... were alive when they die. When death knocks on your door, suddenly you become aware: "My God, I was alive! And now death has come." But when death comes, millions of people feel relieved - relieved of the burden, of the anxiety, of the constant fear of life. Death has no fear in it. When you are no more, what fear can there be? Death cannot hurt you - life can hurt you. Life hurts because...

... grow. That's the only way to grow. Life is dangerous; death is very cozy, very comfortable. Lying down in your grave, what danger is there? There is no problem, no anxiety. You can't go bankrupt, your wife cannot leave you, you cannot die anymore. You are so safe in death! Life is not safe - anything is possible. Life is full of accidents. Some madman may cut off your head...! I have heard: A great...

...; Everybody is more afraid of living; that's why people are dead. People die nearabout the age of thirty. Of course, they are not put into their graves at that time; they go to their graves nearabout seventy, eighty. The fifty years between their death and their entry into the grave are just a drag. It is a miracle to see dead people walking, talking, doing all kinds of things. It certainly is a miracle...

...! Love life. That's why to me life is the only religion, the only god. Live life in its totality. And the beauty is that if you live life in its totality there is no death. The body is bound to die one day, but you are not the body. If you have lived your life totally, if you have loved your life totally, you will have come across the eternal in you. That is the meeting with God. That is the encounter...

... - very normal. Nobody is more afraid of dying than of living. The fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of life. That's why thousands of people around the earth commit suicide, and many more think many times in their lives of committing suicide. Many try but are prevented; many try but try halfheartedly. But very few people try to live. The number of people who try to live life is much less...

... with expectations because life has no obligation to fulfill your desires. You can live with an open heart, but you cannot live with expectations. The more expectations you have, the more frustrated you will be. And then you can go astray. In death, nobody can go astray; in life you can go astray. In life you can commit errors, mistakes. In fact, if you really want to live you will have to commit many...

... an orchestra. The West has created methods which give you more impetus to be extroverts. They allow you methods, skills to relate, and to enjoy relationship. They are love methods, but something is missing. You enjoy relationship, but whenever you are alone... and essentially you ARE alone. You are born alone and you will die alone, and at the deepest core of your being you are always alone. So on...

... worked his way homeward. Then, just as suddenly, after he had narrowly escaped death several times, the man stopped short, clapped his hand to his head and moaned, "Hey, what am I doing? My name ain't McGinty!" People are living in such unconsciousness. What to say about recognizing a buddha? - you don't even know who YOU are! Maitri, it is possible to miss the perfect jewel if you are not...

... and finding a master. If their wives are nagging them to death, how is finding a master going to change it? Now the master will nag you more! If they are suffering from nightmares - and everybody is suffering from nightmares, day in, day out - how is finding a master going to help? They can't make any sense out of the statement. I can understand your difficulty, Sarjano. It is very difficult to keep...

... another body. This is my last body. You are fortunate to be with a person who is in the last body. I will not be again because I AM Being. Once you are Being you cannot be born again. It is Being which matters. It is Being which is eternal. Bodies come and go; Being remains. Bodies are born and die; Being is neither born nor dies. The music is beautiful but stop it. I am unpredictable. It is beautiful...

..., then there are no holds, no hindrances, but gaps. The gaps are immense, you can use them as stepping stones towards God. I am here, so no need to be afraid. I am absolutely unafraid. I have transformed your room into a Noah's Ark. It is so and it will always remain so. The Upanishads have this prayer: "O Lord, take us from darkness to light, from untruth to truth, from death to deathlessness...

... is beautiful. I have known it in many ways. In almost fifty years I have lived five hundred years, because I have dared in many, many directions. Each danger was beautiful, an experience. What is danger? Do you think you know? I do not mean the dictionary sense of the word. Danger is when you are close to death, very close, so close that just a step more and you are finished... but only then you...

... are. When death is so close being comes to its absolute flowering. I can talk of life and death because they are one, and one can only talk of life if one knows death. A woman is never afraid. When a woman becomes afraid she becomes a lady. I hate ladies; they stink! Especially English ladies, they are the ladiest of all ladies. But who cares at moments of beatitude.... Ashu, never be a lady. I am...

... close to death - that's the only way to bring me to myself, because death is where life goes on. Danger is beautiful, it is very beautiful. It is right on the heights; one wrong step and you are finished. That's why I love this chair: there are no steps. One can just relax. Death is so close you can touch it... it is tangible, touchable... like a beautiful woman, you would like to touch. Only then you...

