Idealization

I find it to be one of the more difficult attachments to get rid of.  The mental ideal.  It begins in the ego, that sense of I.  The easiest place to find it is when one is in love.  The individual will have an ideal in their mind about their object of love. They will not see what it really is.  Some say love is blind, but it is not love that is blind; it is the ideal in one's mind that is false.  The ideal is based on thoughts, and thoughts can never be a reflection of reality.

It isn't love that is blind, but the person in love that is blind.  The person in love will not be looking at the person they are in love with, they will not be seeing who they really are.  It can't be done.  No matter what anyone does; one cannot actually know the other.  It's a lie to believe otherwise.  The ideal can never be real.  Falling in love means something is true about the other that can't be seen in one's self.  If you could see who the other person really is you would not be in love.

Unfortunately it goes much deeper than just love.  It happens with almost everything.  One could say thinking is an ideal itself.  Every thought is a hope, a dream, an expressed ideal.  Think about it. Have you ever waited a year to see a movie only to be disappointed because it was not what you thought it would be?  Everywhere people treat animals like people they have idealized them so much.  Anything can be idealized.  One can idealize a meal.  Whenever I think of WiseGuys Pizza in Columbia I already have an ideal in my mind of how delicious it is going to be.  The obvious difference though is that the pizza is not very complicated.  I am almost guaranteed that it will be the same as it has always been.  It is not so with a human being.

Unfortunately it goes the other way too.  Not just material non-sense, but to the most metaphysical too.  The mental ideal, to idealize, is a reason why so many never find God.  Before they even begin the search they have an ideal in their mind regarding what God is; therefore they can never see what it really is.  This idea, to idealize, causes more suffering than any other type of thought.

It applies to the spiritual as well.  Say you are looking for a job, and in your mind you are dreaming of the perfect job.  In your head you have all these ideas about what that is, a perfect job, and turn down jobs that do not seem to perfectly match your perfect ideal.  You very well may have passed up the perfect job.  One cannot know what lies ahead by thinking it out.  No one knows what changes will occur from moment to moment in the lives of everyone involved.  You never know who you might meet next.

Let me correct myself.  This probably seems contradictory.  There is a way to know which path to take, but it doesn't have anything to do with thinking, or logic.  It has to do with intuition.  Using the example of the job.  Using intuition one can know what job is best, but using thoughts and rationalizations will not get one very far.  One must be willing to make decisions that seem contradictory to what lies on the surface.  It's just not what thoughts are meant to be used for.

Humans collectively do not yet realize that their thoughts are their mind's voice to the universe.  Nothing more.  The way that thoughts just ramble on constantly is no different than a person who just talks constantly.  Most everyone is walking around perpetually spewing thoughts out into the universe.  What would it be like if everyone did so verbally?  Strange, but because it happens quietly in our heads it is acceptable.  I say it is not acceptable.  The mind that cannot step aside from the train of thoughts isn't yet a mind at all, but yet is still merely an animal.  The monkey knows not why it does what it does; it just does it.

To be clear.  Thoughts can't be true in the sense that they are reflections of reality.  A thought is a real thing, no doubt, but it can never be an actual reflection of reality.  So thoughts about God can never be a reflection of what God really is.  It cannot be so.  If I told you I found God, it would be meaningless because I wouldn't be able to tell you anything else about it.  It cannot be communicated.  It cannot be thought.

This line of thought though has to be followed all the way down the line.  That is what thinking is for.  It is for becoming more aware.  We get fooled because so many times, with mundane things, our thoughts seem to be true.  Like that delicious WiseGuys pizza.  We think because we know what so many things are, that we know what everything is.  We do not.  We can't.  The next time we meet a person, regardless of how long we have known them, they are different.  They are no longer the same.  There is a reality occurring, nothing more, nothing less.  It is occurring despite what any of us think about it.  Our thoughts can have an effect on reality, but our thoughts do not reflect reality.  The senses are too limited.

This is why in the East they say in order to know god one must meditate, stop thinking, because a thought cannot know god.  One must gain intuition.  You can know god, but your thoughts never can, never will; it cannot be so.  You will have to learn to just be.  You will have to dig deep into your own mind, where no one else can follow.  You will have to learn what your thoughts really are.  You will have to know yourself.  Then you will know God.  It won't be what you thought it was.

Love

Typically an author would not wish for so much text to be transcribed publicly, but such is not the case with this author.  He wishes for as many as possible to hear his words.  It's an honor to share this.

It begins with a question from a person who has been listening to Osho answer other questions.  The following is from The Book of Wisdom: Commentaries on Atisha's Seven Points of Mind Training.

"What is this longing in me that no relationship can satisfy, that no tears relieve, that is not changed by many beautiful dreams and adventures?

It is so, not only with you but with every body who has a little intelligence.  It is not detected by the stupid people, but the intelligent person is bound to stumble upon the fact sooner or later - and the more intelligent you are, the sooner it will be - that no relationship can satisfy.

