What is Real and Whats Not?

There is a beautiful story about Chuang Tzu, a great mystic of China. 

One morning, sitting in his bed, he looked very sad. His disciples had never seen him so sad. And never after waking up had he remained in his bed, sitting. What had happened? Was he sick?

They gathered around and asked him, ”Master, what is the matter?” He said, ”The matter is really difficult, I cannot solve it; perhaps you may be of some help. I will tell you what is the matter. In the night I dreamed that I had become a butterfly, and I was moving from one flower to another flower.”

The disciples said, ”This is nothing to be sad about. In dreams we all do strange things; and this is not a bad thing, to be a butterfly – colorful, beautiful, moving from one juicy flower to another juicy flower. Why are you so worried?”

He said, ”You have not heard the whole thing. The problem is, now I am awake and I am wondering whether Chuang Tzu dreamed that he is a butterfly, or now the butterfly has gone to sleep and is dreaming she is Chuang Tzu.”

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Be Real, Don't Bloat Your Ego!

Mystic Osho tells a small story about our boated Ego.

I am reminded of one of Panch Tantra’s stories. They are tremendously psychological.

An elephant is passing over a bridge on a river, and a mosquito is sitting on the elephant.

The elephant is so heavy, and the bridge is just a temporary bridge. Poor villagers make them when the rains are gone and the floods have disappeared, and the river becomes small. They make temporary wooden bridges for themselves. For eight months they are perfectly okay.

But it was not made for an elephant because in that poor village nobody could own an elephant. It was just a wild elephant that had come to the bridge, and was passing over the bridge.

The mosquito, sitting on the head of the elephant, said,”Uncle, it seems my weight and your weight are too much for the bridge.”

The elephant said,”I was not even aware that you were sitting on my head. What are you doing there?”

Now, in this small story the elephant is not even aware of the mosquito, but the mosquito thinks,”Me and you, together, are too much for this poor bridge.”

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Fickleness of our Mind

A beautiful story about the fickleness of  our Mind by Mystic Osho.

There is an ancient story.... A man who has gone out of his town comes back and finds that his house is on fire. It was one of the most beautiful houses in the town, and the man loved the house.

Many people were ready to give double price for the house, but he had never agreed for any price, and now it is just burning before his eyes. And thousands of people have gathered, but nothing can be done.

The fire has spread so far that even if you try to put it out, nothing will be saved. So he becomes very sad. His son comes running, and whispers something in his ear: ”Don’t be worried. I sold it yesterday, and at a very good price – three times.... The offer was so good I could not wait for you. Forgive me.”

But the father said, ”Good, if you have sold it for three times more than the original price of the house.” Then the father is also a watcher, with other watchers. Just a moment before he was not a watcher, he was identified. It is the same house, the same fire, everything is the same – but now he is not concerned. He is enjoying it just as everybody else is enjoying.

Then the second son comes running, and he says to the father, ”What are you doing? You are smiling – and the house is on fire?”

The father said, ”Don’t you know, your brother has sold it.”

He said, ”He had talked about selling it, but nothing has been settled yet, and the man is not going to purchase it now.” Again, everything changes. Tears which had disappeared, have come back to the father’s eyes, his smile is no more there, his heart is beating fast. But the watcher is gone. He is again identified.

And then the third son comes, and he says, ”That man is a man of his word. I have just come from him. He said, ’It doesn’t matter whether the house is burned or not, it is mine. And I am going to pay the price that I have settled for. Neither you knew, nor I knew that the house would catch on fire.’” Again the father is a watcher. The identity is no more there. Actually nothing is changing; just the idea that ”I am the owner, I am identified somehow with the house,” makes the whole difference. The next moment he feels, ”I am not identified. Somebody else has purchased it, I have nothing to do with it; let the house burn.”

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How we do Business with God ?

A famous Sufi story told by Mystic Osho, describing how we do business with God.

A ship is coming back to its home country. Suddenly the ocean goes mad... great winds, and the ship is almost on the verge of sinking. Everybody starts praying. At such a moment who will not pray? – even the atheist will pray, the agnostic will pray, and pray, ”Forgive what I have been saying, it was all nonsense. Forgive me, but let me reach the shore.”

