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Caution : Every society wants you to be a coward, but nobody says it so sincerely

 

Caution

 

 

Whenever there is really a question of courage, nobody can give it to you. It is not something that can be presented as a gift. It is something that you are born with, you just have not allowed it to grow, you have not allowed it to assert itself, because the whole society is against it.

 

The society does not want lions, it wants a crowd of sheep. Then it is easy to enslave people, exploit people, do whatever you want to do with them. They don't have a soul; they are almost robots. You order, and they will obey. They are not free individuals.

 

No society wants you to be courageous. Every society wants you to be a coward, but nobody says it so sincerely; they have found beautiful words instead. They will not say, "Be cowardly," because that will look offensive to the person and he will start thinking, "Why should I be cowardly?" -- and a coward is not something respectable.

 

No, they say, "Be cautious. Think twice before you leap. Remember your tradition, your religion is thousands of years old; it has wisdom. You are a newcomer, you cannot afford to disbelieve in it. There is no comparison. You have just come in, and your religion has been there for ten thousand years, accumulating more and more experience, knowledge. It is a Himalayan phenomenon.

 

"You are a small pebble. You cannot fight with tradition -- that is fighting against yourself, it is self-destructive. You can only submit to tradition; that is wise, intelligent. To be with the crowd you are protected, you are secure, you are assured that you will not go astray."

 

In so many ways you will be told a simple thing: Just be a coward; it pays to be cowardly. It is dangerous to be courageous, because it is going to bring you in conflict with all the vested interests -- and you are a small human being. You cannot fight with the whole world. [....]

 

This courage is in everybody. It is not a quality to be practiced; it is something that is part of your life, your very breathing. It is just that the society has created so many barriers against your natural growth that you have started thinking from where to get courage? from where to get intelligence? from where to get truth?

 

You have to go nowhere. You contain in the seed form everything that you want to be. Realizing this and seeing the other side... The people who live with the crowd -- what is their gain? They lose everything. In fact they don't live at all; they only die. From their birth they start dying, and go on dying till the last breath. Their whole life is a long series of deaths. Just look at the whole crowd of people. You can be with them, but the same is going to be your fate.

 

It is so simple if you see it: the only way to live life is to live on your own. It is an individual phenomenon, it is an independence, it is freedom. It is a constant unburdening of all that is dead, so that life can go on growing and is not crushed under the weight of the dead.

 

-Osho, “Beyond Psychology, #5, Q1“

 

