Osho Quotes on Perfectionism
- My approach is not that of a perfectionist; I am utterly against it. It has destroyed humanity. It has driven the whole of humanity into a kind of madness. The whole idea has to be dropped. We have to learn a new language — the language of wholeness. And I call a person holy when he is whole in whatsoever he does. If you are doing cleaning, then do it totally. Then be utterly lost in it, and it will give you as much as a musician gets when he gets lost totally in his music or a dancer gets when he is utterly lost into his dance. Even cleaning the floor or cooking the food or taking the bath or going for a morning walk — anything. Let this be your foundation of life: that whatsoever you are doing at the moment, be utterly lost into it. Nothing of you should be left behind. Don’t keep any reservations. And you will come out of it immensely benefited, enriched. I am as fallible as anybody with only one difference: I am totally fallible!
- To be total in your work is a totally different thing. To be total in your work is not addiction, it is a kind of meditation. When you are totally in your work, your work has a possibility of perfection, you will have a joy arising out of a perfect work. If you can be perfect and total in work, you can be total in no-work — just sitting silently, totally silent. You know how to be total. You can close your eyes and you can be totally in. You know the secret of being total. So to be total in work is helpful in meditation.
- Be human, don’t aspire to perfection in any way because all perfectionism is neurosis. Be human and accept all the frailties and limitations of human beings.
- All perfectionism is an egoistic effort, you go mad after everything. Try to do it as well as you can, but don’t be crazy about it; do as well as you can and accept the limitation. The limitation is going to be there, even about your character, morality, everything!
- Perfectionism is the seed of neurosis. A perfectionist can never be satisfied — because there is no way to satisfy a perfectionist. He will always find something or other — and that ‘something’ will create trouble. Be more realistic, down to earth, and enjoy imperfection too; that is part of life.
- Perfectionism is a neurosis. It is an illness. And the more you try to become perfect, the more frustrated you will become. The goal of perfection has led the whole of humanity towards madness; the earth has almost become a madhouse. I don’t teach perfection. What do I teach? I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be whole; be total; but don’t think about perfection. Be whole. Whatsoever you do, do it totally. What is the difference? When you do it totally you are not worried about the result. You did it totally. You are finished. More you could not do. You are not holding anything; you have put all your energy in it, you were whole in it. Now if you fail, you fail. If you succeed, you succeed. But whether you fail or you succeed, you are fulfilled all the same. A deep contentment arises because you have done whatsoever you could do. You can never be perfect. How can the part be perfect? You can never be perfect. Whatsoever you do, you can always imagine that it could have been better — whatsoever you do, you can imagine that better could have been done.
- You are human, in a certain time, in a certain space, with certain limitations. Accept those limitations. Perfectionists are always on the brink of madness. They are obsessed people — whatsoever they do is not good enough. And there is no way to do something perfectly — perfection is not humanly possible. In fact, imperfect is the only way to be. So what do I teach you here? I don’t teach you perfection, I teach you wholeness. That is a totally different thing. Be whole. Don’t bother about perfection. When I say be whole, I mean be real, be here; whatsoever you do, do it totally. You will be imperfect but your imperfection will be full of beauty, it will be full of your totality. Never try to be perfect otherwise you will create much anxiety. So many troubles are there already; don’t create more troubles for yourself.
- Just enjoy your life. It is perfect as it is. The whole idea of perfectionism creates only neurosis, pathology and a derangement of the mind. I teach you the ordinary. I teach you the simple, I teach you the natural, I teach you that you are where you have been trying to reach, exactly at home. Don’t waste your time running here and there. But you have been told always to become something, someone — that’s why every religion is against me, all the moralists are against me. I can understand, because if I am right then all the traditions and all the teachings that have been driving humanity towards some faraway goal are proven absolutely criminal. Because they have taken away people’s chance to live, chance to love, chance to sing, chance to dance. And in the ultimate sense, the very opportunity to feel the divine in the herenow. Unless you can feel the divine in the mundane, you are not an intelligent person. If you cannot manage in your small things an expression of gratitude, joy, awareness, then you are bound to remain miserable — not only in this life but perhaps for many lives.
