THESE FIVE LETTERS, SELECTED FROM MORE THAN 100 WRITTEN BY OSHO TO MA YOGA SOHAN FROM 1964 TO 1965, HAVE BEEN PRINTED IN THE HINDI PUBLICATION, PATH KE PRADEEP. AN ADDITIONAL TWENTY LETTERS HAVE ALSO BEEN TRANSLATED FOR THE BOOK, A CUP OF TEA.

(OTI 16 JULY 1990)
Beloved Sohan,
Choosing between truth and oneself, the one who chooses truth \ufb01nds truth and his own being. And

Man has to lose himself before he becomes the truth. No one moves into truth without I paying this price. One\u2019s very existing is the barrier. One\u2019s very self veils the truth. The only obstruction is this vision. . . this seeing the world from the con\ufb01ned vision of \u201dego.\u201d Except this \u201dego vision,\u201d nothing separates man from the truth. Becoming the \u201dI\u201d is man\u2019s downfall. He falls down only in the gravitation of the \u201dI\u201d, and only in losing the \u201dI\u201d does he rise above, into this blessed existence. To be the \u201dI\u201d is to be lower. To become the \u201dno-I\u201d is to rise above.

not your identity \u2013 it is only a dream, and the identity you \ufb01nd when you lose it is the truth.
When it completely loses itself within the earth, the seed sprouts and becomes a tree.
Beloved Sohan,

A sadhu was asked by his friends, \u201dIf wicked people attack you, what will you do?\u201d He said, \u201dI will go sit inside my own strong fort.\u201d This conversation reached the ears of the enemies. Then one day the enemies surrounded him while he was alone and said, \u201dO sadhu! Please tell us, where is your strong fort?\u201d The sadhu began laughing and then, placing a hand on his heart, said, \u201dThis is my fort. No attack can ever be made on it. The body can be destroyed, but that which is inside cannot be. This is my very fort. My only security is to know my way there. \u201d

The person who doesn\u2019t know this strong fort his entire life is insecure. His life is surrounded by enemies every moment. Such a person has not yet found a shelter for peace and security. And those who search outside for that shelter, search in vain, because it is inside.

Slavery comes with birth. It is given by nature. We don\u2019t have to earn it. Man \ufb01nds himself enslaved. But freedom has to be earned. Only those who strive and struggle for it attain it. One has to pay the price for freedom. Whatever is valuable in life cannot be gotten free of cost. To acquire slavery from nature is not a misfortune. The misfortune is not to earn freedom. To be born a slave is not bad, but to die only as a slave is certainly bad. Nothing brings signi\ufb01cance and ful\ufb01llment in life unless you achieve your inner freedom. Those who are imprisoned by desires, those who have not known the free sky of awakening, they have life, but they remain deprived of knowing life. There is no difference between the lives of birds imprisoned in cages and souls Lying imprisoned in desires. One enters into the world of real life only when intelligence is free of desire.

If one\u2019s eyes are open, then this whole life is a school. And one who is hungry to learn, learns from every person and from every situation. And remember, one who does not learn in this way, learns nothing in life. Emerson has said, \u201dEach person I meet is better than me at one thing or another. I can learn something from him.\u201d

I remember a story. It happened in Mecca. A barber was giving someone a haircut. Just then the Su\ufb01 fakir, Junnaid, came in and said, \u201dCan you cut my hair in the name of Allah?\u201d Just hearing Allah\u2019s name, the barber said to his regular customer, \u201dFriend, please just wait a little, I cannot cut your hair right now. I have to attend to that fakir for allah. Allah\u2019s work comes \ufb01rst.\u201d After this he cut Junnaid\u2019s hair with great love and devotion, then respectfully bade him farewell.