... only say ahhh! Life's greatest song, of such transcendental beauty that it cannot be sung. Rabindranath, India's greatest poet, wrote six thousand poems. When he was dying a friend asked him, "Good God! Why are you crying?" A tear comes to my own eyes that he was crying, even at the age of eighty years. One thinks a man should be sober, be serious, that death must be accepted, especially in...

... little more next time. And you are telling me not to cry.... These are my last breaths...." And with tears in his eyes he died. What a beautiful death - and a beautiful life too. And what courage to say, "The song has remained unsung," even after being a Nobel prize winner. I cannot say what I am seeing... I cannot describe it. It is going to be a failure, but there is nothing to be...

... see that you are going mad I will stop. Till then let the flower grow and the birds sing. I am a little crazy. Everyone knows it so no need to worry. Ahhhh the flowers... the birds... the bees... I love it all. Nothing can harm me, not even death. Now, now... it is immense! The very grandeur of it... the grace of it... I am afraid to say so.... I hear your giggles. I am afraid my body may not be...

... able to express it. For twenty-five years I have been speaking, and with a wrong pronunciation. Who cares? What matters is the heights from which I am speaking. Why are you in a hurry? You are hurrying to nowhere. Call everyone here. If there is time to relax... let me relax once in a while. I should check whether you are conscious or not. Never be afraid, even if I die at this moment, because I'll...

... the rainbow.... It is not material. It is immaterial. I like this light, it is good. It is something like what I am facing. I am facing such tremendous light... this is nothing. I am facing so much music I am almost drowned in it. To be close to beauty is to be close to death. I cannot forget that. I have been close to death again and again. I have been coming close to death many times in my life...

..., knowingly. You may not know but we have faced death infinite times, but with such fear we have not seen its beauty; otherwise death is another name for God. I am amazed nobody has said it yet. It is another name for God, for light, for joy, for beauty. So I go on and on, into myself. Deep into the beyond, and the beyond is all there is. All else is going to disappear. Only that which is beyond will remain...

... is like a shower; it is as if in the middle of the night the sun has risen. I will not say anything, I will only keep silent. Arise! Ascend! Awaken! These are words to be understood. And I am not a preacher - preaching is dirty. I am a lover. At least I cannot go mad. And I am not going to die at this moment. I have a few more strange things to do yet. I was saying before that English is not the...

... conquer the world ... What will you do with conquering the world? Soon death will take everything away. You will die naked, you will be buried in the earth. Nobody will bother not to tread over you, and you will not be even able to object, 'Keep away. I am Alexander the Great.' Please drop this idea of greatness. And also remember that the word 'Alexander' is not your name." Alexander said, "...

... perfectly good. There are only seven days. You will have to die on Monday, on Tuesday, on Saturday, on Sunday ... What does it matter? But if you die really, leaving the mind and body aside, you will come to know your immortality; you will see the fiction of death. Death has never happened, you have only changed your form. And those few who have realized it have not even moved into another form, they have...

... into the earth is not far away. This kind of reality has also its place in the Eastern vision. They call it appearance, moment to moment changing. There is a time to be born and there is a time to die. The seasons will come again, and the flowers will blossom again. It is the round trip of existence in which - except your being, your center - everything goes on changing. This changing world is a...

... you, it dies with the body. It has been a part of the body mechanism. That which flies out of the body in death is an invisible bird flying into an invisible sky. But if you are aware you will be dancing, because for the first time you will have known what freedom is. It is not a political freedom or an economic freedom; it is a more fundamental, existential freedom. And anything that grows out of...

...;My God! It is my name - how can I convince you?" He said, "There is no question of convincing me. Nobody comes into the world with a name. All kinds of names are given - labels stuck, glued - and you become the label. You forget completely that you had come without any name, without any fame. And you will die in the same way. "Tell your teacher to come here to face the lion. If he...

... relaxation follows. Life for the first time becomes a dance. Even death is no more a disturbance. HOWEVER FAR FISH SAIL IN THE WATER, THERE IS NO END TO THE WATER. HOWEVER FAR BIRDS FLY IN THE SKY, THERE IS NO END TO THE SKY. BUT NEITHER OF THEM HAS EVER LEFT THE WATER OR THE SKY. It is an ancient story ... about a very curious young fish inquiring, "I have heard so much about the ocean but I don't...

