Lhce Happens...? Where Are We
When it Does?
BYAMARESH
When I look back at my life I remem‑
ber everything good that happened
and everything “not so good” that hap‑
pened. Today, when both are over, I
only feel that without one the other
could n o t exist. Be it a relationship fall‑
ing apart, be it a promotion coming my
way, be it a financial loss in a business,
be it a medical surgery that I needed, be
it an investment I made ‐ I look at all of
it and realize that all of it was needed to
make me what I am today.
Osho has been in my life since I was five years old ‑
probably one of the last of my generation who saw
H i m in person, listened to H i m in discourses, and
meditated with H i m live. Since I have been with H i m
I have known that His "Zen hits” will keep coming
at me with a reminder to look w i t h i n , to meditate,
to slow down and witness, to ask myself what is the
most important thing to me in my life. Is it the n e x t
better house? Is it financial security? Is it job satisfac‑
tion? Is it making more money?Is it a better luxury
car? Is it a n e w business venture? Is it a nice bonus?
Will any of this make me satisfied? Will any of this
make me happy inside?
A l l the time I am asking myself these questions I
know that I am looking for something else besides all
of the above, that something else is within me: my
o w n discovery of m e ; my o w n self-odyssey. When I
forget to ask myself these questions, rest assured my
Master sends me a Zen hit and a reminder ‐ what
are you doing, Amaresh? That h i t could be in any
form or shape. It forces me to go inside, and if I don’t
do that, I am never at peace.
Osho keeps on saying that we take life for granted.
This never hits us until we face a life-changing
adverse situation or condition. The m o m e n t that hap‑
pens we look at everything in life and start figuring
out: “What do I do next? What is m o s t important for
me? If I had a certain fixed time remaining, what
would I do that would be the m o s t meaningful and
significant for me?” It shakes a person to the core the
m o m e n t he/she faces his or her mortality.
I always wonder: If we have such an intense reac‑
tion when we find ourselves in an adverse medical
situation, then why don’t we have the same intense
reaction in every day of o u r lives? Do we know how
long we are on this Earth? We obviously don’t. Then
what is it within us that lets go of the fact that life
is precious? O u r time on this Earth
is precious! Everything around us is
fragile. We need to be focused on the
right priority for us.
My discovery has led me to the
understanding that we like to fol‑
low the herd mentality. Yo u m u s t
have seen the a n t s that crawl in a
line behind one another. I think we
are like those ants ‐ walking silently
behind each other. We are all in the
same r a t race but have no guts to get
o u t of the line and be our o w n Master! By the time
we realize that it’s a r a t race it is usually t o o late. I
don’t mean that we should n o t work or have rela‑
tionships or buy a nice house or buy a nice car or
get a nice g y m membership. I m e a n that we can do
all these things, enjoy them while they are around,
but n o t get so fixated on them that we are always
running to acquire them without pausing to think if
that n e w dress or n e w car or n e w cell phone or n e w
job or new relationship is really important to us as
persons.
I often ask the question: "Why has this happened?
Or that happened? What did Existence w a n t from
me? Why did I have to suffer?” B u t I never ask the
question: “ W h y has an awesome thing happened?
Why was I blessed with love and happiness?” Isn’t
this what we all do? I have come to the point where
if I w a n t to ask, then I should ask both kinds of
questions or none at all. This does n o t mean that I
w i l l get the answers to the question of why/what/
how something happens. I w i l l be lucky if those
answers are around and can be found. In any situa‑
tion I find myself sooner or later coming to the point
where I accept that there are no answers for any‑
thing good or n o t so good that happens in life.
H o w can this realization that there are no answers
happen? It can happen through any medium you
like to use. It could be walking around Vasona Lake
or along the bay in Crissy Field Park or working o u t
on an elliptical machine or meditating or doing yoga
or sharing with a friend about what is happening in
your life.
At the end of it all it’s really up to me as a person
to figure o u t a way to deal with any situation I find
myself i n . Three years ago I hurt my knees doing
intense hiking and running, so I had to slow down
due to that and give up the t w o activities I love
doing. Of course I was sad about it. What choice was