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!

STOP Self Destruction

We (Human Beings) have a very great outlook of ourselves. We have appointed ourselves as the protectors of the Planet, the guardians of the animal kingdom, the saviors of Earth's vegetation, heck we have even declared that even God looks like us (I know, you would say, God created us in his image. But in reality it's us who imagined him in our image).

We have done everything to create a self image of ourselves which almost equals God, but in reality what is the situation.

I have read in an article that, as per scientific studies if all the insects in the planet disappears tomorrow, the living beings in the planet will have only 25 years of life left. All life in the planet, animals, plants, trees, including bacteria and also us the great Human Beings will dies within 25 years of the disappearance of the insects.

Now what will happen if all the Human Beings disappear tomorrow from this planet? 

Well, there will be one big party and the whole animal kingdom, plants, insects and even bacteria will rejoice and our planet will have great sense of relief. There will be no-one affected by our disappearance, in fact life will thrive and Earth will breath easy.

So who is more important, who is the protector of this planet and who is near God?

Human Beings or Insects

I think we should put ourselves in the right place and not over estimate our role on this planet. We might have Romanticized the idea of we being the protectors of Earth, but in realty we are protecting ourselves from our own stupidity. We ourselves are destroying the life on Earth with our stupidity and in-sensitiveness and now we are trying frantically to undo the damage.

There is nothing wrong in all the great effort that people are taking to stop the self destruction, but the way this effort is being projected has not helped. The captions like "Save Earth" "Protect the Planet" doesn't project the reality. These attitudes has helped in differentiating ourselves from the actual source of the problem. We think that we are doing great things to protect the planet and the actual source of the problem is somewhere else. We think we are the solution, but the fact is that we ourselves are the problem.

I think the captions which will convey the situation with clarity are :

"Stop Suicide"

"Stop Killing Your Children"

"Stop Self Destruction"

May be these statement convey the reality more clearly. I believe the change in the outlook of our approach will sensitize our self with nature, with the life on this planet and will make us look at the situation in a more inclusive manner, than in an indifferent way.

JKS