Osho on Rebellion

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Osho gives his definition of a rebel:

Rebellion is not something that you have to do; it is an approach, an attitude. The attitude is that you will respect yourself as an individual and you will respect everybody else in the same way. Nobody is lower than you, nobody is higher than you, remember. It is very easy to accept the idea that nobody is higher than you. But that is not rebellion, that is jealousy. Communism is not rebellion, it is jealousy.
Rebellion is when you accept that nobody is higher than you, nobody is lower than you. In fact, the categories of lower and higher are inapplicable. Each individual is so unique that it is not possible to compare two persons. So how can you put somebody higher and somebody lower?—they are so different and so unique.
Communism is not rebellion. That's why I continuously try to make the distinction between the words revolution and rebellion….
Every revolution dies into another orthodoxy.
It has been always so.
That's why I am not for revolution:
I am for rebellion.
Rebellion is individual.
But when many rebels are there and they want to live together, respecting each other's individuality, each other's freedom, each other's uniqueness—that's the meaning of a commune. It is not a society. It is not an establishment. It is not an organization in the old sense.
A commune is a communion of individuals who have all rebelled against all kinds of stupidities, superstitions. That is their meeting point. But that does not mean that they create an alternative society, another establishment. Then it would only be revolution.
Try to understand the difference clearly. If they don't create any establishment, and start living intelligently together, howsoever difficult it is —  it is going to be a little difficult; otherwise why have people chosen to make organizations and establishments?— because it is less difficult….
I am an anarchist.
I basically believe in the individual.
I don't believe in the society at all.
I don't believe in civilization, in culture. I simply believe in the individual.
I don't believe in the state, I don't believe in the government. I don't want any government in the world, any state in the world.
I simply want intelligent people to live harmoniously out of their intelligence. And if they cannot live out of intelligence, it is better to die than to become robots, to become machines, to be nagged and to be imprisoned in all kinds of slavery. It is better to be finished. We should live intelligently, and our order will come out of our intelligence, not vice versa.


That's what has been tried before; enforce order so that people can function intelligently. Now, that is absolutely stupid. Once you enforce order you destroy intelligence, you destroy even the possibility of it ever growing. There is no need….
Man has been a calamity, a curse to existence.
Rebellion means making man a blessing to existence, not a curse.
It is a risky step, but there is no gain without any risk. And this is such a tremendous change, almost a discontinuity with the past—not any modified form of the past society, just a totally fresh and new society.
There is no paradox. Here you have to be a rebel, but your rebellion does not mean that you have to go against something which is intelligent, intelligible. You rebel against any stupidity. Any idiocy that happens in the commune, you rebel against it. That is your responsibility, to be on guard that no stupidity, no superstition, starts getting its roots within you. Be alert.
But rebellion does not mean that you have to be unnecessarily destructive just to prove that you are a rebel; otherwise, somebody may think that you look very orthodox: two days have passed and you have not rebelled even once! Rebellion is not something that you have to do every day. It is not some kind of exercise, like going for a morning walk.
Rebellion is your attitude of looking at things, of watching things; what is happening in you and what is happening around you. No rust should be allowed to settle. Your sword of intelligence should remain shining, that's all. And everybody is keeping his own sword shining, nobody else is keeping your sword shining. Here, nobody is his brother's keeper.
You have to be on your own so orthodoxy cannot enter….
In my commune you have to remain rebels.
Of course you won't have enough chances to use your rebellion—that's the whole purpose of the commune. You have used your rebellion, your chance to rebel against the orthodoxy; now we will not give you any chances. And you should remain alert that no chances are given that you have to rebel against anything.
In a commune of rebels, every rebel is a guardian, a guard, of the rebellious spirit.
And remember, I am using the words rebellious spirit.
It is not a question of action. Action is needed only when something goes against the spirit.
So whenever anything in the commune goes against the rebellious spirit, destroy it, rebel against!
And you are not going against the commune:
You are saving the commune, the commune of the rebels.
You are saving the rebellious spirit.

But rebellion has never been tried.
Revolution is a collective effort to overthrow the government.
Rebellion is individual.
It overthrows nobody; it simply dissolves the individual's hypocrisy.
The rebel drops his facade.
He is not against any regime, against any society. He is not bothered by all that nonsense. Those who are interested in that, let them do their work. The rebel is simply very self-oriented.
I have been condemned by many sources around the world because I teach people selfishness. Yes, I teach selfishness. It is not a condemnation, this is my whole philosophy. I teach you to be selfish because unselfishness has been taught for thousands of years and it has not helped anybody.
I teach you to be just self-oriented.
Drop all the rubbish that is in you.

Clean yourself and start living as if you are the first and the last man in the world. The first, so that you don't have to carry the burden of the past, because there is no past. And the last, so that you need not worry about the future, about what will happen to your children. They will take care of themselves.
You think of yourself and live intensely at the innermost core of your being.
That's what rebellion is:
Let things be as they are.
But you are not a thing, you are a being:
Change yourself, transform yourself
Become a new man.


You have said that if there are only two hundred enlightened people in the world a third world war is not possible. Can You explain what You mean, how these two hundred people would make a difference among the billions of unconscious people?


Certainly. They will make tremendous difference. When the whole room is dark, just a small candle makes so much difference. In such a big room a small candle, lighted…the whole darkness disappears.
An enlightened person is a tremendous light—very subtle but for miles around him many people's lives will be touched. And if two hundred people are enlightened, which has never happened in history….
Two hundred enlightened people can create just the opposite situation. If they are together in a certain arrangement, they can create life rays which will protect people from death rays, which even may help somebody who has died through a death ray to come alive again. But those two hundred enlightened people have to be in a certain communication. Then they can create a circle around the world.
My own idea is that we can create two hundred enlightened people amongst our sannyasins. They are already connected and they are not alone, they are supported by the commune. Their energy can be enhanced, multiplied, by other sannyasins who may not be enlightened but are in search of it, on the way.
I mean what I have said. And if we can make a net of life rays around the earth, it can prevent even nuclear weapons from being destructive. But that is a totally different science and never experimented upon. But a few glimpses have happened in the past, and there is no harm in experimenting with it. Anyway, there is no other hope.
Our communes have to be ready for it. And they should not think of trivia, of small fights, egos. They should understand their responsibility is so great as it has never been of any human being before. And I hope that we will be able to do something. There is still time, and my people are working hard. Now it is a question whether we can manage within the time or not.
But I have a certainty that we have almost created a Noah's Ark of consciousness for the coming flood of death to the whole of humanity.