War and Peace (Osho)

BELOVED OSHO,

I SEEM TO HAVE HEARD YOU SAY THAT PEOPLE ARE ATTRACTED TO WAR BECAUSE IT

IS EXCITING, WHEREAS PEACE IS BORING. IN MY OWN EXPERIENCE I SEEM TO ENJOY

INDULGING MY PERSONAL DRAMAS AND TRAUMAS, AND WHEN I’M NOT INDULGING THEM

LIFE IS A BIT FLAT. IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE ATTRACTED TO PEACE? WILL THE NEW HUMANITY

FIND PEACE, RATHER THAN WAR, EXCITING?

It has never happened. Man has never found peace exciting. It seems that the way man is, war

certainly will remain exciting, because the peace that you know is not the real peace; it is the peace

of a cemetery, not the peace of this mandir! No war is going on, everything is silent – do you think it

is flat?

The new man will know this peace twenty-four hours round the clock, waking or sleeping. And the

peace that is not only absence of war but a positive flowering within you, a positive wordless song

within you, is totally different.

Up to now man has known peace, but that peace was only preparation for war. History can be divided

into two parts: the period when people are fighting, and the period when people are exhausted, tired,

ruined, preparing for another war from scratch. War or preparation for war: these are the only two

periods human history has known up to now.

Peace has never been known, because peace is something which the individual has to create. War

is something which the crowd, the nation, the politician, the ideologies, the churches create. Peace,

each individual has to create. It will be far better to say that he has to discover it, because it has not

to be created, it is already there inside you.

But you are surrounded so much by the mind and its turmoil, you never come to hear the still, small

voice within you. And if you cannot hear even the still, small voice within you, how can you taste

peace – which is beyond that voice – where you simply exist? There is no thought in the mind, no

emotion in the heart. In that nothingness you come to know, for the first time, the taste of peace.

I am saying it from my own experience. For thirty-two years I have been in that peace, and I have

not found it for a single moment flat. It is always opening new doors, new dimensions, new depths.

When for the first time you know your inner peace, you think, ”This is the end.” Soon you have to

change this idea, because the peace goes on growing. And the day comes when you understand

that there is no end, the peace is going to become as vast as the universe itself – and the universe

has no limits.

You must be feeling flat when you are not passing through some drama or trauma, because in your

life what have you got? If there is nothing going on: a fight, a love affair, a marriage, a divorce,

fighting for an election or going bankrupt – if all these things are not going on around you, naturally

you feel flat. It seems nothing is happening, time has stopped; you feel dead.

It is a well-established fact that whenever there is war in the world, wherever it is, people look more

happy, excited. They wake up early in the morning waiting for the newspaper to come. What is

happening? What has happened last night? They cannot wait, they want to know it immediately.

People are carrying their transistors glued to their ears not to miss a single bit of information. Life is

no longer flat, there is excitement, because every moment something new is happening – victory or

defeat, something is happening. You can look forward to some news. When there is no war, then

tomorrow’s newspaper will be carrying exactly the same as today’s news.

I used to live in a place... just in front of my house lived the family of a doctor. The doctor was

thought to be a little crazy; still, he was a good doctor. People used to come to him, knowing

perfectly well that he was a little crazy – but as far as his profession was concerned he was perfectly

sane. He used to come every day in the early morning to my house, to read all the newspapers and

magazines available there. He would come and ask for the latest newspaper.

One day I gave him a newspaper of the same date but from the year before. And he enjoyed it, he

loved it. He said he had never expected these things to happen, because they didn’t seem to be

connected with yesterday’s newspaper.

I said, ”Now that I know that, every day you will be excited.”

He said, ”But how did you do it?”

I said, ”This newspaper is one year old.”

He said, ”My God! If reading old newspapers makes you so excited, why have you been keeping it a

secret from me? Sometimes I used to wonder why you go on collecting old newspapers, magazines.

Now I know! Now I don’t care whether today’s newspaper comes or not. There are so many piled

up in your room. I can pull one out from anywhere, and it will be exciting.”