Why? -- because every relationship is only an arrow towards the ultimate relationship, it is a milestone, it is not a goal.  Every love affair is just an indication of a bigger love affair ahead -- just a little taste, but that little taste is not going to quench your thirst or satisfy your hunger.  On the contrary, that little taste will make you more thirsty, will make you more hungry.

That's what happens in every relationship.  Rather than giving you contentment, it gives you a tremendous discontentment.  Each relationship fails in this world - and it is good that it fails; it would have been a curse if it was not so.  It is a blessing that it fails.

Because each relationship fails, that's why you start searching for the ultimate relationship with God, with existence, with the cosmos.  You see the futility again and again, that it is not going to be satisfied by any man, by any woman; that each experience ends in tremendous frustration, begins in great hope and leaves you in great hopelessness.  It is always so, it comes with great romance and ends in a bitter taste.  When it happens again and again, one has to learn something -- that each relationship is only an experimentation to prepare you for the ultimate relationship, for the ultimate love affair.

You say, "what is this longing in me that no relationship can satisfy?"

That is the longing for God.  You may know it, you may not know it.  You may not be able yet to articulate it, exactly what it is, because in the beginning it is very vague, cloudy, surrounded by great mist.  But it is the longing for God, it is the longing to merge with the whole, so there is no separation any longer.

You cannot merge with a woman or a man forever, the separation is bound to happen.  The merger can only be momentary, and after that moment is gone you will be left in great darkness.  After that flash, that lightning, is gone, the darkness is going to be even more than it was before.  That's why millions of people decide not to go into any love relationship -- because at least one is accustomed to one's own darkness, one has not known anything else.  There is a kind of satisfaction: one knows that this is what life is, that there is no more to it so there is no discontent.

Once you have tasted love, once you have seen a few moments of joy, of that tremendous throbbing when two persons are no longer two...But you fall again and again from that peak; and each time you fall the darkness is far darker than before, because now you know that light is.  now you know that there are peaks, now you know that life has much more to offer to you, that this mundane existence of going to the office every day and coming home and eating and sleeping -- that this mundane existence is not all, that this mundane existence is only the porch of the palace.

If you have never been invited in and you have lived always on the porch, then you think this is what life is, this is your home.  Once a window opens and you can see inside the palace -- the beauty of it, the grandeur of it, the splendor of it - or once you are invited in for a moment and then thrown out again, now the porch can never satisfy you.  Now this porch is going to be a heavy burden on your heart.  Now you are going to suffer, your agony is going to be great.

This is my observation, that the people who are very uncreative are more satisfied than the people who are creative.  The creative person is very much unsatisfied, because he knows much more is possible and it is not happening.  Why is it not happening?

The creative person is constantly searching; he cannot rest, because he has seen a few glimpses.  Once in a while a window has opened and he has seen beyond.  How can he rest?  How can he feel comfortable and cozy in that stupid porch?  he knows about the palace, he has seen the king too, and he knows, "That palace belongs to me; it is my birthright."  All that is needed is how to enter into the palace, how to become a permanent resident in it.  Yes, momentarily he has been inside, and he has been thrown out again and again.

The more sensitive a person is, the more you will find him in discontent.  The more intelligent, the more discontent will be found there.  It has always been so.

You come from the West to the East; you see the beggar on the road, the laborer carrying mud on his head, and you feel a little bit surprised: their faces don't show discontentment.  They have nothing to be contented with, but somehow they are satisfied.  And the so-called Indian religious people think it is because of religion that they are satisfied.  And the so-called Indian saints go on bragging about it: "Look! the West has everything, science and technology has provided the West with every possible comfort, and yet nobody is contented.  And in our country people are so religious that they have nothing, yet they are contented."  The saints of this country go on bragging about it, but their whole bragging is based on a fallacy.  The people of this country -- the poor people, the uneducated people, the starving people -- are not contented because they are religious, they are contented because they have no sensitiveness.  They are content because they are not creative, they are contented because they have never seen any glimpse.

The West is becoming discontented because the comfort, the convenience, all that science has provided for them, has given them so much time to explore, to meditate, to pray, to play music, to dance, that a few glimpses have started happening.  They are becoming aware that there is much more to life than appears on the surface: one has to dive deep.

The East is simply poor -- and poverty makes people insensitive, remember.  A poor person has to be insensitive, otherwise he will not be able to survive at all.  If he is very sensitive, the poverty will be too much.  He has to grow a thick skin around himself as a protection.  otherwise how we he survive?  He has to become very blind, only then can he live in a poor country.  Otherwise the beggar is thee, the ill people are there on the street, dying: if he is not insensitive, how is he going to work at all?  Those beggars will haunt him.  He has to close his doors.

You can see it happening on the Indian streets.  The Western visitor for the first time becomes very puzzled: a man is dying on the street and no Indian takes any note of it, people go on passing.  This happens every day.

If they start taking note of it, they will not be able to live at all; they have not any time for such luxuries.  This is a luxury!  They cannot take the person to the hospital, they have no time.  If they start being compassionate they will start dying themselves, because who is going to earn for their family?  They have to become utterly blind and deaf.  They go on moving like zombies, seeing nothing.  Whatsoever is happening by the side is nothing to do with them, it is none of their business; everybody is suffering his own karma.

