Osho on Prayer by parasuniversal

Three things which are not religion but which have become religion have to be understood. The first is: ritual. Ritual is not religion at all; in fact, ritual is a way of covering up your neurotic tendencies. It is neurosis. Giving a beautiful facade to it, giving it a religious garb, does not help. Neurosis remains neurosis; you only change the name. The neurotic mind moves in habits, routines – it is repetitive. It moves in a groove, it goes on doing the same thing again and again and again. Once it becomes religion then many neurotic people are thought to be religious.

That’s why in the East there are not so many mad people as there are in the West, and the reason is that in the West the ritual has disappeared, almost disappeared. So every neurotic has come out naked into the light. In the East the ritual is a protection. If somebody is doing a ritual you respect him: you think something significant is being done. All that he is doing is hiding his anxiety, keeping himself occupied with something. He is afraid of himself. He cannot face himself; he is afraid of coming across himself, he keeps himself occupied. Maybe he goes on turning the beads of his mala or he repeats ’Ram, Ram, Ram…’, or he does something repetitively every day. His ritual is not different from other, secular, rituals.

Smoking is a ritual – it keeps you occupied. So whenever a person feels nervous he starts smoking to avoid that nervousness. It becomes a beautiful occupation, but it is a religious ritual: taking the smoke in and then throwing it out, and taking it in and throwing it out. k is a mantra, it is a repetitive process. It makes one feel good – nervousness becomes occupied. When people are happy they forget smoking; when they are unhappy they immediately remember it.

So ritual is not religion – that has to be understood – and that is almost ninety percent of religion. And once you drop all rituals you are standing naked in the sunlight, and that is the beginning of the inner journey one has to face. If one is neurotic, then that neurosis has to be faced, one has to become aware of it, because only through becoming aware of it is it going to dissolve. Hiding it, keeping it somewhere in the basement, giving it a beautiful covering, is not going to help; it is not going to change it at all. So the really religious person is non-ritualistic.

The second thing: religion is not belief. To believe is to avoid enquiry. The person who believes, believes out of fear, not out of understanding. There is no need to believe if there is understanding. Understanding needs neither belief nor disbelief. It is the fearful mind: out of fear one wants to cling to some belief system. It gives solace, consolation. It makes one feel as if one knows, and one knows not. It gives you a false notion of knowledge, and deep down remains ignorance and darkness. It hides people’s stupidity. Only stupid people believe… and disbelieve, which are the same. It doesn’t matter whether you believe or disbelieve – it is stupid.

The intelligent person enquires. He will not believe in god, he will not disbelieve in god. He will not take any standpoint. He will say ’I will enquire, I will remain open. I will not move from an already accepted conclusion because then there is no movement, no possibility of movement. If I have already accepted something as true, the enquiry is finished. It is an abortion; now there is no point in enquiry. One has already taken a conclusion, a priori.’ The intelligent person enquires, he goes into enquiry. Enquiry is arduous but it is beautiful too, because it is only through enquiry and the suffering and the pain and the ecstasies that come out of it that one grows.

And thirdly: religion is not morality. That is another deception. People become do-gooders. That is not true virtue – it is a camouflage. It brings respectability, it gives you a good ego feeling. It makes you feel that you are somebody important, significant – not only in the eyes of the world but even in the eyes of god – that you can stand upright, even encountering god; you can show all the good deeds that you have done. It is egoistic, and religion cannot be egoistic.

Not that a religious person is immoral, but he is not moral; he is amoral. He has no fixed character. His character is liquid, alive, moving moment to moment. He responds to situations not according to a fixed attitude, idea, ideology; he simply responds out of his consciousness. His consciousness is his only character, there is no other character.

If these three things are understood then one can understand what religion is. Religion is sanity – going beyond the neurotic mind. Religion is enquiry – going beyond belief systems and disbelief systems. And religion is consciousness – going beyond the confinements of character.

Character is an armour. It is given by others to you, it is imposed on you by others. It is part of the social politics; the society wants you to be in a certain way because that is how you will be more useful and you can be exploited more easily by the society. The society wants you to be mechanically efficient. That’s what the society calls ’a man of character’ – one who is just a robot, who is predictable. The society is very much afraid of people who are not robots because they are unpredictable; you cannot depend on them. You may send them to the war and they may not kill the enemy. They may say ’Why? This man has not done anything to me – why should I kill him? He must have kids at home. His old mother and his wife will be waiting. I cannot do it.’ And all that nonsense of the country and the fatherland and the motherland, that is just stupidity. A man who is not a robot will always be a rebel. He will function out of his consciousness, but then he will create constant difficulties for the so-called status quo. The society wants you to become a character, not a consciousness.

