if you decide not to live in insecurity, you will! You cannot do anything! I have heard about a king. He was very afraid of death.... Kings are more afraid. They are more afraid because they have exploited so many people; they have pushed, crushed; they have played many political games on so many people...

.... .... So the king was very afraid. He was very scared of death, it was all around. He was haunted by the idea that everyone around him was going to kill him. He couldn't sleep. So he asked his wise men, his counsellors, what to do. They told him to make a palace with only one door. At the door he should put seven rings of military men: the first watching the palace, the second watching the first, the...

... inside and close, seal this door also. This door is dangerous, someone can enter it. A door means that somebody can enter. So you do one thing: go inside and let this door be also closed. Then you will be really safe because death cannot enter." But the king said, "That means I would be already dead if I closed this door also." The beggar said, "You are already ninety-nine per cent...

... from you, slowly slowly, one by ONE. All toys have to be destroyed, so one day you can see the fact that there is nothing to hold on to. Only then will you relax and allow this drowning. Only then will you relax and die. And after that death is resurrection. Vedanta, go down. And DON'T try to hold on to ANYTHING, because there is nothing to hold on to. NOTHING COMES TO MY HAND... Because there is...

... away from you. I have to make you absolutely nude, utterly empty. That's what Ikkyu's sutras are saying again and again: the Buddha cannot help. All help will be wrong help, because through help your wrong life will be supported. GIVE ME SOMETHING, OSHO. IT IS HEAVY. I WILL DIE OR GO MAD. You cannot die, that much is certain - because nobody has ever died. You cannot die, because death is impossible...

.... Death never happens. It is all life - life only goes on changing forms. When a child is born out of the mother's womb the child thinks "I am going to die" - naturally. For nine months the child has lived in a certain way and now that whole way is being disturbed. How can he think that this is going to be a new life? The child thinks "this is going to be death." You are in exactly...

... the same situation. Now you are being taken away from a womb - the womb of the society, the womb of religions, the womb of concepts, abstractions, philosophies. I am taking you away from the womb in which you have lived up to now. It is hard, heavy. And the child thinks, passing out through the mother's womb, that he is going to die. Birth seems to be like death. And again, when you really die one...

... day - old, aged, and you die - do you think it is death? It is again a beginning of a new birth. Each death is a beginning of a new birth, and each birth looks in the beginning as if it is death. But it is all life. Life goes on changing its forms, from one form to another. The form dies and life jumps into another form. Life is a flame that lives eternally. You cannot die, DON'T be worried about it...

... - because nobody has ever died. Death is a myth. You say: I WILL DIE OR GO MAD. You cannot die, one thing, because death does not happen. And you cannot go mad, because you are already mad. Now there is no more to it. Man as he exists ordinarily is mad. What more madness can happen to you? Just sit silently in your room for one hour and write down whatsoever comes into your mind; just write down...

... already mad. You cannot go mad - DON'T be afraid about madness. If you allow this death you will become sane for the first time. Ego is mad, ego is madness. And the ego is afraid to die - the ego is crying for help. And you have fallen into very dangerous company, Vedanta. Here, no help is given, all helps have to be taken away. I remove, I go on removing all crutches. I know that if all crutches are...

... pattern of life. To receive God means a death, a disappearance - because the two cannot exist together, you and God. Martin Buber, one of the great thinkers of this century, says the relationship between man and God is that of I-thou. It is not - because there is no I and no thou. It is not a relationship at all, because relationship needs at least two. God is when there are not two. When you are not...

... death. You are afraid of ten thousand things, and they are there and you DON'T want to see them eye-to-eye. You DON'T want to know what exactly the case is. How to avoid it? You become engaged somewhere else. You create a great desire in your mind, a distant desire - somewhere in the future it will be fulfilled - and you become obsessed with it. Then you worship God, and you are worshipping a false...

... escaping, to go on postponing. "Tomorrow I will live" - that is your way of living. Tomorrow, never this moment. Next life, after death, in some other time, in some other world... There is no other world. This is the only world there is. And all those paradises and heavens are just your imagination, to escape, to get involved - dreams to avoid reality. My whole process consists in bringing you...

... things that I always wanted to do. I will read great poetry, listen to great music, play the guitar or make a beautiful garden, or go to the mountains and rest in the sun, in the wind..." And when he becomes retired all that happens is he simply becomes afraid of death - nothing else happens. Once he is retired he starts losing his identity. He was a collector or a commissioner or something, a...

... prime minister, a president... When politicians are in office they are very healthy. Once they lose their office they become ill; they die soon. Harnessed, they can live long. Unharnessed, they DON'T see what the point of living is. People start neglecting you, people start ignoring you, you become a nonentity. And not only for people do you become a nonentity, you become a nonentity for yourself...

... - because you DON'T know now who you are. You had been a prime minister, now you are not a prime minister - then who are you? And no answer arises. No, sitting silently is very difficult, just next to impossible - unless you are ready to die in silence, unless you are ready to lose all identity, all ego. Yes, if you are ready to lose all identity, the master will arise in you. But you cannot become a...

