Lao Tsu was the greatest spiritual mystic in ancient China (and the wisest of all) who was born about 25 hundred years ago. Very few people knew about him because he was much ahead of his time — and the tragedy is that he is not so much known even today — as most people know Confucius who was a mediocre moralistic thinker. Both were contemporaries.

Osho talks about both. Once Confucius was passing through a village when he saw a man and his son, harnessed to the water-wheel, drawing water from the well. Confucius was shocked. He went up to the old man and said, “Do you not know that now people use horses or bullocks to draw water from the well? In the capital there are also machines that do this work.” The old man said, “Please speak softly lest my son hears you. Come after some time.”

Confucius was more perplexed now but be returned after some time, for he was curious to know. The old man was lying under a tree. “I am well aware of the fact that horses and bullocks are used now a days to draw water from the well,” he told Confucius. “I also know I can save my son’s time and energy by using a horse but what shall I do with the unused energy of my son? I have no other use for it. Please let your horses and machines remain in your towns. Do not bring them here.”

But this news of machines could not be stopped from spreading. And now we see the whole world is using machines for everything and living a very comfortable modern life, full of luxuries. Unfortunately, this change has brought untold miseries too, also some very dangerous weapons of destruction in the hands of man.

So the question persists: What is Man to do with the time on his hands? What is he to do with the unused energy? The unused energy is available to all the violent people who are not evolved in consciousness. This is the right moment and LaoTsu can be understood what he means when he says — that constructive methods for utilisation of man’s energies, should first be evolved before introducing mechanisation.

Osho interprets it that his soul or consciousness should attain such heights and become so vast that he can be trusted with an atomic energy. Otherwise, the atom bomb in the hands of a violent man, is bound to be dangerous.

The illness has been born within these 2,500 years, and its cure is LaoTsu alone. He can now be understood for now we have tread the whole long way and seen for ourselves that he was right when he said that this way ultimately ends only in sickness and sorrow.

There is a beautiful story: Bhavani Dayal, an Indian Holy man from South Africa, had come to travel in the Himalayas. He wrote in his book, that on one hot sunny day he was climbing a certain hill with his bag on his shoulder. This journey uphill was tiring, and he was perspiring. Feeling breathless, he suddenly saw ahead of him one young girl carrying her younger brother on her back and climbing the hill. She was also perspiring as her younger brother was a bit fat. Feeling sympathy towards her, he came close to her and said, My dear daughter, you need to take some rest, you are carrying so much burden on your back!

Hearing this, the young girl became offended and infuriated. She said: Swami ji, mind your language, it is not a burden, it is my brother . You are carrying a bag, that is your burden.  A few years later, Bhavani Dayal wrote in his book that this dialogue with the young girl in the Himalayas was an eye-opener for him. When there’s love in our heart, doing something for our loved ones, is not a burden. And it is not that 4 letter word called Duty or morality that is often taught in the schools. It is a joy. Duty and responsibility, such words do smell of some kind of burden and martyrdom. When we do something for our loved ones or the friends, we start expecting that this act of ours should be duly acknowledged, otherwise we feel frustrated. Something done as duty makes us serious and causes frustration when it is not responded. Something done with love in our heart makes us lighthearted and playful,  brings joy to us. And for this to happen, we need to rise in love, and not fall in love. This means transformation of our being, transcending attachments and frustrations.  Osho points out: A mother says to the child, I am your mother, you have to be responsible for me. A husband says, I am your husband, and I work hard for you. You have to be responsible for me. A father says to the son, Don’t be irresponsible! Whenever you do something always think of me. This is not responsibility, you have corrupted a beautiful word. It has become ugly. Responsibility has become almost synonymous with duty. And duty is an ugly word.

The enlightened master suggests us to rise in love: Love is another name for life, another name for existence, another name for god.

…Try to understand it. In that very understanding love starts changing: it starts going higher than lust. The more understanding grows, the higher love starts soaring. Love moves higher on the wings of understanding, on the wings of awareness, meditation.

There are friends and enemies — and there are brothers, sisters and other relations. We see them loving each other and hating each other. There are moments when they are ready to die for each other; and then there are moments when they become very inimical — so much so that they can kill each other. Strangely, they happen to be the same people who were in love and now they hate each other. This sudden change from love to hatred and in rare cases, from hate to love, makes us wonder how and why this happens.

There’s always a conflict in our relationships that starts developing very early in childhood. Very often, the children observe that they are not getting enough love or attention from parents, while their younger/elder brothers or sisters are getting all the love and attention. Such situations do create inferiority complex or self-pity in most children, and they could become violent too. This, indeed, is a very unhealthy and toxic beginning of life for children.

And there’s another dimension. A parent wants his or her child to do something and the child resists being controlled. If he cannot resist for some reason and does everything as expected, he or she will keep shimmering, feeling bitter and will take revenge in future whenever possible. Now the question is how to deal with children in such situations?

Osho shares his insight: The mother may love one child more, another a little less. You cannot expect that she should love absolutely equally; it is not possible. Children are very perceptive. They can immediately notice this. They know that this pretension of the mother’s loving them equally is just bogus. So an inner conflict, fight, ambition arises.

Osho reminds us to acknowledge that each child is different. Somebody has a musical talent; somebody does not have it. Somebody has a mathematical talent and somebody has not. Somebody is physically more beautiful than the other or one has a certain charm of personality and the other is lacking it. Then more and more problems arise, and children are taught to be nice, never to be true. If children are taught to be true, they will fight it out, and they will drop it by fighting. They will be angry, they will fight and say hard things to one another, and then they will be finished, because children get rid of things very easily. If they are angry, they will be angry, hot, almost volcanic, but the next moment they will be holding each other’s hands and everything will be forgotten. Children are very simple, but often they are not allowed that simplicity. They are told to be nice, whatever the cost. They are prohibited from being angry at each other: “She is your sister, he is your brother. How can you be angry?” But anger is there and it does need expression.

We need to guide children to understand anger as energy, learn catharsis consciously (shout and scream) and transform it with sitting silently a few moments in meditation. It is easier if they learn this art in their formative years, because later on when they become older, it may become quite difficult to change.