Бхагаван Раджниш (Ошо): Послания любви. 365 писем Ошо

that freedom from thoughts is attained.

Then you begin to live.

75. Love.

Rest is the supreme goal, work is the medium.

Total relaxation, with complete freedom from effort,

is the supreme goal.

Then life is a play, and then even effort becomes play.

Poetry, philosophy, religion are the fruits of repose.

This has not been available to everyone,

but technology and science will make it so

in the near future.

That is why I am in favor of technology.

Those who attribute intrinsic value to labor

oppose the use of machines – they have to.

For me, labor has no such intrinsic value: on the contrary,

I see it as a burden.

As long as work is a prerequisite for rest

it cannot be blissful.

When work flows out of a state of rest voluntarily,

then it is blissful.

So I cannot call rest a sin.

Nor do I support sacrifice.

I do not want anyone to live for anybody else, or one generation

to sacrifice itself for another.

Such sacrifices turn out to be very costly –

those who make them expect an inhuman return.

This is why fathers expect the impossible

from their sons.

If each father lives for his son who will live for himself?

For every son is a potential father.

No, I want everyone to live for himself –

for his own happiness, his own state of rest.

When a father is happy he does much more for his son –

and easily, because it comes out of his happiness.

Then there is neither sacrifice nor renunciation;

what he does comes naturally out of his being a father –

and a happy father at that.

Then he has no inhuman expectations of his son,

and where there is no pressure from expectations,

expectations are fulfilled – out of the son being a son.

In short, I teach each person to be selfish.

Altruistic teachings have taught man nothing but suicide,

and a suicidal man is always homicidal.

The unhappy sow their sorrow amongst others.

I am also against the sacrifice of the present for the future,

because what is is always present.

If you live in it totally the future will be born out of it –

and when it comes it too will be the present.

For he who has the habit of sacrificing the present for the future,

the future never comes

because whatever comes is again

always sacrificed for that which has not yet come.

Finally, you ask why I too work for others

and for the future.

First of all, I do not work.

Whatever I do flows out of my state of rest.

I do not swim, I just float.

No one can ever do anything for another

but if something happens to others out of what I am,

that is something else,

and there too I am not the doer.

As for the future –

for me, the present is everything.

And the past too is also a present – that has passed away.

And the future too – that is a present that is yet to come.

Life is always here and now

so I do not bother about past and future.

And it is amazing that ever since I stopped worrying about them

they have begun to worry about me!

My regards to all there.

76. Love.

There is a music which has no sound;

the soul is restless for such silent music.

There is a love in which the body is not;

the soul longs for such unembodied love.

There is a truth which has no form;

the soul longs for this formless truth.

Therefore melodies do not satisfy,

bodies do not satisfy,

and forms cannot fulfill the soul.

But this lack of fulfillment,

this dissatisfaction, has to be understood properly,

for such understanding

ultimately brings about transcendence.

Then sound becomes the door to the soundless,

the body becomes the path to the unembodied,

and form becomes the formless.

77. Love.

God is our only wealth.

Do not depend on any other wealth,

riches of any other kind bring only disaster.

St. Theresa wanted to set up a large orphanage

but at the time she had only three shillings.

She wanted to start this enormous project

with just this small amount.

Friends and admirers advised her:

Get the funds together first.

What can you do with just three shillings?

Theresa laughed and said:

Naturally Theresa can do nothing with three shillings,

but with three shillings plus God – nothing is impossible!

78. Love.

Sansara is nirvana ,

sound is mantra,

and all living beings are God.

It depends on how you look.

The world is nothing but how one sees it.

See! Open your eyes and see!

Where is darkness?

– there is only light.

Where is death?

– there is only deathlessness.

79. Love.

I have received your letter.

As the earth thirsts for the rains after a hot summer

so you are thirsting for God.

This thirst becomes an invitation to the divine clouds –

and the invitation has arrived.

Just keep drowning yourself in meditation

and his grace will definitely pour on you.

If you are ready here –

he is always ready there.

Look! Can’t you see his clouds hovering in the sky?

80. Love.

Do not fight with yourself.

You are as you are –

do not strive to change.

Do not swim in life,

just float

like a leaf on the stream.

Keep away from sadhanas , mere sadhanas .

This is the only sadhana .

Where is there to go?

What is there to become?

What is there to find?

What is, is here and now.

Please, stop and see!

What are the animal instincts?

What is low? and high?

Whatever is, is –

there is no high, no low.

What is animal?

What is divine?

So do not condemn,

do not praise,

nor condemn nor praise yourself:

all differences are of the mind.

In truth no differences exist.

There, God and animal are one and the same;

heaven and hell are just two sides of one coin;

sansara and nirvana are two expressions of one unknown.

And do not think about what I have said;

if you think you will miss.

See. Just see.

81. Love.

On the road to God the only sustenance is infinite hope –

hope shining like the north star in darkness, hope keeping

you company like a shadow in loneliness.

Dark and lonely life’s path certainly is –

but only for those without hope.

The famous geographical explorer Donald Macmillan was preparing

for his journey to the north pole when he received a letter.

On it was written:

To be opened only when there is no hope of survival .

Fifty years passed; the envelope remained with Macmillan as it was –

sealed.

Someone asked him the reason for this and he replied:

For one thing I want to keep faith with the unknown sender,

and for another, I have never given up hope.

What priceless words! – I have never given up hope !

82. Love.

I am delighted you have taken sannyas .

A life without the flower of sannyas is like a barren tree.

Sannyas is the supreme music of life.

It is not renunciation, on the contrary, it is life’s highest enjoyment.

Someone who finds diamonds and pearls is not going to bother

about pebbles and stones.

But note – he does not renounce them, interest simply drops away.

83. Love.

Thought is man’s strength

but blind belief has robbed him of it,

that is why he has become weak and impotent.