... question Question 3: I FEEL AS THOUGH I AM DROWNING AND AM TRYING TO HOLD ON TO SOMETHING. NOTHING COMES TO MY HAND. I FEEL SUFFOCATED. GIVE ME SOMETHING, OSHO. IT IS HEAVY. I WILL DIE OR GO MAD. HELP ME, PLEASE. THE ONLY REAL HELP will be to help you to be utterly drowned. And of that you are afraid. I am here to drown you! not to save you from drowning - because only those who are totally drowned are...

... need to yell." Looks very hard - the story looks very cruel. But this is not an actual case, it is just metaphorical. This is the situation! Vedanta is drowning there and he is shouting for help and yelling, and I say to him: DON'T shout and DON'T yell. Simply disappear. Relax and let go. DON'T try to hold on to anything. This is the last struggle of the ego to be saved. This is the death that...

... brings samadhi. NOTHING COMES TO MY HAND. Yes, nothing is going to come. I am not here to supply you new toys, new supports, new props. I FEEL SUFFOCATED. I know. DON'T try to save yourself, otherwise you will be simply prolonging your misery. Die. One has to learn the art of dying - and that is the whole art of disciplehood. GIVE ME SOMETHING, OSHO. I cannot give you anything. I can only take things...

... side. Thirdly, all that you are thinking is your trouble, your problem, your anxiety, is illusory. You have become very very clever at creating illusions for yourself. The basic illusion is the ego. And once that illusion is created then so many other illusions arise out of it. Now, you are not dying - just the ego is dying. But you think "I am dying." If you can see it, how can you die...

...? You were never born! Do you remember any moment when you were born? Have you any idea what birth is? If you were born then there must be some memory - you were not, and then suddenly you popped out - but do you remember? Those who have gone deepest into inner work have all said that you were never born. Birth has not happened, so how can you die? You are unborn, undying. Ikkyu calls it "the...

... around, and children start learning things around. And it continues the whole life. And when people are dying in their old age, then too they remain sex-obsessed. This is one of my observations, that when a person is dying you can see in his face, in his eyes, what type of life he has lived. If he is dying in a reluctant way, resistant, fighting against death, does not want to die, feels helpless...

..., wants to cling to life, then his has remained a sex-obsessed life. And in that moment of great crisis, in that moment of death, all his sexuality will surface in his consciousness. People die thinking of sex; ninety-nine per cent of people die thinking of sex. You will be surprised. Only rarely is there one person who dies not thinking of sex. A person who dies thinking of sex is immediately reborn...

... at him and smiled and said, "Dee dee dum dum, dee dee dum - it's not my suitcase." Once you have started moving, even death is not your death, even the body is not your body, even the mind is not your mind. You can go on singing: Dee dee dum dum.... Even when death approaches you, you can go on humming - because the suitcase is not yours. A man of awareness can die so easily, so...

... - because his whole idea is nothing but an obsession with sex. Immediately he enters into a womb. And this has to be so because in the moment of death your whole life becomes condensed. Whatsoever you have lived for simply has to be encountered in the moment of death. If you have lived a life of awareness, then death is very relaxed, peaceful, graceful; then there is an elegance and grace to it. Then one...

... simply slips into it, welcoming it. There is no resistance - there is beauty. There is no conflict - there is cooperation. One simply cooperates with death. A sexual person is afraid of death because death is against sex. This has to be understood. Sex is birth; death is against sex, because death will destroy whatsoever birth has given to you. Death is NOT against life. Let me remind you - in your...

... mind this is the dichotomy, life and death, that is wrong - death is not directly opposed to life. Death is directly opposed to sex, because sex is synonymous with birth; birth is out of sex. Death is against birth; death is against sex. Death is not against life. If you live a life of awareness, by and by the energy that was moving in sexuality is transformed. Not that you have to transform it...

... no fulfilment. In the end comes death, and one finds one's hands are empty. Can this be the sole purpose of life? If this is the sole purpose of life, then life has no meaning, then life in itself is just accidental. One of the most profound thinkers of the West was G.K. Chesterton. He used to say that either man is a fallen god, or some animal has gone completely off his head. Only two are the...

... their opposition do they create a balance. Because of their opposition and contrast, they create a situation where life becomes possible. Man exists because woman exists. Man cannot exist alone and woman cannot exist alone. The downward exists because the upward exists, and the outward exists because the inward exists. Life exists because death exists. If sex exists then there must be a law which can...

... able to see the illusoriness of it, the futility, the meaningless repetition, the boredom, the dullness, the death that goes on coming closer through it. The more you waste your energy, the closer you are to death. I have heard: A friend of mine tells the story about a travelling salesman who was passing through a small hick town in the West when he saw a little old man sitting in a rocking-chair on...

