Osho – Once we know the Inner, the Outer starts withering; its importance simply disappears

Osho – Man is a very small phenomenon, but man contains the whole universe; he is a miniature universe. Inside also there is a sun. It has to be provoked, challenged. Once it starts functioning you will see your life changing of its own accord. You will see great energy arising in you, and you will see that something inexhaustible is there.

You can do as much as you want and still you cannot exhaust it. And once the inexhaustible source is contacted, life is rich. Then it knows no poverty. Inwardly it is rich. Then nothing matters from the outside; then all conditions are almost equal. In success, in failure, in poverty, in affluence, one remains tranquil, undistracted, because one knows ’My basic energy is within me.’

… One knows ’My basic treasure remains unaffected by outer circumstances.’ Those outer
circumstances are important only because we are not aware of the inner. Once we know the inner, the outer starts withering; its importance simply disappears. Then one can be a beggar and yet an emperor. One can fail in everything as far as the outer world is concerned, yet one has succeeded.

And there is no complaint, no scar left; one is utterly happy irrespective of the conditions. And that is something real. That which depends on conditions is not real. It is contributed by the condition – it can be taken away any moment. People respect you, you feel good, but they can disrespect you any moment.

Your feeling of goodness, your well-being, is in their hands, and because it is in their hands you are a slave, and you will always remain afraid – they may change their opinion any day. You will have to fulfil their expectations, because nothing is without a cost. If you want their good opinion about you, you have to fulfil their expectations.

You have to continuously consider them, and that consideration is a slavery. You cannot say what you want to say; you cannot be what you would like to be. You have to pretend, you have to be pseudo. You have to be smiling when really you want to cry. And you have to cry when tears are not coming.

This inauthentic existence becomes possible for only one single reason, and that is: we depend on others’ opinions. They become important, they have power over us. And the power is given by you because you depend on their opinion, because you feel good when they feel good about you.

So you have to keep them feeling good about you. You have to go on feeding, nourishing them, so they don’t change their opinion. So you have to change yourself this way and that. You always have to look and see what they want – what your wife wants, what your children want, what your father wants, the mother, and the people and the government, and the society and the church. A thousand and one considerations have to be looked into. How can you be free? How can you be yourself? One can be oneself only when one drops all these considerations.

Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples ’The first fundamental to become a man and not a machine is to drop consideration.’ And he is not saying to become rude to people; that is not the meaning. He is simply saying to let your happiness be your own. Find a source within, then you are independent.

And that is a real freedom. Political freedom is not real, economic freedom is not real; the real
freedom has to be spiritual. And this is the meaning of spiritual freedom: when you remain
unaffected. Somebody insults you and you remain as if nothing has happened. Somebody praises
you and you remain as if nothing has happened.

Source: from Osho Book “Hallelujah!”