Obsession

Obsession

Aug 24, 2022

Definitely obsession leads to chaos. You are spending all your resources money, mind and physical effort on one thing and one thing only. Where as everyone needs to do or pay attention to many things in life at any point of life. But a obsessed man escapes from all his activities and is after one thing which he is obsessed with.

Commentaries on Living: First Series ~ J. Krishnamurti

"HE SAID HE was obsessed by stupid little things, and that these obsessions constantly changed. He would worry over some imaginary physical defect, and within a few hours his worry would have fixed itself upon another incident or thought. He seemed to live from one anxious obsession to another. To overcome these obsessions, he continued, he would consult books, or talk over his problem with a friend, and he had also been to a psychologist; but somehow he had found no relief. Even after a serious and absorbing meeting, these obsessions would immediately come on. If he found the cause, would it put an end to them?

If the surface mind is not quiet, it indulges in obsessions, actual or imaginary; it gets caught up in some social reform or religious conclusion: the Master, the saviour, the ritual, and so on. It is only when the surface mind is quiet that the hidden can reveal itself. The hidden must be exposed; but this is not possible if the surface mind is burdened with obsessions, worries. Since the surface mind is constantly in some kind of agitation, conflict is inevitable between the upper and the deeper levels of the mind; and as long as this conflict is not resolved, obsessions increase. After all, obsessions are a means of escape from our conflict. All escapes are similar, though it is obvious that some are socially more harmful.

When one is aware of the total process of obsession or of any other problem, only then is there freedom from the problem To be extensively aware, there must be no condemnation or justification of the problem; awareness must be choiceless. To be so aware demands wide patience and sensitivity; it requires eagerness and sustained attention so that the whole process of thinking can be observed and understood."

Philosophia Perennis, Series 1 ~ Osho

"Sleep is a need when the body is fully nourished. You cannot sleep when you are on a fast – one or two hours at the most. So, twenty-two hours you are thinking, and those other two hours you will be dreaming about food. This is a negative obsession. There are people positively obsessed with sex, who think only of sex and nothing else. In everything, they think of sex. And there are negatively obsessed people. These people you call celibates, monks, brahmacharins, they are continuously thinking of sex too – in a negative way. Obsession means anything becoming your whole life. Nothing is to become your whole life, everything has its own place, life should be an orchestra. It should not be only food, should not be only sex, should not be only money, should not be only power. It should not be any one thing; it should be many things, the whole variety. All the dimensions should remain available; then you will be rich.

Obsession means your life is hypnotized by one thing, you have lost all sense of proportion. Then your life will be ugly, stupid.

Herman loved food; food was his beloved. Food was his religion; food was his God. He would have agreed absolutely with the Indian seers who declared,

“Annam brahma, food is God” – of course in a totally different sense.

Fearing a future world famine – and he was always afraid of a world famine – Herman hoarded a ten-year supply of canned food.

“Herman,” complained his wife, “what are we going to do? The garage and the house are stacked to the ceiling with canned goods.”

“Don’t worry,” answered Herman. “I know what I am doing.”

“Herman,” wailed his wife, “don’t you get tired of moving these cases of cans each time we go to bed? Our bedroom is like a warehouse!”

“Don’t worry,” Herman assured her, “we will never go hungry.”

But one night Herman had such terrible stomach cramps a doctor had to be summoned. Carrying his kit through a maze of cases, the doctor somehow found the moaning patient.

“Doctor,” cried Herman, “is it possible that eating so much canned food has affected my stomach?”

The doctor examined Herman. “No, it is not the food you ate,” diagnosed the doctor, “it is the food you lifted. You have a hernia.”

And you will find these people everywhere. There are people who think only of money, as if their whole life has only one goal: to leave in the world as big a bank balance as possible. There are people who only want some political power. Their whole life is devoted to only one thing: how to become the president of a country, or the prime minister of a country. These are obsessed people. They have missed their whole lives; they cannot enjoy anything. They are not here-now; they are always focused on their single idea. And anything can become an obsession. Cleanliness can become an obsession…

I used to live in a house, a friend’s house. His wife was just neurotic about cleanliness, a perfectionist. Now, cleanliness is not bad and this is the trouble: these neurotic people can rationalize. Cleanliness is not bad, but one is not here only to be clean. She was so mad that the whole day she was scrubbing floors and cleaning the walls and the furniture. Her house was worth seeing – but only worth seeing, not to be used at all. She would not invite any guests, because if their children came, there would be trouble. Even her husband would not use the furniture because if something got scratched, there would be trouble. Now, cleanliness is a good thing, but cleanliness is not all. To remain sane means to remember the golden mean. Excess is illness. Avoid all extremes and remain in the middle. That is Pythagoras’ message to you: the golden mean. Always remain in the middle, never move to the extreme, and you will remain sane and healthy, and whole. "

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