I am neither for this nor for that. I would like you to become so capable that you can remain in the marketplace and yet meditative. I would like you to relate with people, to love, to move in millions of relationships — because they enrich — and yet remain capable of closing your doors and sometimes having a holiday from all relationship… so that you can relate with your own being also.
Relate with others, but relate with yourself also. Love others, but love yourself also. Go out! — the world is beautiful, adventurous; it is a challenge, it enriches. Don’t lose that opportunity! Whenever the world knocks at your door and calls you, go out! Go out fearlessly — there is nothing to lose, there is everything to gain.
But don’t get lost. Don’t go on and on and get lost. Sometimes come back home. Sometimes forget the world — those are the moments for meditation. Each day, if you want to become balanced, you should balance the outer and the inner. They should carry the same weight, so that inside you never become lopsided.
This is the meaning when Zen masters say: “Walk in the river, but don’t allow the water to touch your feet.” Be in the world, but don’t be of the world. Be in the world, but don’t allow the world to be in you. When you come home, you come home — as if the whole world has disappeared.
Hotei, a Zen master, was passing through a village He was one of the most beautiful persons who have ever walked on earth. He was known to people as ‘The Laughing Buddha’ — he used to laugh continuously. But sometimes he would sit under a tree — in this village he was sitting under a tree, with closed eyes; not laughing, not even smiling; completely calm and collected.
Somebody asked: “You are not laughing, Hotei?”
He opened his eyes and he said, “I am preparing.”
The questioner could not understand. He said, “What do you mean by ‘preparing’?”
He said, “I have to prepare myself for laughter. I have to give myself rest. I have to go in. I have to forget the whole world so that I can come again rejuvenated and I can again laugh.”
If you really want to laugh you will have to learn how to weep. If you cannot weep and if you are not capable of tears, you will become incapable of laughter. A man of laughter is also a man of tears — then a man is balanced. A man of bliss is also a man of silence. A man who is ecstatic is also a man who is centered. They both go together. And out of this togetherness of polarities a balanced being is born. And that is what the goal is.
So sometimes when I am talking about Buddhas, you may have glimpses, you may start flying into the inner world. And you will see, yes! — you know what it is. It simply fits with you in some moments. You can become a witness to it. But in some other moments it is weird. You don’t know what a Buddha is. You have lost contact with your own inner center; now you are on the periphery. You can understand a Machiavelli, but now you cannot understand a Buddha. You are both!
And I am not in any way suggesting that you choose one. I would like you to remain in the world and also to have a few holidays for yourself. Even God had to rest on the seventh day. In six days He created the world, and then the seventh day He rested — even God!
OSHO
from : A sudden Clash of Thunder Ch.2