People are excited with something that is unexpected. Politicians rule over you because they provide

excitement. Wars have been condemned for centuries but nobody listens, because everybody

knows that a long peace will be so flat – people will start committing suicide, there is nothing

happening.

Just think of one year... no news happens. You just go on waiting and waiting and waiting. Then

finally you decide to create news yourself: you commit suicide or you murder somebody. Something

has to be done to break this peace.

In one of the dramas of an existentialist philosopher, a man is brought before the court because he

has killed a stranger, someone whom he had never known before. He had not even seen the man’s

face. The man was sitting on the beach looking at the sea, and this fellow came from behind with a

big dagger and pushed it into his back.

He had never seen that man before; he did not even see him while he was murdering him. What

could be the cause? – because that stranger was absolutely innocent.

The man was, of course, caught and presented before a court. The judge was also puzzled. He

inquired of a few witnesses, ”Is this man mad?”

They said, ”No. In our neighborhood, this is the most rational and sane man.” The judge was trying

to find out something in his past which could make some sense of this act which he had done.

One man said, ”I remember one thing, that when his mother died, it was Sunday morning, and we

were both sitting in the garden. He said, ‘I knew that old bitch was going to spoil my beautiful holy

day. Now, couldn’t she have died on Friday, or Tuesday, or Monday? Why on Sunday? I was ready

to go boating on the lake, and I have to cancel my whole program.’”

The neighbor said, ”That day I thought this man was strange. His mother dies and he says, ‘That

woman died purposely on Sunday. She was always making efforts to spoil all my happiness. Even

in death she continued her old habit.’”

Another witness said, ”When all the proceedings for the funeral were over, this man immediately

rushed to the house of his girlfriend, and they went to see a movie. In the morning, the mother dies;

by the evening, he is at a movie with his girlfriend.”

A third witness said, ”That is nothing, because after the movie, he was drinking and dancing! His

behavior has always been a little bizarre.”

The magistrate asked the man himself, ”Do you have any explanation for these things?”

He said, ”For everything that I have done I have explanations. My mother dies on Sunday morning:

my Sunday, my plan to go to the lake is spoiled – is it wrong to say it clearly, rather than repress it?

And anyway whether I say it or not, my mother is dead, so what difference does it make?

”And certainly I was angry. She could have died... there are seven days in the week – why choose

Sunday especially? And she knew, because the previous night I had told her, ‘Tomorrow morning I

am going to the lake.’ And I am absolutely certain she died on purpose because she was the only

one who knew that I was going to the lake in the morning. And as I was preparing to leave, she died.

You think I have to give an explanation, or does that dead woman have to give an explanation?”

The magistrate said, ”Okay. About that nothing can be done; your mother is dead, she cannot be

asked. It may have been just a coincidence. But does it look right to you that in the morning your

mother dies and in the evening you go to a movie? And in the night you are found in a nightclub

drinking, dancing – do you think it looks right?”

He said, ”Absolutely right. Because now, whenever I go to a movie it will be after my mother’s death.

Do you mean that for the rest of life I cannot go to a movie? Whenever I go to the nightclub and

drink and dance, it will be after my mother’s death. Do you want me to commit suicide because now

I cannot enjoy anything – it is after my mother’s death? And what difference does it make whether

her death was ten hours ago or ten days ago, or ten years ago?”

There was great silence in the court. The man looked rational, what he was saying was meaningful.

”Now everything I am going to do is going to be after my mother’s death! What do you want me to

do? Should I also die with my mother because now there is no point in living any longer; will I be a

criminal if I live? If I laugh, somebody will say, ‘What? You are laughing, and your mother is dead?’

And the time factor... can you tell me what is the demarcation line? Ten hours, twelve hours, ten

days, twelve days, ten years, twelve years? And what is the criterion to decide that now it is all right

to dance and drink – now let my mother be dead.

”I thought that if I am to love, I have to accept the fact that my mother is dead; and then there is no

point in wasting time. Moreover I had purchased those two tickets already. Wasting those two tickets

over a dead person, I don’t think is sane.”

The magistrate said, ”Drop all these things. You just tell me exactly why you killed that man on the

sea beach. You had never known him, he had never done any harm to you. You were not even

aware whom you were killing.”

