Can Human Beings Be Equal?

Thursday, December 10 is International Human Rights Day. This year's focus is on non-discrimination. In the words of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights : "Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world's most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order."

The promise of equality without discrimination has been part of every major human rights treaty in the last 60 years starting with the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

Unfortunately, the eradication of unlawful discrimination has been more difficult and is taking longer than many people imagined.

Why? Because the concept of equality is a myth. Osho points out : " They say that every human being is equal. And of course it satisfies the ego of every human being -- nobody objects. It is one of the most dangerous lies to tell human beings.

"I say to you, equality is a myth.

" There are not even two human beings who are equal -- in any way, in any dimension. I don't mean that they are unequal, I mean that they are unique, incomparable, so the question of equality or inequality does not arise. Are you equal to these pillars in the hall? The pillars may be beautiful, but you are not equal to them. But does that mean you are inferior to the pillars? It simply means you are not a pillar -- pillars are pillars, you are you.

" Every human being is a category unto himself.

And unless we recognize the uniqueness of each individual, there are not going to be any human rights, and there is not going to be a civilized world -- human, loving, rejoicing."



Sermons In Stones/Courtesy Osho International Foundation

"Remember, only that which you can take with you when you leave the body is important. That means, except meditation, nothing is important. Except awareness, nothing is important, because only awareness cannot be taken away by death. Everything else will be snatched away, because everything else comes from without.
Only awareness wells up within. That cannot be taken away. And the shadows of awareness – compassion, love – they cannot be taken away. They are intrinsic parts of awareness. You will be taking with you only whatsoever awareness you have attained. That is your only real wealth. "  Osho

http://www.osho.com/newsletters/English/Dec09/index.html

Click on the above link to read more. . .

Awareness Once A Year!

What do you think awareness is? A car to be bought or maybe a house, or perhaps a new electronic gadget -- you buy it once a year and then use it for the rest of the year !

No, it's no joke, an organization in the US is trying to make the " dangerously unaware" citizens aware for a month, say December, which according to them is enough to tune in with their surroundings.
In an effort to combat what organizers are calling "our current epidemic of complete and utter obliviousness," the American Foundation for Paying Attention to Things has declared December "National Awareness Month."

"All across the country, millions of men and women are dangerously unaware," said the AFPAT spokesperson.

This is all cute, but it's based on utter misunderstanding of awareness.
Osho has said a lot on this topic. In fact the whole of his vision can be summed up in one word : awareness.

I would like to share some Osho tips with the members of AFPAT.

"Start awareness with the breathing process. At least for one hour every day, sit silently just watching your breathing, doing nothing -- not even chanting a mantra -- because then you are making it complex. You simply see the breathing; it is a natural mantra: it goes in, goes out, goes in, goes out. You are not to say that the breathing is going out. You have to simply go with the breathing: it is going out, the consciousness goes with it; it comes in, the consciousness comes in. You simply sense it is going in and coming out.
"You try to remember it, and you will find difficulties even in this simple process. For a few seconds you will be aware, then you will forget. Then your mind has taken you away -- to your business, to your woman, to your children, or a thousand and one problems are there.
Again after a few minutes you will remember: "I have forgotten; I am not watching my breath" -- then again come back. There is no need to repent, there is no need to fuss about having forgotten. Whenever you recognize that you have lost track of breathing, come back; again start watching it. Doing it slowly, slowly, one day you will be able to watch your breath.

"If a person can watch his breath for forty minutes continuously, then there is no problem in life.
He can watch any problem. And by watching, any problem can be dissolved.
But first you have to learn how to watch -- so don't start with complex things, but with very simple things.
"Buddha says two things: watch either breathing or walking. Buddha himself did both: for one hour he would sit under the Bodhi Tree and watch his breathing, and when his limbs would feel tired, cramped, then he would walk for one hour and watch his walking -- one foot goes... another foot, another, then he would turn.
The breathing awareness in Buddhist terminology is called anapansatiyoga, and the walking meditation is called chankramana.
These are two simple processes -- and both are tremendously beautiful: breathing can be watched sitting silently, and walking can be watched being active.
"Everybody is capable of walking; you need not even learn about it. Small, simple, spontaneous processes have to be made aware first. And then, when you have attained a certain capacity, you can try it on other things: anger, greed, sex, possessiveness, jealousy."

The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 4/courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Love In the Woods

"If love does not give freedom, it is not love," says Osho.

I am reminded of the Osho view when I see so much hullabaloo in the media over the private love-affairs of Tiger Woods, the American professional golfer. There may be an intense curiosity about private lives of public figures , but there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to privacy. In the developed country like America their top ranking golfer's personal life is dissected to minute details. Isn't it strange? People living in glass houses suddenly pick up stones in their hands and become moral police, conveniently forgetting that their houses are equally vulnerable.

Instead of looking at such incidents from a stiff moral point of view, it is more human to view it psychologically. Understand the human mind, its natural flow. Let compassion rise in the heart.

That's the Osho approach.
"Whether one is man or woman, everybody needs a change, at least once in a while -- for the weekend. Five days you can both be monogamous; for two days, on the weekend, you can both be polygamous.
"And if you become interested in other women, you should understand that your woman is also human, has the same heart, the same consciousness -- she also likes sometimes to meet a new man. She also gets tired and bored.
" In the new world, to which I have dedicated my whole life, there should be no marriage -- only lovers. And as long as they are pleased to be together, they can be together; and the moment they feel that they have been together too long, a little change will be good. There is no question of sadness, no question of anger -- just a deep acceptance of nature. And if you have loved a man or a woman, you will love to give the other person as much freedom as possible.
If love cannot give freedom, then it is not love."

