... choose that which is celebrating, joyous. If you can go on dropping all that is sad, sombre, serious, all that gives you a long face, you will be moving in the right direction. Cultivate all that brings joy, and I say 'all': the bodily, the psychological, the spiritual. The real celebration is when the body, the mind and the soul all dance together. If only the body dances, it is happiness; something...

... later the other beauty wears out and one is left in utter ugliness because one never developed the real beauty. The real beauty has nothing to do with the face but with the luminosity that comes from your within. It has nothing to do with the form of the eyes but with light that shines through them. It has nothing to do with the body but with the inner presence that vibrates through the body. The real...

... beauty arises at the core, at the very core of your being, and spreads outwards towards the body. The false beauty is just on the surface; it has no roots in you. It is ungrounded. Remember: one has to seek and search for the real beauty. And the real is eternal, it remains: once you have found it, you have found it forever. The momentary is simply a wastage of time, it is a kind of dream. One can...

... doctor operates, he gives you an injection to numb your body, so that when he cuts, you cannot feel the pain. If you cannot feel the pain, the pain is not there, because pain is in the feeling. When the doctor cuts your body you may be thinking that you have pain but that you are not feeling it because of the injection. Wrong! - because pain is in the feeling. If you are not feeling pain, then pain is...

... not there. It cannot exist without your feeling; there is no way for it to exist. The doctor has made your body numb. The nervous system has gone insensitive so it can be cut. It is just as when a person is paralysed and a mosquito goes on biting his foot. He will not feel it because he is paralysed. That part of the body is no more alive. Whether a mosquito or a scorpion or a beautiful flower is...

... has to be broken and then you will become more sensitive. Pain will come. It will come with a revenge because for many days you have been preventing it. Allow it - it is beautiful. To feel pain is beautiful because then you feel alive. A corpse cannot feel pain, only an alive body. So become alive again; don't carry the corpse. And when you feel pain, you can feel pleasure. When you can feel both...

... this numbness has to be broken. You have tremendous possibility in you. Once this numb style is broken you will start flowing. And to be with Veeresh is a great opportunity - you can use it. But sometimes it happens that if you are too close you start taking things for granted. [Osho suggested that she take up some vigorous physical exercise - swimming, running, horse- riding - to get the body energy...

... too one should be happy that it has happened early. People simply live without knowing what love is and then they die. I have heard about a man who went to his doctor. He was very old, and when the doctor examined him he said, 'Your body is ageing too much, and you are almost eighty. I think you will have to cut your love life in half.' The old man said, 'Okay; but which half? Thinking about it or...

... being and the whole body is excluded. Don't go to the other extreme; don't exclude the head. Accept the totality: your head, your hands, your body, your feelings, your thinking - everything has to be included. Man is such a rich possibility, and everything has to be helped to fall into a rhythm. Just think, if your legs want to go the West and your hands don't, then you are in a dichotomy. You are in...

... trouble... your being is contradictory. One hand wants to do something and another hand doesn't want to do it. With one hand you give, with another hand you snatch away. Then you are divided. But if both your hands are ready to give, your legs and eyes and your whole body are ready to go in one direction, you are in a perfect harmony, a beautiful graceful phenomenon. Here, don't take any head-trip...

... bath - then a hot shower or hot bath, then cold, then hot. Just go on changing for two minutes, mm? If you do it for ten minutes, then change it five times. Just let the whole body become hot and let it become cold again. And particularly the head, mm? So if you are just sitting in a bath, pour water on your head, otherwise it won't be effective. The whole body has to be involved in it, so a shower...

... when I am surprised, I choose the dead.] Everything is perfectly right. Just start a meditation every night before you go to sleep - a death meditation. In the beginning, lie down for ten minutes, turn the light off and start feeling that you are dying. Get into the feeling of dying... dying... dying.... Let the whole body be dead and feel that you are disappearing from the body, receding, receding...

..., receding. You have left the circumference the body completely - you are at the centre. Just a small light, at the centre, and all is dead. And in that state fall asleep. This feeling that comes to you is not anything wrong; it is just a natural indication from your unconscious that you have to meditate on death now. The unconscious is sending you a message of tremendous importance - that if you can learn...

