When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. FLIGHT FROM THE SHADOW
you cannot celebrate love cannot happen to you – hence sex. That is settling for shadows. And then
the mind says: First destroy these and then there will be the descendence of God. It is one of the
most patent stupidities of humanity, the most ancient. And it follows everybody.
It is difficult for you to think that at this very moment you are gods, but I ask you – what is lacking?
What is missing? You are alive, breathing, conscious – what else do you need? This very moment
be like gods. Even if you feel that it is just an ’as if’, don’t bother. Even if you feel ’I am just
presuming that I am like a god’, presume, don’t bother. Start with the ’as if’, and soon the reality will
follow, because in reality you are. And once you start existing as a god, all misery, all confusion, all
darkness disappears. Become a light and this becoming has no conditions to be fulfilled.
Now I will enter this beautiful parable.
THERE WAS A MAN WHO WAS SO DISTURBED BY THE SIGHT OF HIS OWN SHADOW AND
SO DISPLEASED WITH HIS OWN FOOTSTEPS, THAT HE DETERMINED TO GET RID OF BOTH.
Remember, you are this man, this man exists in everybody. This is how you have been behaving,
this is also your logic – flight from the shadow. This man was much disturbed by the sight of his own
shadow. Why? What is wrong with a shadow? Why should you be disturbed by a shadow? Because
you may have heard, dreamers have said, that gods have no shadows. When they walk no shadow
is created. This man was disturbed because of these gods.
It is said that in heaven the sun rises and gods walk but they don’t have any shadows, they are
transparent. But I tell you, this is just a dream. Nowhere does anything exist, can anything exist,
without a shadow. If it is, then a shadow will be created; if it is not, only then the shadow can
disappear.
To be, means to create a shadow. Your anger, your sex, your greed – all are shadows. But remember
they are shadows. They are in a sense, and still they are not, that is the meaning of a shadow. It is
non substantial. A shadow is just an absence. You stand, the sun’s rays fall on you, and because
of you, a few rays cannot pass. Then the figure is created, the figure of the shadow. It is just an
absence. You obstruct the sun, that is why the shadow is created.
The shadow is not substantial, YOU are substantial. You are substantial, that is why the shadow
is created. If you were like a ghost then there would be no shadow. And the angels in heaven are
nothing but ghosts, ghosts dreamed up by you and your ideologists, men who create ideals. This
man was disturbed because he had heard that you become a god only when the shadow disappears.
THERE WAS A MAN WHO WAS SO DISTURBED BY THE SIGHT OF HIS OWN SHADOW AND
SO DISPLEASED WITH HIS OWN FOOTSTEPS, THAT HE DETERMINED TO GET RID OF BOTH.
What are your disturbances? If you go deep, you will find nothing but the sound of your footsteps.
Why are you so disturbed by the sound of your footsteps? You are substantial so there must be a
little sound, one has to accept this
But the man had heard the story that gods have no shadows, and when they walk, no sound of
footsteps is created. These gods can be nothing but dream-objects; they exist only in the mind.
When the Shoe Fits 36 Osho