“…your responsibility is only toward your own being. Don’t go against it, because going against it is committing suicide, is being self-destructive. And what is the gain? Even if people respect you, even if people think you are a very sober, moral, respectable man, these things are not going to nourish your being. They are not going to give you any deeper insight into life and its beauty.
How many millions of people have lived before you on this earth? You don’t even know their names; whether they lived or not makes no difference. There have been saints and there have been sinners, there have been very respectable people and there have been all kinds of eccentrics, crazy people, but they have all disappeared — not even a trace is left on the earth.
You should be concerned only to look after those qualities which you can take with you when death destroys your body, your mind, because those qualities will be your only companions. They are the only real values, and the people who have attained them — only they live; others only pretend to live.
One dark night there is a knock on Jossel Finkelstein’s door. Jossel opens the door. The KGB agent asks in a sharp voice, ‘Does Jossel Finkelstein live here?’ — ‘No,’ says Jossel, standing there in his tattered pajamas. — ‘No? Then who are you?’ — ‘Jossel Finkelstein.’ The KGB agent knocks him to the ground: ‘Didn’t you just say you don’t live here?’ — ‘You call this living?’ answers Jossel.
Just existing is not always living. Look at your life. Can you call it a blessing? Can you call it a gift of existence? Would you like this life to be given to you again and again?”
— Osho, Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously
