There is another way of listening too: just listening, nothing between me and you. Then there is immediacy, contact, meeting, communion. Then you don’t interpret, because you are not worried whether it is right or wrong. Nothing is right, nothing is wrong. In that moment of innocence one does not evaluate. There is nothing to evaluate with, no criterion, no a priori knowledge, no already arrived conclusion, nothing to compare with. You can only listen, just as one listens to the running sound of water in the hills, or a solo flute player in the forest, or somebody playing on the guitar. You listen.

But the person who has come to listen as a critic will not listen. The person who has come simply to listen, not as a critic but to enjoy the moment, will be able to listen to the music. What is there to understand in music? There is nothing to understand. There is something to taste, certainly; there is something to drink and be drunk with, certainly, but what is there to understand?

But the critic, he is not there to taste, he is not there to drink; he is there to understand. He is not listening to the music because he is so full of the mathematics. He is continuously criticizing, thinking. He is not innocent; he knows too much, hence he will miss the beauty of it. He may arrive at some stupid conclusions, but he will miss the whole moment. And the moment is momentous!

If you can listen, just listen, if you can see, just see, then this very moment you will know what innocence is.

And I am not here only to explain to you what innocence is, I am here to give a taste of it. Have a cup of tea! I offer it to you, each moment it is being offered. Sip it. Feel the warmth of the moment and the music of it and the silence and the love that overflows. Be encompassed with it. Disappear for a moment with your mind: watching, judging, criticizing, believing, disbelieving for/against. For a moment be just an openness, and you will know what innocence is. And in that you will know what beauty is.

Beauty is an experience that happens in innocence, the flower that blooms in innocence. Jesus says: “Unless you are like small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God.”

The second question:

Osho,
Sometimes I believe you and sometimes I disbelieve you. How long am I to live in this duality? How am I to drop this duality and unite? Please explain.

Who has told you to believe in me? If you believe you will disbelieve too. Nobody can believe without disbelieving. Let it be settled once for all: nobody can believe without disbelieving. Every belief is a cover-up for disbelief.