Osho on Journalism - Journalism is corrupting humanity

Question - Beloved Master, I have spent three blissful weeks here, and next week Ii return to germany. I am not a sannyasin, but I have again been deeply impressed by the genuine spirit of this commune and by your discourses. It was the first time I have heard you speak, and your words have gone to my heart as well as to my brain. In germany I will be confronted with discussions from many different sides, mostly influenced by the press, who are known for their exaggerations and an ugly play with sensational news. I will do my best to destroy any misunderstanding and misbelief, and i am going to fight against any lack of goodwill. But i earnestly doubt whether I will succeed. What do you think I could do?

Osho - There are so many questions in your one question. Let me go into it step by step. First, truth needs no defense; only lies need defense. Truth needs no argument, it is self-evident. So the problem with truth is always how to convey it to the other person. Lies can be argued about. The other can be convinced about them; logic can be used to convince the other. Hence, I hate the word "missionary," because the missionary can only spread lies. He convinces, argues, quotes scriptures.

But truth needs nothing. Truth is enough unto itself. So, if you have felt something of truth here, just please don't try to convince anybody. You cannot succeed. Only make your experience available -- naked, with no logic, with no argument. Truth has its own way. It will come through the shine of your eyes, through the aura of your being, through your very presence, that you have been in a garden -- you are still fragrant.

A man who is standing with closed eyes -- you cannot convince him that there is light. But you can describe the beauties of light. As the sun rises, flowers start blossoming, birds start singing, the whole existence comes out of sleep refreshed, alive, younger. You can tell this to the man who is standing with closed eyes. This is not giving an argument for the existence of light; it is simply creating an urge in the man to open his eyes. And that urge exists in everyone.

There is not a single human being in the world who does not want to know beauty, to know love, to know truth. But the problem has been created by the missionaries, theologians, the so-called religious people. They try to convince him of something which needs to be experienced.

Be loving to your friends. If in Germany they can feel that something German has disappeared from you, you have given evidence. Be loving. Be rejoicing. Sing, dance with them. Let them feel your energy; in your singing, dancing, let them feel the difference. You cannot say it, but you can show it in every gesture, in every word, in every silence. Show the difference that has happened to you. Allow yourself to be available to your friends. Open all the doors and all the windows of your being so they can see that some ray of light has entered in you.

And if they inquire, tell them the only way is to come here, to be here. Man can go to the moon, which is a silly project, because what are you going to do on the moon? -- just stand there looking stupid! There is nothing to see, not even a juniper tree. Just create the urge in them sometimes to have a few days in this oasis. This is the first thing to remember.

The second thing: you say you are not a sannyasin. That is wrong -- you are. There are sannyasins who are not sannyasins; there are nonsannyasins who are sannyasins. Sannyas is not something outward, it is something inner. If you could enjoy these three weeks, you are already initiated. These three weeks are going to change your whole life.
So drop that idea that you are a nonsannyasin. Anybody who is so open, so available, so unprejudiced that, just being a visitor here, he fell in tune with the commune, its sincerity, its love -- the initiation has happened. The outer initiation may follow in its own time, there is no hurry. And even if it doesn't follow, it doesn't matter. What matters has happened!

Third: you say that my words have reached your heart and your brain. Just let them reach your heart. The brain is dangerous; it is German. The heart is human. And the brain is continuously distorting everything. So don't go via the brain, because the brain is conditioned by millions of years, by many lives, by many different stages, and anything moving through it cannot retain its purity. But it can be bypassed; there is no necessity to go through it.

We are being educated that everything should go through the brain. That is one of the strategies of the vested interests all over the world, because truth, love, beauty -- any great value going through the brain will not be the same by the time it reaches to the heart. In fact, it may have turned upside down. The brain distorts everything. It pollutes all that is innocent.

Learn to put the brain aside -- that's what I call meditation. Put the brain aside. Let me talk to you heart to heart. It is a totally different experience. Your heart starts beating in the same rhythm, a great synchronicity happens, and with it comes understanding, experience, vision, insight.

The brain cannot give anything to you; the brain is only a mechanism. Don't put things like love, truth, beauty, through any mechanism. They will be distorted, crippled, crushed; and by the time they reach to the heart they will be dead, they will not be breathing.

But this has been taught to us, that everything has to go through reason, through the brain, rationality. These are standing at the door of your heart; they guard your heart. They don't allow anybody in unless they are satisfied. And it is not possible for real values to satisfy them.

