When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE TOWER OF THE SPIRIT
THE UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND ENTIRE SINCERITY OF TAO ARE DISTURBED BY ANY
EFFORT AT SELF CONSCIOUS DEMONSTRATION. ALL SUCH DEMONSTRATIONS ARE LIES.
Live, but don’t make your life a demonstration. All such demonstrations are lies. Live, but don’t
make your life a demonstration. Live, but don’t become a showman. Don’t allow showmanship –
there is no need. What others say is useless, irrelevant; what you are is the only relevant thing. Live
according to your nature. Whatsoever others think about you is their problem, you need not worry
about it. Don’t make your life a piece of showmanship. Once you start there is no end to it, then you
will always be making yourself false, and if people pay respect to a falsity, you will become false. If
they think that it is good and respectable you will do a thing even when there is no natural reason.
If you want to become a painter and this is an unconscious desire, become a painter and remain
poor. Don’t become a doctor and become rich. You may become rich by being a doctor, but if you
didn’t become a doctor because of an unconscious desire, if you have only done it to satisfy your
parents, society, friends, then although you may become very, very rich, you will remain unfulfilled –
and the ultimate thing is fulfillment.
I have heard about a doctor who became the greatest surgeon in his country. He was made president
of the National Society of Surgeons. The day he was made president there was a great celebration
in his honour. But he was sad.
A friend asked him: Why are you looking so sad? You should be very, very happy. You have become
the greatest surgeon and nobody can compete with you now. The greatest honour that a surgeon
can have is to become president of the National Society. Why are you so sad? The surgeon replied:
I never wanted to become a surgeon. I have succeeded in something I never wanted. And now
there is no escape from it. If I had been a failure then there would have been a chance, but now I am
stuck. His friend said: You must be kidding. What are you saying? Your family is happy, your wife is
happy, your children are happy, everybody is happy – and everybody has great respect for you. The
surgeon said: But I cannot respect myself, and that is the basic thing. I wanted to become a dancer
but my father and mother wouldn’t allow it, and I had to obey them. I was a weakling. And I am not
happy that I have become the greatest surgeon. I am unhappy because I am the lousiest dancer in
the world. I cannot dance, and that is the trouble.
Fulfillment comes through nature – not through society. You carry your destiny within yourself but
it is an unconscious thing. Follow it. Nobody else will know that you have reached but you will be
aware. You may not get a Nobel prize because it has never been awarded to a fulfilled person.
Nobody fulfilled has yet received a Nobel prize, no Buddha, no Jesus, and it won’t happen in the
future either, because the Nobel prize is given to somebody who has obeyed society very sincerely,
and who has achieved society’s aims – not his own. Look at the Nobel prize-winners and you will
not find sadder men than those. Most of them commit suicide, and this is not accidental, it has deep
meaning in it. Most of them feel unfulfilled. Prizes cannot fulfill you. Allow the conscious nature,
don’t force it consciously.
THE UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND ENTIRE SINCERITY OF TAO ARE DISTURBED BY ANY
EFFORT AT SELF-CONSCIOUS DEMONSTRATION. ALL SUCH DEMONSTRATIONS ARE LIES.
Mulla Nasrudin was ill, so he went to the doctor. The doctor said to him: Nasrudin, do you drink
alcoholic beverages? Nasrudin said no. And his hands were trembling. Even at that moment he
When the Shoe Fits 29 Osho