My whole effort here is to create consciousness not character. And once these three things are fulfilled – that you are no more neurotic, that you have learned how to be out of the neurotic mind, that you have become a watcher, that some meditation has started growing in you, that beliefs have been discarded because they were borrowed, they were not yours, because character is no more relevant and you only depend on consciousness, wherever it leads – then suddenly one of the greatest surprises happens uninvited, unsolicited: love starts happening… love starts overflowing. That love is god. How long will you be here?

Nothing could give that much peace, joy, pleasure in the world. Once you come to the doorway, you enter the door and see the world from there. See the world from the eyes of the Master. This is a sign that you have come to the Master. Otherwise you may still be standing in the street and looking at the door.

But once you have entered the door, then you will see the whole world from the eyes of the Master. This means what? In every situation that you face, you will think, “If this situation comes in front of the Master, how would he handle it?” or “How would she handle it?” “If this complication comes in front of the Master, how would he take it?” “If someone blames the Master like this, how would he handle it?” See the world from the eyes of the Master all the time.

The world looks much more beautiful; not a nasty place. But a place filled with love, filled with joy, cooperation, compassion, and all virtues. The world is much more fun. Looking through the doorway, there is no fear. You will look at the world without any fear. You will be in all relationships with everybody without any fear. Because there is shelter.

From inside home, you will look at the thunder, you will look at the storm, you will look at the rain, you will look at the bright sun. Inside you have air conditioning. Very cool, pleasant. Outside it’s hot. You don’t mind because there is nothing that can really distract you, disturb you, or take the fullness away from you. Such a sense of security, such a sense of fullness and joy comes. That is the purpose of having a Master.

All relationships in the world go topsy-turvy. You make relationships and you break relationships. All relationships can get broken or made up and again broken. And there is craving and aversion. This is the world. This is samsara.

But the Master is not a relationship. The Master is the Presence. What is necessary is to feel the Presence of the Master, not to make a relationship. Don’t make the Master a part of your world. Then the same, “Oh, he looked at me.” “He didn’t look at me.” “Oh, he said this.” “He didn’t say that.” “Oh, somebody is close. I am not close.” All this garbage comes into it. You feel the Presence of the Master, that is eternal. That has been there with you before, now, and will be there in the future, too.

Master is the Presence. World is relativity. And relativity has limitations. Presence is unlimited. Presence is vast, infinite, and all comprehensive, all inclusive. And the presence of the Master in one’s life will bring fulfilment to all relations. Every relationship will become complete with the presence of the Infinity if the Master is in your life.

If someone blames you directly, know that they are taking away your bad karma and let it go. Don’t believe in it, and if you’re one of the Guru’s close ones, you will take all of the blame of the world with a smile.

Conflict is the nature of the world; comfort is the nature of the self. Amidst the conflict seek the comfort.

When you are bored with the comfort, get into the games of the world. When you are tired of the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. If you are one of the Guru’s close ones, you do both simultaneously. Trying to end conflict prolongs it. Face the conflict by seeking the comfort of the Self.

God is alive in the world and has been putting up with all the ongoing conflicts throughout the ages. If God can put up with all the conflicts, you can too. The moment you agree to be with the conflict, the conflict disappears.

People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not love peace. Those who want peace want to run away. What is needed here is to be peaceful within and then fight. The whole message of the Gita is to be peaceful yourself and then fight. Krishna tells Arjuna to fight but be in peace at the same time. Does this ring a bell?

In the world, you resolve one conflict and another one comes up. For example, Russia is solved and then Bosnia arises. You make one better, and then another starts up. Your body gets a cold, then you get better; then your back hurts, then it gets better. Your body gets better, and then the mind goes. The world runs like this, isn’t it?

Without any intention, misunderstandings happen. It’s not up to you to try to resolve them. Ignore them and be alive.

Yet the world cannot move without judgments. Until you judge something as good or bad, you cannot perform any actions. If you see rotten apples in the market, you refuse to buy them. You buy only good apples. If someone lies to you ten times, the next time they speak you think it could also be a lie. Such judgments happen automatically. But see the possibility that people and things can change at any time and do not hold onto your judgements.

Of course, you need to judge your company. Your company can pull you up or drag you down. The company that drags you towards doubt, dejection, blame, complaints, anger, delusion and desires are bad company. The company that pulls you up towards joy, enthusiasm, service, love, trust and knowledge is good company. When someone complains, first you listen, then you nod, then you sympathise, then you too complain. Just remember, do not let your judgments become permanent.