New Year's Resolution

Someone asked Osho: " if one were to make only one new year's resolution, what would you suggest?"


Osho said: " This and only this can be the new year's resolution: I resolve never to make any resolutions because all resolutions are restrictions for the future. All resolutions are imprisonments. You decide today for tomorrow? You have destroyed tomorrow.

Allow the tomorrow to have its own being. Let it come in its own way! Let it bring its own gifts.

"Resolution means you will allow only this and you will not allow that. Resolution means you would like the sun to rise in the west and not in the east. If it rises in the east, you will not open your windows; you will keep your windows open to the west.

What is resolution? Resolution is struggle. Resolution is ego. Resolution is saying, "I cannot live spontaneously." And if you cannot live spontaneously, you don't live at all -- you only pretend.

"So let only one resolution be there: I will never make any resolutions. Drop all resolutions! Let life be a natural spontaneity. The only golden rule is that there are no golden rules."



Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind

Religious For Wrong Reasons

People give donations to religious institutions , but what matters is the motive behind the donation.  There could be may  hidden reasons behind the seemingly generous act. Life is not as simple as it appears , you know!

Osho takes a dig at such donors: " People become religious for wrong reasons, and you cannot be religious for wrong reasons. And the person who lives rightly need not be religious: he is religious already.

' Perlman made millions in the bakery business. While on a visit to Rome he went to see the pope and made a huge donation to the church.

The pope was very pleased and said, "Mr. Perlman, is there anything I can do to show my appreciation?"

"Yes, Your Holiness," answered the baking magnate. "Could you make a little change in the Lord's Prayer?"

"Ah, Mr. Perlman," frowned the pope, "I am afraid that would not be possible. The Lord's Prayer is repeated daily by millions of Christians."

"I know," said Perlman, "but I only want a small change. Where it says, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' just make it, 'Give us this day Perlman's pumpernickel bread.'"

"Now, that great donation to the church has nothing to do with religion, it has nothing to do with charity; it is business, pure business.

And that's what people are doing. They donate to the poor, they serve the poor, to go to heaven. It is an investment, it is not service. Unless you are conscious, whatsoever you do is going to be wrong. "

The Dhammapada:The Way of the Buddha/ courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

A new vision is needed to save the world

Billions of dollars and hundreds of politicians and scientists will not be able to save the planet-in-danger. Why? Because inspite of all good intentions they don't have a vision. First they have to look  into themselves, for they are the destroyers of this beautiful earth. It's no wonder, The Copenhagen Convention is leading to a failure. Politicians are good at creating problems, not good at solving them. Isn't it strange? Every  nation wants others to change their ways.
But change, like charity, begins at home.

  Osho  analyzes the present situation deeply and  suggests a radical solution to it.

" Man has collapsed because of his knowledge. First his inner world was destroyed by knowledge and knowledgeability, and now scientific knowledge is destroying nature.
The inner ecology has been destroyed by the priests and the outer ecology is being destroyed by the technologists.

We are living in the most significant times ever, because it is a time of great collapse. Either humanity disappears or a totally new way of life arrives. These moments are very critical; it is the greatest crisis man has ever encountered. Religion has destroyed half of the world, the inner world, and science is destroying the other half.

We need a totally different kind of religion and a totally different kind of science -- a science which helps ecology; and we need a totally different kind of religion -- a religion which gives you freedom, not slavery, which helps you to be yourself, which is not an imposition.

Science is a rape on nature and religion has been a rape on your inner consciousness. Both have failed, both have been destructive.

A new vision is needed. It was never needed as much as it is needed now, because the time is very limited. We are sitting on a pile of atomic weapons. The capacity to destroy this earth is so vast that you cannot even imagine for what we have gathered such a capacity to destroy. It is one-thousand-fold: every single man, can be killed one thousand times, one thousand earths can be destroyed.

We have piled up that much capacity to destroy, and we go on piling more up every day. It may be a communist country or a capitalist country, it makes no difference; but each country is trying to put all its energy into war, into destruction."



The Secret # 3/www.osho.com

Political Ecology

"The Copenhagen climate conference set to wrap up Friday was supposed to produce a landmark accord on climate change. It won't. Hopes for a binding treaty died weeks before the meeting. And with some observers terming the proceedings "Constipagen," it's all too easy to wonder whether the conferees will even be able to conclude a less ambitious political agreement. Negotiators have gone in procedural circles for nearly two weeks, and, on some issues, consensus looks even more distant than before. With heads of state arriving as you read this editorial, what can the conference produce in its final stage?" says  today's  editorial of  The Washington Post.

It is so true. Will the world politicians allow the earth to breathe naturally? The root cause of the threat to this planet is more political than ecological, as rightly said by Osho. Will the politicians listen?

Osho says: "The ecology is so interdependent.... It became clear that if anything goes wrong in the Soviet Union, in their nuclear plants, then the clouds of nuclear radiation will spread wherever the winds take them, and winds don't think about about national boundaries. Now the problems are international, and your solutions are national. Unless humanity is one there is no hope.

"But the politicians will not allow humanity to be one because it is their whole power trip. If there is only one world government, it will not satisfy so many people's egos to be presidents, to be prime ministers, to be ministers, to be governors. To fulfill these people's egos, we have to suffer. Everybody has to suffer."

Om Mani Padme Hum # 23

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



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