- The perfectionist goes on sacrificing every moment for the future and that he will be doing in the future too, because future never comes — that which comes is always present — and he becomes addicted in sacrificing it. Meditation has nothing to do with perfectionism, but perfection comes as a by-product. As you become silent it follows you, wherever you go it is there — and it is not something dead, hanging around you. It is growing. That is the most miraculous thing about it, because we always think of perfection as the dead end. What more there can be? Logically it seems right that perfection means the full-stop. It is not so. Existentially perfection is also a growing phenomenon, from perfection to more perfection to more perfection — there is no end to it. Become a meditator and see the miracle happening. Many miracles happen through meditation. It is the magic key. One of the greatest miracles is that it brings perfection for which you were not even thinking, for which you had no desire. you were not asking, you were not searching; it simply comes as a reward from the whole.
- All kinds of perfectionism create neurosis. Be a perfectionist and you will end up in a mad asylum. Drop all that nonsense, don’t ask for impossible. Be human. Nothing is perfect in the world, not even God. Because if something is perfect it is dead. And God is not dead yet — notwithstanding what Nietzsche says, God is not dead yet. And God will never be dead, because God will never be perfect. He is always growing; out of imperfection there is growth. When you are perfect then what is left except suicide? What will you do when you are perfect? All growth is possible because something always remains to be done. One goes on learning, one goes on growing. Yes, let me say to you: Even after enlightenment one goes on growing. From perfection to perfection one goes on growing. One is never absolutely perfect, because absolute perfection means death. Life is imperfect. That’s why life IS. Only death is perfect.
- Perfection, the idea of perfection, is an ugly idea. A perfectionist is a neurotic. Perfectionism is a psychological disease. So the first thing to be remembered is that I am not for any kind of perfection. I want you to be whole, but not perfect; 1 want you to be total, but not perfect. Avoid perfection because per-fection means death; perfection means that now there is no more growth. Perfection means an existential cul-de-sac — you have come to the end of your tether. Now there is nowhere to go, you are stuck and stuck forever — you are perfect.
- The perfectionist is bound to be a neurotic, he cannot enjoy life till he is perfect. And perfection as such never happens, it is not in the nature of things. Totality is possible, perfection is not possible. That is the fundamental of the holistic approach. And there is a tremendous difference between perfection and totality. Perfection is a goal somewhere in the future, totality is an experience herenow. Totality is not a goal, it is a style of life. If you can get into any act with your whole heart, you are total. Totality brings wholeness and totality brings health and totality brings sanity.
- A perfectionist is neurotic. And not only is he neurotic, he creates neurotic trends around him. So don’t be a perfectionist, and if somebody is a perfectionist around you escape away from him as fast as you can before he pollutes your mind. All perfectionism is a sort of deep ego trip. Just to think of yourself in terms of ideals and perfection is nothing but to decorate your ego to its uttermost. A humble person accepts that life is not perfect. A humble person, a really religious person, accepts that we are limited, that there are limitations.
- Perfectionism is the root cause of all neurosis. A perfectionist is a neurotic person; sooner or later, he will create more and more neurosis around him. I am not a perfectionist. I don’t bother a bit about being a perfectionist. I am a wholistic person. I like things in their wholeness, but I never bother about their perfection. Nothing can be perfect in the world — and in fact nothing should be perfect in the world, because whenever a thing is perfect it is dead.
- Perfect people are nowhere to be found. Perfect people don’t exist. Imperfection is part of life, a very essential part of life. The moment somebody becomes perfect, he starts disappearing from life. That’s why we say Buddhas are never born again — they became perfect, they need not come back. They have learnt all that was to be learnt here on the earth; they need not become embodied again.
- I don’t teach perfection. Perfection simply creates neurosis in people. Perfectionists are neurotics; they drive themselves crazy in trying to be perfect, because they are trying to do the impossible. I teach totality; I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be total in whatsoever you are doing. Be total. If you are angry, then be totally angry. If you are in love, then be totally in love. If you are sad, then be totally sad. Don’t be halfhearted in anything. That is a totally different approach towards life.
- All perfectionism drives people to neurosis. Whenever you see a neurotic, search deep in him and you will find hidden a perfectionist. And wherever you find a perfectionist, be alert. He is on the way to becoming a neurotic.
