Relate Consciously


“Be with people, and not unconsciously, but very consciously. Relate with people as if you are singing a song, as if you are playing on a flute; each person has to be thought as a musical instrument. Respect, love, worship – because each person is a hidden face of the divine.

“So be very careful, very attentive; remember what you are saying, remember what you are doing. Just small things destroy relationships, and small things make relationships so beautiful. Sometimes just a smile and the other’s heart is open to you; sometimes just a wrong look in your eyes and the other is closed – it is a delicate phenomenon. Think of it as an art. The painter is very watchful of what he is doing to the canvas; each stroke is going to make a lot of difference. A real painter can change the whole painting just by a single stroke.


“Life has to be learned as an art: very cautiously, very deliberately…. So relationship with others has to become a mirror; see what you are doing, how you are doing it and what is happening. What is happening to the other? Are you making their life more miserable? Are you giving them pain? Are you creating a hell for them? Then withdraw. Change your ways.

“Beautify life around yourself. Let every person feel that the meeting with you is a gift; just being with you something starts flowing, growing, some songs start arising in the heart, some flowers start opening.

“And when you are alone then sit utterly silent, absolutely in silence, and watch yourself: watch your breathing, watch your thoughts, watch your memories. Watch yourself in your totality without interfering – simple watching. And slowly, watching one’s breathing, one’s thoughts, one’s memories, great awareness explodes. One becomes full of light within. That is the art of meditation.”

Abridged from Osho, The Rainbow Bridge, Talk #24

Osho Times International/courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com