Osho on free will...

[Guest guest]

Another teaching that resonates most strongly with this bmo...

 

Namastè,

 

Davè

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE EXPLAIN MAN'S FREE WILL AND ITS RELATION TO BEING AND NON-DOING.

 

There is nothing like that, like free will. It is just an ego concept, there

cannot be anything like that.

 

I am not saying the opposite, that you are dependent and slaves. Mind moves

into opposites very easily. It creates dichotomies: either you are a free

agent (free will), or you are a slave. Both are untrue, both are false

concepts, because YOU are not, so you cannot be a slave, and you cannot be a

free agent, because for both, YOU will be needed.

 

Life is a vast interdependence. You are just an organic part of the whole,

you are not separate, so how can you be free? But I am not saying that you

are not free, remember that, because how can you be not free, or free? You

are NOT, you don't exist at all. It is a vast interdependence, and this

interdependence is the totality, the God. But the ego goes on finding its

ways....

 

I have heard, once it happened, a great elephant was passing across a

bridge. The bridge was very old, and it shook tremendously, and a fly was

sitting on the head of the elephant, just near his ears, and when they had

passed -- they had almost destroyed the bridge, ALMOST I say -- when they

had passed the fly said to the elephant: Boy! Did we shake that thing! But

the elephant didn't hear. So the fly said: What is the matter? Are you

stupid or something! Can't you hear me? But the elephant didn't hear.

 

The whole is VAST. We are not even flies. The proportion is very very,

TREMENDOUSLY great. It is not the proportion of a fly to an elephant --

that's nothing. We are almost nothing, and the whole is so VAST.

 

But you go on trying, insisting that the bridge is shaking because of you.

 

The fly was very considerate in a way; she said: Boy! We did shake that

bridge! WE -- that is much consideration.

 

If the fly had the mind of a man, ordinarily she would have said I. Flies

are more considerate. She at least included the elephant. But man says FREE

WILL, he does not even include the whole, it is completely discarded. He

says I.

 

So two philosophies have existed in the world -- one which says FREE WILL.

But because this whole notion is wrong, absolutely false, it can be argued

against, it HAS been argued against, so there is another side which says:

Nobody is free. We are just puppets, and the threads are in some unknown

hands, and whatsoever HE determines, happens. We are just slaves, nothing

else.

 

Both parties are wrong. You are neither slaves nor free agents. This is a

little difficult to understand: it is because YOU are not that you are part

of the whole. But if you THINK yourself separate you will feel like a slave.

If you understand yourself as part of the whole you become the master but

you become master with the whole not against the whole. If you are against

the whole, you become the slave. If you flow with the river, you become the

master. You become the river! If you try to go upstream you become the

slave.

 

Free will is not there, and neither is slavery. Dependence and independence

are both false words. They should be dropped completely, they should not be

used. It is interdependence. I exist in you, you exist in me. That is the

way life is: we exist into each other, we PEOPLE each other. The breath that

was in me just a moment before has now moved and has gone into you. Just a

moment before I could have said: This is my breath -- but where is it now?

Somebody else's heart is beating through it.

 

In your body the blood is flowing; just a few days before it was flowing as

juice in a tree; it became a fruit, now it is flowing in your body. Again

you will fall to the earth -- dust unto dust, and again a tree will arise;

you will become fertilizers; and again a tree will become alive, and a fruit

will come, and your children's children will eat it. You have eaten your

grandparents -- you ARE eating them.

 

And this goes on and on! The whole past is eaten by the present. And the

whole present will be eaten by the future. Life is inter related, deeply

inter-related. It is just like a net. You are just the crossing point of two

threads, you are NOT, you are just a tie between two passing threads. When

you understand that -- you laugh, you really laugh! And you have been

carrying so much burden!

 

That's why Jesus says, Come follow me, my burden is light. Your burden is

very heavy. Your burden is YOU. Jesus says, My burden is light, it is

weightless -- because when you are not, there is no weight, the gravitation

doesn't function then. You start to levitate. Wings grow out of you. You can

FLY.

 

Drop dichotomies: independence, dependence; they are inter-related. If you

try to be independent, you will feel you are dependent, if you try to be

independent you will fail and you will be frustrated and you will feel that

you are dependent. And both are wrong.

