Zen Commandments - Osho

My first request or invitation is Don't let your doubt die.
That is the most precious thing you have got, because it is doubt that oneday is going to help you discover the truth.I would like it to be my firstrequest to you: doubt until you discover. Do not believe until you come toknow yourself. Once you believe, you will never be able to know on yourown.Doubt, and go on doubting until you come to a point that you cannotdoubt anymore. And you cannot doubt anymore only when you come to knowsomething on your own. Then there is no question of doubt, there is no wayto doubt. So this is my first request.

My second request: Never imitate
The mind is an imitator, because imitation is very easy. To be someone isvery difficult. To become someone is very easy -- all that you need is tobe a hypocrite, which is not much of a problem. Deep down you remain thesame, but on the surface you go on painting yourself according to someimage,this is not in the very nature of the universe. It only createsunique beings. It has no idea at all of carbon copies, duplicators,cyclostyled material; existence has no idea -- just the original. And eachindividual is so unique and original. Anything original has beauty,freshness, fragrance, aliveness. Anything that is imitated is dead, dull,phony, plastic.So the second request is: Don't imitate. If you want to know who you are,please avoid imitation, that's a way of avoiding knowing yourself

My third request is: Beware of knowledge
So the third thing is to beware of knowledge, to be so alert that wheneveryou want, you can put your knowledge aside and it will not block yourvision. It will not come between you and reality.Knowledge is a barrier to life.Put aside your knowledge! And then look withempty eyes...and life is a constant surprise. And I am not talking aboutsome divine life -- the ordinary life is so extraordinary. In smallincidents you will find the presence of God -- a child giggling, a dogbarking, a peacock dancing. But you can't see if your eyes are covered withknowledge. The poorest man in the world is the man who lives behind acurtain of knowledge.The poorest are those who live through the mind. Therichest are those who have opened the windows of no-mind and approachedlife with the no-mind.

The fourth thing... I will not say "pray" because there is no God to prayto.
My word for prayer is love. Forget the word prayer, replace it withlove.Love is not for some invisible God. Love is for the visible -- humanbeings, animals, trees, oceans, mountains. Spread your wings of love as farand wide as you can.

The fifth thing I would like to say to you: Live moment to moment.
Go on dying every moment to the past. It is finished. There is no need evento label it good or bad. The only thing to know is: it is finished, it isno more. It is going to be no more... gone and gone forever; now why wastetime about it?
Never think of the past, because you are wasting the present, which is theonly real thing in your hand. And never think of the future, because nobodyknows how tomorrow is going to be, what tomorrow is going to be, how it isgoing to turn out, where you are going to land -- you cannot imagine.

Remain in the moment, true to the moment, utterly here now, as if there hasbeen no yesterday and there is going to be no tomorrow -- only then can yoube here now totally. And that totality of being in the present joins youwith existence, because existence knows no past, no future. It is alwayshere now. Existence knows only one tense that is the present tense. It islanguage which creates three tenses, and creates three thousand tensions inyour mind. Existence knows only one tense, and that is present: and it isnot a tension at all, it is utterly relaxing. When you are totally here, noyesterdays pulling you back and no tomorrows pulling you somewhere else,you are relaxed.

To me, to be in the moment is meditation, to be utterly in the moment. Andthen it is so beautiful, so fragrant, and so fresh. It never gets old. Itnever goes anywhere.

It is we who come and pass; existence remains as it is. It is not time thatpasses, it is we who come and pass. But it is a fallacy: rather than seeingthat we are passing, we have created a great invention, the clock -- timepasses. Just think, if there is no man on the earth will there be any timepassing? Things will be all there, the ocean will still be coming to thebeach, crashing its waves on the rocks. The sun will rise, the sun willset, but there will be no morning, there will be no evening. There will beno time as such. Time is a mind invention, and basically time can existonly with yesterdays and tomorrows; the present moment is not part of time.When you are simply here, just now, there is no time. You are breathing,you are alive, you are feeling, you are open to everything that ishappening all around.

When your every moment starts becoming meditation, you are religious.