The Times of India, 31 January 2016, New Delhi Decide For Yourself 1 Japan, choy have toes chat are four hindeed, five hus dred years dd, and six inch- es high. Ie isconsidered to be fan art. To ne it is simple murder. Geserations of gar- ddeners have been keeping those trees in this situation, Nowa tree whidh is ive hundred years old... ou cansee its branches are old although smilie isa very tiny ‘old man, bue it shovs on the leaves, oon the trunk, on the branches. And the strategy that has3een used is this they plant a tre in «mud por which has no bottom, chenthey go on cut- ing the roots >ecause the pot | ee When the roots > eet Seth they wl WA ice , will not do any- Carerans ihn weak : eee Sncesncercs Todays Imposbleto remain D testo dec a Your ormemcotsest 2 ‘Ourroots willbecomestrongifwe seneure that eveybodyis taught the beauty offredom thing to the tre; they will simply go fon cutting the ro«s. Now for five hundred years, a family has been con tinuously cutting the 100%. The tree may live for thousands of years, but the tre never blossoms t never comes to fruition, The same has been done co man all over the world. His roots have been cut fiom the very begin- ning, about everything. Every child-has t0 be obedient You are cutting his 7008. You are not cing him a chanceto think, whether say yes to you, orto say no.You are not allowing him tothink, you are not allowing him to make a decision on “OBedience is like cutting the roots and Geko Te a AUR od ONCOL) ELT) his own, You are not giving him re- sponsibility — you are taking re- sponsibility away, behind the beauti- ful word ‘obedience’ You are taking hs freedom away, you are taking his individuality away,by a simple strate {By — insisting that he isa child, he Joes not know anything. The parents have to decide and the child bas to be absolutely obedient: The obedient child is the respected child But so much is implied init that you are destroying him completely He will grow of, buche will not grow ‘up. He will grow old, but there will be no blossoming and there will be no frition. He wl ive, but his life will not be a dance, will noc bea song, will not be a rejoicing You ave de~ stroyed the basic possibly For all hat ‘makes a man individual authentic, sin- cere, gives him a certain integrity And that’s what obedience does: it cripples you — you cannot sy no, you have to say yes. But when a man has become incapable of saying no, his yes is jost meaningless he is fanc~ tioning ike a machine You have rarned man into a robot. Tn this woeld to remain free, to think on your own, to decide with Jour ova caicleace has been mate ie epee ey eeera the church, in the temple, in the pee asec hae Singin the family — everywhere are expected tobe obedient Uptonow the accepted Tule bas bea to detmoy the Se yay that his THE whole life he SPEAKING © nani TREE every kind of authority, o cut his rao so that he cal have enough jae to Baht for feel gh ellie fight for anything. Then he will have only salamoune of He wich will enable him to survive el death re eves him Bova this avery that we have aceped as ie, Children are saves ofthete parent; wives are ves hus. bande are saps old people betomne gee Wee ee kas al the power. If you look around, verybody i living in slavery, hiding goes i wd ‘The roots can be srong only if we stop what we have been doing up to now, and do just the opposite of it Every child should he given a chance to thine We should help him to sharp- en his intelligence, We should help him by giving him scuations and op: portunities where he has to decide on his own, We should make it point that nobody i forced to be obedient, and everybody is taught the beauty and the grandeur of freedom. Then the roots will be strong. Abridged from Beyond Psychology, coursesy Osho International Foundati swwwotho.com a