Totally Free, Totally Aware

To be totally free one needs to be totally aware,because our bondage is rooted in our unconsciousness;it does not come from the outside.Nobody can make you unfree.You can be destroyed but your freedom cannot be taken away -unless you give it away.In the ultimate analysis it is always your desire to be unfreethat makes you unfree.It is your desire to be dependent,your desire to drop the responsibility of being yourself,that makes you unfree.
The moment one takes responsibility for oneself...and remember it is not all roses,there are thorns in it; and it is not all sweet,there are many bitter moments in it.The sweet is always balanced by the bitter,they always come in the same proportion.The roses are balanced by the thorns,the days by the nights, the summers by the winters.Life keeps a balance between the polar opposites,so one who is ready to accept the responsibilityof being oneself with all its beauties, bitternesses,in joys and agonies, can be free.Only he can be free.
Accept the responsibility of being yourself as you are,with all that is good and with all that is bad,with all that is beautiful and that which is not beautiful.In that acceptance a transcendence happensand one becomes free.
Freedom means transcendence, going above the duality.Then you are neither ecstasy nor agony;you are just a witness to all that happens to you.That transcendence is real freedom andthat makes one enlightened, liberated.
------ o 0 o ------>From the book:"Osho, A Must for Morning Contemplation"A collection of extracts from talks by Oshocompiled at Osho's suggestionCopyright Osho International Foundation,Published by Rebel Publishing House, Germany

Conscious Bliss

The trees, the birds, the animals, are one with existence - but unaware. They are blissful; but they have no idea of what bliss is, they are not conscious of it. And a bliss which is unconscious is not of much value. You may have a treasure, but if you are not aware of it what is the point of having it!The distant call of the cuckoo is beautiful to us, but not to the cuckoo itself. The cuckoo has no idea what beauty is, what music is, what poetry is. It is unaware - blissful, but unaware.
Man is not aware but miserable. But this misery can be dropped. Awareness has to be increased a little more and man has to drop it consciously and has to achieve a reunion - I call it a reunion. The tree and the cuckoo and the other birds and the animals are in a state of union. Man has to reclaim it; he has lost contact with it.It all depends on us, on what we do about our misery. We can go on nursing it and we can go on creating more hell for ourselves. We can drop it and we can move towards the whole for the ultimate merger. We can melt ourselves into the ocean of existence; and then bliss arises. And when man becomes blissful, his bliss has tremendous value. The cuckoo is blissful but its bliss has no value.
To be consecrated to God means to be ready to merge and melt into the whole. Then bliss comes of its own accord.
.------ o 0 o ------>From the book:"Osho, A Must for Morning Contemplation"A collection of extracts from talks by Oshocompiled at Osho's suggestionCopyright Osho International Foundation,Published by Rebel Publishing House, Germany.

Osho on Laughter

[During his discourses on the AKSHYA UPANISHAD Osho explained the place and significance of laughter in human life.]
...Thirdly, it has to be understood that there are three types of laughter. The first is when you laugh at someone else. This is the meanest, the lowest, the most ordinary and vulgar when you laugh at the expense of somebody else. This is the violent, the aggressive, the insulting type. Deep down in this laughter there is always a feeling of revenge.
The second type of laughter is when you laugh at yourself. This is worth achieving. This is cultured. And this man is valuable who can laugh at himself. He has risen above vulgarity. He has risen above lowly instincts -- hatred, aggression, violence. And the third is the last -- the highest. This is not about anybody -- neither the other nor oneself.
The third is just Cosmic. You laugh at the whole situation as it is. The whole situation, as it is, is absurd -- no purpose in the future, no beginning in the beginning. The whole situation of Existence is such that if you can see the Whole -- such a great infinite vastness moving toward no fixed purpose, no goal -- laughter will arise. So much is going on without leading anywhere; nobody is there in the past to create it; nobody is there in the end to finish it. Such is whole Cosmos -- moving so beautifully, so systematically, so rationally. If you can see this whole Cosmos, then a laughter is inevitable.
I have heard about three monks. No names are mentioned, because they never disclosed their names to anybody. They never answered anything. In China, they are simply known as the three laughing monks. And they did only one thing: they would enter a village, stand in the market place and start laughing. They would laugh with their whole being and suddenly people would become aware. Then others would also get the infection and a crowd would gather. The whole crowd would start laughing just because of them. What was happening? The whole town would get involved. Then they would move to another town.
They were loved very much. That was their only sermon, their only message; that laugh. And they would not teach; they would simply create a situation. Then it happened that they became famous all over the country. Three laughing monks. All of China loved them, respected them. Nobody had ever preached in such a way that life must be just a laughter and nothing else. They were not laughing at anyone in particular. They were simply laughing as if they had understood the Cosmic joke. And they spread so much joy all over China without using a single word. People would ask for their names, but they would simply laugh. So that became their name -- the three laughing monks.


