Why Does Parenting Matter?

Much has been written on how to bring up children, a Herculean task if ever there was one. So how do we best transform the child into the finished adult? Do we lay down the law, or is it better simply to let them experience life for themselves?

So what are the major mistakes in bringing up children?

“The major mistakes in bringing up children are many, but I will talk only about the most important. First: the idea that they belong to you. They come through you; you have been a passage, but they don't belong to you. They are not your possessions. Out of this idea of possessiveness many mistakes arise. “Once you start thinking that they are your possessions, you have reduced them into things, because only things can be possessed, not human beings. It is the ugliest act you can do. And those poor children are so helpless, so dependent on you, they cannot rebel. They accept whatever your idea is. And to protect your possessiveness you make them Christians the moment they are born. You make them Hindus, you make them Mohammedans, you make them Buddhists, you make them Jews – you can't wait! And can't you see the absolute absurdity of it?”

Osho, Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries, Talk #2

It’s hard to not think of them as mine, having given birth to them….

“Just to give birth to a child is one thing – to be a mother is totally different. Any woman can give birth to a child; that’s a very simple phenomenon. But to be a mother needs great art, needs great understanding.

“You are creating a human being – that is the greatest creation! A painter paints a picture; we call it great art. Picasso – we call him a great artist. But what about the mother who created Picasso? A poet writes beautiful poems, but what about the mother who created Shakespeare?”

Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #3

How can I guide them without interfering?

"Don't take it too seriously, otherwise you will destroy the child. Your seriousness will become destructive. Take it playfully. The responsibility is there! – but it has to be taken very playfully…. Play carefully but play playfully. If you become serious, then the child will start feeling your seriousness and the child will be crushed and crippled.

“Don’t burden the child: don’t start feeling that you are doing something great to the child… you are doing something great to yourself. By helping this child to grow into a beautiful human being, into a buddha, you will be becoming the mother of a buddha. You will not be obliging the child: you will be simply enjoying your own life; your own life will become a fragrance through the child.”

Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #3

“Sometimes it is difficult for you to accept the children’s vision – because you have lost it yourself! A child is trying to climb a tree; what will you do? You immediately become afraid – he may fall, he may break his leg, or something may go wrong. And out of your fear you rush and you stop the child. If you had known what joy it is to climb a tree, you would have helped so that the child could learn how to climb trees! And if you are afraid, help him, go and teach him. You also climb with him! Help him learn so he doesn´t fall. Your fear is good – it shows love, that the child may fall, but to stop the child from climbing the tree is to stop the child from growing.

“There is something essential about climbing trees. If a child has never been doing it, he will remain in some way poor, he will miss some richness – for his whole life. You deprive him of something beautiful, and there is no other way to know about it…!

“Let him climb the tree. And if you are afraid, help him, go and teach him. You also climb with him! Help him learn so he doesn't fall. And once in a while, falling from a tree is not so bad either. Rather than being deprived forever.

“The child wants to go out in the rain and wants to run around the streets in the rain, and you are afraid he may catch a cold or get pneumonia or something – and your fear is right! So do something so that he is more resistant to colds. Take him to the doctor; ask the doctor what vitamins should be given to him so that he can run in the rains and enjoy and dance and there is no fear that he will catch cold or will get pneumonia. But don´t stop him. To dance in the streets when it is raining is such a joy! To miss it is to miss something very valuable.

“If you know happiness and if you are aware, you will be able to feel for the child, how he feels.”

Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #2

And what is the best thing I can do for my children?

"Give your children meditation as well as thinking. Thinking will help them to be successful in the world, and meditation will help them towards success in the divine. Give them thought to sharpen their intellects, give them meditation to nurture the sacred in their hearts. The most important phenomenon in the world happens where sacredness of the heart meets the activeness of the intellect. In that meeting, activity and inactivity balance each other, the day and the night both cease to be, and you start catching glimpses of that which lies beyond both life and death."

Osho, Nowhere To Go But In, Talk #10

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OSHO International Meditation Resort Impressions

Anand Helen Quinn

When I returned home recently from the

OSHO International Meditation Resort,

someone asked me was it good value for

money? I paused – considering I received

my life back… having been there and

experienced so much including profound

healing, yes, it was priceless. Value for

money does not come into the equation

for me. It was never that kind of break or

holiday. I went with the intention of

experiencing, and with some loosely held plans that went off center when I arrived.

