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THE SUN RISES IN THE EVENING
Chapter 10: It is not too Late
Question 2
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen The Sun Rises in the Evening
The second question:
Question 2
I HAVE ALWAYS DREAMT OF BECOMING A WORLD-FAMOUS MAN, RICH AND SUCCESSFUL. OSHO, CAN YOU HELP ME IN THE FULFILMENT OF MY DESIRE?
No, sir, not at all, never, because your desire is suicidal. I cannot help you to commit suicide. I can help you to grow and be, but I cannot help you to commit suicide, I cannot help you to destroy yourself for nothing.
Ambition is poison. If you want to be a better musician, I can help you, but don't think in terms of becoming world-famous. If you want to be a better poet, I can help you, but don't think in terms of Nobel prizes. If you want to be a good painter, I can help you -- I help creativity. But creativity has nothing to do with name and fame, success and money. And I am not saying that if they come then you have to renounce them, if they come it is okay, enjoy them. But don't let them become your motivation, because when a person is trying to be successful, how can he really be a poet? His energy is political, how can he be poetic? If a person is trying to be rich, how can he be a real painter? HIS whole energy is concerned with being rich. A painter needs his whole energy in the painting, and the painting is herenow. And richness may come somewhere in the future -- may come, may not come. There is no necessity; it is all accidental -- SUCCESS IS accidental, fame is accidental.
But bliss is not accidental. I can help you to be blissful; you can paint and be blissful. Whether the painting becomes famous or not, whether you become a Picasso or not is not the point at all, but T can help you to paint in such a way that while you are painting even Picasso may feel jealous of you. You can be utterly lost in your painting, and that is the real joy. Those are the moments of love and meditation; those are the moments which are divine. A divine moment is one in which you are utterly lost -- when your boundaries disappear, when for a moment you are not and God is.
But I cannot help you to be successful. I am not against success, let me remind you again, I am not saying don't be successful; I have nothing against it, it is perfectly good. What I am saying is don't be motivated by it, otherwise you will miss painting, you will miss poetry, you will miss the song that you are singing right now; and when the success comes, you will have only empty hands because nobody can be fulfilled by success. Success cannot nourish; it has no nutrients in it -- success is just hot air.
Just the other night I was reading a book on Somerset Maugham, CONVERSATIONS WITH WILLIE. The book is written by Somerset Maugham's nephew, Robin Maugham. Now, Somerset Maugham was one of the most famous, successful, rich persons of this age, but the memoirs are revealing. Listen to these words.
Robin Maugham writes about his famous and successful uncle, Somerset Maugham:
He was certainly the most famous author alive. And the saddest...'You know' he said to me 'I shall be dead very soon, and I don't like the idea of it at all...' and this statement was made when he was ninety-one. 'I am a very old party' he said. 'But that does not make it any easier for me.'
He was rich, world-famous and all that, and at the age of ninety-one he was still making a fortune, even though he had not written a single word for ages. The royalties from his books still literally flowed in from all over the world, and so did the fan letters. At this moment four of his plays were running in Germany. His play THE CIRCLE had been brilliantly revived in England and THE CONSTANT WIFE had just been turned into a musical. One of his most famous novels, OF HUMAN BONDAGE, was soon to be made into a film, which might bring him as many millions of dollars as did RAIN, THE MOON AND SIXPENCE and THE RAZOR'S EDGE. Unfortunately, the one reward all his talent and success had not given him was happiness.
He was the saddest man in the world.
'What is the happiest memory of your life?' I asked him. He said 'I can't think of a single moment.' I looked around -- says the nephew -- the drawing-room and its immensely valuable furniture and pictures and art objects that his success had enabled him to acquire. His villa itself and the wonderful garden -- a fabulous setting on the edge of the Mediterranean -- were worth six hundred thousand pounds. He had eleven personal servants, but he was not happy.
The next day he was looking into his Bible and said 'I have come across the quotation: WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL? He clasped and unclasped his hands in agony and said again 'I must tell you, my dear Robin, that the text used to hang opposite my bed when I was a child.' And then I took him for a walk in the garden and he said 'You know, when I die, they will take it all away from me -- every tree, the whole house, and every stick of furniture. I shall not even be able to take a single table with me.'
And he was very sad, and he was trembling.
For a while he was silent as we walked through a grove of orange trees, and then he said 'I have been a failure the whole way through my life.' I tried to comfort him. 'You are the most famous writer alive. Surely that means something?' I asked. 'I wish I had never written a single word' he answered. 'What has it brought to me? My whole life has been a failure, and now it is too late to change' he said. 'It is too late.' And tears came into his eyes.
What can success bring to you? Now, this man, Somerset Maugham, lived in vain. He lived long -- ninety-one years -- he could have been a very very contented man, fulfilled. But if success can give it, only then; if riches can give it, only then; if a big villa and servants can give it, only then.
In the ultimate analysis of life, name and fame are just irrelevant, all that matters in the final reckoning is how you lived each moment of your life. Was it a joy? Was it a celebration? And in small things were you happy? Taking a bath, sipping tea, cleaning the floor, roaming around the garden, planting trees, talking to a friend, or sitting silently with your beloved, or looking at the moon, or just listening to the birds -- were you happy in all these moments? Was each moment a transformed moment of luminous happiness? Was it radiant with joy? That's what matters.
You ask me whether I can help you in the fulfilment of your desire. No, not at all, because that desire is your enemy; it will destroy you. And one day when you will come across the sentence in the Bible 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' you will weep in frustration, and then you will say 'And now it is too late to change. It is too late.'
I say to you, RIGHT NOW IT IS NOT TOO LATE, something can be done: you can change your life totally from the very roots. I can help you go through an alchemical change, but I cannot guarantee in the worldly sense. I guarantee every success in the inner world; I can make you rich -- as rich as any Buddha. And only Buddhas are rich; the people who only have worldly things around them are not really rich -- they are poor people befooling themselves and others that they are rich. Deep down is the beggar, they are not the real emperors.
Buddha came to a city, and the king was a little hesitant to go and receive him. His own prime minister said 'If you don't go and receive him, then take my resignation, then I cannot serve you anymore.' The king said 'But why?' -- and the man was very indispensable, without him the king would have been lost, he was the real key to his power. He said 'But why? Why do you insist? Why should I go to receive a beggar?' And the prime minister, the old man, said 'You are the beggar and he is the emperor, that's why. You go to receive him, otherwise you are not worth serving.'
The king had to go. Reluctantly, he went. But when he had seen Buddha, he touched the feet of the old man, his
Prime minister, and he said 'You were right, he is the king, I am a beggar.'
Life is strange. Here sometimes kings are beggars and beggars are kings. Don't be deceived by the appearance. Look in. The heart is rich when it throbs with joy, the heart is rich when it falls in harmony with Tao, with nature, with the ultimate law of life, with dhamma. The heart is rich when you fall in harmony with the whole; that is the only richness there is. Otherwise, one day you will weep and you will say 'It is too late...'
I cannot help you destroy your life, I am here to enhance your life, I am here to give you life abundant.
Next: Chapter 10: It is not too Late, Question 3
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen The Sun Rises in the Evening
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
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ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TESTIMONIALS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE FAQS |
