on Osho's Religiousness

 

 

 

The fool lives around the idea of “my” and “mine”: my nation, my religion, my race, my family, my wealth, my children, my parents…he lives around “my” and “mine.” And he has come alone and he will go alone; nobody brings anything into the world and nobody takes anything from the world. Alone, empty-handed we come; alone, empty-handed we go. The wise knows it; hence the wise claims nothing as “mine.” He uses things, but he does not possess them. Using is perfectly good — use all the things of the world, they ARE for you. The world is a gift from God — use it, but don’t possess it. The moment you become a possessor, you cannot use things — the things start using you. The moment you become a possessor, in fact you are possessed by your things, you become a slave. And the very idea of possessing is stupid. How can you possess anything? You don’t even possess your own being. What else can you possess? You are not even a master of yourself.

 

- Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha

 

 

 

 

Just think: only one flower all over the world, the marigold, and the whole world will look ugly; or the rose – just one flower all over the world. And what will you do with those roses? Then nobody will write anymore poetry about roses. And if you will compare your woman’s face with a roseflower she will become angry, she will threaten you with a divorce. Roses will lose all meaning; they are beautiful because there are millions of other flowers too.

 

I don’t think that the world needs one religion. The world needs religious consciousness, and then that consciousness can flow into as many streams as possible. In fact, my own idea of religion is that there should be as many religions as there are people – each person having his own religion.

 

It is difficult to have your own language; each person cannot have his own language, otherwise nobody will understand it. [....]

 

All these religions should be taken as different languages, then fanaticism loses its danger. Then it is beautiful! There are churches and temples and mosques and gurdwaras – if we think these are all different languages, there is no problem. You don’t see people fighting about which language is the true language – Hindi, Marathi, English, German, French. Which language is the true language? Nobody will ask such a question, because all languages are arbitrary, made-up. They are not true or false, they are useful. [....]

 

There are so many religions because there are so many people, different types of people. Different people have different likings, different people have different approaches toward reality, and reality is multidimensional.

 

Hence, my emphasis is: we need a religious consciousness, a universal upsurge of religious consciousness. Of course it will take many forms, but forms don’t matter; as far as the spirit is alive, forms don’t matter. And each form is beautiful. There are so many people; each has a different face, a different beauty. Each person’s fingerprints are different from every other person’s in the world – but this does not create any trouble. Each person’s footprints toward the door to godliness are going to be different.

 

Once we understand it, a great brotherhood is possible. Otherwise this nonsense of religious fanaticism – “Only I am right” – has been very destructive. It has destroyed religion itself; it has condemned religion and religious people. That’s why there are so many irreligious people, antireligious people. It is what religion has done to humanity up to now that has created antireligious people – atheists, godless people, God-denying people. The responsibility is of the priests, rabbis, popes, pundits, shankaracharyas – they are the responsible people. They have made religion so ugly, so inhuman, so violent, so stupid, that any rational person feels a little ashamed of being part of any religious movement.

 

We have to destroy the ugly heritage of the past. We have to clean the space for the future. All are accepted: the Bible has its own beauty, so has the Koran, so has the Gita. And if you are religious you will enjoy the Bible as much as you will enjoy the Koran and the Gita, because you will know only languages are different. And the difference of languages creates different beauty. Sing the Koran, and you will see the difference. The Bible cannot be beautiful that way; the Koran has a singing quality to it. You can sing the Koran; even if you don’t understand the meaning, the very music of it will be a transforming force. In fact, the Koran does not have much meaning; it has great poetry but not much meaning. [....]

 

Each scripture has something to contribute to the world, and no scripture can do everything. But because you don’t understand different languages, the problem arises. It will be good to have a few encounters with different religions.

 

That’s why I go on speaking, sometimes on Buddhism, sometimes on Hinduism, sometimes on Christianity, sometimes on Judaism, on Hasids, on Zen, on Sufis – for a certain reason: to give you different visions, so your own eyes can become rich, so that you can understand different languages also a little bit.

 

- Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha

 

 

 

 

I have not stopped the sannyas movement; I have stopped it becoming a religion. A movement is a flux; that’s the meaning of movement — it is moving, it is growing. But a religion is dead — it has stopped moving, it has stopped growing. It is dead. The only place for it is in the crematorium. That’s where we had to take it. And we have celebrated the death of the religion — a religion which was not my idea.

 

I trust in sannyasins remaining individuals, I trust in their growth and movement; but I don’t like the idea of them becoming like Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists. That’s what was done while I was in isolation. In my absence, Sheela gathered around herself a fascist group and managed to cripple the sannyas movement, to make it dead, to make it a religion.