The man said, ”It is very simple. My life was going very flat. I used to think, ‘Once my mother is gone

there will be peace.’ But once she had gone everything became flat. I would come home drunk in

the middle of the night and nobody was there to nag me and instruct me as to what time to come

home, what to do and what not to do. Life became flat, and I wanted some excitement. And I got it.

Does it matter whom I killed?”

He said, ”When I pushed the dagger into the man’s back, and a fountain of blood came out, for the

first time in years I was excited: what was happening? Something new! I have never seen a fountain

coming out of a man’s back. Red blood! Yes, I do not know who the man was, I have no enmity with

him. I have not killed him for any reason except for my own excitement. And I got it, and since then

life has been very exciting.

”I escaped, and the police chased me; finally I was caught, then I was jailed. Things started moving!

And now I am standing in the court listening to all these idiots who are my neighbors. And it gives me 

great joy to contradict what they are saying. And you are sitting there looking so silly, and these

people are saying, ‘Your Honor.’

”It is hilarious, I have never enjoyed life so much! And I am already tremendously excited waiting

for the judgment, to see whether I am released, whether I am sent to a mental hospital, or I am

sentenced to death, or twenty years’ imprisonment. There are so many alternatives in my mind.”

This man is you.

People are doing all kinds of things just to feel excited. And when the whole world becomes dull,

starts feeling stale, flat, some politician comes as a savior to you, an Adolf Hitler. Many people in

the world are waiting for another Adolf Hitler – life is becoming flat. That man made the five years

from 1940 to 1945 tremendously exciting. I don’t think there has ever been such a long period so

full of excitement for the whole world. Adolf Hitler should be given as many Nobel Prizes as possible

for making the whole world alive, thriving, their hearts beating faster. They are still waiting.

I received – I could never have conceived it – I received a letter from the American Nazi party. Can

you think that in America there is a Nazi party? I got the letter from the president of the party, and he

was very angry, ”Because,” he said, ”you have been continually speaking against Adolf Hitler; and it

hurts our religious feelings.” Even I was excited! This is really great: ”religious feelings”?

And later on his letter said, ”Perhaps you do not know that he was the reincarnation of the Old

Testament prophet, Elijah. Soon he will come to deliver humanity from all misery and suffering.”

I can understand this man, his party. Their lives have become flat, they are ready even to make Adolf

Hitler a religious prophet. They are ready to do anything, but excitement is needed. After each ten

or fifteen years the flatness becomes so thick in everybody’s mind that a war becomes a certainty.

Any excuse will do.

Forty years have passed since the second world war. This is the longest period. The credit does not

go to you, the credit goes to the nuclear weapons, because both the parties which are capable of

fighting, the Soviet Union and America, are afraid. They know perfectly well nobody is going to win,

that everybody is going to be finished forever. The whole of life on the earth is going to disappear.

It does not matter who starts the war, the other party will start only ten minutes later. So anybody can

start, it does not matter. The other party will be only ten minutes late, and in ten minutes you cannot

be victorious. You can destroy a few cities, but you cannot be victorious. Your missiles are aiming

at Moscow; their missiles are aiming at New York, Washington, San Francisco – just a push-button

game.

They are frozen out of fear, that’s why forty years have passed. And I know that unless the war

begins accidentally, the third world war is almost impossible. It is very close, any moment it can

happen, but it will be just an accident: some technological defect, some scientist getting nagged

too much by his wife, some politician losing his power, his grip, some country wanting to have the

attention of the whole world, some crackpot somewhere. There are so many crackpots, and most of

them are in politics.

Pots without cracks don’t go into politics; they have other, useful things to do. A crackpot is of no use.

That’s why politics is the only profession in the world where no qualification is needed. Everybody is

perfectly qualified.

Now there is so much power in the hands of the politicians that they themselves are afraid. They

would like to win the war, but it is impossible; both the parties are equally balanced. And the war is

not going to be between two countries; nuclear weapons will spread it all over the world. Perhaps

within twenty-four hours all life on earth will disappear. This is frightening. That’s why the war has

not happened, and perhaps may not happen. But it is always very close; anything can go wrong.

