Use whatever time is left

Discourses

“You are in a very special position in the history of mankind.”

Osho namaste

You are in a very special position in the history of mankind. People had always time to postpone – you don’t have. Your situation is unique. Use it – not for worrying, because that is not going to stop the world from ending. Use whatever time is left to live so deeply that ten years become almost equivalent to one hundred years.

Beloved Osho,

Lately I feel my life has come to a peak. Living in your presence is such a precious and delicious gift. Every moment is becoming so joyful and contented, but then often the fear of death comes up intense and strong and the fear of having to leave all this beauty, this friendship, and love. You keep on telling us lately that we don’t have much time left before this world finishes. How is it possible to relax in this certainty of death?

Sadhan, first it is possible to relax only when death is a certainty. Relaxing is difficult when things are uncertain. If you know that you are going to die today, all fear of death will disappear. What is the point of wasting time? You have one day to live: live as intensely as possible, live as totally as possible.

It actually happened in a man’s life…. His doctor told him, “You have only six months more to live, not a single day more, so if you want to finish anything, finish it. If you have wanted to do anything, do it.”

The man was very rich, and he always had an idea to go around the world to visit all the beautiful places, but there were so many problems that he was continuously postponing it. Now there was no time to postpone. He ordered beautiful clothes to be made for him…. People had never known him so extravagant: he was eating the best food, he purchased the best house in the town, he closed all his businesses. What was the need to keep them? For six months he had more than enough – he could live like a king.

He went around the world, visiting all the beautiful places, all the beautiful people of the world. In fact, he simply forgot to die. By the time he was back home, six months had passed a long time before. He went to the doctor to thank him.

The doctor said, “Are you still alive? How did you manage – because the disease was such that you were going to die within six months.”

The man said, “Once it became certain that I was going to die, death was no longer a problem but a certainty. I had six months to live, so I wanted to live as multidimensionally as possible. And by living so totally and so intensely, perhaps I forgot to die at the right time.”

The doctor checked him – his disease had disappeared. These six months had been of such relaxed, deep, joyful enjoyment that the disease had to disappear!

So the first thing, Sadhan: The certainty of death is one of the most fortunate things. And death has never been so certain – so certain for the whole humanity. In fact, people should stop creating war materials. Instead of fighting with their neighbors, they should start singing and dancing with them. The time is so short, you cannot afford to fight. People should forget all their differences of religion, and Communism, Socialism and Fascism. All these differences are good when you have enough time – but time is very short. You cannot afford all these differences of being Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan.

Just the shortage of time and the certainty of a global death can bring a transformation. Perhaps you may find yourself in the same position as this man, that the world stops being divided into nations, being divided into religions, continuously fighting and we start, for the first time, enjoying this beautiful planet together.

Death may not come, death cannot come to people who live very intensely and very totally. And even if it comes, those people who have lived totally, welcome it because it is a great relief. They are tired of living, they lived so totally, so intensely, so death comes like a friend. Just as night comes after the whole day’s hard work as a great relaxation, as a beautiful sleep, so does death. Death has nothing ugly about it; you cannot find anything cleaner.

You are asking, “Lately I feel my life has come to a peak.”

Remember, there are peaks beyond peaks – just look ahead. Don’t get satisfied with what you have achieved. You need a divine discontentment. Every achievement should become a deep longing for something more, and greater. And there are peaks beyond peaks, unending, skies beyond skies. It is just that you need strong wings.

It is good that you are feeling you have come to the highest peak, but don’t make it the end of your journey. Make it the beginning of a new journey. Every peak has to be made the beginning of a new journey – a search for a higher peak.

“Living in your presence is such a precious and delicious gift. Every moment is becoming so joyful and contented, but then often the fear of death comes up.”

That means your joy, your blissfulness, your contentedness is not total – it leaves spaces, loopholes, from which the fear of death comes in. The fear of death simply shows.…

Dance a little faster, live a little faster.

I have never forgotten… in Ahmedabad I used to stay at Jayantibhai’s house. We had to cross a bridge, and as the bridge came near he would start driving faster, because there was a big board by the side of the bridge advertising Gold Spot. It said, “Live a little hot, sip a Gold Spot.”