But the Sufi was simply sitting there, not praying. The people became angry; they said, ”You are a religious man, wearing the robe, the green robe of a Sufi. What kind of a Sufi are you? You should have been the first to pray. And we are not religious people, we are just business people, and to us this prayer is, too, nothing but business. We are offering God, that ’We will give you this, we will give you that, just save us.’ Why are you sitting silently? Why are you not praying?”

He said, ”You have already said it: because I am not a businessman. If he wants to finish us all, good. If he wants to save us, good. I am in total agreement with him. Why should I pray? For what? Prayer means some disagreement, something is happening which you don’t want to happen. You want God to intercede, to interfere, to stop it, to change it.”

The Sufi said, ”I have no business of my own. It is his business to bother whether to save or to drown us. If he wants this Sufi to be saved, it is his business, not my business. And if he wants me to die, that is his business. I had not asked for birth; suddenly I was here. I cannot ask about death.

If birth is not in my control, how can death be in my control?”

Those people thought, ”This man is mad.” They said, ”We will take care of you later on. Let us get to the shore somehow and then we will take care of you. You are not a Sufi, you are not religious; you are a very dangerous man. But this is not the time to bother and quarrel with you.”

On board was the most wealthy, most famous man of the country, and he was coming with millions of diamonds and precious stones. He had earned much. He had a beautiful palace in the town – the most beautiful marble palace. Even the king was jealous. Even the king had asked him many times, ”You give this palace to me – any price, and I will pay for it.”

But the madman, the rich man, said, ”That is not possible. That palace is my pride.” When the ship was almost sinking, the man shouted to God, ”Listen, I give that palace to you – just save me!” And as it happened, the winds disappeared, the ocean became calm, the ship was saved. They reached the bank.

Now, the rich man was in a very difficult position because of what he had said. And he had been angry with the Sufi – now he was not angry. He said, ”Perhaps you were right just to keep quiet. If had followed you I would not have lost my palace. But I am a businessman, and I will find a way.”

And he found a way.

Next day he put the palace up for auction. He informed all the nearby kingdoms, whoever was interested. Many kings, queens and rich people came; everybody was interested. They were all puzzled to see that, just in front of the palace, there was a cat chained to a marble pillar of the palace. The rich man came out and he said, ”This palace and the cat, both are up for auction together. The price of the cat is one million dinars” – their dollars, one million dollars – ”the price of the cat one million dollars, and the price of the palace, one dollar: one million and one dollars.”

The people said, ”For this cat one million dollars, and for this palace just one dollar?”

The businessman said, ”You don’t bother about it. If you are interested, both are going to be sold together. Less, I will not accept. If anybody is interested, this is my minimum price.”

The king of the country said, ”Yes, I will give you the price, but please tell me, what is the secret of this cat and the palace?”

And he said, ”No secret – I just got into trouble because of a prayer. I have told God that ’I will give you the palace.’ And I am a businessman; if he is a businessman, I am also a businessman. The cat, one million dollars – that I will keep. And the palace: one dollar – that will go to God’s fund.”

Prayer is just your effort to persuade God to do things according to you. And it is absolutely your imagination. In the first place you don’t know God. You don’t know his likes and dislikes. You don’t know whether he exists or not, and you are praying. This is a poor state of affairs, and this is happening all over the world.

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How to Drop Your Burden!

A beautiful story by the Mystic Osho on how to drop your burden.

Two monks, Buddhist monks, are returning to their monastery; they come to a ford. The current is very powerful. It is a hilly place. A young, beautiful girl is waiting there, waiting for somebody to help her to cross. She is afraid to enter alone.

One monk, who is the older one of course... because he is older, he walks ahead – all games of the ego. If you are older, you have to walk ahead; younger monks have to walk a little back. They cannot walk parallel to the older monk; of course, they cannot walk ahead. And these are the people who are talking continuously of dropping the ego! Even physical age is used to fulfill a certain ego.

The older monk comes first. The young girl asks him, ”Bhante” – Bhante is the Buddhist equivalent of ’reverend’ – ”Bhante, would you help me; just hold my hand? I am afraid, the current is so strong and perhaps it may be deep.”

