Thought of the Week – 21st July 2025
freedom
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…..
….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
Freedom ! Freedom!
A man, a great man, a fighter for freedom was traveling in the mountains. He stayed in a caravanserai for the night. He was amazed that in the caravanserai there was a beautiful parrot in a golden cage, continually repeating, “Freedom! Freedom!” And it was such a place that when the parrot repeated the word “Freedom!” it would go on echoing in the valleys, in the mountains. No animal feels the anguish; all animals are utterly satisfied as they are. Man is the only animal who is intrinsically discontented; hence, the feeling of shame because he knows, “I can be free.”
Let my country awake
Freedom is never to be reached by the weak
Mentally repeat, “Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful.” So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. Continue reading
What is life asking of me? What is this situation asking of me?
I have found in my teaching that the single most exhilarating, thrilling, and motivating idea that people have ever really seriously contemplated is the idea of the power of choice — the idea that the best way to predict their future is to create it. Continue reading
ONE TUSK 