Then they grew old. And while staying in one village. one of the three monks died. The whole village became very much expectant because they thought that when one of them had died, the other two would surely weep. This must be worth seeing because no one had ever seen these people weeping. The whole village gathered. But the two monks were standing beside the corpse of the third and laughing -- such a belly laugh. So the villagers asked them to explain this. So for the first time, the two monks spoke and said, "We are laughing because this man has won. We were always wondering as to who would die first and this man has defeated us. We are laughing at our defeat and his victory. Also he lived with us for many years and we laughed together and we enjoyed each other's togetherness, presence. There can be no better way of giving him the last send off. We can only laugh."
But the whole village was sad. And when the dead monk's body was put on the funeral pyre, then the village realized that the remaining two monks were not the only ones who were joking, the third who was dead was also laughing. He had asked his companions not to change his clothes. It was conventional that when a man died they changed his dress and gave a bath to the body. So the third monk had said, "Don't give me a bath because I have never been unclean. So much laughter has been in my life that no impurity can accumulate, can come to me. I have not gathered any dust. Laughter is always young and fresh. So don't give me a bath and don't change my clothes."
So just to respect his wishes, they did not change his clothes. And when the body was put to fire, suddenly they became aware that he had hidden some Chinese fire-works under his clothes and they had started going off. So the whole village laughed and the other two monks said: "You rascal, you are dead, but you have defeated us once again. Your laughter is the last."
There is a Cosmic laughter which comes into being when the whole joke of this Cosmos is understood. That is of the highest. And only a Buddha can laugh like that. These three monks must have been three Buddhas. But if you can laugh the second type of laughter, that is also worth trying. Avoid the first. Don't laugh at anyone's expense. That is ugly and violent. If you want to laugh, then laugh at yourself. That's why Mulla Nasruddin, in all his jokes and stories, always proves himself the stupid one, never anybody else. He always laughs at himself and allows you to laugh at him. He never puts anybody else in the situation of being foolish. Sufis say that Mulla Nasrudin is the wise fool. Learn at least that much -- the second laughter. If you can learn the second, then the third will not be far ahead. Soon you will reach the third. But leave the first type. That laughter is degrading. But almost ninety-nine percent of your laughter is of the first type. Much courage is needed to laugh at oneself. Much confidence is needed to laugh at oneself. For the spiritual seeker, even laughter should become a part of Sadhana. Remember to avoid the first type of laughter. Remember to laugh the second. And remember to reach the third.

Laughter is one of the most divine experiences,

but very few people really laugh.

Their laughter is shallow.

Either it is just intellectual or

just a facadeor just a formality or

just a mannerism,

but it is never total.

If a man can laugh totally,

wholeheartedly,

not holding anything back at all,

in that very moment something tremendous can happen -because laughter,

when it is total,

is absolutely egolessand that is the only conditionin which to know god,

to be egoless.

There are many ways to be egoless

but laughter is the most beautiful way.

Laughter needs no talent.

In fact children laugh more beautifully more totally.

As they grow up, their laughter becomes shallow;

they start holding back, they start thinking

whether to laugh or not to laugh, or

whether it is right in this situation to laugh.

