Osho was one of the most well-known figures of the 20th century due to his religious and spiritual teachings. At one point, he was a very controversial man because of his viewpoints, but one cannot deny that he still is one of the more inspiring people of the last century. His words are helpful in making you a better person.
If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.
When you love a person, you do not try to make him or her your own. Instead, leave him or her in the place where he or she can bloom. Admire the person from afar and never let your love try to take possession of him or her. The people you love should be left to grow and bloom on their own as you appreciate them.
Be — don’t try to become.
Simply put, you should always do things and never try to do them. Put all your effort into your craft so that you may succeed in it and so that there is no longer any trying portion in the entire process.
To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.
Creativity is all about how you love life and everything about it. You can only bring out the creative side in you if a part of you wants to see life becoming even more beautiful than it already is. After all, the most creative things tend to be representations of life but are much more than they actually are.
Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.
Life should never be all about happiness. Being sad is as much a big part of life as being happy. That is because sadness allows us to grow just as much as happiness does. They are two sides to the same coin and are equally important for us to become better humans.
Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.
Some people think that romantic relationships are the best kind of love, but friendship is actually the purest way you can love someone. That is because you do not ask for anything in return when you give out your friendship to someone.
Life begins where fear ends.
Fear is the shackle that keeps us in our place. But that is not where we should be if we want to begin to enjoy life. Instead, throw away your fears and allow yourself to live your life to the fullest without having to be afraid of anything before you.
Be realistic: Plan for a miracle.
A lot of people say that dreaming for miracles is not realistic. However, time and time again, we have seen people all over the world performing miracles in their own unique ways. That is because they did not dream or pray for miracles to happen but planned for them to be done. What may seem like an unrealistic miracle may become too realistic as long as you properly planned and prepared for it.
Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent, you will start feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself, whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that’s what maturity is all about.
At the end of the day, the only voice you can actually listen to for some sound advice is yourself. Listen to your voice and allow it to govern the way you live. You are your own person, and only that own little voice inside of you can help you become a more mature person as you learn to accept yourself for who you are.
Drop the idea of becoming someone because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.
The moment you are born into this world, you are already a piece of art that does not need to become anything else. People around you may influence your growth, but you should never pattern your life after theirs because yours has already been laid out. The only thing you need to do is to master yourself and improve the masterpiece that you already are.
Falling in love, you remain a child, rising in love you mature. By and by, love becomes not a relationship; it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in love – now you are love.
The act of falling in love is one that any child can do. However, by learning how to love, you get to mature as a person because love is not merely about having a relationship but is about your entire state and thought. You should never try to fall in love but should instead be love.
Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny–he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally–you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you.
You are here for a reason and not just to be some other person trying to live his life like a robot. There is a destiny you have to fulfill and a purpose you need to see. There is a meaning behind your existence, and that is what you should live for.
You feel good, you feel bad, and these feelings are bubbling from your own unconsciousness, from your own past. Nobody is responsible except you. Nobody can make you angry, and nobody can make you happy.
Feelings are things you can control because we reacted to certain situations in the past. But you can actually be responsible enough to try to control how you feel in a certain situation as long as you are conscious enough to know that feelings such as anger and happiness are based on how fast things have made you feel.
Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.
Doing things in the most creative manner is how you can rebel. Society is always telling you to stick to the status quo and to fit a certain standard it has set. But you as a person can rebel against such notions by becoming creative and unique in your own beautiful way.
Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.
Society fears intelligence because people who rely on their intelligence rely on their own ability to think rather than what society is telling them to think. Being intelligent means that you no longer believe in everything that rules and scriptures tell you because you yourself know what they mean based on your experience and on your own capacity to think for yourself.
Courage Is a Love Affair with the Unknown
We are normally afraid of the unknown precisely because we do not know what lies behind it. But being brave and courageous does not mean that you are no longer afraid of the unknown. Instead, it means that you love the unknown for what it is despite not knowing what it really is.
I love this world because it is imperfect. It is imperfect, and that’s why it is growing; if it was perfect, it would have been dead. Growth is possible only if there is imperfection. I would like you to remember, again and again, I am imperfect, the whole universe is imperfect, and to love this imperfection, to rejoice in this imperfection is my whole message.
The only reason why we should love anything is that they are imperfect. That is because perfect things no longer have any room to grow. Meanwhile, things that are imperfect have something to prove and something to improve. Those are the qualities that make us love them.
The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. And so in you, the child your mother lives on and through your family continues to live… so at this time look after yourself and your family as you would your mother for through you all she will truly never die.
Being a mother is one of the most beautiful things any woman can become. But not all women are mothers. A mother can only be born once the child is born as both mother and child share the same bond and existence. They cannot live without the other.
