Break all boundaries and become new

Break all boundaries and become new

"The destruction of the old becomes the foundation for the creation of the new. And those who are afraid of destroying are also incapable of creating." - Osho

In a very old town, there once was an ancient church whose walls had started collapsing. It was dangerous to go inside and slowly, slowly the people who used to attend the church stopped going. Even to pass by the side of the church was risky: it could collapse at any moment. Small gusts of wind would cause it to tremble. During the rainy season, the people of the town used to think that the thunder and lightning were the church collapsing.

Finally, a meeting of the church’s trustees was held to discuss what to do. They decided on a few resolutions. The first was that the old church should be demolished. It was a unanimous agreement. Their second resolution was that a new church should be built on the same spot. Everyone was in agreement with this as well. Their third resolution was the new church should only be built from the bricks of the old church. And everyone was in agreement with this too. And their fourth resolution was that until the new church was finished, the old church should not be demolished. Everyone agreed with that too.

In this world also, the temple of man’s mind has become very ancient. There is a possibility of it collapsing at any moment. Every time a slight crisis comes, the whole of mankind falls into danger. Many times, the so-called saviors of man have come together and they too have passed the same four resolutions. Today, I want to talk to you about those four resolutions in detail.

The first two resolutions are okay. The old temple should definitely be demolished and a new temple should definitely be built. But the new temple should not be built from the bricks of the old temple – nor can it be built from them because a temple built from the old bricks will not really be new. It will still be old; it will just be a transformation of the old.

So I would like to ask you: Are you dead or are you alive? Has your mind lost the ability to become new, or is it still intact?

So, I do not agree with the third resolution, and the fourth resolution is extremely idiotic: that until the new temple is built the old temple should not be demolished. The new temple has to be built on the same ground on which the old temple was built.

Only the death of the old temple can become the birth of the new. The end of the old is the beginning of the new. The destruction of the old becomes the foundation for the creation of the new. And those who are afraid of destroying are also incapable of creating.

Man is now living in a very old temple; we are all residents of this temple. And as long as we live in it, we cannot be fearless. This old temple of man’s mind is his illness, his disease, his sickness, and his insanity. Up till now, we have been worshipping the old, and the birth of the new has been very difficult. The truth is that the old should die permanently, and the old should die every moment.

Every year, these trees bear new leaves because the old leaves die. The old disappear every day, which is why there is the emergence of the new. But man’s mind is in such intense bondage with the old that the old cannot vanish from his mind. That bondage with the old is why the new cannot be born in man’s mind. And a person in whose mind nothing new can be born can only live under a delusion that he is alive. Actually, he died long ago. The old has no life. Real life is that which is ever new. That which becomes new every moment is life and one in whom the process of becoming new stops, is already dead.

So I would like to ask you: Are you dead or are you alive? Has your mind lost the ability to become new, or is it still intact? Can you become new or are you so badly tied to the old that no door in you remains open? Does your mind still have any energy left to become new and young?

You will have to think about these things, you will have to contemplate them. And if too many dead, old, and tattered bricks have gathered in your mind, then you will have to throw them away. If the old house is no longer worth living in, and if it is becoming the cause of your death, then you will have to demolish it. Only the total and proper awareness of this fact can lead man in the direction of the truth, life, and godliness. Life is never, ever old because godliness is never, ever old, truth is never, ever old. Truth is always new and the truth is always young.

Osho is known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, with an approach to meditation that acknowledges the accelerated pace of contemporary life.

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