Saying yes

Osho: “If you can say yes, a deep acceptance happens to you. If you say yes, how can you be complaining? How can you be miserable? Then everything is as it should be. You are not fighting, not denying - you accept. And remember, this acceptance is different from ordinary acceptance.

Ordinarily a person accepts a situation when he feels helpless; that is impotent acceptance. That will not lead you anywhere; impotence cannot lead you anywhere. A person accepts a situation when he feels hopeless: 'Nothing can be done, so what to do? At least accept, to save face.' Tantra acceptance is not that type of acceptance. It comes out of an over-fulfillment, it comes out of a deep contentment - not out of hopelessness, frustration, helplessness. It comes when you don't say no; it suddenly surfaces in you. Your whole being becomes a deep contentment.

That acceptance has a beauty of its own. It is not forced; you have not practiced for it. If you practice, it will be false; it will be hypocrisy. If you practice, you will be split in two: on the outside it will be acceptance; deep down, the turmoil, the negation, the denial. Deep down you will be boiling up to explode any moment. Just on the surface you will pretend that everything is okay.

Tantra acceptance is total; it doesn't split you. All the religions of the world, except Tantra, have created split personalities. Alle the religions of the world, except Tantra, have created schizophrenia. They split you. They make something bad in you and something good. And they say the good has to be achieved and the bad denied, the Devil has to be denied and God accepted. They create a split within you and a fight. Then you are continuously feeling guilty, because how can you destroy the part that is organically one with you? You may call it bad, you may call it names; it doesn't make any difference. How can you destroy it? You never created it. You have simply found it; it was given. Anger is there, sex is there, greed is there; you have not created them; they are given facts of life, just like your eyes and your hands. You can call them names, you can call them ugly or beautiful or whatsoever you life, but you cannot kill them.

Nothing can be killed out of existence; nothing can be destroyed. Tantra says a transformation is possible, but destruction, no!

And a transformation comes when you accept your total being. Then suddenly everything falls in line, then everything takes its own place; then anger is also absorbed, then greed is also absorbed. Then without trying to cut anything out of your being, your whole being rearranges itself. If you accept and say yes, a rearrangement happens, and whereas before there was a noisy clamor inside, now a melody - music is born, a harmony comes in.

Osho, Tantra: The Supreme Understanding Chapter 5

For one month only follow the yes, the part that says yes; for one month don't follow the part that says no. Give more cooperation to the yes; that is from where you will become united. 'No' never helps to attain unity. It is always 'yes' that helps, because yes is acceptance, yes is trust, yes is prayer! To be able to say yes is to be religious. So follow the yes.

The 'no' has not to be repressed, the second thing. If you repress it, it will take revenge. If you repress it, it will become more and more powerful and one day will explode and destroy your yes. So never repress the no. Just ignore it... and there is a great difference between repressing and ignoring. It is there, you know that. You recognize it; you say: "Yes, I know you are there, but I am going to follow 'yes'" You don't repress it, you don't fight with it; you don't say: "Get out! Get lost! I don't want to do anything with you!" You don't say anything in anger at it. You don't want to push it away, you don't want to throw it in the basement of your unconsciousness, in the dark mind. No, you don't do anything to it. You simply recognize that it is there, but you are following the yes. With no grudge, with no complaint, with no anger, simply follow yes, not taking any attitude about no. Ignoring it, is the greatest art to kill the 'no'.

If you fight with it, you have become already a victim, a very subtle victim. The no has already won over you. When you fight with no, you have said no to no. That's how it has taken possession of you from the back door. Don't even say no even to no; just ignore it. For one month follow yes and don't fight with no. You will be surprised that by and by it becomes lean and thin because it is becoming starved. And one day suddenly you see it is no more there, and when it is no more there all the energy involved in it is released, and that released energy will make your yes a great stream.”

Osho, The Open Door, Chapter 7