Q: How to conquer sex? How to conquer anger?

Osho: This is a question so frequently asked nowadays. The mistake lies in asking the question.

The problem is not to conquer, it is to know. We know neither anger nor sex. This ignorance is what defeats us.

Knowing brings victory. When there is anger, when there is sex, we are not. There is no awareness, hence we are not. What happens in this state of unconsciousness is completely mechanical. When the unconsciousness releases its grip, remorse follows -- but that is futile. Because the one who now repents will fall asleep again as soon as sex catches hold of him. If he does not sink into sleep -- if he lets consciousness, wakefulness and right remembrance prevail - he will find that there is neither anger nor sex. The mechanicalness is broken and there is nothing to be conquered - the enemy has gone.

You may understand this better through a symbolic story. In the darkness, a rope is taken for a snake. Seeing it, some run away, some get ready to kill it. Both are mistaken because they both take the rope for a snake. Somebody goes near it and finds that there is no snake at all. He does not need to do anything more than approach it.

Man has only to approach himself. Whatever is within him, he must be familiar with it all. He does not have to fight with anything. And I say unto you that victory comes to him without a fight.

Right watchfulness towards one's own mind is the key to victory over life. 

What is renunciation?

I had been to a village. I heard someone saying there: "Religion lies in renunciation, and renunciation is a hard and demanding discipline."

As I heard this, I recollected an incident from my early childhood. I had accompanied a picnic party to the bank of a river. The river was small but with a vast expanse of sand. On the sandy bank there lay many pebbles in luminous colors. I felt I had stumbled on a treasure. By the evening I had collected so many pebbles that it was not possible to bring them home with me. Tears came into my eyes when I had to leave them behind as I left, and I was surprised to see my companions' lack of interest in those pebbles.

That day they seemed to me to be great renouncers. When I think of it today, I see that there is no question of renunciation once you have known the stones as stones.

Ignorance is indulgence. Knowing is renunciation.

Renunciation is not a doing; it is not something to be done, it just happens. It is a natural result of knowing. Indulgence is mechanical: that too is not a doing - it is a natural result of ignorance.

Hence, the idea that renunciation is a hard and arduous task is meaningless. In the first place it is not an act - activities alone can be difficult and strenuous - it is an outcome. Secondly, in renunciation what apparently drops is worthless, and what is attained is priceless.

In fact, renunciation as such does not exist, because we gain immensely more than we drop. The reality is that we drop only our bondage, but we gain liberation; we drop only shells but we receive diamonds; we forsake only death but attain immortality; we leave only darkness but attain the light - eternal and infinite.

Where then is the renunciation? Dropping nothing and receiving everything cannot be called renunciation.

A repressed fire can burst into flames at any moment

A so-called saint was sitting alone before his dhuni, his holy fire pit. Someone came by to test him, saying, "Babaji, is there any fire in the dhuni?"

The saint said, "There is none."

He said, "Please stir it, perhaps there are coals."

Raising his eyebrows the saint said angrily, "I told you there is no fire."

The man provoked him again, saying, "Babaji, surely there must be a few sparks?"

Leaning forward on his fire tongs the saint said, "What kind of idiot are you anyway?"

Then the man said, "Babaji, I see a few sparks."

The saint said, "What? Am I blind?"

The man said, "A few flames become visible now!"

Then the saint completely lost his senses - his eyes filled with sparks and his voice with flames. Picking up his fire tongs he started chasing after that man to beat him.

Fleeing for his life the man said, "Babaji, look, now the fire has taken flame totally!"

Only a repressed fire can burst into flames. And a repressed fire can burst into flames at any moment. Repression is self-enmity and a self-deception.

In the middle, between indulgence and repression is the door to peace, to liberation, to strength, to truth, to samadhi. Search for this door.

Don't ever repress the mind. Repression is a disease. And that which is repressed will never be completed. It comes back again and again to attack you. The mind is to be understood. Finally, only understanding the mind becomes the solution. Repression is merely postponement of diseases. The path is neither in indulgence nor repression. The path is in understanding. Hence know your own mind in all its forms. Live consciously. Live wakefully. Then what is meaningless disappears on its own. And its energy is transformed into the meaningful. Otherwise we create a vicious circle for ourselves.

