Osho - Unless a man is creative, he cannot find much joy in life

Question - Beloved Osho, Sometimes life seems to be such a drag that I would rather like to die. Any advice?

Osho - There are many methods to die, but one thing: anybody who really wants to die never asks for advice. Living may be a drag, but death is very quick. All around you, there are so many ways.... But you don't want to die.

In fact, even the people who commit suicide don't want to commit suicide. They commit suicide because they expected too much from life and they could not get it. The failure was so great, that to live shamefully became difficult. They committed suicide not against life; they committed suicide because they could not manage to learn the art of life.
They wanted life to be a great benediction, and it was a drag. It seems to be a fallacy all over the world that just because you are born you know how to live. This is not right. To be born is one thing. To know the art of living and of living fully is totally different.

Birth is only an opportunity -- you can make it or mar it. Birth is not equivalent to life. Almost everybody thinks that birth is equivalent to life; so it is bound to become a drag -- just breathing, eating every day, going to sleep, waking up in the morning, going to the same office, the same files and the same routine. For idiots it is perfectly okay, but for anybody who has some intelligence it is bound to become drag. Because he can see -- what is the point? Why after all am I living? If tomorrow is again going to be just a repetition of today, as today has been a repetition of yesterday, then why go on living? What is the point of unnecessarily repeating the same circle, the same routine, the same happenings?

Osho on Creativity and Joy

But the fallacy is in the fact that you have accepted a wrong concept, that birth is life. Birth is only an opportunity. Either you can learn to live a beautiful life or you can just drag yourself towards the graveyard. It is up to you. There are people for whom life is a drag, and there are people for whom even death is a dance. I want to say to you that if you make your life an art, your death will be the culmination of the art -- the highest peak, a beauty in itself. Millions are there, who are in the same position as your question. They don't know why they are living and they don't know if there is any point in dying either. Life is futile -- how can death appear to be significant? So they are afraid of suicide also, because if life is such -- just a dark hole -- death is going to be even worse.

One day I saw Mulla Nasruddin with his gun, a rope, and a tin of kerosene oil. I said, "Where are you going, Mulla?"
He said, "Enough is enough. I was just coming to say goodbye to you. I am going to commit suicide."
I said, "But so many arrangements?"
He said, "You know me, I am a perfectionist. I don't take chances. I have made every arrangement."
I said, "Can I come just to watch, and just to wave when you are disappearing in smoke?"
He said, "You can come."

So I went with him and sat on a rock by the side of a river. He made the arrangements very efficiently. On a branch of a tree which was hanging over the river, he tied the rope by which he was going to hang himself.
I said, "Mulla, that's enough."
He said, "I don't believe it.... Unless I have done everything... no loopholes should be left."
He put his neck into the rope, poured the kerosene oil over himself.
I said, "Mulla, is it going to be real?"
He said, "What do you think?"

He lit a match, set fire to himself, and before jumping from the tree, he fired the gun -- the last resort -- at his head. But that's where everything went wrong -- the gun missed the mark and cut the rope and he fell into the river... naturally, the fire was finished, and he started swimming!
I said, "Mulla, what are you doing?"
He said, "What to do? I know how to swim."
I said, "This is strange. You arranged everything so well, but still there was a loophole, the swimming. You should not have started to swim. You should have remained there and died."
He said, "That's just it -- dying is not so easy. When I saw the gun had misfired, when I saw the water had put the fire out, it became clear: God wants me to live. And moreover, I know how to swim! It is impossible when you know swimming not to swim. Next time, some other arrangement...."

Nobody wants to die. And it is true that life is a drag. But it is not life that is a drag, it is you -- you have not learned the art of making life a joy, a thing of beauty, a piece of art.
Unless a man is creative, he cannot find much joy in life. So the first principle is: Be creative.

Don't bother whether you become a world-famous artist or not; that is not the significant thing. But create something -- a beautiful song, a little music, a dance, a painting, a garden. And when the roses blossom... you cannot say that life is a drag with so many roses blossoming. A beautiful painting... you cannot say life is a drag, because this painting has been created for the first time in the world and for the last time. Nobody has done it before, and nobody will do it again; only you were capable of doing it.

