Xenophobia

 

 

In a society, there is a deep expectation that you will behave exactly like others. The moment you behave a little bit differently you become a stranger, and people are very much afraid of strangers.

 

That's why everywhere if two persons are sitting in the bus, in a railway train, or just at a bus stop, they cannot sit silently -- because silently they are both strangers. They immediately start introducing each other -- "Who are you? Where are you going? What do you do, your business?" A few things... and they settle down; you are another human being just like them. [....]

 

People are continuously wanting to be in a crowd in which they fit. The moment you behave differently the whole crowd becomes suspicious; something is going wrong.

 

Now your situation is that something is going better -- you are becoming more calm, more peaceful, more accepting of yourself. And you are not saying this to anybody, but there is no need to say it. They know you, and they can see the change. They have known you when you never accepted yourself, and now they suddenly see that you accept yourself.

 

In this society nobody accepts himself. Everybody is condemning himself.

 

This is the lifestyle of the society: condemn yourself. And you are not condemning yourself, you are accepting yourself; you have fallen away from the society. And the society does not tolerate anybody who falls out of the fold because the society lives by numbers; it is a politics of numbers. When there are many numbers people feel good. Vast numbers make people feel that they must be right -- they cannot be wrong, millions of people are with them.

 

And when they are left alone great doubts start arising: Nobody is with me. What is the guarantee that I am right?"

 

That's why I say that in this world, to be an individual is the greatest courage.

 

The most fearless grounding is needed to be an individual: "It does not matter that the whole world is against me. What matters is that my experience is valid. I don't look at the numbers, at how many people are with me. I look at the validity of my experience -- at whether I am just repeating somebody else's words like a parrot, or the source of my statements is in my own experience. If it is in my own experience, if it is part of my blood and bones and marrow, then the whole world can be on one side; still, I am right and they are wrong. It doesn't matter. I don't need their votes for me in order to feel right. Only people who have the opinions of others need the support of others."

 

You are perfectly right, accepting yourself, feeling peaceful. Now accept this too, this non-acceptance by others. This is their problem -- why should you be worried? They don't accept it, let it be their problem. They already have many problems, they are very efficient in collecting problems. They even get worried about others' problems. Not only are they tense about themselves, they are tense about others too.

 

-Osho, "The Osho Upanishad, #12, Q3“

 

 

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The politician's mind is always concerned with war. Adolf Hitler in his autobiography, MY STRUGGLE, says that if a politician wants to remain in politics he has to continue creating enemies. If there are no real enemies, create fictions that somebody is going to attack you, that you are surrounded by enemies. Only that will keep you in power -- not peace.

 

And it is a factual thing to know; your whole history is filled with heroes who were nothing but warmongers, people who massacred millions of people. Your history does not consist of a single name who was a peacemaker.

 

-Osho, "Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind, #1, Q1"