Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Co-existence? No, one existence, says Osho

We are a word drunken societey. We live in ideas and words without checking whether these ideas make any sense, or are we misguided by our own creations? One such word is co-existence -- most common in the modern world. All the nations and politicians advocate it thinking it is a great ideal to live for.
Here is Osho's take on it -- totally different, as usual .
"A woman journalist asked me in America -- I was addressing a world press conference and she was the first one to ask a question. She asked, "Can't you live in coexistence with America?"I said, "No."The woman may not have thought that anybody would say no. She was so stunned that she left the microphone. Later on she met me again and I told her, "You did not listen to my whole answer, why I said `no.' You must have misunderstood, because I could see it on your face, but you moved away and another questioner came."She said, "Can `no' have many meanings?"I said, "Every word can have many meanings, many implications. What did you understand?"She said, "I understood simply that you cannot accept coexistence."
I said, "You misunderstood me completely. I was saying that coexistence is still war. Coexistence means we will tolerate each other. Coexistence means, `What else to do? -- we have to live together.'
All husbands and wives are living in coexistence. All nations are living in coexistence. All religions are living in coexistence. But this coexistence is not a joyful, celebrating experience. I was going to say to you, I want one existence, not coexistence.Why divide?"
She said, "My god, I reported your answer on the television and I have done an injustice to you. Because that `no' is resounding all over America, and naturally with the same meaning."

Words are delicate people, and as you become deeper, you start giving new meanings to words. By saying no to coexistence I was saying that the whole idea of coexistence is ugly. It means we cannot be one -- that we will remain enemies. We will not fight, but the antagonism is absolutely implied in the word `coexistence'. And this is the situation with the whole language. "

Excerpted from Om Mani Padme Hum/courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

2 comments:

... said...

this is one of the best blogs I have encountered! thank you!

Unknown said...

This is very interesting Sadhana

I have been very disturbed of late by the all the issues / confrontations that have been happening in the area of copyrights / various approaches to keep alive Osho's vision . I have been posting my thoughts on fourms and asking people why we need different Osho centres and why cant we find a way out to kind of co-exist.. Osho's thoughts on this co-existence has given me deeper understanding