When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. MAN IS A BORN IN TAO
said: Have you ever tried loving twelve women? Alone? On an island? But you are loving twelve
thousand women – every desire is a woman. And your whole life has become a nightmare: so many
desires, so many horizons, so many things to be reached before life is lost. That’s why you are in
such a hurry – you cannot be anywhere. You go on running and running and running until you simply
fall into the arms of death. Death is the end of your whole effort.
Remember, the first thing is that needs are beautiful. And this is the difference between other sages,
so-called sages, and Chuang Tzu – needs are beautiful, desires are ugly. The distinction is: need
comes from the body and the desire is created by the mind. Happier are animals, the birds, the trees,
because they have got no mind to desire; they are happy wherever they are. They live and they die,
but they are never in anguish, the tension is not there. This is the first thing to be remembered –
the distinction, the clear-cut distinction, between desire and needs. And accept needs, nothing is
wrong with them, but drop desires – everything is wrong with them, because they don’t allow you to
be here and now. And that is the only existence possible. There is no other existence.
Bloom like lilies in the field, sing like birds in the trees, be wild like wild animals!
And don’t listen to the poisoners, enjoy simple bodily needs. How many needs have you got? One
needs food, one needs water, one needs shade, one needs a loving heart – that’s all. And if there
were not so many desires, the whole world would become a garden of Eden this very moment.
Because of desires we cannot pay attention to simple needs. And look... even animals can fulfill
their needs but man cannot fulfill his needs. Why is man poor? Not because the earth is poor but
because man is mad, he puts more energy into desires. Reaching the moon seems to be more
important than feeding the poor. What is the use of reaching the moon? What will you do?
But this is the whole trend of the mind. With the money America has wasted in reaching the moon
the whole of Asia could have been fed, all the backward countries could have been developed. And
what have you gained by reaching the moon? The American flag is now on the moon – this is the
gain. And there is nobody to even see it! And now other planets are the target. The moon has been
conquered – now other planets have to be conquered. Why this moon-madness? Why this lunatic
craziness?
This word ’lunatic’ is very good. It comes form ’luna’, the moon. A madman is always moon mad,
struck by the moon; the moon has always been the goal of all the mad people. For the first time
they have achieved the goal, they have reached the moon. But what have they gained out of it?
When you have reached the moon, the goal shifts ahead, the horizon goes ahead. Now you have
to reach another planet – and then another planet. Why so much wastage of energy and life? And
the so called religions go on condemning your needs. This has become their slogan – not to enjoy
is to be religious. ’eat drink and be merry’ is their condemnation. Whenever they want to condemn
anybody, they will say: He believes in ’eat, drink and be merry.’ But Chuang Tzu says: Eat, drink and
be merry. If you can be totally in it, you have achieved the Tao, nothing more is needed. Be simple,
allow nature, and don’t force nature in any direction. Don’t become a soldier, a fighter, a warrior with
life. Surrender to life and let life happen through you. That is the first thing.
The second thing: everybody is in search of security. But then you are in search of an impossibility.
And whenever you seek an impossibility, you meet frustration. It is not possible, it is not the nature of
things to be secure. Insecurity is the very soul of life. Insecurity is the very taste: as the sea tastes
When the Shoe Fits 138 Osho