Know The Accidental And The Essential

Life has two layers: the essential, and the accidental. The essential is never born, never dies. The accidental is born, lives and dies.

The essential is eternal, timeless; the accidental is just accidental. We become attached to the accidental and we tend to forget the essential. You become attached to money but money is accidental. It has nothing to do with essential life.

You become attached to your house or car, spouse, children and relationships. Relationship is accidental; it has nothing essential in it. It is not your real being. You have become attached to 'my' and 'mine' - to possessions. And you have completely lost track of your being. You have completely lost track of 'I'.

'My' has become more important. When 'my' becomes more important then you are getting attached to the accidental. When 'I' remains more important and 'my' remains a servant, then you are a master. Then you live in a totally different way. Using the word 'I', in an absolutely non-egoistic sense it means your being. The accidental man lives on the periphery.

The essential man remains centred. You create a world of illusions around you. You get attached to things which are not going to be with you when you die. You go on being identified with things which are going to be taken away from you. Become more and more essential and less and less accidental. Only that which is eternal is true; only that which is going to be for ever and ever is true. That which is momentary is untrue. The momentary has to be watched and not to be identified with. This game of 'my' and 'mine' is an absurd game - but this is the whole game of life. This earth was there before you ever came here, and this will be here when you are gone.

The diamonds that you possess were there before you ever came here, and when you are gone those diamonds will remain here - and they will not even remember you. This game of possessiveness is the most foolish game there is - but this is the whole game. People who become certain about the accidental are going to be frustrated, their certainty is going to create much frustration for them.

Their certainty will create expectations, and they cannot be fulfilled - because the universe is not there to fulfil your expectations. It has its own destiny. It is moving towards its own goal. It does not care about your private goals. All private goals are against the goal of the universe itself. The essential man comes to know, to feel, that 'I am not separate from the Whole and there is no need to seek and search for any destiny on my own.

Things are happening, the world is moving. There is no need for me to make any struggle, any effort; there is no need for me to fight for anything. I can relax and be'. The essential man is not a doer. The accidental man is a doer. The accidental man is, in anxiety, tension, stress and anguish, continuously sitting on a volcano - it can erupt any moment, because he lives in a world of uncertainty and believes as if it is certain. This creates tension in his being: he knows deep down that nothing is certain. When things are no longer important, only consciousness becomes important. When things are no longer significant, a new search, a new door opens.

Then you are not rushing towards the without: you start slipping into the within. The kingdom of godliness is within.

Excerpted from A Sudden Clash of Thunder. Courtesy: Osho International Foundation. www.osho.com