... not work more than is absolutely needed. Henry Ford, before his death, was asked, "You have long before passed the line, broken all records of richness. Now there is no competitor against you. Why do you go on working continuously?" And you will be surprised to know that he used to come to his office at seven o'clock every morning. The peons used to come at ten o'clock, the clerks at...

.... It was not a big place. But he would see it every day for seven days. Finally, I had to interrupt him. I said, "This is too much. Are you mad? You go on seeing the same film every day." He said, "How to kill time? I am retired, just waiting for death. I think it does not matter, one day more ... just go to see the movie. What else is one supposed to do when one is retired?"...

... fracture happens. But in this very care you miss the point of let-go. Enlightenment is worth multiple fractures. When you let go, let go. When you laugh, then become laughter. When you are silent, be silent. When I say, "Go in" - search inwards. Forget the body and forget the world. I even tell you to die. You make every effort, but for dying no effort is needed. You just lie down there waiting...

... for Nivedano's beat so that you can wake up again. Not a single one remains dead just a little while more, everybody immediately ... it is all intellectual. If it was not intellectual, every day we would have to call an ambulance because this place would become a graveyard. But nobody dies. In the whole world people are dying, except in this Buddha Hall where we are trying to die every day. On the...

... contrary, you come back healthier, more robust. Maneesha, what you feel is still intellectual. You are intelligent enough to feel it, but intellect is not going to give you the right experience; it blocks. You need not try to use the mind, in any way. Let it happen spontaneously. You simply risk yourself totally. Then even if you die, what does it matter? One day you are going to die, and this day is...

... moved into the eternal ocean, into the very existence itself, losing themselves completely. That is the ultimate ecstasy. Before somebody dies ... particularly Sardar Gurudayal Singh is getting ready. He has been missing every day, perhaps today he is going to die. We promise him we will celebrate ... don't be worried. Gorgeous Gloria is very excited as she plans her coming wedding, with her friend...

... buddha statue will reveal itself. Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) Relax ... let go ... die! In this moment, at the very center of your being, you are the immortal buddha. You don't have to pray. You don't have to worship. You don't have to go to any temple. Because you are the temple of the buddha. Realize it and express it in every action - the grace of it, the beauty of it, the blissfulness of it, the...

... ... (Drumbeat) Come back from your death ... to life eternal. Sit down for a few moments just like a buddha, in all his glory and splendor. These few moments make this place the most precious in the whole world. Ten thousand buddhas melting and merging into each other, just like waves of the ocean. The world has forgotten this language ... it has to be reminded. Everyone has to become a message, not a...

... known as love. When it becomes unfocused, it becomes prayer. Then you are just in love - not with someone, but just in love, as you are breathing. If breathing were an effort you would get tired of it, and you would have to relax and then you would die. If it were an effort, then at some time you might forget to do it and then you would die. Love is just like breathing: it is a higher plane of...

... breathing. If you do not breathe, your body will die. If you are not in love, your spirit cannot be born. So take love as a breathing of the soul. When you are in love your soul becomes vital, alive, just like it is breathing. But think in this way. If I say to you, "Only breathe when you are near me and do not breathe anywhere else," then you will die. And the next time you will be near me you...

... cannot be in love because you know only that which belongs to death. And every moment death is there; every moment you are afraid. How can you love when you are afraid? Love cannot exist with fear. And fear is there, so you can only create a make-believe that you love. And again, your love is really nothing but a safety measure. You love so that you will not fear. Whenever you believe that you are in...

... love, you are less afraid. For the moment you can forget death. An illusion is created in which you can feel that you are accepted by the existence; you are not denied, rejected. That is why there is so much need of love and of being loved. Whenever you are being loved by someone, you create around you an illusion that you are needed by the existence - at least by someone. You are needed by someone...

..., so you are not just futile. You are not just accidental - you are needed somewhere. Without you the existence will miss something. That gives you a feeling of well-being. You feel a purpose, a destiny, a meaning, a worthiness. When you are not loved by anyone you feel rejected, you feel denied, you feel meaningless. Then you feel there is no purpose, no destiny. If no one loves you and you die...

... become destructive. In love, you feel that you are accepted, welcome - not an uninvited guest, but rather that you are invited, welcome, waited for, received, that the existence is happy that you are. The one who loves you becomes the representative of the whole existence. But this love is basically fear-based. You are protecting against fear, against death, against the inhuman indifference of...

... of you. The stars are not aware of you; even the earth which you call Mother is not aware of you. And when you die, the earth will not be sad. Nothing will have changed; things will be as they are and as they always have been. With you or without you, there is no difference. You feel you are just an accident. You were not needed; uninvited you have come... just a chance product. This creates fear...

