The difference between criticism and condemnation

[Guest guest]

The difference between criticism and condemnation is subtle and if it is not understood there can be misunderstanding. Buddha criticized and so did Mahavira. Christ criticized and Mohammed also. There has never been a master on the earth who did not criticize. What is the difference?

The difference between criticism and condemnation is subtle. Sometimes condemnation can appear like criticism and sometimes criticism can appear like condemnation. There is a very close relationship. Their form and color are similar but their soul is very different. Criticism is out of compassion, condemnation is out of hatred. Criticism is to awaken, condemnation is to destroy. The objective of criticism is discovery, the objective of condemnation is to demolish the other's ego, to cover them with dirt, to trample them underfoot. The objective of condemnation is to deliver a blow to the other's being, to wound. The objective of criticism is to seek the truth. The diamond has fallen in the dirt, how can we wash it, how can we cleanse it.

Criticism is utterly friendly, no matter how hard it is, still it contains friendliness. And condemnation no matter how sweet it is, no matter how pleasant it is, contains poison. Poison can be given only covered in sugar.

Condemnation arises from egotism: I am greater than you, I am going to make you look small. Criticism is not concerned with the ego. Criticism is not concerned with me versus you.

Criticism is an exploration into what truth is, into how is truth is. Criticism can be very hard because a sword sometimes must be used to cut falsehood. There are stones of falsehood so the hammers and chisels of truth have to prepare them.

Ultimately Gorakh is making blows with hammer and chisel. And after Gorakh comes Kabir who keeps a sharper blade -- on his sword there is more of an edge. Kabir's blows are such that they cut to bits. But they don't cut you to bits, they cut your falseness. When you attack a thief it is condemnation and when you attack stealing it is criticism. When you start hating the sinner it is condemnation and when you hate the sin it is criticism.

A yogi cannot condemn. Only a completely unconscious person enjoys condemning. What is the psychology of condemning? Most people in the world have fallen into condemning. What is its psychology? Its psychology is clear and very simple. Every person wants the status for his ego that I am the greatest. It is very difficult to prove this. It is difficult to prove that I am the greatest because everyone else is trying to prove it. And they are all trying to prove only one thing that they are the greatest. How many people can be the greatest? Such fierce fighting ensues that it is almost impossible to win. Who can win? Every person will fight against billions of others. Defeat is certain. In this, all will be defeated. In this, no one can ascend. So the mind finds an easy remedy. The mind says: it may be difficult to prove that I am the greatest but it is easy to prove that no one is greater than me.

Remember it is always very difficult to prove the affirmative of anything. A negative statement is always easy. For instance if you want to prove that god exists it is very difficult. Your life will have to pass through the fire of austerities. Even then it is unknown when the proof will happen -- in this lifetime, in many lives? But that god does not exist can be proven right now. There is no problem. Only a little skill in argument is needed. To be an atheist is not a matter of great proficiency, of great intelligence. The most idiotic of idiots can be an atheist.

 

There is a famous story by Turgenev: THE GREAT FOOL. In a village there was a fool. He was very upset because no matter what he said people laughed at him. People had decided he was a blithering idiot. Even when he said something right people still laughed at him. He lived cowering, not daring even to speak. If he didn't speak people laughed, if he spoke people laughed. If he did something people laughed, if he didn't do anything people laughed. A monk came to the village. That night the fool fell at the monk's feet and said, "Give me some blessing. is my whole life to be spent shrinking and cowering like this? Will I die a blithering idiot? Is there no way I can become a little intelligent?"

The monk said, "There is a way. Follow this sutra: condemn everything."

He said, "What will happen through condemning?"

The monk said, "You do it for seven days then come again to me."

The fool asked, "How should I condemn?

The monk said, "Whatever anyone says make a negative statement. For instance if someone says look what a beautiful sun is coming out, you say what's beautiful about it? Prove it. Where is the beauty? What beauty? It comes out everyday, it has been coming out for billions of years. It is a globe of fire -- what beauty? If someone says look Jesus' words are so lovely, you immediately jump on him saying what is so lovely in them? What is so special about them? What's new in them? The same thing has always been said, it is all thrashed over. It is all stale, all borrowed. You just deny. Someone says, looking at a beautiful woman, what a beautiful woman. You say: what of it? So what if her nose is a little longer? So what if her skin is a little whiter? Lepers are white too. What beauty? Prove it. You demand proof from everyone and remember to always remain in the negative. Put them in the positive, you remain in the negative. Come to me after seven days."

