Confusion is a great opportunity. The problem with people who are not confused is great — they think they know, and they know not. The people who believe that they have clarity are really in great trouble; their clarity is very superficial. In fact they know nothing of clarity; what they call clarity is just stupidity. Idiots are very very clear...clear in the sense that they do not have the intelligence to feel confusion. To feel confusion needs great intelligence. Only the intelligent ones feel confusion; otherwise the mediocre go on moving in life, smiling, laughing, accumulating money, struggling for more power and fame. If you see them you will feel a little jealous; they look so confident, they even look happy. If they are succeeding, if their money is increasing and their power is increasing and their fame is growing, you will feel a little jealous. You are so confused and they are so clear about their life; they have a direction, they have a goal, they know how to attain it, and they are managing, they are already achieving, they are climbing the ladder. And you are just standing there, confused about what to do, what not to do, what is right and what is wrong. But this has always been so; the mediocre remains certain. It is only for the more intelligent to feel confusion, chaos. Confusion is a great opportunity. It simply says that through the mind there is no way. If you are really confused you are blessed. Now something is possible, something immensely valuable; you are on the verge. If you are utterly confused, that means the mind has failed; now the mind can no longer supply any certainty to you. You are coming closer and closer to the death of the mind. And that is the greatest thing that can happen to any man in life, the greatest blessing — because once you see that the mind is confusion and there is no way out through the mind, how long can you go on clinging to the mind? Sooner or later you will have to drop it; even if you don’t drop it, it will drop of its own accord. Confusion will become so much, so heavy, that out of sheer heaviness it will drop. And when the mind drops, confusion disappears. I cannot say that you attain to certainty, no, because that too is a word applicable only to the mind and the world of the mind. When there is confusion, there can be certainty; when confusion disappears, certainty also disappears. You simply are clear...neither confused nor certain, just a clarity, a transparency.... And that transparency has beauty, that transparency is grace, it is exquisite. It is the most beautiful moment in one’s life when there is neither confusion nor certainty. One simply is, a mirror reflecting that which is, with no direction, going nowhere, with no idea of doing something, with no future, just utterly in the moment, tremendously in the moment. When there is no mind there can be no future, there can be no program for the future. Then this moment is all, all in all; this moment is your whole existence. The whole existence starts converging on this moment, and the moment becomes tremendously significant. It has depth, it has height, it has mystery, it has intensity, it has fire, it has immediacy, it grips you, it possesses you, it transforms you. I cannot give you certainty; certainty is given by ideology. Certainty is nothing but patching up your confusion. You are confused. Somebody says, “Don’t be worried,” and says it very authoritatively, convinces you with arguments, with scriptures, and patches up your confusion, covers it with a beautiful blanket — with the Bible, with the Koran, with the Gita. You feel good but it is temporary, because the confusion is boiling within. You have not got rid of it, it has only been repressed. The intelligent person hesitates, ponders, wavers. The unintelligent never wavers, never hesitates. Where the wise will whisper, the fool simply declares from the housetops. Lao Tzu says, “I may be the only muddle-headed man in the world. Everybody seems to be so certain, except me.” He is right; he has such tremendous intelligence that he cannot be certain about anything. I cannot promise you certainty if you drop the mind. I can promise you only one thing, that you will be clear. There will be clarity, transparency, you will be able to see things as they are. OSHO

> Osho, why do I feel hesitation in enjoying anything?
>
> JOY IS NOT ALLOWED -- you are preconditioned against joy. From the very childhood you have been taught that if you are happy then something is wrong. Unhappy, then everything is good. Miserable, nobody is worried about it. But if you are too happy, everybody is worried about you -- you must have done something wrong.
>
> Whenever a child is happy the parents start looking for the cause: he must have done some mischief or something. Why he is so happy? THE PARENTS ARE NOT HAPPY -- THEY HAVE A DEEP JEALOUSY TOWARDS THE CHILD BECAUSE HE IS HAPPY. They may not be aware of it, but they are jealous. And it is easy to tolerate somebody else's misery, but it is almost impossible to tolerate anybody else's happiness.
>
> I was reading an anecdote. A very religious father was bringing up his son as perfectly as possible. One day when they were going to church he gave the boy two coins: one, a one rupee coin; another, a one paise coin. He also gave him the choice that whatsoever he thinks is right he can put in the donation plate in the church. He could choose the rupee or the paise.
>
> Of course the father believed and hoped that he would put the rupee in the church plate. Because he had been brought up in such a way -- he could be expected to, relied upon.
