Tenderness
It is tenderness that makes you vulnerable, that makes you open, that makes you sensitive to the mysterious that surrounds us. People who are not tender, who are hard like rock, go on missing life. Life passes by; it cannot penetrate them; they are impenetrable.
One should be like a rose flower, very tender; then one comes to know the mysterious and the miraculous. Life is full of surprises, but only for those who have a tender heart.
But we all have been brought up in such a way that we become hard, because we have been told that life is a struggle, it is a conflict; it is a constant struggle for survival so one has to be hard. If you are not hard you will not be able to compete. And that is true: you will not be able to compete. But competition leads nowhere. It is a sheer wastage. One should live a non-competitive life, then only does one know what God is.
Jesus says: “Those who are the last in this world will be the first in my kingdom of god.” Now he is teaching non-competitiveness. “Those who are the last in this world will be the first in my kingdom of god.” But remember, don’t be the last in order to be the first, otherwise you miss the whole point. Enjoy being the last. And to be the first in the kingdom of god is a consequence, it is not a goal.
Life is such a joy for those who are tender, soft, loving, compassionate, sensitive.
That life itself is proof In thousands of ways it proves that god is. But to the hard, to the rocklike person, There is no proof for god. God cannot be proved for him Because he has no sensitivity to feel.
-Osho, "Eighty Four Thousand Poems, #4"