Express your uniqueness in whatsoever you do.
Express your individuality.
Let existence be proud of you.
Life will not be felt like a drag; it will become a fragrance. Not only will life be a joy and a dance -- for a creative person, for a meditative person, even death will be transformed.

I have always loved a story about Bokoju, a Zen master. He was ninety years old when he died. Three days before, he informed all his disciples: "If you want to come for the last goodbye, then come. In three days' time I am going to leave the world."

So thousands of his disciples came -- and he was one of the most unique masters Zen has produced. On the third day, in the morning there was a great gathering in his garden, and he was lying under his most beautiful tree.

He suddenly asked, "Just tell me one thing: In what way should I die? -- because I don't want to die like everybody else. Ninety-nine percent of people die in their beds." He said, "That is out of the question. Remove the bed from here!"

The bed is the most dangerous thing. Ninety-nine percent of people die there, and every night you go to bed without thinking of the danger. When the light is turned off, just put your mattress down on the floor. Then there is some chance of surviving -- death may try to search for you on the bed and may not be able to find you.

Bokoju said, "Take this bed away from here, and suggest something, something unique, worthy of Bokoju."
The disciples thought what to suggest? Somebody said that, "You can die sitting in a lotus posture. Many masters have died in the lotus posture."

But Bokoju said, "That is not very unique, because many people have died in that posture."
Somebody said, "You can die standing."
He said, "That seems to be appealing."
But one man objected; he said, "That's not right, because I know of a Zen master who died standing. It will not be unique."
Bokoju said, "It is very difficult. Find out quickly because my time is running out, and I cannot delay any more. So many idiots are here, and you cannot find just one unique way of dying for your beloved master?"
One man suggested, "Nobody has ever died standing on his head. You can do a headstand and die."
Bokoju said, "Perfectly right!"
He stood on his head and died.

Now the problem was... The disciples said, "What to do?" -- because they know what has to be done when a person dies in his bed. But what to do with this fellow who has died standing on his head?
Somebody said, "His elder sister, who is also a great master, lives just close by. It is better to call her and not to interfere, because this is a strange thing. We will be condemned later on if we don't do the right thing, so it is better to call somebody who can take responsibility."
The sister came and she said, "Bokoju! From your very childhood you have been mischievous -- and this is no time to be mischievous! Just lie down!"

And Bokoju laughed and said, "Okay sister -- because I cannot disobey you. I was almost dead. I was just waiting to see what these people would do trying to work out what to do with me after death. But these idiots have brought you here! And you always were a killjoy. You've destroyed the whole fun! Now I will die in the ordinary, orthodox way." And he died.
And his sister did not even look back, she just went away.
People said, "But he has died!"
She said, "It was time. He was delaying it. And it is not right to play jokes on existence. At least at the time of death one should be serious! Now he is dead, you do whatever you want to do. Even if he is not dead, finish him off -- his time is up!"

Make your life...
Find out why you are feeling bored. Change.
It is such a small life.
Take risks, be a gambler -- what can you lose?

We come with empty hands, we go with empty hands. There is nothing to lose. Just a little time to be playful, to sing a beautiful song, and the time is gone. Each moment is so precious. If you are silent, if you are creative, if you are loving, if you are sensitive to beauty, if you are grateful to this vast universe... There are millions of stars, which are dead -- and you are so small, yet you have the most precious thing in existence... life. And not only life, but the possibility of becoming a consciousness, of becoming enlightened, of coming to a space where death has never entered.

If Bokoju is not serious, the reason is because he knows there is no death, it is only changing houses, or changing clothes at the most. It is excitement -- even death is a great excitement and ecstasy. It is just your wrong approach. Drop it, and don't drop it slowly slowly, piece by piece. Drop it totally, instantly. When you go out of this place, go dancing and singing. Let the whole world think you are insane, that is far better.

Source - Osho Book "The Beloved, Vol2"

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