Osho - Body Mind Balancing

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Contents

The body is the visible soul, and the soul is the invisible body. The body and soul are not divided anywhere, they are parts of each other, they are parts of one whole. You have to accept the body, you have to love the body, you have to respect the body, you have to be grateful to your body.

The body is the most complex mechanism in existenceit is simply marvelous!

And blessed are those who marvel.

Begin the feeling of wonder with your own body, because that is the closest to you. The closest nature has approached to you, the closest existence has come to you, is through the body. In your body is the water of the oceans, in your body is the fire of the stars and the suns, in your body is the air, your body is made of earth.

Osho

FOREWORD

The body is the visible soul, and the soul is the invisible body. The body and soul are not divided anywhere, they are parts of each other, they are parts of one whole. You have to accept the body, you have to love the body, you have to respect the body, you have to be grateful to your body.

The body is the most complex mechanism in existenceit is simply marvelous!

And blessed are those who marvel.

Begin the feeling of wonder with your own body, because that is the closest to you.

The closest nature has approached to you, the closest existence has come to you, is through the body. In your body is the water of the oceans, in your body is the fire of the stars and the suns, in your body is the air, your body is made of earth. Your body represents the whole of existence, all the elements. And what a transformation! What a metamorphosis! Look at the earth, and then look at your body, what a transformation, and you have never marveled about it! Dust has become divine what greater mystery is possible? What greater miracles are you waiting for? And you see the miracle happening every day. Out of the mud comes the lotus and out of the dust has arisen our beautiful body.

* * *

A totally new kind of education is needed in the world where fundamentally everybody is introduced into the silences of the heartin other words, into meditationand where everybody has to be prepared to be compassionate to his or her own body. Because unless you are compassionate to your own body, you cannot be compassionate to any other body. It is a living organism, and it has done no harm to you. It has been continuously in service since you were conceived and will be until your death. It will do everything that you would like to do, even the impossible, and it will not be disobedient to you.

It is inconceivable to create a mechanism that is so obedient and so wise. If you become aware of all the functions of your body, you will be surprised. You have never thought about what your body has been doing. It is so miraculous, so mysterious. But you have never looked into it. You have never bothered to be acquainted with your own body and you pretend to love other people? You cannot, because those other people also appear to you as bodies.

The body is the greatest mystery in the whole of existence. This mystery needs to be loved, its mysteries and its functioning to be intimately inquired into. Religions have unfortunately been absolutely against the body. But that gives a clue, a definite indication that if a person learns the wisdom of the body and the mystery of the body, he will never bother about the priest or about God. He will have found the greatest mystery within himself, and within the mystery of the body is the very shrine of your consciousness.

Once you have become aware of your consciousness, of your being, there is no God above you. Only such a person can be respectful toward other human beings, toward other living beings, because they all are as mysterious as he himself isdifferent expressions, varieties, which make life richer. And once a person has found consciousness within, that person has found the key to the ultimate.

Any education that does not teach you to love your body does not teach you to be compassionate to your body, does not teach you how to enter into its mysteries, and will not be able to teach you how to enter into your own consciousness. The body is the doorthe body is the stepping-stone, and any education that does not touch the subject of the body and consciousness is not only incomplete, it is also harmful because it will go on being destructive. It is only the flowering of consciousness within you that prevents you from being destructive. And that consciousness gives you a tremendous urge to createto create more beauty in the world, to create more comfort in the world.

Man needs a better body, a healthier body. Man needs a more conscious, alert being.

Man needs all kinds of comforts and luxuries that existence is ready to deliver.

Existence is ready to give you paradise here now, but you go on postponing italways to after death.

* * *

In Sri Lanka one great mystic was dying. He was revered by thousands of people and they gathered around him. He opened his eyes: just a few more breaths would he take on this shore, and then he would be gone, and gone forever. Everybody was eager to listen to his last words.

The old man said, I have been teaching you for my whole life about blissfulness, ecstasy, meditativeness. Now I am going to the other shore. I will not be available anymore. You have listened to me, but you have never practiced what I have been telling you. You have always been postponing. But now there is no point in postponing, I am going. Is anyone ready to go with me?

There was a great, pin-drop silence. People looked at each other, thinking, Perhaps this man, who has been a disciple for forty years he may be ready. But that man was just looking at the othersnobody was standing up. Just from the very back of the room, a man raised his hand. The mystic thought, At least, one person is courageous enough.

But that man said, Please let me make it clear to you why I am not standing up, I have only raised my hand. I want to know how to reach to the other shore, because today of course I am not ready. There are many things still not done. A guest has come, my young son is getting married, and on this day I cannot go. You say from the other shore, you cannot come back, but someday, one day certainly, I will come and meet you. If you can just explain to us once morealthough you have been explaining for your whole life, just once morehow to reach the other shore? But please keep in mind that I am not ready to go right now. I just want to refresh my memory so that when the right time comes

That right time never comes.

It is not a story only about that poor man, it is the story of millions of people, of almost all. They are all waiting for the right moment, the right constellation of stars. They are delving into astrology, going to the palmist, inquiring in different ways about what is going to happen tomorrow.

Tomorrow does not happenit never has happened. It is simply a stupid strategy of postponement.

What happens is always today.

The right kind of education will teach youand all peopleto live here now, to create a paradise out of this earth. It will teach you not to wait for death to come, and not to be miserable till death stops your misery. Let death find you dancing and joyous and loving.

If man can live his life as if he is already in paradise, death cannot take away anything from that experience. My approach is to teach you that this is the paradise, there is no paradise anywhere else, and no preparation is needed to be happy. No discipline is needed to be loving; just a little alertness, just a little wakefulness, just a little understanding. And if education cannot give you this little understanding, it is not education.