... no one loves you, no meaning is lost. Then you are not afraid at all because even death will not annihilate you. It may annihilate the form, it may annihilate the body, but it cannot annihilate you because you are the existence. This is what happens in meditation. This is for what meditation is meant. In it you become a part, an opening. You come to feel, "Existence and I are one." Then...

... you are welcomed, and there is no fear and there is no death. Then love flows from you. Then love is not an effort - you cannot do anything except love. Then it is like breathing. Deep inside you breathe love; in and out you breathe love. This love grows into devotion. Then ultimately you will even forget, it just as you forget your breathing. When do you remember your breathing? Have you observed...

... that idea too is fear-based. You do not know whether the soul exists or not; you have never penetrated to the innermost core where one realizes the deathless. You have only heard about it, and you cling to the idea because you are afraid of death. You know death is real, so you go on wishing and believing that something in you must be there which is deathless. This is a wish fulfillment. I am not...

... soul and God. Then you will go to the church or the temple or the mosque. If you go to the mosque or the church or the temple, you will find that old men, just on the verge of death, are gathered there. Youth is basically atheistic; always this has been so. The younger you are, the less theistic. The younger you are, the more you are an unbeliever. Why? Because you are still strong and you feel less...

... fear, and you are still ignorant of death. Death is far away somewhere, it happens only to others. It happens only to others, not to you. But the older you grow, you will by and by begin to feel that now it is going to happen to you also. Death comes near, and one begins to believe. So all beliefs are fear-based. All beliefs are fear- based! And one who believes because of fear is really deceiving...

... as a body, you will become old as a body, you will die as a body. Your whole life is body-centered - centered around the body. You will love someone. You will make love to someone and you will create other bodies; you will reproduce other bodies. What are you doing the whole life? Preserving yourself. What are you preserving with food, with water, with shelter? The body is preserved. What are you...

... just like death. But deep down," he said, "I became aware that I am feeling very good, that now I am free." A third layer began to feel guilt. It said to him, "What are you doing?" And the dead body was lying there just before him, he said to me, and he began to feel a great deal of guilt. He said to me, "Help me. What has happened to my mind? Have I betrayed her so soon...

... felt time so much because we have a conception of a circle of continuous births. So each time you die, it is not death - again you are reborn. So, really, India destroyed the concept of death totally. It is not a death at all if you are reborn again. That's why India never became time conscious. We are so lethargic, and we can waste time so easily. The reason is that death is not there in the Indian...

... and by, to be near and, ultimately, totally with That? But remember this fact: that will is taken as a hypothesis. Once you take it as a hypothesis, you go on willing, ultimately you will totally - that is, your mind is arrowed totally towards That - in that total tension, on that climax and peak, will dissolves, because perfection is death. The moment anything is perfect it dies. That is why Lao...

... Tzu says, "Never be perfect. Stop half way - never go to the end!" If you go to the end, success will become failure and life will become death. If you go to the very end, love will turn into hate, friendship will be reduced to enmity - because perfection means death. And when something dies, it dies into the polar opposite. When will is perfect, when mind is wholly arrowed, will dies, the...

... the verge of explosion, you will die, your will will die. The very phenomenon of will disappears. And when will disappears, you come to the same point where one who begins with will-lessness comes. Now it is will-lessness. So either zero or perfection: both go to the same end. It will depend on you, on your type of mind. If you can conceive of will-lessness, then there is no question. But that is...

... tree? No difference! He was as relaxed as the tree. He was as relaxed as the river flowing by. He slept. This sleep was strange. There was not even a dream, because dreams belong to desires, effort, will. He slept as trees sleep. The sleep was total. It was just like death - no movement of the mind, no motivation inside. Everything stopped. Time stopped. In the morning at five o'clock he opened his...

... I have some memory that is private, secret to me, and if it is just my memory and no one knows about it, then if I die, where will that memory be? It will not be anywhere. What will be the difference? Whether it ever was or not - what will be the difference? Whether it ever existed or not, there will be no difference. The dead past is only in the memory. It is nowhere else. And because of this...

... timelessness. And the same happens with civilization: whenever a civilization becomes over-conscious of time, it means the civilization is going, by and by, towards death. Whenever a civilization is absolutely unaware of time, it means it is in its childhood - innocent. It is not old. Time consciousness means death is coming near. So the more death you feel, the more time you will feel. In India we have not...

