When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. MONKEY MOUNTAIN
repetitive, existence is not yet exhausted, existence goes on flowering in new uniquenesses.
Everybody is extraordinary. No need to prove it. If you want to prove, you will become a monkey,
not a man. Stop copying. It is easy to copy, difficult to understand. That is why one copies, because
it is so easy – just a rule has to be followed. You need not have any understanding about it: a
clear-cut rule is given and you follow it. People come to me and they say: Give us clear-cut rules, so
that we can follow. They are saying: we are not going to grow, we are not going to become mature
ourselves. You simply give us clear-cut rules: what to eat, what not to eat, when to get up early in
the morning and when to go to bed. Just give us clear cut rules so that we can follow. You want to
become a monkey, not a man.
A man will never ask for clear-cut rules, he will ask for understanding, so he can find his own way,
so he can move in the wide world. He need not have a map with him, no need of any compass. Just
your inner light will show your path.
And there is beauty because there is freedom. When there is no freedom, there is no beauty.
Bondage, slavery, is the ugliest thing in the world.
THE PRINCE OF WU TOOK A BOAT TO MONKEY MOUNTAIN. AS SOON AS THE MONKEYS
SAW HIM, THEY ALL FLED IN PANIC AND HID IN THE TREETOPS.
ONE MONKEY, HOWEVER, REMAINED, COMPLETELY UNCONCERNED, SWINGING FROM
BRANCH TO BRANCH – AN EXTRAORDINARY DISPLAY.
That monkey must have been a leader of the monkeys, a president, a prime minister. When all
ordinary mortals flee, how can a leader? How can a leader, a great leader, follow ordinary monkeys?
He had to show himself, his toughness. Otherwise, in the eyes of the monkeys, his prestige would
be gone. It was not a show for the Prince, it was a show for the other monkeys. If you want to remain
a leader you have to be tough. If you want to remain a leader you have to go on display.
All the political leaders are always on display. You never know their real faces, nobody does. Not
even their wives and children know their real faces. They have become so efficient that nobody
knows who they are, they always go on, just showing. It is said that if a politician says yes to
something, it means perhaps; if he says perhaps, it means no. And if he says no, he is not a
politician at all. Whatsoever a politician says, he never means it; whatsoever he means he never
says it. And through a politician you can understand yourself because he is just a magnified picture
of you. The leader is just a magnified picture of the follower and it is always easy to see things in a
magnified picture. With a magnifying glass you can see.
It is good to try to understand leaders of men because they are the great monkeys. And you think
you are following them? Basically, deep down, they are following you. A leader is always a follower
of his own followers because he always has to look where you are going, what you are doing. He
must know beforehand where the wind is blowing so that he can be just ahead.
Once Mulla Nasrudin was going somewhere on his donkey. And the donkey was going fast. A friend
asked: Where are you going, Nasrudin? Nasrudin said: To tell you the truth, I don’t know. Don’t
ask me. Ask this donkey. The man was puzzled so he said: What do you mean? Mulla Nasrudin
said: You are a friend, so I must be truthful and frank. This donkey is adamant and stubborn, as all
When the Shoe Fits 67 Osho