 

We have burned the religion — that does not mean we have burned our religiousness. That is a totally different thing.

 

Religiousness is like love — invisible, yet so tangible. You cannot explain it, but you can experience it.

 

Religiousness has been freed from a dead structure, a bondage that Sheela and her criminal group have put around it. Now you are not Rajneeshees. And I would like the press, the media to be kind enough not to refer to my people as Rajneeshees. They need some kind of reference — they can call them friends of Rajneesh, and that will be absolutely right and appropriate.

 

Sheela wanted a dead religion. Every priest or priestess wants a dead religion, because it is predictable. Everything is just a catechism. There is no opinion, no evolution, no growth. Just look at Christianity: two thousand years have passed — have they gone even an inch farther than Jesus Christ? Twenty-five centuries have passed since Buddha — have Buddhists gone a single step ahead? This is destroying growth, destroying evolution.

 

Now I want my people to remain open, alive, growing, always fresh and new. It remains a new kind of phenomenon, religiousness: no label attached to it, because every label is a full stop. And I don’t like full stops, I don’t like even semi-colons: Life is always ongoing….

 

One journalist was very much worried; he said, “You have destroyed Rajneeshism, the religion. Now you will be in great trouble on two counts: first, Rajneesh Foundation International will lose its tax-exempt status.”

 

I told the man, “Don’t you worry about it. We have burned religion but not religiousness; and we will fight so that a man can have a growing experience of religiousness without being part of a mob psychology, without being a member of a collectivity. That is perfectly good for the sheep, but not for lions. And I want my sannyasins to be lions, not sheep.

 

“Nobody can take away the tax-exempt status. We are more religious than any Christian, any Hindu, any Mohammedan. We have just buried the dead structure and freed the soul of religion. That freedom is religiousness.”

 

He was also worried that it would be difficult now for me in reference to my immigration, on the same grounds. It is not going to be difficult for me at all. If you don’t have a category for religiousness, that is your fault. Make a category for religiousness.

 

Even in my interview with the INS I had made it clear that this is no ordinary religion; it is simply a way of life, a quality of religiousness.

 

The INS officer said, “But it is difficult, because we don’t have any category for that. We have a category for religion.”

 

“Then,” I said, “you can write that it is a religionless religion.” And that is on record.

 

What does “religionless religion” mean?

It simply means a religiousness.

 

- Osho, From Bondage to Freedom

 

 

 

 

That’s why I say my religion is the first authentic religion; it has no idea of guilt at all.

 

I don’t want you to feel guilty about anything, because nature has given to you out of its bounty. It is a gift to be received with joy, whatever it is. And a gift has not to be thrown out, repressed. Enjoy it.

 

So the first thing is accepting yourself — which is not very great; but seeing the situation in which humanity is, still it is a great revolution: accepting yourself.

 

But I don’t like the word “accept,” because that means somehow “What to do? This is the way I am; I accept it.” No, with my religion just accepting yourself is not enough.

 

Loving yourself, that is totally different.

 

Then you are feeling blessed.

 

Whatever nature has given — and we are nature, extensions, parts of it — we have to live it with a song, with a dance, with no question of guilt. That idea of accepting yourself has arisen because of guilt. Guilt says, “Don’t accept yourself; reject, go on rejecting. The more you reject yourself, the greater a saint you are.”

 

- Osho, From Misery to Enlightenment

 

 

 

 

People ask me what, in my religion, will be the place of worship, of devotion, because they think worship and devotion are impossible without a God. I want to say to you that they are impossible with a God. The whole idea of God is so ugly that I cannot be devoted to such an idiotic hypothesis. I cannot worship God, I don’t see any reason to worship Him.

 

To me devotion is the refined quality of love

 

It has nothing to do with to whom. It is not a question of to whom it is addressed: Jehovah, God, Jesus, Buddha. It is not a question of it being addressed.

 

Devotion is a quality in your heart

 

You feel full of reverence for everything that is.

 

You feel a great love for all that is.

 

- Osho, From Personality to Individuality

 

 

 

 

But here something totally new is happening. I am not trying to create a religion, I cannot do it, because the very idea of creating a religion is ugly. But I am releasing a sense of humor in you, a deep laughter in you. To me laughter is more sacred than prayer, dancing more spiritual than chanting mantras, loving existence far more cosmic than going to a church or to a temple. Becoming utterly nobody, a pure nothingness, is far more significant than becoming a saint. Innocence, a sense of humor, a joyous participation in life… you cannot create a dead institution around such tremendously alive experiences. A dead institution needs something dead to be made out of. It is made out of the corpses of your saints. My whole approach is nonserious — sincere, but non-serious.

