osho on matter-spirit:
I AM NOT FOR AVOIDING ANYTHING IN LIFE -- not even materialism. Life
has to be transformed, not avoided. IF YOU AVOID LIFE, you will remain
immature. Life is a great blessing, an opportunity to grow, a
challenge, a constant challenge that helps awareness, centering,
grounding. Nothing has to be avoided. THAT IS THE ANCIENTMOST
STUPIDITY. Man has been living under its shadow for so long that it has
become almost part of his blood, his bones, his very marrow.
MATERIALISM IS PERFECTLY GOOD IN ITS PLACE. If there is matter, matter
has to be absorbed in a total life view. It has not to be avoided; it
has to be used as a steppingstone towards spirituality. THERE IS NO
CONTRADICTION BETWEEN MATERIALISM AND SPIRITUALISM, although it has
been told again and again for thousands of years. You have been
conditioned so much -- the conditioning has gone deep -- that nobody
ever thinks about it again. It is one of the greatest calamities that
has happened to humanity. MATTER IS THE OUTER SIDE OF SPIRIT,
SPIRIT IS THE INNER SIDE OF MATTER. They are not separate. The outside
and the inside cannot be separate, they are inseparable, they are
inevitably together.
IT IS TIME TO GET RID OF THIS WHOLE DIVISION BETWEEN MATTER AND
SPIRIT; they are not divided anywhere. They are not divided in you;
your body and your soul are functioning totally together in deep
synchronicity. You can experience it. If your body is sick, your
innermost core also becomes sad. And if your innermost core is joyous,
your body also wants to dance. I am not for any escapist
attitude. I AM NOT FOR ANY SPLIT IN YOU, I want you to be one. I want
you to be integrated. I want you to be totally natural, accepting,
affirming. I teach you a materialist/spiritualist approach to life. It
has never been done before -- that's why I am so much condemned. I
accept it. I don't feel any trouble with it, because that is natural....
THE EAST HAS REMAINED POOR, STARVING. Its outside is ugly. It has
found some inner secrets, but its outside is sick, its outside is almost
not worth living. It has committed a suicide on the outside, just as the
West had committed a suicide on the inside.
THE WEST has enough technology, enough science, enough affluence,
enough money, but something of the inner is missing. There is no peace,
no silence, no joy, no bliss, no meditativeness, no experience of
godliness. It is time we should see that up to now humanity has lived
dividedly.
