And A Perfect Liar At That; Question 1

OSHO,

 ATTAIN BY SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT, OR BY A SLOW, STEP-BY STEP GROWTH?
IS YOUR PATHLESS PATH FOR ANYBODY, OR ONLY FOR RARE EXCEPTIONS?

THE first thing to be understood is that the very word "attainment" is nonspiritual. It is part of everyone's greed - it is a part of your greed. The idea to attain is very worldly. Whether you want to attain prestige, power, wealth, or God or nirvana does not make any difference. The desire to attain is worldly; it is materialistic.

The spiritual revolution happens only when you drop this greed, when you drop the very idea of becoming. You are that. You are already that, so then don't hanker for attainment. You have never been anything else other than that which you are trying to attain.

God is within you this very moment - healthy and kicking. Because God is not something separate from you, or from life. But your greed has been a problem; and because of your greed, exploiters have existed who go on showing you ways how to attain.

My whole effort here, my whole work here is to help you to see that you already have it. There is no question of any attainment. There is no question of any future. The moment you think in terms of attainment, the tomorrow comes in, time comes in, future comes in. It is a desire. You would like to be somebody else other than you are - which is impossible. You can only be that which you are.

Becoming is dreaming; being is truth. But because of your greed, people have given you many ideas how to attain -- and you accept it. Not because what they say is truth, but because it enhances your greed.

To be close to me all that you have to learn is: unlearn your greed. Drop it. Right now. Don't postpone it. Don't say, "Yes, we will drop it somewhere in the future, tomorrow." Just try to understand the very misery of greed, the very hell of it. If you see that greed brings hell, then why tomorrow? In that very vision, understanding, it drops. In fact you don't drop it; it drops on its own accord.

And, if the very idea of attainment is stupid, then what is the point of asking whether you are going to attain in a sudden way or in a gradual way? They become irrelevant.

You are already that. Let this be your constant remembrance. Not for a single moment forget that you are gods and goddesses. Don't think in terms of ladies and gentlemen - forget all that nonsense.

Remember you are gods and goddesses. Never settle for less.

So, I have to annihilate your wrong ideas. They have been oversold to you - centuries and centuries of satesmanship in the name of spirituality.

Let me tell you one anecdote:

A Catholic girl and a Jewish boy fell madly in love. But their religion and their beliefs interfered. The Irish Catholic mother advised her daughter, "Sell him a bill of goods. Teach him the beauty and joys of Catholicism. Make him a Catholic first." The girl did. She sold him and sold him and the wedding date was set. One day before the marriage the girl came home, sobbed, cried, and said to the mother, "The marriage is off."

"Why?" the mother asked. "Didn't you sell him?"

"I think I oversold him. Now he wants to be a priest."

These salesmen of spirituality, from one century to another, for millennia, have oversold you the idea of attainment. They have exploited you. Just see the point. You can be only that which you already are - nothing else is possible. It is a given fact; it is a gift. So spirituality is not an attainment; rather, it is a recognition - a remembrance. You have forgotten, that's all. You have misplaced it somewhere, that's all, but it is there all the same.

And the second part of the question is: "Is your pathless path for anybody, or only for rare exceptions?"

Only for rare exceptions - but everybody is a rare exception. Because I have never come across any person who is not a rare exception. I have never come across a common man or a common woman. I have been searching hard, looking into everybody who comes to me; I always come across something unique, something incomparably unique, something absolutely unique.

God never repeats. His creativity is original - he does not believe in carbons. He never creates anybody again. He does not believe in the common and the ordinary. He creates only the extraordinary and the unique.

Try to understand it, because the society has again forced on you an idea that you are just a common man. A few people want to prove themselves uncommon. They can prove that only if they prove the whole lot common. Politicians - they cannot believe that everybody is unique. If everybody is unique, then what are they doing by being presidents and prime ministers? Then they will look just foolish. They are unique, the chosen, and the whole lot is common - the mass. Their egos, just to prove themselves extraordinary, have proved another thing also, simultaneously, that everybody is ordinary.