..., and six cases of beer a week. I never wash and I go out every night." "My goodness," exclaimed the salesman, "that's just great! How old are you?" "Twenty-five," was the reply. You can go on wasting energy..... Each step taken in illusion is taken towards death. Each move which you take into lust you have taken towards death. So take it carefully and be aware. Be...

... really doing something? And the only thing that can be relied upon is awareness. Only awareness can you carry through death, through the door of death - nothing else. A beautiful parable comes: THE LORD OF HEAVEN OFFERED A BEAUTIFUL FAIRY TO THE BUDDHA, DESIRING TO TEMPT HIM TO THE EVIL PATH. BUT THE BUDDHA SAID: "BE GONE! WHAT USE HAVE I FOR THE LEATHER BAG FILLED WITH FILTH WHICH YOU HAVE...

... for ever. The river must be thinking: "To be, or not to be?" - a hesitation, a trembling, a shaking to the very foundations. That's what temptation is. When Buddha has come to the point where the energy is ready to take the ultimate jump and become non-sexual, when desire is ready to dissolve into desirelessness, when the mind is ready to die and the no-mind is ready to be born - it is...

... LUST OF LIFE, TO TEAR DEEP-ROOTED PASSION FROM THE BREAST, TO STILL THE INWARD STRIFE; FOR LOVE, TO CLASP ETERNAL BEAUTY CLOSE; FOR GLORY, TO BE LORD OF SELF; FOR PLEASURE, TO LIVE BEYOND THE GODS; FOR COUNTLESS WEALTH, TO LAY UP LASTING TREASURE OF PERFECT SERVICE RENDERED, DUTIES DONE IN CHARITY, SOFT SPEECH, AND STAINLESS DAYS: THESE RICHES SHALL NOT FADE AWAY IN LIFE, NOR ANY DEATH DISPRAISE...

... ornament for your ego; your love is also a new treasure to strengthen the ego, to gratify the ego. Rather than destroying it, your games about love go on nourishing But Puneeta, your insight is absolutely right: love can only give you glimpses. If you allow the ego to disappear, love will make you available to something of the unknown. Love will teach you how to die; love is the first lesson of death...

.... Death is the crescendo of love, the highest peak. Those who know how to love know how to die. Their death is not an end; it is a beginning, it is a birth, it is moving into the divine. It is transcending the human and entering the superhuman. It is transcending the mortal and entering into the immortal. Death is a portal, a door. But death is a door only if you have learned the lesson through love...

.... Love is the school that prepares you for death. Love and life are synonymous: if you love you live. If you love and live you become capable of dying. Millions of people die, but without being capable of dying. They die in unconsciousness. Then death simply takes them back into another body; then death simply helps them to enter into another womb. And the whole wheel starts moving again, the same...

... repetitive wheel. Those who die consciously... And love makes you utterly conscious. Love makes you alert, because love is light. It dispels all darkness, all unconsciousness. It becomes a lamp inside you. And if you have that lamp, death has a totally different quality: it is not death at all; it is life abundant, it is life infinite, it is life divine, it is life eternal. Yes, Puneeta, you are right...

... question: Question 1: OSHO, FOR ME, YOU ARE ALL THE MASTERS THAT HAVE BEEN BEFORE AND ALL THE MASTERS THAT WILL COME. MORE AND MORE A STRANGE KNOWING GROWS THAT ONLY DEATH IS THE DOOR TO THIS PERFECT UNION WITH 'I DON'T KNOW WHAT'. LOVING THE MASTER - LOVE - ONLY GIVES US GLIMPSES OF WHAT DEATH CAN MAKE US SEE. IS THIS NOT SO? Prem Puneeta, LOVE is a small death, and death is great love. They are not two...

... things. Love is a small wave in the ocean of death. Hence people are afraid of love too, as much as they are afraid of death. People only pretend the game of love, they don't go into it. They keep a distance from any deep commitment, from any total involvement, because if you really go very close in the world of love, the flame of love is going to burn your ego. People love - at least they pretend...

...: "LOVING THE MASTER - LOVE ONLY GIVES US GLIMPSES OF WHAT DEATH CAN MAKE US SEE. IS THIS NOT SO?" It is so, but it is only love that will prepare you. The greater the love, the greater is the preparation. Hence one has to remain grateful forever towards all that love has contributed - and not only the love for the Master. Even loving a tree or a rock or an animal or your woman, your man, your...

... there. The way you have loved music, the way you have loved poetry, painting, dancing, all your loves, the whole multiplicity of loves, all the dimensions of love, will join together. Between the Master and the disciple, love comes to its whole spectrum. It becomes the whole rainbow, all the seven colors. And that love will prepare you for the ultimate quantum leap, death. In the ancient scriptures...

..., the Master is defined as death. You will be surprised: ancient scriptures say ACHARYO MRITYU, the Master is death. If you have known the Master, you are coming closer and closer to death. Coming very close to the Master is coming closer to the ultimate death. One day the disciple and the Master both disappear. The Master has already disappeared. The Master is the person who has attained to...

