The Empty Boat - Osho.pdf - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 4. APOLOGIES
Businessmen are honest if honesty pays. They say: Honesty is the best policy. How can you destroy
a beautiful thing like honesty and turn it into a best policy? Policy is politics, honesty is religion.
An old man was on his deathbed. He called his son and said, ”Now I must tell you the secret, now
I am dying. Always remember two things – this is how I succeeded. First, whenever you give a
promise, fulfill it. Whatsoever the cost, be honest and fulfill it. This has been my basis, this is why I
succeeded. And the second thing, never make any promises.”
For a businessman even religion is a policy, for a politician even religion is a policy – everything is a
policy, even love is a policy. Kings, queens, never marry ordinary, common people. Why? It is part
of politics. Kings marry other princesses, queens, and the concern is about which relationship will
be the most profitable for the kingdom. Two kingdoms will become related so that they will become
friends and will not be antagonistic. So with whom should the marriage be made?
In India, in the olden days, a king would marry many women, hundreds, even thousands. It was part
of politics: he would marry the daughter of anyone who had some power, so that he could create
a network of power relationships. Thus the person whose daughter you have married will become
your friend, he will help you.
In Buddha’s time India had two thousand kingdoms, so the most successful king was the one who
had two thousand wives, one wife from every kingdom. Then he could live in peace because now
he had no enemies. Now the whole country became like a family. But how can love exist in such a
concern? Love never thinks of consequences, never hankers for results. It is sufficient unto itself.
PERFECT CONDUCT IS FREE OF CONCERN.
PERFECT WISDOM IS UNPLANNED.
A wise man lives moment to moment, never planning. Only ignorant people plan, and when ignorant
people plan, what can they plan? They plan out of their ignorance. Unplanned they would have been
better, because out of ignorance only ignorance arises; out of confusion, only greater confusion is
born.
A wise man lives moment to moment, he has no planning. His life is just free like a cloud floating
in the sky, not going to some goal, not determined. He has no map for the future, he lives without
a map, he moves without a map; because the real thing is not the goal, the real thing is the beauty
of the movement. The real thing is not reaching, the real thing is the journey. Remember, the real
thing is the journey, the very traveling. It is so beautiful, why bother about the goal? And if you are
too bothered about the goal, you will miss the journey, and the journey is life – the goal can only be
death.
The journey is life and it is an infinite journey. You have been on the move from the very beginning –
if there was any beginning. Those who know say there was no beginning, so from no beginning you
have been on the move, to the no end you will be on the move – and if you are goal-oriented, you will
miss. The whole is the journey, the path, the endless path, never beginning, never ending. There is
really no goal – goal is created by the cunning mind. Where is this whole existence moving? Where?
It is not going anywhere. It is simply going, and the going is so beautiful, that is why existence is
The Empty Boat 78 Osho