Your mind is basically atheistic. It enjoys saying no; no is its power. Positivity is its death. The greatest good is in saying yes, says OSHO
The mind will tell you continuously, “Postpone it. There is always tomorrow. Why be in such a hurryIJ You can do it tomorrow.” And the tomorrow never comes. The person who postpones any good act for tomorrow is postponing it forever; he will never be able to do it.
I have heard an ancient parable: A man worshipped God for several years, and one day God appeared to him. The man asked only for one thing. He said, “Give me something — that’s why I have been worshipping you — something which can fulfil all my wishes. Whatever I ask should be fulfilled, immediately.” God gave him a seashell, a beautiful seashell and said, “You ask anything from this seashell and immediately, instantly, it will be fulfilled.” The man was immensely happy. He asked for a big palace and it was there. He asked for beautiful women and they were there, and he asked for good food and it was there. Since that day he lived in absolute luxury.
But one day everything got disturbed. A sannyasin stayed with the man. The wandering monk said to him, “I have heard about your secret, but that is nothing. I have also worshipped God, far longer than you; you are a householder, I am a monk — of course God was more gracious to me. He has also given me a big seashell. look at this seashell. This is double the size of your seashell.” It actually was. And the monk said again, “Whatever you ask, the seashell gives you double. If you ask for one palace it makes two palaces for you. It always gives you double.”
The man became greedy. But there was no need for this as one seashell was enough; he could have asked twice or thrice, there was no problem. But a greedy man is blind — greed is blind. He became infatuated. He told the monk, “You are a monk, you have renounced the world, give your seashell to me and you can have my small seashell. For your purposes that is enough. But I am a householder.”
So the seashells were exchanged. Early in the morning, after having a bath, the man worshipped and asked the seashell to give him `1 lakh. The seashell said, “Why one lakhIJ I can give you two lakhs!” The man was immensely happy. He said, “Good, give me two lakhs.” The seashell said, “Why two lakhsIJ I can give you four lakhs.” Now the man was a somewhat puzzled, disturbed. He said, “All right, give me four lakhs.” Again the seashell replied, “I will give you eight lakhs.” And so on, so forth it went on — but nothing was given! Promises and promises... and whatever he asked, the promise was doubled.
He rushed to catch hold of the monk who was to leave early in the morning. But the monk had already left. This is a beautiful parable. That’s how the mind functions: The seashell of the monk — tricky. It always goes on giving you great promises, but tomorrow, not today. And tomorrow never comes. And, slowly and gradually, hoping becomes your very life, just hoping and waiting. And death comes, and no hope is ever fulfilled.
The mind is afraid of doing good. But whyIJ For two reasons. One: To do good is non-nourishing to the mind; the mind is nourished by doing evil, by doing bad. For example, if you say no, the mind is strengthened; if you say yes, the mind is not strengthened. Hence the mind is never interested in saying yes to anything. The mind is basically atheistic. It enjoys saying no; no is its power. Negativity is its food; it eats negativity. Positivity is its death. Try to say no and you start feeling powerful. Whenever you say no, whenever you can manage to say no, you feel powerful. Whenever you have to say yes, you feel humiliated, as if something has been done against yourself. To say a total yes is to destroy the mind totally, and to remain in a total no is to remain in the mind, in the ego.
The ego is another name of the mind. The ego is the centre of the mind; non-ego is the centre of your being. At the very core of being, there is no idea of “I”; but in the centre of the mind, it’s only I. The more you say no, the more you can feel your ego. So, say yes, feel yes, and suddenly there is no ego. The greatest good is saying yes to existence and life. That’s what religion is.
Excerpts from The Dhammapada