... nothingness. The Master is one who is already dead, who is no more, who is just an absolute emptiness. If you come close to the Master... And that's what disciplehood means: coming closer and closer to somebody who is no more. And of course, to come closer to somebody who is no more is going to destroy your ego utterly. One day, through the Master, you taste your first experience of death. Hence people...

... avoid living Masters, because living Masters are nothing but death. People love dead Masters because they cannot do anything to you. It is beautiful to worship Buddha, it is very, very convenient to worship Jesus, it is difficult to come close to me. It was difficult to come close to Buddha too when he was alive. Remember the paradox: when Buddha is alive he is death, hence the fear. When Buddha is...

... Master, is the ultimate in love and the beginning of death. Puneeta, your insight is beautiful, a gift of your meditativeness, of your love for me, of your love for the commune. Go on moving in the same direction. Don't go astray. Many fears will arise. Many times the mind will say, "Go back! It is too dangerous." Don't listen to the mind, listen to the heart. The heart knows what is right...

... feeling becomes knowing, there is no distinction between being and knowing, that is called wisdom. Then your heart starts pouring not only your joy, not only your songs, but your wisdom too. That's how all the great scriptures were born. Mohammed was an ignorant person, illiterate, but when it happened - this knowing, this feeling, this being happened - when he managed to die in the love of God, this...

... afraid of woman because she is the object of love, and women are afraid of men because they are the object of their love. We are afraid of love because Love is a small death. Love requires that we should surrender, and we don't want to surrender at all. We would like the OTHER to surrender, we would like the other to be a slave. But the same is the desire from the other side: man wants the woman to be...

... of the clutches of the old - and this is the only way to weaken it, this is the only way to destroy it. If millions of people in the world simply get out of the hands of the politicians, the politicians will die of their own accord. You cannot fight with them. If you fight you become a politician yourself. If you struggle against them you become greedy yourself, ambitious yourself; that is not...

... and death is life. The moment you are born, you have started dying. And if this is so, then when you die you will start living again. If death is implied in life, then life will be implied in death. They belong to each other, they are complementary. Life and death are just like two wings or two legs: you cannot move only with the right leg or the left leg. In life you cannot be a rightist or a...

... tiny mind -- you cannot be vast. If you are afraid of contradiction you cannot be vast. Then you will have to choose, then you will have to suppress, then you will have to avoid the contradiction, then you will have to hide it -- but by your hiding, can it disappear? By just not looking at death, are you going to not die? You can avoid death, you can have your back towards it, you can forget...

... there. You are already on the way, you are standing in the queue waiting for the moment, just waiting in the queue to die. Where can you escape to from death? But logic tries to be clear, and just to be clear it avoids. It says life is life, death is death -- they are separate. Aristotle says A is A, it is never B. That became the foundation stone of all Western thought: avoid the contradiction...

.... Length: N.A. THE HIDDEN HARMONY IS BETTER THAN THE OBVIOUS. OPPOSITION BRINGS CONCORD. OUT OF DISCORD COMES THE FAIREST HARMONY. IT IS IN CHANGING THAT THINGS FIND REPOSE. PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THAT WHICH IS AT VARIANCE WITH ITSELF, AGREES WITH ITSELF. THERE IS A HARMONY IN THE BENDING BACK, AS IN THE CASE OF THE BOW AND LYRE. THE NAME OF THE BOW IS LIFE, BUT ITS WORK IS DEATH. I have been in...

... again, this moment will not last for ever; it is only for a few years. If you can use it, you can reach a peak which will be very, very difficult to reach in other times. If you miss it, the moment is missed for twenty-five centuries again. Remember this: life moves in a cycle, everything moves in a cycle. The child is born, then comes the age of youth, then old age, then death. It moves just as...

..., theoretical. Try to understand. If you see life you will say there is death also. How can you avoid death? If you look at life, it is implied. Every moment of life is also a moment of death; you cannot separate them. It becomes a riddle. Life and death are not two separate phenomena; they are two faces of the same coin, two aspects of the same coin. If you penetrate deeply you will see that life is death...

... completely about it... That's why we don't talk about death; it is not good manners. We don't talk about it, we avoid it. Death happens every day, everywhere it is happening, but we avoid it. The moment a man dies we are in a hurry to be finished with him. We make our graveyards out of the town so nobody goes there. And there also we make graves with marble and write beautiful lines on them. We go and put...

... flowers on the grave. What are you doing? You are trying to decorate it a little. In the West, how to hide death has become a profession. There are professionals who help you to avoid it, to make the dead body beautiful, as if it is still alive. What are you doing? -- can this help in any way? Death is there. You are headed towards the graveyard; wherever you put it makes no difference -- you will reach...

... believes in a permanent revolution. Everything is in revolution. It is how it is there. To be means to become. To remain where you are means to move; you cannot stay, nothing is static. Even the hills, the Himalayas, are not static; they are moving, moving fast. They are born, then they die. The Himalayas is one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world, and it is still growing. It has not reached its...