... mind; after death there is birth. So time is infinite, and there is no hurry. But the American mind, the Western mind, has become very time conscious, and the reason is Christianity - because once you say that there is only one life and that this death is going to be the final one, that there is no rebirth, then death becomes very meaningful. And everything has to be taken in reference. If death is...

... it. If the whole world stands against it as a witness, even then your feeling of its being true cannot be shaken. That's how a Jesus can die, a Mansoor can be killed. They can be killed, but they cannot be changed, converted. They cannot be converted! You can kill a Mansoor: you cannot convert him. He will go on saying the same thing. Mansoor was saying, "I am the God." In Mohammedan eyes...

... the sun will die, its death is coming near -- because the sun is an alive phenomenon and it is very old, it has to die. Suns are born, they live -- and they die. Four million years for us is very long; for the sun it is just nothing, it is as if the next moment it is going to die. And when the sun dies, the whole solar family will disappear, because the sun is the source. Every day the sun is dying...

... the present is absolutely different from your desires, your dreams. That's why whatsoever you desire and dream and imagine and plan for and worry about, never happens. But it wastes you. You go on deteriorating. You go on dying. Your energies go on moving in a desert, not reaching any goal, simply dissipating. And then death knocks at your door. And remember: death never knocks in the past, and...

... death never knocks in the future; death knocks in the present. You cannot say to death, 'Tomorrow!' Death knocks in the present. Life also knocks in the present. God also knocks in the present. Everything that is always knocks in the present, and everything that is not is always part of past or future. Your mind is a false entity because it never knocks in the present. Let this be the criterion of...

..., that's why it plans. Planning means fear. It is fear that plans, and by planning you miss everything -- everything that is beautiful and true, everything that is divine, you miss. Nobody has ever reached God with a plan, nobody can ever reach. WHILE TOKAI WAS A VISITOR AT A CERTAIN TEMPLE, A FIRE STARTED UNDER THE KITCHEN FLOOR. The first thing: fire creates fear, because it is death. And if even fire...

... cannot create fear, nothing can create fear. But even fire cannot create fear when you have encountered death, when you know that death doesn't exist; otherwise, the moment you hear the word 'Fire!' you are in a panic. No need for there to be a real fire, just somebody coming running here and saying, 'Fire!' and you will be in a panic. Somebody may jump out of it, and may kill himself -- and there was...

... truth exists in the heart from where the words are coming. WHILE TOKAI WAS A VISITOR AT A CERTAIN TEMPLE, A FIRE STARTED UNDER THE KITCHEN FLOOR. Fire is fear, fire is death -- but not the word fire. A MONK RUSHED INTO TOKAI'S BEDROOM, SHOUTING: 'A FIRE, MASTER, A FIRE!' He was excited, death was near. 'OH?' SAID TOKAI, SITTING UP. 'WHERE?' You cannot excite a master, even if death is there, because...

... excitement belongs to the mind. And you cannot surprise a master, even if death is there, because surprise also belongs to the mind. Why can't you surprise a master? -- because he never expects anything. How can you surprise a man who never expects anything? Because you expect, and then something else happens, that's why you are surprised. If you are walking on the street and you see a man coming, and...

... the pleasure lasts too long, you will certainly get pain out of it. Both are states of excitement, both are fevers. A man of understanding is without fever. You cannot excite him, you cannot surprise him. Even if death is there he will coolly ask, 'Where?' And this question 'Where?' is very beautiful, because a man of enlightenment is always concerned with the here. He is not concerned with there...

... accumulated a certain karma to suffer in this life from thirst and die from it. Who are you to give him water? You simply neglect him, you go on. I was talking to one of the leaders of the terapanth monks, and I told him, 'And have you ever considered the possibility that it may be your karma to give him water?' You are not interfering with his karma, but you are interfering with your own. If the desire...

... understand the nature of the world, the nature of the very existence, then who are you to worry, and why be in a worried state continuously? Nobody asked you about being born, nobody is going to ask you when the time comes for you to be taken away. Then why be worried? Birth happened to you; death will happen to you; who are you to come in between? Things are happening. You feel hunger, you feel love, you...

... your cross on your shoulders. You will have to die. He says, "Unless you are reborn, you will not see my Kingdom, you will not see what I am teaching to you." And he says, "Love is God." He is right because love is the threshold. Die in love. It is far more beautiful than to live in ego. It is far more true than to live in the ego. Life in the ego is death in love. Death in the...