The old man closes his eyes – that’s what Buddha had said to the monks: that if you see a woman, particularly if she is beautiful, close your eyes. But I am surprised: you have already seen her, then you close your eyes; otherwise how can you determine she is a woman, and beautiful? You are already affected, and now you close your eyes. And remember, with closed eyes the beautiful woman will become even more beautiful – she will become a dream girl. And Buddha had said, ”Don’t talk, don’t touch a woman” – because just talking, you may get caught; touching, you may forget that you are a monk.

So he closes his eyes and enters the ford without answering the woman. You see the ugliness of it. And these people are saying, ”Help, serve”and that poor girl was simply asking, ”Hold my hand, just for a few seconds, so I can pass the ford.” And the man closed his eyes.

Then the second, younger monk comes. The girl is afraid, but there is nothing else to call upon: the sun is setting, soon it will be night. She cannot go back, the town is far away. She has to go ahead, then only can she reach her home before it becomes too dark. But how to pass this ford? So under compulsion she asks the young monk, ”Bhante, will you please hold my hand? The ford seems to be deep and the current strong... and I am afraid.”

The monk says, ”It is deep, I know, because we pass through it every day. On the other side is our monastery, so to beg food we have to come to this side to the village. It is deep, and it is good that you have not entered alone, otherwise you would have gone with it. And just holding hands won’t do; you just sit on my shoulders and I will carry you to the other side.”

The young girl jumps on his shoulders; he carries her to the other side. When they are just in the middle of the ford, the old monk remembers that a younger fellow is coming behind, and he is too young and too new, he may get caught in the devil’s net – the woman is the devil’s net. Perhaps it is the devil himself standing in the form of a young, beautiful girl. He opens his eyes, and what he sees he cannot believe: the young monk is carrying the beautiful girl on his shoulders. Now he is tremendously angry, shaking with anger.

The young monk leaves the girl on the other shore and follows the older monk towards the monastery. When they reach the monastery door – it must have been two or three miles from the ford – on the steps the older monk stands and says to the young one,”You, fellow, you have committed a sin and I am going to report to the Buddha that not only you touched a woman, not only you talked with her, you carried her on your shoulders. You should be expelled from the community; you are not worthy of being a monk.”

The young man simply laughs and says,”Bhante, it seems although I have dropped that girl three miles back; you are still carrying her on your shoulders. Three miles have passed, and you are still bothered by it?”

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Power of Music!

A very famous story about the power of Music told by Osho.

There is a very famous story about a Lucknow king. He was a great lover of music, and he invited a very great musician to the court. But the musician was an eccentric person. 

He said, ’I will play on my sitar but with only one condition – that nobody should be allowed to shake his head. People have to remain like statues. If somebody shakes his head, the head has to be cut.’

The king was surprised but he was also a madman; he said, ’Okay.’ He informed the whole town that only those should come who were perfectly in control, otherwise they would be playing with their life. 

Many thousands of people wanted to come but they were afraid – but a few people came; a few hundred people came. And the musician started playing. 

Half an hour passed and ten, twelve persons were just drunk with the music, shaking their heads; their energy moving. 

The king was surprised – ’Can music be so powerful? These people are risking their lives!’

After the programme those ten, twelve persons were caught, brought before the musician, and the king said, ’Now what do you say? Should we cut their heads?’ The musician said, ’No. These are the real people for whom I would like to give a special programme. 

I wanted to know the real people. A person who can risk his life – I would like to play before him. These are the real drunkards!’

People were sitting so stiff because even sometimes you might move for some other reason, and there might be some misunderstanding. People were sitting just like stone statues, but ten, twelve persons....

The king asked those twelve persons, ’Were you not aware? Why did you shake? Why did you move? Why were you influenced by the music when your life was in danger?’ They said, ’We don’t know. We tried to keep ourselves completely in control to a certain moment – beyond it, we were not there. So we cannot say that we moved our bodies. The bodies moved, that is certain, but we have not moved. We tried everything that we could do not to move, but then a moment came and we were helpless.... The music was so beautiful and so penetrating, that in that moment all idea of life and death disappeared. In fact the idea of self disappeared, so there was nobody to control. It happened on its own accord. We are ready – if we are to be killed, we are ready.’

Music has a tremendous power. It is alcoholic; through sound it intoxicates you. Through subtle vibrations of sound it makes you abandon yourself.

