Just Be Yourself
Beloved Osho,
Why is it that we are never quite satisfied with who we are, and
what existence has given us? We are always looking for something
better to do, looking for someone else to be, always wanting what
the other one has more than what we have been given. Like the saying
goes, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."
Why is this?
It is because you have been distracted. You have been directed
where nature has not meant you to be. You are not moving towards
your own potential. What others wanted you to be, you are trying to
be, but it cannot be satisfying. When it is not satisfying, the
logic says, "Perhaps it is not enough - have more of it." Then you
go after more; then you start looking around. And everybody is
coming out with a mask which is smiling, happy looking, so everybody
is deceiving everybody else. You also come with a mask, so others
think you are happier. You think others are happier.
The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence - but from
both sides. The people who are living on the other side of the
fence, they see your grass and it looks greener. It really looks
greener, thicker, better. That is the illusion that distance
creates. When you come close, then you start seeing that it is not
so. But people keep each other at a distance. Even friends, even
lovers keep each other at a distance; too much closeness will be
dangerous, they may see your reality.
And you have been misguided from the very beginning, so whatever you
do you will remain miserable. Nature has no idea of money, otherwise
dollars would have been growing on the trees. Nature has no idea of
money; money is a pure invention of man - useful, but dangerous too.
You see somebody with much money, and you think perhaps money brings
joy: look at that person, how joyous he seems to be, so run after
money. Somebody is healthier - run after health. Somebody is doing
something else and looks very contented - follow him.
But it is always the others, and the society has managed so that you
will never think about your own potential. And the whole misery is
that you are not being yourself. Just be yourself, and then there is
no misery and no competition and no botheration that others have
more, that you don't have more.
And if you like the grass to be greener there is no need to look at
the other side of the fence; you can make the grass greener on your
side of the fence. It is such a simple thing to make the grass
greener. But you are just looking everywhere else, and all the lawns
are looking so beautiful - except yours.
Man has to be rooted in his own potential, whatever it is, and
nobody should give him directions, guidance. They should help him,
wherever he is going, whatever he is becoming. And the world will be
so contented that you cannot believe it.
I have never felt any discontent, even from my childhood, for the
simple reason that I never allowed anybody to distract me from what
I was doing or what I was trying to be. That helped me immensely. It
was difficult, and the difficulties went on growing, and now the
whole world is against me. But it does not disturb me. I am
perfectly happy, perfectly content. I can't think that I could have
been otherwise. In any other position I would have been miserable.
I don't have a home, I don't have a place to live, I don't have any
money. Still, I have something that gives me absolute contentment. I
have lived according to my potential, and even if death comes it
will not upset me. I have lived my way. The whole world may be
against me - it does not upset me. People get upset even if one
person is against them. They get so upset; I cannot even understand
it.
Hasya was saying, "Osho, soon we will be running out of countries."
I said, "That does not matter. First we will run out of countries,
then we will find something else. We can have a big boat and live on
the boat." Because I said in Crete, "If you don't allow me any land
anywhere, I will have a jet plane and I will be living on that,"
they immediately started a movement that I cannot land at any
airport in Europe.
I am really enjoying that a single person who has no power can make
these pygmy politicians just go out of their minds! I had just
mentioned it, and immediately the European parliament tabled a
resolution, which they will be discussing soon and passing, that I
cannot land at any airport in Europe.
But we will find some way... In Europe there are communist countries
- Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia - we can land at their airports. They
cannot prevent me just landing. But we can have a big ship with
thousands of sannyasins on it, and just live on the ship. And let
them do what they can do - bomb the ship or do whatsoever they want
to do - but one thing is certain, they cannot upset me.
They tried in the American jails to upset me in such ways that
anybody would have been upset. They would wake me up at four
o'clock; sleep was impossible, so it was not a problem to me because
I was just lying down with closed eyes. They would wake me at four
o'clock, saying, "You get ready. At five o'clock the U.S. marshal is
coming and he will be taking you to the airport." So I would get
ready and wait. From five o'clock in the morning till five o'clock
in the evening I was just sitting, waiting, and the man would appear
at five o'clock in the evening.
And I said to him, "You must have got into some trouble - twelve
hours late, and you just live three blocks away..." As we became
friendly, after three days he said, "These are the tactics used to
harass people. You forgive me. I was going to come at five in the
evening but I said that I would come at five in the morning, so the
whole day you would be sitting and waiting."
But I said, "What is upsetting in it? Anyway I would have been
sitting and... there is nothing else to do."
The world is against individuality.
It is against your being just your natural self.
It wants you just to be a robot, and because you have agreed to be a
robot you are in trouble. You are not a robot. That was not the
intention of nature, to make a robot of you. So because you are not
what you were meant to be, what you were destined to be, you are
constantly looking: "What is missing? Perhaps better furniture,
better curtains, a better house, a better husband, a better wife, a
better job..." Your whole life you are trying and rushing from one
place to another. But the society has distracted you from the very
beginning.
My effort is to bring you back to yourself, and you will suddenly
find all that discontent has disappeared. There is no need to be
more - you are enough. Everybody is enough.