GRATEFUL FOR YOUR LOVE! 

Have you ever noticed how much existence has given you?

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No, you take it for granted, as if you earned it, as if it were your achievement.

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You didn't deserve it. It wasn't something you achieved. It's a gift, it's a blessing, it's simply an act of love of existence  to have  given you so much. And she is ready to give you so much more. You are the one who is not ready to receive.

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Religion prevents you from being religious. She sends him to monasteries, to temples, to churches. It teaches you to pray to a hypothetical god you've never met, no one has ever met.

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The real temple is all around you, under the stars, under the green foliage of the trees, beside the ocean. The true temple is all around you and the true god is nothing but the living, conscious phenomenon within you.

Wherever there is life, where there is awareness, there is god.

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And when you get to the ultimate experience of consciousness, you become a god. It is everyone's natural right to become a god, not to worship God, but to become a god.

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All religions are holding you back. They don't teach you to be without ambition. They teach you ambition, how to become virtuous so that you can reach paradise. They don't teach you not to be afraid. They teach you to be afraid, because if you don't do certain things, you will be cast into hell and will suffer for eternity. All religions are basically an exploration of humanity. They enslave you, they humiliate you, they call you a sinner, and they destroy your self-respect.

Religiousness is a humble gratitude towards existence.

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And because existence has given you so much, there is humble self-respect; humble, not selfish. You don't brag about it.

She teaches you to love, to be more alive, to play more, to celebrate more. Your life should be a song, a dance and a festivity.

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What is the need to belong to a cluster? All these things are your individual experiences, they have nothing to do with any cluster. You don't need to go to a church, you don't need to worship a god, you don't need to worship a book that's dead and full of all kinds of nonsense and stupidity and superstition.

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Religiousness is an absolutely individual phenomenon. It is not something related to the collectivity, you are not going to fight with someone... 'So, be united.' Muslims must be united against Hindus; Hindus must be united against Christians; Christians must be united against the Jews. These things are not religions. They are insane mobs who want to do violence in the name of religion, in the name of God.

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I was once sitting in a bookstore and suddenly there was an uprising. Across the street was a very nice shop full of watches. And people started taking off their watches. And an old man was screaming out loud, 'This is not right! If Hindus and Muslims are fighting, you can fight. But taking things out of the stores... I don't see any religion in it.'

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I was in the bookstore and I was listening to him, but no one was listening to the old man. I knew that old man; we used to meet once in a while on our morning walks and talk about some things. He was a very good man and had a very philosophical approach to life. He was a Muslim and it was a mob of Muslims who were destroying a Hindu store. When they were done with the whole store, there was only one big wall clock left. He was very big and nobody wanted to take him because he would be easily seen. Wherever a person went, he would be seen. He would have to be carried on his back. Still the old man took the big clock.

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I couldn't believe it. I walked up to the store and said, 'Wait! What are you doing?'

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He said, 'What else could I do? They had taken everything and only this watch was left. So I said to myself, now what to do? They didn't listen to me. I tried everything to save the store. But when I saw that all the clocks had already been taken away, suddenly a longing rose in me - What are you doing here, standing like a fool? Take this one and take it home -. And I'm going.'

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I said, You are perfectly right. You earned it. You screamed, you did what you could. You're not stealing, I'm a witness. If any problems arise, you can call me. You did your job, the religious job of teaching people. Nobody heard you and the shop owner ran away in fear of being killed. Now this is pure gain. You, in your old age, wasted your whole day. I can help you?'

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He said, 'Don't make me feel ashamed. This clock is so big and my house is so far away.'

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I said, 'Let me help you, otherwise you, being a Muslim, might get caught by some Hindu. And no one will believe you bought this watch at a time when people are taking everything from the watch shop.'

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He said, 'You are right. So do one thing: call a taxi if you can. He is very heavy.'

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I said, 'I'll call a taxi.' I called a taxi. As we were standing at the edge of the sidewalk, many people gathered to see what was going on. I said, 'There's no problem. He won the watch, he deserved it.'

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He felt so embarrassed when the taxi arrived and said, 'No, this is not right. Put the watch back on, leave it on the sidewalk. Someone else will take it.'

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I said, 'Someone else will take it, no matter who it is. Just sit in the taxi and take it with you.'

The next day, when I saw him in the square, I said to him, 'How's the clock doing?'

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He said, 'I couldn't sleep all night. He made a tick-tack, tick-tack that reminded me, - My God, I stole this watch, contrary to all my philosophy and all my religious teachings -. And I was warning people. This is not a prize, this is a punishment. And my wife got mad and said, 'You got old, but you're really an idiot. While people were carrying beautiful wristwatches, you brought me this tick-tack. You can't even sleep. Throw it away.' My wife put it in the garage and I'm wondering how I can return it.'

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I said, 'This is a good idea. Should I call a taxi? But, you must not go there and return it. I will, otherwise you will be caught.'

So I went to return the watch. And the man said, 'How did you get involved in this?'

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I said, 'This is a long story. But we were able to recover at least one: this big clock. As for the others, I know who took them, I was watching. I can give you some names, but it will be very difficult to find them. This one was taken by an old man, but his wife couldn't take this 'tick-tack'. He would come and bring it back himself, but I told him, 'This is dangerous, there is still tension in the air.' So just take it back. But when the tension eases, remember that old man tried everything, but eventually the animal jumped to the surface and when he saw that no one was listening to him, he thought, 'Only I'm losing, everyone's gaining something thing.' Pure economy only.

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Religions are nothing but mass psychology, crowd psychology, and the masses are still in their animal state. They are not yet human beings. There are individual human beings, but there are no crowds that are human. Crowds immediately slip, return and become unconscious.

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Thus, there is no problem for the individual to become religious. You just need to understand what religiosity means:

Be grateful for existence and enjoy the beautiful life that surrounds you.

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Love, because tomorrow is not right.

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Don't put off anything beautiful until tomorrow.

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Live intensely, live fully, here and now.

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And there is no need to be a Muslim or a Hindu. And you will discover tremendous ecstasy building. It's your paradise.

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Paradise is not somewhere, wherever it is. Paradise is a space within you.”

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Osho – The Osho Upanishad- Disc. 35 - question no. 2

Translation: Sw. Bodhi Champak.

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In reality people are not as unhappy as they seem. They have many moments of great joy, but they are moments that pass them by, they are never aware of them. Your memories remain full of nightmares. It's not that there aren't beautiful dreams and poetic visions, they also exist, but no one is there to notice them. In twenty-four hours, thousands of things happen that you should be grateful to God for, but you don't even notice!

You have to start noticing them from this very moment. And you will be surprised as the joy grows with each passing day and, in the same proportion, as the pain and unhappiness disappear. Until the time will come when life is almost a celebration. Pain happens from time to time, but it's a pain that is part of the game. We are not distracted by it. We accept it.

My experience is that life consists of 99 percent joy and one percent pain. However, JB people's lives consist of 99 percent pain and one percent joy; everything is turned inside out.

Become more and more aware of pleasure, joy, positive things, flowers, that there is no harm that does not bring good.

Osho (Body and Mind)