Guilt

I. #

The moment you are in a total standstill you have reached. Then there is no more. And this can be done any moment. If you understand, this can happen this very moment. God is life, God is existence; God is the case.

But there are problems; theologians have created them. The first problem they have created, and because of which this remembering becomes impossible – to remember that you are already divine becomes impossible – is a very deep condemnatory attitude. You go on condemning yourself: you are the sinner. They have created guilt in you.

You are not a sinner and you are not guilty. Whatsoever you are the existence accepts you. Whatsoever you are playing, whatsoever game, it is so because the divine wills it so. As you are, you are accepted. This is the second thing to remember: don’t condemn yourself, otherwise nothing can be done. Don’t reject yourself, don’t be an enemy to yourself. Love, be friendly, and accept whatsoever you are. I am not saying that there is nothing wrong in you. I am not saying that you don’t need any transformation. You need it, there are many wrongs, but those wrongs are not sins; they are illnesses, diseases.

Someone has a fever: he is not a sinner; he needs our compassion, our help to come out of it. If we just condemn then he will also condemn his fever and then the whole thing goes wrong, because once you condemn your fever you start suppressing it. Then the man cannot say to others, “I am feeling fever, I am feverish.” because the moment he says it everybody will think he is a sinner. So he goes on saying, “I am healthy. Who says that I have a fever? If the thermometer shows it the thermometer must be wrong. I am okay.” He cannot accept his fever and then nothing can be done. He goes on hiding and suppressing. That is what you have been doing.

There are many wrongs, but remember, those wrongs are just illnesses, not sins; errors, mistakes, but not sins. You are not guilty. You may be ignorant; you may not know as much as is needed to live a pure and innocent life, but that means you are ignorant, innocent – not guilty. Try to understand the distinction very well, because on it depends much.

You may be erroneous, the god within you may be ill, the god within you may be ignorant, the god within you may be committing many mistakes – but the god is not committing any sin. What is the difference? When you commit a mistake you don’t condemn yourself, you try to understand why you committed it. The mistake is condemned but not you. When you call it a sin, you are condemned – you are wrong, not an act. Your acts may be wrong, but you are not. You are totally accepted as you are. Your being is the highest flower that has happened to this earth. You are the salt of this earth. Howsoever erroneous, you are the very glory of existence.

Remember this: I want you to accept yourself. Not that there is going to be no transformation, but that only through this acceptance transformation becomes possible. Once you accept your being there is no suppression, once you accept your being the whole being comes into consciousness. There is no need to hide and to push some parts, fragments, into the darkness, into the unconscious.

There is nothing like the unconscious. If you accept yourself, your whole mind will be conscious. If you deny, reject, condemn, then the condemned parts will move into darkness. Not that they will not act now, they will act more, but their action will be now hidden, perverted, disguised. It will not be apparent; it will take a hidden course. You cannot face it directly but it goes on working. The unconscious is created by guilt.

Once you accept that there is no unconscious, the barrier has gone, the boundary disappeared, and the conscious and unconscious become one – as they are really, as they should be. Once your inner divisions disappear, once you become one inside, a deep silence descends upon you; a great blissful moment is reached – just by the disappearance of the boundaries, divisions, fragments. When you become one you become healthy; when you become one you feel a silent well-being. Moment to moment you feel grateful to existence, a gratitude happens to you, and this gratitude I call prayer. It is not a prayer to some god. This gratitude is an inner attitude towards existence, which has given life, love, light; towards this existence which has blessed you in millions and millions of ways, and which goes on showering upon you more and more blessings – but a unity is needed within.

So this is the second point to remember: don’t feel guilty, don’t feel yourself a sinner, and don’t feel that you are wrong. If you were wrong you would not have been. You are there because God wants to preserve you. You are there because God loves you. You are there, that’s why the whole existence supports you. You are there because you are worth the trouble. Accept yourself, have a loving attitude towards yourself.

Source #

Author(s) || Osho

Book || Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi

Chapter || (01) Invocation

Date || January 11th, 1974

Link

II. #

Question:

Can you say something about guilt and fear?

Answer:

Fear is natural; guilt is a creation of the priests. Guilt is man-made. Fear is in-built, and it is very essential. Without fear you will not be able to survive at all. Fear is normal. Fear is intelligence – so when you see a snake crossing the path, you jump out of the way. It is not cowardly, it is simply intelligent. But there are two possibilities.

Fear can become abnormal, and then it is pathology. And because of this possibility, priests have used it, politicians have used it. All kinds of oppressors have used it. They make it pathological, and then it becomes very simple to exploit you. The priest makes you afraid of hell. Just look in the scriptures – with what joy they depict all the tortures, with really great relish. Scriptures describe in detail, in great detail, each and every torture.

The priests became aware very early that the fear instinct in man can be exploited. He can be made so much afraid that he will fall at the feet of the priests and will tell them, “Save us! Only you can save us.” And the priest will concede to save them if they follow the priest; if they follow the rituals prescribed by the priest, the priest will save them. And out of fear people have been following the priests, and all kinds of stupidities, superstitions.

The politician also became aware soon that people can be made very much afraid. And if you make them afraid, you can dominate them. It is out of fear that nations exist. The fear of America keeps Russians slaves to the communists, and the fear of Russia keeps Americans slaves to the government. Fear of each other; the Indians are afraid of the Pakistanis, and the Pakistanis are afraid of the Indians. It is such a stupid world! We are afraid of each other, and because of our fear the politician becomes important. He says, “We will save you here, in this world.” and the priest says, “We will save you in the other world.” And they conspire together.

It is fear that creates guilt, but not fear itself. Fear creates guilt via the priests and politicians. The priests and the politicians create in you pathology, a trembling. And, naturally, man is so delicate and so fragile, he becomes afraid. And then you can tell him to do anything and he will do it.

Man can be forced to do anything – just to save himself. And because the pathology that the priests have created in you is unnatural, your nature rebels against it, and once in a while you do something which goes against it – you do something natural – then guilt arises.

Guilt means you have an unnatural idea in your mind about how life should be, what should be done, and then one day you find yourself following nature, and you do the natural thing. You go against the ideology. Because you go against the ideology, guilt arises, you are ashamed. You feel yourself very inferior, unworthy.

Now you are in a double bind. Whatsoever you do, you will suffer. And that’s what the priest has always wanted—for you to suffer, because the more you suffer, the more you go to him for his advice. The more you suffer, the more you seek salvation.

Your politicians, priests, parents, they all are guilt-creators, because that is the only way that you can be controlled and manipulated; a very simple, but very cunning trick to manipulate you. They have condemned you, because if you are accepted, not condemned—loved, appreciated, and if it is relayed to you from everywhere that you are okay—then it will be difficult to control you. How to control a person who is absolutely okay? The very problem doesn’t arise.

Source #

Author(s) || Osho

Book || The Dhammapada, Series 2

Chapter || (02) Drink to the Full and Dance

Date || July 2nd, 1979

Link

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