Money is a loaded subject

Sadhana

Why is money such a loaded subject? Particulary in the contemporary times people can do anything for money. Why has money acquired such a big status?
Osho says, money is a loaded subject because man's psychology is full of greed; otherwise money is a simple means of exchanging things, a perfect means. There is nothing wrong in it, but the way we have worked it out, everything seems to be wrong in it.

These Osho insights will help you understand the nature of this sticky problem.
Money is a loaded subject for the simple reason that we have not been able to work out a sane system in which money can be a servant to the whole humanity, and not the master of a few greedy people.

How much money is enough?
If you don't have money, you are condemned; your whole life is a curse, and your whole life you are trying to have money by any means. If you have money it does not change the basic thing: you want more, and there is no end to wanting more. And when finally you have too much money -- although it is not enough, it is never enough, but it is more than anybody else has -- then you start feeling guilty.

Your means of collecting money are ugly
The means that you have used to accumulate the money are ugly, inhuman, violent. You have been exploiting, you have been sucking the blood of people, you have been a parasite. So now you have got the money but it reminds you of all the crimes that you have committed in gaining it.
Charity out of guilt
People start donating to charitable institutions to get rid of guilt. They are doing "good work," they are doing "God's work." They are opening hospitals, and schools. All they are doing is trying somehow not to go mad because of the feeling of guilt. All your hospitals, and all your schools and colleges, and all your charitable institutions are outcomes of guilty people.

Money should not be individual
Money should not be in the hands of individuals; otherwise it will create this problem of being burdened with guilt. And money can make people's lives very rich. If the commune owns the money, the commune can give you all the facilities that you need, all the education, all creative dimensions of life. The society will be enriched and nobody will feel guilty. And because the society has done so much for you, you would like to pay it back by your services.

Make money a beautiful transaction
Let society take care of everybody. Everybody creates, everybody contributes, but everybody is not paid by money; they are paid by respect, paid by love, paid by gratitude, and are given all that is necessary for life.

Beyond Psychology Courtesy Osho International Foundation

Love and Jealousy

Sadhana

It is difficult to find lovers who are not jealous of each other. Even though it creates misery people go on clinging to it because jealousy is considered to be a sign of deep love. If your woman or your man goes with somebody else and you don't feel jealous at all, you will start questioning your love. Both the partners will think they don’t love enough.
The initial romance and rosy magic between two lovers dries into the desert of jealousy and possessiveness. But everybody clings to jealousy because they would like to cling to the false idea of love. Jealousy has become an intrinsic part of love- life as it is commonly understood. Lovers think if they want their relationship to continue, they will have to accept their jealousy and the misery that is created by it.
It is a catch 22 situation. But it is based on sheer misunderstanding of love.
Osho has prescribed a fool-proof remedy that can help you drop jealousy and other petty feelings and fly high in the realm of love. “ Go deeper into your feelings. Don’t avoid them. But remember one thing: jealousy, insecurity etc are separate from you. You are the witness; as you go deeper, you will come across many things which you have suppressed; but you are as pure as a mirror. When you are going deeper, the mirror reflects jealousy, but the mirror is not jealousy. Just as the mirror reflects buffalo standing in front, the mirror doen't become the buffalo! The mirror is not identified with anything that it reflects -- the mirror is just empty, silent, clean.
In meditation you will come to recognize that you are the mirror. All other things are reflected in you. A mirror is just a reflecting phenomenon; so are you. Be a mirror, and then all these problems, whatever their names, will start disappearing -- they are only reflections. You need not try to get rid of them. The very idea of getting free of them still accepts that they are realities of your being.”
Courtesy Osho International Foundation

Concentration is NOT meditation

Sadhana

It is commonly believed that concentration is meditation. This notion has created lot of misunderstanding about meditation, that it cannot be done at home, that one has to renounce the world and go to the mountains or a lonely place. Actually these circumstances are needed for concentration for it is disturbed by any small distraction. The mind gets irritated because you are trying to focus it in one direction which creates tension in the mind.
It is Osho, who for the first time has stressed that concentration is not meditation. If you are doing some intellectual work you need to channelize your mind and concentrate on one point. But meditation is relaxed awareness and therefore it is all inclusive. All the noises and distractions fall into the space of meditation and dissolve into it. Meditation is simply watchfulness and acceptance of everything.
Meditation is all-inclusive. The car passes... the mind in meditation is fully aware of the horn. The birds start singing... the mind is fully aware of their singing. Everything is simply watched. You are only aware that there is a horn, a car is passing by -- but it is not a distraction.
Distraction comes only when you are trying to concentrate, then a small ant crawling up your leg will be enough to distract you. But when you are in meditation, you simply know that the ant is crawling up your leg. If you like it, you allow it; if you don't like it, you throw it away. But there is no distraction -- your silence remains unscratched.
Osho explains: “How can the noises on the street distract you? You simply listen to them -- they don't make any impact on you. They come and go, and you remain just a witness. Meditation is possible in the hubbub of a marketplace.
Concentration is a faculty of the mind. Meditation is the absence of mind. Mind simply does not know meditation, and there is no intrinsic possibility for the mind to come in contact with meditation. Just as darkness cannot come in contact with light because darkness is only an absence, so is the mind.”

Courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Hope is the bondage of man

Sadhana

The fake ‘babas’ and mediums who claim to speak to the dead, or promise ever-lasting love, good fortune and such hope-related things have to prove their claims. If not, get ready to get behind the bars. It will now be possible to take the tricksters to court. At least in UK. This utterly eerie business will be shaken with the new consumer protection rule coming into force
Why do people fall prey to such quacks? Because of hope. People don’t live in the present and go on hoping for the future. Osho warns us against hoping as it is a veil between you and reality.
“ Hope is not the friend, remember; it is the foe. It is because of hope that you go on postponing. But you will remain the same tomorrow also, and tomorrow also you will hope for some future. And this way it can go on for eternity, and you can go on missing. Stop postponing. And who knows what the future is going to reveal to you? There is no way to know about it. It is an opening; all alternatives are open. What is really going to happen, nobody can predict. People have tried.
“That's why people go to astrologers, to I CHING, and to other sorts of things. I CHING goes on fascinating people, astrologers go on influencing people. Astrology still seems to be a great force. Why? -- because people are missing and they are hoping for the future. They want some clue to know what is going to happen so they can arrange it that way.
“These things will persist, even if scientifically it is proved that it is all nonsense. They will persist because it is not a question of science, it is a question of human hope. Unless hope is dropped, I CHING cannot be dropped. Unless hope is dropped, astrology cannot be dropped. It will have great power over man's mind because hope is gripping you. You would like to know little clues about the future so you can move more confidently, you can project more confidently, and you can postpone many more things.
“If you know something about tomorrow, I think you will not live today. You will say, "What is the need? Tomorrow we will live." Even without knowing anything about tomorrow you are doing that. And tomorrow never comes... and when it comes, it is always today. And you don't know how to live today.
“So you are in a great trap. Drop that whole structure. Hope is the bondage of man, hope is SAMSAR, hope is the world.
“Organized religion is one of the ugliest things that has happened in history. And the state should remain separate from organized religion, because organized religion is nothing but all kinds of superstitions -- beliefs -- beliefs without any evidence, doctrines, creeds, which go against every scientific discovery and invention. The state should not support any pseudo-religion, any organized religion. That is supporting charlatans, cheats, deceivers, exploiters, parasites.”
Excerpted from From Darkness to Light