... ego is life in love. Remember: when you choose ego, you are choosing real death - because it is death in love. And when you choose love you are only choosing unreal death, because to die in ego you are not losing anything - you had nothing from the very beginning. That is the whole emphasis of Ikkyu's DOKA yesterday. You are not, so why be afraid? Who is going to die? There is nobody to die! To whom...

...Death in the Ego is Life in Love...

... Osho Take it Easy Volume 1: Death in the Ego is Life in Love Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Take it Easy Volume 1   Next > Death in the Ego is Life in Love From: Osho Date: Fri, 12 April 1978 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Take It Easy, Vol 1 Chapter #: 2 Location: am in Buddha Hall Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio Available...

... robots - everything is systematic. In fact, when everything is too systematic you are imprisoned, freedom is crushed. Freedom needs chaos. A strange thing has been observed by psychologists. The strange thing is that in the army people are taught to be very systematic and their goal is to create war, their goal is to create chaos, their goal is death, to kill and to be killed. Their goal is to destroy...

...-sided, otherwise it disappears. It needs day and night. summer and winter, birth and death; it needs love and hate So I say: science and religion are diametrically opposite, but I am not saying that bridging is not possible - bridging always happens, continuously is happening. It happens from the side of science, it happens from the side of religion too. And when it happens, you have a great master, a...

... Question 3: WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE YOU ARE DYING WHEN YOU ARE IN LOVE? IS FALLING IN LOVE A SUICIDAL DESIRE? OR JUST A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE INSTINCT LIKE THE LEMMINGS' MARCH TO THE SEA OR A MOTH'S FLIGHT INTO A FLAME? IT'S WEIRD. LOVE is DEATH, but the one who dies in love has never existed really. It is the unreal self, the idea of an ego, that dies. So love is death, it is suicide, it is dangerous. That's...

.... It starts feeling that it is dying. You pull back. You hold back. You close your eyes, you close your ears; you don't hear the knock. You disappear back into your hole. You close your doors. Love feels like death - it is. And those who want to be really blissful have to go through that death, because the resurrection is possible only through death. Jesus is right when he says you will have to carry...

... falling in love with this particular woman. It is a life-death problem for you. If tomorrow she starts moving with somebody else, you will be mad. But you misunderstood. It was a gesture of the moment. The American girl had just returned to New York from a holiday in England and was talking to her best friend. "Mabel, I've been thinking about Keith ever since I left England. Now I'm back home and I...

... to be: to expand, to become, to flow, to flower. Question 3: THE STRANGEST THING HAS HAPPENED: I FEEL HAPPY! MY PROBLEMS SEEM TRANSPARENT, AND I FEEL MORE AND MORE ALIVE. YOU TALK ABOUT THE NEED TO DIE. HOW CAN MY HAPPINESS LEAD ME THROUGH'THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL'? This is from Sambuddha. Now, Sambuddha, please don't try to create new problems. This is how the mind functions. Even if you are...

... dies. The death I am talking about is not the death of misery; the death I am talking about is not the death of suffering, is not the death of agony. The death I am talking about is the death of ecstasy, the death of pure bliss, the death when you are so happy that you explode and simply disappear. But don't be worried about it. It will come by itself; it is already on the way. If you become worried...

.... How to be happy? How to laugh? Even if it laughs, it laughs halfheartedly. Even if it moves, it moves ready to withdraw any moment if something goes wrong. And happiness wants you to be totally in it. It claims you totally! Enjoy it, move into it, be possessed by it, and in that possession will be death. Totally possessed by happiness, the ego dies. I don't teach suffering. I don't teach sacrifice...

..., I don't teach renunciation. I teach the death that comes out of bliss; the death that comes at the highest peak of happiness; the death that comes when you are dancing, singing, loving; the death that comes when you are possessed by the whole and the ocean drops into the drop. Of course, the drop dies. Such a tremendous phenomenon: the ocean dropping in the drop. How can the drop live now? But...

... what is the point of living? It the drop tries to live, that wi]l be a real death. If the drop disappears in the ocean.... This is what Jesus calls'life, and more abundant life'. Allow it! Very difficult. People go on seeking happiness but when it comes, they close their doors. People go on seeking love, but when it knock.s at the door, they hide somewhere in the closet. People go on seeking...

