You have just forgotten yourself.

Nothing is lost, nothing is missing, nothing has to be found. Just remember. A simple remembering – the simplest things are very difficult, that’s true – and this is the most simple thing.

None of the problems are yours. As far as you are concerned, no problem can enter in you, but you can get identified with something which is not you.

I remember a story. A man’s house caught fire. The house was on fire, and it had taken the man’s whole life’s effort to make that beautiful place. Thousands of people had gathered, but there was nothing that could be done. The fire had become so big. And you can understand that man: tears were coming from his eyes. It was his whole life burning in front of him. And then suddenly his son came running and he said, ”Dad, why are you worried? We sold the house yesterday. You were out… but we have sold the house. It is now for somebody else to cry and weep, not for you. And we have got enough profit out of it.”

The man immediately wiped away his tears and became just a spectator like the others were spectators. The identity, the invisible identity, ”It is my house,” was no longer there. There was no pain, there was no misery, there was no problem at all. And he was really happy in a way: ”Now we can make a better house.” He was feeling relieved; the house was burning, and he was feeling relieved.

And then a second son came running. He said, ”It is true that we had negotiated the sale, but the papers were not signed and the money has not been transferred. So it is our house that is burning, and you are looking at it as if you are just a spectator!” Again those tears were flowing and again the heart was breaking. And nothing has visibly changed: the house is burning, the man is standing there. But these people who are bringing messages are changing everything! When he becomes identified, he is burning with the house. When he gets unidentified, he is relieved and he has nothing to do with the house; it is somebody else’s house.

To be a beggar I only mean that although you live in palaces, but don’t let palaces live in you. Ownership is illusion, as permanence is illusion. Except the Eternal all is accidental. Except the Eternal all is misery, all is a bondage.

AND WHAT IS IT YOU GUARD WITH FASTENED DOORS?

DROPPING THE IDEA OF OWNERSHIP IS RENUNCIATION. RENUNCIATION IS NOT DROPPING THE POSSESSIONS BUT POSSESSIVENESS. Look at your possessions. Do you possess them?. If your house is destroyed you will weep, you will scream, you will go mad, but if you die, your house is not going to weep, it is not going to go mad. So who was the real owner?. The house owns you. It doesn’t care a bit about you: whether you live in it or not. This sutra is meaningful in this sense that only the self can be possessed and nothing else. And if you cannot possess your self, what else do you think you can possess?”.

“So be a master – the master of your own self – and don’t make any effort to possess anything. I don’t mean to leave everything. That’s not the point. Use everything, but don’t think in terms of possessing. Use the house, but don’t be the owner. Use wealth; don’t be the owner of it. Use the whole world, but don’t think that you possess it. You are just a traveller. You come to a point where the things you wanted are there, whatever you desired has happened, but you have become the slave. The kingdom now appears to be nothing but an imprisonment and whatever you possess, or think that you possess, is not really possessed, because it can be taken away at any moment. Even if no one takes it away, death is bound to take it. In religious terminology, that which can be taken away by death is not yours. Death is the criterion. There is only one criterion to judge whether you really possess something. Judge it against death and see whether you will still have it after your death. If death takes it, you never possessed it. It was just an illusion. Ownership is illusion, because permanence is illusion. But there is something that death cannot take over and that something is hidden within you. You already possess it. It is your innermost nature. It has come with you; you are born with it. Or rather, it will be better to say that you are it, not that you possess it. If you possess it, it can be taken away. You are it, it is your very being. It is your very ground; it is your existence. That is what is called atman, Soul, Consciousness. Atman means that which you are already. No one can take it away from you; not even death can destroy it”.

Osho- The Path of the Mystic