The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE NEED TO WIN
Alexander wondered what to say. A man like Alexander cannot think except about things and
possessions. So he looked at Diogenes, and said, ”I am Alexander the Great. If you need something,
tell me. I can be of much help and I would like to help you.”
Diogenes laughed, and said, ”I don’t need anything. Just stand a little to the side, you are blocking
my sun. That’s all you can do for me. Remember, don’t block anybody’s sun, that is all you can do.
Don’t stand in my way, and you need do nothing else.”
Alexander looked at this man. He must have felt like a beggar before him: He needs nothing, and
I need the whole world, and even then I will not be satisfied, even this world is not enough. Said
Alexander, ”It makes me happy to see you, I have never seen such a contented man.”
Diogenes said, ”There is no problem! If you want to be as contented as I, come and lie down by my
side, have a sunbath. Forget the future, and drop the past. Nobody is hindering you.”
Alexander laughed, a superficial laugh of course, and said, ”You are right – but the time is not yet
ripe. One day I would like to relax like you.”
Diogenes replied, ”Then that one day will never come. What else do you need to relax? If I, a
beggar, can relax, what else is needed? Why this struggle, this effort, these wars, this conquering,
why this need to win?”
Said Alexander, ”When I have become victorious, when I have conquered the whole world, I will
come and learn from you and sit by your side here on this bank.”
Diogenes said, ”But if I can lie here and relax right now, why wait for the future? And why go around
the whole world creating misery for yourself and others? Why wait until the end of your life to come
to me and relax here? I am already relaxing.”
What is the need to win? You have to prove yourself. You feel so inferior within, you feel so vacant
and empty, you feel such a nobodiness inside, that the need to prove arises. You have to prove that
you are somebody, and unless you have proved it, how can you be at ease?
There are two ways, and try to understand that these are the only ways. One way is to go out and
prove that you are somebody; the other way is to go in and realize that you are nobody. If you go
outwards you will never be able to prove that you are somebody. The need will remain; rather, it may
increase. The more you prove, the more of a beggar you will feel, like Alexander standing before
Diogenes. Proving to others that you are somebody does not make you become somebody. Deep
down the nobodiness remains. It bites at the heart, and there you know that you are nobody.
Kingdoms won’t help, because kingdoms will not go in and fill the gap inside you. Nothing can go in.
The without will remain without; the within will remain within. There is no meeting. You may have all
the wealth in the world but how can you bring it in and fill the emptiness? No, even when you have
all the wealth you will still feel empty – more empty, because now the contrast will be there. That is
why a Buddha leaves his palace: seeing all the wealth yet feeling the inner emptiness, he feels that
all is useless.
The Empty Boat 107 Osho