I REMEMBER YOU TALKING ABOUT EYES AND LOOKING INTO PEOPLE'S EYES AND HIDING THROUGH NOT LOOKING DIRECTLY INTO SOMEONE'S EYES. AFTER THIS DISCOURSE I DROPPED MY GLASSES, WHICH I HAVE HAD SINCE I WAS ONE YEAR OLD. NOT WEARING THEM, I FOUND MYSELF BEING MORE OPEN IN LOOKING IN SOMEONE'S EYES, AND I FELT GREAT POWER IN MY EYES. WOULD YOU PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL NEED TO WEAR GLASSES?
It is something truly significant to understand.
No animal needs glasses. It is very strange why man needs glasses. The reasons are two: the first is the physiological reason; and the second is the psychological.
The physiological reason is that our process of helping a mother to give birth to a child is basically wrong. For example, the child has been for nine months in deep darkness; his eyes are very delicate, fragile. And in any hospital where he is going to be born, he is going to face, immediately after the birth, glaring lights all around. That is the first shock to the whole delicate system of his eyes. And eyes are the most delicate part of your body — softer than a rose petal, very fragile and very important, because eighty percent of your life's experience depends on them. Only twenty percent is contributed by your other senses.
That is one of the reasons why a blind man suddenly creates a deep compassion in you. The deaf man does not create the same compassion. He is also missing something — he cannot hear. The dumb cannot speak…. In any other way the body may be crippled, but nothing can create more compassion in you than a blind man. Unknowingly, unconsciously, there is an understanding that the blind man is the poorest.
Eighty percent of his life experience is cut off; he is living only on twenty percent. His life has no color, his life has no experience of beauty, his life has no experience of proportion. His life has missed the beautiful sunsets and the starry night. His eyes have missed millions of other eyes which are loaded with experience; and to be in contact with them is to be in contact with different worlds.
But the way the hospitals have decided to give birth to a new child is dangerous. First they spoil the eyes. Second, they destroy the trust of the child. The child has lived for nine months in the mother's womb with immense trust — the question of doubt does not arise. Everything that he wants he gets; in fact before he wants, he gets it. No responsibility, no worry, no question of time. He does not think of tomorrow, and he has no memories of yesterdays. He lives moment to moment, utterly joyous. There is nothing to make him sad, nothing to make him miserable.
But the moment he is born, his whole life goes through a great tragic change. The doctors are in a hurry; they cannot even wait for two minutes. They want to cut the cord that joins the child with the mother, immediately — and they cut it immediately, without bothering that the child has not yet breathed on his own, that his own system has not started functioning. They have cut the connection with the life source of the mother. This is one of the deep wounds that will be carried all along through his life.
And then to make the child breathe, they will hang it upside down and hit on his buttocks — a great reception! And because of the hit the child starts breathing. But this breathing is not natural and spontaneous. If they had just waited two or three minutes and left the child on his mother's belly…. He was inside nine months; with just three minutes outside on the belly — the same warmth, the same woman, the same energy — he would have started breathing on his own. And then to cut the cord would have been absolutely logical, rational, scientific.
And everything else that is being done takes no account of the implications. The child has been in the mother's womb in a certain warmth. He has been floating. The best way will be, once he starts breathing on his own, just to put him in a small bathtub of warm water consisting of the same chemicals as the mother's womb — it is exactly the same as ocean water. And that's what makes the evolutionists certain that man was born in the ocean.
You will be surprised to know, the first incarnation of God in Hinduism is a fish. It is very strange — just the idea… but to them God was life. And just a little translation is needed: instead of saying the reincarnation of God was as a fish, all that is needed is to say that life's beginning was as a fish.
Allow the child the same atmosphere so he does not feel, from the very first moment, in a stranger's world, afraid. But we make him afraid. We destroy his delicate eyes, we destroy his spontaneity, we even force his breathing. We don't give him a natural environment, one to which he is accustomed.
All these small things are going to affect his whole life. For example, whenever he is in anxiety, his breathing will become erratic. Whenever he is afraid, his breathing will be immediately affected. And sooner or later — because only man uses his eyes for reading, and his eyes are no longer as powerful as nature had made them — the child finds his eyes are weakening. He cannot see small letters, small figures, or he cannot see faraway things, and then the glasses become necessary. If glasses are avoided then his eyes will go on deteriorating. The glasses are simply to help him, just to compensate for the damage that has been done.
But glasses have their own psychology. With the glasses you are always behind a curtain, in some way hiding — not facing life as it is, trying to avoid this way or that, never being straight, sincere. Glasses are helping you to protect your eyes, but they bring their own problems with them. And these are the problems. They stand between you and the world, between you and the person you love, between you and the person you are communicating with.
Because of the glasses you never come in direct contact with the eyes of other people. And that is missing a great experience, because people are basically their eyes. If you can see into a person's eyes, its depth will be that person's depth. A cunning person will not allow you to see directly into his eyes, because a cunning person's eyes reveal his cunningness.
The eyes are just an opening — the cunning person is afraid; he will always look sideways. He will be talking to you but looking at something else; his talking and his seeing will not be in the same direction. He will be listening to you but his eyes will not be concentrated on you. The man who wants to deceive you cannot confront you eye to eye. Only a simple, sincere person, a person with a loving heart and with no cunning desire will allow you to look into his eyes because he knows you will find his truth. He has nothing to hide.
So if you are using glasses, then use them only for particular purposes. If you need them for reading, use them for reading. If you use them continuously it is dangerous — not to your eyes, but to your whole being. If you need them to look far away, you can use them; but don't make it part of your being.
Your glasses should never become part of your being. Only when necessary use them. When you feel they are not necessary, put them away, so at least for long periods you are available to the world in your authenticity, and the world is available to you; there is no barrier.
You cannot do anything about the basic harm, but if you give birth to a child, it is better to give birth amongst your loving friends, with candlelights, with incense burning, with flowers all around. Give the child at least a good welcome to the world.
And don't be technical — man is not a machine — be human. Let him first breathe; then cut the connection with the mother. There is no hurry. He should be given the chance to be spontaneous; otherwise he will suffer his whole life troubles and problems concerned with breathing.
And there is no need for glaring lights; otherwise you have started already destroying his eyes. Soon he will need glasses. If you have been using them since you were one year old, that shows what we have been doing with children. And nobody tells you to use glasses only when you need them; otherwise don't let them become an essential habit.
People are so accustomed to their glasses that they become almost their substitute eyes. Then it is dangerous. Your eyes need a little freedom: once in a while take the glasses off. And there are a few exercises available. Do those exercises which will make your eyes stronger, healthier, and perhaps you may not need the glasses at all.
OSHO