Avoid Postponing

If you want to bring transformation into your life, avoid postponement. This is a very cunning device. Someone says, 'I am still violent, but I believe in non-violence. I will slowly become non-violent.' He says, 'I will become non-violent tomorrow, or the day after, in this lifetime, in the next lifetime.' He goes on postponing it and he remains violent. But he is saved from the pain of being violent because the hope of becoming non- violent lessens his pain. It becomes a consolation.

So, I am saying: if you steal, think in the same way.... If you think about theft like this and also have the behaviour of a thief, you will not be able to live with yourself - because no one can live with a thief inside him.... But there is a trick with which one can live: 'I will make it all right tomorrow. At least my thoughts are good. My behaviour is bad, but it is bad because of others.' This kind of thought finds support too. For example, if a man retreats to the forest, he does not get angry. He says that other people were making me angry. Now that I have come to the forest, where is my anger?

We all have this misconception; when we are alone, we just don't see it. We only discover our personality through others. Others become an opportunity for us to reveal ourselves.


Abridged from The Art of Living; Courtesy: Osho International Foundation; www.osho.com