[The sannyasin adds: how to work and do something which requires great effort on one hand, and yet to do it without any effort.]
Osho : The problem arises because of the logical mind, because the mind says that these two things are contradictory. If you make effort, you make effort; how can you make it effortlessly? If you become effortless, there is no effort; all effort disappears. So the mind divides these two – effort and effortlessness. But try to understand in a different way.
A child is playing and he is absolutely absorbed in his play – so much so that even if a neighbour’s building falls and collapses he may not even hear the sound. He is absorbed… maybe making sandcastles, but he is absolutely absorbed. There is effort, tremendous effort – the child is perspiring – and yet there is no effort because the child is simply playing; there is no motive. Or a painter is painting…. You are a jeweller; you are making something.
You are absolutely absorbed in it. Then effort is there and yet it is effortless. It is not a tension on you. It is not a duty that you have to do. You are delighted in doing it. You are making love to a woman you love. There is effort – you may start perspiring; your breathing may go berserk but still there is no effort. You love the woman.
You enjoy; you are absorbed in it. You are completely drowned in it. It is a play and there is no motivation in it. You are not doing it for any other reason; you are doing it for doing’s sake. Then there is tremendous joy in it. When we say effortless effort, we mean doing something with no other motive than the very pleasure of doing it.
Then suddenly you will see that the contradiction has disappeared. For example I am talking to you. There is effort and there is no effort, because I am talking for no other purpose. Talking is effort – but there is no effort because I love it, because I love you. I would like to share something with you. While I am talking I am complete4 lost in it. There is nobody standing behind; I am not talking with only one part of me.
When I am talking, I am just the talking. The effort is there and yet there is no effort. The contradiction exists only for the logical mind, because the logical mind cannot understand play; it can understand only work. It can understand rest; it can understand work.
It cannot understand work which is rest too. So whenever work becomes play the contradiction is gone. And when contradictions are not there a harmony arises in the contraries. You have something of the beyond penetrating you… a ray of light