Krishna Prem

Cosmic Strip Poker

Nobody can give you the meaning of your life. It is your life, the meaning has also to be yours. Himalayas won't help. Nobody except you can come upon it. It is your life and it is only accessible to you. Only in living will the mystery be revealed to you.

OSHO     

Reading Osho is for me like playing a cosmic game of strip poker.

Every time I turn a page, read a line and recognize what he says as true, I need to take something off. I call it cosmic strip poker because instead of taking off my pants or my necktie, I am stripping away one of my judgments or beliefs. And it's a tough game because Osho is so good at playing cosmic games.

Let me explain how it works: you read a few pages, and pretty soon Osho says something radical, because that's the way he is. Radical is his business. Radical is his milieu. He's invented new dimensions of a word that is, well...already pretty radical. In fact, you don't even know what radical means until you've read Osho. He is the original poker face. Already, before I begin the game, I know that I am loaded with excess baggage: I hate my father, I loathe my mother, I can't stand society, I don't love myself, there is no such thing as the truth. I'm heavy with all the self doubt, comparisons and blame that has been stuffed into me since birth by a whole succession of well-wishers like mom, dad, teachers, siblings, politicians, priests, girlfriends, TV talk show hosts, newspaper editors, agony column advisors.

But if I stick to the game, Osho's radical statements start to strip away these layers and I find myself getting lighter and lighter. By chapter three page twenty-nine I am stripped naked of all my judgments and it feels so good to expose myself to reality. You can play this game too. Check it out for yourself, because personal experience is the only thing that really counts. If you find, at the end of the book, that you don't feel a sense of freedom, a sense of unburdening, then make a donation to your favorite church and join the congregation!

In the cosmic game of strip poker, you end up as an individual, facing yourself as you really are. Basically, it's like peeling away the layers of the onion - as Osho reminds us, only losers win in this game, and as I remind myself, only losers have the freedom to enjoy this meaningless dance of life:

 

THERE ARE NO HIDDEN MEANINGS. In fact, there are no meanings, hidden or not-hidden. Meaning is a futile, meaningless word, it is a mind-creation. Don't ask what meaning life has; it has none. Don't ask what meaning existence has; it has none. It is a purposeless play.

There are no hidden meanings. And you become enlightened when you have found that there are no meanings in life. In fact when you have found that there is nothing to be achieved, you have become enlightened. When you have come to realize that there is nowhere to go, you have arrived.

A MASTER IS ONE WHO FOUND OUT. A master is not one who has achieved anything, a master is one who has found out that there is nothing to achieve. This will be very, very difficult for you because you are all achievers. Even if you are here with me, you are here to achieve something, some spiritual nonsense.

And I am here to by and by seduce you to become a non-achiever -- because then you are enlightened.

OSHO     

 

 

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