No animal bothers asking the question, "Who am I? What is the meaning of my life?" He knows it already. There is no question, there is no doubt, no inquiry. Man is continuous inquiry, a continuous question to the very last breath. He goes on growing to the very last breath. He can change his whole life pattern.

He can take a quantum jump. There is no necessity for him to just go on following the path that he has followed. At the very last moment, he simply can step aside. There is nobody to prevent him; it is his freedom. Man is the only animal in existence who has freedom, and out of this freedom is...

Again, again it means, "I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am going and why I am going. I don't know whatever I am doing, whether I am supposed to do it or not." The question continuously remains, not even for a single moment. The question leaves whatever you do.

The question is there, "Are you sure? Is it the thing for you to do? Is this the place for you to be?" The question leaves not even for a single moment, and this is as deep as deep anything can be in you, at the very core of your being.

This is the agony that the meaning is not known, that the purpose is not known, that the goal is not known. It seems as if we are accidental, that by some accident we are born. No other animal, no other tree, no other bird is accidental.

They are plants. Existence has a whole program for them. Man seems to be totally different. Existence has left men utterly free. Once you become aware of this situation, then again arises, and it is fortunate to feel it, that why I say it is not ordinary pain, suffering, misery.

It is a very extraordinary and of tremendous value to your whole life. It's growth that you should feel again, that your each fiber of being should feel the questioning, that you should become simply a question. And naturally it is frightening. You are left in a chaos.

But out of this very chaos, the stars are born. If you don't start stuffing out of fear, if you don't start escaping from your agony, everybody is trying to escape, finding ways, falling in love, doing this, doing that, somehow somewhere engaged. One thing is not finished, 

and you start doing another thing because you are afraid. Between the two, if there is a gap and the question arises, its head, and you start feeling again that it is better to continue, go on running, don't stop. People start running from their birth.

Till they die, they don't stop. They don't sit by the side of the road under a tree. To me, the statues of Buddha and Mahavira in the east, sitting in a lotus posture under a tree, does not mean anything historical. They mean something far more significant.

These are the people who have stopped running. These are the people who have stepped out of the road on which the whole procession of humanity is going on. They are real dropouts, not the Californian type, which within few years drop in again. Now these are real dropouts which never drop in.

OSHO: Are You Sure You Are Doing the Right Thing?

OSHO International

인간과 동물의 근본적인 차이점

동물은 끊임없이 자신의 존재에 의문을 제기하는 인간과 달리 본질적으로 자신의 목적을 이해합니다.

인간은 자신의 인생 경로를 바꾸고 급진적인 결정을 내릴 수 있는 독특한 능력을 가지고 있습니다.

자아에 대한 끊임없는 질문은 인간 존재의 결정적인 특징입니다.

인간은 다른 생명체와 달리 삶의 의미와 목적, 목표를 알 수 없는 존재입니다.

이러한 실존적 질문은 고통스럽지만 개인의 성장에 매우 중요합니다.

두려움에도 불구하고 이러한 불확실성을 받아들이는 것은 자기 발견을 위해 필수적입니다.

도피주의와 실존에 맞서는 두려움

사람들은 종종 다양한 방해 요소와 활동을 통해 실존적 질문을 회피합니다.

이렇게 자기 자신으로부터 계속 도망치는 것은 성찰과 자기 이해를 방해합니다.

부처나 마하비라와 같은 인물은 인생의 질문으로부터 도망치지 않은 사람들을 상징합니다.

이 사람들은 회피의 사이클에서 영구적으로 벗어난 진정한 중도 탈락자입니다.