Postponement Is Very Dishonest

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Sheer stupidity is hiding your inactivity, your inertia, your lethargy, in beautiful terms.

A lethargic person can say, “I’m not in a hurry, I’m waiting,” and he will not do anything. Then you are waiting in vain; it is not going to happen. Yes, the seeds will sprout in season, but the seeds have to be sown; otherwise they will not sprout.

So watch inside you. These distinctions are not distinctions of one man, these distinctions exist in each man. These are not categories, that somebody is ‘sheer stupid’ and somebody is ‘very patient’. No, these moods exist together in everybody. There is a stupid moment in your life, there is a patient moment in your life, and postponement is just in the middle of these two. Postponement is very cunning.

Osho 29

Patience is alert, stupidity is inactive, unconscious. Patience is conscious, postponement is subconscious. Postponement has a double-bind in it: you want to do something and yet you are not ready to do anything for it. It is a very cunning state of affairs. You want to meditate, but you say, “Tomorrow.” If you really want, then today is the right time, because tomorrow never comes. If you really want, then meditate right now, because there is no point in postponing it. How can you be certain that tomorrow will ever come? It may never come. And if it is really important to you and your desire is intense for it, then you will not waste a single moment in postponing it. You will postpone everything else, but you will meditate. You postpone only that which is not significant to you, or, you are playing with yourself, being cunning with yourself. One part of your mind says, “Yes, it is important.” Another part of mind says, “Yes, it is important, I know; that’s why tomorrow we will start.” You are satisfied.

A man challenged by his good friend as to who was the more energetic person: the first said he got up at six, went for a walk, breakfasted at eight, did an hour’s work, then to the office, half an hour for lunch, and so on. The detailed work and alternating exercise stretched out till eleven p.m.

“Well,” said the friend, “how long have you been doing this?”

“I start on Monday.”

God is always postponed, love is always postponed, meditation is always postponed. Anger, greed, hatred, never; the devil, never. When the devil invites you, you are immediately ready. Immediately, instantly you stand up. You say, “I’m coming!” When somebody insults you, you don’t say that “Tomorrow I will be angry;” but for love you always go on postponing. For prayer you say, “Yes, it has to be done.” This is a very cunning state.

You don’t want to recognize the fact that you don’t desire prayer, you don’t desire love, you don’t desire meditation. You don’t want to recognize the fact that you don’t have any passion for God, so you postpone in this way. You manage well – you go on doing that which you really desire, and you go on postponing that which you don’t desire at all, but you are not courageous enough to recognize the fact. At least be honest. Postponement is dishonest, very dishonest. Watch inside yourself, at what you have been postponing, and you will find that all that is beautiful you have been postponing.

It is a double-bind; you are divided, or you are playing very devilry with yourself.

Osho, The Beloved, Vol 2, Ch 2, Q 4 (excerpt)

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