Charity

 

 

Whenever you are unable to share, whenever you are unable to practise charity, note down — you must be poor. You may have much in the eyes of others, but deep down you must be poor if you cannot share. You possess only that which you can give. Only by giving do you become the possessor. If you cannot give, then you are not in possession, you are not the master. Then the thing that you think you possess, is possessing you. Then you are possessed by your possession.

 

Charity is a beautiful flowering of one who has, one who is in possession of his being; one who is not poor, one who is rich. This man may be a beggar on the streets. It has nothing to do with your bank balance. The rich man may be a beggar, but if he has his being, authentic being, if he can love, if he can sing, if he can dance, if he can see poetry in the world, he is rich. He may not have anything at all. As far as material things go, he may not have anything. But he has something of the spiritual… something which cannot be taken away from him.

 

Observe this fact: that which you really possess cannot be taken away from you. You can only give it — if you want — but nobody can take it away. That which you don’t possess, and by which you are possessed, you can never give — it can only be stolen or taken away, robbed.

 

Your love cannot be robbed. There is no way to rob it. You can give it voluntarily, you can give it freely, but nobody can rob it. You can be killed, but your love cannot be killed. There exists no way to murder love. Love seems to be more eternal than your so-called life. Your life can be destroyed very easily… just a hit on the head, just a bullet through the heart; very simple… but nothing can destroy love. Love seems to be the only eternal thing; something not belonging to the world of time. You can give it, but nobody can take it.

 

Your money, your respectability, your power, your prestige — they all can be taken away from you. That which can be taken away from you creates a clinging in the mind. You become poorer and poorer, because you have to cling more and more, you have to protect more and more, and you are always afraid and trembling.

 

The so-called rich people are continuously trembling… trembling. Deep down they are always afraid because they know that that which they have can be taken away. They can never be certain about it. The very uncertainty goes on eating their heart like a worm. You possess only that which grows out of you, which belongs to you, which is rooted in you. A rich man is one who has poetry in life, dance in life, celebration in life, silence in life, centeredness in life, rootedness in life… who blooms into his inner sky. The rich man is one who is so full, like clouds in the rainy season… ready to shower on anybody who becomes available. Or like an opening bud… ready to share its fragrance with any wind that passes by, or any traveller that comes by. Sharing is overflowing.

 

Buddha says this is one of the most difficult things — to try to share that which you don’t have — and that’s what people are doing. They go on trying to love without ever considering the fact that love has not yet grown in their heart. In fact, you don’t love yourself — how can you love others? The basic is missing, the very basic is missing.

 

You are not happy alone — how can you be happy together with somebody else? If you are unhappy alone, when you come together with somebody, you will bring your unhappiness to be shared. That’s all you have — your poverty, your rottenness, your misery, your depression, your sadness, your angst, anxiety, anguish… your disease.

 

Try to possess something — that which cannot be taken away by anybody, not even by death. Difficult, but possible. It looks impossible. How to be loving without finding a lover? Our whole mind has been conditioned in a wrong way. You can dance without the audience; why can’t you love without there being somebody? You can sing without a listener; why can’t you love without a lover? Your mind has been conditioned wrongly. You think you can love only when there is somebody to love.

 

Practise love. Sitting alone in your room, be loving. Radiate love. Fill the whole room with your love energy. Feel vibrating with a new frequency, feel swaying as if you are in the ocean of love. Create vibrations of love energy around you. And you will start feeling immediately that something is happening — something in your aura is changing, something around your body is changing; a warmth is arising around your body… a warmth like deep orgasm. You are becoming more alive. Something like sleep is disappearing. Something like awareness is arising. Sway into this ocean. Dance, sing, and let your whole room be filled with love.

 

In the beginning it feels very weird. When for the first time you can fill your room with love energy, your own energy, which goes on falling and rebouncing on you and makes you so happy, one starts feeling, ‘Am I hypnotising myself? Am I deluded? What is happening?’ Because you have always thought that love comes from somebody else. A mother is needed to love you, a father, a brother, a husband, a wife, a child — but somebody.

 

Love that depends on somebody is a poor love. Love that is created within you, love that you create out of your own being, is real energy. Then move anywhere with that ocean surrounding you and you will feel that everybody who comes close to you is suddenly under a different kind of energy. People will look at you with more open eyes. You will be passing them and they will feel that a breeze of some unknown energy has passed them; they will feel fresher. Hold somebody’s hand and his whole body will start throbbing. Just be close to somebody and that man will start feeling very happy for no reason at all. You can watch it. Then you are becoming ready to share. Then find a lover, then find a right receptivity for you.

 

-Osho, “Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2″