Growth is painful. Stop wanting

By Osho

It is not a question of your liking or disliking. But if you don't feel like doing anything and you want to remain the same, then settle as you are and forget about changing yourself.

If you listen to your liking, you are listening to your old mind. One has to do some things against one's liking and then one grows; otherwise nobody ever grows. Growth is not so smooth as people think. It is painful…and the greatest pain comes when you have to move against your liking.

Who is this that goes on saying 'This I like and this I don't like'? This is your old mind, not you. If it is allowed, there is no way to change. The mind will say to stay in the old rut because it likes that. So one has to come out of it. Sometimes one has to be against likings, dislikings. You have to decide about it.

If you feel that you have always to move according to your liking, then move; there is no problem in it. Nobody is forcing you to do something against your liking. But then don't raise any problems. Simply relax and move. Or if you want to change, if you feel that something is wrong somewhere in the way you are, if you feel that the way you are creates misery, the way you are does not allow you to be totally happy, then something has to be done.

And whenever one changes any way, any old style, it is painful, it hurts. It is like learning a new skill. You know the old very well, so everything goes easily. When you learn a new skill, it is difficult. And this is not only a new skill. It is learning a new being. It is going to be hard. The old has to die for the new to be born. The old has to go for the new to come. If you go on clinging to the old, there is nowhere for the new to come in.

So if you like your likings very much and you are perfectly happy, then I will not create any trouble for you. Just feel your own way and whatsoever you feel like doing, do. But if you decide that things are not as they should be and you would like to change them, do meditations.

“If I had a desire, it would be to be free from desire.” - eRolling Stone interview (June 1970).