Failure of Success

hat Osho says below meshes with my own experience.

It was my material successes that showed me that
happiness does not lie in wealth. When I 'achieved'
what I was taught was the "American Dream" I became
so depressed I couldn't drag myself out of bed in the
morning. My world as I had known it ended when that
depression arose, and I began psychotherapy in the 80's.

Osho:
"In a poor society religion cannot be meaningful, because
people have not yet failed. Their search still carries meaning,
the outward search. They think if they can get a good house
everything will be okay; they think if they can get a little money
then everything will be okay. A poor man can live in illusion,
but not a rich man. And if you see a rich man living in illusion,
remember well, he is still poor, he has not succeeded yet.

A Buddha leaves the palace, a Mahavira leaves the kingdom.
They succeeded, and success failed them. They became alert
that the whole direction had been wrong, so they took an about-
turn. They moved into totally the opposite direction: they were
kings, they became beggars; they were clothed in the costliest
clothes possible, they became naked. It became a conversion:
success fails, and failure becomes a conversion.

Buy why does success fail? It fails because you were searching
not for wealth, you were searching not for power, you were
searching not for security and safety; you were not searching for
a house, you were searching for something else. You were
searching for the eternal home, from where there is no going away.
You were searching for eternal rest, you were searching for a peace
which lasts forever, nontemporal. That is what the search is: a
search for the home. It is not a search for any house outside, it
is a search for a state of being where you are at home. You were
not searching for wealth, you were searching for protection against
death; you were searching for a life which no death can destroy"

Melody:
Reading this I also realize that when my seeking for 'reputation
and material success' ended, the era of a seeking in a different
direction began. I began seeking love and acceptance. I began
seeking "unconditional" love and acceptance.

(Knowing, of course, that I was telling myself to take a deeper
look....to find a 'me' that was deeper than material and social
successes.)

Acceptance and admiration had before that always been automatic,
because I was always before 'succeeding' academically, in business,
materially, socially. When I got off the Track though.... I, for the
first time, began experiencing my 'unacceptability'. I was finally
without "power"....no financial power, no sexual power, no social
power, totally power-less.

And in that powerlessness I became very angry. Angry because
I was not 'home', and at the same time no longer 'loveable' to man.
I began essentially "demanding" love and acceptance.

(Demanding, of course, my own unconditionality.)

What I'm starting to 'get' now is that as long as I was seeking
love, I could not experience it....could not taste it. And as long
as I felt love and acceptance was being denied me, I would
keep seeking after it.

The other day I felt unconditional love and acceptance. I really
felt it. And I loved it.....for just a short while. Because as soon as
I felt it, tasted it, wallowed it, bathed in it.....I knew it was not
"That".

And so once again my success has 'failed', and a conversion....a 'turn
around'...begins.

Thank you, HarshaSatsangh and friends for giving me what I asked for,
even though you knew it wasn't *It*. Thank you all for helping me to
taste the "failure of success" even faster.

