There has been a great misunderstanding between life and time. Time is thought to consist of three tenses: past, present, future, which is wrong. Time consists only of past and future.

It is life which consists of the present.

So those who want to live, for them there is no other way than to live this moment. Only the present is existential. The past is simply a collection of memories, and the future is nothing but your imaginations, your dreams.

Reality is herenow.

Those who want just to think about life, about living, about love, for them past and future are perfectly beautiful, because they give them infinite scope. They can decorate their past, make it as beautiful as they like, although they never lived it, when it was present they were not there. These are just shadows, reflections. They were continuously running, and while running they have seen a few things. They think they have lived. In the past only death is the reality, not life.

In the future also, only death is the reality, not life. Those who have missed living in the past, automatically, to substitute for the gap, start dreaming about the future. Their future is only a projection out of the past. Whatever they have missed in the past, they are hoping for in the future; and between the two non-existences, is the small existent moment which is life.

For those who want to live, not to think about it; to love, not to think about it; to be, not to philosophize about it, there is no other alternative. Drink the present moment’s juices, squeeze it totally, because it is not going to come back again; once gone, it is gone forever.

But because of the misunderstanding which has been almost as old as man, and all the cultures have joined in it , they have made the present part of time. And the present has nothing to do with time.

If you are just here in this moment, there is no time. There is immense silence, stillness, no movement; nothing is passing, everything has come to a sudden stop.

Android Jones

The present gives you the opportunity to dive deep into the water of life, or to fly high into the sky of life. But on both sides there are dangers, past and future are the most dangerous words in human language. Between past and future, living in the present is almost like walking on a tight rope, on both sides there is danger.

But once you have tasted the juice of the present, you don’t care about dangers. Once you are in tune with life, then nothing matters.

And to me life is all there is.

You can call it “God”, but that is not a good name because religions have contaminated it. You can call it “existence”, which is beautiful. But what you call it is not of any consequence. The understanding should be clear that you have only one moment in your hands, the real moment. And again and again you will get that real moment. Either you live it or you leave it unlived.

Most of the people simply drag themselves from the cradle to the grave without living at all.

I have heard about a Sufi statement that a man, when he died, suddenly realized, “My God, I was alive.” But only death as a contrast made him aware, that for seventy years he had been alive, but life itself had not enriched him.

It is not the fault of life.

It is our misunderstanding.

My insistence for watchfulness will give you life without even thinking about it, because watchfulness can only be in the present.

You can witness only the present…

Osho: The Transmission of the Lamp

It has happened again and again: Jesus comes, but you don’t recognize him; Buddha comes, but you don’t recognize him.

Why does this happen?… and then for centuries and centuries you think about Jesus and Buddha.

Then religions are created, then great organizations are created for the one whom you never recognized when he was here.

Why do you miss a living Christ?

This has to be understood, because it must be something very deep-rooted in the mind, in the very nature of the mind.

It is not an individual error, it is not a mistake committed by this man or that man.

For millennia it has been committed by the human mind.

The mind has to be penetrated and understood.

One thing: the mind has no present, it has only past and future.

The present is so narrow that the mind cannot catch it.

The moment the mind catches it, it has already become the past.

So the mind can remember the past, can desire the future, but cannot see the present.

The past is vast, the future also is vast; the present is so atomic, so subtle, that by the time you become aware, it is gone.

And you are not so aware!

A very great intensity of awareness is needed, only then will you be able to see the present.

You have to be fully alert; if you are not totally alert, the present cannot be seen.

The mind is drunk.

It cannot see the present, that which is before you.

The mind is filled with dreams, desires.

You don’t have a presence.

That’s why Jesus is missed, Buddha is missed, and then for centuries you weep and cry, then for centuries you feel guilty.

For centuries you think, pray, imagine, and when Jesus is there you miss.

Jesus can be met only if you attain to a presence of mind, such a presence that has no past, that has no future.

Only such a presence can look into the present, and then the present is eternal.

But eternity is in depth, it is not a linear movement, it is not horizontal – it is vertical.

 HIS DISCIPLES SAID TO HIM: WHEN WILL THE REPOSE OF THE DEAD COME ABOUT
AND WHEN WILL THE NEW WORLD COME?

HE SAID TO THEM: WHAT YOU EXPECT HAS COME, BUT YOU KNOW IT NOT.

HIS DISCIPLES SAID TO HIM: TWENTY-FOUR PROPHETS SPOKE IN ISRAEL AND
THEY ALL SPOKE ABOUT THEE.

HE SAID TO THEM: YOU HAVE DISMISSED THE LIVING ONE WHO IS BEFORE YOU,
AND YOU HAVE SPOKEN ABOUT THE DEAD.

JESUS SAID: I HAVE CAST FIRE UPON THE WORLD, AND SEE, I GUARD THE
WORLD UNTIL IT IS AFIRE.

A religious man is one who accepts this very moment

Belief is not needed.

What is needed is knowing.

Belief simply hides your ignorance, it does not make any rebellion in your being.

Rebelliousness is the essential quality of a religious man.

It is spirituality in its absolute purity.

The rebel and his rebelliousness are sacred.

A Christ is always rebellious, he is never conformist.

He can create a revolution, he cannot create an establishment…

www.osho.com