I was just talking to one journalist, and I was saying to him that you should not depend on machines.

And now the whole war game is not between man and man – that is out of date – the whole war

game is between technological nuclear weapons. Even the missiles which will carry the weapons

will not have any pilots with them, there is no need. The missile itself can be programmed where to

go, where to drop the bomb.

I was saying to him that man has become so dependent on technological machines that anything

can go wrong any moment. And when I said this, the electricity went off! The journalist had nothing

to say anymore. The proof was there! I said, ”Now we can move onto another subject. This is

finished.”

I understand that you are in a very difficult situation. You would love to live in peace, but peace

seems to be flat; nothing is happening, you are almost in your grave. To avoid being in such a dead

state, you go on doing something or other – falling into a love affair, chasing a man or a woman;

and then the whole drama of overpowering each other, of dominating each other, fighting.... That

too does not seem to be good – every night a pillow fight. It does not seem good, but excitement is

there.

Every husband on his way home is thinking of excuses why he is late, figuring out where he has

been, what to say, what not to say. And the woman is figuring out... she has phoned all his friends’

houses and she has collected all the information that she knows he will use for his excuses.

Yes, there is drama. You tell her, ”I have been with one of my friends; we met after such a long time.”

And the woman laughs, and she says, ”Don’t be stupid, your friend has been here! Now I don’t

think your friend is a Jesus Christ who can be in two places simultaneously.” You are caught. Every

husband feels guilty, the woman is angry, he is trying to persuade her....

At least all these dramas and traumatic experiences keep you from falling into that space you call

flat. But at such a cost. The peace is flat, the excitement is a torture; you are caught in a dilemma.

The reason is that you don’t know what real peace is. Just not to fight, not to get involved again with

another woman, not to go to the pub and drink too much and beat others and be beaten.... You can

avoid all these things. You can just close your door and sit inside your room, but you will not find

peace. The question is not of the room and you, the question is of your mind.

Your mind is born out of the monkeys. Your mind is a monkey. Have you seen a monkey sitting

silently? That would be a miracle. The monkey is always doing something or other – jumping from

one tree to another tree in search of excitement. He is bored with peace. Even if you have not done

anything, just look at the monkey and he will make faces at you. What is he doing? He is just trying

to create some entertainment.

He will start running after you. If you run, then he will enjoy it very much. Great excitement, although

there is no point. If you stop and turn back, the monkey will go up the tree; he does not mean

business, it was just a game. He was feeling flat, you were feeling flat, and it was a good game.

Both became excited.

Your mind is constantly seeking and searching for some involvement, some trouble, because the

peace is really killing, poisonous.

Let me repeat: this is not the peace which I am talking about. That peace comes out of meditation,

that peace comes when you come out of your mind and become centered as a witness, just watching

the mind without any judgment, without any evaluation, without saying, ”This is good, this is bad,

this is really groovy.” If you do such things, then you have already jumped in and become identified

with the monkey. The moment you say, ”This is groovy,” you cannot remain outside; you are on the

track again.

You have simply to be a witness, like a mirror that gives no judgment – a beautiful woman, a

Cleopatra, or Mother Teresa, it makes no difference.

One journalist was asking me about Mother Teresa, and he said, ”I agree with you on almost all the

points, but why are you against Mother Teresa? She is a beautiful woman....” And he was shocked

to think of marrying Mother Teresa. Then he understood it is not easy to use any word in front of me

just like that: ”She is a beautiful woman.” Then he must have remembered her face. Are you going

to make love to the Nobel prize? What are you going to do with that woman? Then in his mind he

must have understood that she is exactly the type of woman that Christians were burning alive in

the Middle Ages – witches. She is exactly that type.

I know her. I would prefer to remain in hell for eternity than to get married to Teresa the Terrible!

But the most difficult thing in your life – which should really be the easiest – is to sit by the side of

the flow of your mind. Your mind is just like a river. Thoughts and thoughts and a crowd of thoughts

go on passing. You simply sit by the bank, unconcerned, just a witness, and you are in for a great

surprise.