... they can carefully record an event happening on the sun, then isn't it possible that in the mind of man also there might be some layer indicative of the sun's activity? Isn't it possible that man's body might have a subtle sensitivity to the sun's activity? Isn't it possible that in some way rings take shape deep within the human personality? Until now scientists have not been able to find such...

... records in man's body, but it doesn't seem possible that man's body wouldn't record such activity. Astrology is an investigation into the possibility that changes in the universe have also been recorded in man. But it is not as easy to investigate the body of man because it cannot be cut open like a tree. To cut open a human being is a very delicate and dangerous affair. And because man has a mind, it...

... is not the body which registers events in this way, but the mind. The tree has no mind, and so its body has to register the events. One more point is also worth noting.... Just as there are radio-active storms on the sun every eleventh year, similarly, there is another periodic rhythm of ninety years on the sun. This has only come to light recently, but it is a scientific fact and it is as...

... very old. During the later forty-five years, the earth is struck with earthquakes. Earthquakes are related to this ninety-year cycle. At the end of the ninetieth year, the sun again becomes youthful. This is a very important cyclical occurrence. There are such immense changes happening on the sun that it is natural for the earth also to be shaken. When a body as huge as the earth becomes upset by...

... earthquakes because of changes on the sun, how can the small body of a man remain unaffected? This is the question astrologers have been asking. They say it is impossible for the body of man to remain unaffected. Children that are born during those forty-five years when the sun is growing in youth are wonderfully healthy. But those children that are born during the forty-five years when the sun is growing...

... the earth at the moment of birth. Now scientists believe that every celestial body has its own unique radioactivity. The planet Venus throws out rays which are tranquil, whereas the moon has quite a different type of radio wave. The radio waves that reach us from Jupiter are different from those that reach us from the sun. The reason for the difference is that each planet has a different combination...

..., interconnected. This universe is like a family, like one organic body. When I am breathing, my whole body is affected; likewise, when the sun breathes, the earth is affected. The earth is even affected by what remote suns do. Even the smallest cell vibrates in unity with those giant suns. If you can understand this, we shall be able to enter into essential astrology, and then we shall be spared the uselessness...

...: N.A. The first question Question 1: WHAT IS THE DESIRE FOR PERFECTION? ADHEERA, THE DESIRE FOR PERFECTION is the search for the lost womb. The paradise - lost. The child is utterly happy in the mother's womb; that memory persists. It is not just a memory in the brain, it is in every cell of the body, every fiber of the body. It is all over you. That memory persists. Those nine months have been of...

.... They make it impossible for the child to love himself, to respect himself. And once that love and respect for oneself is lost, one IS lost. The world suffers so much - from madness, all kinds of mental illnesses, physical diseases. And ninety-nine percent of the causes of all these mind-body problems come from this approach, that the child has to be perfect. A family was seated in a restaurant. The...

... will be able to enjoy, celebrate, and you will be able to be healthy and whole. And you will not need to go to a psychiatrist or a psychoanalyst and lie down stupidly on the couch for five years talking nonsense. And there will be no need for any shock treatments either. In fact, if your mental stress disappears, your body will feel immediately relieved. Many diseases will automatically disappear...

... again consciously - if you can move back, become a child, a small child, a baby, just coming out of the womb - you will go through a great suffering and agony. You will suffer the same birth pain; you will feel suffocated, your breathing will become hectic. Sometimes the breathing may stop completely, your body will become paralyzed. You may feel you are dying, because that's what you felt when you...

.... There is no need to destroy your body chemically for it. You can just go through the birth trauma, and you can come back, and the whole world and the whole experience of the world becomes psychedelic. It is more colourful. It is a constant jubilation. There is no end to this jubilation - from beginningless beginning to endless end, it continues. It is a song ad infinitum. Once you start seeing this...

... have called them gods. Christians feel very offended, Mohammedans feel very offended, Jews feel very offended, when they think that Buddha is called a god. Why? He is just a human being - Buddha himself says, "I am a human being." But a human being who no more exists on the plane of the ego. Yes, just like you, he has the body. And he eats and excretes and sleeps and he is born and will die...

..., she would not be welcomed anywhere. She would be thought of as a bad omen. In no marriage would she be able to participate. If a child was born and people were celebrating, she would not be able to participate. She would not be allowed to decorate her body, to use beautiful clothes or ornaments or have long hair - no, she had to live in an ugliness, and condemned from everywhere. It was worse than...

