Innocence: the price you pay for the failure of success
1 March 1985 pm in Lao Tzu Grove
Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO STAY WITH YOUR OWN CLARITY AS A CHILD AND NOT LET
YOURSELF BECOME INTIMIDATED BY THE GROWN-UPS AROUND YOU? WHERE DID YOU
GET THAT COURAGE FROM?
Innocence is courage and clarity both.
There is no need to have courage if you are innocent. There is no need, either, for any clarity
because nothing can be more clear, crystal clear, than innocence. So the whole question is how to
protect one’s own innocence.
Innocence is not something to be achieved.
It is not something to be learned.
It is not something like a talent: painting, music, poetry, sculpture. It is not like those things. It is
more like breathing, something you are born with.
Innocence is everybody’s nature.
Nobody is born other than innocent.
How can one be born other than innocent? Birth means you have entered the world as a tabula
rasa, nothing is written on you. You have only future, no past. That is the meaning of innocence. So
first try to understand all the meanings of innocence.
The first is: no past, only future.
The past corrupts because it gives you memories, experiences, expectations. All those combined
together make you clever but not clear. They make you cunning but not intelligent. They may help
you to succeed in the world but in your innermost being you will be a failure. And all the success of
the world means nothing compared to the failure that finally you are going to face, because ultimately
only your inner self remains with you. All is lost: your glory, your power, your name, your fame – all
start disappearing like shadows.
At the end only that remains which you had brought in the very beginning. You can take from this
world only that which you have brought in.
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