.... OUT OF DISCORD COMES THE FAIREST HARMONY. Never is Heraclitus surpassed. OPPOSITION BRINGS CONCORD. OUT OF DISCORD COMES THE FAIREST HARMONY. IT IS IN CHANGING THAT THINGS FIND REPOSE. PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THAT WHICH IS AT VARIANCE WITH ITSELF, AGREES WITH ITSELF. THERE IS A HARMONY IN THE BENDING BACK, AS IN THE CASE OF THE BOW AND LYRE. THE NAME OF THE BOW IS LIFE, BUT ITS WORK IS DEATH...

.... A musician plays with a bow and a lyre; the opposition is just on the surface. On the surface it is a clash, a struggle, a fight, a discord, but there comes beautiful music out of it. OPPOSITION BRINGS CONCORD. OUT OF DISCORD COMES THE FAIREST HARMONY... THE NAME OF THE BOW IS LIFE, BUT ITS WORK IS DEATH. And death is its work, the ultimate result. Death and life are not two either. THE NAME OF...

... THE BOW IS LIFE, BUT ITS WORK IS DEATH. So death cannot be really the opposite -- it must be the lyre. If the name of the bow is life, then the name of the lyre must be death. And between these two the fairest harmony of life comes up. You are just in the middle between death and life -- you are neither. So don't cling to life and don't be afraid of death. You are the music between the lyre and the...

... bow. You are the clash and the meeting and the merging, and the harmony, and the fairest that is born out of it. Don't choose! If you choose, you will be wrong. If you choose, you will become attached to one, identified with one. Don't choose! Let life be the bow, let death be the lyre -- and you be the harmony, the hidden harmony. THE HIDDEN HARMONY IS BETTER THAN THE OBVIOUS. Generated by...

... like a child, supple like a new sprouting plant, and this quality can be carried to the very moment of to the last moment of death you remain supple. If you remain supple, young, fresh - death happens, but it does not happen to you. Because you carry life in you, death cannot happen. Only people who have been already dead, die People who have remained alive, they watch death happening; the body dies...

... Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. LAO TZU SAYS: WHEN MAN IS BORN, HE IS TENDER AND WEAK; AT DEATH, HE IS HARD AND STIFF. WHEN THINGS AND PLANTS ARE ALIVE, THEY ARE SOFT AND SUPPLE; WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, THEY ARE BRITTLE AND DRY. THEREFORE HARDNESS AND STIFFNESS ARE THE COMPANIONS OF DEATH, AND SOFTNESS AND GENTLENESS ARE THE COMPANIONS OF LIFE. THEREFORE WHEN AN ARMY IS HEADSTRONG, IT WILL...

... have attained all that can be attained in the world. Watch them, touch them, look at them; you will feel death. You will not find throbbing hearts there. Maybe the heart is still beating but the beat is mechanical. The beat has lost the poetry. They look at you, but their eyes are dull. The lustre of being alive is not there. They will shake hands with you but in their hands you will not feel...

... life goes on showing you the way, how to be, again and again life goes on saying that life is renewed every day. Old men die. New small babes are born. What is the POINT in it? It is very clear that life does not believe in oldness. In fact, if life was run by economists, this would seem to be very uneconomical, a wastage. An old man trained, experienced in the ways of life and world, then when he is...

... ready and when he thinks he has become wise, death takes over - and replaces the old man with a small baby with no knowledge, no wisdom at all, absolutely fresh, a tabula rasa - everything has to be written again. If you ask the economists they will say: This is foolish! God must consult economists first - what is he doing? Wastage, sheer wastage! A trained man of eighty dies and an untrained babe is...

... are very dangerous and neurotic. Or do you appreciate the one who is weak? But nobody appreciates the weak, nobody wants to be ASSOCIATED with the weak, because deep down you would also like to be strong. When you appreciate the strong you say: Yes, this is my ideal, I would also like to be like him. If strength is praised, then violence is praised. If strength is praised, then death is praised...

... when you understand the logic of softness and weakness. If you are trying to be strong: conquerors, fighters, warriors, then you will live in the world surrounded by rocks, not by flowers, and God will be a faraway phenomenon. It will not be possible for you to detect God anywhere in life. WHEN MAN IS BORN HE IS TENDER AND WEAK;. AT DEATH, HE IS HARD AND STIFF. So this should become your part of life...

...: remain soft, tender and weak, don't try to be hard and stiff because that is how you are bringing your own death closer and closer. Death will come some day - that is not the point. Death is not the fear, death is not the problem, but if you are alive in a deathlike personality - that is the problem. Death in itself is very soft, softer than life, very tender; you can hear the sounds of life, but you...

... cannot hear the sounds of death. When death comes it is so soft, you cannot know even a second before that it is coming. And it is so weak, so tender. That death is not the problem. The death that you are living right now, that is the problem. Death before death is the problem, living a dead life, that is the problem. Hard. Closed. Leibnitz has a term for it, he calls it MONAD. Monad means: closed in...