Learn something from everyone

I remember a story. It happened in Mecca. A barber was giving someone a haircut. Just then the Sufi fakir, Junnaid, came in and said, "Can you cut my hair in the name of Allah?"

Just hearing Allah's name, the barber said to his regular customer, "Friend, please just wait a little, I cannot cut your hair right now. I have to attend to that fakir for allah. Allah's work comes first."

After this he cut Junnaid's hair with great love and devotion, then respectfully bade him farewell.

A few days later when someone had given Junnaid money, he went to give some to the barber. But the barber wouldn't take any money, saying, "Have you no shame? You had said to cut your hair in the name of Allah, not for money!"

And his whole life Junnaid used to say to his disciples, "It was from a barber that I learned unselfish love and devotion."

If one's eyes are open, then this whole life is a school. And one who is hungry to learn, learns from every person and from every situation. And remember, one who does not learn in this way, learns nothing in life. Emerson has said, "Each person I meet is better than me at one thing or another. I can learn something from him."

Even in the lowest, vast messages are hidden. One who knows how to uncover them, becomes wise. Move with awareness in life and every experience brings intelligence. One who remains unconscious, returns even the light that comes to his door.

Classic Sherlock Holmes deduction

I have heard a dialogue between Sherlock Holmes and Watson:

Holmes: Ah Watson. I see you have put on your winter underwear.

Watson: Marvellous, Holmes, marvellous! How did you ever deduce that?

Holmes: Well, you have forgotten to put on your trousers.

Life is not a detective story, and you do not have to deduce a thing. Life is before your eyes as clear as the sun and as open as the sky. Just be out of your thinking, disease and open your eyes and nothing is hidden at all. Even the hidden one is not hidden then.

Mulla Nasrudin's cloak falls to the ground with a thump

One day Mulla Nasrudin's wife, hearing a tremendous thump. ran to his room.

Nothing to worry about, said the Mulla. It was only my cloak which fell to the ground.

What! And made a noise like that? asked his wife

Yes - I was inside it at the time, said the Mulla.

Remember always the one who is inside the body. Walking, sitting, eating or doing anything, remember the one who is neither walking nor sitting nor eating. All doing is on the surface and beyond all doing is the being; so be aware of the nondoer in the doing. of the nonmover in the moving.

The mighty cock

Suzuki tells a story: Chi Hsing Tzu was raising a fighting cock for his prince.

Ten days passed and the lord asked: Is he ready?

Chi answered: No sir, he is not ready. He is still vain and flushed with rage.

Another ten days passed and the prince asked about the cock.

Chi said: Not yet, sir. He is on the alert whenever he sees the shadow of another cock or hears its crowing.

Still another ten days passed and when the inquiry came from the prince, Chi replied: Not quite yet, sir. His sense of fighting is still smoldering within him ready to be awakened.

When another ten days elapsed, Chi replied in response to the inquiry: He is almost ready. Even when he hears another crowing he shows no excitement. He has now become positive. He has grown in subtle inner awareness. Now he resembles one made of wood, he is so quiet and silent.
His qualities are integrated. No cock is his match and to win he will not have to fight because other cocks will at once run away from him. They cannot face him now.

And really it proved so. He won fights without fighting at all.

And I say that you can do likewise with yourself: learn the secret from Chi Hsing Tzu's cock!

The real thing is not to fight with your thoughts or desires or instincts because that is negative and the negative cannot help. The real thing is to grow in awareness in meditation because then one wins without any fight whatsoever - and to win through conflict is not a real victory because that which has been suppressed will have to be suppressed again and again. Through conflict there is no end to conflict and through fight only more fight is born. But there is a victory without any conflict, fight or suppression. That victory comes through positive growth in awareness. Do not fight with yourself but grow in awareness and understanding and silence, and all that is negative and diseased will have withered away by itself.