 

Just look within: you are NOT; just cosmic rays passing, creating a web, a

pattern... A few days you are here and then you disappear; and then again

you will be here -- and disappear. Where do you come from? Where do you go

again? Into the whole! You disappear to rest. Then again you are here.

 

Spring comes, and trees start blooming, and birds start singing -- a new

life; and then it has gone, and everything is restful. Again it will come.

Many many times you have been here, many many times you will be here; but

once you understand that YOU ARE NOT, that the whole goes on playing through

you, once you understand -- then there is no need to be thrown again and

again back into the body, there is no need, you have become alert,

conscious. Now there is no need for any manifestation; you rest in the whole

-- this we have called MOKSHA, NIRVANA. This we have called the ultimate

freedom.

 

In the West it is very difficult to understand this because whenever you

talk about freedom you think of free will, and whenever the East talks about

freedom it talks of being free of all free will. Freedom means to be free

from you. In the West it means freedom from every barrier, limitation, but

YOU remain, it is YOUR freedom.

 

In the East when we talk about freedom YOU don't remain in it -- you are

part and parcel of the bondage, you go with the bondage. Freedom remains,

not YOU; that is MOKSHA. It is not that YOU become free, on the contrary you

become free of yourself. There is no self.

 

Self simply disappears -- it was a false concept, an arbitrary concept.

Useful, but not true.

 

 

 

HOW TO SEE WHAT IS MY WILL AND GOD'S WILL?

 

There is a Chinese saying: Man is a puppet when he acts, a poet when he

describes. All that you think is your freedom is nothing but your poetry. An

unconscious man cannot be free, cannot have any freedom. Freedom comes as a

consequence of consciousness, freedom is the function of consciousness. An

unconscious man exists like a machine, like a robot. You may not know, but

you are continuously functioning as a robot.

 

Somebody abuses you and anger arises. It is almost like when you push the

button and the fan starts moving. Somebody pushes the button and you become

angry. What kind of freedom is this? You don't have any choice, to be angry

or not to be angry. If the choice is not there there is no freedom. Freedom

means freedom to choose -- you can decide whether to be angry or not, then

you are free. But can you decide? At the most you can decide to show your

anger or not -- that is another thing. But to be angry or not to be angry,

have you got any decision about it, any choice about it?

 

The moment somebody pushes your button you are angry INSTANTLY, not a single

moment is lost. You may not show it, that is another thing. You may control,

repress, that is another thing. But anger has flashed in your being. And

about that you have no choice. You function like a machine.

 

 

A parable:

 

Once upon a time there was a magnet, and in its close neighbourhood lived

some steel filings. One day two or three little filings felt a sudden desire

to go and visit the magnet, and they began to talk of what a pleasant thing

it would be to do. Other filings nearby heard their conversation, and they

too became infected with the same desire. Still others joined them, till at

last all the filings began to discuss the matter, and more and more their

vague desire grew into an impulse.

 

'Why not go today?' said one of them; but others were of the opinion that it

would be better to wait till tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile, without their having noticed it, they had been involuntarily

moving nearer to the magnet, which lay there quite still, apparently taking

no heed of them. And so they went on discussing, all the time insensibly

drawing nearer to their neighbour. And the more they talked, the more they

felt the impulse growing stronger, till the more impatient ones declared

that they would go that day, whatever the rest did. Some were heard to say

it was their duty to visit the magnet, and that they ought to have gone long

ago.

 

And while they talked they moved always nearer and nearer, without realizing

that they had moved. Then at last the impatient ones prevailed, and with one

irresistible impulse the whole body cried out 'There is no use waiting. We

will go today. We will go now. We will go at once. ' And then in one

unanimous mass they swept along, and in another moment were clinging fast to

the magnet on every side.

 

Then the magnet smiled -- for the steel filings had no doubt at all but that

they were paying that visit of their own free will.

 

 

Unconscious, you don't have any will. Unconscious, you don't have any

freedom. So don't think about it. You ask, HOW TO SEE WHAT IS MY WILL AND

GOD'S WILL? YOU have none. God is the magnet and you are the filings.