... a monastery. You live in a cave by yourself, you cannot reach others, others cannot reach you. You are completely closed. This is the death which is stiff. And then you are miserable, and then you try to find ways and means of how not to be miserable. You go on creating misery by being stiff, hard, and then you go on seeking methods of how not fo be miserable. In fact if you understand the...

... HE IS FENDER AND WEAK: AT DEATH, HE IS HARD AND STIFF. WHEN THINGS AND PLANTS ARE ALIVE, THEY ARE SOFT AND SUPPLE; WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, THEY ARE BRITTLE AND DRY. Learn. Life is teaching through many ways. Life is indicating the path how one should be. THEREFORE HARDNESS AND STIFFNESS ARE THE COMPANIONS OF DEATH, AND SOFTNESS AND GENTLENESS ARE THE COMPANIONS OF LIFE. If you want to be more alive...

...-bed. 120. Life is only for those who know how to die in the fight against life. Where there is fear there is neither freedom nor intelligence. 121. There was a day when death was awaiting me. Since I was frightened, it lay in ambush for me, but when I advanced to embrace it, it was not there: for death is in the fear of death, and its acceptance is salvation. Fear is death and fearlessness is...

... is kept only in the mouth. 38. Dharma means death -- death of the self. How can he whose self is dead attain the universal? Shake off the ego. Give up self-worship. Eschewing self-worship is the worship of the Supreme Soul. 39. I urge you to light the lamp of free thinking. Do not behave like a slave to anybody by accepting his thoughts. Truth belongs to those who are their own masters. 40. Life is...

... bane because he, by nature indolent, may not do anything at all. There is a possibility that he may die without building up himself. 64. Know precisely that you have to get rid of your ego. Egotism is the source of darkness. It disappears as soon as the lustre of self realization creeps in. 65. Man does not become God by developing himself. If only he opens himself fully, he is God here and now...

... satisfied with the self are, in a sense, not alive at all. He who is dissatisfied with the self moves ahead in the direction of Truth. Remember that being determinedly rebellious and aware of one's own limitations is being virtuous. 71. Haven't you invented God on being haunted by the fear of death? There is no other untruth than the concept of God based on fear. 72. That which ever exists in the present...

... possible, life becomes beautiful like a full-blown flower, and is filled with fragrance. 84. Do you wish to meditate? Then bear in mind that while you meditate, nothing is before you and nothing is behind you. Let the past perish. Let the future too die. Let memory and imagination become void. There will be no time, no vacuum. You will know that during this void, this moment of emptiness you are in real...

... meditation. The moment of great death is the moment of eternal life as well. 85. You ask me what you have to do for meditation. I say do not do anything. Just be mindful of your breath. Look at the passage of your breath. near witness to your inhalations and exhalations. Let it not be a strenuous activity but a quiet, languid, restful consciousness. Then, without your knowledge of it, in a natural...

... luminous understanding of the self can illumine the path. You are the darkness in regard to yourself and only you can be your own light. 105. Learn the technique of surrendering yourself to Truth. Unless you surrender yourself, Truth cannot be realized. The seed crumbles and disintegrates before it germinates into a lovely shoot. Learn to die if you seek to live. 106. Are you in search of bliss? Get...

... consciousness of your own divinity. 109. It is needless to go out in search of God. Live a life of godliness; prove it in every action. Nay, godliness must be the very breath of your life, for then alone will you realize God. 110. It is essential to wade through death to conquer death. He who is dead to vulgarity defeats death and wins immortality. 111. It is insanely ridiculous to delve into the shastras for...

... external world hear Him well; those blind and lame and crippled see Him distinct and hear Him and keep pace with Him. 119. Running after lecherous fancies is a wild goose chase, a mirage, a journey from a frigid life to a frozen death. Overwhelmed by such misconceptions, man dies many such deaths, but those who are ready to court death in a fight against such fancies shall find Death itself on its death...

... liberation. Death pursues those who flee it, like their shadow. If you turn and face it, it vanishes. To accept death before its advent is to escape from it. 122. As I stood by the sea, I asked myself, "Why do all the rivers fall eventually into the sea?" Even a child will say, "Because it is far below -- lower than anything else." The thought filled my mind with scintillating rays of...

... peace over me. 132. This world itself is a wonder of wonders, for I see that those who apparently seem to live do not live at all. A life enmeshed in lustful fancies is no life at all. I also realize that those who are said to be dead are not dead, for the soul knows no death. 133. Religious leaders make much of their teaching -- "Know thyself". But where does this "self" exist? Is...

... simplicity of the new-born child when the body reaches the threshold of Death. 135. If you nurse the poison of hatred within, you can never expect the blossoms of bliss to spread their fragrance without. A latent perennial undercurrent of love is a necessity for their efflorescence. Where love's nectar is sprinkled, bliss blossoms in profusion. 136. The portals of beatitude are close at hand; but if one...