My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple. It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently.
True meditation isn’t all about doing all forms of complex rituals and practices. As long as you are peace, no matter what you are doing, you are already in a state of meditation.
Millions of people are suffering: they want to be loved, but they don’t know how to love. And love cannot exist as a monologue; it is a dialogue, a very harmonious dialogue.
Plenty of people are suffering just for love, but they are the same ones who do not even know how to love. The act of love is not something that you should only take. It is a two-way road and a dialogue between you and another. You give love, and you get love.
That is the simple secret of happiness. Whatever you are doing, don’t let past move your mind; don’t let future disturb you. Because the past is no more, and the future is not yet. To live in the memories, to live in the imagination is to live in the non-existential. And when you are living in the non-existential, you are missing that which is existential. Naturally, you will be miserable, because you will miss your whole life.
Being happy is all about living in the present without having to think about what has made you sad in the past and what can take away your happiness in the future. Live in the present and be happy with what you have now because those are the only thoughts that should occupy your mind today.
Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you, and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself.
The only way for you to find your own truth is to look for it from the inside and not from the outside. You cannot find your own truth in some book or in some random person’s teachings and preaching. It is something that you should search on your own as a personal journey from the inside.
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.
Life after death is something that you should never preoccupy yourself with so long as you are living. That is because you should be busy making sure that you are actually alive before you die. After all, just because you are biologically alive, it does not mean that you were able to live your life to the fullest before death eventually takes you.
They say: Think twice before you jump. I say: Jump first and then think as much as you want!
Thinking twice and hesitating can actually hinder your actions instead of helping you make the right choices. Instead, try taking the jump first before you try to think twice about doing it. After all, once you have already jumped off, you can do as much thinking as you want.
If you are a parent, open doors to unknown directions to the child so he can explore. Don’t make him afraid of the unknown, give him support.
It is understandable for parents to be extra protective of their children. However, clothing your child in a bubble wrap can hinder his growth as a person. Instead, allow him to get hurt, to explore, and to learn the unknown so that he may also grow as a person. Coddling the child simply will not help him at all.
Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, but nobody is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable. You are you; I am I. I have to contribute my potential to life; you have to contribute your potential to life. I have to discover my own being; you have to discover your own being.
A lot of us have been conditioned to think that there are people above and below is in any kind of metaphoric ladder possible. But the truth is that we are all on the same floor as no one can be above or below any person because of how each and every one of us has a unique way of contributing to society and to life itself.
Nobody has the power to take two steps together; you can take only one step at a time.
Learning things and doing things are not two-step processes or entire strides. Instead, learn things and do things in a manner that is as gradual as possible. Take one step at a time and do not rush yourself through the process, or else you will end up stumbling in the middle of the road with no one insight to help you get back up.
Whatever you feel, you become. It is your responsibility.
You and you alone are responsible for what you become in the future. It is not a responsibility you leave up to your parents, teachers, or friends. Every action you make and every step you make are things that only you can decide on.
To avoid pain, they avoid pleasure. To avoid death, they avoid life.
Pain is as big a part of life as pleasure is. You cannot avoid pain because it is what gives us the idea of what pleasure even is. To avoid pain is to avoid life itself because of how feeling pain is a large part of living. It is through the pain that we get to learn, to grow, and to know what the pleasurable things in life are.
A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.
You can never see the stars if you avoid the darkness. In the same way, you cannot see the good things in life if you have never been in a bad situation yourself. It is only when you know what being sad is that you get to understand what true happiness is all about.
Sadness is silent; it is yours. It is coming because you are alone. It is giving you a chance to go deeper into your aloneness. Rather than jumping from one shallow happiness to another shallow happiness and wasting your life, it is better to use sadness as a means for meditation. Witness it. It is a friend! It opens the door of your eternal aloneness.
Sadness has always been an integral part of life. People tend to avoid sadness by immersing themselves in temporary bliss that will only end up hurting them more. But instead of using temporary happiness as an escape to sadness, try using your sadness as a way for you to learn more about yourself so that you may grow out of that sadness.
I love it because my love is not dependent on the object of love. My love is dependent on my state of being. So whether the other person changes, becomes different, friend turns into a foe, does not matter, because my love was never dependent on the other person. My love is my state of being. I simply love it.
Love should never be dependent on a person or an object. To love is to become love itself so that when we lose the object of our love or if the person we love changes or leave, we do not lose our sense of love.
In love, the other is important; in lust, you are important.
Society today tends to always mix up lust and love or even think that they are one and the same. However, they are totally different. When you love, you focus more on the other person rather than yourself. However, when you lust for a person, you are actually thinking of your own self rather than the other person.
