When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 8. THE TURTLE
where your misery, conflict, anxiety and neurosis have arisen. A few things have to be understood
then this story will become clear, and very helpful.
First, if you condemn yourself you are creating a division, and that division will be your misery and
your hell. If you condemn yourself, it means you condemn nature, and there is no victory against
nature, there cannot be. You are just a tiny part in a vast ocean of nature, you cannot fight it.
And all so-called religions teach you to fight it. They condemn nature and they acclaim culture.
They condemn nature, and they say: This is behaving just like animals, don’t be like animals! Every
parent is saying don’t be like animals. What is wrong with animals? Animals are beautiful! But in
your mind animals are something to be condemned, something bad, something evil, something not
worthy of you. You are superior, you are not an animal, you are born of the angels.
And animals.... They are just to be used, exploited, you don’t belong to them.
That is why when Darwin first declared that man has come out of the same heritage as animals, that
he belongs to the animal world, the whole of humanity was against him. From every church pulpit,
from every temple, from every mosque, he was condemned as a heretic. They said that he was
teaching something absolutely wrong and if he were believed then the whole culture will be lost.
But he was right. Man is as natural as other animals, trees and birds; and trees and birds and
animals are not neurotic, they never go mad – unless you put them in a zoo. In a zoo it happens,
animals do go neurotic. Even to be in contact with man is dangerous. Man is infectious. Sometimes
dogs go mad, but never when they are wild, only when they are domesticated. Domestic animals
go mad; living with man is living with something unnatural. In the wild no animal commits suicide,
no animal goes mad, no animal murders. But with man even animals turn unnatural, they start
doing things they have never done in the wild; they become homosexual, they become neurotic,
they murder, and sometimes they have even tried to commit suicide.
What happens when you bring a dog to your home? You immediately start teaching him, as if he
lacks something. He is perfect! Every dog is born perfect. Nature has given him everything that is
needed, he is already equipped, you need not teach him.
What are you doing? You are trying to make him a part of human society, and now the trouble starts.
Now even the dog will learn to condemn himself. If he does something wrong, inside he feels guilty;
condemnation has entered.
I have heard that it happened once that a bum, a beggar, caught hold of a rich man and asked
for a dime, just for a cup of coffee. The rich man said: You seem to be healthy enough, why are
you wasting your life? Why don’t you go to work and help yourself? The bum said, with very deep
condemnation in his eyes: What! To help a bum like me?
You are continuously not accepting yourself. From the very beginning you have been taught that
nature is not enough, you have to be more than nature. And you have tried, and that effort has failed
– it is impossible, you can never be more than nature. And if you try too much you will be less than
nature. You can never be more than nature because nature is perfect: nothing more is needed, no
polishing is needed, no effort is needed to make it better – it cannot be made better. But if you try
too much you will fall from the perfection of nature and you will become a neurotic animal.
When the Shoe Fits 107 Osho