>
> The father waited. After church he was very curious to know what happened. He asked the boy what he did.
>
> The boy admitted that he had donated the one paise coin and kept the rupee for himself.
>
> The father couldn't believe it. He said, "Why? Why you did this? -- we have always been inculcating great principles in you."
>
> The boy said, "You ask why? I will tell you the reason. The priest in church talked right before. In his sermon he said, 'God loveth a cheerful donator.' I could donate the one paise coin cheerfully -- not the one rupee!"
>
> God loveth the cheerful giver. And I am absolutely in agreement with the boy. What you do is not the question -- you are religious if you can do it cheerfully. It may be a one paise coin -- doesn't matter. It is immaterial because the real coin that you are giving is your cheerfulness.
>
> But from the very beginning EVERY CHILD IS TAUGHT NOT TO BE SO CHEERFUL. To be cheerful is to be childish. To be cheerful is to be natural, but not civilized; to be cheerful is somehow primitive, not cultured. SO YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP NOT TO BE CHEERFUL AND WHATSOEVER YOU HAVE EVER ENJOYED WAS CONDEMNED AGAIN AND AGAIN. If you enjoyed just running and shouting around the house, somebody was bound to be there saying, "Stop that nonsense! I am reading the newspaper!"-- as if the newspaper is something very valuable.
>
> A child shouting and running is a more beautiful sight than any newspaper. And the child cannot understand: "Why? Why I have to stop? Why can't you stop your newspaper reading?" And the child cannot understand: "What is wrong in my being happy and running?"
>
> "Stop!" -- THE WHOLE CHEERFULNESS IS SUPPRESSED, THE CHILD BECOMES SERIOUS. Now he sits in a corner unhappy. The energy needs movement: the child is energy, he delights in energy. He wants to move and dance and jump and scream and shout. He is so full of energy he wants to overflow. But whatsoever he does is wrong. Either the mother is saying, "Keep quiet," or the father, or the servant, or the brother, or the neighbors. Everybody seems to be against his flowing energy.
>
> One day it happened: Mulla Nasrudin's wife was very much angry. Her small boy was making too much of a nuisance, creating too much nuisance. Finally she was exhausted and she ran after him -- she wanted to thrash him well -- but he escaped, escaped upstairs, and hid himself under a bed. She tried hard, but she couldn't get him out. And she was a very fat woman, she couldn't get underneath, so she said, "Wait, let your father come."
>
> And when Mulla Nasrudin came, she told the whole story. He said, "You don't be worried; leave it to me. I will go and put him right."
>
> So he went upstairs, walked very quietly, looked under the bed and he was surprised -- surprised the way the boy greeted him. The boy said, "Hello, Dad -- is she after you also?!"
>
> Everybody is after him. THE OVERFLOWING ENERGY IS LOOKED AT AS A NUISANCE. And it is DELIGHT for the child. He doesn't ask much; he asks simply a little freedom to be happy and to be himself. But that is not allowed.
>
> "It is time to go to sleep!" When he doesn't feel like going to sleep, it is time. He has to force himself. And how can you force sleep -- have you ever thought about it? Sleep is nothing voluntary, how can you force it? He turns in his bed -- unhappy, miserable -- and cannot think how to bring on sleep. But it is time -- it has to be brought or it is against the rules.
>
> And then in the morning when he wants to sleep a little longer -- then he has to get up. When he wants to eat something, it is not allowed; when he doesn't want to eat something, it is forced. This goes on and on. BY AND BY THE CHILD COMES TO UNDERSTAND ONE THING: THAT WHATSOEVER IS CHEERFUL FOR HIM HAS SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT IT. Whatsoever makes him happy is wrong, and whatsoever makes him sad and serious is right and good and accepted.
>
> That's the problem. You ask, "Why do I feel hesitation in enjoying anything? " Because your parents, your society, are still after you.
>
> If you are really with me, drop all this nonsense that has been forced on you. THERE IS ONLY ONE RELIGION IN THE WORLD AND THAT RELIGION IS TO BE HAPPY. Everything else is immaterial and irrelevant. If you are happy, you are right; if you are unhappy, you are wrong.
>
> OSHO
> Come Follow Yourself
> Vol 1, Ch #2: Gods in Exile
> am in Buddha Hall
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
Searching for the best deals on travel? Visit MSN Travel.
http://msn.coxandkings.co.in/cnk/cnk.do