Words cannot express what I have experienced; in fact the only thing that comes

to mind is that I experienced Beauty with a capital “B.” It is a beautiful place, with

beautiful energy and beautiful people. The photos on the OSHO website are lovely,

yet they do not do justice to the place itself. I am profoundly grateful for the time I

spent here.

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OSHO Music and Meditation Monsoon Festival, 2016

A grand feast of eight music concerts, as well as and usual ten OSHO Meditations per day, marked the monsoon festival this year, satisfying people’s need of living the Zorba and Buddha simultaneously.

Over 1600 people from 200 cities all over India, as well as the visitors from around the world, enjoyed the lush green environment of the OSHO International Meditation Resort, and a musical bonanza from a number of genres. Lambada band was as tantalizing as ever. In the night the internationally famous Kalbelia dancers were very refreshing. They come straight from the soil of Rajasthan bringing the freshness of their folk music. Lesle Lewis rocked, and how! He brought the OSHO Auditorium pyramid roof down with his remixes and had the audience was eating out of his hand.

True to its name, Afternoon Masti created much ecstasy with a new music band each day. Rahul Mukherjee, the Voice of India winner, and Latination, a group of just four men, were heartily appreciated. Keshav Tyohar the fifteen year old SaReGaMaPa winner, won the hearts of everyone present. Chirag Katti’s high-speed Sitar Rhapsody was electrifying, while Bhaven Shastri’s soulful Sufi songs brought everyone into the silences of the heart.

As always, the OSHO Evening Meeting was the highlight of the day as part of a full program of daily OSHO Meditations. In addition, there were in-house programs as well. Dance celebration, Celebrating Sannyas and the always popular show “Meditator’s Got Talent” made for a very happy atmosphere.

A pinch of the very practical and easy to practice Meditations for Busy People each morning following the Dance Celebration on Buddha Grove was a hit.

The swimming pool and Jacuzzi in OSHO Basho were overflowing with exuberant bodies rejoicing in their cool pleasure. O, what a Sho!

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The Speaking Tree: Be a Man, Not a Sheep

The Buddha is all for watchfulness. Only

then can you be a master of what you do

and say, says OSHO

Man can be divided into four parts. The

outermost circumference consists of

action, what you do. The second layer, a

little deeper than your action, consists of

your saying, what you say. A little deeper, the third layer consists of your thinking,

what you constantly think. And the fourth is not a layer; the fourth is your reality,

your being. That is your centre, the centre of the cyclone. Your centre, your being

is surrounded by three concentric circles: thinking, saying, doing.

Watch Yourself

Are you aware of what you are doing? Are you doing it consciously or just because

others are doing it? Are you an imitator, just following the crowd like a sheep? Be a

man, don’t be a sheep! Don’t follow the crowd, be individual. Only then can you be

a master; only individuals can be masters. In the crowd you have to be a slave; the

crowd consists of slaves. The crowd wants you to remain a slave; only then the

crowd remains powerful. All the politicians and all the priests of the world want

you to remain slaves; only then can they be priests and can they be great leaders.

If you are a little alert, aware, you will be able to see perfectly well that your

leaders are hocuspocus, that your priests are pseudo, that you need not follow

them, that following them you have been falling in ditches. Watch what you are

doing and why. Is it worth doing? Is it worth wasting your life and your breath? Are

you just doing it because you don’t know what else to do? It is better to do nothing

than to do something without knowing why, without knowing what you do and say

and think. You go on saying things and you suffer much because of your sayings.

And many times you have decided not to say such things because unnecessarily

you get into trouble; you say something and you are in trouble. But still you will go

on saying the same things and getting into the same troubles, as if you never watch

yourself, what you are doing. You are moving like a somnambulist in your sleep.

Watch your life. The Buddha is all for watchfulness. In all things be a master of

what you do and say and think. Be free. If you can be a master, if you can be

watchful, freedom comes on its own accord. Freedom is the shadow of being a

master of your life.

You Are A Seeker

The Buddha insisted again and again: Remember you are a seeker. You are seeking

your true home; you have not yet found it. Many lives you have been seeking, this

life also you are seeking. Have you found it? Don’t waste your time, don’t go

astray. Pour your whole energy into seeking, because nobody knows about

tomorrow. The only delight in life is when you master something. And when a man

has mastered all his being — his action, his saying, his thinking — his delight is

infinite. The Buddha never divides your bodymind. He says: Be a master of both

because you are psychosomatic, you are bodymind. So be a master of your body

and be a master of your mind. Then you will know who you are. Then you will

know the master is you beyond body-mind. Then you will know you are pure

consciousness.

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