Learn the laughter of small children again

laugh consciously and totally -and not only at others,

at yourself too.

One should never miss an opportunity to laugh.

Laughter is prayer.
------ o 0 o ------From the book:

"Osho, A Must for Morning Contemplation"
A collection of extracts from talks
by Oshocompiled at Osho's suggestion

Osho's Laughing Meditation

This is a five minute morning meditation that I learned from Osho. It was one of those major life-changing experiences. For me laughing for no reason was a big jump towards taking responsibility for my moods. If I wanted to drop my misery and be happy, I could just choose to do this meditation and be so. It's not like anything you would imagine as meditation if you think meditation is only sitting silently on a cushion, but laughter is a state where the mind disapears in an explosion of joy, and as I understand Osho, this is a sure-fire way to get a taste of meditation. It is certainly relaxing and energizing, and it flushes all your "problems" away. You don't have to limit yourself to only five minutes, nor do you have to do it only in the morning.

"Every morning upon waking, before opening your eyes, stretch like a cat. Stretch every fiber of your body. After three or four minutes, with eyes still closed, begin to laugh. For five minutes just laugh. At first you will be doing it, but soon the sound of your attempt will cause genuine laughter. Lose yourself in laughter. It may take several days before it really happens, for we are so unaccustomed to the phenomenon. But before long it will be spontaneous and will change the whole nature of your day."

- Osho, The Orange Book, p. 16.

Osho's "Ten Commandments"

Love.
You have asked for my Ten Commandments.
It is very difficult because I am against any sort of commandment.
Yet, just for the fun of it, I write as follows:
1. Obey no command unless it is a command from within.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within. Seek not elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. Emptiness is the doorway to Truth. Emptiness is the means, the
destination, the attainment.
6. Life is----here and now.
7. Live----fully awake.
8. Do not swim----float.
9. Die each moment so that you grow anew each moment.
10. Search not: that which is, is. Stop----and see."
Osho
April 8, 1970
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Sannyas is for Lions

BELOVED OSHO,

YOU EXPLAIN TO US THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMPTYING ONESELF AND EFFACING ONESELF? AND WHAT IS THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUALITY IN DISSOLUTION?