Slowly slowly, as you become more and more centered and simply a witness, thoughts start

disappearing. They can exist only with your identification. You give energy to your mind. When

you pull yourself out, you have stopped giving nourishment to the mind. And once there is no

nourishment – thoughts are very fragile things – they start dying out.

Soon there is silence, there is peace. And this peace is not the peace of a cemetery. This peace is

not dead, it is not flat. It is such a tremendous experience that once you have reached the first rung

of the ladder, the ladder goes to infinity. You can go on and on discovering new layers of peace. This

is the real excitement, unending excitement.

That’s the meaning of the word ”ecstasy”: unending excitement. You cannot exhaust it, you cannot

come to a point where you say, ”There is no more to discover and I am feeling flat.” It has never

happened. on my own authority I say to you, I have been going as fast as possible, deeper and

deeper into silence, but there is no bottom, there is no limit.

Each moment of silence brings new fragrance. Peace brings new flowers. Nothing is said, but much

is heard. Nothing is shown, but much is seen. Nobody guides you, but some magnetic force of

peace itself takes you farther and farther away from the mind, from the body, from the neighbors,

from the wife, from the husband. And the excitement is continuously deepening.

Unless we can create millions of people around the earth who have experienced this kind of peace,

war is inevitable, because people cannot survive flat lives. It is better to go into a war and have a

little excitement, although it means death.

If a man who has not known inner peace is forced to live peacefully, he will either murder or kill

himself. Even that will provide some excitement. Excitement is a great nourishment, but only the

right kind of excitement is nourishment. The wrong kind of excitement is poison. And up to now

humanity has been dominated by the wrong kind of excitement.

You are here with me to learn a very simple thing: to enjoy peace, to enjoy silence, to enjoy

something that is within you and you do not have to depend on others for. Such a peaceful man

radiates peace for others too. His silence starts touching other hearts too. His silence becomes

oceanic and very inviting.

That’s what I am doing here.

Last night, a very nice, juicy journalist was with me. And he was constantly asking me, ”Why don’t

you go out into the world to teach people meditation, silence, or whatsoever you name it?”

It was difficult for him to understand that the well never goes to the thirsty. And remember, if the

well goes towards the thirsty, the thirsty will escape! Seeing a well coming towards him, he will do

anything but stand there where he was standing. He is thirsty, that is true, but that does not mean

that wells have to come towards him. The well has to remain where it is.

And what to say of an oceanic peace? The well is a small thing; you can miss it, you may not be

able to find it. I am not a well. The whole world knows about this ocean. Few are the friends of the

ocean, many are the enemies of the ocean – but on one point they all agree, that the ocean is there.

I told the journalist, ”I create friends, I create enemies, but I never create a person who can ignore

me. I am not ignored. And there is no difficulty; the friend and the foe are just superficially different.

The friend will reach me first, and sooner or later the foe will be following. He has already become

connected with me – with his hate, with his hostility. He has already married me!” It is only a question

of time. He will be watching what is happening to those who are friends.

It all depends on you. If you become peaceful, silent, loving, you will create everywhere a certain

area of loving energy. People will start stopping you in the street and asking you what has happened

to you – it is something invisible, but very tangible. I am going to remain here. You are going to

spread like waves in the ocean to the whole earth.

I am not fighting against the third world war, for the simple reason that there is only one way to fight

it, and that is to create a peaceful humanity, a humanity which refuses to fight because now there

is no excitement in fighting. Now there is excitement in sitting silently, doing nothing and letting the

grass grow by itself. You have found real, authentic excitement. Now who cares to fight?

I am not directly a pacifist, I am not taking protest marches to Washington or Moscow. But I am

creating and generating a force which can envelop the whole earth. And that will be the barrier

against nuclear weapons, wars, and all kinds of stupidities.

Just recognize your responsibility. Man was never required to be so responsible as he is required

to be today, because upon him rests the whole thing – of whether the earth is going to be alive,

thriving, flowering, or is going to be a dead planet.

Osho, <From Death To Deathlessness> CH.4