 

But you go on believing that you have your will, you go on believing that

this is your choice. That you have chosen this woman to be your wife. Think

about it again, remember this parable. Have you chosen this woman? Or was it

just an accident? Have you chosen? Was there really any choice in it? Or had

you been a victim of a certain impulse called love? Was it possible for you

not to choose? Was it your decision? Then you will see that it has not been

so. Whatsoever has happened in your life has happened more or less

accidentally. And don't laugh at those iron filings -- that is the situation

of humanity.

 

But you can rise out of your unconsciousness. Then you will have will. But

you will not be there, you will disappear. Because in consciousness you

cannot remain, you can remain only in unconsciousness. Now let me make it

clear: When you are, you have no will. In unconsciousness the ego exists but

there is no will. In consciousness the will exists but the ego disappears.

Then there is no point of asking '...my WILL AND GOD'S WILL?' Then there is

no distinction between you and God. You are God and God is you.

 

The whole problem can be reduced to a simple thing To be conscious or not to

be conscious.

 

The unconscious man exists without any will. He only dreams that he has

will. With consciousness ego starts disappearing on one hand, on another

hand will arises. But it will not be your will, it will be always God's

will. Then what is the difference between the unconscious man and the

conscious man? The difference is, it is always God's will -- the unconscious

man thinks 'It is my will' and the conscious man knows 'I am not, only God

is.'

 

 

 

[An visitor asks: Osho, do things in nature's pattern happen exactly the way

they're meant to be or do we have a choice, free will?]

 

There are two planes of thought: the highest plane is that everything is

happening as it should -- nothing ever goes wrong, nothing has ever been

wrong, nothing can ever go wrong and effort makes no difference. That is the

highest truth, that everything is as it is, and to understand this is to

become silent.

 

The moment you understand this, there is no turmoil. Then whatsoever happens

there is an acceptance, because this is how things are bound to happen.

There is no fight; a great surrender comes. Everything is god's will and we

don't have any other will: his will is our will.

 

This is the highest truth. But if people cannot understand this, then there

is a lower truth which is just for the name's sake a truth -- it is not

true, it is a fiction, a fiction to help people.

 

To those who cannot understand this high stand-point, to those who still

live in their egos, it is said 'Yes, you have to do, and by doing, things

will happen. If you work hard you will be awarded, rewarded; if you don't

work hard you will miss. It is your will, and wherever there is will there

is a way....' These are lower truths. A lower truth means a lie -- but there

are people who need that lie; they cannot understand the highest truth.

 

So if you can understand the highest there is no need for the second. The

second is just a lie, a consolation for people who cannot relax. They have

to do something or other; they will burst forth if they don't have anything

to do!. For them, the lower truth.

 

One day they will also realise that it is all nonsense; things happen on

their own accord, nobody is doing anything and nobody can do. But the day

they understand this, the higher truth penetrates their consciousness.

 

So if you can understand the highest, there is no problem -- simply relax.

That does not mean that one stops doing. One goes on doing but one knows

that it is god who is doing. Then if you succeed, it is god who succeeds; if

you fail, it is god who fails -- and how can god fail? So it must be some

misunderstanding. Then there is no problem, no anxiety.

 

There is one province in Russia -- a very small, hilly place where people

have lived the longest. There are still two thousand people over one hundred

and fifty, and five thousand people over one hundred. There are a few who

are nearing two hundred and one person who has gone beyond two hundred.

 

The whole scientific world is puzzled as to why they live so long. And they

are poor people -- their food is not very rich, they don't eat much, they

continuously work hard. Even after one hundred and fifty years they work

continuously; they don't have any idea of retirement.

 

So scientists have been searching for any clues. One of the clues that they

have found is that those people believe in fate. They have never bothered

about will; they believe it is god's will. So they do their work, they do

all that can be done, but they don't have any tensions, they have no

anxieties. Not a single man suffers from insomnia and it has not been known

in that community that anyone has ever gone mad.

 

By the evening, as the sun sets, they take their food and go to sleep. The

whole community falls asleep and in the morning they start working. But the

idea is that it is god who works.

 

The moment you can understand that it is god who works, all anxiety is

dropped; then there is no anguish.

 

So live according to this highest truth! When one has to choose, why not

choose the highest?

 

 

Osho

 

------ End of Forwarded Message

[Guest Guest]

thank you 

 

[Guest gino]

Wow, thank you so much! I've been searching for this explanation... It's finally clear. I don't think it's possible to explain it better than this. Thanks Osho.