Robots Are Obedient - Rebels Are Dangerous

Conditioning: A Substitute for Intelligence

 

 

Question :

Are idiots trained or born?

 

 

It is a complicated question. Almost ninety percent of idiots are trained. Ten percent are born. And the ten percent are born because of those ninety percent who have been trained. Man from his very beginning has lived a very weird life - weird in the sense that somehow he needs idiots. If you don't have idiots you will not have the so-called wise men. If you don't have idiots, you will not have the giants of intellect. It becomes almost a necessity that the category of idiots should remain.

 

Nobody has looked into the deeper layers of how society has functioned up to now. But the way it has functioned can only be described as utterly criminal. Society needs categories, hierarchies. It has always been a competitive society, and the very idea of competition is dangerous to human beings. You call one man an idiot only in comparison - in comparison to someone who seems to be intelligent.

 

A small boy told me - I was a guest in his house; I was sitting in the garden in the evening and he was the only child of the family. He was not more than six years old. I asked him, "What is your name?"

 

He said, "Up to now I used to think that my name was 'Don't!' Now I have started going to school, and there I discovered that it is not my name." He is saying something tremendously important.

 

Whatever a child is doing, the adults are there to say, "Don't do it!" Nobody is allowed to blossom according to his own intrinsic nature. And that is the fundamental cause of creating so many idiots in the world. But they do serve a certain purpose. If people were allowed to blossom according to their nature without any comparison and without any ideals and without enforced discipline, do you think anybody in the whole world would have accepted Adolf Hitler as a leader? You need to look at your leaders.

 

The idiots have been an absolute necessity for a few people to proclaim their egos, for a few people to rise high and become Nobel Prize winners. Just think for a moment - if everybody were living according to their own nature, not trying to be somebody else, a tremendous intelligence would explode within them. It is the fundamental law of life and existence. It is good that flowers don't listen to your teachers and your leaders and your politicians. Otherwise they would say to the roses, "What are you doing? Become a lotus!" Roses are not so foolish. But if, just for argument's sake, roses did start trying to become lotuses, what would happen? Two things are certain: there would be no roses, because their whole energy would be involved in becoming lotuses, and the second thing, a rosebush cannot produce a lotus. It is not in the inbuilt program of its seed.

 

Have you ever come across a tree that you can say is an idiot? Or that it is very intelligent, a great giant, deserves a Nobel Prize? Man has been distracted. Everybody from your parents to your teachers, the school, the college, the university, your religion, your preachers, your neighbors - everybody is trying to make you somebody else, whom you cannot become. You can only become yourself, or you can miss becoming, be just an idiot. I call this whole history of mankind a long, unjustified crime against every human individual. It has served the vested interests: the people who are in power, the people who are scholars, which is another kind of power, the people who are rich, which is another kind of power.

 

They would not like everybody to be centered in himself because a man centered in himself cannot be exploited, cannot be enslaved, cannot be humiliated, cannot be forced to grow a canceric sense of guilt. These are the reasons humanity has not been allowed its growth. From childhood, everybody is condemned - whatever he says, whatever he does, it is never right. Naturally he becomes afraid of saying anything, of doing anything on his own. He is appreciated if he is obedient, he is appreciated if he follows the rules and the regulations made by others.

 

Everybody appreciates him. This is the strategy: condemn the man if he is trying to stand on his own feet and appreciate the man if he is just an imitator. Naturally his inner seed, his potentiality, will never have a chance to grow. I am reminded of my own childhood. If I was sitting silently, somebody - and in India there are still big families, joint families; in my family there were at least fifty people - somebody was bound to come by and ask, "Why are you sitting silently?" Strange, I cannot sit silently, and if I make a noise and jump around the house.... "Are you mad? Why are you jumping around the house?" Seeing the situation I decided that it would be better to begin the fight from the very beginning, because once you get caught with these people it will be very difficult to come out of the crowd.

 

My father was very much amazed. He said, "You never answer the question. On the contrary, you ask another question."

I said, "I have figured it out: when I am sitting silently and you ask, 'Why are you sitting silently?' I will not answer. I will ask, 'Why should I not sit silently? You have to answer. You are a grown-up man, experienced - I am just a child. You answer me - why should I not sit silently?' The whole family by and by understood.... You cannot get any statement from this boy. He immediately turns the question around and you are in trouble."

