The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE NEED TO WIN
A single moment exists – not even two moments, because the second is needed only by desire, it is
not needed by your existence. Existence is completely fulfilled, total, in one moment.
If you think that time is something outside you, remember that you are mistaken. Time is not
something outside you.
If man disappears from the earth will there be time? Trees will grow, rivers will flow, clouds will still
float in the sky, but I ask, will there be time? There will not. There will be moments, rather, there will
be one moment – and when one moment disappears another comes into existence, and so on. But
there is no time as such. Only the atomic moment exists.
Trees don’t desire anything, They don’t desire to flower, flowers will come automatically. It is part of
the nature of the tree that flowers will come. But the tree is not dreaming, the tree is not moving, it
is not thinking, it is not desiring.
There will be no time, only eternal moments, if man is not there. You create time by desire. The
greater the desire, the more time is needed.
But for materialistic desires much time is not needed. That is why in the West they say that there is
only one life. In the East, we have desired moksha. That is the greatest desire possible – no other
desire can be greater than that. How can you get moksha in one life? One life is not enough. You
may get a palace, you may organize a kingdom, you may become very rich and powerful, a Hitler,
a Ford, you may become something of this world, but moksha is such a great desire that one life is
not enough.
So in the East we believe in many lives, in rebirth, because more time, many lives, will be needed to
fulfill the desire for moksha. Only then is there hope that the desire will be fulfilled. The point is not
whether there are many lives, or only one, but that in the East people believe in many lives because
they desire moksha.
If you have only one life then how can you attain moksha? Only material things can be attained in
one lifetime, spiritual transformation as well is not possible. The desire is so huge that millions of
lifetimes are needed. That is why in the East people live so lazily. There is no hurry because there
is no shortage of time. You will be born again and again and again so why be in a hurry? You have
got infinite time.
So if the East is lazy and seems so absolutely unaware of time, if things move with such a slow
flow, it is because of the concept of many lives. If the West is so time-conscious, it is because there
is only one life, and everything has to be attained in it. If you miss, you miss forever – no second
opportunity is possible! Because of this shortage of time, the West has become very tense. So
many things to do and so little time left in which to do them. There is never enough time and there
are so many desires.
People are always in a hurry, running fast. Nobody moves around slowly. Everyone is running,
and more speed is needed. So the West keeps inventing faster vehicles and there is never any
satisfaction with them. The West goes on lengthening human life just to give you a little more time
to fulfill your desires.
The Empty Boat 104 Osho