Look at the flower that bloomed this morning.... Just near the flower there is a rock. By the evening, the flower will be gone but the rock will be there, because the flower is more alive and the rock is not so alive. The flower is dead by the evening. What do you want? - to be a rock-like phenomenon or a flower-like phenomenon? Why does the flower die so soon? - because it is so alive, so intensely alive that death comes quickly; it doesn't linger on. The flower was not dragging; it lived the moment, it lived totally - it danced under the sky, it enjoyed the sun, the breeze. For a moment it was eternity.

The flower laughed, the flower sang, the flower did whatsoever was to be done, and by the evening, the flower was ready to die - and without a single tear in her eyes, without weeping and crying.

Look at a dying flower - the petals have already fallen on the ground but you can never say that it is ugly - it is beautiful in death also. Then look at a man dying; he becomes ugly. Why? - because of the fear. Fear makes you ugly. If you are too afraid you will become more and more ugly. The flower is fulfilled; now the time to rest has come and the flower is going to rest, and when the rest is over the flower will come back.

-Rajneesh

Orgasm is the involvement of the total body: mind, body, soul, all together you vibrate, your whole being vibrates from the toes to the head. You are no longer in control; existence has taken possession of you and you don't know who you are. It is like a madness, it is like a sleep, it is like meditation, it is like death.

-Rajneesh

LOVE = CONSCIOUSNESS

They are similar phenomena; sleep is a temporary death. After the day's labour, the work, you are exhausted - you need a death so that you can be reborn, so that in the morning you are again rejuvenated, fresh, young. And in sleep, death is exactly what happens.

Have you observed the fact that in sleep you are not the same person at all? You don't remember who you are, you don't remember whether you are rich or poor, you don't remember your own face, you don't remember who your father is and who your mother is; you don't remember anything that you have learned, anything that has been cultivated in you you drop everything at the door and you go to sleep. That's why it is so refreshing, because you get rid of yourself. You are like a burden - you leave it at the door and you fall into sleep.

Sleep opens a different dimension where identity, ego, nothing of this world exists. That's why it is so fresh, so refreshing in the morning you come back to life, a new day starts, a new life.

-Rajneesh

Why are people so afraid of death? Is death really a phenomenon to be afraid of?

The first thing to remember is that you don't know death. You have not known it, so how can you be afraid of something that you don't know? That's impossible. You can be afraid of something you know, but of something that is totally unknown, absolutely unknown how can you be afraid? Fear needs an object to be afraid of.

You cannot really be afraid of death, you must be afraid of something else. That something else is an unfulfilled life - you have not been able to live, you have not been able to achieve a fulfillment, you have not been able to overflow, you have not been able to celebrate.

-Rajneesh

Awareness is fire.

When Heraclitus says that fire is the root of all existence, he is right. He knows something - fire is the root of all existence. Not the fire that you see; that fire is just one of the forms.

Understanding is like fire: it burns you completely; you as you are right now - the ego, the mind.

It gives you a different dimension: you become a cloud and you move in the sky. You have gained wings.

-Rajneesh