The ego plans and whatsoever it plans will miss reality. Reality can only be encountered spontaneously; if you think about it beforehand you may be ready but you will miss. A ready person will miss; this is the contradiction. A person who is not ready, who has not planned anything, who acts spontaneously, reaches the very heart of reality.

-Rajneesh

This earth symbolizes all that has been condemned, and heaven, all that has been desired. But I don't divide; to me, both are one. And the day will soon come for you too when you will be able to see that "this" is pregnant with "that." this world is just a womb for the divine; the earthly is just a cover, a protective cover, for the unearthly. The seed, the cell of the seed, is not against the tree, it is a protection. Matter is just a protection for the Divine.

Look, and always try to find the unity. In unity is religion, in disunity religion is lost. And avoid being against. If you are against, you will become rigid, hard, and the harder you become the more dead you will be.

I have heard that it once happened that a gang of robbers, by mistake, entered a monastery. They thought this house belonged to some rich man -- the monastery had a look of richness -- so they entered. But the monks gave them such a hard fight they were happy when they succeeded in escaping. When they met again outside the town, one of the robbers philosophized, "Not bad, we have a hundred rupees among us." The leader said, "You fools! I have always told you to avoid monks. We had five hundred rupees when we entered the monastery!" I also say to you: avoid monks. If you enter the monastery with five hundred flowers, you will have only one hundred when you come out. They are enemies, enemies of "this," and I say those who are enemies of "this" are bound to be enemies of "that" -- whether they know it or not.

Love "this" and love it so deeply that your love transcends "this" and reaches "that." That's what I mean: roots into this earth, and wings into that heaven.

-Rajneesh

Life goes on flowing; life is something in between you and me. The tree goes on creating oxygen and you breathe it. If the trees disappear, you will disappear. The trees go on changing cosmic rays into food -- that is what fruit and vegetables are -- and if they disappear, you will be no more. They are constantly creating food for you, that's how you exist. Greenery is in a constant process of creating food for you; you depend on it.

The clouds go on moving, bringing water for you. The whole is connected. The faraway sun sends its rays to you and those rays are life. If the sun disappears, all life will disappear. Even the sun gets its energy from some source; scientists have not yet been able to find that source, but if that source disappears everything will disappear. Everything is related, joined together. This world does not exist in fragments, it exists as a whole, one whole.

-Rajneesh

Be rooted in the earth so that you can stretch to the sky; be rooted in the visible so that you can reach into the invisible. Don't create duality and don't create any antagonism. If I am against anything, I am against antagonism. I am against being against anything; I am for the whole, the complete circle. The world and God are not divided anywhere. There is no boundary: the world goes on spreading into God and God goes on spreading into the world. Really, to use two words is not good but language creates problems. We say the creator and the created, we divide. Language is dualistic; in reality there is no created and no creator, only creativity, only a process of infinite creativity. Nothing is divided. Everything is one -- undivided.

Language is just like a political map. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh are divided on the political map, and if you ask the earth where India begins and Pakistan ends, the earth will laugh and think you mad. The earth is round, it is one; only on political maps is it not and maps are false. And politicians are madmen, madmen who have attained power. They are more dangerous than madmen who live in madhouses, because they have power.

-Rajneesh

This earth is close, not because it is close but because of you. That heaven is far away, not because it is far away, but because of you.

"This" means the world, "This" means the body -- these desires, these passions, the physical, the visible. "This" means all that has been condemned by religions. They are always against "this" and for "that." "That" means Brahma, "That" means moksha, "That" means the divine. "This" means the material world -- this devilish world, this which is condemned. All the religions have condemned this world.

I don't condemn it. I want to give you roots into this world.

All the religions have said unless you are uprooted from "this," you will not get wings into "that." They are against "this," against the world, the body, against the material, the visible. All you feel as near, they are against. They are for something very far away, something abstract -- God, Brahma, moksha. Nobody knows, nobody is in contact with it; there is no communion, no touch with it. It looks like a dream, like poetry, it looks imaginary. All religions have condemned "this." They say, "Be uprooted." That's why they call sannyas renouncing the world, renouncing "this." I do not. They have created a dualism... not only dualism, they have created antagonism between "this" and "that," between the physical and the spiritual.

-Rajneesh