Excerpted from The Golden Future



.

Osho On Terrorism

Amrit Sadhana

I often wonder, why someone finds pleasure in destroying something beautiful ? What could be the state of mind that chooses death over life? Can destruction be ultimately successful over creation?
Would like to share some of the Osho insights in this regard:
Osho says, " Terrorism is not an argument, it is a defeat."
The terrorists are defeated people. Defeated by whom? By themselves. These people have lost the battle of life and therefore can't see others living happily.
Another Osho insight digs even deeper into this phenomenon:
" If we can clean the basement of the human mind's unconscious... and that's what my work is. It can be cleaned away. The terrorism is not in the bombs, in your hands; the terrorism is in your unconscious.
"Otherwise, this state of affairs is going to grow more bitter. And it seems all kinds of blind people have bombs in their hands and are throwing them at random.
The third world war would have released people for ten or, fifteen years. But the third world war cannot happen because if it happens it won't relieve people, it will only destroy people.
"So individual violence will increase -- it is increasing. And all your governments and all your religions will go on perpetuating the old strategies without understanding the new situation.
"The new situation is that every human being needs to go through therapies, needs to understand his unconscious intentions, needs to go through meditations so that he can calm down, become cool -- and look towards the world with a new perspective, of silence."

Excerpted from Beyond Psychology/Courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Osho Inspires INDIA Dance Wales Troupe

Sadhana

Can a book be danced? Why not? This is the age of multimedia which means one medium can be converted into many other media. Music can be painted, and words can be danced.
This multidimensional creativity has inspired Kiran Ratna, the founder of INDIA Dance Wales to choreograph a multi art production "Life" combining engaging dance, live music and spellbinding narration.

The County Times writes, "This production, "Life," is inspired by the controversial writings of Osho, an Indian mystic and spiritual teacher who spoke and wrote much on the subject of human behaviour and modern day life, will take the audience through all the stages of life a human being encounters.
"From the womb, through relationships, family, career, religion, old age and finally back to the meditative state, these themes will be explored through dance, live music and narration."
I became curious and wrote to this company 's email address. And lo! Kiran Ratna herself replied saying, this dance was inspired by Osho's book on Maturity.

By the way what is the book on maturity?

Here is a glimpse :

About Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself

In a culture infatuated with youth, and determined to avoid old age at all costs, this book dares to raise a question that has been all but forgotten in the age of Viagra and cosmetic surgery. What benefits might lie in accepting the aging process as natural, rather than trying to hold on to youth and its pleasures all the way to the grave? Osho takes us back to the roots of what it means to grow up rather than just to grow old. Both in our relationships with others, and in the fulfillment of our own individual destinies, he reminds us of the pleasures that only true maturity can bring He outlines the ten major growth cycles in human life, from the self-centered universe of the pre-schooler to the flowering of wisdom and compassion in old age. A unique sense of humor runs like a thread through the book, along with a profound compassion and understanding of how easy it is to be distracted from the deeper meaning and purpose of our lives - which is, ultimately, to flower into our own individual uniqueness and maturity with an attitude of celebration and joy.
Copyright Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com/

.

Investment in Unhappiness

Sadhana

Osho says: ' Happiness is a learned skill. Basically every child is born happy and blissful.'

"Happiness is a choice you make in each moment about how you experience that moment, not a state you one day achieve. " says Barbara DeAngelis the foremost American author on human relationships .
Happiness appears to be like the horizon, the more we chase it, the more it recedes further. But it is worth remembering that the horizon is an illusion and happiness is reality. It eludes human beings because the human mind is trained to be negative, miserable, competitive, ambitious, complaining. The seeds of unhappiness are sown in the very childhood.
You may not agree that happiness is our natural state of being. Every child is born happy and blissful. Look at an infant chuckling and playing with itself, it is in a complete bliss. But as it grows older, the people around it conditions it to be serious, miserable putting lot of pressure.
We are taught to be ambitious, to be competitive, and in order to achieve it we sacrifice happiness. When we spend our lives preparing for the future rather than enjoying the present, we end up postponing happiness. Ask yourself: is my present career best described as preparing for the future, figuring that one day I will be happy?
I have a Swedish friend here at the Osho Meditation Resort, Pune, called Sucheta. A middle aged lively, bubbly woman. We all suffer from arrogant auto riksha drivers. Pune is no exception. Here the auto-rikshaw drivers demand exhorbitant money from the western passangers. When everyone is freaking out about it, Sucheta pays them more than they ask for, and is chirping happy! She says, "I bought peace for ten rupees. This is my antidote to their greed."

But we let these opportunities slip away because we are never present in the moment.
Osho has made an insightful observation on human investment in unhappiness: " People have a morbid liking for illness and people have a morbid attachment with unhappiness. That's why you are always ready for unhappiness. No preparation is needed, everybody is ready to jump. Nobody comes to me and asks how to be unhappy. Nobody has been teaching you unhappiness. You know it by instinct.
"There must be some deep investment in it. They want to be happy, but they cling to unhappiness. When you are unhappy it is easy to condemn the whole world, it is easy to throw responsibility on everybody else. When you are unhappy you can manipulate others who are near you -- because you are unhappy, and they have a responsibility to make you happy. When you are unhappy you can demand attention: 'I am ill; I am unhappy'
"Everybody goes on playing the game of being unhappy. You want to be happy, but unless you cut the investment in unhappiness you cannot be happy. And happiness is not somebody else's responsibility towards you, remember. Nobody else can make you happy. It is your own growth, your own awareness, your own moving energy -- higher and higher -- that gives you bliss."

www.osho.com/library