Come Follow To You, Vol 1 - Oshorajneesh.com

man. He could have lived a little longer. He was not yet old enough. His familywas so dependent on him -- now what will happen?"The wife is crying and weeping, the children are mad. What will happen? Youthink about the dead man, you think about the dead man's family, you thinkabout the future of the orphaned children, you think of the widowed wife, butyou never think that this death is your death also. You always hide yourself, youalways go on defending yourself. Deep down everybody thinks that he is notgoing to die. Death always happens to others.The mind interprets in such ways that it misses the whole point. The world is tocontinue: it has always been there and it will always be there. Only you will notbe there; death will take you away. As empty-handed as you entered, you willhave to leave. If that understanding penetrates your being, then repentancebecomes possible. Repentance is nothing but attaining to this clarity of vision.This word 'repentance' is very, very significant. There is no other word that ismore significant in Jesus' terminology because repentance will open the door ofthe divine. What is this repentance?You have been angry and you repent. You feel sorry: you have behaved badlywith someone. You repent and you ask to be pardoned. Is Jesus' and John theBaptist's repentance the same? Then it cannot go very far, because you haverepented many times and you have not changed. How many times have yourepented? How many times have you been angry, greedy, violent, aggressive,and you have repented? But your repentance has not transformed you, it has notbrought you near the kingdom of God. It has not opened any new doors, newdimensions; you remain the same. Your repentance and Jesus' repentance are notthe same. In fact they are almost diametrically opposite.So whatsoever you have been understanding about repentance is absolutelyfalse. Try to understand. When you repent, you don't in fact repent. When yourepent you are in fact trying to repair the image. It is not repentance; it isrepairing the broken image that you had of yourself.For example, you have been angry and you have said many things. Later onwhen the rage is gone, the madness gone, you cool down and you look back.Now there is trouble. The trouble is that you have always been thinking that youare a very peaceful, peace-loving man; you have always been imagining that younever become angry. Now that image is broken. Your ego is shattered: now youknow that whatsoever you have been believing has proved wrong. You havebeen angry, you have been very angry, and you have said and done things whichare against your ego. You have shattered your own self-image. Now you have torepair it.The only way to repair it is to repent. You go and repent, you say good things.You say, "It happened in spite of me. I never wanted it to be so. I was mad; I wasnot in my senses. The anger so much possessed me that I was almostunconscious, so whatsoever I have said, forgive me, I never meant it. I may haveuttered it, but I never meant it."Come Follow To You Vol 1Osho