Osho: What is dharma?

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Dharma simply means the ultimate law that keeps the universe together, that keeps the universe together, that keeps the universe in harmony, in accord; the norm that makes the universe a cosmos and not a chaos.

It is like gravitation: you cannot make a religion out of gravitation. Nobody worships gravitation; nobody makes temples for gravitation – although gravitation has been doing so much for you. If there was no gravitation none of us would be here. Earth itself would fall into fragments and the whole universe would simply be chaos. There would be no order of any kind, and life is not possible without order. And consciousness is impossible unless there is something like an ultimate law which keeps everything together.

But you have to be a little more aware, and then the very earth you move on becomes sacred; then trees are gods, then birds are buddhas. Then each person you meet is a potential Buddha. How can you hurt anybody? How can you be destructive to anybody, disrespectful to anybody? Impossible! Then it is not etiquette; then it is simple, natural understanding.

But people are so unaware that it is difficult for them to see the greatest thing that surrounds them within and without.

The owner of a big furniture store went to New York to buy some stock, and met a really beautiful girl in the hotel elevator. But she was French, and they could not understand a word of each other’s language.

So he took out a pencil and notebook and drew a sketch of taxi. She nodded her head and laughed, and they went for a ride in the park.

Then he drew a picture of a table in a restaurant with a question mark and she nodded, so they went to dinner.

After dinner he sketched two dancers and she was delighted. They went to a nightclub and danced and had a lovely evening.

At length she motioned for the pencil and drew a picture of a four-poster bed.

He was dumbfounded. He has never been able to figure out how she knew he was in the furniture business.
One has to be aware; otherwise you can miss the obvious! And dharma is the obvious, godliness is the obvious. It is not a complicated, complex thing. It is not far away; it is very close by. It is dharma that beats in your heart; it is dharma that pulsates in your blood. It is dharma that breathes; it is dharma that lives in you. It is dharma that you are made of – the very stuff that you are made of – and yet you are unaware of it.

-OSHO, The White Lotus