Osho on terrorism

                                                         

Terrorism and the Light at the End of the Tunnel

      

With acts of terrorism at an all-time high, it’s easy to get caught up in feelings of outrage and fear. But how do we change this perspective? How to again rejoice in our freedom to love? I’m scared. Seems like the world is falling apart… “The event of terrorism is certainly related with what is happening in the society. The society is falling apart. Its old order, discipline, morality, religion, everything has been found to be wrongly based. It has lost its power over people's conscience.” Osho, Beyond Psychology, Talk #18 

But how did this happen? “Once you create a philosophy, an opinion, you are already on the warpath. If there is ideology, there is going to be fight. This is the predicament: there are people who want the world to be without wars, but they have ideologies and their ideologies create wars. There are communists who go on arranging peace conferences, and they have a particular ideology of how the world should be and how the society should be. There are Catholics who go on talking about peace, but they have an ideology, and there are Hindus who go on talking about peace, but they have an ideology. There are even Jains who talk of non-violence, peace, no war, but they have an ideology – and if you have an ideology you are the cause of war.” Osho, Come Follow To You, Vol 4, Talk #4 

What’s really frightening is I just can’t see an end to this chaos. “Terrorism is going to become bigger and bigger, because the third world war is almost impossible. And the stupid politicians have no other alternative. Terrorism simply means that what was being done on a social scale now has to be done individually. It will grow. It can only be prevented if we change the very base of human understanding – which is a Himalayan task; more so because these same people whom you want to change will fight you; they won't allow you to change them easily.

“Terrorism simply symbolizes that to destroy human beings does not matter, that there is nothing in human beings which is indestructible, that it is all matter – and you cannot kill matter, you can only change its form. Once man is taken to be only a combination of matter, and no place is given for a spiritual being inside him, then to kill becomes just play.” “So individual violence will increase – it is increasing. And all your governments and all your religions will go on perpetuating the old strategies without understanding the new situation.” Osho, Beyond Psychology, Talk #18 

Isn’t there a light at the end of this tunnel? “The new situation is that every human being needs to go through therapies, needs to understand his unconscious intentions, needs to go through meditations so that he can calm down, become cool – and look towards the world with a new perspective, of silence.” Osho, Beyond Psychology, Talk #18 But how is meditation going to stop a suicide bomber? “The terrorism is not in the bombs in your hands; the terrorism is in your unconscious.” Osho, Beyond Psychology, Talk #18 

So ideology goes out the window as meditation leads to love? “… if people start meditating, if people start loving their bodies, loving their minds, and out of love peacefully transcending towards a state of no-mind, they will not belong to any stupid ideology.” Osho, The Great PilgOsho, The Great Pilgrimage From Here to Here, Talk #13

Violence Is Man’s Conditioning

“Violence is not the nature of man; it is the acquisition of his past, it is the impression of his past. Violence is man’s conditioning, which was unavoidable through the process of his evolution from beastly life. The beast is to be pardoned because violence is unavoidable in its life. Man cannot be pardoned, because violence is his choice.” Osho

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The Wise Judge. Story.

                                         

  A farmer in ancient China had a neighbour who was a hunter, and who owned ferocious and poorly trained hunting dogs. They jumped the fence frequently and chased the farmer's lambs. The farmer asked his neighbour to keep his dogs in check, but this fell on deaf ears.
One day the dogs again jumped the fence and attacked and severely injured several of the lambs.

    

                                  

The farmer had had enough, and went to town to consult a judge who listened carefully to the story and said: "I could punish the hunter and instruct him to keep his dogs chained or lock them up. But you would lose a friend and gain an enemy. Which would you rather have, friend or foe for a neighbor?" The farmer replied that he preferred a friend.
                             

“Alright, I will offer you a solution that keeps your lambs safe, and which will keep your neighbour a friend." Having heard the judge's solution, the farmer agreed.

Once at home, the farmer immediately put the judge's suggestions to the test. He took three of his best lambs and presented them to his neighbor's three small sons, who were beside themselves with joy and began to play with them. To protect his son's newly acquired playthings, the hunter built a strong kennel for his dogs. Since then, the dogs never again bothered the farmer's lambs.

                         

Out of gratitude for the farmer's generosity toward his sons, the hunter often shared the game he had hunted with the farmer. The farmer reciprocated by sending the hunter lamb meat and cheese he had made. Within a short time, the neighbours became good friends.
                              

A saying in old China went something like this, “One can win over and influence people the best with gestures of kindness and compassion." A similar American saying is “One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar