Osho Quotes on Neo Sannyas

I have made you a totally new kind of sannyasin. It is a neo-sannyas. And behind whatsoever I am doing there is a method. You may be aware of it or not. I want to destroy the whole traditional attitude. Life should be religious and religion should not have any life. The distinction between the marketplace and the monastery should not be there. The monastery Should be in the marketplace; the divine dimension should become part of everyday life.
Neo-sannyas is an effort to introduce the concept of 'sannyas without any renunciation of the world'.
The old sannyasin has a definition, very clearcut; that's why he is dead. I call my sannyas 'neo-sannyas' for this particular reason: my sannyas is an opening, a journey, a dance, a love affair with the unknown, a romance with existence itself, in search of an orgasmic relationship with the whole.
Sannyas is earthly and unearthly, worldly and otherworldly, materialistic and spiritualistic. That's my definition of sannyas; hence I call it neo-sannyas. The old sannyas, the old idea of being a monk, was purely otherworldly; it was not rooted in the earth. Because it was not rooted in the earth it never became really alive, it was never nourished. It was always suicidal, life-negative, life-denying.
I am not negative. Sannyas, neo-sannyas, is absolutely positive. It is to grow something in you. I am to give you a positive attitude toward your being, not a negative attitude. You are not to deny anything. Of course, many things may be denied -- not by you, but automatically. As you go more inward, you will shrink outwardly. The less one is a being inwardly, the more he has to substitute himself outwardly. He will go on spreading.
To be a sannyasin is to take a decision to grow, to take a decision to go into dangers, to take a decision to live in indecision. This seems paradoxical. It is not. One has to begin somewhere, and even to live indecisively one has to have a decision somewhere. Even to go into insecurity is going somewhere, and one has to decide it. I help your decision and create a situation in which you can make a decision. This neo-sannyas can go to the very core of the world. It can reach to everyone because nothing special is needed -- only understanding.
The old sannyas used to be an initiation into something serious, heavy, because it was renouncing the world. My sannyas is totally opposite, diametrically opposite. This is neo-sannyas, a totally new vision of sannyas not of renunciation but of rejoicing, and not of the spirit of seriousness but of the spirit of festivity, of light-heartedness, of taking life as fun, play.
Neo-Sannyas is not a choice. It is a deep acceptance, not a choice. It is not against, neither is it for. It is a deep understanding -- a remaining in between. Not choosing: LIVING! Not choosing: flowing! If you can flow with a deep acceptance inside, sooner or later the day will come when you will transcend both worldliness and renunciation. To me, sannyas means not renunciation, but transcendence.
Neo-sannyas is a process of de-hypnosis: the person who is already hypnotized needs to be de-hypnotized -- if he says this again is a kind of hypnosis, then he is going to remain hypnotized forever. The society hypnotizes you, the church hypnotizes you, your parents hypnotize you. You have passed through that process already; now you will have to go backwards. Neo-sannyas is a process of dropping all that has been forced on you; neo-sannyas is an anti-process.
Neo-sannyas is a total yes to everything in life -- including everything that gives you higher consciousness, including everything that gives you a nearness to the divine, including everything that has been denied only because it was life-affirming. For example, love. Neo-sannyas accepts life in its totality. And also, sex in its totality. But not drugs, because drugs are an effort to be more and more unconscious, to be chemically seduced into a deep lethargy. Anything that helps consciousness, anything that makes you more alert toward the reality is included.
To me, sannyas does not mean renunciation; it means a journey to joy bliss. To me, sannyas is not any kind of negation; it is a positive attainment. But up to now, the world over, sannyas has been seen in a very negative sense, in the sense of giving up, of renouncing. I, for one, see sannyas as something positive and affirmative, something to be achieved, to be treasured.
A sannyas that withdraws from life turns into a bondage, into a prison; it cannot be freedom. And a sannyas that negates freedom is really not sannyas. Freedom, ultimate freedom is the very soul of sannyas. For me, sannyas has no limitations, no inhibitions, no rules and regulations. For me, sannyas does not accept any imposition, any regimentation, any discipline. For me, sannyas is the flowering of man's ultimate freedom, rooted in his intelligence, his wisdom.

        Related Link
        Osho - I have not stopped the sannyas movement
        Osho Sannyas - Daily routine and a discipline for a Sannyasin
        Osho on significance of wearing Orange clothes as a Sannyasin
        Osho - Sannyas happens only to a very few, rare human beings

^Top                                                                Back to Osho Discourses