Rajneesh > Quotes

“You exist in time, but you belong to eternity.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“I am an anarchist in a totally different category from that of all anarchists who ever lived on the face of the earth.
I am a category consisting of myself, because my focus is completely different.
I am not against the government, I'm against the need for government.
I am not against the courts, I am against the need for courts.
Someday, sometime, I see the need for man to be able to live without any control - religious or political - as it will be a discipline in itself.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“Action done totally brings relaxation; relaxation done totally brings more action.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Your life is enough, don’t be concerned with others. And I tell you that if you can live unconcerned your life will flower, and then others can share in it. You would like to share, and you can give much to others, but first you must stop thinking about others and what they are thinking about you.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“In every relationship, you can always see the ego of the other, but you cannot see your own – and the other one goes on seeing your ego.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Don’t help anybody’s expectation of you to grow. Don’t even give them a hint that you will fulfill it. Whatsoever suffering you pass through, be ready to pass through it, but don’t allow others to have expectations about you. Otherwise the world will close you in and there will be imprisonment. Once you nod yes to doing something, then you are closed in. You are in the tunnel already, and now with every step, every new act, you will fall into a new misery, new unfulfillment, new lies, new failures. Drop fulfilling others’ expectations, and drop expecting others to fulfill yours. Remember, if you suffer, you suffer because of you; if others suffer, they suffer because of them. Nobody suffers because of others – remember that deeply. Only then will you be able to be really sincere to your inner self; and that sincerity is religiousness.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Yoga is negation; Tantra is affirmation.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within

“Your original wonder must be recaptured; just like a child like sense of wonder, where nothing is known and everything becomes a mystery.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“There is a story told of one old wise man, whose name was Mencius. He was a follower of Confucius and he died when he was very, very old. Somebody asked him: If you were given life again, how will you start it? Said Mencius: I will pay more attention to my needs and less attention to my desires. And this realisation will come to you also. But it always comes very late and then life is no more in your hands. If you were given life again....”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Needs can be fulfilled, but desires cannot be. Desire is a need gone mad. Needs are simple, they come from nature; desires are very complex they don’t come from nature. They are created by the mind. Needs are moment to moment, they are created out of life itself. Desires are not moment to moment, they are always for the future. They are not created by life itself, they are projected by the mind. Desires are projections, they are not really needs. This is the first thing to be understood, and the deeper you understand, the better.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“There is no need to say: Love, I love you. Let your whole being say it. If you love, it will say it, words are not needed at all. The way that you say it will express it; the way that you move will express it; the way that you look will express it. Your whole being will express it.
Love is such a vital phenomenon that you cannot hide it. Has anybody ever been capable of hiding his love? Nobody can hide it; it is such a fire inside. It glows. Whenever somebody falls in love you can see from his face, from his eyes, that he is no longer the same person – something has transformed him. A fire has happened, a new fragrance has come into his being. He walks with a dancing step; he talks and his very talk has a poetic flavour to it. And not only with his beloved – when you are in love your whole being is transformed. Even talking to a stranger on the street, you are different. And if the stranger has known love in his life he knows that this man is in love. You cannot hide love, it is almost impossible. Nobody has ever been successful in hiding love.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“This is one of the subtle things to be understood. We are always wise if we have to advise others but when we are in the same trap, with the same problem, the same crisis, we are not so wise. If somebody else comes to you with a problem, you will give him good advice and the advice may be right. But if you have the same problem you will not be able to give yourself the same advice. Why? Because when it is somebody else’s problem you are detached.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Desires are very cunning and complex. You are frustrated, but not because of needs. You are frustrated because of desires. And if desires take too much of your energy you will be unable to fulfill your needs also, because who is there to fulfill them? You are moving into the future; you are thinking of the future; your mind is dreaming. Who is there to fulfill ordinary needs of the day? You are not there. And you would like to remain hungry but reach the horizon. You would like to postpone needs so that the whole energy moves towards the desire. But in the end, you find that the desire is not fulfilled, and because needs have been neglected, in the end you are just a ruin. And the time that is lost cannot be regained; you cannot go back.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Don’t be worried about the future. Live this moment so totally that the next moment comes out of it golden.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“If you have a mind, you go on creating a world; you go on imposing, projecting. So first change the mind, then change from mind to no-mind.”
― Rajneesh, The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within

“A man of wisdom always looks at every problem from the other’s point of view also. You cannot be wise if you have only one point of view. Sometimes try to stand in others’ shoes and just look from there.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Respect the people who are worshipping and praying. And when you go to the mosque, worship the way people are worshipping there. And when you go to the church or the synagogue, worship the way people are worshipping there. This is my approach too. All prayers are good. All prayers reach to him, and all paths ultimately end in him. There is no need to create any antagonism. To my sannyasins this is my message: If you want a silent, isolated place, a temple or a church or a mosque, then whichever is close by, enter there. All temples and all churches and all mosques are yours. Claim that ”Whichever place is dedicated to God is ours. Jerusalem and Kaaba and Kailash and Girnar – all are ours.” I give you all the temples of the world as yours and all the scriptures of the world as yours.”
― Rajneesh, Philosophia Perennis

“A man of wisdom always looks at every problem from the other’s point of view also. You cannot be wise if you have only one point of view. Sometimes try to stand in others’ shoes and just look from there.

