Death is within you

Love.
Fear cripples consciousness,
and fear is the source of unconsciousness, that is
why without transcending fear
no one can attain to full consciousness.

But what is fear?
Fear is awareness of death without knowing what
death is.
Fear exists in the gap between you and your death,
and if there is no gap, no space,
then there is no fear.

Do not think of death as something outside you
because it is not.
And do not think of death as something in the
future
because it is not.

Death is within you,
because death is the other side of life.
Life cannot exist without death;
they both belong to the same energy as positive and
negative poles.

So do not identify yourself with life –
because you are both.
The identification with life creates the gap.
And death has nothing to do with the future –
it is always here and now.
Every moment, it is.

And when one ceases to regard it as something
outside oneself
and, so to speak, draws it into his consciousness
and assimilates the idea of it,
one is completely changed.
He is in all truth born again.
And then there is no fear
because then there is no gap.

Osho, A Cup of Tea, letter 161

Osho in Mt. Abu – photo by Dhinubhai – credit to Osho Resources Centre (oshoresourcecenter.com – facebook.com)