LIFE

- Osho, Sometimes life seems to be such a drag that I would rather
like to die. Any advice?

- There are many methods to die, but one thing: anybody who really
wants to die never asks for advice. Living may be a drag, but death is
very quick. All around you, there are so many ways.... But you don't
want to die.

In fact, even the people who commit suicide don't want to commit
suicide. They commit suicide because they expected too much from life
and they could not get it. The failure was so great, that to live
shamefully became difficult. They committed suicide not against life;
they committed suicide because they could not manage to learn the art
of life.
They wanted life to be a great benediction, and it was a drag. It
seems to be a fallacy all over the world that just because you are
born you know how to live. This is not right. To be born is one thing.
To know the art of living and of living fully is totally different.

Birth is only an opportunity -- you can make it or mar it. Birth is
not equivalent to life. Almost everybody thinks that birth is
equivalent to life; so it is bound to become a drag -- just breathing,
eating every day, going to sleep, waking up in the morning, going to
the same office, the same files and the same routine. For idiots it is
perfectly okay, but for anybody who has some intelligence it is bound
to become drag. Because he can see -- what is the point? Why after all
am I living? If tomorrow is again going to be just a repetition of
today, as today has been a repetition of yesterday, then why go on
living? What is the point of unnecessarily repeating the same circle,
the same routine, the same happenings?

But the fallacy is in the fact that you have accepted a wrong concept,
that birth is life. Birth is only an opportunity. Either you can learn
to live a beautiful life or you can just drag yourself towards the
graveyard. It is up to you. There are people for whom life is a drag,
and there are people for whom even death is a dance. I want to say to
you that if you make your life an art, your death will be the
culmination of the art -- the highest peak, a beauty in itself.
Millions are there, who are in the same position as your question.
They don't know why they are living and they don't know if there is
any point in dying either. Life is futile -- how can death appear to
be significant? So they are afraid of suicide also, because if life is
such -- just a dark hole -- death is going to be even worse.

One day I saw Mulla Nasruddin with his gun, a rope, and a tin of
kerosene oil. I said, "Where are you going, Mulla?"
He said, "Enough is enough. I was just coming to say goodbye to you. I
am going to commit suicide."
I said, "But so many arrangements?"
He said, "You know me, I am a perfectionist. I don't take chances. I
have made every arrangement."
I said, "Can I come just to watch, and just to wave when you are
disappearing in smoke?"
He said, "You can come."

So I went with him and sat on a rock by the side of a river. He made
the arrangements very efficiently. On a branch of a tree which was
hanging over the river, he tied the rope by which he was going to hang
himself.
I said, "Mulla, that's enough."
He said, "I don't believe it.... Unless I have done everything... no
loopholes should be left."
He put his neck into the rope, poured the kerosene oil over himself.
I said, "Mulla, is it going to be real?"
He said, "What do you think?"

He lit a match, set fire to himself, and before jumping from the tree,
he fired the gun -- the last resort -- at his head. But that's where
everything went wrong -- the gun missed the mark and cut the rope and
he fell into the river... naturally, the fire was finished, and he
started swimming!
I said, "Mulla, what are you doing?"
He said, "What to do? I know how to swim."
I said, "This is strange. You arranged everything so well, but still
there was a loophole, the swimming. You should not have started to
swim. You should have remained there and died."
He said, "That's just it -- dying is not so easy. When I saw the gun
had misfired, when I saw the water had put the fire out, it became
clear: God wants me to live. And moreover, I know how to swim! It is
impossible when you know swimming not to swim. Next time, some other
arrangement...."

Nobody wants to die. And it is true that life is a drag. But it is not
life that is a drag, it is you -- you have not learned the art of
making life a joy, a thing of beauty, a piece of art.
Unless a man is creative, he cannot find much joy in life. So the
first principle is: Be creative.

Don't bother whether you become a world-famous artist or not; that is
not the significant thing. But create something -- a beautiful song, a
little music, a dance, a painting, a garden. And when the roses
blossom... you cannot say that life is a drag with so many roses
blossoming. A beautiful painting... you cannot say life is a drag,
because this painting has been created for the first time in the world
and for the last time. Nobody has done it before, and nobody will do
it again; only you were capable of doing it.

