How do we reconcile our need to express our emotions with our desire to protect others? Far too often we find ourselves trapped in this dilemma of expression versus repression.
We fear that by expressing our true feelings, we will hurt and alienate those close to us. But by repressing our emotions—even in the benevolent guise of “self-control”—we only risk hurting ourselves.Osho, one of the most provocative and inspiring spiritual teachers of our time, provides here a practical and comprehensive approach to dealing with this conflict effectively. Subject categories.ISBNs. 887. 013About The AuthorOsho, known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, continues to inspire millions of people worldwide in their search for a new approach to individual spirituality that is self-directed and responsive to the everyday challenges of contemporary life. The Sunday Times of London named him one of the “1,000 Makers of the Twentieth Century,” and novelist Tom Robbins called him “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ.” For more information about Osho and his work, please visit www.osho.com.
“Gibran says: Once I asked such a scarecrow, “I can understand the farmer who made you—he needs you. I can understand the poor animals—they don’t have great intelligence to see that you are bogus. But in the rain, in the sun, in the hot summer, in the cold winter, you remain standing here: for what?” And the scarecrow said, “You don’t know my joy. Just to make those animals afraid is such a joy that it is worth suffering rain, suffering sun, suffering heat, winter, everything.
I am making thousands of animals afraid! I know I am bogus, there is nothing inside me, but I don’t care about that. My joy is in making others afraid.” I want to ask you: Would you like to be just like this bogus man—nothing inside, making somebody afraid, making somebody happy, making somebody humiliated, making somebody respectful? Is your life only for others? Will you ever look inside?”―Osho. “I am not saying to accept yourself in order to be transformed—otherwise you have not accepted yourself at all, because deep down the desire is for transformation. You say, “Okay, if this brings transformation then I will accept myself.” But this is not acceptance; you have missed the whole point.
You are still desiring transformation. If I guarantee it to you, and you accept yourself because of the guarantee, where is the acceptance?
You are using acceptance as a means; the goal is to be transformed, to be free, to attain to self-realization, to nirvana. Where is the acceptance? Acceptance has to be unconditional, for no reason at all, without any motivation.”―Osho. “Start meditating. Start putting off the constant chattering of the head. Slowly, the mind becomes quiet.
Get into things where the mind is not needed—for example, dancing. Dance, and dance to abandon, because in dance the mind is not needed. You can lose yourself in a dance. In losing yourself in a dance, the heart will start functioning again. Drown yourself in music.
And slowly you will see that there is a totally different world of the heart. And in the heart there is always trust. The heart does not know how to doubt, just as the mind does not know how to trust.”―Osho. “So whatever is experientially real, accept it.
You cannot do anything by denying it. By denying it you create the problem, and the problem becomes more complex. It is simple: you feel you are a coward, so what?
So, “I am a coward.” Just see the point! If you can accept cowardice you have already become brave. Only a brave person can accept the fact of being a coward; no coward can do that. You are already on the way to transformation.
So the first thing is that nothing that is experienced as a fact has to be denied reality. “Don’t do anything, just ignoreand it is not difficult, it is a very simple phenomenon. For example, there is a chair in your room. Can’t you ignore it? Do you have to do something about it? There is no need to do anything about it.
Just take a look at the contents of your mind from a distance, just a little distance so that you can see, “This is anger, this is sadness, this is anguish, this is anxiety, this is worry,” and so on and so forth. Let them be there. “I am unconcerned.
I am not going to do anything for or against.” And they will start disappearing.”―Osho. “The truly religious person controls nothing, represses nothing. If you are a truly religious person you try to understand, not to control. You become more meditative, you watch your anger, your sex, your greed, your jealousy, your possessiveness.
You watch all these poisonous things that surround you, simply watch, try to understand what anger is, and in that very understanding you transcend. You become a witness, and in that witnessing the anger melts as if the sun has risen and the snow has started melting.
“You go on falling in the same ditch every day, deciding every day never to fall again in the same ditch. But when you come near the ditch, the attraction, the fascination with falling in the ditch is so great that you forget all your decisions. You console yourself “Just once more. From tomorrow, I’m going to keep the promise I’ve given to myself.” But this has happened so many times. And you will do it your whole life, unless you allow the watcher to see the ridiculous acts that you are doing.