Yes, a theology can satisfy them, it can give all the arguments they want. But what argument can beauty give? What argument can you give that the sunset is beautiful? If some idiot starts asking, "Please give me a rational explanation of your statement. Why do you call the sunset beautiful?" you will be absolutely incapable of doing it.
This is what your brain is continuously doing. It won't allow beauty, truth, love, without their being searched, asked all kinds of questions -- inquiries to which they cannot provide answers; it is not in their nature.

So put the brain aside. Let the heart function in its own right, and you will start growing into new dimensions of being which were not available to you before. And then you will know that the brain is good as a servant, but not good as a master. A machine should always remain a servant, it should never become the master. Once a machine becomes a master, it destroys everything that has any intrinsic value. Those values are very delicate, very fragile.

Try to have a direct connection, from heart to heart, and see the tremendous revolution that comes to you. And then you can say the same thing to your friends back home: "What I have brought is something not of the mind, for the mind, from the mind; it is something of the beyond."

So if you can, put your friends' brains aside -- and if they are your friends this small thing can be done. If you cannot do it for a friend, then for whom are you going to do it? A friend wants to connect directly with your heart. There is no harm, no loss. So just tell them, "Don't argue about it. Just for a few moments let me hold your hand, let me hug you, and put the mind aside. Feel my warmth, my love, and let our hearts synchronize." You may be able... something may transpire. This is not missionary work. This is the work of pure love.

You say that you are afraid you may not succeed. If you try through the mind, it is certain you will not succeed. On the contrary, those people may succeed in destroying something that was growing in you. They will make you suspicious of your own experience. They may convince you: "Perhaps you were hypnotized. Perhaps seeing five thousand sannyasins, living amongst them, you became too gullible." And you may start thinking: Who knows? Was it true, or just my imagination? Was it true, or just my projection? Was it true, or did I have a dream? You cannot succeed in convincing them, but they can succeed.

Intellectually, destruction is very easy. Intellectually, to lead people to a creative experience is impossible. You are aware that all those people back home are full of negative attitudes, gossips, the sensational news that journalism thrives on. Journalism has not yet been able to become an art; it is still third-rate. It is unfortunate, because journalism has a tremendous power over people's thinking, being. Journalism simply lives on sensationalism. The more sensational news is, the more you can sell it to the masses.

There is an old saying: No news is good news. I feel it is not complete. I want to complete it: Good news is no news, because good news does not create sensationalism. Murder is needed, suicide is needed, rape is needed; all kinds of crimes are needed. But to go on feeding people on all this kind of news -- do you think you are serving humanity? Do you know the psychological effect of all this? A person who reads every morning about murders, suicides, rapes -- all kinds of crimes -- by and by becomes immune, it does not make him feel bad about it. It is the way life is; it is happening all over the world.

If war is the only reality that covers the front pages of all the newspapers, televisions, radios; if cunning politicians are the only people whose statements are always on the first page.... Have you seen, ever, on the first page, a musician's statement, a sculptor's statement, his photo, a poet's statement, his photo? No, they are not news. They are too good to be news.

Journalism is corrupting humanity. It is making people feel that crime is the way of life. If you are not committing crime, you are just a fool. Everybody is doing it and getting away with it. Criminals become presidents, prime ministers. You have never heard that a great scientific genius has become a president of a country, or a great guitarist has become a prime minister of a country. These people are struggling just to survive somehow. Perhaps they will live anonymously and die anonymously.

Do you know, in the times of Alexander the Great, how many poets there were? how many musicians there were? how many great creative artists there were? Not even in the footnotes of history are their names available. They lived anonymously. They made this life more beautiful, they made human experience more rich. They brought something from the beyond -- but they remained unknown and they will remain unknown. And what has Alexander the Great done, other than murdering thousands of people, burning cities, trying to conquer the whole world? This murderer becomes "the Great" Alexander.

This has to be changed. All politicians' names should disappear from the front pages of the newspapers, from magazines, television shows, radios. What do they have to give to the world? Why should people go on seeing the face of Ronald Reagan? -- just a third-rate cowboy film actor. What contribution has he made?

Is there no one in America who has contributed to life immensely? There are poets, musicians, there are people who have created great literature. The front pages of all the newspapers and magazines should be concerned with those who beautify life, who give something to existence, who don't destroy. Politicians should be pushed to the last page!
There is no need to continuously insist on murders, suicides. You may not think so, but it is absolutely certain that your insistence on these stories makes people, by and by, murderers, suicidal, criminals. Who is responsible for that? And now the world is so small that anything happening anywhere, immediately reaches within hours, through modern media, to every nook and corner of the earth.

Journalism should understand its responsibility: it is great. Up to now, it has been irresponsible. Its only interest is how to sell more, how to earn more. Whatever happens to human beings is not its concern. Journalism needs a total change.