Express your uniqueness in whatsoever you do.
Express your individuality.
Let existence be proud of you.
Life will not be felt like a drag; it will become a fragrance. Not
only will life be a joy and a dance -- for a creative person, for a
meditative person, even death will be transformed.

I have always loved a story about Bokoju, a Zen master. He was ninety
years old when he died. Three days before, he informed all his
disciples: "If you want to come for the last goodbye, then come. In
three days' time I am going to leave the world."

So thousands of his disciples came -- and he was one of the most
unique masters Zen has produced. On the third day, in the morning
there was a great gathering in his garden, and he was lying under his
most beautiful tree.

He suddenly asked, "Just tell me one thing: In what way should I die?
-- because I don't want to die like everybody else. Ninety-nine
percent of people die in their beds." He said, "That is out of the
question. Remove the bed from here!"

The bed is the most dangerous thing. Ninety-nine percent of people die
there, and every night you go to bed without thinking of the danger.
When the light is turned off, just put your mattress down on the
floor. Then there is some chance of surviving -- death may try to
search for you on the bed and may not be able to find you.

Bokoju said, "Take this bed away from here, and suggest something,
something unique, worthy of Bokoju."
The disciples thought what to suggest? Somebody said that, "You can
die sitting in a lotus posture. Many masters have died in the lotus
posture."

But Bokoju said, "That is not very unique, because many people have
died in that posture."
Somebody said, "You can die standing."
He said, "That seems to be appealing."
But one man objected; he said, "That's not right, because I know of a
Zen master who died standing. It will not be unique."
Bokoju said, "It is very difficult. Find out quickly because my time
is running out, and I cannot delay any more. So many idiots are here,
and you cannot find just one unique way of dying for your beloved
master?"
One man suggested, "Nobody has ever died standing on his head. You can
do a headstand and die."
Bokoju said, "Perfectly right!"
He stood on his head and died.

Now the problem was... The disciples said, "What to do?" -- because
they know what has to be done when a person dies in his bed. But what
to do with this fellow who has died standing on his head?
Somebody said, "His elder sister, who is also a great master, lives
just close by. It is better to call her and not to interfere, because
this is a strange thing. We will be condemned later on if we don't do
the right thing, so it is better to call somebody who can take
responsibility."
The sister came and she said, "Bokoju! From your very childhood you
have been mischievous -- and this is no time to be mischievous! Just
lie down!"

And Bokoju laughed and said, "Okay sister -- because I cannot disobey
you. I was almost dead. I was just waiting to see what these people
would do trying to work out what to do with me after death. But these
idiots have brought you here! And you always were a killjoy. You've
destroyed the whole fun! Now I will die in the ordinary, orthodox
way." And he died.
And his sister did not even look back, she just went away.
People said, "But he has died!"
She said, "It was time. He was delaying it. And it is not right to
play jokes on existence. At least at the time of death one should be
serious! Now he is dead, you do whatever you want to do. Even if he is
not dead, finish him off -- his time is up!"

Make your life...
Find out why you are feeling bored. Change.
It is such a small life.
Take risks, be a gambler -- what can you lose?

We come with empty hands, we go with empty hands. There is nothing to
lose. Just a little time to be playful, to sing a beautiful song, and
the time is gone. Each moment is so precious. If you are silent, if
you are creative, if you are loving, if you are sensitive to beauty,
if you are grateful to this vast universe... There are millions of
stars, which are dead -- and you are so small, yet you have the most
precious thing in existence... life. And not only life, but the
possibility of becoming a consciousness, of becoming enlightened, of
coming to a space where death has never entered.

If Bokoju is not serious, the reason is because he knows there is no
death, it is only changing houses, or changing clothes at the most. It
is excitement -- even death is a great excitement and ecstasy. It is
just your wrong approach. Drop it, and don't drop it slowly slowly,
piece by piece. Drop it totally, instantly. When you go out of this
place, go dancing and singing. Let the whole world think you are
insane, that is far better.

Osho,
The Beloved, Vol2