When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. FLIGHT FROM THE SHADOW
The efficiency expert asked one clerk: What do you do here? The clerk said: Nothing. Then he
asked an executive: What do you do here? The executive said: Nothing. Triumphantly, very happy,
the efficiency expert turned to the directors and he said: I told you, there is much duplication. Two
people doing nothing – there is much duplication!
An efficiency expert is an efficiency expert, he uses logic, he has been trained. If two persons are
doing the same thing then there is duplication, and if two persons are not doing anything then too
there is duplication and one can be disposed of. One has to be retained to do nothing.
Listen to the mind for the outside world, don’t listen to the mind for the inside – simply put it aside.
There is no need to fight with it, because if you fight with it it may influence you. You simply put it
aside. That’s what faith is. Faith is not a fight with the mind. If you fight, then the enemy impresses
you, and remember... even friends don’t have such an impact as enemies have. If you fight with
someone continuously, you will be influenced by them, because you will have to use the same
techniques to fight them. Ultimately, enemies become similar. It is very difficult to be aloof and
detached from the enemy; the enemy influences you. And those who start fighting with the mind
become great philosophers. They may talk about anti mind, but their whole talk is of the mind. They
may say, ’Be against the mind’, but whatsoever they say is coming from the mind even their enmity.
And you have to remain with your enemy. And by and by enemies settle terms, and they become
the same.
It happened in the Second World War. Adolf Hitler almost completely turned the whole world Nazi,
Fascist. Even his enemies, those who were fighting against Fascism, also became Fascist; they had
to.
One interesting incident happened: Adolf Hitler was almost mad, and he wouldn’t listen to the military
experts. He thought himself to be the greatest military genius ever born; so the whole war was to
be conducted according to his whims. That’s why in the beginning he continued to win, because the
French generals, English generals, American generals and Russian generals, could not understand
what was going to happen. They could have understood if the war was being run by military generals
– they have the same minds. Then they could have known what the next move would be.
But here was a madman who didn’t believe in any military training, who didn’t believe in any military
tactics or strategy, who would simply decide. And what was his way of deciding? He had astrologers
to decide! And you may be surprised that when Churchill came to know, he had to appoint an
astrologer. And Churchill thought that this was foolish, because he was an army man! It was foolish
to decide how the war should be run by using astrologers! But if the enemy is doing it what can you
do? And the moment he appointed astrologers he started to win, because now they were the same.
Always remember, don’t fight with the mind otherwise you will have to yield to the terms. If you want
to convince the mind, you have to be argumentative – and that is the whole point. If you have to
convince the mind you have to use words – that is the whole problem. Simply put it aside. This
putting aside is SHRADDHA. It is not against mind, it is beyond mind, it is simply putting it aside.
Just as when you go out, you use your shoes, and when you come in, you put them aside – there
is no fight, nothing. You don’t say to the shoes, ’Now I am going in and you are not needed so I will
put you aside’, you simply put them aside, they are not needed.
When the Shoe Fits 45 Osho