The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE NEED TO WIN
They died on the same day, but Diogenes must have waited a little so that he could follow Alexander.
While crossing the river which divides this world from that, Alexander met Diogenes again, and this
second encounter was more dangerous than before. Alexander was in front because he had died
a few minutes earlier – Diogenes had been waiting to follow him. Alexander, hearing the sound of
someone behind him in the river, looked back and saw Diogenes there laughing. He must have
become quite dumbstruck, because this time things were absolutely different. He was also naked
like Diogenes, because you cannot take your clothes to the other world. This time he was absolutely
nobody, no emperor.
But Diogenes was the same. All that death can take away he had already renounced, so death
couldn’t take anything from him. He was just the same as on that river bank; here he was in this
river, just the same as before.
So to be nonchalant, to give himself courage and confidence, Alexander also laughed and said,
”Great, wonderful! Again the meeting of the greatest emperor and the greatest beggar.”
Diogenes replied, ”You are absolutely right, only you are a little confused about who is the emperor
and who is the beggar. This is a meeting of the greatest emperor and the greatest beggar, but the
emperor is behind and the beggar is in front. And I tell you, Alexander, it was the same at our first
meeting. You were the beggar, but you thought I was. Now look at yourself! What have you gained
by winning the whole world?”
What is the need to win? What do you want to prove? In your own eyes you know that you are a
nonentity, you are nothing, and this nothingness becomes a pain in the heart. You suffer because
you are nothing – so you have to prove yourself in the eyes of others. You have to create an opinion
in others’ minds that you are somebody, that you are not a nothing. And looking in their eyes you will
gather opinions, public opinion, and through public opinion you will create an image. This image is
the ego, it is not your real self. It is a reflected glory, not your own – it is collected from others’ eyes.
A man like Alexander will always be afraid of others because they can take back whatsoever they
have given. A politician is always afraid of the public because they can take back whatsoever they
have given. His self is just a borrowed self. If you are afraid of others, you are a slave, you are not a
master.
A Diogenes is not afraid of others. You cannot take anything from him because he has not borrowed
anything. He has the self, you have only the ego. This is the difference between the self and the
ego – the ego is a borrowed self.
Ego depends on others, on public opinion; self is your authentic being. It is not borrowed, it is yours.
Nobody can take it back.
Look, Chuang Tzu has beautiful lines to say:
WHEN AN ARCHER IS SHOOTING FOR FUN
HE HAS ALL HIS SKILL – FOR FUN!
WHEN AN ARCHER IS SHOOTING FOR FUN
The Empty Boat 109 Osho