After seven days when the idiot came, he did not come alone, many had become his disciples. They came on ahead. They had hung flower garlands around his neck. A band was playing. He said to the monk, "The device worked. The whole village was forced to be silent. Wherever I went people lowered their heads. The news spread among the people that I am a great genius. No one could win against me. Now what should I do?"

He said, "Now don't do anything, just remain with this. If you want to save your intellect never fall into the positive. If someone speaks of god then immediately bring in atheism. Whatever is said, always make a negative statement. No one will be able to defeat you because to disprove a negative statement is very difficult. To prove a positive statement is very difficult."

 

To affirm god great intelligence is needed, a very subtle sensitivity is needed. Total wakefulness of the heart is needed. A purified state of consciousness is needed. A little light is needed within. But to deny god nothing is needed. In denying god there is no commitment. This is why people in the world condemn.

The psychology of condemnation is cheap psychology, an easy way out. Your genius will be proven by it. And there is no cost. "Using neither turmeric nor alum the dye came out fine." There is no cost at all. There is no need to go anywhere to learn. There is no need for satsang. This is why everyone is skillful at condemning.

You find people everywhere enjoying the mood of condemnation. Who knows, why did those who numbered the nine rasas, the nine dramatic moods leave out the mood of condemnation? All the other moods come only now and again, the mood of condemnation comes to people every day from morning till night. You read the newspaper to enjoy the feeling of condemnation. When someone is being condemned you immediately cock your ears and start listening. If someone comes and says that the neighbor's woman has eloped with someone, how attentive you become! Your attention is so focused in that moment that you forget all matters of the world. You start digging, asking, "Say something more, tell what happened next. Elaborate a little, don't make it so brief. Where were they eloping to, tell the whole story before you go. Sit down and have some tea." You roll out the red carpet.

Wherever you notice condemnation happening you enjoy. You enjoy because another person is being made small and in his becoming smaller you inwardly experience I am bigger. This is why if a beggar slips and falls on a banana peel on the street there is not so much enjoyment as when an emperor slips and falls on a banana peel. The heart becomes happy -- what Mulla Nasruddin calls the experience of the heart becoming garden-garden.

When he said this to me this the first time I was surprised and I asked him, "What is this 'garden-garden?"

He said, "Oh, it is just the English translation of our Hindi expression 'baag-baag ho jaana'."

If some emperor slips and falls, how happy the mind becomes. When when you hear the news that the prime minister or the president has been caught doing some illegal activity, how the joy of condemnation spreads. What's the point? Why should anyone be concerned with it? If the prime minister has fallen in love with some woman, enough... As if a very rare incident has occurred. So much interest spreads, people become so eager. This tells only one thing about what is inside you, indicates only one thing: that you were waiting for someone to get caught, to fall somewhere, for a foot to slip on a banana peel, for him to fall flat. This was your heart's desire.

This is why people become eager and excited to remove someone from power when he has been in office for four or five years. It is too long, this man must fall. Then trivial things are blown out of proportion and spread around. And people are ready to believe them.

 

Have you noticed something strange, if you praise someone no one is ready to listen, no one is ready to accept it. If you say, "Look at such and such person. He has become a great being." They will say, "We have seen all these great souls, these mahatmas! There is no great soul, nor has there ever been. It's all deception. Some trick is happening. Just wait, stop a little, when he is caught you will know. We have seen many falling."

 

But if someone says to you that such and such person is stealing, such and such person is deceiving, such and such person has taken a bribe you will never deny it saying, no-no, how could it be? You will immediately agree, as if you had already known it. We have accepted that except ourselves people are all bad. Some have been found out. Others have not been found out and will be sometime. But except for us all people are bad. This is our preconceived belief. Whatever supports our preconceived belief we agree with immediately.

Our state is such that if someone says to you, look at such and such man, he is playing flute so nicely, you will say: "What bad flute playing! He's a thief, depraved, a scoundrel." As if being a scoundrel and depraved and a thief prevents him from playing flute. You will immediately condemn saying, "What lousy flute playing, what's special about his flute? We know him well enough. We know his father and grandfathers too. How can he play flute?"

But the reverse statement you will never hear -- when someone says, look, that man is a thief, a cheat, depraved; and you say, "No, how can it be? Because he plays such lovely flute. No-no, it cannot be. A man who plays such lovely flute a thief? depraved? -- how is it possible?"

