Constant Struggle between the Ideal And Reality. By Osho Rajneesh.
Q: When i have to make a choice, the yes and the no are both so possible that i just don't know. What is there that i don't understand?
A: This is your inheritance. This is what your forefathers have given to you – indecisiveness. They have created a split in your being: whatever is natural in you is wrong, and whatever is not natural in you is the ideal to be realised.
It creates such a dilemma because that which you want to do is condemned, and that which you are not even interested in is praised. If you choose the ideals, you have to repress your nature. That will be a constant struggle within you. If you choose nature, you will feel guilty that you are forsaking great ideals.
For example, celibacy: all religions have been teaching celibacy as one of the greatest moral characteristics. But celibacy is against nature. Yet those who choose to be celibate become superior beings by repressing their desires, love and their natural instincts. Those natural instincts are continuously boiling within… without expression, they manifest as a perversion.
The rift has become so big between man's ideals and reality that it is always a question of deciding what to do.
Whatever you do seems to put you into trouble; hence, before doing anything, you are wavering and you are indecisive. The ideals are there, and nature is there.
The indecisiveness will disappear when there is only nature – when nature itself is the ideal; when you start refining your sexuality and sensuality, making it a deep art, a creative dimension, rather than repressing them. Indecisiveness will disappear by not repressing or sublimating these energies, but transforming them. They are your energies, and energy is always neutral. It can produce children; it can produce a higher consciousness in you. It can produce better music, better poetry. It can give you new birth. But indecisiveness is going to continue as long as you have two opposite poles pulling you simultaneously in two diametrically opposite directions.
.Drop the whole past, and be natural. Then all discomfort and paralysis will disappear. Nature is the solution: love nature, respect nature, have a deep reverence for nature, and burn all your ideals that go against nature. Anything that goes against nature is your enemy. If you have the courage to do that, then you will never feel uncomfortable; then life becomes juicy. Then it becomes so easy, relaxed, so peaceful.
My approach toward life is very easy. I have never felt any indecisiveness because i have never accepted any ideals, howsoever old, howsoever respectable. I have lived according to my own light, howsoever small. I have never felt paralyzed. I have never repented for a single thing; whatsoever has happened in my life had to happen. It was not a question of my choice; i allowed my nature to have its way. I have just been floating in the river – not even swimming. The question of going against the current does not arise; that's what creates discomfort and finally will create paralysis.
Just go with the river. It is already going toward the ocean. Why are you unnecessarily struggling against the current? Nature is already going toward enlightenment; that is its ocean. Just relax with it – enjoy it, sing it, dance it. Abridged from The Rebel/Osho Times International.