Peace of Mind: The Truth Beyond Success and Failure

[Guest guest]

It does not matter to a man of awareness whether he is successful or

unsuccessful, well-known or absolutely unknown, powerful or just a

nobody. To a man of awareness, these dualities don't matter at all,

because awareness is the greatest treasure. When you have it, you

don't want anything else. You don't want to become the president or

prime minister of a country.

 

Those who pursue power suffer even in success - they live in the

eternal fear that they might lose it. At first they suffered because

they were not successful; now after being successful, too, they are

suffering because of a feeling of insecurity.

 

Moreover, they have no private space; everyone wants to meet with

them and there are some who are engaged in the task of " overthrowing "

them.

 

The life of a successful man is not a life of peace. But in failure,

too, there is no peace.

 

For an aware person, it is all the same. Success comes and goes, and

so does failure. He remains untouched and aloof.

 

The poet-saint Kabir sang: " I have returned to God... the 'clothing'

that he had given to me to live in the world - without any change. I

have not made it dirty; not even a particle of dust has gathered on

it. I have put it back into his hands exactly as fresh as it was when

he gave it to me. "

 

This is the experience of an awakened man. He lives in the darkest of

nights in the same silence, in the same peace, as he lives in the

brightest day. He remains above divisions. " Such is his power, that

actions can't hold him. No matter what kind of action, a Buddha

transforms it " . According to the Bodhi-dharma, a Buddha is someone

who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.

 

In Greek mythology, there was King Midas, who prayed hard to

God: " Just grant me one wish, that whatever I touch must turn into

gold. " And it seems God became tired of his continuous nagging...

because what are your prayers other than nagging?

 

Finally, God granted him his wish: " Whatever you touch will turn into

gold. And now leave me at peace! " But the unconscious man cannot do

anything better. Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he said that if

all your prayers were fulfilled, you would be in utter hell. Your

prayers are coming from your unconsciousness; you don't know what you

are asking for.

 

Once his prayer was granted, Midas could not eat because whatever he

touched turned into gold. He could not drink because by the time his

lips touched the water, it would turn into gold. His family left him,

his friends stopped coming to see him. Midas was alone, hungry, and

thirsty. Midas's palace turned into gold, as did all his furniture.

 

But to what end? He suffered despite being one of the richest men in

the world. A man of awareness, a Buddha, also has a transforming

power: whatever he touches becomes blissful. Misery comes to him and

he finds in it something blissful; sadness comes to him and he finds

something immensely beautiful and silent in it. Death comes to him

but he finds only immortality in it. Whatever he touches is

transformed, because now he has the transcendental perspective. And

that is the greatest power in the world - not power over anybody, but

simply your intrinsic power.

 

Night becomes as beautiful as day; death becomes as much a

celebration as life, because the man of transcendence knows that he

is eternal. There's life, there's death - he remains untouched, he

remains always beyond. It is this quality that is the mark of an

enlightened person.

 

By Osho

 

(Compiled by Swami Chaitanya Keerti)