Birthday of Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw

Born on 26 July 1856, George Bernard Shaw was an Irish dramatist, screenwriter, critic, and political activist. He wrote more than sixty plays in his lifetime, keeping his writing thematically diverse by exploring humorous themes to promulgate his political and social notions, weaving in romance and drama, and delineating his work with prolonged prefaces, irony, and satire. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

Bernard Shaw’s long journey of screenwriting began as a music and theatre critic after he moved to London in 1876. He had an intricate period of introspection till his first success in 1894 during which time he became a prominent part of the Fabian society. Bernard Shaw was a figure of controversy throughout his life as his views prompted debates and disagreements like a moth to a flame. Nevertheless, he is considered a prophet in the world of literature, some of his notable works being Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913), and Saint Joan (1923).

Osho mentions Bernard Shaw, “Prabhat, once George Bernard Shaw was asked, “Is there a golden rule in life?” He said, “There is only one golden rule: that there are no golden rules.”

Life is not mechanical; that’s why there is a possibility of religion. If life was mechanical, totally rooted in rules, in cause and effect, in causality, then science would have been enough. And science is not enough. Science only touches the periphery of life; the innermost core remains untouched. Science only knows the rudimentary; it does not know the highest peak. It knows only the bodily part of existence but not its spiritual center. It is concerned with the circumference and utterly unaware of the center. Hence there are no golden rules. Life is freedom, it is consciousness, it is bliss, it is love — but not law.

That’s why I am very reluctant to translate Buddha’s word ‘dhamma’ as the “universal law”; it misses something very significant. Dhamma has freedom in it; freedom is the goal of dhamma. And law is absolutely without freedom. Law is like a goods train running on tracks, and dhamma is like a river descending from the peaks of the Himalayas, going zigzag, in absolute freedom, spontaneity, with no fixed routine, unpredictable, towards the ocean.

Life can be lived in rules, but then life becomes superficial. Live life not according to the laws but according to consciousness, awareness. Don’t live life according to the mind. Mind has rules and regulations, mind has rituals. Live life from the standpoint of no-mind so that you can bloom into unpredictable flowers. Buddha has no golden rule in his philosophy.”

Osho Says…..

BELOVED OSHO,

IT SEEMS THAT MY PROBLEMS ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE SINCE I HAVE BECOME YOUR SANNYASIN. IS THAT YOUR WORK?

It is my work. My work is to make you more and more aware, and when you become more aware you become aware of more problems. Those problems were there before.

I don’t create your problems, it is just that you were unconscious, you were not taking any note. Those problems were there. It is just like a house which is in darkness, and many spiders are weaving their nests and scorpions are living and snakes are enjoying, and suddenly you bring light there. The light does not create the spiders or the scorpions or the snakes, but it makes you aware of them. And it is good to be aware, because then the house can be cleaned; then you can avoid the snakes. You have many problems which you are not seeing — which in fact, you do not want to see. You go on postponing. You are so afraid of seeing those problems, because then you will have to solve them. But by postponing they are not solved; it is not so easy.

Problems are not letters written to George Bernard Shaw. George Bernard Shaw used to collect letters; he would not open them. He would open them on the first of every month, so for thirty days he would collect thousands of letters from all over the world. His date was fixed: on the first of every month he would open them. And he would go on throwing them, because most of them had already been answered. It was rarely that some letter was left that had not answered itself. Somebody asked him, “This is a strange way….” He said, “It is not strange, it is the simplest way. When somebody does not get an answer for two weeks, three weeks, he gets the answer that `This man is not going to answer.’ He drops the hope. “And most of those letters are useless anyway. I am not going to waste my whole month. I have given them just one day — and any really authentic letter that needs my attention, I answer. This way, I save my time, I save their time; otherwise they would have to read… and this is such a difficult world that they would not only read they would reply also… again you have to read it. “It is better to finish it from the very beginning. It is a chain phenomenon, it can go on endlessly. And the more you allow it and then stop, the more it hurts. The first letter and it is finished — it does not hurt. The man just understands that this man is not the type who answers letters.”

But problems are not letters, and life is not George Bernard Shaw. You cannot postpone. But people are postponing. They go on pushing them this way and that way, everywhere hiding them, thinking that some miracle… and things will settle down and problems will be solved. This is not going to happen. On the contrary, those problems will create their children. They will start finding boyfriends, girlfriends — two problems meeting together and a third problem is produced, and you will be in more difficulty.

It is better to go on facing each problem as it comes by. It is not Sannyas that has created your problems. Sannyas has simply given you a little more awareness. Your problems have always been there. Sannyas has given you the opportunity to solve them. And one should enjoy solving one’s problems. It sharpens your intelligence. Each problem is a challenge. Each problem makes you more intelligent. And the day you will not have any problems, your mind will come to its utmost clarity — because no dust, no problem. Your mind becomes a mirror, so pure that it reflects reality. Yes, it is my work. But don’t think that I am creating your problems. I am just giving you insight, awareness, silence, so that you can see your problems and solve them.

Source:

This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune. 

Discourse name: Beyond Enlightenment

Chapter title: Truth knows no fifty-fifty

Chapter #6

8 October 1986 pm

References:

Osho has spoken on prominent writers and philosophers like Albert Camus, Aristotle, Byron, Descartes, Fyodor Dostoevsky, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Hegel, Huxley, John Milton, Kahlil Gibran, Kalidas, Kant, Leo Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Rabindranath Tagore, Shakespeare and many more in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Come Come Yet Again Come
2. Beyond Psychology
3. The Dhammapada: the way of the Buddha Vol.1,3,7,9,10,12
4. The Transmission of The Lamp
5. I am That
6. The Perfect Master
7. The Golden Future
8. Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind
9. One Seed Makes the Whole Earth Green
10. Sufis: People on the Path Vol.1-2
11. The Empty Boat
12. Dang Dang Doko Dang
13. Zarathustra, the laughing prophet
14. From Personality to Individuality
15. From Death to Deathlessness