it (4)

WHEN YOU SEEK TO KNOW IT

YOU CANNOT SEE IT

So the very effort to see it... 

the very desire to see it... 

becomes a barrier. 

Don't séek God.

Don't seek truth. 

Rather, create the situation of unfocussedness... 

and God comes to you. 

'It' comes to you. 

It is there.

God has always been available. 

God is unconditionally available.

-

YOU CANNOT TAKE HOLD OF IT

BUT YOU CANNOT LOSE IT

See the beauty of this statement. 

YOU CANNOT TAKE HOLD OF IT

If you want to possess God, you will not be able to. 

God cannot be possessed.

All that is great cannot be possessed. 

And that is one of the most foolish things man goes on doing. 

We want to possess. 

You fall in love, and then you want to possess. And by possessing, you destroy love. Love is of the quality of God. Jesus has said it exactly - 'Love is God'... 

If you really want to be in love, don't try to possess it. 

By possessing it you kill it, you poison it. 

You are so small... 

and love is so great... 

how can you possess it? 

You can be possessed by it, true. 

But you cannot possess it. 

The smaller cannot possess the bigger. 

It is so simple... but so difficult.

-

When we love somebody we want to possess the love, we want to possess the beloved, the lover, we want to become completely dominant. because we are afraid somebody may take it away. 

But before anybody takes it away, it is gone. It is not there any more. The moment you start thinking of possessing, you have killed it. Now there is a dead thing, a corpse. The life has disappeared.

Life cannot be possessed. 

Because life is God. 

Existence cannot be possessed. 

Because existence is God.

-

You see a beautiful flower - a rose - on a bush... 

and you immediately take it away from the bush. 

You want to possess it. 

You have killed it. 

Now you put it in your buttonhole. 

It is a dead flower, it is a corpse, it is no more beautiful. 

How can a dead thing be beautiful? 

It is just a memory. 

And it is fading. 

-

It was so alive on the bush. 

It was so beautiful on the bush. 

It was so young and so happy, and there was dance in it, and there was a song around it. You killed all. Now you are carrying a dead flower in your buttonhole.

And this is what we are doing in everything. 

Whether it is beauty, love, God... 

we want to possess.

~osho~

zen path of paradox (i)

(1977) - chapter 1