Make Life a Passionate Affair

Make life a passionate affair, says Osho. You have been conditioned and you have to be unconditioned. Remember that death is coming. Don't think that it is not going to happen today; it can happen any moment. In fact, all that happens always happens now. The seed dies now, the bud becomes the flower now, the bird starts calling now. All that ever happens, happens only in the space made available by now, this moment. Nothing ever happens in the past, and nothing ever happens in the future. All that happens always happens in the present - that is the only way for things to happen because the present is the only time there is.

. . . Past is just your memory and future is just your imagination. But you have been hypnotised to live in the past, and you have been hypnotised to live in the future. Choose either past or future, but no society allows you to live in the present. Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans - they condition you to live in the past. Their golden age was in the past. Communists, socialists, fascists - they condition you to live in the future, their golden age is in the future, the utopia is coming: 'When the revolution comes, then you will be able to really live, then there will be a golden age.

' Forget past and future Either you are taken to the past, which is false, or to the future, which is again false. No society tells you to live in the present, in the here and now. To be a real seeker means to live here and now. And there is no other life. But for that you will have to de-automatise yourself, you will have to become a man and not a machine. You will have to become a little more conscious. Once I was sitting by the side of a dying man - he was a professor in the same university where I was a professor.

He was at the pinnacle of his successful career. And then came the heart attack - which always comes when you are at the pinnacle. He was very sad - who wants to die? - and he was in great despair and anguish. I told him, 'You need not worry. You're not going to die. ' He said, 'What are you saying? Doctors say that there is no possibility of my survival. On what grounds are you saying that I am not going to die?' Dead man walking I said, 'You cannot die in the first place, because you never lived.

You have not fulfilled the first requirement for dying. For these 55 years you have been sleep-walking, you have dreamt; you have not lived. I have watched you for years. ' He was shocked, he was angry - so angry that for a moment he forgot all about death. He said, 'Is this the way to treat a dying man? Why are you so hard on me?' I listened silently. Then the rage disappeared and he started crying. He held my hand with great love, and then he said, 'Maybe you are right. I never lived. Maybe you are not rude, you are just being true.

And I know nobody else would have said this to me. ' And then, great gratitude, and for a moment he became so conscious that one could have seen the light on the face - it was there, he was all aura. And he thanked me. That night he died. I remained with him to the last moment. His death was beautiful. He died without any regret, he died in a relaxed way. He died almost with a welcoming heart, he died full of gratitude. Live every moment One has to live each moment, whether it is of life, of love, of anger, of death.

Whatsoever it is, one has to live each moment as consciously as possible. Man lives in dreams, in imagination, in projections. You have to become more attentive to the moment, to the present. You have to gather your consciousness. Consciousness is your treasure, and all the methods that have been invented, devised, down the centuries are nothing but ways to create more consciousness in you, to create more fire in you, to make your life a passionate affair, a flame.