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Searching for a Good Place to Live?

Read this Sufi story told by Osho and then start searching!

A man was sitting at the gate of a town, an old man. A rider stopped, a horse rider and asked him, ”what are the people of this town like?”

The old man asked, ”Why do you ask this?”

The rider said, ”The people of the town I have come from are very indecent. I was upset and disturbed by them. I had to leave that town. Now I want to become a resident of some new town. So I am asking you how the people of this town are.”

The old man said, ”Brother, you had better move on. The people of this town are even more vile, more wicked, more indecent. Here you will get into trouble, go look somewhere else.”

The rider moved on. 

Just behind him a bullock cart came to a halt and a man looked around and said, ”Grandfather, how are the people of this village? I am searching for a new residence.”

The old man asked again, ”How were the people of the village you have left?”

Tears came to the eyes of that man. He said, ”I didn’t want to leave, helplessly I had to leave. The people of that village were very loving. Now wherever I live the memory of those people will torment me. I was helpless, I was in economic difficulty. I had to leave it so that I can earn something, I need to try my luck somewhere else. But I have just one ambition that whenever my luck improves, I will return there. I will reside in that village, in the end I want to die in that village. If I cannot live there then at least I want to die there.”

That old man said, ”You are welcome. You will find the people of this village even more loving than the people of that village.”

A man was sitting there listening to all this. First he heard what the horse rider said and the old man’s answer. Then he heard what this man on the bullock cart said and the old man’s answer.

The man said, ”You have really surprised me. You said to one man that this village is very vile and wicked, just move on. And to the other you said this village has very loving people, you have no need to go further, you are welcome! 

The old man explained, ”People are just the way you are. Everywhere men are the same. The real thing is your question.”

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Do Ghosts Really Exist?

Do Ghosts Really Exist?

Just read the small story told by Mystic Osho and make your own conclusions!

Once a lady was a guest at my house. She did not believe in god. She would say, ”God simply does

not exist.”

I said, ”Leave god aside, do you believe in ghosts?”

She said, ”Not at all, it is all nonsense.”

I said, ”Reconsider it because tonight it is just you, me and this house. I cannot say that I can arrange a meeting with god, but with the ghost I can.”

She said, ”What are you talking about? There are no such thing as ghosts.”

But I could see she was getting nervous. She started looking here and there. The night was getting deeper. I said, ”Then it is alright, I will tell you everything.”

She said, ”I simply don’t believe in them. What will you tell me? I don’t believe in them at all.”

I said, ”It is not a question of believing or not believing. Once a washerman use to live right where

this house is built – at the time of the First World War. He had just been married. His lovely bride came to live with him. The bride was beautiful in every way, with only one exception: she was one eyed. Very light skinned, a beautiful proportionate body – just one eye was missing.” ... I drew a vivid picture of her. ”The washerman had to go to the war – he was recruited. The letters kept on arriving saying he was coming, he was coming soon. And the washerwoman kept waiting and waiting and waiting. He never came, he was killed in the war.

”The washerwoman died waiting for him and became a ghost. She still lives in this house, waiting for him to come back. She has only one eye, a light skinned woman with long black hair. She wears a red sari.”

She insisted, ”I don’t believe in ghosts.” But I saw she was looking nervously this way and that.

I said, ”I am telling you all this because tonight you are staying here for the first time. Whenever somebody new is staying in the house, the first night the washerwoman comes in the middle of the night and pulls off their blanket to see if her man has come back.”

At this point her face started going pale. She said, ”What are you talking about? An educated man like you believes in ghosts and such like?”

I said, ”It is not a question of believing. But it is necessary to warn you otherwise you might be too frightened. Now I have told you, if a one eyed, light skinned woman in a red sari pulls off your blanket don’t be afraid. She never harms anybody, just throws off the blanket, stamps the floor in disappointment and goes away.

”And I will tell you one more characteristic of hers...” The owner of the house I was staying at in those days had the habit of grinding his teeth at night. Several times in the night he would start grinding his teeth. So I said, ”I will tell you one more habit of the woman, when she comes into the room she will be grinding her teeth. Naturally, she has waited so long. Ages have past. She had loved him, she comes in anger now, the washerman deceived her, he never came back. So she gnashes her teeth you may hear the sound of gnashing teeth at first.”

