“Have you made your peace with Moses?”

1001 Tales told by the Master

Osho says, “If you have accepted your being – finished. Your journey has come to an end. Now you can flower.” From our series 1001 Tales, compiled by Shanti.

Hassid

Christ is a rose flower, out of his own bush he flowered – that was his crime. The Jews did not like it, they wanted him to become a Moses, they wanted him to become a lotus flower. And he asserted his own self. He said, ‘I will be my own being. I will be myself.’ That was his crime and the Jews could not forgive him. But Moses was a flower out of his own being, he was not imitating anybody. No religious person has been an imitator. And all so-called religious people who are imitators are not religious at all.

Never borrow. Even if your flower is small, it is good, it is yours. Even if somebody else’s flower is very big, has much fragrance, has much colour, don’t borrow it. Yours is good. It is your destiny. God wants you to flower from your own being.

A great Hasid mystic was dying. His name was Josia.

Somebody around him said, ‘Josia, have you made your peace with Moses?’

Josia opened his eyes and said, ‘Forget everything about this Moses. He is not important. I am dying, and you are talking nonsense.’

The man became afraid – what is he saying? A pious Jew at the time of death is saying, ‘Forget all about Moses.’

And Josia said, ‘Listen, now I am going to die and I will be facing God. He will not ask me, “Josia, why were you not Moses?” He will not ask me that. He will ask, “Josia, why were you not Josia?”

So forget all about Moses. At least in these last moments leave me alone. Let me gather together my being so that I can stand before him on my own feet. I have wasted my whole life and now in the end again you have come to ask, “Have you made your peace with Moses?” What do I have to do with Moses? If Moses has nothing to do with me what have I to do with Moses?’

Sometimes people come to me and they say, ‘Do you agree with Buddha?’ I say, ‘Nonsense! He never agreed with me so why should I bother to agree with him? He did his thing, I am doing mine. Where arises the question of agreeing?’

Why should you agree with anybody? If you can agree with yourself you have agreed with God. Enough, more than enough. If you have agreed with yourself, if you have accepted your being – finished. Your journey has come to an end. Now you can flower.

[…] This parable has to be deeply meditated upon. Remember always never to borrow; remember always never to imitate; remember always that you have to grow, not condition yourself. You have to become a tree, you have to bloom like a tree. You are not to become an efficient mechanism, you have to become a tree so that your fragrance can be released to the winds. That will be your offering to the feet of God.

And remember, he will ask, ‘Josia, why are you not Josia?’ He will ask you, ‘Why did you miss your being? Why have you not arrived here with your being? Why did you miss your life following other people? I was always within your heart waiting for you but you never came there. You followed Moses, Mohammed, Mahavira, Krishna. You followed everybody. You looked in every nook and comer but you never came into your own being. And I was sitting there waiting for you.’

When you come into your own being you have come home, you have come to God. God is nothing but a name of your innermost core.

Osho, Tao: The Pathless Path – Talks on extracts from ‘The Book of Lieh Tzu’, Vol 2, Ch 7 (excerpt)

Series compiled by Shanti
Photo credit thetower.org
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales

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