“I’m afraid it’s bad news,” said the doctor to the husband of a nagging wife. “Your wife has only a few hours left to live. I hope you understand there’s nothing more to be done. Don’t let yourself suffer.’
It’s all right, Doc,” said the husband. “I’ve suffered for years – I can suffer a few more hours.
Another one, the woman lion tamer had her beasts under perfect control. At her summons, the fiercest lion came meekly to her and took a piece of sugar out of her mouth. The circus crowd marvelled – all except one man, Mulla Nasruddin.
“Anybody could do that,” he yelled from the audience.
“Would you dare to do it?” the ring master yelled back scornfully.
“Certainly,” replied Nasruddin, “I can do it just as well as the lion can.”
Whenever you are listening, listen to the meaning. Whenever you are listening to a person, listen to her/his whole personality - and you will immediately be able to see the the person lives in the dimension of having or in the dimension of being.
And that will be very helpful for your own inner growth and your own change of gears. Just watch people. It is easier to watch people than to watch yourself in the beginning, because people are more objective, and there is a little distance between you and them. And you can be more objective about people because you are not involved in them. Just watch. Make it a point.
Buddha used to say to his disciples, “Watch everybody passing by; coming and going in the streets, watch people.” See exactly what is happening. Don’t listen to their words because they are very cunning, they have become very deceptive. When somebody is saying something listen to his face, to his eyes, to his being, to the gesture, and you will be simply surprised how, up to now, you have lived only with words. A person may be saying, “I love you,” you have lived only with words. A person may be saying, “I love you,” and his eyes may be simply denying it. a person may be smiling with his lips and his eyes may be ridiculing you, rejecting you. A person may be saying “Hello” and holding your hand, and his whole being may be condemning you.
Listen to the language of the body, the language of the gesture the language behind the language. Listen to the meaning. And first become alert about it in others. let everybody who comes to you be an experiment of awareness. Then by and by you will become able to watch yourself. Then turn your whole flood of life upon yourself; then use the same with yourself. When you say to somebody “I love you,” listen to what you really are saying – not these words. Words are almost always fake.
Language is very tricky and can garb things so beautifully that the container becomes so important and you lose sight of the content. People have become very sophisticated as far as their surface is concerned, but their innermost core remains almost primitive. Listen to the centre of the circumference. Go into each word.
First others have to be watched, then watch yourself. And then by and by you will see that there are a few moments when you also move into the dimension of being. These moments are the moments of beauty, the moments of happiness. In fact, whenever you see that you are feeling very happy, you have come in contact with the dimension of being – because there no other happiness possible.
But if you don’t observe it accurately, you may misunderstand it. You are sitting with a woman you love, or with a man you love, or with a friend, and suddenly you feel a deep well-being arising in you, a deep joy – for no reason at all, for no visible cause. You are just aglow. You start finding causes outside: you think maybe it is because the woman is sitting by your side and she loves you so much. Or it is because you have met the friend after no many years. Or it is because the full moon is so beautiful. You will start finding causes.
But those who have become alert in listening to the heart, to their real meanings
We all come to this earth to experience Love in our life. We don’t know who to believe or to doubt. Only awareness can bring peace & harmony, not education. Education is a doctrine. That same doctrine bring the hypocrisy. As you grow up, as the society goes on teaching you to be this way, to behave this way, you start be coming a hypocrite, and you become identified with your hypocrisy.
Osho says, “My function here is to destroy all hypocrisy in you. To me honesty is not a policy.”
The man who first made up this maxim, “Honesty is the best policy,” must have been a very cunning man. Honesty is not policy; and if it is policy, then it is not honesty: you are honest because it pays, you will be dishonest if that pays. Honesty is the best policy if it is paying, but if sometimes it is not paying, then dishonesty of course is the best policy. Osho concludes, “The question is, what is going to pay?”
Well here he is talking about honesty to others. And for me, “It is effortless way of life. I don’t have to struggle to be honest.” Whether it pays or not, but it keeps my peace & harmony.
What is politeness? It is a kind of politics. Both words are derived from the same root. All three words — policy, politeness, politics — have the same root, they all mean the same thing. But politeness you think is a nice quality. You would never think of it in terms of politics, but it is politics. To be polite is a defence measure.
In Europe you shake hands. Why do you shake the right hand? — why not the left? It is really part of politics. To shake hands is nothing friendly. It is just a gesture that “My right hand is empty so don’t be worried. And let me see that your right hand also is empty, that there is not a knife or something in it.” And when you are shaking right hands you cannot pull your sword out because with the left hand… unless you happen to be a leftist. It is just a way of giving certainty to the other person, that you are not going to harm him, and he is giving certainty to you that he is not going to harm you. Slowly slowly, it became a symbol of greeting each other.
In India, you greet with both hands, but that too is simply showing that both your hands are empty. It is far better than shaking hands, because who knows about the left hand? Sometimes even the right hand does not know about the left hand, so it is better to show that both hands are empty; that is far better, and far more polite also. But you are saying, “I am completely defenceless. You need not be wary about me or worried about me. You can relax.” These are symbols that people have learned.
Our culture, our education, our religion — they all teach us to be hypocrites in such subtle ways that unless you go deep in search, you will never find out what you have been doing.
Why do you smile when you meet a friend? What is the need? If you are not feeling like smiling, why do you smile? You have to do it. This is a policy that is paying, because some day you may need this man’s help, and if you have always been smiling at him, he cannot refuse. If you have never smiled at him and never even said “Hi,” then you need not bother even to approach him; he will throw you out of his house with a “Go to hell!”
One has to understand all these layers and detach oneself from all of them. Become a watcher so that you cannot become identified with any dream.”
by Osho