She said, ”What are you going on about? I simply don’t believe in them. You please stop this talk. You are unnecessarily trying to scare me.”

I said, ” If you don’t believe in them there is nothing to be afraid of.”

We kept talking this way until it was twelve o’clock. I said, ”Now you better go to bed.” She went to her room. It happened that no sooner did she lie down, the owner gnashed his teeth. He was sleeping in the next room. I was confident, he could be relied upon. During the night he will do it at least ten times. He will grind them once in a while. She went, lay down on the bed turned out the light and he gnashed his teeth. She screamed. I rushed to her room, turned on the lights. She was almost paralyzed in shock, pointing towards the corner of the room: ”Look! She is standing there.”

I tried to explain to her in millions of ways that ghosts don’t exist. She said, ”I cannot believe you. They certainly do exist... she is standing right there! And exactly as you had described: one eye, light complexion, black hair, red sari and grinding her teeth.”

The whole night I had to suffer, because she wouldn’t sleep or let me sleep. She would say, ”Now I cannot sleep.” If I slept, she would come again saying, ”And you said she would lift the blanket, she will come that close?”

I would say to her, ”Do ghosts exist anywhere? They are all just imagination. I was just telling you a story, just to demonstrate...”

She developed fever in the night and I had to call a doctor. And the man with whom I was staying said, ”You create unnecessary problems.”

The woman left the very next morning. She never came back. Several times I sent messages to her, to come for a visit sometime. She said she could never enter that house. I would explain, ghosts do not exist. She would say, ”Who are you trying to fool? Just drop the subject, I have experienced them myself.”

Remember you usually start denying the thing you are afraid of. You deny so that you don’t remember that you are afraid. If it doesn’t exist what is there to be afraid of?

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Understand Your Desires!

A sufi story told by Osho.

When Alexander died and he reached heaven, he was carrying all his weight – his whole kingdom, gold, diamonds – of course not in reality, but in an idea. Ideas have as much weight; in fact an idea is the real weight. He was burdened too much by being Alexander.

The gatekeeper started laughing and he said ’Why are you carrying so much of a burden?’

Alexander said ’What burden?’ because really he was carrying nothing. Everything was in the head, but the head was very heavy.

The gatekeeper gave him a scale and put an eye on one side of the scale. He told Alexander to put all his weight, all his greatness, treasures, kingdom, on the other side of the scale. 

Alexander put all his kingdom, all his wealth, his victories, and everything there. That one eye still remained heavier than all his kingdom, so finding no other way, he himself jumped onto the scales, but still the one eye remained heavier.

He said to the gatekeeper, ’I cannot understand how such a small eye can be so weighty. What is it? Are you playing some trick, some magic with me?’

The gatekeeper said, ’This is a human eye. It represents human desire... the outgoing desire.’

’It cannot be fulfilled, howsoever great the kingdom and howsoever great your efforts. Even a single human eye full of desires cannot be fulfilled.’

Then Alexander said ’Then what is the way to fulfill it?’

The gatekeeper threw a little dust into the eye. The eye immediately blinked and lost all its weight.

It was immediately weightless.

The story is beautiful. A little dust of understanding has to be thrown into the eye of desire. The desire disappears and only needs remain, and they are not weighty. Needs are very few... needs are beautiful. Desires are ugly and they make monsters of men. They create mad people.

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How to Find Yourself ?

A beautiful discourse by OSHO.

Just today I was reading about a zen master, Tozan – a very famous zen master. The story says that the gods wanted to see him, but they couldn't because he was just an emptiness. They would enter into him from this side and that, they would pass through him, but he was nowhere to be found. He was a nowhere-ness, a nothingness... so empty of himself that they could not see him. They were very curious to see a man who had become empty, so they played a trick.

They went to the kitchen as Tozan was coming from his morning walk and took a few handfuls of rice and wheat and threw it on his path. In a zen monastery that is almost a sin because it is very disrespectful to rice and wheat. Everything should be respected because everything is divine. It has nothing to do with ordinary economics, nothing to do with a Gandhian ideology – because that type of ideology is nothing but rationalized miserliness. This had nothing to do with that. It is a respect for everything. Everything that exists and has existed, is divine and should be respected.

