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Sobre el Libro From Death to Deathlessness
Sensing the storm about to descend on his American commune, Osho responds to residents and visitors questions. The topics cover the whole spectrum of human concern -- poverty, AIDS, education, politics, creativity, existentialism, psychology, nuclear war, power, relationships, money. Osho answers each with respect and compassion, always going beyond the surface of the rational mind to the deeper waters, to the very source.
Del LibroFrom Death to Deathlessness
Beyond Hope and Hopelessness
Osho: From Death to Deathlessness, Chapter 2
Osho,
You have often used the word "existentialism," and you have referred to yourself as an existentialist. Please define these words.
There has been a contemporary school of philosophy in Europe called existentialism. I have nothing to do with it. That is only a philosophy, a mind game. These people were talking about existence, but they knew nothing of what it means to be existential. I also use the word "existentialist" for myself, but the difference between Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers, Marcel, and me is vast, unbridgeable.
When I say I am an existentialist, I am not saying that I believe in the philosophy of existentialism.
Existence needs no philosophy. Birds dont need philosophy, flowers dont need philosophy, rivers and oceans dont need philosophy -- but they are all existential; they exist, and they exist with totality and intensity.
I am not a philosopher. To be a philosopher is just to be a "foolosopher." It is a sheer waste of time. Down the centuries philosophers have been struggling intellectually to find the truth. Not a single one of them has found it, for the simple reason that intellect and its way goes round and round, about and about, but it never penetrates to the center.
To love, you do not have to be a philosopher of love. Love needs no philosophy; love is an existential experience.
I call myself an existentialist. I call you existentialists. But it has nothing to do with those dodos in France. It is not a philosophy but a way of life -- not according to any dogma, cult, doctrine, discipline, no! -- Just living without any idea of how to live. The moment the "how" enters, it opens the door for all the philosophies to come in, all the theologies to come in.
I want you to live like the trees, like the birds, like the clouds. Without man, do you think existence will disappear? Without man, after the third world war, do you think the sun will not rise? And the nights will not rejoice in millions of stars?
My insistence is: live spontaneously without any discipline. Live in freedom and live in totality, because one never knows the next moment. I may not be here, you may not be here. The next moment is meaningless.
As far as existence is concerned, it knows only one tense, and that is the present tense. The past is no more, the future is not yet.
Only idiots bother about the past; they are gravediggers. And only idiots are concerned about the future, for the simple reason that they have lost contact with existence now. They are hoping perhaps tomorrow the miracle will happen, perhaps tomorrow the messiah, Jesus Christ, will come down and give you salvation, liberation, paradise.
I want you to know: that guy, Jesus Christ, is never going to come, for the simple reason that the way you behaved with himc. If he has any intelligence he is not coming back to this earth. And I know that you will do the same or even worse to him if he comes again. I think he is not that retarded. And just think: what salvation did he bring when he was here? He could not save himself, and he was proposing to save the whole humanity.
But people who have missed life start hanging onto some hope. They know perfectly well they themselves are not capable, so they start projecting messiahs, prophets, incarnations of God. This is just to console themselves: "Let the tomorrow come; somebody is going to arrive. God is merciful, compassionatec." Seeing your misery he is bound to send a messenger or his only begotten son or a prophet. This gives you a certain kind of opium so you can tolerate the suffering through which you are passing.
One thing: there is no God. It is your hope -- and what a hope! An absolutely hopeless hope. And God is not merciful; otherwise through what more misery does he want to show his mercy?
In the first world war people were waiting for the merciful God to do something. He never did anything. In the second world war when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were suffering the worst that humanity has ever suffered, the merciful God did nothing. He is just a lousy fellow -- and not even real. It is your projection. You would like a god, a father figure who takes care of you. You would like prophets who have a direct communication line with God.
Do you know that the Mormons believe their leader has a private phone line direct to God, so whatever he says is Gods word. There is no way to argue about it; you cannot argue with God.
Rather than hopingc. Have you not seen entering Rajneeshpuram? -- The Christians have put up a beautiful sign: "Abandon hope all those who enter here." Those fools dont know that they are preaching my thing.
Yes, abandon hope all those who enter here, because we dont live through hope.
We live in the present, and hope is always in the future. Abandon all future, and start living moment to moment rejoicing in the small things of life.
Remember, life is not made of great things; it is made of very small things. In the early morning, sipping a cup of tea, do it totally, as if this is the last cup of tea you will ever sip again. Take each moment and squeeze the whole juice of it.
I call this my existentialist approach. It has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with heaven and hell. It has nothing to do with religion and all kinds of stupid subtleties that theology has created.
