“Misunderstanding is Natural” – OSHO

A sannyasin asks about the way in which people misunderstand what Osho is
teaching, particularly in reference to sex.

It has always been so. People live in such an unconscious state that it is almost
impossible for them to understand anything. Misunderstanding comes natural to
them. The mind functions as a distorting mechanism. They cannot see what is.
They project something onto it, and they never become aware that they go on
seeing their own projection.

If somebody is sexually obsessed, whatsoever he says, whatsoever he hears,

whatsoever he sees, will somehow be colored by his obsession. And humanity has
lived under sexual obsessions. Religions have repressed so much that every
human being is a victim so he cannot see what is. He distorts it and gives it a color
of his own. He cannot even listen because the moment the words enter him, they
no more have the same meaning.

So what I say is not necessarily what is heard. People will listen with their own
minds. And my words have to go through their thoughts. By the time it reaches
their being, it is almost unrecognisable.

People have no right vision, no right listening, no right understanding. But that is
understandable. They cannot have it. If it were otherwise it would be miraculous.
So they have always done that. When Socrates or Jesus or Buddha is there, they
do the same again and again and again. They misunderstand, and upon their
misunderstanding, organizations arise, churches are built, dogmas and creeds are
settled, theologies throb. They are all based, not on Jesus, but on the
misunderstanding of people who thought that they understood Jesus.
So this strange thing happens — that Christianity is based on the
misunderstanding of Christ, not on Christ. Buddhism is based on the
misunderstanding of Buddha, not on what Buddha was. So every religion is the
enemy of its own founder. And it is very difficult to sort it out because there are
two thousand years of misunderstanding and accumulation and argument. Now it
is almost impossible to sort out what Jesus was like, what exactly he was saying. It
is so distant and the interpretations are so many. Thick is their crowd… centuries
of tradition. They have prestige and they have power — they are the authority.

Misunderstanding is the whole history of the human being. And it is

tremendous! I am here but people will not come to me. They will listen to
somebody and will form a prejudice. They will ask you but they will not come to
the ashram and see what is happening here. That too is a defense, because if they
come, perhaps, maybe truth will be so much that it may not allow them to
misinterpret it. The fact may be so heavy that they will not be able to carry their
fiction. So they don’t come close to the fact; they avoid it. Then it is very easy and
cosy — their own mind, their own prejudices, and they go on applauding
themselves. But they are not fooling anybody. They are just fooling themselves.
And these people have always missed.

In India there has been a great mystic, Kabir. He says, ‘Never believe in the ears
— just believe in the eyes. All that you have heard is false. All that you have
seen is true.’

This should be carried as a constant remembrance because we are human beings

and we tend to say falacies. We are part of this whole mad world, and that
madness is inside every human being. It has not to be allowed to overpower you.
One has to remember continuously. And if this much can be done…. It is arduous,
because prejudices are very comfortable and easy; you don’t have to pay for
them. Truth is costly, precious. You have to pay much. In fact you have to put your
whole life at stake. Then you arrive at it. But only truth liberates.
So looking at other people and the functioning of their mind, always remember
that the same type of mind is hidden in you also. So never listen to it. It will
persuade you; it will argue, it will try to convince you. Just tell it, ‘I will see for
myself. I am still alive. I can encounter whatever is needed.’

That is the difference between belief and trust. Belief Is through the mind. Trust
is through your own experience. Belief is just intellectual. Trust is total.

– OSHO
[A Rose is a Rose is a Rose(Chapter 6)]