OSHO: Global Suicide or Transformation (1)
Wolfgang Doelz
because I don't choose anything.
I happen to be here,
but it is true
that it is one of the most critical times in the history of man.
Perhaps never before has man come to such a point
where something of an ultimate decision has to be made,
a decision whether life is to continue on the earth or not.
Single individuals have committed suicide;
for the first time,
the whole of humanity is going to commit suicide totally -
and not only humanity,
but all living animals, trees, everything that has life.
It is a tremendous decision,
and I don't think that people will want to destroy all life.
That is where we can make a space for transformation.
If they don't want to die,
if they don't want life to disappear,
then the only way is that mankind has to change
its ways, its lifestyle, its thinking patterns,
because these are the things
- the thinking patterns, the ideologies, the religions -
which have brought man to this point.
The point is not unconnected with your history;
it is the climax of your history.
If you want this point never to happen again,
then you have to start living in a totally different way.
Otherwise, history repeats itself.
You will have to begin from scratch -
a new history and a new man.
That's why I say it is a very *wrong* time - moments of global suicide -
but it is a very *right time* also
because man could prefer to be transformed rather than to die.
They have written against me on the walls:
"It is better to be *dead* than to be *red*" - [colour of Osho's sannyasins]
but they have not thought about it.
If it comes really to choose to be dead or to be red,
I don't think even Oregonian idiots will choose to be dead.
If it comes really to a decision, they will say,
"Okay, so we will die too.
Red is at least alive!
Dead we don't want to be."
Nobody wants to be dead.
So the time is good
because the choice is such that we cannot be defeated,
we can only be victorious.
We just have to put the alternative correctly.
Make the alternative as loud as possible.
Shout it from every rooftop
that there is an alternative which can avoid the catastrophe
and which can avoid any other catastrophe in the future.
The very possibility of such a thing can simply be dropped
if man changes his way of thinking.
And when death confronts you,
just to *think* about it is one thing;
but when death is directly in front of you,
you may choose anything rather than to die.
[...]
Death is something that you may enjoy the *idea* of.
You may sometimes enjoy the idea of committing suicide.
*Everybody* - almost everybody - once in a while enjoys the idea.
But that is only an *idea*.
If it actually becomes a *reality*,
you will change your mind immediately.
For the first time death has become a reality for the whole of humanity,
so it is a *wrong* time in that sense.
It is a very critical, tragic phase;
but because death has become so real, so close, so tangible,
man may be persuaded to change his ways, his thinking, his ideologies;
to drop his nations and religions
if he wants to survive.
That's why I say it is a *right* time.
We can put the alternative:
*Either be ready for global suicide,*
*or be ready for global transformation.*
And I don't think anybody is going to choose death.
The alternative just has to be made clear.
And that is going to be the effort of all the sannyasins around the world:
make the alternative clear to everybody
that *sannyas* is not just a question of personal whim,
it is a question of saving the whole of humanity and life
on this beautiful earth.
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OSHO: The Last Testament, Vol. 1, #9, September 7, 1985
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