The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE MAN OF TAO
life. This man is the same, nothing has changed. The pendulum moved to the left but now has gone
to the other extreme.
HE DOES NOT STRUGGLE TO MAKE MONEY....
This you will understand; the other part is more difficult.
...HE DOES NOT MAKE A VIRTUE OUT OF POVERTY.
He is neither poor nor rich. He is not making any effort to make money, he is not making any effort
to be poor – whatever happens he allows it to happen. If a palace happens, he will be in the palace;
if the palace disappears, he will not look for it. Whatever is happening, he will be with it, his bliss
cannot be disturbed. He is not struggling for money, he is not struggling for poverty.
HE GOES HIS WAY WITHOUT RELYING ON OTHERS....
This you can understand easily.
HE GOES HIS WAY WITHOUT RELYING ON OTHERS,
AND DOES NOT PRIDE HIMSELF ON WALKING ALONE.
You depend on others, your wife, your children, your father, mother, friends, society; then suddenly
you drop everything and escape to the Himalayas. Then you start priding yourself: I live alone, I
don’t need anybody, I am free of that world.
Even then you are still not alone because your aloneness still depends on the world. How could
you be alone if there was not a world to leave? How could you be alone if there was not a society
to renounce? How could you be alone if there was not wife, children, family to leave behind? Your
aloneness depends on them. How could you be poor if there was no money to be left? Your poverty
depends on your riches.
No, a perfect man, a man who is really a sage, the man of Tao, goes his way without relying on
others. If you rely on others you will suffer, if you rely on others, you will always be in bondage, you
will become dependent and weak. But that doesn’t mean that you should pride yourself that you
walk alone. Walk alone, but don’t take pride in it. Then you can move in the world without being
a part of it. Then you can be a husband without being a husband. Then you can possess without
being possessed by your possessions. Then the world is there outside, but not within. Then you are
there, but not corrupted by it.
This is true loneliness – moving in the world without being touched by it. But if you are proud, you
have missed. If you think, ”I have become somebody,” the boat is not empty, and again you have
fallen victim of the ego.
THE MAN OF TAO REMAINS UNKNOWN.
PERFECT VIRTUE PRODUCES NOTHING.
The Empty Boat 42 Osho