OSHO International Foundation presents

With Meditation Life Will Be a Sheer Joy

Excerpts from an interview with Ted Viramont,

Madras Pioneer, Madras, Oregon

Do you believe in fighting injustice?

I don't believe in anything.

You don't believe in anything?

Do you think that one should fight injustice?

One should not have 'shoulds' and 'should nots.'

Okay....

One should simply exist spontaneously.

If the moment brings fight,

fight --

and fight totally intensely.

But

don't fight for a belief,

don't fight

for a prejudice.

Live in the moment,

be alert --

and out of that alertness, whatsoever happens

enjoy it.

So let me explain it exactly,

because that may help you

to understand other questions and answers.

Thank you.

I don't have

any belief system.

I don't have

any creed,

dogma.

My whole approach is

existential.

Right now you are there, I am here --

and this is enough.

You may have prepared your questions,

I have not prepared my answers.

Yes, I can see that.

So you can ask your questions...

and I am a crazy man,

I may say anything that

comes in the moment.

I don't care for any consistency

and I don't care for any respectability.

My whole responsibility

is

to this moment.

Beyond that,

there is nothing.

How's this moment going for you?

Beautifully.

Great.

Your mustache

is giving me great joy!

Thank you.

Only, you are missing a beard.

It is half-hearted,

just go the full way!

When it's coming up: I've been thinking about growing one, you know.

You do it!

A man without a beard and mustache

is just like a woman with a mustache and beard.

You know, I have to thank you.

About a year and a half ago

I had a really dark time in my life,

and somebody suggested to get into meditation.

I bought your 'Orange Book'

on meditation...

and some of them I couldn't use,

some of them I could.

The one that changed what was happening for me around,

was the laughter meditation.

Because I would get up every day

and I'd say, "Do I have to get up again?"

And with the laughter meditation, as soon as

I knew I was awake

and I started laughing,

the whole day went completely different than before.

So I need to thank you for showing me this meditation.

Just one meditation

has done that much for you.

If you try a few others,

you will not find words

to thank me.

I have 112 methods of meditation

and if a person can manage even

ten out of those,

his life will be

a sheer joy --

with no dark moments,

with no frustration,

with no tension,

no anxiety.

Whatsoever happens,

he will be able to accept it

without any grudge,

without any complaint.

His gratitude towards existence will be infinite.

We are very ungrateful to existence.

It has given so much to us --

and without our asking.

And we are such

ungrateful creatures

that we don't even bother

to look around at what existence

is continuously doing for us...

the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees;

the birds, the animals, the people.

You are living

in a tremendously

beautiful dream.

But you

have to be

awake about it,

then only

a gratefulness arises.

I call that gratefulness true religion.

A man need not be a Christian to be religious;

he need not be a Hindu to be religious.

All that he needs is

a deep gratitude

towards existence.

He need not believe in God,

he need not believe in heaven and hell...

just a simple phenomenon:

a deep-felt gratitude

that this existence would have been

missing something without you;

that this vast existence needed you,

no one else.

And that your place

was empty before you, will be empty after you.

It is irreplaceable.

That gives a great contentment.

Man's greatest need is to be needed,

and to feel that the whole existence needs you,

otherwise you would not have been here.

For more information, visit: www.osho.com

Source: 'The Last Testament, Volume 2 # 3' Copyright OSHO International Foundation, Switzerland. OSHO is a registered TM