Osho: Rich or not, enjoy life

Question: Yesterday you talked about natural and unnatural. Money must seem to fall into the unnatural category. It is relatively easy to deal with money using your ego and mind. But if we live in the market and live naturally, isn’t money a problem?

OSHO:

Money is not a problem at all - unless you want to make it a problem. Since time immemorial, so-called religious people have been worried about money. Money is such a stupid thing! They were extremely worried.

Treat money like a game! If you have money, enjoy it; if you don’t have money, enjoy it. What else can you do when you have no money? enjoy it! What else can you do when you have money? enjoy it! Don't make money an issue, it doesn't have to be. Money is a toy. Sometimes you have money - play with money (treat money like a game).

But my feeling is: people can't play with money (can't treat money like a game), they give up money - they take money extremely seriously. Then they become very afraid of money because deep down they are attached.

Did you know? Vinoba Bhave, the eldest disciple of Gandhi (the first president of India), could not see money. If you give him a dollar bill - which is worthless, not money at all - he will simply close his eyes. What is this attitude? People thought he was very saintly, and the whole country praised him, saying that he got rid of money.

If you were really free from money, why would you close your eyes? Is that dollar so attractive that you have to close your eyes? Is there fear in your heart that if you don't close your eyes, you might jump on that person? There must be something on his mind. This seems obsessive. You must have a lot of fear - otherwise why would you close your eyes? There are so many things coming and going in front of you that you don't close your eyes - just this poor money.

Money is nothing - money is just a tool for exchanging things. But they are really greedy and persistent people at heart. Because of their persistence and stinginess, they live in deep despair and pain. Finally, one day, they thought it was money that was causing them pain.

It’s not money that makes you miserable. How can money make you miserable? What makes you miserable is your greed. Thinking that it is money that makes them miserable, they give up money, and they escape from the world of money. And then they always get scared that in the dream they must have run into a bank, opened a safe or something, and made love to the money. That was bound to happen.

Money is not an issue! You can use the money! If you have money, use it; if you have no money, use the freedom that comes with having no money. This is my approach. If you have money, enjoy it. Being rich can give you things that poor people cannot enjoy. I have been rich and poor, and to tell you the truth, there are some things that only the rich can enjoy. Enjoy it when you have money. Let me tell you again, I have been rich and poor, and there are some things that only the poor can enjoy. There is no way to have both.

So whenever, whatever happens, enjoy it. The poor have a kind of freedom. There is something clean, relaxing, and satisfying about poverty. The mind is not very anxious, there is nothing to be anxious about. You can sleep soundly, insomnia is impossible for poor people. So sleep well, snore, and enjoy the freedom that poverty brings.

Sometimes when you find that you are rich, enjoy being rich, because there are some things that only the rich can enjoy. You can hang master paintings on the wall; poor people can't. You can have the best music in your house; poor people can't hear it. You can build a Zen garden around it; poor people can't afford it. You can read poetry, you can draw, you can play guitar, you can sing, you can dance, you can meditate - you can do all kinds of things.

My approach is: whatever it is, see what you can do with it. If you are poor, you will become a Buddha, start wandering, pick up the begging bowl, and enjoy the beauty that only beggars can have. He doesn't belong anywhere. Today he is here, tomorrow he is gone. He is like running water; he is not attached to anything, he has no home. He doesn't have to worry about the roof needing repairs if it rains. He didn't have to worry about anyone stealing from him - he had nothing.

When you are poor, enjoy being poor. Enjoy being rich? Then become a king and enjoy all the good things money can bring.

My approach is totality. I don't teach you to choose. All I say is this: No matter what the situation is, smart people will make something beautiful out of it. Idiots only suffer.

If he has money, he suffers because money brings worries; he does not enjoy the music, dance and paintings that money can bring. If he had money, he would not go on vacation to the Himalayas, relax, meditate, sing, shout into the valleys, talk to the stars. He worries, loses sleep, loses his appetite - and when he has money, he chooses the wrong things. This man, if he becomes poor, because of the grace of God, if he becomes poor, he suffers from poverty.

Then he is always worried, "I don't have this, I don't have that." You are poor! enjoy it!

But some people are wrong in every situation: wherever they are, they choose the negative side of things, and they suffer. Some people, I call them wise people, and I want my disciples to be wise people... Wherever you are, try to enjoy it.

When I was a kid, one time my dad got so angry that he locked me in the bathroom. I meditate there! What's the point? After three or four hours, he started to worry. He was in the store, but he was upset. He was worried about what would happen to me, and there was no one at home to send him a message—my mother didn’t send a message, and there were no servants to tell him what had happened to me. Did I disappear? Or what happened? Or did someone open the bathroom? So he was not in the mood to work, he had to go home and see.

He approached the bathroom and listened carefully. It was quiet inside. He knocked on the door and I told him, "Leave me alone." That was the last time he punished me that way. Useless! He said, "I'm so worried, I'm not even in the mood to work - I have to come back and see."

I said, "Bullshit! I'm enjoying it."

Previous In the second grade of elementary school, when I was still young, my teacher was very strict. He would often punish students like this, "Run around the school 7 times, run!" He punished me like this - run 7 times - and I said, "Why Not 17 laps?" He said, "Are you crazy?" I said, "This exercise is so good, I want to do it every morning." I started doing it every day. He would look at me and hit himself on the head - and he would say...I ruined his punishment by turning it into exercise. I took advantage of it! Then he stopped punishing me.

Why not take advantage of the opportunity, no matter what it is? If you are alert, you will find opportunities everywhere - even if you are imprisoned, you can use it as a great opportunity. Some people are under the blue sky and under the trees, but they don't take advantage of that opportunity.

Money or not, house or house... the question is not what you should have: the question is what you should do, no matter what you have.

See, my focus is completely different. You disappear...and let things happen. If being in the marketplace makes you happy, that's natural, because some people are born to be bosses. Don’t think that there are only born poets – that’s not true: there are also born bosses. No matter how you treat them, they will become the boss; no matter where they are, they will open a shop. They can't avoid it.

Have you heard the story of the Jew?

A ship was attacked by a crocodile while sailing - a big crocodile, a behemoth. They started throwing things into its mouth - a table and chairs, a packet of oranges, and finally the Jew. But the crocodile kept coming back to attack. Finally they decided, "It's no use. We kept feeding the crocodile, and it would just stop for a while and then come back again."

So in the end they attacked the crocodile together and disemboweled it—— What did they see? Did you know? The Jew was sitting on a chair with a table in front of him. He opened the bag of oranges and was selling them to people who had been eaten by crocodiles before.

You can't escape...where will you go? Some people are born to be bosses. So if you are born to be a boss, even if you disappear, you will come back to the market.

But that has a completely different quality - you enjoy it. This is God's world! A sweet dream. You will know that those customers are also dreams. Where are the things? The things you buy them are just a dream, the money you collect is just a dream - so why not enjoy it? That enjoyment is not a dream.

Let me remind you again: everything is a dream, but if you can enjoy it consciously, that joy is not a dream - that joy is the goal of all religions. If it's all a dream, you can enjoy it more. Then there is nothing to worry about. If success comes, great, if failure comes, great too.

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