Peace of Mind: The Truth Beyond Success and Failure

By Osho

It does not matter to a man of awareness whether he is successful or unsuccessful, well-known or absolutely unknown, powerful or just a nobody. To a man of awareness, these dualities don't matter at all, because awareness is the greatest treasure. When you have it, you don't want anything else. You don't want to become the president or prime minister of a country.

Those who pursue power suffer even in success - they live in the eternal fear that they might lose it. At first they suffered because they were not successful; now after being successful, too, they are suffering because of a feeling of insecurity.

Moreover, they have no private space; everyone wants to meet with them and there are some who are engaged in the task of "overthrowing" them.

The life of a successful man is not a life of peace. But in failure, too, there is no peace.

For an aware person, it is all the same. Success comes and goes, and so does failure. He remains untouched and aloof.

The poet-saint Kabir sang: "I have returned to God... the 'clothing' that he had given to me to live in the world - without any change. I have not made it dirty; not even a particle of dust has gathered on it. I have put it back into his hands exactly as fresh as it was when he gave it to me."

This is the experience of an awakened man. He lives in the darkest of nights in the same silence, in the same peace, as he lives in the brightest day. He remains above divisions. "Such is his power, that actions can't hold him. No matter what kind of action, a Buddha transforms it". According to the Bodhi-dharma, a Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.

In Greek mythology, there was King Midas, who prayed hard to God: "Just grant me one wish, that whatever I touch must turn into gold." And it seems God became tired of his continuous nagging... because what are your prayers other than nagging?

Finally, God granted him his wish: "Whatever you touch will turn into gold. And now leave me at peace!" But the unconscious man cannot do anything better. Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he said that if all your prayers were fulfilled, you would be in utter hell. Your prayers are coming from your unconsciousness; you don't know what you are asking for.

Once his prayer was granted, Midas could not eat because whatever he touched turned into gold. He could not drink because by the time his lips touched the water, it would turn into gold. His family left him, his friends stopped coming to see him. Midas was alone, hungry, and thirsty. Midas's palace turned into gold, as did all his furniture.

But to what end? He suffered despite being one of the richest men in the world. A man of awareness, a Buddha, also has a transforming power: whatever he touches becomes blissful. Misery comes to him and he finds in it something blissful; sadness comes to him and he finds something immensely beautiful and silent in it. Death comes to him but he finds only immortality in it. Whatever he touches is transformed, because now he has the transcendental perspective. And that is the greatest power in the world - not power over anybody, but simply your intrinsic power.

Night becomes as beautiful as day; death becomes as much a celebration as life, because the man of transcendence knows that he is eternal. There's life, there's death - he remains untouched, he remains always beyond. It is this quality that is the mark of an enlightened person.

(Compiled by Swami Chaitanya Keerti)

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul

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