My approach has nothing to do with philosophy. It has something to do with you. And it has something to do with now, because to me there is only one time, that is now; and only one space, that is here. Once you have learned the art, the knack of being herenow, you will be so fulfilled, so contented -- you will not need any opium for yourself.
On the one hand, you will not need the opium which the religions of the world have been providing for people to keep them dreaming for centuries. On the other hand, you will not find what the so-called existentialists in Europe have found: meaninglessness, anguish, anxiety, despair.
Those people were finding meaninglessness because all other philosophers and theologians had proposed that life is very meaningful. But their meaning was derived from God, heaven, hell, the holy Bible, and all kinds of garbage. Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers and people like him were searching for the meaning. There is no need to search for the meaning. Life is neither meaningless nor meaningful.
Meaning is a mind thing - life is a taste!
Do you ever think what meaning taste has? Eating spaghetti, do you ask what meaning the taste has? Having a beautiful shower, the freshness of it, have you ever asked what the meaning of freshness is? Looking at the sunset with so many colors spread all over the horizon, have you asked what meaning the sunset has?
Ask the wrong question and you will find the wrong answer. The existentialists of Europe accepted the questions of religions, which were wrong. Naturally, they found wrong answers. They are not existentialists, I am -- because I dont see any question about meaning. Life is such a beautiful experience, who bothers whether that beautiful experience has any meaning or not? Love is such an ecstasy, who bothers whether love has any meaning or not?
To be silent and meditative is so ecstatic, you will forget all about your search for meaning, truth, God. And once you have dropped the wrong questions, the wrong answers disappear of their own accord. Then between you and existence there is no question, there is no answer, but there is a communion. Your heart slowly slowly starts beating in the same rhythm as the whole existence. You start feeling yourself part of this immense organic whole. You enjoy tremendously. How can there be anguish?
Those existentialists were feeling anxiety, anguish, despair, because death is there, and death will destroy everything. Life has no meaning, and facing them, there is just death closing in on them. The darkness of death makes them feel lost. They start trembling deep inside their being. Their life has been empty, and now comes death. What kind of existence is this? -- Just despair.
It seems to be created not by God but by the devil. Perhaps the devil enjoys torturing people. He enjoys wars, he enjoys Ethiopias, he enjoys poverty, he enjoys all kinds of crimes. Courts go on increasing, and crimes are always far ahead of them. Governments go on becoming more and more dictatorial, anti-individual, because they think if the individual is left free, there will be havoc.
With all the armies and police forces and government agencies, still rape goes on happening, murder goes on happening, suicide goes on happening -- and always on a larger scale! Looking at the world, the existentialists of Europe found nothing but despair.
But I am puzzled about one thing: why didnt they commit suicide? They talked about suicide, that suicide seems to be the only exit out of this mess, this madness, but none of them committed suicide. Somewhere deep down, they were still hoping that perhaps they were wrong. Perhaps the messiah is going to come, the misery has reached to its Everest peak, just a little more -- a little more patience, a little more waiting, and God is going to save them. All this misery perhaps is only a test of your faith.
Thats what religions have been telling you down the centuries -- that misery, suffering, poverty, is just a test of your faith.
God is watching you round the clock. Perhaps, deep in the unconscious of the existentialists the same conditioning still prevails. So on the conscious level they go on saying that this is worthless, this life is accidental, that it has no meaning, that all that it gives is anguish, despair, death, and the only way out is suicide. But none of them committed suicide, they all lived long lives. It is just a game with words.
I want you to remember that I am the only existentialist ever!
I have tasted from the cup of existence. There is no meaning. There is no meaninglessness either. There is no hope. There is no hopelessness either.
These things are absolutely irrelevant. If you enter into existencec. And the miracle is you cannot enter existence through the mind. Mind consists only of past and future -- both are non-existential.
If you want to enter existence, you will have to shut up your mind completely. And in that small gap -- when there are no past memories surrounding your consciousness, and no future imaginations or hopes present -- in that small moment of pure silence you meet existence for the first time. And immediately all questions disappear. You are so abundantly fulfilled, so content, so whole, that who bothers about meanings?
Have you watched a simple thing? When you are sick, then you ask: "Why am I sick? What is the cause of it?" You go to the doctor to find out the cause so that some medicine can be given to you. But when you are healthy, have you ever asked: "Why am I healthy?" Have you become worried that: "I am healthy?" Have you gone to the doctor to say: "Please tell me the cause of my health?" No, when you are healthy and feeling a great well-being, you dont ask such questions. Health is natural; disease is a disturbance.
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