[...sannyasin ... asks if she should do good deeds.]

No, you are not to become a doer of good deeds. Good deeds will happen through you but you are not to become a doer. And virtue cannot be practised. You cannot be virtuous by effort, by doing. Virtue can only be spontaneous, natural. Virtue comes out of understanding; it is not a question of doing anything. So be aware of it - beware of it, because you can become a do-gooder, and that is a very dangerous thing. Never be a do-gooder. These are the most mischievous people in the world. Because of them the whole humanity has been suffering for centuries.

Never be a do-gooder. You are not obliged to do any good in the world. You have just to be here happy, silent, peaceful, loving, and then virtue happens, good happens. But it happens completely on its own accord. You cannot claim that you have done it. If you can, it is mischief. The ego will be strengthened throughout - 'I have done this' and 'I have done that'. The ego is always seeking and searching for something to do.

Virtue is when the ego is not, so virtue cannot be a doing. It happens, it is a happening. And that is my basic standpoint - that one should never try to discipline a certain character. One should never try to do good. One should never try to follow certain ideals. One should never be a perfectionist. Perfectionism is the root cause of all neuroses and do-gooders are dangerous because they humiliate other people. By doing good, they start feeling great. And to whomsoever they do good. they humiliate.

You are not here to do good to anybody, and remember, whenever you start thinking in terms of doing good, you start thinking in terms also of others doing good to you. That is natural; that comes as part of the logic: 'When I am doing so much good for people, they have to do good to me.' Then you start demanding.

You see demanders everywhere. A mother does something for the son and then goes on demanding - 'I have done so much for you; now you do for me.' That s why children can never become capable of forgiving their parents. It becomes very difficult to forgive their parents. Children hate, they are annoyed by their parents. Not that they don't love, but the do-gooder is heavy.

You cannot live with a saint. You can pay your respects but living with a saint for twenty-four hours you will feel like committing suicide. Saints are not good people to live with. You can go and listen to a sermon but saints are such great do-gooders that they will humiliate you on each and every step. They will make you feel so guilty. They will make themselves bigger than life and you will be reduced to being just worms of the earth. It will be difficult to be with them. Nobody wants to live with a saint. It is better to live in hell than to live with a saint. If there are only saints in heaven, I am afraid how people will manage to live there. It will be one of the most boring places in the world. Saints are very boring.

So never become a saint. To feel 'holier than thou' is a great sin. And do-gooders think that they are doing their duty; that they are great public servants and all that nonsense.

To be happy is to be virtuous. To be celebrating is to be virtuous. To be loving is enough. Duty is a dirty four-letter word. Loving is enough. So simply love, enjoy - and out of it much virtue is going to happen, but that has nothing to do with you. That will happen on its own accord.

Have you watched it? Whenever there is a happy person there is virtue. Whenever somebody is singing and dancing, there is virtue. When two people love each other, there is virtue. When two friends sit silently and watch the stars, there is virtue. I teach this virtue...

---

OSHO Darshan Diaries are records of his evening conversations with a small group of sannyasins and visitors.

Excerpted FROM:
http://www.oshoworld.com/onlinebooks/BookXMLMain.asp?BookName=darshan+diaries/god%20is%20not%20for%20sale.txt

OSHO Darshan Dairy: God Is Not For Sale - Chapter 14 (25 October 1976)

Archieves: America Without Black People  *  Should We Do Good Deeds  *  Treating People

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