 

- Osho, The Goose is Out

 

 

 

 

My own idea about religion is that nobody should be given a religion by birth. Birth should not be involved in it. A child should be given a chance to watch all kinds of religions possible. He should be allowed to go to the synagogue, to the church, to the temple, to the GURUDWARA. He should be helped in every way; he should be introduced to all kinds of religious varieties going around so that he can choose on his own. The parents should help him to become alert about all the varieties of religion — they should not try to impose any religion on him. Then if he finds that he would like to become a Sikh, perfectly good. With all blessings he should become a Sikh; he should start going to the GURUDWARA . If he thinks he would like to become a Buddhist, that’s perfectly good.

 

- Osho, Sufis: The People of the Path

 

 

 

 

Rami, what theory you are talking about? From where you got the idea that there is a theory here? I am a destroyer of all theories, and I don’t give you any substitute. I only decondition you and I never recondition you. There is no doctrine, no dogma, no creed, no religion. My whole approach is that of being innocent, loving, dancing, singing, enjoying the small things of life, because the small things, if enjoyed totally, become great things. The mundane loved without any conditions becomes the sacred.

 

- Osho, The Wild Geese and the Water

 

 

 

 

What I am doing here is bringing creativity back to religion. I would like painters and poets and musicians and all kinds of people who have some idea to do something. I would like my whole commune to be in a passionate, creative love affair with existence. Then whether they pray or not, whether they believe in God or not, doesn’t matter at all; they are religious, they are holy people.

 

- Osho, Don’t Let Yourself Be Upset by the Sutra, rather Upset the Sutra Itself

 

 

 

 

This is my vision and this I call true religion. The true religion has no idea of sin at all; the true religion is so innocent that it knows nothing of sin. And the idea of sin has condemned people so much that they have forgotten all their glory, they have forgotten all their splendour. The priests have condemned man so much that he feels ugly, unworthy, worthless. This is just a strategy of the priests to exploit man. You can exploit man only if you can make him feel guilty.

 

My work is to undo what the priests have done, to destroy all guilt and instead to create self-love. And whenever one loves oneself, one becomes capable of loving the whole existence.

 

- Osho, Darshan Diaries , Hallelujah!

 

 

 

 

In the old spiritual dimension, laughter does not exist at all; Christians say Jesus never laughed. Now this is utter nonsense! Only Jesus is capable of laughter; who else can laugh as beautifully as Jesus? But the Christian saints are depicting Jesus according to their idea of religion: a non-laughing God, utterly serious. That is not my vision of God. My God is a dancing God. He laughs, he loves, he sings, he plays… And I say to you, my God is closer to the truth; bliss to me is the most fundamental thing in religious life. To be cheerful is to be prayerful, to remain constantly blissful, rejoicing in ordinary life, in small things… because it is not a question of what you are rejoicing about, the question is that you are rejoicing. Then anything you can rejoice about becomes spiritual. Anything that makes you cheerful is spiritual. Then we can transform the whole of life into something extraordinarily beautiful and that’s what a man of enlightenment does: his walking, his sitting, his talking, each of his gestures, is full of bliss, full of great joy. His every breath is a breath of joy itself.

 

- Osho, Darshan Diaries , The Rainbow Bridge

 

 

 

 

In my vision, each person should have his own religion. There should be as many religions as there are people. Only then this conflict, this continuous conflict, will stop, this fight between religions will stop: when everybody has a religion and it is something unique like your signature, like the print of your thumb — unique. Then there will be no problem, no conflict; nobody will try to convert anybody. You don’t try to convert people saying, “Make your signature just as I do.” In fact, if somebody does it you will inform the police: “This man is trying to imitate me.”

 

- Osho, Ah This!

 

 

 

 

I am giving you an insight, not a religion. And you are not my followers, remember, Zareen. Nobody here is my follower — -friends, of course, but nobody is a follower. The orange color creates the illusion that people are following me. Just to avoid that, I cannot wear orange myself. I love the color, but if I start wearing orange then it will become a logical proof that you are following me. Certainly, you are not following me; I am a white person, you are orange people — what connection can there be?

 

You are not my followers but friends. And because I love orange, out of your love you have accepted it. It is not a uniform; it is not that by wearing orange you become part of a certain sect or church. There is no church, no sect. Because I love orange, just out of love for me you are wearing orange. That is just a gesture of love, nothing else.

