Osho on Diogenes

Osho : Why do you want to hide your body from others? What is wrong with it? Society, civilization, culture, they have conditioned your minds to believe that something is wrong with the body. You feel guilty if you are caught naked. And laws exist and courts to force you not to be naked. And the whole of nature is naked. And it is so beautiful!

Only man has gone ugly somewhere. Some day, when man becomes more aware, man will be less and less attached to clothes. They may be used as utilities: the weather is cold – of course, you have to cover your body; but when the weather is pleasant and one can be like a simple, innocent animal, one has to be.

Completely hidden under clothes, your bodies have left the sensitivity to feel. To feel the touch of the rays of the sun, and to enjoy it, you have completely forgotten the language. To feel the wind on your naked body, as trees feel, and dance, you have completely forgotten. Only your face has been left, only your head. Otherwise, your whole body has been numbed.

Diogenes lived naked, but his nakedness was very, very beautiful – because it was innocent. You can live naked as a perversion also. Then it will not be beautiful. Then you may be an exhibitionist – something has gone wrong in your psychological world. Diogenes lived naked like animals.

And Alexander, it is said, felt jealous. He was robed in the costliest costumes possible and he felt jealous, it is said, seeing Diogenes naked. So beautiful! – envious. He asked, ‘How can I also be like you? – so innocent, so beautiful.’

Diogenes said, ‘There is no how to it.’ And he was lying down on a bank of a river in the sand. It was morning and the sun was rising, and he must have been enjoying the poetry that comes through the sands to the naked body, the subtle messages, the warm sun falling on him. Diogenes said, ‘There is no need to ask for any how. This bank is big enough for both of us. You throw your clothes and lie down with me!’

There is no how to ask. Why ask how? How is a trick of the mind to postpone. If you ask how, then you are asking how to postpone – because you are saying there must be something to be practiced. And practice will take time. And, of course, you cannot practice right now. Tomorrow comes in. And once the tomorrow comes in, then you are done.

Said Diogenes, ‘There is no question of how! You just lie down and rest! And this bank is enough for both of us.’

Alexander said, ‘Some day, I always dream that some day there will be a possibility – when I have conquered the whole world.I am waiting for that day, then I will also relax and rest.’
Diogenes laughed and said, ‘Then you are foolish, because Diogenes can rest and relax without conquering the whole world. So why should you make it a condition that when you have conquered the whole world, then you will rest and relax?

And I tell you: then it is not going to happen ever, because the mind will ask for more and more. And when you have conquered this world, then the mind will ask, ”Is there any other world?”’

And it is reported that when Diogenes said this, that there is no other world but the mind will ask, ‘Is there any other world?’

suddenly Alexander felt sad. The sadness came immediately to him, knowing that there is no other world. Once you have conquered this world, then what will you do?

There is no other world to conquer. The mind will feel very much frustrated. The mind goes on for more and more and more. It doesn’t bother what you have: you may be a beggar – it asks for more; you may be an emperor – it asks for more. The nature of the mind is to
ask for more. It is not relevant what you have.

It is the very nature of the mind just to go on asking for more. A rich man goes on asking for more, and remains poor. He goes on desiring for more, and remains poor. It is difficult to find a really rich man.

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