Divya, the process of emptying oneself and the process of effacing oneself have nothing in common. Not only are they different, they are diametrically opposite.Emptying oneself brings individuality, more and more individuality. Emptying oneself means emptying oneself of all that is implied in personality.Personality is a farce, personality is pseudo, personality is that which is given to you by the society. Personality is imposed on you from the outside; it is a mask. Individuality is your very being. Individuality is that which you bring into the world, individuality is God's gift.Personality is ugly because it is pseudo. And the more personality you have, the less is the possibility for individuality to grow. The personality starts occupying the whole of your space. It is like a cancerous growth. It goes on growing, it possesses you totally. It leaves no space for individuality to have even its own corner. The personality has to be dropped, so that the individuality can be.Individuality is a non-egoistic phenomenon; it is pure am-ness, it has no 'I' in it. Personality is nothing but 'I': it has no am-ness in it. Personality is aggressive, violent, dominating, political. Individuality is silent, loving, compassionate; it is religious.Emptying oneself means emptying of all content -- just as you empty a room of all the junk that has gathered there, down the years. When you have emptied the room of all the furniture and all the things, you have not destroyed the room, not at all; you have given it more roominess, more space. When all the furniture is gone, the room asserts itself, the room is.Effacing oneself means destroying the room itself -- destroying the very space of your being, destroying the very uniqueness of your existence, destroying the gift of God. Effacing yourself means becoming a slave.Individuality gives you mastery; it makes you very authentic, grounded, rooted. It gives you substance; you are no longer dream stuff. It gives you solidity, it gives you clarity, transparency, vision. It makes you aware of the beauty of existence, it makes you aware of the beauty of all. Effacing yourself destroys you, it is suicidal. You are not dropping your personality, you are dropping your very uniqueness. You are becoming more and more shadowy, rather than becoming more substantial. You are becoming a slave.And the ironical thing is that if you efface yourself, the ego will remain. Now it will become a very subtle ego, so subtle that it will be almost impossible to detect it. Now it will claim humbleness, nobodiness, humility. But the claim will persist. It will say, "Look, I have effaced myself. I am no more."But when you say, "I am no more" you are -- otherwise who is saying, "I am no more?"A so-called saint was once asked, "Are you God?"He said, "No" -- but immediately he added, "The sun rises in the morning, but it does not declare 'I am the sun.'"In a vicarious way he is saying, "I am God. But I am like the sun which rises every morning but does not declare 'I am God.'"I told the man who had related the incident to me, "Go back to that so-called saint, and tell him that the sun does not say, 'I am not the sun' either." The sun does not say, "I am the sun" or "I am not the sun" -- not because the sun is enlightened, but simply because it cannot speak! If it could speak, it would have declared it in a thousand and one ways. In fact it is declaring in a thousand and one ways: "I am here!" It is declaring it in the flowers, in the birds; it is declaring all over: "I am here!"Once Krishnamurti was asked, "Why do you go on talking?"He said, "This is simply my nature, to talk." He said, "I talk in the same way as the flower releases its fragrance."The flower cannot talk, it has its own language; the fragrance is its language. The sun cannot talk, but the light that radiates from it is its way of communicating the fact: "I am here, I have arrived."In Japan there is a saying: "Flowers don't talk." That saying is utterly wrong -- they talk. Of course they speak their own language. The Tibetan speaks his language; will you say that he does not talk? The Chinese speaks his own language; will you say he does not talk? Just because you cannot understand, will you say he is not talking? The Chinese has his own language, so does the sun, so do the flowers, so do the animals, the birds, the rocks. In millions of languages the whole world asserts itself.But the humble person starts saying, "I am not. I am not an ego, I have effaced myself." But who is saying these things? The person who has emptied himself will not say such things. He will say, "I am, and I am for the first time. But now in my I-am-ness 'I' is only linguistic, a way of saying it. Existentially, there is only am-ness."And let this be the criterion for whether you are emptying yourself or effacing yourself. If you are emptying yourself you will become more and more blissful, because you will become more and more spacious. You will become more and more available to God and to God's celebration. You will become open to existence and all its joys and all its blessings.But if you are effacing yourself you will become more and more sad and heavy, you will become more and more dull and dead -- because effacing oneself is nothing but a slow suicide. Beware of it. And you have to be aware, very aware, because they both look alike.The real danger in spiritual growth is from things which are diametrically opposite but look very alike. The real problem does not arise from things which are apparently opposite; the real problem arises with things which are not so apparently opposite, and yet they are opposite.The real opposite of hate is not love, the real opposite of love is not hate -- it is so apparent, who can be deceived by it? The real opposite of love is pseudo-love: love that pretends to be love, and is not. One has to be watchful there.The real opposite of compassion is not anger. The real opposite of compassion is cultivated compassion: compassion that is not within you but is only in your character, compassion that you have painted on your circumference.The real opposite of your smiles are not tears, but smiles which are painted, smiles which don't go any deeper than the lips, which are nothing but exercises of the lips. No heart collaborates with them, no feeling stands behind them. There is nobody behind the smile, the smile is just a learned trick. Tears are not opposite to smiles, they are only complementaries. But the false smile is the real opposite.Remember it always, the false is the enemy of the true. If your smile is true and your tears are true, they are friends, they will help each other because they both will strengthen the truth of your being. If your tears are false and your smiles are false, then too, they are friends; they will strengthen your falsity, your personality, your mask.The conflict is between the real and the unreal or pretended. Emptying oneself is of tremendous value, but effacing yourself is dangerous. Effacing yourself is a subtle way of the ego -- the ego coming from the back door.And naturally it will make you more and more serious. That's why your so-called saints look so serious. Their seriousness has a reason in it. The reason is, they are maintaining humbleness which is not really there. And to maintain something which is not really there is arduous, hard. One has to be continuously on guard. Just