 

Zareen, you are not my follower, nobody is. But certainly you have chosen to be with me. That is your choice. You have fallen in love with a madman, and when you fall in love with a madman a little bit of madness is bound to enter in your heart. That’s what is happening here. I am drunk, I am making you drunk. What else can I do? But this is not a religion. Hence you can love me and you can love Jesus, and there is no conflict. In fact by loving me you are bound to love Jesus. By loving me you will find for the first time the real taste of Jesus. By being with me you can love Buddha. In fact for the first time you will have an insight of what Buddha is. By being with me, in communion with me, you will be in communion with Zarathustra, with Lao Tzu, with Mahavira, with Mohammed. But this is a totally different approach I become the door, and when you enter in me you find all the Buddhas — because it is like the ocean: you can taste it from anywhere, it is salty. If you taste me, you have tasted all the Buddhas; it is the SAME taste.

 

- Osho, Be Still and Know

 

 

 

 

But I have never said it before, and people have always wondered: if I don’t have a religion, don’t have a doctrine, don’t have a teaching, then why do I go on talking to people? I could not tell them; they would not understand. Only those who will experience the relaxation of superconsciousness will be able to see the point. And then certainly, as Kaveesha says, they will understand how long I have been waiting, and how long I have been patient, and how I have been condemned for things which have nothing to do with me. But I have remained silent — because it does not bother me; the only thing that I am interested in is that my people should attain to the state from where they cannot fall before I leave the body.

 

I cannot give you anything more precious.

 

- Osho, Beyond Psychology

 

 

 

 

This is my understanding: that if religion has disappeared in the world today, it is not because of science — no. It is not because of atheists — no. It is not because of rationalists — no. It is because of pseudo-religion. There is too much pseudoreligion and it is so bogus, phoney, that only people who are phoney can be interested in religion. People who have even an iota of reality will go against it, they will rebel. Real people have always been rebellious, because reality wants to assert its being, to express its freedom. Real people are not slaves. Remember this, then we will enter into the sutras.

 

- Osho, Come Follow to You

 

 

 

 

Don’t be too interested in ideas; they don’t exist. Remain more concrete, more realistic. Each individual has uniqueness, and I respect that uniqueness, and it is his freedom, whatsoever he chooses. And it is nobody else’s business to give you a religion. It is not even your parents’ business, or the priests’, or the society’s, or the state’s. It is nobody’s business to give you your religion. Everybody should be allowed to find his own religion. That will be the real state of fraternity. We have to respect the other with all his uniqueness. And we have to say to the other, “If it is good for you, you follow it; it is not good for me so I am going on another route. And if by chance we meet somewhere, it will be beautiful. I will share my journey with you, and you will share your journey with me, and we both will be enriched in that way.”

 

- Osho, Come, Come, Yet Again Come

 

 

 

 

My effort here is to give you a total religion, which contains all the three M’s in it. It is a very ambitious adventure. It has never been tried before; hence I am going to be opposed as nobody has ever been opposed before. You are moving with a dangerous person, but the journey is going to be of tremendous beauty. Dangers, hazards don’t make a journey ugly; on the contrary, they make it tremendously beautiful. All the dangers that you will have to face with me are going to give you a thrill. The journey is not going to be dull, it is going to be very alive. We are going to move towards God in such a multidimensional way that each moment of the journey is going to be precious.

 

- Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha

 

 

 

 

I am giving you a total religion, a religion which allows both. When you are feeling tired with the other, move into meditation, swing into meditation. When you are feeling tired of aloneness, swing into love. Both are good. Both are contradictory, but through contradiction great joy arises. If you have only one you will not have that kind of richness. The one can give you silence or can give you great joy, but both can give you something infinitely precious, incomparable. Both together, they can give you a silent ecstasy, a peaceful joy. At the innermost core you remain utterly silent, and on the periphery, the dance. And when silence dances or silence sings, that is the richest, the peakest of peaks. Hence my insistence for both.

 

- Osho, The Diamond Sutra

 

 

 

 

Religion is the art of dropping questions. So, good that now you don’t have any questions. I am happy, my blessings are with you. My hand is on your head. And be careful — sooner or later you will find only my hand is there, your head has disappeared! That is the whole effort. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Yatri, our cartoonist. A few days ago he made a beautiful cartoon for me. He has understood the point — that this is the whole magic.

 

- Osho, The Discipline of Transcendence