YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT VIOLENCE IN A VIOLENT WORLD‏

AND VIOLENCE IS THERE. It is not only around you; it is around everybody. Man has lived very violently. He has NOT lost his inner animality. Man is still wild inside; only on the surface does he look civilized.

So violence is everywhere, THE WHOLE OF LIFE IS FULL OF VIOLENCE. And where you don't see violence, that is just a facade. If you go deep into it, you will find violence there too. Even behind the name of love, there is violence -- so what to say about other things? BUT THIS IS HOW LIFE IS!

AND YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT VIOLENCE IN SUCH A VIOLENT WORLD. It is difficult to live sanely in an insane world -- but that is the only life there is, and one has to find one's way to live through it. All that we can do is to never become violent against violence, because that is not going to help. Have a deep compassion. If one has to suffer, one should suffer through compassion.

AND PEOPLE WHO ARE VIOLENT ARE COMPLETELY UNAWARE; they don't know what they are doing. That's what Jesus has to say to the people; it is his last message to the world. He asks God to FORGIVE THESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

So one can pray, one can love, and one can have compassion -- but the violence is there. And you cannot change it -- because the world is so big; how can you change it? ONE HAS TO ACCEPT IT. With tears, one has to accept it.

And one can go on doing whatsoever one can do on one's own -- a little bit, whatsoever one can spread. SPREAD YOUR LOVE. The world is like a desert -- but even if you can sow a single seed and only two flowers come to it... even that is something. In this vast desert land, if two flowers or even a single flower comes up, that too is good.

So don't be too concerned about it. JUST BE CONCERNED ABOUT ONE THING: HOW YOU CAN LOVE PEOPLE WHO ARE VIOLENT and live in a world which is not sane at all. Find ways.

AND THIS IS THE WHOLE EFFORT HERE -- THROUGH MEDITATION, PRAYER, GROUPS. These are ways to seek and search for some secrets, so that you can go unscratched, uncontaminated by people's violence. But it is possible.

THE WORLD WILL REMAIN VIOLENT. You can become nonviolent. And that is all that can be done. So don't be worried about it.

OSHO
The Open Secret 
Ch #10
pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium