Hi all
First of all thank you to Sifu Freddie Lee for posting those fantastic quotes from Osho. I have only just discovered Osho relatively recently as Freddie recommended him on YouTube. I find most of his teachings comprehensive and enlightening. However there is one that Sifu Freddie Lee posted that confuses me. It goes as follows:
On Goals:
"The moment you have a goal, you cut yourself off from existence. Then a small dewdrop is trying to fight against the ocean. Unnecessary is the trouble, meaningless is the struggle."
Mr. Lee stated: "I see that ranks and belt systems do not belong in the Martial Arts. We are meant to train with no goals, we are simply meant to train and enjoy the beauties of the experience for what it is."
I agree with this. No one needs rank or a belt to express themselves as artists. To think so would be silly in my opinion. However are goals not necessary parts of life?. In terms of Martial Arts, I thought that the desire to train should not be focused upon extrinsic materialistic objects such as belts, but intrinsic motivation seeking no external rewards, just training for the love of training and aspiring to better yourself physically, mentally and spiritually. The all around self improvement is the intention/goal of a Martial Arts practitioner is it not?
Maybe Osho was referring to goals that are unrealistic, and thus are not worth a futile struggle. But if we ourselves had no goals, then why would we get up every morning and train. Why would we post blogs to grow with the assistance of each others shared experiences?. Why would we as lightened candles, be motivated to lighten other peoples insight on the way of the Tao?.
Could someone please clarify the meaning of Osho's philosophy if anyone can adequately comprehend it's application to day to day life?.
All goals are of the ego, even if the goal is of good intensions. You cannot have a goal if you have no-mind. No mind is meditation and the ultimate way. The do-gooders can cause great harm to society. When you place yourself above somebody that is when you wish to "help" someone, that is used as an ego embellishment, which is not the way.
ReplyDeleteThough we live in a society that is revolved around ego, and you can never get away from it completely but you can understand the processes of the ego and how it works within the society. True art is in meditation, free from ego, free from goals. You don't aim to better yourself, you cannot better yourself if you have no self. How can you improve if the past does not exist? Yesterday you did 9 pull-ups, today you want to do 10, that is your goal, that goal in itself is not meditation. Your mind is thinking of yesterday, your mind is not in the present moment right now.
Having goals is a lower level of development, it is not the true Way. The true way is beyond all goals, it is just being in the moment in awareness. You do what you love to do, there is no forcing, there is just being natural.
That is exactly what I think. A real human being in my opinion does not aim to be better than the next guy. He is in the moment living, not in the past gloating. Although there are beauties in goals, it does not mean that it is the Way. The Way does not have goals. The reason you have goals is because you want to praise yourself or you want others to praise you for your accomplishments. This is not the real you. That is your ego acting on you.
DeleteI like your input, that's a good one.
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