... body one need not be a woman. Just by being in a male body one need not be a man. Man and woman are more states of the mind. There are men who are psychologically not male but female, and there are women who are psychologically not women but men. These are the people who create many problems, because they cannot be heterosexual. Heterosexuality has no appeal for them, they have to be homosexuals or...

... shows it - her whole concern is her womanhood. She says, "This is my deepest and the most honest question arising in me." Buddhahood, God, they are faraway questions. Her whole concern is with her body, her womanhood. It is not just an accident that women are standing before the mirror for hours. Their concern is immediate; they are more concerned with the body than with the soul. They are...

.... 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body. This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, the other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of himself. This...

... flower has died - it never dies. It simply changes bodies, so it is ever fresh. It leaves the old body, it enters a new body. It flowers somewhere else; it goes on flowering. But we cannot see the continuity because the continuity is invisible. We see only one flower, another flower; we never see the continuity. It is the same flower which flowered yesterday. It is the same sun, but in a different garb...

.... You need very penetrating eyes to see the invisible continuity. The invisible continuity is God. If you can see, this is the same flower in a different body. That's what Hindus call the theory of reincarnation. Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism, they all miss the beauty of it, so all the three religions by and by became materialistic. They had to, because the invisible had been missed. I am here...

.... You are here. You have been here millions of times before. It is an eternal recurrence; in different bodies, different shapes - but the continuity is the same. And we call that continuity the soul. Not this body, forms change; the formless, it remains. And this is the way for it to be eternal; otherwise it cannot be eternal. Death is a way to rejuvenate oneself again. You exhale; this is the way to...

... inhale again. You die; this is the way to be reborn. Each moment you die; the body is doing the same. You ask the physiologists - they say the body dies and renews itself every moment. Every cell will die. If you live seventy years, then at least ten times the body will have died completely. But gradually it changes. One cell dies, another is replaced, leaves fall down. It goes on. Just a few days ago...

..., the almond tree outside became completely naked. All the leaves fell down. This is the way. Now it is young again. Now new leaves have come. The old have gone, the new leaves have come. But the leaves are not the tree. The tree is that source from which leaves come, and that source is hidden. The old drops so that the new can come. The old body dies so that the new body can come. This is how...

... into it. Just standing under the shower, and the water goes on flowing, and the body feels fresh and young and alive, and the water is a blessing. Because we are made out of water. A man is almost eighty percent water, and the first glimpse of life happened in the sea. The first thing that existed was the fish, and even now, in the mother's womb, the child floats in seawater, with almost the same...

... character is nothing but an effort to be consistent. A real man cannot have any character. A real man is bound to be characterless because to have a character means to have consistency. To be characterless means to be free. I said something yesterday. Now, if I have a character, I will try to be consistent with my past; whatsoever I said yesterday, I have to say the same thing today. But then I have to...

... night. A real marriage is a continuous honeymoon and divorce, and honeymoon and divorce. Mini honeymoons, mini divorces; big honeymoons, big divorces. It continues like day and night. So whenever you come across a contradiction, be watchful, be very alert. You are very close to life. And when you are consistent you are just false, a plastic thing, you are not real. I don't teach consistency. I teach...

... face, a beautiful body, absolutely in proportion; but she is black. And then, she is dancing on the chest of her husband, almost killing him. Shiva is her husband, and she is dancing on his chest and almost killing him. And she loves him too. She loves and kills together. All contradictions put together. The mother gives you birth, the woman gives you birth, and by and by the woman kills you too. She...

... man knows the woman's body and woman knows the man's body, you cannot sell PLAYBOY. It is impossible. Who will purchase PLAYBOY? And who will look into all that crap? They have repressed so much that man's mind is fascinated of pornography. The whole credit goes to them. They have repressed so much that man's mind is boiling. The man wants to see the woman's body. Nothing wrong in it, a simple...

... desire, a human desire. And the woman wants to know the man's body. A simple desire, nothing wrong about it. Just think of a world where trees are covered with clothes. There are people ... I have heard about some English ladies who cover their dogs and cats with clothes. Just think, cows and horses and dogs dressed. Then you will find new pornography arising. Somebody will publish a NUDE picture of a...

... what the father looks like; now you are creating illness in the child's mind. It is YOU, that YOU are ill, and the illness will be reflected in the child's mind. I am not saying sit nude in the office or in the factory. If it is hot, it is okay, but there is no need to be naked, it should not be an obsession; but this continuous obsession of hiding your body is just ugly. And one thing more. Because...

