Experience

 

 

I am neither a politician, nor a religious leader. I teach a whole life, a total life. An atheist can be with me, a Christian can be with me, a Jew can be with me. I don’t make any distinctions. No nations, no religions, no distinctions. And I don’t make any conditions that to be with me you have to accept something on belief. I say, you experiment, and if you find it true then it is up to you to believe it or not. But I am not the one to give you a faith. I can give you only a method of inquiry. Truth will be your own experience.

 

-Osho, "The Last Testament, Vol 4, #27"

 

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Experience life in all possible ways -- good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don't be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become. Search for all possible alternatives, move in all directions, be a wanderer, a vagabond of the world of life and existence. And don't miss any opportunity to live.

 

Don't look back. Only fools think of the past -- fools who do not have the intelligence to live in the present. And only fools imagine about the future, because they don't have the courage to live in the present. Forget the past, forget the future, this moment is all. This moment has to become your prayer, your love, your life, your death, your everything. This is it.

 

And live courageously, don't be cowards. Don't think of consequences; only cowards think of consequences. Don't be too result-oriented; people who are result-oriented miss life. Don't think of goals, because goals are always in the future and far away, and life is herenow, close by.

 

And don't be too purposive. Let me repeat it: don't be too purposive. Don't always bring in the idea, "What is the purpose of it?" because that is a strategy created by your enemies, by the enemies of humanity, to poison your very source of life. Ask the question, "What is the purpose of it?" and everything becomes meaningless.

 

It is early morning, the sun is rising and the east is red with the sun, and the birds are singing and the trees are waking up, and it is all joy. It is a rejoicing, a new day has happened again. And you are standing there asking the question, "What is the purpose of it?" You miss, you miss it totally. You are simply disconnected.

 

A roseflower is dancing in the wind, so delicate and yet so strong, so soft yet fighting with the strong wind, so momentary yet so confident. Look at the roseflower. Have you ever seen any roseflower nervous? So confident, so utterly confident, as if it is going to be here forever. Just a moment's existence, and such trust in eternity. Dancing in the wind, whispering with the wind, sending out its fragrance -- and you are standing there asking the question, "What is the purpose of it?“

 

-Osho, "The Book of Wisdom, #14, Q1“