When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. MONKEY MOUNTAIN
Chuang Tzu always watched monkeys. He was deeply interested in them because they are the
forefathers of man. And a monkey is hidden in you! This whole world is nothing but a monkey
mountain, all around are monkeys.
What is the characteristic of a monkey? What is the deepest character in the monkey? It is copying.
Gurdjieff used to say that you cannot become a man unless you stop being a monkey – and he was
right. Somebody asked him: What is the deepest characteristic of a monkey? He said: Copying,
imitation.
The monkey is a perfect imitator. What have you been doing your whole life? Have you been a man
or a monkey? You imitate, you just look around and you follow; following, you become false. You
see somebody walking in a certain way, you try to walk that way; somebody is wearing a particular
dress, you would like to have that dress; somebody has got a car, you would like to have that car –
everything!
You never look at what your need is. And if you do look to your need, life can become a blissful
existence, because needs are not much. Imitation will lead you on a path which reaches nowhere in
the end. Needs are not much, needs are always few; if you look to YOUR need, you can be satisfied.
Contentment is easy, because what is needed? Few are the needs. But if you imitate, then millions
of unnecessary needs crowd all around. And there is no end to them, because there are millions of
people and you would like to imitate everybody. It becomes impossible; you start living everybody’s
life and then you forget that you were here to do your own thing, and you have become an imitator.
You are here to fulfill your own destiny and that destiny is individual, it is nobody else’s. This
existence has given you birth to fulfill a particular destiny which cannot be fulfilled by anybody else.
No Buddha can do it, no Jesus can do it, only you can do it. And you are imitating. That is why
Hindus say that unless you stop imitation you will be thrown again and again into existence – that is
the theory of rebirth. You will be thrown in again and again unless you fulfill your destiny – unless
you flower, you will have to come back. How can you flower if you imitate? You see a musician and
you want to be a musician; you see an actor and you want to be an actor; you see a doctor and
you want to be a doctor. You want to be everything except yourself – and that is all that you can
be, nothing else. Nothing else is possible, and nobody else is like you, so nobody can become your
ideal.
Love a Buddha, Buddha is beautiful – but don’t imitate, else you will miss. Jesus is wonderful, but
he is needed no more; existence has fulfilled that destiny, that work is complete. He has come to
a flowering. That is why whenever a person has flowered he never comes back. Love Jesus, but
don’t be an imitator, otherwise you will end up unfulfilled, in misery and anguish. You cannot really
follow anybody. You can take hints, but then you have to be very alert; hints should not become blind
imitations.
If you see a Buddha, take how he has flowered as a hint. What are the methods? What has he
been doing? Try to understand it, and let that understanding be absorbed. By and by you will start
feeling your path. It will never be like the Buddha’s, it can never be, it will be absolutely different.
But absorbing Buddha will help. You will have to grow in your own way, but absorbing him will make
you more understanding. That is the difference between an authentic disciple and a follower who is
false.
When the Shoe Fits 65 Osho