And if you can understand the other, you will be able to understand yourself more. The other always sees that you are an egoist. You never see it, you are blind to yourself.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“For religion to be there you have to seek it on your own. It is a personal growth, a personal encounter with reality, face-to-face, immediate and direct. It has nothing to do with tradition, nothing to do with the past. You have to grow into it. You have to allow it to grow in you.
Religion is a revolution, not a conformity. It is not a conviction intellectually attained; it is a conversion of your total being.”
― Rajneesh

“Life can become a celebration if you know how to live without concern. Otherwise life becomes a long prolonged disease and illness which culminates only in death.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“rich beggar is a bigger beggar than a poor beggar.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within

“Love can make a great celebration out of your life - but only love, not lust, not ego, not possessiveness, not jealousy, not dependence.”
― Rajneesh

“A small puddle will reflect the moon in its own way and the big ocean will reflect it in its own way. Then there is great controversy. Hindus say something, Mohammedans say something else, Christians say something else again – and so on, so forth. The controversy is foolish. The conflict is meaningless. God is reflected in millions of ways, in millions of mirrors. Each mirror reflects in its own way. This is one of the fundamentals to be understood. Not understanding this fundamental there is naturally antagonism between religions, because they all think, “If our standpoint is right then the other has to be wrong.” Their rightness depends on the other’s wrongness. This is stupid. God is infinite, and you can look at him through many ways, through many windows. And naturally you can look at him only through yourself – you will be the window. Your God will reflect God as much as it will reflect you; you will both be there.”
― Rajneesh

“Man becomes uprooted, starts feeling meaningless. All the values of life disappear. A great darkness surrounds. Sense of direction is lost. One simply feels accidental. There seems to be no , no significance. Life seems to be just a byproduct of chance. It seems existence does not care for you. [...] All seems to be pointless. These times of chaos, disorder, can either be a great curse, [...] or they can prove a quantum leap in human growth. It depends on how we use them. It is only in such great times of chaos that great stars are born. [...] The ordinary masses live in such unconsciousness that they can’t see even a few steps ahead. They are blind. And they are the majority! The coming twenty-five years, the last part of this century, is going to be of IMMENSE value. If we can create a great momentum in the world for meditation, for the inward journey, for tranquillity, for stillness, for love, for God... if we can create a space in these coming twenty-five years for God to happen to many many people, humanity will have a new birth, a resurrection. A new man will be born.”
― Rajneesh, Philosophia Perennis

“Meditation should not be a forced effort. If it is forced, it is doomed from the very beginning. A forced thing will never make you natural. There is no need to create unnecessary conflict. This is to be understood because mind has a natural capacity to meditate if you give it objects which are appealing to it. If you are body oriented, there are ways you can reach towards God through the body because the body also belongs to God. If you feel you are heart oriented, then prayer. If you feel you are intellect oriented, then meditation.”
― Rajneesh, The Orange Book: The Meditation Techniques of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“Only that which is attained through effortlessness will never be a burden to you, and only that which is not a burden can be eternal. Only that which is not in any way unnatural can remain with you forever and forever.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Now everything is done by machines, technology has relieved you of much work. What to do? You become aggressive, you fight, you get angry. Without any reason or rhyme, you become angry – suddenly you flare up. Everybody knows that this is foolish, even you in your cooler moments know that that was foolish. But why did you flare up unnecessarily? The excuse was not enough. The real reason is not that there was some situation; the real reason is you have so much energy, so much petrol overflowing, inflammable, that any moment it can be active. That is why after anger you feel relaxed, after anger you feel a little well-being coming to you.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu

“Only a blind man can easily define what light is. When you do not know you are bold. Ignorance is always bold; knowledge hesitates. And the more you know, the more you feel that the ground underneath is dissolving. The more you know, the more you feel how ignorant you are. And those who are really wise, they become ignorant. They become as simple as children, or as simple as idiots.”
― Rajneesh, The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within

“Everything can become a meditation if you live it totally and intensely. And then your life becomes whole.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“DO! Don’t be concerned about what you are doing – do it so wholeheartedly that the very doing becomes a bliss. And don’t think of great things, there is no such thing as great or small. Don’t think that you are to do great things, play great music, paint great paintings, that you are to become a Picasso or a Van Gogh, or something else – a great writer, a Shakespeare, or a Milton. There is nothing – no great things, no small things. There are great men and small men but things are not great and small. And a great man is one who brings his greatness to every small thing that he is doing: he eats in a great way, he walks in a great way, he sleeps in a great way. He brings the quality of greatness to everything.
And what is greatness? Nature.... Nothing is greater than nature.”
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu