" You love a person, but you want the person to behave like a thing, completely in your hands. But you cannot love a thing, because a thing is dead and cannot respond to you. So if the other is really a person he cannot be possessed, he is like mercury: the more you try to keep him in your fist, the more he goes out – because to be a person means to be free. If he is a person, you cannot possess him; if you can possess him, he is no longer a person and you will not be able to love him. Then he is just a dead thing. Who can love a dead thing? You are mounted on two horses. You want a person like a thing, which is impossible! A person has to be free and alive, and only then can you love him. But then you feel difficult, you start possessing, and then you start killing him; you are poisoning. If he allows you this poisoning, sooner or later he will be just a thing. So wives become decorative pieces in the houses, husbands become just watchmen – but love disappears. And this is happening in all directions. you have been taught: Love the whole of humanity, be brotherly to each and everyone, love thy neighbor as thyself. And simultaneously you have been educated, brought up, conditioned, to compete, to compete with everyone. When you compete, the other is the enemy, not the friend. He has to be defeated, he has to be conquered; really, he has to be destroyed. And you have to be ruthless, otherwise the other will destroy you. If you are a competitor, then the whole society is the enemy, nobody is a neighbor, nobody is a brother. And you cannot love – you have to hate, you have to be jealous, you have to be angry. You have to be continuously ready to fight and win, and it is a hard struggle – if you are tender-hearted you are lost. To feel the contradiction a very mature intelligence is needed Is it not possible to live without faith and without doubt, not making a compromise? ... Because the compromise is going to be a poison: they are such contraries that your whole life will become a contradiction, and if contradiction is there you will be divided, split; schizophrenia will be the final result. Or, if you choose one and deny the other, then the benefits that were possible from the other are denied you. Doubt gives you protection against exploitation, faith gives you certainty – drop one and the benefit of it is also dropped. If you choose both you mount on two horses; if you make a compromise you create a division within your being – you are two, you become a crowd. Then what to do? Just understand the problem and get down from both horses – don’t make any compromise. Then a totally different sort of being, a totally different quality to your consciousness happens. But why are you not doing that? – because that quality needs alertness, that quality needs awareness. Then you need not doubt anybody, you simply have to be fully alert. Your alertness will be the protection against exploitation. If a fully alert man looks at you, you cannot deceive him; his very look will disarm you. And if he allows exploitation, it is not because you are cunning and cheating him, but because he is kind and allows you. You cannot cheat a fully alert man. It is impossible because he looks through you, you are transparent; he has such consciousness that you are transparent. If he allows you to cheat him it is because of his compassion. You cannot cheat him. If you choose one against the other, the other part will be offended, and the offended part of your being will take revenge. And it makes it very difficult, it makes life almost impossible to live. The more you try to live with one part, the more the other part disturbs all your planning, all your scheming; it comes up again and again. Then what to do? The way, the thing to be done, is not to choose. The thing is to understand the whole contradiction of your being. Not choosing, but becoming choiceless; not dropping one against the other – because you cannot drop one aspect of a thing." --- -- -- Excerpts from the Book " THE MUSTARD SEED" by OSHO

" You love a person, but you want the person to behave like a thing, completely in your hands. But
you cannot love a thing, because a thing is dead and cannot respond to you. So if the other is really
a person he cannot be possessed, he is like mercury: the more you try to keep him in your fist, the
more he goes out – because to be a person means to be free. If he is a person, you cannot possess
him; if you can possess him, he is no longer a person and you will not be able to love him. Then he
is just a dead thing. Who can love a dead thing?
You are mounted on two horses. You want a person like a thing, which is impossible! A person has
to be free and alive, and only then can you love him. But then you feel difficult, you start possessing,
and then you start killing him; you are poisoning. If he allows you this poisoning, sooner or later
he will be just a thing. So wives become decorative pieces in the houses, husbands become just
watchmen – but love disappears. And this is happening in all directions.
you have been taught: Love the whole of humanity, be brotherly to each and everyone,
love thy neighbor as thyself. And simultaneously you have been educated, brought up, conditioned,
to compete, to compete with everyone. When you compete, the other is the enemy, not the friend.
He has to be defeated, he has to be conquered; really, he has to be destroyed. And you have to
be ruthless, otherwise the other will destroy you. If you are a competitor, then the whole society is
the enemy, nobody is a neighbor, nobody is a brother. And you cannot love – you have to hate, you
have to be jealous, you have to be angry. You have to be continuously ready to fight and win, and it
is a hard struggle – if you are tender-hearted you are lost.

To feel the contradiction a very mature intelligence is needed

Is it not possible to live without faith and without doubt, not making a compromise? ... Because
the compromise is going to be a poison: they are such contraries that your whole life will become
a contradiction, and if contradiction is there you will be divided, split; schizophrenia will be the final
result. Or, if you choose one and deny the other, then the benefits that were possible from the other
are denied you. Doubt gives you protection against exploitation, faith gives you certainty – drop one
and the benefit of it is also dropped. If you choose both you mount on two horses; if you make a
compromise you create a division within your being – you are two, you become a crowd. Then what
to do?
Just understand the problem and get down from both horses – don’t make any compromise. Then
a totally different sort of being, a totally different quality to your consciousness happens. But why
are you not doing that? – because that quality needs alertness, that quality needs awareness. Then
you need not doubt anybody, you simply have to be fully alert. Your alertness will be the protection
against exploitation.
If a fully alert man looks at you, you cannot deceive him; his very look will disarm you. And if he
allows exploitation, it is not because you are cunning and cheating him, but because he is kind and
allows you. You cannot cheat a fully alert man. It is impossible because he looks through you, you
are transparent; he has such consciousness that you are transparent. If he allows you to cheat him
it is because of his compassion. You cannot cheat him.

If you choose one against the other, the other part will be offended, and the offended part
of your being will take revenge. And it makes it very difficult, it makes life almost impossible to live.
The more you try to live with one part, the more the other part disturbs all your planning, all your
scheming; it comes up again and again. Then what to do?
The way, the thing to be done, is not to choose. The thing is to understand the whole contradiction of
your being. Not choosing, but becoming choiceless; not dropping one against the other – because
you cannot drop one aspect of a thing."

--- -- -- Excerpts from the Book " THE MUSTARD SEED" by OSHO