No Problem!!!

[Guest guest]

Beloved Osho, Sometimes I watch people playing the same old games over

and over, my eyes feel ancient and jaded and my heart weary and cynical.

I guess it's because I'm seeing more and more my own games and

tricks and I hear your maddening voice between my ears saying,

"That's okay—just you have to accept and love yourself, and

there is not problem." JUST???! I think if you say this word again I

will scream. Wasn't I happier when I thought there was a goal? The

question is from Ma Deva Anando. It is significant. The question can be

that of almost everybody who is present. It simply shows a situation

that every seeker has to pass. First, Anando says, "Sometimes as I

watch people playing the same old games over and over, my eyes feel

ancient and jaded and my heart weary and cynical." Please don't

try to watch others—that is none of your business. If they have

decided to play the old games, if they want to play the old games, if

they are happy in playing their old games, who are you to interfere? Who

are you even to judge? This constant hankering to judge others has to

be dropped. It does not help others; it harms you, it only harms you.

Why should you be bothered? That has nothing to do with you. It is

other's joy if they want to remain the old and they want to move in

the same rut, in the same routine. Good! It is their life and they have

every right to live it their own way. Somehow we cannot allow others to

have their own ways; in some way or other we go on judging. Sometimes we

say they are sinners, they are this and that, criminals. If all that has

changed, now a new evaluation – that they are playing old games and

"I am tired"…………Why should you be tired of their games? Let

them be tired of their games if they want; or if they don't want,

that too is their choice. Please don't watch others. Your whole

energy has to be focused on your self. Maybe you are condemning others

for their old games just as a trick, because you don't want to

condemn yourself. It always happens, it is a psychological trick; we

project on others. A thief thinks everybody is a thief – that is

very natural for him, that is a way to protect his ego. If he feels the

whole world is bad he feels good in comparison. A murderous; then he can

murder and there is no need to have any guilt feeling, there is no need

to have any prick of conscience. So we go on projecting on others

whatsoever we don't want to see in ourselves. Please stop that! If

you are really tired of old games, then this is the old game – the

oldest. For many lives you have been playing it; projecting your defects

onto others, and then feelings good. And of course you have to

exaggerate, you have to magnify. If you are a thief, you have to magnify

others' images, that they are greater thieves than you. Then you

feel good in comparison, you are a far better person. That's why

people go on reading the newspapers. Newspapers help you very much.

Early in the morning, before you have even taken your tea, you are ready

for the newspaper. And the newspaper brings nothing like news, because

there is nothing new. It is the same old rotten thing. But you feel

good: somewhere somebody has been murdered, somewhere there has been a

Watergate, and somewhere something else, and somewhere somebody has

stolen, and somebody's wife has escaped with somebody else… and

so on and so forth. Watching all that, you relax; you feel, "So, I

am not so bad – the whole world is going to the dogs. I am a far

better person. I have not yet escaped with the wife of the neighbour. I

have no killed anybody yet – although I think of it, but thinking is

not a crime where people are actually doing things." You feel good.

And the moment you feel good, you remain the same. Please don't

watch others. It is not going to help you. You use your energy of

observation on yourSelf. And there is something tremendously

transforming in observation. If you observe yourself, things will start

changing. If you start observing your anger, one day you will suddenly

find the anger has no more energy the way it used to have; it is no

longer so fiery. Something has gone dead in it. If you start watching

yourself, you will see by and by the negative is dying and the positive

is becoming more and more alive; that misery is disappearing and bliss

is entering into your life; that you smile more, sometimes even for no

reason; that a sense of humour is arising in you if you start watching.

That old depressed, long face is disappearing; a sense of humour is

born. You start taking life more playfully if you watch; seriousness

becomes more and more irrelevant. More and more you become innocent,

trusting, less and less doubtful. I am not saying that your trust will

always be respected. No, that is not the point. You may be deceived

more, because when you are trusting you can be deceived more. But even

when you are deceived, your trust will not be destroyed by it; in fact

it may even be enhanced. You may start thinking that even if you are

deceived – somebody has taken a little money and deceived you –

you will be able to see that you have saved the far more valuable thing,

that is trust; and something almost valueless, the money, is gone. You

could have saved the money valueless, the trust would have gone –

that would have been a far greater loss, because nobody has ever been

found to be happy just because of money. But because of trust, people

have lived like Gods on earth. Because of trust, people have enjoyed

life so totally that they could feel grateful to God. Trust is a

benediction. Money at the most can give you a little comfort, but no

celebration. Trust may not give you much comfort, but will give you

great celebration. Now to choose comfort against celebration is simply

stupid, because that comfortable life will be nothing but a comfortable

death. Conveniently you can live and conveniently you can die. But the

real taste of life is possible only when you are celebrating at the

optimum, at the maximum, when your torch is burning from both ends

together. May be only for a single moment…… but the intensity of

it, but the totality of it, but the wholeness of it!.... And this

happens only through observation. Observation is one of the greatest

forces of transformation. Start observing yourself. Don't waste

your energy for observation on other – that is a sheer wastage! And

nobody will ever thank you, for it is a thankless job. And whomsoever

you observe will feel offended, because nobody likes to be observed,

everybody wants to have a private life. Good or bad, stupid or wise,

everybody wants to have his own private life. And who are you to

interfere? So don't be a peeping tom, don't go to people's

keyholes, and don't watch. It is their life. If they want and if

they love to play the old game, let them play! Second, you say: "I

guess it's because I'm seeing more and more my own games and

tricks and I hear your maddening voice between my ears saying,

"That's okay – just you have to accept and love yourself,

and there is no problem." I have to repeat it: There is no problem.

