From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE OTHER CHEEK: THE MASOCHIST’S SLAP-UP FEAST
a saint? Hit him and tell him simultaneously,’I do not believe in violence, hence I have to stop it at
the first chance. And remember that you cannot just be violent without being prevented.’”
You have to prevent violence if you respect life. And in another way too, it is respectful to hit the
man, not to give him your other cheek, because that is very disrespectful. This may seem a little
difficult for you: you hit me, and I don’t hit you but show my other cheek to you, and say, ”Please be
kind enough to hit me.” I am trying to be superhuman and reduce you below humanity.
I am humiliating you far more than I can humiliate you by hitting you. By hitting you I simply declare
you are human, I am human, and I speak the same language that you speak. We are both on the
same ground. This is more respectful because you are not raising yourself higher; you are keeping
yourself on the same ground as the other man. You are telling him, ”You are my brother; if you hit
me you are going to get a bigger hit. Be watchful and be careful, because somewhere you may get
into real trouble.”
I am not in favor of your being superior to the other man. That’s what Jesus is saying: ”Be meek, be
humble, turn the other cheek, because then you will inherit the kingdom of God.”
I am not promising you any kingdom of God.
You are not going to inherit anything. You have already inherited it – that is your life.
Be loving and respectful to it.
Be loving and respectful to others. But don’t try to be superior and higher and above others. Don’t
put the other man down.
In that sentence of Jesus you don’t find it, but it is there – that you are humiliating the other. You are
creating guilt in the other. He will think it over at home, ”What did I do? What kind of man was he?
I hit him, and he gave me the other cheek. How cruel and how animal I am that I again hit him on
the other cheek.” He will not be able to sleep the whole night. He will come back tomorrow. The first
thing he will want is to be forgiven. But to forgive him is again to put him down. No, I will say if he
hits you, just be a sportsman. Don’t try to be a superman, just a sportsman. Hit him really hard and
tell him, ”Whenever you need a good hit, you can always depend on me.”
Never do any harm to anybody, but never allow anybody to do any harm to you either; only then can
we create a human world.
We have tried the other way in India, and the experiment has completely failed. Twenty-five centuries
of slavery, slaughter, rape, and still nobody raises a finger and says that Buddha and Mahavira are
responsible for it. They created this impotence in the whole country, this weakness in the whole
country. No, I am not in favor of creating impotence, slavery, and provoking people to do violence to
you.
Never do violence of your own accord, but never allow anybody else to do it to you either.
Only then is there a possibility of creating a human world.
From Ignorance to Innocence 27 Osho