A California University has been surveying and studying in California, for one year, what happens when there are boxing matches. By thirteen percent, crime immediately rises, and for one week steadily that thirteen percent increase remains. Then slowly it tapers off. Knowing this, still the government of California has not done anything. Boxing matches should be made a criminal offense! If they create a thirteen-percent rise in crime.... Those criminals will be punished -- and the real crime is coming from the boxing matches! It looks like such an insane world.

Stop such nonsense as boxing matches. But no, Muhammad Ali becomes a great hero -- and what has he done? What has he contributed? He may have broken a few people's ribs, a few people's noses, a few people's eyes, and he may have created a wave of crimes -- that is his contribution. And journalism will give great credit to him.

Journalists have to learn that it is time to become more mature, more responsible: they should understand that just selling stories, whether true or untrue, just for the sake of earning money -- without any concern what they are going to do to human beings.... It is poison that is being spread!

So I can understand your concern that journalism has been spreading all kinds of lies about me, and people believe them. People have a certain psychology: they believe anything which is printed. It becomes something very significant that it is printed: it must be true.

Just the other day -- I do not understand German, fortunately -- Sheela, in one of her interviews given to the German sensationalist magazine STERN, a twenty-five-page interview full of lies, not a single word true in it.... I just looked at the translation quickly, because what is the point of going through all those lies? And you see how journalism works.... After that, the STERN representative was here interviewing me, but he never mentioned Sheela's interview, neither did he bring any question: "Sheela has brought such-and-such allegations against you and the commune" -- not a single point.

Do you see the cunningness? He knew perfectly well that I would contradict it and say the truth; then it would be difficult. And they have been living on lies. He asked many questions, but not a single question related to Sheela's interview.

So certainly, back in Germany, you will be faced, encountered by people who are just full of such nonsense, garbage. Don't argue with them. Just tell them, "The best way to know is to go there. It is an experience. I had also the same ideas you have, because I have also read all these magazines and watched the television shows, and naturally I had believed."

Humanity is raised in such a way as to believe that anything that is brought on the television screen, on the radio, in the newspapers, has a validity. Nobody bothers to inquire about the truth. And anybody can come here and inquire of my people, "What kind of nonsense is this?" This is the only place in the whole world where there is no prostitution, for the simple reason that we don't believe that married partners should monopolize each other.

My basic approach is that the more you love, the more freedom you give to the other. Even the freedom that, if your woman wants to go with a man just for two days on a holiday, you will be immensely happy that she will be happy. You are not her owner, she is not a thing. You love her and you want her to be happy; if this is her happiness, then she can go. There is no need to hide it, there is no need to pretend. Things are frank here in the commune. And for two days she is free, for two days you are also free. You may have been attracted to another woman -- because there is no natural law that you can only be attracted to your wife. In fact, it is very difficult to be attracted to your wife. That is the last woman in the world you can be attracted to.

Two days' freedom for you... and after two days, when you meet again, it is as if a fresh relationship begins. Those two days have given a break -- a love break, just like a tea break, a coffee break. I don't know the English language exactly, but I don't care either. If I can manage to make you understand, that's enough: love break! And in two days' time she realizes that all men are alike. In two days' time you realize all women are alike: just put the light off and there is no difference. A great reunion, again a small honeymoon....

There is no need for prostitutes in this commune. Prostitutes exist in the society where marriage is a monopoly, where marriage is ownership; there is no way to have just a little holiday. Female prostitutes have existed always -- it is called the oldest profession -- but now there are male prostitutes also. That is the latest profession.

But in this commune there is neither a female prostitute nor a male prostitute -- and there is no need for a pimp. What will he do? He will simply die, seeing that he is not needed at all. People are making their arrangements themselves. He was needed very much in the outside society, as a mediator. The man cannot directly manage to find a prostitute, he has to save his respectability. The prostitute cannot manage to find a man, because it is absolutely unfeminine to go to a man and to say, "I want to sell myself to you for one night." The pimp was a necessary link. It helped the prostitute to remain feminine. It helped the man to protect his reputation, his children, his parents, his wife, his family, his society. Everybody believes that he is really a proper husband, this is an ideal couple. The pimp functions, does a very necessary work. But in the commune there is no need for a pimp.

Tell those people that if they have any questions which third-rate journalism has created in them.... And I emphasize it! -- all journalism is third rate. There is only yellow journalism, there is nothing else. It has not yet become an art. It has to become an art.
So tell those people, "I had also believed in all these lies. They simply disappeared the way dewdrops disappear in the morning sun. You just go and experience -- there is no other way."

Source - Osho Book "From Bondage to Freedom"

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