I have never come across a real problem - not up to now. and I must have

listened to thousands of people and their thousands of problems. I have

not come across a real problem yet. And I don't think that it is

ever going to happen, because the real problem exists not.

`Problem' is a created thing. Situations are there, problems are

not there. Problems are your interpretations of situations. The same

situation may not be a problem to somebody and may be a problem to

somebody else. So it depends on you whether you create a problem or you

don't create a problem, but problems are not there. Problems are not

in existence; they are in the psychology of man. Just look next time

you are having some trip and riding on a problem. Just watch, just stand

aside and look at the problem. Is it really there? Or have you created

it? Look deeply into it and you will suddenly see it is not increasing,

it is decreasing; it is becoming smaller and smaller. The more you put

your energy into observation, the smaller it becomes. And a moment comes

when suddenly it is not there…and you will have a good laugh.

Whenever you are having a problem, just look at it. Problems are

fictitious, they don't exist. Just go around the problems, look from

every angel – how can it is there. You asked for it, that's why

it is there. You invited it, that's why it is there. But people

don't like it: if you say their problem is not a problem, they

don't like it. They feel very bad. If you listen to their problems

they feel very good. And if you say, "Yes, this is a great

problem," they are very happy. That's why psychoanalysis has

become one of the most important things of this century. The

psychoanalyst helps nobody – may be he helps himself, but he helps

nobody else. He cannot. But still people go and pay. They enjoy – he

accepts their problems. Whatsoever absurd problem you bring to the

psychoanalyst, he listen to it very sincerely and seriously, as if it is

there. He takes it for granted that you are suffering greatly, and he

starts working on it and analysing it. And it takes years! Even after

years of psychoanalysis the problem is not solved because in the first

place the problem has never been there – so how can anybody solve

it? But after years of psychoanalysis you get tired, and you get

finished with the old problem; you want some new problem now. So one day

you suddenly say, "Yes, it is no longer there, it is gone," and

you thank the psychoanalyst. But it is simply time that has helped, that

has healed. It is not psychoanalysis. But there are people who would not

like simply to wait and watch. When you bring a mad person to a Zen

monastery, they simply put him in a corner, in a small hut, far away

from the monastery; they give him food and they tell him, "Just be

there, quiet." Nobody goes to talk to him; food is supplied, his

comforts are looked after, but nobody bothers about him. And what

psychoanalysis does in three years, they do in three weeks. Within three

weeks the person simply comes out and he says, "Yes, the problem is

finished." For three weeks you are left with your problem – how

can you avoid seeing it? And no analysis is given so there is no

diversion, you are not distracted. The psychoanalyst distracts you! The

problem may have died on its own within three weeks, but it will not die

now because with the support of the psychoanalyst it will live for three

year, or even more. It depends how rich you are. If you are rich enough

the problem can continue for your whole life. That means it depends on

how much you can afford. Poor people don't suffer from many

problems. Rich people suffer; they can afford to. They can enjoy the

game of having great problems. The poor person cannot afford and cannot

enjoy that game. Next time you are having a problem, look into it, look

hard into it; no need for any analysis. Don't analyse it, because

analysis is a way of diversion. When you start analysing you don't

look at the problem. You start asking why? From where? How did it

come?....in your childhood, your mother's relationship with you,

your father's relationship with you? You have gone astray, now you

are not looking into the problem itself. Freudian psychoanalysis is

really a mind-game, and played with great expertise. Don't go into

the cause! There is no need….because there is no cause. Don't go

into the past; there is no need because that will be going away from the

present problem. Look into it as a here now thing, just enter into it.

And don't think about causes, reasons. Just watch the problem as it

is. And you will be surprised that looking hard into it, it starts

dispersing. Go on looking into it and you will find it has gone.

Problems are not there. We create them because we cannot live without

problems. That is the only reason why we create them. To have a problem

is to have an occupation; on feels good, something is there to do. When

there is no problem you are left alone empty – what to do next? All

problems finished……. Just think: one day comes God and says,

"No problems anymore – finished! All problems gone." What

will you do? Just think of that day. People will be stuck. People will

start getting very angry about God. They will say, "This is not a

blessing! Now what are we supposed to do? No problems?" Then

suddenly the energy is not moving anywhere; then you will feel stagnant.

The problem is a way for you to move, to go on, to carry on, to hope, to

desire, to dream. The problem gives so many possibilities to remain

occupied. The Value of Real Silence is known then........

::::::::::::Osho --Anand Sunkanpally