Be In The World, But Not Of It
Beloved Osho,
I was in Goa for a few days and there by the ocean I feel it
so much, and so much bliss. I'm so thankful that I am
existing. All the no's inside turn into a big yes.
But when I am here it is as if it is just a half flame; only
a half flame burning. And I don't understand why at this
ashram I can't be so ecstatic as I can be by the ocean.
You
will be - because it is always so. With the ocean there is
no problem; with people there are problems. The ocean
creates no problem for you. You may create problems for the
ocean - that is up to you - but the ocean creates no
problems for you. With the ocean in fact you are alone. The
other does not exist. But with people you are not alone -
and unless you learn how to be alone in a crowd, the ocean
is not going to help.
This too is a sort of ocean - an ocean of consciousness...
so many people with so many different waves and rhythms and
vibrations. You become affected by them. The ocean simply
does not care whether you are there or not. The ocean simply
does not know anything about you; it doesn't bother, it is
not aware. You think that you are with the ocean. The ocean
does not know that you are there, otherwise there also there
will be trouble. Sometimes the ocean may like you, sometimes
the ocean may not like you. Sometimes the ocean may be bored
with you, sometimes the ocean may be happy with you.
Sometimes the ocean will say, 'Just go away,' but the ocean
does not respond or react. It is simply there whether you
come or not. You are alone.
With people the problem arises. Each person responds, reacts
in a thousand and one ways. Unless you become such a
witness, unless you become ocean-like - that whatsoever
happens is happening and you are not worried, it does not
make any difference to you.... Somebody insults you - it
doesn't make any difference. Somebody says, 'You are great'
- and it doesn't make any difference.
When you become ocean-like then you can move in the crowd,
in the market-place, undisturbed, undistracted, unperturbed.
If you remain by the ocean for long, by and by the beautiful
feeling that has come to you will disappear, because there
are so many people who live by the ocean and they don't even
know that the ocean exists; they have become completely
oblivious. There are fisherman in Goa who simply would not
be able to believe... 'What nonsense are you talking? saying
that sitting by the side of the ocean you feel so grateful
and so peaceful and so silent.' They have lived there - they
have been born there; for centuries their parents and their
parents parents have lived there, and their children will
live there, and it has never happened. 'What nonsense are
you talking ?'
If you live there a little longer you will become
accustomed, and then this shattering that the vastness of
the ocean brings to you, this total indifference that the
ocean brings to you, will be lost. It is good once in a
while to go, but that is not going to help really. It is an
escape from people. I'm not saying don't go to the ocean and
to the mountains. Sometimes go - it is really beautiful -
but it is not going to help your growth, your integration.
It is only people who are going to help, because it is only
people who disturb.
It is only people who create worries, anxieties. It is only
people who penetrate your heart and poke you this way and
that, and will not leave you in rest. Unless you learn how
to live with people and yet far beyond, far away into the
stars, then nothing is going to happen. Only this is going
to become a deep integration in your heart.
So whatsoever you felt by the ocean, carry it here. I have
chosen knowingly to remain in the market-place. I could have
moved to Goa, but right now if I move to Goa I will not be
of much help to you. It will be very good for me, but it
will not be of much help to you. I can move to the Himalayas
and you will have tremendous beauty, but sooner or later you
will become accustomed to it and you will start hankering
for the world. You will start hankering for people because
only people can satisfy you and only people can dissatisfy
you.
People are your atmosphere. We are not simply part of
nature. We are part of a subtle atmosphere of humanity. If
you remain outside of it there is every possibility that you
may become primitive. It has happened to many people - and I
am not for it. I would like you to go beyond society - not
below it. Both look alike but they are not. You can fall
back, you can become more animal-like. That's what is
happening in the West - the new generation and all sorts of
revolts: hippies and yippies and others. That's what is
happening - they are falling out of the society, they are
falling beyond it. It is not going to help.
Falling out of the society, you become a little less. Maybe
you will be more helpful, but not for long. Sooner or later
you will be pulled back by the society because your own
innermost being will feel starved. It is not only food that
you need, it is not only air and water that you need. You
need a subtle human vibration; that's a subtle food that you
need.
Sometimes it has happened that a few children have been
found in the forest. Some wolf took a child, and a miracle
of nature - they didn't eat the child. They helped the child
to grow. Four or five times within fifty years, this has
happened. The child has grown like a wolf-man - absolutely
in nature without any human contact.
...
No, man has to go beyond society - not below it. You have to
use society to go beyond it; you have to use society as a
ladder. Much is wrong with it, but falling out of it is not
going to help, but going beyond it. Buddha is beyond it;
below is a wolf-man. Both are no more parts of the society.
Buddha is not a part of the society because now he is
higher, greater. A wolf-man is also not a part of the
society because he is no more human. He is inhuman, fallen
back.
My whole effort is this - that you should grow with people,
and you should grow beyond them. Never make the ocean or the
mountain a substitute for people - there is no substitute.
For a human being, humanity is his natural element. And
there is much temptation for the mind to move away from the
society because people really create so many problems.
Live with a person and you will know many problems. You live
with your partner and then you know how many problems. Just
such a beautiful woman - she can drive you crazy! Then one
starts thinking, 'Leave all. Go somewhere where you are
alone,' but then you are escaping from the challenge.
Never escape from any challenge. Tackle it. Try to
understand it. Become a witness to it, become more conscious
of it. Be in it deliberately and still retain something like
a far-away look, a distance. Remain in it and yet distant.
That's the whole art of religion - to be in the world and
not be of the world.
But sometimes when you get too lost, go to the ocean, go to
the mountains. Have a feel there of how things should be,
and let that experience remain with you when with people. If
you can bring your ocean to your relationship and it remains
there, then something has happened; otherwise you are
dreaming.