... friendship and when somebody comes near, they become panicky; they become afraid. What is the fear of happiness? The fear of death. What is the fear in love? The fear of death. What is the fear of freedom? The fear of death. The ego is afraid. The ego can remain in misery., it can remain even in the seventh hell, but even a slight breeze of happiness and the house of the ego starts falling, collapsing...

.... Nothing kills like happiness, nothing kills like ecstasy; but that risk is worth taking because only after that death does real life arise. You disappear. Then God lives in you. Question 4: WHY IS RELIGION A DIRTY WORD FOR ME, AND WHY DOES IT THREATEN ME FAR MORE HERE IN POONA THAN IT EVER DID BEFORE? Religion HAS become a dirty word. It has been used too much and abused too much. It has passed through...

... the night, like death. No need to try to find balance. The balance will find you. You simply move into the valley. When the valley comes, you accept it. You not only accept it, you welcome it. You enjoy it, you delight in it - darkness is beautiful. And when the valley goes and you move towards the peak, that too is perfectly beautiful. That is beautiful: the light, the morning, the sun. But don't...

... was caught red-handed. There was only one punishment for it, and that was death. But the old king had always loved this man. He was sentenced to death, but the old man gave him an opportunity. The last day, he called his whole court. On one side there was a gun ready to kill the man, on the other side there was a black door. And the king said,'You can choose, either to die - you have to die - or you...

.... And it was so total that only the body can die, not the soul of that being. Death cannot part two lovers. If they really loved, they had conquered death already. Love is immortal. But if there was only an attachment, then after a few weeks or a few days the wound is healed. You loved the person because of you, for your own pleasure. Now you will find another person. In fact, you love your husband...

... has no boundaries to it, is to die: to die to the known and to trust the unknown, which is the most difficult thing in the world. I will tell you one story. It is a very ancient story, and one of the most beautiful I have ever come across. There was a very wise king. His own prime minister committed a betrayal: he delivered some secrets to the neighboring country, to the enemy. The prime minister...

... curious. She persuaded the king somehow to see what was behind it. The king laughed. He said,'I know - there is nothing behind it. It's simple freedom; there is not even a room. This door opens to the wide world. There is nothing, but nobody has chosen it yet.' People even choose death before choosing the unknown. People even choose to be miserable before choosing the unknown. The unknown seems to be...

... more dangerous than death itself. And freedom is the door unknown. Freedom means moving into the unknown, not knowing where one is going, not knowing what is going to happen the next moment. It is a black door. Rarely, sometimes a Jesus or a Buddha choose the door; all else choose the gun. You are dying every day, but you still cling to this life which gives you nothing except death. You choose death...

..., you don't choose real life. Real life is hazardous, insecure. You talk about wild seas, you talk about infinite spaces: look into me, and you will get scared. Look deeply into me, and you will become afraid. There is only one way to come near me, and that is to love. To love me is to die to the past. To love means to trust, to surrender. And there is no problem. If you really love open spaces and...

... condition that you will not get into the river unless you know swimming. If you make that condition you will never learn, because there is no other way to learn it. You have to go, cautiously of course, slowly of course; there is no need to go to the deepest part. But enter - find a spot where you can learn swimming and where you are not afraid to die. Don't enter into me, just give your hand to me...

... are, all that you do is right. And, if you don't know who you are, all that you do is wrong. So, we are not worried about right and wrong. The seventh question: Question 7: OSHO, PLEASE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME? This is from Madhuri. I am killing you Madhuri. I am a murderer, and you are trapped. You cannot escape me now because once you have tasted a little death, you cannot escape. Because now...

... you know much more is going to come. Once you have tasted a little death of the ego, you know, you can imagine now, you can dream of what a beautiful space is going to be there when the whole ego disappears: when you look within yourself and you don't find anybody there, just emptiness, vast emptiness. If you have found a little empty corner in your being, then you cannot move away now. You have...

... tasted. Now, you cannot go back to the ordinary world. Unless you die, there is no going back. Once you die, I will send you back to the ordinary world, because then nothing can corrupt you. Who can corrupt an emptiness? How can an emptiness be corrupted? It is open, absolutely vulnerable, and yet invulnerable, because nobody can corrupt it. It is incorruptible, it is virgin. The eighth question...

... is part of the whole:'The whole is, I am not.' The ocean is, the drop is not. And the poor in spirit is the richest man there is, the richest that is possible. The poor in spirit is the richest, because the emptiest is the fullest. Here, death means life. And when I say I am a murderer, I simply mean that I am a midwife. Here, destroying you means giving you rebirth - a new being, a being without...

