Temples, Churches, Mosques

 

 

 

It does not matter where awareness happens; what matters is that it happens. If it happens in a casino, then the casino has become a temple, a sacred place. For most people it does not happen, even in temples, in synagogues, in churches. For them, those places are not sacred because they have not tasted anything sacred there.

 

The place does not count, the act does not count. What counts is: can you do it absolutely unidentified? Let it happen in different situations and it will bring more and more flowers to your being.

 

-Osho, "The Transmission of the Lamp, #3, Q3“

To me religion has nothing to do with churches and temples and rituals. it has something to do with the energy called creativity but before it can happen one has to prepare one's being and contentment is the preparation be contented -- whatsoever is, is good whatsoever is, is perfect, don't ask for more relax into it, rejoice in it and you will be surprised the more vou relax, the more you rest in it the more you become insightful of the mysterious of the miraculous that surrounds you a moment comes when you simply disappear in your own immense contentment and when you are not, god is when you are not, creativity is to me god is not a creator but only the energy called creativity

 

The cowardly is always complaining to complain, intelligence is not needed to complain, courage is not needed to complain is a very mediocre activity anybody can do it hence everybody is doing it but to be contented, to feel grateful, to feel blessed great intelligence is required courage is required, insight is required and the moment you start looking into the depths of life a great surprise arises you cannot believe it, it is incredible what has been given is simply beyond our comprehension and we have not earned it either it is a sheer gift from the whole to see life, love, freedom, joy as gifts from the divine makes one feel contented and the atmosphere of inner contentment is the atmosphere of a real temple

 

Temples don’t exist on the outside. One has to become a temple and the only way to become a temple is to create in your interiority an immense gratitude for all that has happened to you, for all that is happening to you - and it is incalculable, immeasurable. But certainly one has to be courageous for it – courageous, because the whole crowd is complaining. It is always asking for more. It needs guts to say, “I don’t ask for more, that in fact, whatsoever is given to me is more than I could have asked for in the first place.” And from that very moment a transformation starts happening. Your life becomes more and more attuned to existence; it becomes more and more a dance.

 

-Osho, "The Sound of One Hand Clapping, #8"

 

 

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A sect is not religious. What does religion have to do with organization? All organizations are political or social; organizations as such are worldly. They are based on fear of each other and where there is fear there is hatred. They come into existence not out of truth, but out of the need for security. Whether it is a nation, a society or a sect, all are born out of fear. And the function of what is born out of fear is to cause fear in others.

 

All sects are doing exactly this. They do not intend to make anyone religious, they want to increase their numbers. Numbers are power and assurances of security. Numbers are for both self-protection and for providing the capacity to attack. Sects have been doing nothing else but this all along; they are still doing this and they will continue to do this. They haven’t united man with religion, they have torn him away from it.

 

Religion is not a social phenomenon, it is absolutely a personal revolutionary transformation. It has nothing to do with others; it is concerned with oneself alone. It isn’t concerned with what a man does with others but what he does with himself. Religion is concerned with what one does with oneself in one’s absolute aloneness.

 

What you are in your absolute aloneness is what you must know. Who you are is what you must know. Only the realization of your own being will lead you to religion. There is no other way to lead someone to religion. No temple, no mosque, no church can take you to the place where you already are. You don’t have to climb any outside stairs to get there. All temples are outside, all temples are part of the world, and you cannot reach the self through their doors. No journey in the outer world can be a pilgrimage to the holy place. That place is within, where you have the experience of religion and where mystery, bliss, beauty and life are revealed. Without this everything is a misery; everything is useless, meaningless.

 

In order to know the self one has to go inside, not outside. But all man’s senses take him outward. They are all outgoing. His eyes look outward, his hands spread outward, his legs move outward and even his mind reflects and echoes the external. This is why he has created idols and images of God, and has erected temples to truth – it is so that his eyes can see God and his feet can make a pilgrimage to truth. We have created this self-deception ourselves; we have taken this cup of poison with our own hands. And we waste away our lives and spend them in stupor brought about by this poison and self-deception.

 

-Osho, "The Perfect Way, #12“