a little slip here and there, and the reality will assert, and it will destroy all that you have maintained for so long. It will destroy your respectability.Anything that has to be maintained will keep you serious and sad, deep down afraid of being caught red-handed, of being caught in your falsity. You will escape from people if you are carrying something false in you. You will not allow anybody to be friendly, to be intimate with you, because in intimacy the danger is that the other may be able to see something which strangers cannot see. You will keep people at a distance; you will run and rush away from people. You will have only formal relationships, but you will not really relate, because to really relate means to expose yourself.Hence your so-called saints escaped into the monasteries. It was out of fear. If they were in the marketplace they would be caught; it would be discovered that they are cheating, that they are deceiving, that they are hypocrites. In the monasteries they can maintain their hypocrisy and nobody will ever be able to detect it. And moreover, there are other hypocrites there; they can all maintain their conspiracy together more easily than each single hypocrite can maintain his alone.Monasteries came into existence for escapists. But you can live even in the world in a monastic way, keeping people always at a distance, never allowing anybody access to your inner being, never opening up, never allowing anybody to have a peek into you to see who you are, never looking into people's eyes, avoiding people's eyes, looking sideways. And always in a hurry, so that everybody knows you are so occupied, you don't have any time to say hello, to hold somebody's hand, to sit with somebody informally. You are so busy, you are always on the go.You will not even allow intimacy with those who are close to you -- husbands, wives, children -- with them also you will have a formal relationship, an institutional relationship.Hence marriage has become an institution. It is really ugly to see something so tremendously beautiful becoming an institution. And if people look so miserable it is natural. If you live in institutions you will be miserable.Divya, you ask me: "Can you explain to us the difference between emptying oneself and effacing oneself?"Effacing oneself is the way of the ego, emptying oneself is the way of understanding. In emptying yourself you simply understand the ways of the ego -- and in that understanding, the ego disappears of its own accord. You don't drop it, you don't have to drop it. You don't fight with it. It is not found.When you look within with attention, with the light of awareness, you cannot find any ego there. So the question does not arise of why or how one should efface oneself. There is nothing to efface! That which is, is, and cannot be effaced. And that which is not, is not, and there is no need to efface it.Emptying oneself simply means seeing oneself. And then many things start dropping, because you were unnecessarily carrying them. In the first place, they don't exist. They are ghosts, nightmares; they disperse themselves when the light is brought in. Emptying oneself is a meditative process. Just looking in, deeply, with no prejudice, with no prefabricated ideology, neither for nor against, just looking in, and emptying starts happening.And when you have emptied all content -- thoughts, desires, memories, projections, hopes -- when all is gone, for the first time you find yourself, because you are nothing but that pure space, that virgin space within you. Unburdened by anything, that contentless consciousness, that's what you are! Seeing it, realizing it, one is free. One is freedom, one is joy, one is bliss.But effacing oneself is dangerous. It means you have accepted already that the ego is there and it has to be effaced. You have accepted an illusion, and now you want to destroy it. You have missed the first point. You have accepted that the rope is a snake, and now you are trying to kill the snake. You will be in great trouble. You will never be able to kill the snake, because in the first place there is none. You can go on beating the rope, but what about the snake? The snake will remain there.The snake exists in your illusion; the snake does not exist outside, otherwise you could have killed it. But how can you kill a snake which is not? You are fighting with a shadow, and you are bound to be defeated.Let this fundamental be remembered always: if you fight with anything false, you will be defeated. The false cannot be defeated, because it is false. How can you defeat something which is nonexistential? There is no way. The only way is, bring light and see.Ihi passiko, come and see! In that very seeing, the snake is not found. The rope is there, the snake has disappeared. Now there is no need to efface yourself, no need to fight.There are millions of people who try to become humble, but their whole effort is nonsense, sheer stupidity.Once a man asked me, "Are you an egoist or a humble person?"I said. "Neither. neti neti, neither this nor that. I cannot be either."He said, "What are you talking about? One has to be either an egoist or a humble person."I said, "You don't understand. You know nothing; you have never gone within yourself. If you are humble, you are an egoist standing on his head. Humbleness is an expression of the ego. I am neither. I am simply whatsoever I am, neither humble nor egoistic, because I have seen that there is no ego. How can there be humbleness then?"Humbleness is diluted ego. But if there is no ego, how can you dilute it? If there is no snake, how can you take the poisonous teeth of the snake away? That's what humbleness is. The poisonous teeth have been removed from the snake; now the snake cannot hurt, now the snake cannot bite, now the snake cannot do any harm -- but the snake is there.Those teeth were false, because the snake itself is false.Buddha is neither egoistic nor humble. Both are impossible for the man of understanding. The ignorant person can be egoistic, can be humble -- both are aspects of ignorance. And the ignorant person can try to efface the ego, because it is so respectable not to have the ego. One becomes a saint by effacing the ego, one attains great prestige and power by effacing the ego. But it is the same game; the game has not changed.My message to you is, please don't efface yourself. Be yourself, look within yourself, and in that very seeing, the ego disappears. Even to say "disappears" is not right: the ego is not found, it has never been there. Its existence depended on your not looking within yourself. Seen, it is no longer there -- it has never been there.And then you are individuality, uniqueness, a unique expression of the divine. And then there is great rejoicing. You start blooming, the spring has come. You start dancing, you start singing. Great gratitude arises in you that God has made you a unique individual.There has never been a person like you before, there is nobody else like you right now in the whole world, and there will never be anybody like you. Just see how much respect God has paid to you. You are a masterpiece -- unrepeatable, incomparable, utterly unique. Even the hardest heart, the rocklike heart, will start melting in gratitude. Tears will start flowing, tears of bliss and joy, tears which laugh.But please remember, empty yourself, don't efface yourself.

