colors. Destroy the inequality between man and Once Albert Einstein was asked, "Can you say

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1 second only the Third World War can happen. colors. Destroy the inequality between man and Once Albert Einstein was asked, "Can you say woman. Destroy poverty from the earth. something about the Third World War?" You have nothing to lose. You were going to commit He said, "No. I cannot say anything about the Third suicide, but before committing suicide at least do a few World War, but I can say something about the fourth." necessary things. Perhaps the transformation that you The questioner was surprised. He said, "This is bring about may prevent the world from being strange: you cannot say anything about the third, and destroyed, and you may not need to commit suicide. you are so confidently saying that you can say You may live to love and celebrate the great gift of life something about the fourth." He said, "Yes, I can say that existence has given to you. Don't throw it away with absolute confidence about the fourth that it is not because others are behaving idiotically. For their fault, going to happen, because the third will be the last; it don't punish yourself. And when you have decided to will finish all life on the earth." commit suicide, then there is no problem, you can risk Whose life are you going to finish? The old everything. generations are finished already; they are robots. I need people who are prepared to commit suicide They have never lived in freedom, in love; they because these are the only people who can become have never known the search for truth. The Third sannyasins. Sannyas is also a suicide -- but not your World War, if it happens, is going to be the death of the suicide. It is the declaration that the society is dead and youth who have not even known a few springs of life, we don't want to live in a graveyard; we would like to who have not known anything about this beautiful create our own society and we would like to create our earth. It is natural that they will be utterly frustrated own life. with the whole world. Don't be in a hurry. Life is so precious; don't throw it Out of that frustration, if the youth commit suicide away like that. There is no need. You can see my people they are slapping your faces, they are saying, "Before who are in the same situation -- but rather than you commit the suicide of the whole world, at least we committing suicide they have decided to transform want to be individuals. We could not be individuals their lives in spite of the ugly society in which they are because of you -- your religion, your politics, your living. They have ignored the society. They have vested interests in life. But at least give us freedom so accepted the death of society, civilisation and religion. that we can commit suicide and at least have one They are dead. Do you think any religion is alive? moment of individuality -- our own decision. We are The religion that blossomed with Gautam Buddha died not going to die according to the decisions of Ronald with Gautam Buddha. The song that arose with Lao Tzu Reagan." disappeared with the death of Lao Tzu. The dance of Their suicides are significant; they Meera died with Meera. This is the are not ordinary suicides which natural course of things. people have committed down the All religions are organised ages. They are question marks on around corpses. Don't worry about your society, your family, your them; they don't have any power, religion, and the way you are they don't have any life. The running the world. politicians have died with the I have something to say to the Second World War. The Second youth: Don't be so pessimistic. World War was a milestone in the Committing suicide is very easy; it is history of man. not a difficult task. And by Now, either man chooses a committing suicide you are not global death or he chooses to give going to prevent the global suicide, birth to a new man who will not that is coming on. When you are need any politicians, any priests, ready to commit suicide, risk your who will not need any leaders -- life, then why not risk your life in a who will be sufficient unto himself. rebellion against all old values? Osho: Socrates Poisoned Again Destroy the church, destroy nations, After 25 Centuries destroy any discrimination between Whose life are you going to finish? OW Pic. Ritpa Suri

2 Bored Youth Revolts What factors do you attribute the Western youth revolt to, and why are so many young people from the West now becoming interested in eastern religion and philosophy? The mind is a very contradictory thing. It works in polar opposites. But our logical way of thinking always chooses one part and denies the other. So logic proceeds in a non-contradictory way, and the mind works in a contradictory way. The mind works in opposites, and logic works linearly. For example, the mind has two possibilities: to be angry or to be silent. If you can be angry it does not mean that at the other extreme you cannot also be non-angry. If you can be disturbed it does not mean that you cannot be silent. The mind goes on working in both ways. If you can be loving, you can also be full of hatred. One doesn't deny the other. But if you are loving, you begin to think you are incapable of hate. Then hate goes on accumulating inside and when you reach the peak of your loving, everything shatters. You sink into hate. And not only does the rational mind work like that; society does also. The West has come to a peak of rational thinking. Now the irrational part of the mind will take revenge. The irrational has been denied expression and in the last fifty years it has been taking its revenge in so many ways: through art, poetry, drama, literature, philosophy, and now, even through living. So the revolt of the young is really a revolt of the irrational part of the mind against too much rationality.

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5 The East can be helpful to those in the West because the East has lived with the other part of the mind: the irrational. It has also reached a peak: a peak of irrationality. Now young people in the East are more interested in communism than in religion, more interested in rational thinking than in irrational living. As I see it, the whole pendulum will turn now. The East will become like the West, and the West will become like the East. Whenever one part of the mind reaches a peak, you move to the opposite. That is what always happens in history. So in the West now, meditation will be more meaningful. Poetry will gain a new hold and science will decline. Modern-day Western youth will be antitechnological, anti-scientific. This is a natural process, an automatic balancing of the extreme. We have not yet been able to develop a personality that combines both polarities, that is neither Eastern nor Western. We have always chosen only one part of the mind and the opposite part remains hungry, starved. Then there is bound to be rebellion. Everything that we have worked to develop will be shattered, and the mind will move to the other polarity. This has happened throughout history; this has been the dialectic. For the West now, meditation will be more meaningful than thinking because meditation means no-thinking. Zen will be more appealing, Buddhism will be more appealing, yoga will be more appealing. These are all irrational attitudes towards life. They do not emphasise conceptualisations, theories, theologies. They emphasise a zest to move deep into existence, not into thinking. As I see it, the more grip technology has on the mind, the more likely it is that the other pole will be coming. The revolt of young people in the West is very meaningful, very significant. It is a historical point of change, a whole change of consciousness. Now the West cannot continue as it has been. A point of deep crisis has come. The West will have to move in another direction now. The whole society in the West is affluent now. Individuals have been affluent before, but never the whole The human spirit must grow like a tree: in all directions. The concept that we cannot grow in opposite directions must be dropped. Really, we can grow only if we grow in opposite directions. society. When a society becomes affluent, riches lose their meaning. They are meaningful only in a poor society. But even in a poor society, when someone becomes really affluent, he is bored. The more sensitive a person is, the sooner he becomes bored. A Buddha is just bored. He leaves everything. The whole attitude of modern youth is one of boredom with an empty affluence. The youth are leaving society, and they will go on leaving it unless the whole society becomes poor. Then they will not be able to leave. This leaving, this renunciation, can exist only in an affluent society. If it is taken to an extreme, the society will decline. Then technology will not progress, and if this continues the West will become like the East is today. In the East they are turning to the other extreme. They will create a society just like the West. The East is turning to the West and the West is turning to the East, but the disease remains the same. As I see it, the disease is the imbalance, the acceptance of one thing and the denial of the other. We have never allowed the human mind to flower in its totality. We have always chosen one part against the other, at the cost of the other. This has been the misery. So I am neither for the Eastern way nor the Western way. I am against both, because they are partial attitudes. One should choose neither the East nor the West; they have both failed. The East has failed by choosing religion and the West is failing by choosing science. Unless both are chosen there is no way out of this vicious circle. We can change -- from one extreme to the other. If you talk about Buddhism in Japan, no young person is ready to listen. They are interested in technology, and you are interested in Zen Buddhism. In India, the new generation is not interested in religion in the least. They are interested in economics, in politics, in technology, engineering, science - in everything except religion. Youth in the West is interested in religion, while youth in the East is interested in science. This is just changing the burden from one extreme to another. The same fallacy will still exist. OW