I asked Jayantibhai, “What is the matter? Suddenly, on this bridge, you start going fast.”

He said, “Looking at that board, `Live a little hot,’ I start going fast!”

If the fear of death comes in, that means there are a few loopholes which are not filled with living. So those fears of death are very indicative and helpful – show you that your dance has to go a little faster, that you have to burn the torch of your life from both ends together.

Dance so fast that the dancer disappears, and only the dance remains.

Then it is not possible for any fear of death to visit you.

“And the fear of having to leave all this beauty, this friendship, and love.”

If you are totally herenow, who cares about tomorrow? Tomorrow will take care of itself. Jesus is right when he prays to God, “Lord, give me my daily bread.” He is not even asking for tomorrow, just today is enough unto itself. And you have to learn that each moment has a completion.

The fear of having to leave it all comes only because you are not completely living in the moment; otherwise there is no time, and there is no mind, and there is no space.

For more than three decades I have never thought about tomorrow. And you cannot find a more simple life than mine. For my whole life I have been sleeping in the afternoon, and it happens often that Nirvano has to remind me when she wakes me up in the afternoon, because if nobody wakes me I am not going to wake up by myself – why bother? She has to remind me, “This is afternoon, not morning,” because I often forget.

It happens once in a while that she forgets to remind me… I have gone into the bathroom and started taking my shower, getting ready for the morning talk and only when the cold water shook me a little I remembered, “My God! What am I doing?”

But anyway, I enjoyed the shower!

Sadhan, you are also saying, “You keep on telling us lately that we don’t have much time left before this world finishes. How is it possible to relax in this certainty of death?”

In fact, my continuous emphasis that there is a possibility of this whole world being destroyed is to help you to live intensely right now because there may not be any tomorrow.

You are in a very special position in the history of mankind. People have always had time to postpone – you don’t have. Your situation is unique. Use it – not for worrying, because that is not going to stop the world from ending. Use whatever time is left to live so deeply that ten years become almost equivalent to one hundred years.

Once a merchant was asked, “How old are you?”

And he said, “Three hundred and sixty years old.”

The man could not believe it. He said, “Please, repeat it. Perhaps I have not heard rightly.”

The merchant shouted and said, “Three hundred and sixty years old.”

The man said, “Forgive me, but I cannot believe it. You don’t look more than sixty!”

The merchant said, “You are also right. As far as the calendar is concerned, I am sixty. But as far as my life is concerned I have lived six times more than anybody else. In sixty years I have managed to live three hundred and sixty years.”

It depends on intensity.

There are two ways of living. One is the way of the buffalo – it lives horizontally, in a single line. The other way is of a buddha. He lives vertically, in height and in depth. Then each moment can become an eternity. And unless you learn the art of transforming each moment into an eternity, you have not been with me – you missed me.

The world may end, may not end, that is not my concern. But I will go on insisting that it is going to end for a simple reason: to wake you up. And don’t waste your time in trivia, but live, sing, dance, love as totally and overflowingly as you are capable of; and no fears will interfere, and you will not be worried what will happen tomorrow. Today is enough unto itself. Lived, it is so full; it leaves no space to think about anything else. Unlived, worries come, fears come.

It is not only me who is emphasizing the fact that the world is coming to an end. It is just a coincidence that alongside my insistence on it, the world situation is very supportive of what I am saying. But Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago, was saying the same thing, Gautam Buddha, twenty-five centuries ago, was saying the same thing.

It is an old device to wake you up. Unless you know that your house is on fire, you are not going to run out of it. And Jesus and Gautam Buddha were using it as a device, without any corresponding reality.

I am also using it as a device, but it is not only a device. For the first time, the world is really in a position to commit a global suicide. If Gautam Buddha managed to make two dozen people enlightened, then it should be very easy for me to make at least two hundred people enlightened – very easy, because his device was only fictitious.

My device is not fictitious, it is a reality. The reality is supporting my device with totality.

Sadhan, you just live, love, and make each moment a deep ecstasy. All fears may disappear. And if the whole humanity listens to me, perhaps the world may not end, perhaps we may continue. The old man may die and a totally new man with fresh values may arise to replace him.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Osho, The Golden Future, Ch 25, Q 2

Comments are closed.