Who is Osho?

An impossible question to answer, because what to say. How can it actually be said who Osho is? Can a flower be defined, can love be bottled and sold? Can truth be contained in words? Can truth like a butterfly be caught? Words can be an echo of something we vaguely know inside ourselves, they can ring bells in our hearts, calling us forth to take a jump to something which is a deep longing. This longing will pull us to find ways to transform ourselves, dive deep into our own interiority, without blame, without judgement, without fear, without goal, just a fire to know the within, to discover who we are.....find out inside ourselves 'Who is Osho'. Osho Risk is a 'Buddhafield', a place which vibrates, celebrates, dances, dives into this longing to know 'who we are', to find Osho within, the oceanic existence. Here is a short biography of Osho followed by a question somebody asked Osho.

OSHO BIOGRAPHY
Osho was born in Kuchwada, Madhya Pradesh, India, on December 11, 1931. Rebellious and independent from the very childhood, he insisted on experiencing the truth for himself rather than acquiring borrowed knowledge from others' belief systems.

He attained Enlightenment at the age of twenty one and went on to complete his education. He taught philosophy at the University of Jabalpur for many years. Meanwhile, he would meet people, address large gatherings and give talks traveling all over India.

Osho revived all the ancient spiritual traditions like Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Tantra, Sufi, Hasid, Tao, Baul and Zen. Not only he revived all these traditions and spoke on great saints and masters like Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Mahaveera, Shiva he developed his unique dynamic meditation techniques that help the modern man unburden his anxieties, stress through a deep cleansing process in order to achieve a relaxed state of meditation and ultimately - Enlightenment.

Osho spoke on almost every aspect of life not through an intellectual understanding but based on his own existential experience distilling the essence of what is significant to the spiritual growth of modern man. His talks are transcribed and published in over 600 volumes and translated into many languages. The meditation centers owing allegiance to him can be found all over the world.

In early 1970's a commune started to emerge around him in Pune where many seekers came from around the world to meditate. This beautiful Buddhafield became the spiritual capital of the world. Osho traveled to USA and many other countries finally arriving in Pune commune in 1987 where he left his body on January 19, 1990. The transcription on His Samadhi says:

Osho
Never Born - Never Died
Only visited this planet earth between
December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990