From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 30. SURRENDER: THE EGO UPSIDE DOWN
demanded, I acted, responded, neither with humbleness nor with arrogance, but just whatsoever
the moment needed – with awareness.
Hence my teaching is in a way very simple if you can see the point.
If you miss the point it is very difficult.
I will not say to you to turn your other cheek if somebody hits you, no. Jesus can say it because he
teaches humbleness. I cannot say that. I can only say one thing: let that moment decide. Sometimes
perhaps you have to turn the other cheek. Sometimes perhaps you have to hit the man harder than
he has hit you. Sometimes perhaps you have to hit him on both cheeks – but nothing can be given
to you as a ready-made formula. It will depend on you, the person, the situation.
But act with awareness, then whatever you do is right.
So I don’t label acts as right and wrong.
To me, the quality of your awareness is decisive. If you can respond with awareness, then whatever
your response is, I declare it right. If you lose your awareness and react, then whatever you do –
you may be turning the other cheek – it is wrong. Do you see I have used two different words? With
awareness I used the word response; with unawareness I used the word reaction.
Response comes from yourself.
Reaction is created by the other man.
He has hit you. He is the master of the situation, and you are simply a puppet. You are reacting.
His action is decisive, and because he has done something, now you are doing something in
reaction. This is the unconscious man’s behavior. That’s why the unconscious man’s behavior
can be manipulated very easily. You smile, he will smile. You be angry, he will be angry.
It is because of this that people like Dale Carnegie can write books like HOW TO WIN FRIENDS
AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. All that you have to know is simple reactions. He himself describes a
situation. He was functioning as an agent of an insurance company. And there was a rich woman,
the richest in the town, a widow, who was very much against insurance, and insurance agents; so
much so that insurance agents could not even see her – just from the gate they were thrown out.
Her orders were, ”Throw them out!” No question of appointment....
And when he came to the city, all the other agents said, ”You have written this book, HOW TO
WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE.... Now, if you can insure this old lady we will think that
you have something to say, otherwise it is all hocus-pocus.” Dale Carnegie managed to insure the
woman. How did he do it? A simple method.
Early in the morning he went around the woman’s house. She was in the garden. Standing outside
the fence, he said, ”I have never seen such beautiful flowers.”
The old woman said, ”Are you interested in roses?”
From Ignorance to Innocence 453 Osho