To function from knowledge, from conclusion, is to be immature. To function from no-knowledge, from no conclusion, from no past, is maturity.
You have been living, you have experienced many things; you have read, you have listened, you have thought. Now all those conclusions are there. When a certain situation arises. you can function in two ways. You can function through all the accumulated past, according to it — that’s what I mean by functioning through a center. through conclusions, through experience, stale, dead — then whatsoever you do your response is not going to be a response, it will be a reaction.
And to be reactionary is to be immature.
Or, if you can function right now, here in this moment, through your consciousness, through your being aware, putting aside all that you have known — this is what I call functioning through no-knowledge, this is functioning through innocence. And this is maturity.
Maturity is deep trust in your own consciousness; immaturity is a distrust in your own consciousness. When you distrust your consciousness you trust your knowledge, but that is a substitute and a very poor substitute at that. Try to understand this — it is important.
The moment you become miserly you are closed to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing.
The moment you start clinging to things, you have missed the target — you have missed.
Because things are not the target, you, your innermost being, is the target — not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you; not much money, but a rich you; not many things, but an open being, available to millions of things.
When I say you are immature, I mean you are too concerned with things and you have not yet learned that life consists of consciousness — of beings, not of things.
Things are to be used, they are needed, but don’t start living by them.
Man cannot live by bread alone — once living by bread alone, things alone, you are already dead.
Maturity is always spontaneous. It does not plan, it makes no rehearsals.
OSHO