... goal, an ideal, for which you are prepared to lay down your life?" If the answer is in the negative, know for certain that you are already dead. The powerful energy of a purposeful life is awakened and kept only by an ideal for which one is prepared to court death with smile on one's lips. Remember that you can win life only at the stake. 144. Once when I said somewhere that I am an emperor...

... into the soil. 150. I love beauty, the beauty that lies embedded far below the body. The body is only its border, the frontier of protection with its beauty of thoughts and the beauty of sensations. But there is the perfect beauty of that nullified existence, free of thought, free of sensation. Do not, therefore, stop at the body. It would be death. Wade through the deep waters. You can get only...

... is why life is more and more enveloped in darkness; for how can one shed light all around if one does not know oneself. Men of real understanding pray thus, "I shall readily accept death, unknown to the world, unrecognized everywhere and uncrowned with renown, but let me understand at least myself." In fact, that modicum of light is adequate enough to take us to the Soul Supreme. Friend...

... coming closer. That creates even more angst -- "Death is coming closer and I have not even started living." Most people realize only when they die that they were alive -- but then it is too late. Just live the moment. A noah's ark of consciousness And whatever qualities and whatever talents you have, use them to the fullest. One of the mystics in India, Kabir, was a weaver. He had thousands...

... -- medicines are only a secondary help, a support. But if somebody has moved to the opposite pole -- the instinct for death, for darkness -- then no medicine can pull him out. As I was reading the question, I thought about AIDS. Perhaps someday it may be found that AIDS is nothing but an unconscious desire to die; that's why scientists are unable to find any cure for it. A noah's ark of consciousness At this...

... group of conscious people to another planet. That seems to be the only possibility to save the great heritage of humanity. You cannot depend any longer on the politicians and on the priests, and on the masses who seem to be willing, deeply desiring, to die. Death seems to be the greatest desire in the world today, and because I have been talking about life and love and laughter, I have been condemned...

... training will not help you. Your boss is just second to me in the whole country -- you cannot hope to compete with him. My suggestion is: this is the right moment to fight." The servant could not understand. He said, "What kind of puzzle are you giving to me: this moment is the right moment?" And he said, "Yes, because you have one thing certain -- your death. Now more than that you...

... no expert would have ever hit. And he was fighting with such totality that the warrior started moving backwards, and as the warrior started moving backwards, the servant gathered more courage. He was moving his sword without knowing why -- to what purpose, or where he was hitting. And since it has been decided that his death is certain, now there is nothing to worry about -- all worries belong to...

... life. Soon he cornered the master. Behind, there was the wall surrounding the master's garden. He could not move backwards anymore. He was so afraid of death, for the first time in his life, and he said, "Wait! You can have my wife, you can have my properties; I am renouncing the world, I am becoming a monk." He was trembling with fear. Even he could not understand what happened. From where...

... within two months, Adolf Hitler was retreating. Whenever I have come across the story of the Zen master and his servant, I have always remembered Adolf Hitler: he had absolute certainty about astrology, he was total in his action. Not even a single doubt crossed his mind, ever. The same must have happened to the servant. When death is certain, fear disappears. Fear is only there because of death. But...

... when death is certain and there is no way to avoid it, what is the point of being afraid? He became almost a man of total integrity -- knowing nothing, but defeating the master who had been a victorious man in many combats. But this can happen only rarely, in extreme conditions. In everyday life you should follow the simple course. First become aware about actions which do not need your involvement...

.... All they do is to think of the past, which is no more, or project in the future, which is not yet. This whole thing drives people almost abnormal -- insane. Otherwise there is no need: no animal goes mad, no tree needs any psychoanalysis. The whole existence is living in constant celebration, except man. He is sitting aloof, tense, worried. A small life, and you are losing it and every day death is...

... recognition. And the idea was, that just as there is a lust for life, to balance it in the unconscious of the human mind, there is an instinct for death. Perhaps this was one of the great contributions of Sigmund Freud to human knowledge, and for the future transformation of man. Slowly, slowly, then he started gathering facts, and now it is almost an established thing that in life, everything exists with...

... its opposite balancing it. If there is a lust for life -- that one wants to live -- somewhere hidden, there is bound to be a lust for death. In certain situations, it may get a grip on you -- that's why so many people commit suicide. Otherwise, suicide has no explanation. Devageet is asking: "Rocks easily destroy flowers. The politicians and religions sense that enlightenment, freedom and...

... oneself into darkness, into death. It has been observed, although never made clear, by all the physicians of all the ages, that there are people who can be helped by medicine but it seems impossible to help them because they have completely lost the willpower, the will to live, -- completely. They don't support the medicine. But none of the physicians found the thing that Sigmund Freud discovered...

.... Perhaps this had some sense in it: a man who loses the will to live is bound to replace it by something of its opposite: -- the will to die. And now medicine accepts that the physician can only help by his medicines and other things, if the person wants to live. If the person has dropped the idea of living, then all those medicines are useless. Medicines don't cure you. Your will to live cures you...

