Freedom

Osho, can you speak on the difference between freedom for and freedom from?

Freedom from is ordinary, mundane. Man has always tried to be free from things. It is not creative. It is the negative aspect of freedom. Freedom for is creativity. You have a certain vision that you would like to materialize and you want freedom for it. Freedom from is always from the past, and freedom for is always for the future. Freedom for is a spiritual dimension because you are moving into the unknown and perhaps, one day, into the unknowable. It will give you wings. Freedom from, at the most, can take away your handcuffs. It is not necessarily beneficial—and the whole of history is proof of it. People have never thought of the second freedom that I am insisting on; they have only thought of the first— because they don’t have the insight to see the second. The first is visible: chains on their feet, handcuffs on their hands. They want to be free from them, but then what? What are you going to do with your hands? You may even repent that you asked for freedom from…..

osho quotes

….There are two parts to revolution, from and for; and there should be two kinds of revolutionaries: those who are working for the first—that is freedom from—and those who will work when the work of the first is finished, for freedom for. But it is difficult to manage. Who will manage it?……

….That is why I don’t teach revolution; I teach you rebellion. Revolution is of the crowd; rebellion is of the individual. The individual changes himself. He does not care about the power structure; he simply manages to change his own being, gives birth to a new man in himself. And if the whole country is rebellious…

– Osho from Freedom: The Courage to Be Yourself

Arduous path towards the unknown – Much courage will be needed….

The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed. Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls – and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many. There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves. The same is the path for man. It is arduous. Much courage will be needed.

Osho