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Chapter 10 - Enlightenment is not an experience
"Now," said Goldstein, "you have fish hooks, a line, a rod, a boat and a trailer. All you need now is a car to pull your boat and trailer. Here is a car especially made for fishermen, designed to pull a boat and trailer -- normally costing ten thousand dollars, but you can have it for eight thousand dollars."
"I will buy it!" exclaimed the customer.
After the customer had left with all his purchases, the manager went up to Goldstein.
"Goldstein," he said. "I've been running this store for thirty years and never have I seen anyone making such an incredible sale. Starting with fifty-cent fish hooks and working up to a ten-thousand-dollar car!"
"What do you mean I started with fish hooks?" demanded Goldstein. "The man came in asking where he could buy tablets for his wife's period, and I told him that what he needs right now is a weeks' fishing holiday!"
This is your life... Why are you doing things? Why are you buying things? How are you spending your life? You are not at all aware. You are just a sleepwalker, a somnambulist.
Anybody can cheat you -- the politicians are doing it, the priests are doing it, but in your unconsciousness it is absolutely natural. Only a conscious man cannot be exploited.
Only a conscious man really lives. And those who really live, die peacefully, silently, with a smile on their face. For these people who die with a smile on their face, there is no death --
because deep down in their consciousness there is an absolute certainty that it is only the body that is being dropped. Life has continued always, and will continue always.
Question 4
BELOVED OSHO,
AT THE MOMENT, MY LIFE SEEMS TO BE AN ENDLESS DIVE INTO DEEP, DARK VALLEYS OF GREED, JEALOUSY, SELF-CONDEMNATION; DEEP PAIN, AND
FEELING VERY LOST. COMING OUT OF THESE VALLEYS, I FEEL REFRESHED, MORE CLEAR -- LIKE AFTER A THUNDERSTORM IN HOT SUMMER. BUT THE
NEXT VALLEY FOLLOWS SOON AFTERWARDS. ARE THESE DARK VALLEYS A SORT OF CLEANING, AND HAS THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN AND AGAIN?
Prem Vanshi, the question is: "At the moment, my life seems to be an endless dive into deep dark valleys of greed, jealousy, self-condemnation, deep pain and feeling very lost.
Coming out of these valleys, I feel refreshed, more clear -- like after a thunderstorm in hot summer. But the next valley follows soon afterwards. Are these dark valleys a sort of cleaning, and has this to happen again and again?"
As long as you wish.
Because these valleys are your creation. This is your creativity; they don't come from outside.
You have managed your life in such a way that these have become your constant companions: greed, jealousy, self-condemnation, deep pain. You cannot live without them, or you will feel very alone. However miserable they are, anyway it is your family. However ugly the mother is, no boy says that his mother is ugly.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 105
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