The beggar dying on the street is suffering from his own karma -- maybe he was a murderer in the past life.  You need not worry about him, in fact you should be happy that he is suffering from his karma; now his karma is finished.  Next birth he will be born a king, or something like that -- beautiful rationalizations to keep yourself blind, insensitive.

It is very difficult for the poor person to have some aesthetic sense, he cannot afford it.  If he has aesthetic sense then he will feel is poverty too much, it will become unbearable.  He cannot have a sense for cleanliness, he cannot have a sense for beauty.  He cannot afford these things -- what is the point of having the sensitivity for them?  It will be a torture, constant torture.  he will not be able to sleep in his ugly house with all kinds of dirt, with all kind of rotten things -- they are his only possessions!  He seems to be very satisfied -- he HAS to be; he cannot afford dissatisfaction.

It has nothing to do with religion, remember.  All poor people are satisfied, without any exception.  You can go to Africa and you will find the poor people satisfied; they are even poorer than Indians and their satisfaction is far deeper.  You can go to Indian aboriginal tribes, which are the poorest in the world, but you will see on their faces a kind of satisfaction, as if nothing is wrong, all is right.  They have to believe that all is right, they have to constantly autohypnotize themselves that all is right; otherwise how will they be able to sleep and how will they be able to eat?

Once a country becomes rich, it becomes sensitive.  Once a country becomes rich, affluent, it becomes aware of many, many dimensions of life that have always been there but one had no time to look at.  The rich country starts thinking of music, painting, poetry, and ultimately meditation -- because meditation is the last luxury.  There is not greater luxury than meditation.  Meditation is the last luxury, because it is the ultimate love affair.

It is good that you are not satisfied with your relationships.  Indians are very satisfied, because in fact there is no relationship at all.  It is marriage, it has nothing to do with relationship.  Parents decide it, and astrologers and palmists.  It has nothing to do with the persons who are going to get married; they are not even asked, they are simply put into a certain situation where they start living together.  It is not a relationship.  They may produce children, but it is not love.  Try to understand me.  Love means great hope, love means "I have arrived."  Love means "I have found the man or woman."  Love means the feeling that "We are made for each other."  Love means now there is no need to search anymore.

If you start with such great hope, by the time the honeymoon is over the relationship will be over.  These great hopes cannot be fulfilled by any human beings.  You are hoping that the woman is a goddess; she is not.  She is hoping the man is a god; he is not.  Now, how long can they go on deceiving each other?  Sooner or later they will start seeing the actual.  They will see the fact, and the fiction will start evaporating.

No relationship can satisfy, because every relationship beings with great hope, and that is not possible to be fulfilled.  Yes, that hope can be fulfilled, but it can be fulfilled only when you have fallen in love with the whole.  No part can fulfill it.  When you have fallen in love with the total, when the merger happens with the total, only then will there be contentment.  There will be nobody who is contented, there will be simply contentment.  And then there is no end to it.

I am all for love, because love fails.  You will be surprised -- I have my own logic.  I am all for love, because love fails.  I am not for marriage, because marriage succeeds; it gives you a permanent settlement.  And that is the danger; you become satisfied with a toy, you become satisfied with something plastic, artificial, manmade.

........But I am all for love, and I am against marriage, particularly the arranged kind, because the arranged marriage gives you satisfaction.  And love? --love can never satisfy you.  It gives you more and more thirst for better and better love, it makes you more and more long for it, it gives you tremendous discontentment.  And that discontent is the beginning of the search for God.  When love fails many times, you start looking for a new kind of lover, a new kind of love, a new quality of love.  That love affair is prayer, meditation, sannyas.

It is good that no longing for ordinary love affairs is ever going to be satisfied.  The longing will be intensified more; no relationship is going to fulfill you.  They will make you more frustrated, and no tears will relieve it, they cannot.  They may help for the moment, but again you will be full of pain and agony.  Nothing i changed by many and beautiful dreams and adventures, nothing is changed.  Yet I say go through them.  Nothing is changed, but you are changed by going through all those dreams and beautiful adventures.  Nothing is changed in the world.

Just think, this question has arisen in you.  This is a change.  How many people are there who ask this type of question?  This question is not an ordinary question; it is not out of curiosity.  I can feel the pain, the agony; I can feel your tears, I can see your frustrations in it, I can see all that misery and suffering you must have gone through.  It is almost tangible.

Nothing changes in the world.  But, falling again and again, something changes in you -- and that is revolution.  Even to ask such a question means you are on the verge of a revolution.  Then a new adventure is needed.  Old adventures failed, and a new one -- not in the sense that you have to search for a new man or a new woman -- a new one in the sense that you have to search in a new dimension is needed.  That dimension is the dimension of the divine.

I say to you: I am fulfilled and contented.  Atisha is fulfilled and contented, not by any relationship of the world, not by any love affair of the world, but having a love affair with the whole existence is utterly fulfilling.

And when one is fulfilled, one starts overflowing.  He cannot contain his own contentment.  He is blessed, and so much is he blessed that he starts blessing others.  He is so much blessed that he becomes a blessing to the world.