Come Follow To You, Vol 1 - Oshorajneesh.com

What are you doing -- repenting? You are simply repairing. The other manrelaxes: when somebody asks to be forgiven. he has to be forgiven. If he cannotforgive, then he is not a good man. He was angry about your anger, he wasplanning to take revenge, but now you have come to be forgiven. If he does notforgive, then he will not be able to forgive himself. Then his image will bebroken.And that is the trick you are playing. Now if he does not forgive you, you are thegood guy and he is the bad guy. Now the whole thing has been thrown uponhim. This is a trick, a very cunning trick. If he does not forgive you, he is a badman. Now you are at ease, your image repaired: you have thrown the wholeguilt on him. Now he will feel guilty that he cannot forgive and a good man hasto forgive. If he forgives, it is good; if he does not forgive, then too it is good foryou. Now it is a question for him to decide.This is not repentance. When John the Baptist and Jesus say, "Repent!" they meanan absolutely, totally different thing. What do they mean?They mean: try to see, try to understand, what you have been doing. Lookthrough and through, go to the very roots of your existence, being, behavior, andsee what you have been doing, what you have been BEING. It is not a question ofany particular act that you have to repent for, it is your whole quality of being.Not any anger, not any greed, not any hatred -- no. Not any enmity -- nothing. Itis nothing about any particular act. It is something about your very being: theway, the style, of your existence. It has no concern with any particularfragmentary act.When you repent, you repent about a certain act. Your repentance is always inreference to certain acts. Jesus' repentance is not about certain acts, it is aboutyour being. The way you have been has been absolutely wrong. You may nothave been angry -- still you have been wrong. You may not have been full ofhatred -- still you have been wrong. You may not have possessed much wealth --still you have been wrong. It is not a question of what you have done; it is aquestion of how you have been. You have been asleep, you have beenunconscious. You have not lived with an inner light; you have lived in darkness.When they say, "Repent!" they mean repent for the whole way you have lived upto now, the way you are. It is not a question of asking forgiveness fromsomebody -- no, not at all. It is just a returning. The word 'repent' originallymeant 'return'. In Aramaic, which Jesus and John used as their language, 'repent'means 'return, return to your source; come back to your original being'.What Zen Masters say -- "Search for your original face" -- is the meaning ofREPENT YE. Drop all your masks. It is not a question between you and others, itis a question between you and your God. REPENT YE means drop all the masksand stand before God in your original face -- the way he has made you. Let thatbe your only face: the way he wanted you to be. Let that be your only being.Return to the original source, come back to your deepest core of being.Repentance is returning back; it is one of the greatest spiritual turnings.Come Follow To You Vol 1Osho