And they say you have to prove your extraordinariness - become rich, become a Rockefeller; or become powerful in terms of power politics, become a Nixon or a Ford; or at least become a great poet, an Ezra Pound or Cummings; become a painter, a Picasso, a van Gogh; an actor. Prove yourself! Become somebody in some direction; prove your talent and genius and your mettle. And, then, those who have not proved in any way are the common mass. You are exceptional.

But I want to tell you that everybody is born exceptional. There is no need to prove it. And those who prove, they simply prove that they are uncertain about their uniqueness. Try to understand it.

Only inferior people, who have an idea of deep inferiority, try to prove themselves to be superior.

Inferiority complex helps you to compete and prove so that you can prove you are superior. But, basically, you are born unique - and there is no need to prove it.

Enjoy if you enjoy creating poetry, but don't make it an ego trip. Enjoy if you enjoy painting, but don't make it an ego trip. Look at your painters, poets; they are so egoistic, almost crazy. What has happened? They are not enjoying their painting, their poetry. They are using their poetry and painting as steps to come to the top so that they can declare, "I am unique, and you are not." Because of these ill people.... They are pathological; they need psychological treatment. All politicians need, all power oriented, egotripped-out people need treatment. They need to be hospitalized.

Because of their madness, their feverish competition, their tremendous effort to prove that they are somebody, you start feeling that you are nobody, that you are not special, that you are there just to vegetate - live an ignoble life and die an ignoble death.

This is a very dangerous, poisonous idea, deeply implanted in you. Throw it out.

But remember, when I say you are unique, I don't mean in any relative way. I don't say that you are more unique than somebody else. When I say you are unique, I say it in an absolute way - not in a relative, comparative way. I am not saying that you are more unique than anybody else. You are simply unique, as unique as the other -- as unique as your neighbor. Uniqueness is your nature.

You ask: "Is your pathless path for anybody, or only for rare exceptions?" It is only for rare exceptions, but everybody is a rare exception.

I would like to tell you one anecdote:

It happened, there was once a wicked king who could not bear to think that anyone was his superior....

Must have been a pure politician - a pure poison.

... So he summoned all the pundits of the realm as was the practice on momentous occasions and put to them this question: "Which of us two is the greater, I or God?"...

Because when you start on an ego trip, the ultimate fight is against God - the final. The final has to be with God because one day or other the problem is going to arise: who is superior, God or you? Friedrich Nietzsche has said, "I cannot believe in God, because if I believe in God I will always remain inferior - always." Then there is no possibility to become superior. So Nietzsche says, "Better to drop the very idea of God." Nietzsche says, "How can there be two superior beings, I and God?" This wicked king must have been a Nietzschean.

... The pundits shook with fear - because they knew if they say God is superior they will be killed immediately, murdered, butchered. Being wise by profession they asked for time, and then through old habit they clung to their position and their lives. But they were worthy men who would not displease God. They were therefore deep in grief, when the oldest pundit reassured them, "Leave it to me, tomorrow I shall speak with the Prince."

The next day when the court was gathered, the old man quietly arrived, his hands humbly joined together, his forehead smeared with white ashes. He bowed down low and pronounced these words: "O Lord, undoubtedly you are the greater" - the Prince twirled his mustaches which he wore long and tossed high his head - -"You are the greater, King, for you can banish us from your kingdom while God cannot; for truly all is his kingdom and there is nowhere to go outside him."

There is no way to go outside God. That's your uniqueness - that is everybody's uniqueness. There is no way to be something else other than part of God. That's your uniqueness and that is everybody else's uniqueness. Respect yourself and respect others also. The moment you start proving yourself superior, you are disrespectful to yourself because the very effort shows that you have accepted the idea that you are not unique - hence the effort to prove - and you are disrespectful to others also.Respect yourself, respect others also, because deep down we are not separate. We are one whole.We are members of each other. We are not like islands; we are the vast continent of God.