..., you say that you love, and he's dying - or your wife - and when the wife is dying, on the deathbed, if somebody could open a window in your head and look, you are already planning and trying to find a new woman. The mind, at the most, exploits. It can never become a deep commitment. Deep commitment is of being. It knows no time, it knows no death. I am not saying that it is permanent, because...

... different purpose. He was saying, "The Day of Judgment is very close by - transform yourself! Don't waste time, don't postpone!" Now the day of universal death is really close by, so, Julia, don't postpone. Rejoice, rejoice, I say unto you again and again, rejoice - because if you can die rejoicing, you will transcend death, you will go beyond death. One who can die blissfully never dies...

... positive and the negative, the night and the day, the summer and the winter, birth and death - they are not separate. If you want to let go of one, you will have to allow the other also to go. That is one of the greatest dilemmas: people want the positive to remain with them - but if the positive remains, the negative remains as its shadow. The positive will not have any meaning without the negative. If...

... you don't know what darkness is you will not be able to see light at all. If you want to see light you will have to be ready to experience darkness too. You cannot avoid death if you cling to life. It is life that brings death in. And everybody wants to cling to the positive spaces and everybody wants to avoid the negative spaces. This is impossible - this is against the eternal law. If you watch...

... a buddha can say it because he has known the peaks. Knowing the peaks is simultaneously becoming aware of the valleys. If you live intensely, passionately, you will be more aware of death than the person who lives in a lukewarm way, who lives only so-so, who is not intense and passionate in his life. He cannot be very alert about death. The deeper you plunge into life, the greater will be your...

... awareness of death. The positive and the negative continuously balance each other. The Indians have played a trick upon themselves. They have become neutral: "Don't go to the heights of joy; that is the way to avoid the depths of misery, pain, sorrow." But this is not true revolution. True revolution is not by becoming indifferent, by becoming lukewarm, by living a very very dull life. Real...

..., without sadness. A kind of death he lives: he is already in his grave, he lives not. His life is not worth calling life. He has fallen below humanity; he is closer to the animals than to human beings. Hence his search for the caves, forests, jungles, mountains, deserts - he is afraid of being with human beings. He wants to fall below human beings, because human beings are bound to be divided by this...

... surrendered will look nonrebellious. A man who is rebellious will always be disobeying - how can he surrender? He may die, but he will not surrender. You know only one kind of surrender: the surrender that is forced on you, the surrender that is not done by you but you are made to do it - at the point of a dagger you are forced to surrender. That is not the surrender I am talking about. I am talking of a...

... proclaiming that they are the inheritors of Buddha. Buddhists were killed by the Indians! A time came after Buddha's death, after seven or eight hundred years, when all the Buddhists either were killed or they had to escape out of India. India was completely cleaned of Buddhists. Yes, they were killed, burned alive. Those who were fortunate escaped. In a way that was a blessing, because the people who...

... breath may not come in. Individually death is always imminent, but this time it is something global, universal. The whole earth may disappear, may explode; not only all human beings, birds, animals, trees, the whole life on earth may be gone. Now it is up to you, Julia Bradley. You can cry and weep and you can beat your head against the wall; that will not stop nuclear destruction and its threat. In...

... singing, of meditation, of prayer - and if people become full of bliss, cheerfulness, laughter.... If the world is full of laughter, there is every possibility we can avoid nuclear destruction, because joyous people don't want to destroy, they want to create. And anyway, Julia Bradley, you are going to die. Whether the whole earth remains or not does not matter. YOU are going to die, that much is...

... certain. How does it matter to you whether the world continues after you or not? If it continues, good; if it does not continue, good. How does it matter to you? You will not be here anymore. As far as you are concerned, death is absolutely certain. Still you love, still you sing, you listen to music, so what difference does it make? If destruction has become global, we have to make laughter and dancing...

... - he might give you a bust in the mouth. Me, it is alright you told. I'm gonna commit suicide anyway." Somewhere deep down you must have a suicidal instinct. You are just finding rationalizations. Yes, I know the world is facing a danger, but each individual has always faced the danger of death. Still Jesus says: Rejoice and rejoice! And again I say unto you, rejoice! And in fact, Jesus was...

..., because in death he comes to know immortality. And if the time is short, then you have to spread this orange laughter all over the world. Then it is time that we should make people more and more joyous. Tell them that death can take over this earth any moment - the days are numbered - because the politicians are fools, and the fools have so much power now that it is a sheer miracle that the third world...