So in a zen monastery nothing is wasted; one should be careful, and alert. They played this trick and threw on his path a few hand-fuls of rice and wheat. When Tozan came he could not believe it – that any disciple could do that. Who could do it? Who could be so careless and disrespectful?

This idea arose in him, and suddenly a self was there and the gods could see him. The emptiness was no more empty. Suddenly an idea had crystallized; an attitude, a mind had come. For a moment a cloud appeared in the blue sky and the gods could see this man, Tozan. Then the cloud disappeared because the idea disappeared. I like the story very much.

Whenever there is an idea, you are, and then a cloud arises. And there is not only one cloud. There are so many ideas in you, millions of clouds which continuously haunt you, covering you in layers and layers of cloud. Your inner sky is completely hidden. You can’t even have a glimpse of it.

Even a small idea like ’Who has been so careless?’ – it was nothing special, nothing much to worry about. It was just a curious ’Who has been so careless?’ but it was enough! If you see the morning sun and you say ’How beautiful’ – enough! It is just a small fragment but it creates an inner pressure in you, and that’s why you immediately want to say to somebody ’Look, how beautiful the morning is!’

That is a release. The pressure has been inside and when you talk it is catharted; you release it. You feel good, you have said it. If you cannot find anybody, it will haunt you more. If you can write a letter, then you are finished with it. Our mind is continuously over flooded with ideas, emotions, sentiments.

By and by relax, be empty. Just go as an emptiness. Don’t try to protect yourself in any way because that will make you closed. Fear is there – accept it. Relax and let it be there. Remain with it. Don’t try to do anything against it because whatsoever you do out of fear will create more fear. Just accept it.

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Maya and Illusion

A story told by Osho. It happened in the days of knights and castles. A young Englishman was searching for his fortune, wandering all over the land. Tired, he paused under a tree near a castle to rest. The duke of the castle was passing by. He stopped and inquired why the young man was waiting there, for what he was looking. The young man said, "I am an architect and I am in search of employment."

The duke was very pleased because he needed an architect. He said, "You come with me. You be my architect, and whatsoever your needs are, they will be fulfilled from my castle and the land. You can live like a really rich man. But be faithful, and remember one thing: if you leave, you will have to leave as empty-handed as you are coming in."

The young man agreed. Weeks passed and then months and he worked faithfully, and the duke was very pleased with him. All his needs were fulfilled, he was looked after -- he really lived like a rich man in the castle.

But by and by he started feeling uneasy. In the beginning it was not clear what the cause of it was because, in fact, there was no cause to be uneasy. Every need was taken care of. It was like a cloud surrounding him, a heaviness, the feeling of something being missed. But not knowing exactly what it was, he was confused.

Then one day it flashed like lightning before him -- he understood the cause. He went to the duke and said that he was leaving.

The duke could not believe it. He said, "Why are you leaving? If there is any difficulty you simply tell me and it will be done. I have been very much pleased with your work. and I would like you to be here for your whole life."

The young man said, "No, I am leaving. Please allow me to leave."

The duke asked, "But why?"

The young man said, "Because nothing belongs to me here. Empty-handed I have come; empty-handed I will have to leave. This is a dream: nothing belongs to me here."

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Mind Your Thoughts

A story told by Sigmund Freud :

It happened once in a big hotel that a man came to stay. The manager was a little hesitant in giving him a room although there was an empty room. The man said, "Why are you hesitating so much?"

The man said, "The reason is, just below that room there is a politician staying, a very famous man and very powerful, a big gun. And he is annoyed by small things, so we have kept the room above him empty for three days since he has been here -- because if anybody walks some noise is created, if you move something some noise is created, and he becomes so irritated and so angry that he creates much fuss about it."

The stranger said, "Don't be worried! I will be very careful. Moreover, I am going to stay only overnight. I will be coming near about twelve in the night because I have much work to do in the town, and I will be leaving early in the morning, five o'clock. There is not much possibility that between twelve and five I will do anything which will irritate the great man. At the most I will be asleep and dreaming, and I don't think my dreams will disturb him."

The manager was convinced: "If he is going to stay just for five hours there is no problem." He was allowed.

