“People become very afraid of freedom, more afraid than of anything else.”
There is an ancient Sufi parable:
A man gave to a Sufi mystic a present, a golden bowl with a beautiful fish in it. The Sufi looked at the bowl and the fish and felt very sorry for the fish, because the bowl is an imprisonment.
He went to the lake and he was tremendously happy in liberating the fish. He threw the fish into the lake. He was happy that at least now the fish can have the whole lake, the great freedom, the space that really belongs to her. A golden bowl — although it is golden it is a confinement.
Then he thought, what will he do with this bowl? So he threw the bowl also into the lake.
The next morning he went to see how the fish was. He was surprised: the fish was in the bowl and the bowl was in the lake. What had happened to the fish? She had again chosen the bowl. Now the bowl is in the lake, but the fish is not in the lake; the fish has entered into the bowl again. She has lived so long in it, it is her home. The mystic thinks it is a prison, but not the fish; she may have been afraid of the freedom.
People become very afraid of freedom, more afraid than of anything else. You will be surprised to know that people talk about freedom, but when freedom is really given to them they become afraid, frightened, scared, because freedom is vast, unmanageable, uncontrollable.
Osho, The Dhammapada, Vol 8, Ch 9 (excerpt)
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
Featured image credit commons.wikimedia.org
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