love,
Melody

How do I Love Myself

Love has three stages.
First you have to learn to love yourself, because only if you love yourself can you love the other. You have to love yourself so much that love starts overflowing. Perhaps that is where you are; you need the other. That is the second stage of love.
Loving the other is a difficult job. Loving oneself is simple. Because the other need not fit with you, need not fulfill your expectations; the other may start power trips, ego trips, all kinds of numbers. And you will need love enough not to be dominated, not to be destroyed by the other; otherwise, the other always destroys it.
Jean-Paul Sartre is not absolutely wrong when he says the other is hell. Alone you can be silent, peaceful. With the other everything becomes difficult, everything becomes a conflict. The very presence of the other makes demands on you. You have to be very compassionate, very kind, not to get caught into an intimate enmity; otherwise the other is going to become a hell to you.
You have to be so loving that your love transforms the other, to such an extent that you can say the other is not hell. You have to be very articulate, very understanding. It is one of the greatest experiments in life. There is no other experiment which is bigger. You have to love in such a way that slowly, slowly it changes the other person, and the other person starts dropping the effort to dominate, the effort to manipulate. It all depends on your love.
In each case you should remember that you have taken the step. It is your experiment, and you have to be grateful to the other that he is participating in your experiment. If you want your experiment to be successful, then you have to go on loving in spite of the other, not bothering about small things.
Only when you can love the other person to such an extent that it becomes a transformation in him or in her does the third stage of love arrive. Then it is not a question of two persons loving each other; then it is love which engulfs two persons and the two persons become, in a certain deeper sense, one whole.
In India we have the statue of Aradhanishwar, half man, half woman. That is the third stage of love: when the man and the woman are no more two persons, they have become half and half into one whole. This third stage of love is, automatically, meditation. One who can reach this stage need not do anything else for meditation; this will be his mysticism. This was the whole approach of tantra, to reach to the third stage of love; then no other religion, no other methods are needed. Love itself becomes your god, your ultimate experience.
But the second stage is really difficult; otherwise, for thousands of years people would not have escaped into monasteries. What was the fear? Why were they trying to hide in monasteries?
The second step is really difficult, and because of the difficulty all religions have chosen to escape from life. But escaping from life is not the answer, it is simply cowardice.
Life has to be changed through understanding. And if you love, love has an alchemy of its own. If love cannot change the other person, it only means you don't know what love is; you must be misunderstanding something else for love, because love is absolutely capable of changing people. In fact, it is the only way to change.
There is no place where love is being taught. There is no place where love is being nourished. That is one of the functions of the mystery school: to make your love pure, pure of ego and power and domination -- just a sheer gift of joy, a delight in the being of the other person, just a sharing of all that you have, holding nothing back.
Love is the greatest magic.
Don't be afraid of the other; let the other enter your life. I don't teach escapism. I teach you to go into the world, to transform the world, because only in that transformation will you be transformed. By escaping to the hills and to the monasteries you will miss transformation yourself. You will shrink, you will not expand. And if you cannot love a single person, how are you going to love the whole universe? And that's what prayer is -- loving the whole universe.
People feel that it is easier to love the whole universe, because there seems to be no problem -- the universe, the trees, the stars, the moon, the sun... they don't create any problem.
The other creates trouble because your love is not enough. If your love is overflowing, the other will be showered by it, cleansed by it. And instead of creating trouble for you, the other can become a tremendous help, a complementary part in the organic unity of your being, and can lead you to the third stage.
It all depends on how much you can love.
And I don't think that one should be miserly about love. It costs nothing. And it is not a quantity, that you have loved one kilo, so now there is one kilo less. It is not a quantity.
The more you love, the more you have it.
The more you give, the more the universe goes on pouring into you from all sides. There are hidden springs, just as in a well.
Love has an underground way of filling you, invisible.
The only way to know is just give it and see -- you are always full.

Osho Upanishad # 29/Courtesy Osho International Foundation/
www.osho.com

Alone - Individual -Love
OSHO International Meditation Resort.

Secret of Health

Health

You are a magnet attracting to you all things, via the signal you are emitting through your thoughts and feelings.

To open yourself up and become a powerful magnet to wellness and health from wherever you are now:

Love yourself! Deeply, profoundly! Make lists of all the wonderful things about you. Add to it every day.

Free yourself of any past resentments or disappointments you may be holding about you.

Let go of any and all resentments from the past you may be holding of everyone and everything.

See yourself as completely well in your mind and visualize yourself doing things in a complete state of perfect health.

Do not speak of your illness, or disease with others.

Love and appreciate everything and everyone, and especially yourself.

Know you have the power within you to heal yourself.

Never criticize or blame yourself or anyone else for anything.

Be grateful for the wellbeing that is coming to you.

See yourself as only well.

Be happy, knowing that in your state of happiness your body is healing itself.

As you appreciate, as you love, as you are happy, as you are grateful, you are summoning wellbeing and it is pouring through your body and disease is vanishing in the moment.

Laugh! Hire funny movies or recall any memories that make you laugh. Laugh your way back to health.

Make lists every day of all the things you are grateful for, including being grateful for your healing and complete wellbeing.

You must do whatever you can to remove your attention from disease.

Distract yourself from thoughts of disease, and put all of your focus and attention on doing things that make you feel good.

Make your happiness the number one thing in your life.

Resist nothing, love everything!

Know that there is no such thing as incurable.

As you love completely and feel the joy within you, disease cannot exist.

Know and accept that you are perfect as you are right now.

Secret of Relationship

Relationships

You can completely transform any relationship, no matter what it's like right now.

Every single relationship you have is a reflection of how you feel inside about you. You are a magnet attracting to you all things, via the signal you are emitting through your thoughts and feelings. Every relationship you have and every interaction with every person, is a reflection of your own thoughts and feelings in that very moment.

To transform every single relationship you have in your life:

Fall in love with YOU!

