TAO: THE PATHLESS PATH

Happiness is natural; one should not seek it, one should simply enjoy it.

Tao means the way, which is more like a bird flying in the sky leaving no markers behind. The bird has flown but no marks are left; it is a pathless path. Osho, in this book, comments on five Taoist parables, which according to him are very deep and they have to be penetrated and meditated upon to know the real meaning. Confucius is used as a laughing stock in Taoist stories, where he is figured as a traveller going from somewhere to somewhere, always seeking and searching for knowledge.

In one of the parables Confucius asks a poor wandering monk who is singing a song of joy: “Master, what is the reason for your joy?”
“I have many joys”, replies the monk. “ Of the myriad things which heaven begot, mankind is the most noble - and I have the luck to be human. This is my first joy. People are born who do not live a day or a month, but I have already lived to ninety. This is my joy. For all men, poverty is the norm and death is the end. Abiding by the norm, awaiting my end, what is there to be concerned about?”
“Good!” says Confucius, “here is a man who knows how to console himself.”

By interpreting the story Osho says that there cannot be any reason for joy as it is natural like one’s health. So never ask reasons for someone’s happiness; it is just like asking why somebody is healthy.Also, there cannot be many joys. The monk feels himself happy because he at the age of ninety is still healthy and alive when so many others have died at their prime young age. The monk says that everybody is going to die and everybody else is poor and hence he doesn’t feel miserable either. According to Osho the monk’s happiness is a comparative happiness which is a pseudo-happiness. His interpretation reflects the Taoist vision.

Confucius believes in consolations whereas Tao believes in contentment. What is needed , according to Osho, is contentment and not consolation and contentment comes only when one is not comparing. Osho says: “Don’t compare with those who have more, don’t compare with those who have less.” The goal of all Confucian philosophy is that “ a man must become a gentleman”; one cannot find a loophole in his character and all virtues have become real in him. But the Taoists don’t talk about the goal at all.

The whole of Tao’s message according to Osho is that “Be anarchic, be authentically true to your own being. Listen only to yourself. Don’t allow anybody to discipline you. Don’t allow anybody to make a slave of you, don’t allow anybody to condition you. Man who has lived, loved, experienced, meditated, who has gone through so many things in life, has become more worthy - he has to be given a higher life. Happiness is natural; one should not seek it, one should simply enjoy it.”

Some of Osho’s observations:

The moment a person becomes perfect, he is dead. An alive person is never perfect, and my teaching is basically not for perfection but for totality.

Laziness is just like the common cold - nothing much to worry about. Ego is like cancer. It is better not to have either.

An intelligent person will have to think before he acts. The soldier has to act before he thinks.

Osho says: “The Indian society is based on the laws of Manu and the Chinese society is based on the laws of Confucius. And both men have destroyed both of the countries.”