three quotes from Tao: The Pathless Path, Chapter Five
A collection of quotes from Chapter Five: Best Be Still, Best Be Empty of “Tao: The Pathless Path” by Osho
Lao Tzu says to his disciples, “If you want to live long, become useless.” But remember, his meaning of the word useless is: don’t become a commodity, don’t become a thing. If you become a thing you will be sold and purchased in the market, and you will become a slave. If you are not a thing, who can purchase you and who can sell you?
Lao Tzu says, “Become a nonentity so that nobody looks at you and you can live your life as you want to live it. Nobody comes to interfere with you.” It happened that Lao Tzu’s disciple, Chuang Tzu, became very famous and the emporer sent his ministers to invite him to become the prime minister. Lao Tzu was very angry. He said, “ You must have done something wrong, otherwise why should the emporer become interested in you? You must have proved yourself of some use. You must have missed my teaching, otherwise how come that the emporer has become interested in you? Now you will never be at rest.
Thoughts cannot be stopped directly- let it be very deeply understood. Let it sink in your being: Thoughts cannot be stopped directly because thoughts are nothing but the servants of desires. When desire is there, you cannot stop thoughts. The master is there; the servants are bound to follow.
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