 

They stopped asking me anything. The situation came to the point that I might be sitting, and my mother would say, "I don't see anybody in the house" - and I was sitting in front of her! "I need vegetables; somebody should go and fetch vegetables."

 

I would say, "If I see anybody, I will tell you. " I was taken as almost absent. And I proved it - because unless you prove it, it is very difficult. In the beginning they used to send me: "Go to the market. It is the season of beautiful mangoes. Bring mangoes."

 

I would go to the shop with the worst mangoes and ask, "Just give me the worst ones and charge me for the best ones."

 

Even those shopkeepers were amazed: "What kind of customer are you?" I said, "What kind of customer? You have seen many customers.... I am a unique customer."

 

And the man was perfectly happy to give me the rotten mangoes and charge the price for the best. I would come home and show those rotten mangoes and say, "These are the best, and I have paid for them." And they were stinking.

 

My mother would say, "Just throw them out!"

 

I said, "Why throw them out? There is a beggar woman, I can go and give them to her." Even the beggar woman would not accept them. She would say, "Never come to me, because whenever you come you bring something rotten. Throw them to the dogs."

 

And I was very much surprised that even dogs were afraid of me. If I threw something towards them, they would escape! Slowly they settled that, "It is better to let him be, whatever he is. One thing is certain, he is going to be nobody special in life."

 

They were right. I have proved their prophecy. I am nobody special in life. But who cares about being special? I am myself and that's enough, more than enough. Each moment of my life I had to struggle to protect myself; if we don't do that everybody is ready to cut our roots. It is very difficult to find human beings in society who will allow you the freedom to be yourself. That has created a retardedness all over the world.

 

Nations need idiots; otherwise who is going to fight the wars? The world needs idiots; otherwise how are people going to become richer and richer on the labor, on the blood of others? This civilization needs as many unintelligent people as possible; otherwise who is going to be a Catholic, who is going to be a Protestant, who is going to be a Hindu, who is going to be a Mohammedan? The whole structure of the society has been managed in such a way that a very few people exploit millions of people. And they have given consolations to those who have been exploited: "It is because of your past life's evil acts." You don't know anything about your past life, so this is a good consolation: "What can I do? Or they say, "This is a fire test of your faith in God. Be contented as you are and you will be rewarded a thousandfold beyond death."

 

Either religions have either taken refuge in the past...Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, they are all past-oriented. Or the other three religions - Christianity, Mohammedanism, Judaism - have taken refuge beyond death. There is not much difference. All that is happening is happening in life and they are postponing it, either before birth or after death. The strategy is the same. The whole purpose is so that you allow people to exploit you, you allow people to drink your blood with the deep contentment that "this is how things are." I want to say to you very emphatically that all these religions have played into the hands of the vested interests. All your priests are nothing but servants of your politicians.

 

The whole history of mankind has been a disaster. And unless we start revolting as individuals, dropping all nationalities, all religions, all races, and declare that this whole globe belongs to us and all the lines of the map are bogus and false, unless individuals start changing the whole educational system. The educational system should teach you the art of living, it should teach you the art of loving, it should teach you the art of meditation, it should teach you finally the art of dying gloriously.

 

Your education system is not educational. It only creates clerks, stationmasters, postmen, soldiers - and you call it education. You have been deceived. But the deception has been going on so long that you have completely forgotten. And you are still going on in the same old rut. I raise my hand against the whole past of mankind. It has not been civilized, it has not been human. It has not been in any way helpful for people to blossom, it has not been a spring. It has been a calamity, a crime committed on a vast scale. But somebody has to stand against it, and somebody has to make the point: we disown our past, and we will start living according to our own inner being and create our own future. We will not allow the past to create our future.

 

Hymie Goldberg buys himself a fancy pair of Italian shoes in a Beverly Hills boutique, and wears them home to show them off to Becky. Becky does not appear even to notice the new shoes, so Hymie waits until she is in bed and then walks in, stark naked except for the shoes. Posing, he exclaims, "It is about time you paid some attention to what my prick is pointing at!"

 

Looking down at the shoes, Becky replies, "It is too bad you didn't buy a hat!"

 

In the middle of his sermon the priest stops, sniffs the air, and then holding his nose, calls the head usher to the front.

 

"Please go through the church," says the priest, "and see if some stray dog stole in, stooled, and then stole out again." The usher immediately begins his inspection and after some minutes comes back to make his report.