... of the clothes, bodies HAVE become ugly, because then you don't care. You care only about the face. If your belly goes on becoming bigger and bigger, who bothers? You can hide it. Your body has become ugly because it is not exposed; otherwise you will think a little: the belly is getting too big. Just let one hundred people stand nude, and they all will be ashamed, and they will squirm and they...

... will start hiding themselves. Something is wrong. Why is it so? They know only about their face. The face they take care of; the whole body is neglected. This is bad. This is not good. It is not in favor of the body, either. Any country where people are allowed a little freedom to be nude becomes more beautiful; people have more beautiful bodies. If American women are getting more beautiful and have...

... past lives. And there has not been a single exception -- whenever you cross the border of the collective unconscious mind, you pass from the body of a cow, not from the body of a monkey. It is not a question of hypotheses. With Darwin it is only hypothetical, just a conjecture, and now he is being refuted, even by scientists. Now there are not many Darwinians; they are out of date. The latest...

... moment you are a monkey and next moment you decide to be a man, and you become a man. There must be a missing link... not only a link, perhaps many links, many steps slowly, slowly, but they should be available. Darwin could not even find dead bodies that would have been a proof of a link. We have been searching for dead bodies and we have found one ninety thousand years old -- a human body in China...

... choosing him." Or if it was possible for the master himself, if the school was small, then he would do it once in a while, just to show others what happens. The process is very simple. You have to lie down relaxed, the whole body relaxed. Looking inside the body starting from the toe, see if there is any tension. If there is any tension near the knee or near the stomach or anywhere, then relax it...

... keeping the bodies of enlightened people, because if the trees and the stones and the earth are impressed by the great experience, then certainly the body of the man, his bones, must be impressed -- they are closer. Perhaps Tibetans were the first to understand it: they have covered ninety-nine great masters' bodies with gold. That used to be the most sacred place in Tibet. It is just... If you have...

... used by these people, or just have made memorials of their bodies. In India bodies are burned, but you will be surprised to know that the remains left after burning a body are called "flowers". Ordinary people's ashes are thrown into holy rivers, but enlightened people's "flowers" are preserved in samadhis -- in beautiful marble memorials. Just to go and sit there is in itself a...

.... You are not supposed to stand on your head in a yoga posture. You are not supposed to contort your body in many ways for many years doing yoga exercises. You are not supposed to fast for months together to purify yourself. In fact, all these ways are also the way of the ego. The man who can stand on his head for twelve hours makes a record. He is destroying his whole intelligence by standing for...

... twelve hours on his head, because all the blood of his body will be rushing towards his head. It will be a flood, because gravitation will be pulling all the blood towards his head. In that flood, your fragile nerves, which are so small, so delicate - you have seven million in your skull - will be simply killed. That's why no yogi has contributed anything to the world. They have been parasites, and you...

... reason that the elephant cannot walk on two legs. In the circus, once in a while he sits on a stool. That is not going to help. It is certain he cannot walk on two legs for his whole life, that would be torture. It is a very simple phenomenon: if your body is horizontal - as all animals are - then the gravitation is equally forceful all over your body. Man standing on two legs is not an ordinary thing...

.... It is the greatest revolution that has happened in the whole of evolution. When you stand on two feet, your heart has to pump blood against gravitation towards the head because the head needs continuously to be fed with oxygen. Only six seconds are needed - if your head does not get oxygen for six seconds, you are dead. You can be revived because your body is perfectly okay, but you will be just a...

... YOU ARE SPREADING THE FRAGRANCE OF NIRVANA WHILE IN THE BODY. ISN'T IT TRUE? It must be. If you can smell the fragrance of nirvana, it must be. But I do not know. The tree itself never knows its fragrance. It is the people passing by who know. And you are not even passing by, you are just with me. I cannot smell my own being, because even to smell you have to divide: the one who smells, and the one...

... am really wild. I just don't kill you, because I have much more subtle things to kill. I leave your body alone, but I am continuously killing your ego, your jealousy, your competition-thousands of things you have inside you. I am wild. And certainly to be wild has a freedom unlimited. You would like the same freedom? It is easy, the easiest thing in the world. Just please don't seek it, don't want...