Accept yourself as you are; drop all shoulds….OSHO

Sannyas has to be a real break away. A loving surrender to the new....

Accept yourself as you are; drop all shoulds....

What we miss in life we put in poetry. What we go on missing in life, we put in the film, in the novel.

Love is absolutely absent, because the first step has not been taken yet.

The first step is: accept yourself as you are; drop all shoulds. Don't carry any ought on your heart! You are not to be somebody else; you are not expected to do something which doesn't belong to you — you are just to be yourself. Relax! and just be yourself. Be respectful to your individuality. and have the courage to sign your own signature. Don't go on copying others signatures.

You are not expected to become a Jesus or a Buddha or a Ramakrishna — you are simply expected to become yourself. It was good that Ramakrishna never tried to become somebody else, so he became Ramakrishna. It was good that Jesus never tried to become like Abraham or Moses, so he became Jesus. It is good that Buddha never tried to become a Patanjali or Krishna — that's why he became a Buddha.

When you are not trying to become anybody else, then you simply relax — then a grace arises. Then you are full of grandeur, splendor, harmony — because then there is no conflict! nowhere to go, nothing to fight for; nothing to force, enforce upon yourself violently. You become innocent.

In that innocence you will feel compassion and love for yourself. You will feel so happy with yourself that even if God comes and knocks at your door and says, "Would you like to become somebody else?" you will say, "Have you gone mad?! I am perfect! Thank-you, but never try anything like that — I am perfect as I am."

The moment you can say to God, "I am perfect as I am, I am happy as I am, "this is w hat in the East we call shraddha — trust; then you have accepted yourself and in accepting yourself you have accepted your creator. Denying yourself you deny your creator.

OSHO