This idea of getting better is very dangerous

Premabhakta (a French-Swiss sannyasin): I enjoyed this group very much but I don’t know if I have changed or if I am any better.

In fact never think in terms of getting better. That’s a wrong evaluation. Always think in terms of enjoying more, of making life more of a joy, more of a play, more fun.

This idea of getting better is very dangerous but it has been planted by the society – ‘Improve yourself.’ If you get that into your head, you will never be happy. These improvers are never happy because whatsoever happens, they are always thinking in terms of getting better and better and better. And there is no end to it. You can never come to a point where you can think, ‘Now the better has happened.’

Enjoy life more. Become capable of enjoying it, that’s all, and the betterment will come on its own accord; you need not worry about it. You can completely forget. Don’t make life a sort of ambition. Rather, enjoy whatsoever is available. Don’t say that ‘When I am better then I will enjoy.’ You will never enjoy. Enjoy and then you will be better – but you need not worry about it. You need not think about it. It is not worth a penny.

Whatsoever is happening in this moment, be capable of being with it – flowing, wondering, loving. Be intrigued by this moment. The next moment you will find that you have become better automatically, because a happy person becomes better. So my evaluation is totally different.

You have been taught, ‘If you become better, you will be happy.’ And my teaching is, ‘If you are happy, you will become better.’ You have been taught, ‘If you are good, you will go to heaven.’ My teaching is, ‘Be in heaven and you will be good.’

If you want to be in heaven by becoming good, you will be in hell. You will be already creating hell for yourself because you will become a condemnatory mind. You will go on condemning. You will become an enemy to yourself: ‘I am not good – not good enough.’ You will start punishing yourself, because how can a bad person be allowed to enjoy life? You will become miserable.

Enjoy life. Nobody is barring your path. Life is as available to you as it is to me. Exactly in the same proportion, life is showering its blessings on you as it is showering its blessings on me. It is just that you are not accepting it. You are looking somewhere in the future to when you are better.

Drop the future completely. Enjoy life. The future will arise out of your present. A happy moment brings another happy moment – happier. The more you taste of happiness, the more you become capable of tasting it. You become a connoisseur. You start knowing all the nuances of it.

So drop that idea of bettering yourself. That’s one of the basics of the neurotic mind. A person who is trying in any way to become better is going to become neurotic. He is neurotic. The seeds are there… the crop will follow. If you enjoy, that’s all. Don’t ask more… and more will be given to you.

If you can learn only one secret key here – that life is an art of how to enjoy more – tremendous possibilities surround you and infinite doors are ready to open for you.

You are standing there, worried, thinking how to better yourself, how to become a saint, how to become a god and how to become heavenly – and heaven is passing in front of you. This is the way to remain in hell. Drop it!

The group has been good. It has brought up something very deep inside you – this idea of getting better. This is a criminal idea. This is one of the most dangerous ideas that a person can get hooked with. Drop it immediately. It is like a disease and it can become chronic.

Osho, The Cypress in the Courtyard, Ch 19