Emptiness

Emptiness cannot be polluted by anything, its purity is total and absolute. Out of that emptiness, living in that emptiness, great joy and great peace arise and well up. This is what I call creativity. It can become a song, it can become a painting, it can become a dance, it can become love, it can become all kinds of things. But one thing is similar: it overflows. This overflowing love is a state, a luxury, a sharing for the sheer joy of sharing. 


-Osho

Prayer

Osho – Prayer is wonder, reverence. Prayer is receptivity for the miracle that surrounds you. Prayer is surrender to the beauty, to the grandeur to this fantastic existence. Prayer is non-argumentative dialogue with existence. It is not a discussion… it is a love-dialogue. You don’t argue… you simply whisper sweet nothings.

When a man falls in love with a woman he whispers sweet nothings into her ear. When a man falls into love with existence… the same romance: prayer is romance. It is fantasy; it is becoming available to the miraculous. Many people have lost the capacity to pray, because many people have lost the capacity to wonder. They have lost the capacity to be surprised. You go on seeing millions of wonders every day but you are not surprised at all. Your eyes are so full of dust and knowledge that you don’t see anything. A seed is sprouting, and you don’t see any wonder. A new leaf coming out of the tree, and you don’t see any wonder. A bird singing, and nothing happens inside you. A peacock dances, and nothing dances inside you. A white cloud floats in the sky, and you remain untouched. Then prayer is impossible.

Prayer needs a poetic heart, a loving heart. Approach reality more poetically — don’t be too much of a scientist, don’t be too much of a rationalist. don’t think that you know; nothing is really known — ignorance is absolute, ignorance is ultimate. Once you understand that nothing is known, and ignorance is ultimate, you will again be full of those beautiful eyes you had when you were small children.

I have heard… The husband was one of those cynical, sour guys whom nothing moved or impressed. To him, everything was just a big “so what?” He visited a psychiatrist, and after a short examination was given this diagnosis: “You are cold and blase. To you, everything means a big nothing. You are married, eh? Well, here’s what you do. Ringling’s circus is in the town: take your wife and see the show. Take a look at how red-blooded people live and act. Watch the performers who live dangerously; see how they pulsate and glow.”

The schnook took his wife to the circus. Out into the ring came the roaring lions and tigers. The wife was thrilled by the excitement, but the husband yawned and replied, “Yeah? So what?” Finally there came the grand finale where the daredevil was shot out of a cannon three hundred feet into the air, turned several somersaults, and then, pulling out a clarinet, began playing before hitting the net. The crowd roared its appreciation for the act, but the husband, after a few minutes of thought, turned to his wife and grunted in a bored manner, “A Benny Goodman he’s not!”

Prayer is the capacity to be amazed. prayer is the capacity that you had as children, and you have lost. Claim it — reclaim it — because with prayer you have lost all. The day your wondering eyes closed, God became nonexistential to you. Open your wondering eyes again, and you will find him pulsating again. He’s very close by… he’s all around you… he is within and without.

Source – Osho Book “The Divine Melody”

Osho shares his thoughts on making love.

Making love is a gift. Most of us forget the sacredness of sex. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful treasures in life that we take for granted. While it should be honored as a moment to savor, we rush. If you could, for a moment, think of the person you are in love with. Now imagine tomorrow is the last time you will have the opportunity to make love to them. How will you choose to experience this last, sacred moment with this person? Will you be rushed and hurry off or will you savor every minute? In life, we have taken our sacred gifts: breathing, eating, observing, resting, love-making, and we rush through all of it, mindlessly. We take it for granted. We are constantly in a state of what was yesterday and what will be tomorrow but very few times we think about what is right now. We assume that there is always tomorrow, so we forget to appreciate what is right now. The present moment is what exists. Tomorrow does not exist yet. Do not assume that it will. Right here, right now, exists. And in everything we do, we should devote ourself to it, be fully present with it. Sex should have its own sacred space, it should be transcendent and nurturing, but it has become tarnished and abused. In our culture, it is not treated as sacred but merely as an act or an object. It is used to sell products, it is shown violently on television, and it is viewed as something to conquer, not as something to share. Please, take a moment to listen to Osho’s words. It is worth every minute of your time.

every mind lives in his own world

"In a cinema hall, you look at the screen, you never look at the back - the projector is at the back. The film is not there really on the screen; it is just a projection of shadow and light. The film exists just at the back, but you never look at that. And the projector is there. Your mind is at the back of the whole thing, and the mind is the projector. But you always look at the other, because the other is the screen. When you are in love the person seems beautiful, no comparison. When you hate, the same person seems the ugliest, and you never become aware of how the same person can be the ugliest and the same person can be the most beautiful. So the only way to reach to truth is to learn how to be immediate in your vision, how to drop the help of the mind. This agency of the mind is the problem, because mind can create only dreams. Through your excitement the dream starts looking like reality. If you are too excited then you are intoxicated, then you are not in your senses. Then whatsoever you see is just your projection. And there are as many worlds as there are minds, because every mind lives in his own world". -Osho

Osho describes it well. We have said for decades that "love is blind". Perhaps it is sometimes, but I prefer to think that real love is not blind but forgiving. I also agree with Osho in that often times, we want something so much that we create it. Our minds wander and dream and project our desires onto a person that may or may not be the image that exists, but what our mind wants to see. We create an image, expectation. It is important for us to be mindful and aware of what we are really seeing and not what we want to see. We must remember to be completely honest with ourselves in order to see and feel what really is.