 

"No, Father," he says, "I did not see where some stray dog stole in, stooled, and stole out again. But I did see some very positive signs where some creeping cat crept into the crypt, crapped, and crept out again."

 

I would like you to accept only one prayer, and that is laughter, because when you are laughing totally you are in the present. You cannot laugh in the future and you cannot laugh in the past. All those people who have created this retarded humanity have taken away all juice, all laughter, all smiles, and dragged everybody into being inauthentic. And if you are inauthentic, insincere, you can never grow the seed that has been given to you by this great compassionate universe.

 

An unshaven, dirty, bedraggled panhandler, with bloodshot eyes and teeth half gone, asks Paddy for a dime. "Do you drink, smoke, or gamble?" asks Paddy.

 

"Mister," says the bum, "I don't touch a drop, or smoke the filthy weed, or bother with evil gambling."

"Okay," says Paddy. "If you will come home with me I will give you a dollar."

 

As they enter the house, Maureen takes Paddy aside and hisses, "How dare you bring that terrible-looking specimen into our home!"

 

"Darling," says Paddy, "I just wanted you to see what a man looks like who does not drink, does not smoke, and does not gamble."

 

Life should be not a serious thing. It should be a deep playfulness - fun. And every individual should be allowed absolute freedom to be himself. The only restriction will be that you cannot interfere in another individual's life sphere - it may be your wife, it may be your husband, it may be your child, it does not matter. A tremendous respect for the individual is to me the essential core of being truly religious. Be yourself and let others be themselves and this life, this planet, can become the lotus paradise herenow.

 

But something has to be done and done very soon, because all those idiots are preparing for a global suicide. Unless you revolt against the past, and the whole heritage of the past, you cannot save humanity, these beautiful trees, these birds singing, this small planet which has just developed to the stage of being conscious. Scientists guess that there may be millions of other planets in the universe, but there is not even a single piece of evidence yet....

 

The only evidence of life growing to this stage of consciousness - of love, of silence, of experiencing the cosmos - has happened on this small earth. At any cost, this earth and the people of this earth have to be saved from the calamity that is coming from your whole past. An absolute discontinuity is needed; all history books should be burnt. The whole educational system should be centered on playfulness, on love, on freedom, on consciousness, and a tremendous respect for everything that is alive.

 

This is my vision. Time is very short. Those idiots have been working for thousands of years and they have come to a point where they are capable of destroying this earth seven times. So much destructive force is accumulating that unless a few individuals gather courage and revolt against all that is past. I am not telling you to choose, to choose that which is good and leave that which is bad. They are altogether; you cannot do that. The past has to be simply erased, as if we are on the earth for the first time and there has been no history. That is the only possibility of creating a beautiful world full of love, full of fragrance, with a deep respect for everybody.

 

The past has lived centered on hate. The future can live only if it is centered on love. The past has been unconscious. The future can only be conscious. To many this may seem an almost impossible dream. But remember, whatever you are is not because of the politicians, is not because of the priests. Whatever you are, if some flame is still alive in you, it is because of the poets, the dreamers, the mystics. We can either die with the past or we can be reborn with a new future. Clean yourself and become Adam and Eve again. Disobey God again. Only then is there a possibility for this vision to become a reality.

 

Don't be concerned about the whole world. If we can create the idea of revolt in a small minority in the world, that will do. A single seed can make the whole earth green, and a single man in revolt can create a totally new world, a totally new humanity. I am not in favor of any organized revolution because all organizations basically destroy the individual. I am in favor of the individual and his dignity. There is nobody above the individual. We have to take this tremendous quantum leap from organized living to individual flowering. It is possible. If it is possible for me - because I don't belong to any religion and I don't belong to any nation and I don't belong to any kind of organization - it is possible for you too.

 

And if this fire of individuality spreads, it can become a wildfire, because deep down every individual is suffering. He wants to revolt against all that has been repressed, all that has been imposed on him. And you will not find a better moment. This century is coming to its end, and one thing is certain, the old world cannot continue to live. All the prophets have been declaring the end of the world in the year 2000. None of them has said a single word about what happens beyond this century. I want it to be clear to you, to my people around the earth, that the old world does not mean the planet.

 

The old world means the old structure of humanity. It is going to die. But if we can save a few individuals, a new beginning is very close. Rather than being concerned with the old, rejoice for the new.

 

-Osho, "Om Mani Padme Hum, #10"