Growth needs a very selective life - OSHO

People live accidentally. They don't have any sense of direction, they don't have an inner discipline for growing, they don't have a certain target. They simply go on, not knowing why. Maybe just because they are restless they go on doing this and that. Restlessness needs some kind of occupation, any kind of occupation will do. But any kind of occupation is not going to help you to grow. Growth needs a very selective life.

Life is short, time is very short, but people are so stupid that they will be playing cards and chess and if you ask them "What are you doing?", they say they are killing time -- as if they have too much time with them. Time is killing you!

Each moment you are less and less and less. Each moment you have died a little more, each moment death is coming closer. Time is not something to be killed, time is something to be used. Time is a great opportunity -- it has not to be wasted. But if you look at people you will be surprised: ninety-nine point nine per cent of people are wasting their time for the simple reason that they have never given a second thought to what they are doing and why. Others may be doing it so they are just imitating. People are almost living the life of sleepwalkers.

I have heard: two drunkards were sitting in a car and the car was going as far as it could. One drunkard said to the other, 'Now from the next cross-road you have to turn left and then you have to turn right.' And the other said, 'Why do you go on telling these things to me -- you are driving!'

But nobody is conscious, nobody knows who is driving, who is not driving and why people are going in a certain direction. Why is everybody interested in money? -- because all others are interested. Why is everybody interested in fame? -- because all other fools are interested. And you have to be in tune with the fools because you are surrounded by them.

An intelligent person moves consciously moment to moment. Whatsoever he is doing he is doing for a certain reason. He has an intrinsic value system. He lives according to a certain inner discipline -- not imposed by others but by his own awareness.

In the beginning it is groping, but soon one becomes more and more clear. Soon one goes astray less and less. Soon things settle and one starts following the right path towards inner growth. And then one thing becomes clear, that as you are moving closer to your nature, as things are less and less chaotic in your life and they start becoming harmonious, you will feel more and more bliss, more and more peace. That is a clear-cut indication that you are on the right track.

If you are feeling miserable in life that means you are going astray.

Misery is an indicator, so is bliss. They are real indicators: if people are miserable that simply shows they are upside-down; if they are blissful that (few words missing) into an organic unity. They are no more a crowd. They have created a certain integration. They now have a centre, they are rooted, grounded... And then bliss starts happening, naturally, simply. It does not come from anywhere else, it simply arises out of your own inner being in an accord.

It is just like a beautiful car's engine humming. An alert driver knows exactly... if something goes wrong he immediately becomes aware because the engine is no more humming the same way; some disturbing note is there. Nobody else sitting in the car will be aware, but the driver will become aware, immediately alert: something is wrong, something has gone astray, something is not functioning well, something is not in tune.

And that's how a conscious person is: he immediately comes to know that something has gone wrong and he puts it right.

Osho,
The Imprisoned Splendor
Chapter #4