... ridiculous now to go on piling up nuclear weapons. Billions of dollars are wasted on nuclear weapons while children are dying because they cannot get medicine, they cannot get food. By the end of this century, half of the population of the world will die from starvation; and the other half, perhaps, will die through nuclear warfare. It seems it is not only one individual, but perhaps the whole of humanity...

... that has lost the will to live, the will to be more conscious, the will to be more aware, the will to reach to the highest peak of enlightenment, to be a Gautam Buddha. On the contrary, people are waiting to disappear into darkness, into death, because life is so meaningless and so futile. There seems to be no reason to go on living. For the first time, on a tremendous scale, millions of people are...

... feeling meaninglessness. It is creating tremendous anxiety, and it seems death is the only cure. With death, everything will subside. There will be no problem, no anxiety, no struggle, no jealousy, no tension. Perhaps, Devageet, your word "endarkenment" may become a contribution to our language, as the opposite of enlightenment. People have always lived unconsciously, but today, the...

... unconsciousness has reached to such a point that even death is preferable to unconsciousness. A Scotsman named Angus needed a new kilt. When he went to pick out some material at the store, he decided to purchase two extra yards of fabric to make a matching scarf for his girlfriend. He then went home and made such a beautiful kilt that when he tried it on, and looked in the mirror, he forgot all about the scarf...

... from every corner. I can understand the reason: to spread the message of life, love and laughter amongst people who, deep down, are getting ready to commit a global suicide... this is very contradictory to them. Perhaps we will have to meet on some other planet -- this planet seems to be spent. And it is not new: planets are born, planets die; stars are born, stars die -- so it is not something...

... strange. And the preparations are going so well that it seems almost an impossibility for life to survive here on this earth. The whole blame goes on those vested interests which have kept humanity unconscious, and don't want man to become intelligent and conscious, alert and aware. Anyway, it seems too late. A noah's ark of consciousness The police were investigating the death of Markowitz, the dress...

... Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, IS IT POSSIBLE TO DIE CONSCIOUSLY WITHOUT BEING ENLIGHTENED? Nirah, existence follows certain laws - and there are no exceptions. If one wants to die consciously, the only way is to be enlightened. Death is such a great surgery: your soul is being taken apart from the body and mind, with which it has been...

... involved for seventy or eighty years. Even for a small operation you need anesthesia; and this is the greatest operation in existence. Unconsciousness is nothing but nature's way of giving you anesthesia. Unless you are completely unidentified with body and mind, you cannot die consciously - and a death which is not conscious is a great opportunity missed. Enlightenment is an absolute necessity...

... Buddhists, enlightenment is called the "great death" - not that you are going to die, but the death is great because you will be able to see it happening, you will be a witness. Now you are no longer attached to the body, no clinging, and you have become aware of your immortality. You can die consciously only when you know that you are immortal, that you belong to eternity, not to time; that...

... with your hands full of ecstasy. In that ecstasy, death itself dies. You never die... your here-now continues forever and forever. Question 4: BELOVED OSHO, SITTING IN THE DISCOURSE, CLOSING MY EYES, I FIND MYSELF ALL ALONE WITH YOUR VOICE AND THE SONG OF THE BIRDS, TOUCHING THE SPACE WHERE ALL IS ONE. IT IS AN EXPERIENCE OF SILENCE, CLARITY AND ETERNAL PEACE. EVEN SLEEP, WAR OR DESTRUCTION APPEAR AS...

... deep within you is the beginning of existence and the end of existence - if there is any beginning or if there is any end. In fact there is no beginning and no end; you have always been here, and you will always be here. A conscious death is one of the miracles of life, because after that you will not be born again in any form - as a man, as a bird, as a tree. You will remain in the eternal...

... consciousness of the universe, spread all over the ocean. Hence, it has been called the "great death." But there are no exceptions. Existence follows absolutely definite laws, and this is a law of the highest order, because it concerns your consciousness, your life, your death. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, I SIT HERE FEELING THE STILLNESS OF THE UNIVERSE, LISTENING TO A BIRD'S SWEET SONG - AND I WONDER...

.... You will go on worrying about the future for your whole life. You will stop only when death comes and takes away all possibility of the future. You missed your whole life: you could have lived - but you only planned. Live intensely and totally now, because the next moment will be born out of this moment; and if you have lived it totally and joyously, you can be absolutely certain that the next...

... your birth to your death. But it is always now... and here is the only space. You cannot be anywhere else than here; wherever you are, that place will become here. Just be clear about it, otherwise life goes on slipping through your hands like water. Soon you will have empty hands; and meeting death with empty hands is an utter failure. Meet your death full of joy, silence and serenity. Meet death...

... that there is not even a ripple on the lake of your consciousness. My longing is to fill this whole world with cool love; and through cool love we can give birth to a new man, to a new humanity - which are urgently needed. And I hope that man has enough intelligence not to choose death, that he will choose a different style of life - without conflict, without wars, full of the peace which passeth...