You will never speak this way. It is against your ego. It is condemnation that inflates your ego. This is why people praise very reluctantly -- they do it very unwillingly, as if compelled. They do it when there is something to get by praising. This is why superficially they praise, but beneath they are taking revenge.

 

There was a case in court. A political leader had initiated a defamation case against a man. The man, in a restaurant where fifty or sixty people were present, had called the politician a son-of-an-owl. Naturally the politician became angry. Son-of-an-owl! I will get him back good.

Mulla Nasruddin was standing right next to the politician when he was called a son-of-an-owl. So he said, "Mulla, you will have to be a witness. He said it in front of you."

He said, "I will certainly be a witness, I am an eye witness. He insulted you just in front of me. I was standing next to you."

Witnesses were called in court. The magistrate asked Mulla Nasruddin, "Fifty people were there, and the man being charged with making insults says: 'I didn't say it to anyone in particular. Yes, I used the word son-of-an-owl. But fifty or sixty people were there. I wasn't implicating the politician when I said this.' What proof do you have Nasruddin that he said it implying the politician?"

Nasruddin said, "I know that there were fifty or sixty people there, but there was no son-of-an-owl except the politician."

Now what to do? Even his witness is saying it. You hope that those in power, in office, those who have money will fall flat. Your heart will get great comfort from this. In the world whenever someone's downfall happens, people share great comfort, much lightness comes. People are waiting for someone's character to be corrupted. They are greatly supporting it. To create character is very difficult. To bring dignity to one's life is difficult, to bring greatness is difficult. But if you want to take away someone's greatness it is easy to spread and inflate rumors about him. The more you talk badly of him the more you feel good inside. This is the psychology of condemnation -- it is the shadow of ego and the nourishment of ego also.

 

But this does not mean that I am telling you to live blindly. Or that Gorakh is telling you to live blindly. To remain silent when you see something wrong: I am not saying this, nor is Gorakh saying it. If Gorakh were saying this then what he has said here could not be said. Remember this, he has seen this wrong, hasn't he? He has seen a yogi and condemning, a yogi and consuming fish, meat and drugs. So he says they will fall into hell. Don't take it as condemnation. There is no condemnation at all in it. There is natural compassion in it, there is spontaneous sympathy in it. It is not his intent to make them look lower. In reality it his desire that they rise higher, his desire that they awaken.

 

Sometimes one who comes to awaken seems like an enemy. Sometimes it happens that you tell someone, "Brother, wake me up in the morning, I have to catch a train at four o'clock. And anyway you get up at three, at the hour of Brahma. Please get me up."

He comes to get you up at three o'clock, you are swearing at him under your breath -- at the man that you told to wake you up at three -- saying, this rude fellow has come, this bastard. I told him -- it was a mistake -- but there is no need to go through with a mistake, how to get rid of this knave? And if he starts to pull on you to get you up there can be a fight.

 

There was a famous German thinker, Immanuel Kant. He used to keep a servant. He had great difficulty in getting up in the morning. The servant's whole job was this: to wake him up even if he fights. So the servant was hit, he hired the servant for this! Many servants had quit and left saying, what kind of arrangement is this? But he said this is what I have hired you for. Don't worry about it, I am not saying not to strike back if I hit you.

There are all kinds of people! In the West now an electric blanket is made that you can set an alarm on, it has a clock attached and at exactly five o'clock in the morning an electric shock... An arrangement had to be made for those who cannot get up. A shock is applied and you leap up. An ordinary alarm won't work, people just turn it off. They throw the clock on the floor. Their own clock! Then they regret later that it was smashed, a fifty rupee loss. They themselves set the alarm, they themselves smash the clock. Something had to be done for them.

 

One who awakens does not seem loving because at that time you are lost in sweet slumber. It may be that you are seeing a sweet dream. It may be that at just that very moment you were going to meet Cleopatra, or Hema Malini was just coming. You were almost going to embrace and this fellow came, or the alarm went off. Will anyone put up with such a clock?

This is why we have been able to accept buddhas only with great difficulty. We can accept them only grudgingly. How can the people who break your dreams seem loving to you? You will be angry. Do not think that a yogi should not be critical, who else will? He has earned the right. But he will not condemn. In his eyes you will not be disgraced. His voice may be hard. His voice may be very sharp. His words may be razor like. They should be.

 

 

Osho,

Death is Divine

Chapter #7

Chapter title: Wander alone

7 October 1978 am in Buddha Hall