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Osho Dictionary

A Spiritual Dictionary for the Here and Now

List of Articles
No. Category Subject
79 C Cages : The moment you have guidelines from others, you are spiritually a slave.
78 C Calculation : With objects be scientific; never be scientific with persons.
77 C Cancer : Cancer can exist only in a certain neurotic state of mind
76 C Capital Punishment : No court has the authority to destroy any man's life.
75 C Capitalism : Capitalism is basically individualism, it is not a social structure
74 C Capitalism : Capitalism is the first system which creates wealth.
73 C Caring : Care is a real ingredient. the very element of love.
72 C Catharsis : To let the gorilla out of your being is the deepest cleansing
» C Caution : Every society wants you to be a coward, but nobody says it so sincerely
70 C Celebration : Everything has to be celebrated, everything has to be lived, loved.
69 C Celebration : Life should be a continuous celebration
68 C Challenges : The greater the difficulty, the more aggressive the ego becomes.
67 C Change : Misery arises because we don't allow change to happen.
66 C Change : There is only one thing permanent, and that is change.
65 C Chaos : The new man is coming, the old is going.
64 C Character : A real man is characterless, or beyond character.
63 C Charisma : Charisma is the energy of the consciousness which is settled in itself
62 C Charity : Charity is a beautiful flowering of one who has
61 C Charity : They are serving the exploiters in the name of service.
60 C Children : Don’t burden them with your dead scriptures.
59 C Children : They have come just now from God’s home
58 C Choice : This is what I call choosing, in every situation, the blissful part.
57 C Choicelessness : He remains choiceless, just silently aware
56 C Christianity : Christianity is the corpse, the corpse of Christ.
55 C Churches : Who will go to the churches if people are not miserable
54 C Churches, Condemning Women... : Christianity has no respect for women.
53 C Civilization : Our civilization is only a mask.
52 C Clarity : A state of mind when there are no thoughts.
51 C Cleverness : Cleverness is only a beautiful name for cunningness.
50 C Clouds : An inner sky; it is also empty. Clouds come and go
49 C Coincidence : Coincidence simply means that there is a possibility of freedom.
48 C Coma : Mind is a machine: it records only when you are receiving consciously
47 C Commandment : All the commandments of all the religions show one thing absolutely clearly: they are all bent upon destroying you, your naturalness
46 C Commune : The commune has future.
45 C Commune : The whole world can be transformed into a Buddhafield
44 C Communication : Listening means being utterly silent, not interpreting
43 C Communion : A spiritual communication. That communication is called communion.
42 C Communism : Communism is the ultimate flowering of capitalism
41 C Communism : Neither communism nor spiritualism nor anarchism. I am just a witness.
40 C Comparison : Comparison brings competition comparison brings wounds and ego
39 C Comparison : Comparison is a disease, one of the greatest diseases.
38 C Compassion : Compassion arises only when you can see that everybody is related to you.
37 C Compassion : Meditation is a flower and compassion is its fragrance.
36 C Compassion : Only compassion is therapeutic
35 C Compassion : Passion is lust, compassion is love. Passion is desire, compassion is desirelessness.
34 C Compromise : Death is far more beautiful than a life of compromise.
33 C Compromise : Living life like a businessman is prostitution.
32 C Computer : It can become the quantum leap. It can break away from the past and all conditionings of the past.
31 C Concentration : Concentration is not natural to the mind.
30 C Conclusions : The conclusion protects you, the conclusion gives you security, safety.
29 C Conditioning : I am simply deconditioning people.
28 C Conditioning : No conditioning is needed for the children, no direction has to be given to them.
27 C Confusion : To feel confusion needs great intelligence.
26 C Conscience : A trick of the society played upon you.
25 C Conscience : Drop out of this conditioning.
24 C Consciousness : Just watch your mind and you will see: the monkey goes on jumping.
23 C Contemplation, Concetration, Meditation : Mind moves in one line, directed. This is contemplation.
22 C Contenment and Satisfaction : Satisfaction is only a consolation. Contentment is not a consolation, it is bliss itself.
21 C Contraception : Contraception is one of the greatest blessings
20 C Contradictions : Life consists of contradictions.
19 C Conversion : It means a change of consciousness
18 C Conviction : Conviction is logical, intellectual, of the mind. It does not go very deep.
17 C Coolness : Coolness is not coldness
16 C Corruption : It is the corrupted people who become attracted towards power.
15 C Courage : Going into the unknown in spite of all the fears.
14 C Cowardice : The greatest cowardice in the world is to follow others, to imitate others.
13 C Creativity : Creativity has something to do with the quality of your consciousness.
12 C Creativity : Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing.
11 C Crime : That which goes against your nature
10 C Criminals : Politicians are successful criminals. Criminals are unsuccessful politicians.
9 C Crisis : Real crisis and real opportunity too.
8 C Criticism : Why do I like so much to criticize people and complain against life?
7 C Crowd : The crowd has no consciousness. It is a collective unconsciousness.
6 C Crowds : Crowds have no souls no centers.
5 C Crying : Crying will help you to relieve your tensions
4 C Crying and Tears : Don't prevent your tears.
3 C Cults : A cult is a business, a religious kind of business.
2 C Cunningness : Ignorance is never cunning, knowledge is always cunning.
1 C Curiosity : It is a good beginning, but not the end
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