Only a ripe fruit falls to the ground

"Only a ripe fruit falls to the ground. Ripeness is all. An unripe ego cannot be thrown, cannot be destroyed. And if you struggle with an unripe ego to destroy and dissolve it, the whole effort is going to be a failure. Rather than destroying it, you will find it more strengthened in new subtle ways. This is something basic to be understood: the ego must come to a peak, it must be strong, it must have attained an integrity -- only then can you dissolve it.
A weak ego cannot be dissolved."

- OSHO, My Way: The Way of the White Clounds

Lose your ego

One of the greatest problems...
it will appear very paradoxical, but this is true:
before you can lose your ego, you must attain it.
Only a ripe fruit falls to the ground.
- OSHO

Be - don't try to become.

All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be - don't try to become. Withing these two words - being and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.

- OSHO

Move without any effort

My whole teaching consists of two words, meditation and love. Meditate so that you can feel immense silence, and love so that your life can become a song, a dance, a celebration. You will have to move between the two, and if you can move easily, if you can move without any effort, you have learned the greatest thing in life.

- OSHO

Answers are dangerous

Remain in wonder if you want mysteries to open up for you. Mysteries never open up for those who go on questioning. Questioners sooner or later end up in a library. They end up with scriptures, because scriptures are full of answers. And answers are dangerous, they kill your wonder.
- OSHO

Spirit walks on all paths

"Do not say, 'I follow the one true path of the Spirit,'
but rather, 'I have found the Spirit walking on my path',
for the Spirit walks on all paths."

- Khalil Gibran

Rides upon the storm

"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm."

- William Cowper

Life and Death

"Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going
Two simple happenings
That got entangled."

- Kozan Ichikyo (Zen teacher)

Summer will be short

"Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short,
but when we have had our swing of pleasure,
our fill of fruit, and our swelter of heat
we say we have had our day."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life in its season

Every blade in the field,
Every leaf in the forest,
Lays down its life in its season,
As beautifully as it was taken up.

- Henry David Thoreau

You hear him now

"I said to Life, I would hear Death speak.
And Life raised her voice a little higher and said,
You hear him now."
- Kahlil Gibran

Joins some larger way

"The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say."

- Bilbo Baggins, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Joins some larger way

"The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say."

- Bilbo Baggins, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Old and New

"There are two kinds of fool.
One says, 'This is old, and therefore good.'
And one says,
'This is new, and therefore better.'"

- Dean Inge

Shadow of a house in ruins

Only One

There is only one thread of all cotton.
The warp, the woof, the quill of the weaver's shuttle,
The shuttle, the texture of cloths, the cotton shoes and hanks of yarn,
All are known by their respective names,And they all belong to their respective places
But there is only one thread of yarn.


Only You


You alone exist; I do not, O Beloved!
You alone exist, I do not!

Like the shadow of a house in ruins,
I revolve in my own mind.
If I speak, you speak with me:
If I am silent, you are in my mind.
If I sleep, you sleep with me:
If I walk, you are along my path.
Oh Bulleh, the spouse has come to my house:
My life is a sacrifice unto Him.
You alone exist; I do not, O Beloved!

- Bulleh Shah (1680-1758)

The soil kills the soil, with weapons of the soil

Maati kudam karendee yaar,
Vaah vaah maati de gulzaar;
Maati ghora maati jora, maati daa aswaar,
Maati maati nu (n) dorave, maati daa chankaar.

Maati maati nu(n) maaran lag-gee, maati de hathiyaar.
Jis maati par bahutee maati, so maati hankaar;
Maati baagh bagheechaa maati, maati dee gulzaar.
Maati maati nu (n) vekhan aayee, maati dee a bahar;

Hus khed phir maati hove, paindee pau pasaar.
Bullah ja(n) eh bujhaarat buj-jhe,
Taa(n) lah bhau siro(n) maar.

---------------

The soil is in ferment, O friend
Behold the diversity.
The soil is the horse, so is the rider
The soil chases the soil, and we hear the clanging of soil

The soil kills the soil, with weapons of the soil.
That soil with more on it, is arrogance
The soil is the garden so is its beauty
The soil admires the soil in all its wondrous forms

After the circle of life is done it returns to the soil
Answer the riddle O Bulleh, and take this burden off my head."


- Bulleh Shah [1680-1758]

{Translation: book by J. R. Puri and T. R. Shangari of the Radha Swamis, titled Bulleh Shah}

Bulla ki jaanna mai kaun

Pi sharaab tey kha kabab,
heth baal haddaan di ag,

Bulleha bhan ghar rab da,
ais thuggan de thug noo thug."

Drench yourself in wine and feast on roasted flesh,
roasting in the fires flaming out of the bones.

O Bulleha, break into the house of God
and swindle the cheat of cheats.

- Bulleh Shah [1680-1758]