Make lists of hundreds and hundreds of wonderful things about you. Keep adding to it every day.

Know that you are perfect. Do not think any negative thoughts about you.

Know that you are worthy and deserving of anything and everything you could possibly want in your life.

Focus on the wonderful things in every person. Look for only those things.

Do not blame or criticize anybody, ever.

Set an intention that you are going to see the best in everything and everyone.

Make your happiness the number one thing in your life. Happiness is an inside job.

Free yourself of the responsibility of trying to make other people happy. Respect and love them enough to allow them to take care of their own happiness.

Get your attention off those things in others that don't make you feel good.

Appreciate and love yourself in every moment you can.

Do not expect others to behave in a way you want, so you will be happy. Release yourself forevermore and know that you alone control your happiness and it is a choice, no matter what anyone else is doing.

Love and respect yourself completely.

Know that you are perfect right now.

Secret of Money

Money

Money is magnetic energy. You are a magnet attracting to you all things, via the signal you are emitting through your thoughts and feelings.

To become a powerful money magnet:

Be clear about the amount of money you want to receive. State it and intend it! Don’t think about how much you can earn, but how much you want to receive.

Fall in love with money. Most people do not love money, because they always feel that they don't have enough of it.

Visualize and imagine yourself spending all the money you want, as though you have it already.

Speak, act, and think from the mindset of being wealthy now. Eliminate thoughts and words of lack such as "I can't afford it", "It is too expensive".

Do not speak or think of the lack of money for a single second.

Be grateful for the money you have. Appreciate it as you touch it.

Make lists of all the things you will buy with an abundance of money.

Do whatever it takes for you to feel wealthy.

Affirm to yourself every day that you have an abundance of money, and that it comes to you effortlessly.

Appreciate all the riches around you, including the riches of others. Look for wealth wherever you go, and appreciate it.

Be certain that money is coming to you.

Love yourself and know that you are deserving and worthy of an abundance of money.

Remind yourself everyday that you are a money magnet, and ask yourself often during the day, am I attracting money now or pushing it away with my thoughts?

Always, always pay yourself first from your wage, then pay your creditors. In that single act, you are telling the Universe that you are worthy and deserving of more.

Repeat over and over every day, "I am a money magnet and money comes to me effortlessly and easily."

Write out a check to yourself for the sum of money you would like to have and carry it in your wallet. Look at it often.

Do whatever it takes to feel good. The emotions of joy and happiness are powerful money magnets. Be happy now!

Love yourself!
Wealth is a mindset. Money is literally attracted to you or repelled from you. It's all about how you think.

Inner Healing

“At step one, we become aware of an inner block. At step two, we

offer that block to God to be removed. Step three is the reward

step for our work. At step three, we simply open our minds to the

inflow of God's love, wisdom, and comfort.” - Inner Healing

The Three-Step Process: Self-Perception

a companion to Inner Healing by Dan Joseph

The three-step process, as outlined in Inner Healing, is a way of

opening to an inner experience of God’s love and support. The process

involves: (1) acknowledging some of our inner blocks, (2) becoming

willing to prayerfully release them, and (3) opening to an experience of

divine comfort and love. One simple way of describing the process is,

“Feeling to Thought, Release and Receive.”

Step One: Feeling to thought (or perception)

Here is a situation that is bothering me:

When I think about this problem, I feel _____:

(ex. angry, afraid, etc.)

I feel this way because I see myself as _____:

(ex. attacked, abandoned, etc.)

Step Two: Releasing the old

At step two, the aim is to release these thoughts and feelings to God.

You can offer your old perceptions to God like a bunch of packages.

You can say:

“God, I feel _____ and I see myself as _____.

However, I take ownership of those feelings and perceptions.

I give them to you - here they are.

Help me to exchange them for an experience of your love.”

Step Three: Receiving the new

Step three is the real goal of the process. Having identified some of

your distressing thoughts and feelings in step one, and having offered

them to God in step two, you can now open to the inflow of God’s

healing, transforming love. You can say:

“God, my mind is open. Please inspire a new view of this

situation and a new view of myself. Replace my distressing

feelings with a sense of your love. My heart is open to you.”

Then simply rest, openly and receptively, welcoming the inflow of

God’s love, comfort, and inspired new thoughts and perspectives.

A companion to Inner Healing by Dan Joseph. Copyright © Quiet Mind Publishing, LLC. This worksheet is located at www.QuietMind.info.