Grass grow by itself

[Guest guest]

Question:How can one get out of the trap the mind creates of never

being quite blissful in the moment, and being patient, letting the

grass grow by itself? I'm always wanting to move faster, to push the

river, and missing the beauty of it taking me in its own time. Would

you please comment?

Osho:

IT IS ONE OF THE ETERNAL questions. The East has come up with

something very close to the truth. There are religions born in India

and religions born outside India; the religions born outside all

believe in one life -- that is, seventy years. Naturally, one is in a

hurry; one has to be in a hurry -- such a small life and so much to

do, so much to experience, so much to explore. That's why the Western

mind is speedy, wanting to do everything faster and faster, quickly,

because his conception of life is too small. You cannot blame him.The

religions born in India have an eternal expanse -- life after life.

There is no hurry, there is no haste. But man is so stupid that you

solve one question, and out of the solution a thousand other

questions will arise. The idea of many lives was really to help you

to relax: there is no hurry; the eternity is yours, so don't run,

just walk the way you go for a morning walk -- at ease, relaxed. That

was the idea of the people who gave the conception of reincarnation,

but people are such that rather than becoming relaxed, they became

lazy. They said, "There is no hurry, so why bother even to walk?

Running is out of question but even to go for a morning walk, what is

the need? Eternity is ours -- you can go any time for your morning

walk." The East became poor because of this, because no technology

was evolved. Technology is just to make things quickly, to produce

things faster than man can do with his own hands. The people remained

poor, went on becoming poorer. The idea was good, but the

consequences proved not to be good. The West has just the opposite

idea -- of a small life. It created great tension and anxiety, but it

created technology, scientific developments, richness, comfort,

luxuries; it created everything. But the man inside was lost, because

he was always running. He was never where he was; he was always going

for something else. And that goal where you can stop never comes. So

in the West people have means of speed, and they are going fast. But

don't ask them, "Where are you going?" Don't waste their time in

asking such stupid questions! All that matters is that they are going

fast; it does not matter where they are going and why they are going.

Both ideas have failed. Eastern religions have not been of help;

Western religions have not been of help. They both tried to give you

an idea, but they never gave you an insight into your own being.

That's where I differ. For example, your question is that you

understand, "Relax and let the grass grow by itself," but still you

go on pushing. No, you don't understand. The first thing for you to

understand is that you don't understand the meaning of the grass

growing by itself. If you understand that, the pushing, the forcing,

will disappear. When I say it will disappear, I am not saying it will

stop. It will differ with different people. If you understand what it

means that the grass grows by itself... such a vast universe is going

so silently, so peacefully; millions of solar systems, millions of

stars moving day in, day out, from eternity to eternity... If you

understand that existence is happening, it is not doing, then if

pushing is your nature you will accept it. It is not a question of

stopping it, because that will be again doing. You simply understand

that things are happening, that this is how you are: that you push,

that you force. Then there is a great acceptance of it, and in that

acceptance, the tension disappears. For a few others the pushing may

disappear -- if it is not part of their nature, if they are imitating

somebody else, if they are competing with somebody else and because

everybody else is pushing, they are pushing. It may stop,

understanding that things are happening, and you need not

unnecessarily bother about them; you can enjoy silently the way

things are happening. You can contribute without any anxiety anything

that comes naturally to you; but not beyond that. So each individual

will have different things happening out of the same understanding.

If pushing is your nature, then there is nothing wrong in it. Enjoy

it, push as much as you can -- but with a song and with a dance, and

without being worried that you are pushing. This is you. This is your

grass, and it grows this way. There are grasses and grasses. Just one

thing has to be remembered, that anything that you are doing is

joyfully done, rejoicingly done -- that's enough. Different people

will be doing different things, and the world needs that different

people should do different things. It is the richness of the world,

that all are not alike, and should not be alike. But on one point

they should meet; and that is the cosmic center of being relaxed. IN

JAPAN they have developed strange things for meditative purposes...

Japan has done a tremendous service to humanity. Meditation was

developed in India, but it remained a very limited phenomenon -- just

sitting in a lotus posture witnessing your thoughts, becoming silent.

It did the work, but Japan tried different dimensions, strange

dimensions: swordsmanship, but with meditation. Two swordsmen bent

upon killing each other have to remain centered in themselves without

tension, without fear, without anger, without revenge, just playful.

To the observer it is a question of life and death, but to those two

meditators it is playfulness. And a strange thing has been observed

again and again: if both the meditators are of the same depth in

meditation, nobody wins, nobody is killed. Even before one person

raises the sword to hit the other person at a certain point -- even

before he has done that -- just that idea of his has reached to the

other, and his sword is ready to protect him. It is impossible to

declare who is the winner. Ordinarily it is difficult to think of

swordsmanship and meditation, aikido and meditation, jujitsu and

meditation, wrestling and meditation. But in Japan they have tried

every dimension possible, and they have found that it doesn't matter

what you are doing; what matters is, are you centered? If you are

centered then you can do anything and it will not create any tension;

your relaxation will remain the same. So don't be worried about

pushing. Just try to understand that we are so small compared to this

immense universe; what we do or don't do makes no difference to

existence. We are not to be serious about it. I was not here and

existence continued; I will not be here, and existence will continue.

I should not take myself seriously. That is a fundamental

understanding of a meditator -- that he does not take himself

seriously. Then relaxation comes automatically. And with relaxation,

whatsoever is natural to you continues, and whatsoever is not natural

to you falls on its own accord.

 

Osho, Beyond Psychology, Chapter 11