Find ecstasy within yourself. It is not out there. It is in your innermost flowering. The one you are looking for is you.
The sense of ecstasy you are looking for cannot be found in a person, an object, or a substance. Instead, it is a feeling you find within the inner self as it is slowly blooming throughout your life. Your job is to find that ecstatic feeling inside of you and to lean on it so that you no longer have to rely on people and on material things to be happy.
Be less of a judge, and you will be surprised that when you become a witness, and you don’t judge yourself, you stop judging others too. And that makes you more human, more compassionate, more understanding.
As much as possible, try not to judge others around you. To be a witness of how other people live is to stop judging them. And in the end, you end up understanding them even more instead of judging why they are the way they are.
You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is
Creativity is what keeps us as close to being divine as possible because of how our creator or our God himself had to be creative to create such a beautiful world. When we try to be as creative as the divine, we become close to it as we ourselves also get to learn how to create beautiful things out of the most mundane objects around us.
When I say be creative, I don’t mean that you should all go and become great painters and great poets. I simply mean let your life be a painting; let your life be a poem.
The thing about being creative is that we do not have to create concrete works of art or literary pieces such as poems and stories. Our life is our own work of art. It is the painting that we must continue to make colorful. You may also treat your life as a poem that is able to convey your feelings to the people around you. Be creative when living your life so that you may be able to get as close to the divine as possible.
You have to be grateful to existence that it has chosen you to be a passage for a few beautiful children. But you are not to interfere in their growth, in their potential. You are not to impose yourself upon them. They are not going to live at the same time; they are not going to face the same problems. They will be part of another world. Don´t prepare them for this world, this society, this time, because then you will be creating troubles for them. They will find themselves unfit, unqualified.
When you are raising children, your job is to guide them and not to control them. They have their own unique skills and potential just as you do. They live at different times as you do and are going to face their own battles. As such, you should never interfere. Instead, prepare them for the world ahead as that is the only way possible for you to guide them without imposing your life on them.
Fame is foolish; it is pointless, meaningless. Even if the whole world knows you, how does it make you richer? How does it make your life more blissful? How does it help you to be more understanding, to be more aware? To be more alert, to be more alive?
Being famous may come with its own perks, but all of those things are material and useless in the greater scheme of things. Being famous does not necessarily mean that you became a better and more understanding person who has lived a life of meaning. That is why even the most famous people still fall into depressive states as they have come to realize that all the fame in the world will not be enough to satisfy their quest for meaning.
All that is great cannot be possessed – and that is one of the most foolish things man goes on doing. We want to possess.
The greatest things in the world are not material possessions that we should seek out. Instead, we should go out there and look for possessions we can never materialize into concrete objects. Seek out new learnings, experience novel things, try out new ideas and search for lands and thoughts undiscovered. Those are the greatest things we can have but never possess materially.
Don’t try to understand life. Live it! Don’t try to understand love. Move into love. Then you will know – and all that knowledge will come out of your experience. The more you know, the more you know that much remains to be known.
Life is something that we should never try to understand because it was meant to be something that we cannot even understand. Instead, we should live life because that is the only thing we can do with the life that we have.
Love is the goal; life is the journey.
In this journey, we call life; we only have one goal to achieve—love. But love is not something to be gained or given. It is a state of being that we should try to reach.
It is beautiful to be alone; it is also beautiful to be in love, to be with people. And they are complementary, not contradictory.
People often regard loneliness as an ugly state of sadness while being in love is the best state we could ever be in. However, both are complementary as we get to grow as persons both when we are alone and when we are in love.
Love and respect yourself and never compromise for anything. And then you will be surprised how much growth starts happening of its own accord.. as if rocks have been removed and the river has started flowing.
When you learn how to love yourself and respect yourself for who and what you are, everything starts to fall into place. You will begin to grow without having to rely on what others say or think.
There exists no God. What exists is godliness, and that godliness surrounds you. We are all in the same ocean.
Religion has taught us to believe in God, but what we should all believe in is the state of godliness and the state of being one and complete with who we are as persons. Only then can we truly say that we have reached divinity not as gods but as people who practice being godly.
What is discipline? Discipline means creating an order within you. As you are, you are a chaos.
Discipline is not something that other people impose on you, but it is something that you should try to create within yourself. Your entire being is chaotic, but being a more disciplined person means putting a sense of order in the chaotic being that you are.
Conclusion
While not all of us necessarily believe in Osho’s teachings, it cannot be denied that the man has a lot of wise words we can learn to live by. That is why he is still one of the most influential people in the past hundred years.
