Unexpected

 

 

Question 4

I am very much afraid that something unexpected is going to happen to me. what should i do?

 

 

It is good that something unexpected is going to happen to you. In fact, if only the expected happened, you would be utterly bored. Just think of a life in which only that which you expect always happens. What will you do with such a life? There would be no joy in it, it would be sheer boredom. You expect a friend and he knocks on the door. You expect a headache and it is there. You expect your wife to leave and she leaves. You expect, and it happens. Within twenty-four hours you would commit suicide! What will you do if all that happened, happened just by your expectation and according to your expectation?

 

Life is an adventure because the unexpected happens. The greater would be the adventure if more and more unexpected things happened to you. Feel blissful. The unexpected happens -- be ready for it, make way for it. Don't ask for the expected. That's why I say remain empty for the future; don't project. Let the future happen on its own, and you will be continuously in joy. You will have a dance in your being, because each thing that will happen will be so unexpected, and when it is unexpected, it has a mystery in it....

 

I have heard about a clairvoyant little boy. It seems this boy had premonitions. Once while reciting his prayers he said, "God bless mommy, God bless daddy, God bless grandma, goodbye grandpa." The next day grandpa died of a stroke.

 

Then later on the little boy said, "God bless mommy, God bless daddy, goodbye grandma." Then grandma was hit while crossing the street.

 

Sometime later in his prayers, he said, "God bless mommy, goodbye daddy." The father was really upset. He had himself driven to the office, but he could not work there at all. Finally he decided to come home early, but he was afraid to drive back so he took a taxi home and rushed in.

 

He was greeted by his wife, who said, "What do you think happened today dear? The most awful thing! The milkman dropped dead on the back porch!"

 

-Osho, "The Secret of Secrets, Vol 2, #6, Q4"

 

 

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When I was a small child at school there was a wrestling competition for the whole district; I have never been able to forget that incident.

 

There was a wrestler, the most famous wrestler in those parts, who was defeated. He was going to be the champion, the district champion or something, and he was defeated by a totally unknown man! The whole crowd laughed in ridicule, people enjoyed it like anything! And I was surprised, everybody was surprised; in a second everybody fell silent, because he also clapped and laughed... the man who had been defeated! He laughed so uproariously that the whole crowd fell silent in embarrassment; what was the matter with this man? And when they fell silent he laughed even more!

 

Later on I went to him; he was staying just in front of my house in a temple. And I said, 'This is strange -- and I loved it! It was very unexpected!'

 

He said, 'It was so unexpected, that's why I also laughed! It was really unexpected. I had never expected that I would be defeated by an ordinary man of whom nobody has ever heard! The whole thing was ridiculous, that's why I laughed!'

 

But I have never been able to forget his face, the way he laughed and the way he clapped and the way the whole crowd fell silent. This man defeated the whole crowd and their ridicule... he participated! But great courage is needed!

 

To me he was the winner, and I told him, 'I am a small child and I cannot say much, but to me you are the winner and I will remember you.' After twenty years I visited his town and he came to see me. He was a very old man now, and he said 'Do you remember me? I have not been able to forget your face either -- a small child coming to me and saying "You are the real winner; the other is defeated. You have defeated the whole crowd." I have not been able,' he said, 'to forget your face either.'

 

A great courage is needed in life to be yourself, in failure, in success, in appreciation, in condemnation, when you are going very high and when you are going very low... and all climates come.

 

-Osho, "Far Beyond the Stars, #2"