LOVE IS THE POINT. WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LOVE, I FEEL LIKE I AM FACING A GUN. MAY I CALL YOU MY GANGSTER OF LOVE?
Exactly, that's what I am. And you are facing a gun; you are facing death.
To face love is to face death, because one who is not ready to die, to die to the ego, will not be capable of love. And you are not imprisoned by anybody else; it is your own ego, a false notion of yourself which is imprisoning you. Drop it! — and the whole existence with all its beauty becomes available to you.
I will tell you one story. It happened: A man fell heir to some property near the seashore. He wandered for a while in quiet enjoyment of his land, then decided to stroll down to the ocean. With the pleasant anticipation of sighting waves and — sand, he followed the downward path, but he came to a sudden halt as a tall wall blocked his; path. With disappointment, he reflected to himself, — 'Someone does not want me to trespass on his property. Well, it is his wall. There is nothing I can do.'
Over the days, he felt a mounting urge to have direct access to the sea. He made up his mind to locate the owner of the frustrating wall. Checking land records, he identified the wall's owner. He then knew who blocked his path, and who could therefore open the way. The wall was on his own property; it was his own.
We block our own path; we can unblock ourselves.
Nobody is barring your path. You are heir to infinite possibilities. You are walling your own path blocking your own path. So whenever I talk about love, of course, you immediately become aware of the wall that surrounds you.
Whenever I talk about love, you become aware of your imprisonment, naturally. Whenever I talk about freedom, if you are a prisoner you become aware of your prison. And you don't like that, because every time freedom is talked about you become aware that you are a prisoner. That you don't like. People in the prison don't like to talk about freedom. That hurts.
Love is absolute freedom; it is freedom of consciousness. Love knows no bounds, no boundaries. And unless you drop all boundaries, you will not be able to know love.
Love is another name for God, and a better name, because the name'God' has been corrupted by the religious people. It has already become a commodity in the marketplace. Love is another name for God, and I say, a better one.
And your feeling is right: that whenever I talk about it, you feel as if you are facing a gun. You are facing it; don't try to escape. Accept the death in love, accept surrender, trust. Because as you are, you 're just a beggar. I would like you to be emperors. Only lovers are emperors, nobody else.
But for that, you will have to pay a price. It is nothing in fact: the price is to drop the ego.
OSHO