Sitting under a tree is just representative. You will be surprised to know that after Buddha's death, for five hundred years his statue was not made. Instead of a statue only a tree was made. For five hundred years, in the temples that were made and dedicated to Buddha, there was only a tree carved on the stone or marble, nothing else.

It was enough to remind one to step out of the road, because this has been for thousands of years the tradition, to plant trees on both the sides of Indian roads - huge trees with big branches almost meeting over the middle of the road so the road is completely covered with shadow. Even in the hottest summer you can go on the road in coolness, in the shadow.

So the tree became the symbol of dropping out of "the road." The road is the world, where everybody is going somewhere, trying to find something, and in fact basically trying to forget himself because it hurts. To remember oneself hurts, and the only thing that everybody is doing is to get engaged, concentrated - after money, after power, after this, after that. Become a painter, become a poet, become a musician, become someone and go on becoming. Don't stop, because if you stop you become aware of your hurt; the wound starts opening up. So don't give it a chance. This is the road.

-Rajneesh

You exist first, and then you have to find who you are. The animals, the trees, the rocks, know first who they are, then they exist; hence there is no spiritual enquiry. No animal bothers asking the questions: Who am I? What is the meaning of my life? He knows it already; there is no question, there is no doubt, no enquiry.

Man is a continuous enquiry, a continuous question. To the very last breath he goes on growing. To the very last breath he can change his whole life pattern.

He can take a quantum jump.

There is no necessity for him to just go on following the path that he has followed. At the very last moment he simply can step aside. There is nobody to prevent him, it is his freedom.

-Rajneesh

Man has been failing for thousands of years for the simple reason that he wants to conquer nature.

Someone has even written a book, CONQUEST OF NATURE. Nature cannot be conquered. Just look at the foolishness of the idea. You are part of nature, such a small, tiny part of such an infinite nature. And the part is trying to conquer the whole - as if your little finger is trying to conquer you.

How can you conquer nature?

Nature is your very soul.

Who is going to conquer whom?

Where is the separation?

-Rajneesh

The bigger the expectation, the bigger is going to be the frustration.

It is within your hands to be frustrated in life or not. Just your expectations should become smaller, smaller, smaller, and in the same proportion the frustration will become smaller. A day will come when there will be no expectation; then you will never come across any frustration.

You think, you imagine, some moments of pleasure - and they don't materialize, because existence has no obligation to materialize your imaginations. It has never given you any promise that whatever you think is going to happen. You have taken it for granted without any enquiry, as if the whole existence owes you something.

You owe everything to existence.

Existence owes you nothing.

So if you are running to catch shadows, you cannot catch them - it is not in the nature of things.

Then there is pain, because you were so much absorbed in running after the shadows that you were feeling a kind of fulfillment. A goal was there; although not in your hands but far away, still it was there. And it was only a question of time, a little more effort. Be a little more American: try and try and try again - and sooner or later existence is going to yield.

Existence does not care who you are, American or Russian. It never yields to anybody - it simply goes in its own way. By making an effort to fulfill your desires, to force nature, existence, to come behind you, you are creating causes of pain, suffering.

The moment you understand, you drop these causes.

And the dropping of the causes is the disappearance of all your misery.

It was your projection.

-Rajneesh

Gautam the Buddha used to say, "My path in the beginning is tremendous pain; in the end, tremendous blissfulness. But patience is needed."

I told you, in this surgery you are the patient and you are the surgeon both. Remember the English word "patient" comes from "patience." It is significant. Why is the sick person called a "patient?" He has to be patient, he has to wait. But when you are the patient yourself and also the surgeon, the difficulty is multiplied. But still it is nothing compared to the bliss.

All that you can do is to pass through this suffering, to pass through this dark night of the soul.

Reach to the dawn of your being.

Blossom. Let your blissfulness explode.

-Rajneesh