At twelve the man reached his room exhausted: the whole day's work, a thousand and one things clamoring in his head. He had completely forgotten the politician. He entered his room. He was so tired. He sat on his bed, took off one of his shoes and threw it in the corner of the room. Then suddenly the noise of the shoe reminded him that maybe the politician, the great leader, would get disturbed, may be awakened. So the other shoe he put down very silently.

After one hour the politician knocked on his door. He came out of his sleep, opened the door and said, "Have I done anything? -- because for one hour I have been asleep."

The politician was red with anger. He said; "Yes! Where is the other shoe? I cannot manage to sleep. That other shoe goes on hanging, a continuous question in my mind -- where has the other shoe gone? Is this man sleeping with one shoe on? One I know you have thrown, but what happened to the other one? I have tried in every possible way to get rid of the idea -- that this is not my concern. How am I concerned with his shoe? But the more I have tried to get rid of the idea the more I have become possessed by it. Now there is only one possible way to go to sleep: to come and wake you and ask you what happened. Unless I know I cannot sleep."

It is very difficult even to get rid of an absurd thought, utterly meaningless to you, of no purpose, something which is just accidental, none of your business. But still it can pursue you, it can haunt you, it can torture you. It can become such a powerful thing that it can drive you mad. So mind your Thoughts.

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Drop the Mask!

A story to think about, told by Osho.

It happened that after the murder of Abraham Lincoln... one hundred years had passed, and the whole year was celebrated in his sacred memory. A drama was prepared, which moved all over America all through the year, playing the same drama based on the life of Abraham Lincoln. And it was a rare coincidence that they could find a man who looked like Abraham – he was lean and thin and tall and ugly. Abraham Lincoln was not a very beautiful person, as far as his face is concerned.

As far as his being is concerned, he was one of the most beautiful persons.

When he was fighting in the election for the presidentship, a little girl suggested to him, ”If you grew a small beard, that would make your face look more beautiful,” because he had marks on his face from small pox. First he laughed, but he thanked the girl and he thought it over. And he grew the beard, and with the beard his face took a totally new shape.

This man had the beard, had the same kind of eyes, the same nose, the same height; so he was given the part of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln used to stutter a little once in a while, so he was taught to stutter. He was also a little lame – one leg was a little longer than the other – so they tried to make one of this man’s legs a little longer by traction, pulling it – just a little longer so he started walking like a lame man.

They trained him to speak the way Abraham Lincoln used to speak – one hundred year-old language, words which were in fashion in those days. And he proved to be a perfect actor. Anybody could have misunderstood, seeing him, that he was Abraham Lincoln.

And for one year he was moving around the whole continent playing the same drama, three times a day – in the morning, in the evening, in the night. The poor man got so much obsessed with it that when he came home he still walked the way Abraham Lincoln used to walk; he still talked in one hundred year-old language, and he still stuttered.

His wife, his children, his father and mother all laughed. They said, ”You have done enough – one year – now, drop it. And let your other leg also be lengthened so that you stop this business of walking like a lame man. And there is no need to stutter.”

But he said, ”I am Abraham Lincoln.”

First they thought he was joking, but soon they realized it was not a joke. He had started believing that he was Abraham Lincoln. They tried in every possible way... but once he had seen the glory of being the President of America and one of the greatest men of history, he was not ready to descend down back to being an ordinary human being.

He was brought to the psychoanalyst, but to no effect; he would behave just like Abraham Lincoln. And he would ask the psychoanalyst, ”What is missing in me that you are so worried? What is the problem? Why am I not accepted as Abraham Lincoln? You show me any fault....” And it was true, there was no fault.

Finally the psychoanalyst said , ”This is beyond... this is not a case of mental derangement. He has become obsessed, and he will understand only when he has been assassinated. But then there will be no point. And if you assassinate him, perhaps he may think that he was right – even dying, he will die exactly like Abraham Lincoln. He has died many times on the stage, although the assassination was false. But he knew how to fall, what to say, what Abraham Lincoln’s last words were. Even if he is assassinated, he will do his act to the very last.”

You will think that this is a rare story, but the fact is, we are all living a personality which has been imposed on us.

So Let's drop our Abraham Linoln Masks immediately or else we will loose ourselves.

Enjoy other interesting Stories told by Osho HERE!