- Perfection is bound to bring hurry because life is short, and perfectionism means you have to do thousands of things quickly, otherwise who knows? You may be incomplete before death comes. And particularly in the Western societies where religions have insisted on only one life, there is more hurry. In the East people are not in such a hurry for the simple reason that they believe that there are many lives, so what is the hurry for? There is no need, one can wait. That’s why the East is lazy: it has a psychological reasoning for its laziness. And the West is speedy: “Be quick, because there is only one life, and if you are not complete in this life then there is no other opportunity. No chances are given, no choices are given — only THIS life.” Naturally hurry arises and effort. You have to make tremendous efforts to be perfect. And in this whole rush for perfectionism you are not a gainer, you become a loser. There is no time to think, there is no time to be silent, there is no time to feel, there is no time to love. All is devoted to one goal: how to be a perfect man, a superman. It is not an accident that Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Germany. He talked about the superman, and Adolf Hitler believed that he was the superman about whom Friedrich Nietzsche was talking. Adolf Hitler is not even human — he is sub-human, below humanity, but he thinks that he is super-human. And he was trying to create a race of super-human beings. He brought the whole German ideology of perfectionism to its logical end. And you ARE conditioned, whether you know it or not, by that fascist, Nazi idea. With me you have to relax. With me you have to drop your being a German or being an Indian or being an Italian. Whatsoever you are you have to drop it. You have to be just silent, blissful. You have to be just human — there is no need to be super-human.
- Relaxation means you don’t have any shoulds. You are simply living moment to moment, not according to some future idea of yourself, but according to your reality that is herenow. To live with the reality, moment to moment, is to be sane. To live with the idea is to be insane. The whole earth has become almost a madhouse because of these perfectionists. Perfectionism is a sort of madness; only mad people try to be perfectionists. Sane people never try to be perfectionists. Sane people are humble people. They know their limitations, they don’t try the impossible, so they enjoy the possible. If you try the impossible you cannot enjoy the possible, and in trying the impossible you miss the possible too. And from the other end, sane people enjoy the possible and they don’t hanker for the impossible, and enjoying the possible, one day suddenly they stumble upon the impossible too. Their joy becomes so much by and by, moment to moment, they go on being blissful. In ordinary things they are blissful. They don’t ask for great things, they don’t ask for paradise, to be blissful, they don’t ask for God, they don’t ask for nirvana. Small things. Playing with your own child, loving your wife, eating your food, taking a shower, or going for a morning walk, is more than enough. Just running on the beach is more than enough. What more do you want to be happy? The touch of the cool sand, and the warm rays of the sun showering on you, and the wild roar of the sea playing around you… what more do you need to be happy? Playing with a child, the laughter of the child… what more do you need to be happy?
- The most basic flaw in the concept of the old man was perfectionism: he wanted to be perfect, and the very idea of perfectionism drives people crazy. The perfectionist is bound to be a neurotic, he cannot enjoy life till he is perfect. And perfection as such never happens, it is not in the nature of things. Totality is possible, perfection is not possible. That is the fundamental of the holistic approach. And there is a tremendous difference between perfection and totality. Perfection is a goal somewhere in the future, totality is an experience herenow. Totality is not a goal, it is a style of life. If you can get into any act with your whole heart, you are total. Totality brings wholeness and totality brings health and totality brings sanity. The perfectionist completely forgets about totality. He has some idea how he should be, and obviously time will be needed to reach that idea. It can’t happen now — tomorrow, day after tomorrow, this life, maybe next life… so life has to be postponed. That’s what the old man has been doing hitherto, postponing, postponing. The man in the past has not really lived; his life was nothing but a sequence of postponements. I teach you to live herenow with no idea of the future at all. The future will be born out of your lived present. If the present has been lived totally, the future will have even more totality to it. Out of totality more totality is born.
- Remember around the clock that essentially you are a buddha. Behave as a witness, with great grace. And by and by, even your ordinary activities of day-to-day life will become divine. Unless we can transform the mundane into the sacred, your meditation is not complete, is not perfect. To be here now, to be totally here now, and you are the buddha, the ultimate perfection humanity has ever achieved. You have the same potential, the same height and the same depth. It is only a question of taking the challenge and exploring your own inner sky, and you will be surprised. Outside you have been a beggar — even the richest man is a beggar because he still wants more. When you get settled at the center, for the first time you are an emperor, because everything is fulfilled. There is no desire for more, there is no desire at all, but a pure isness, a transparent isness. Here you will find the truth. Here you will find the beauty. Here you will find the meaning of godliness — and you don’t have to defend them. They are eternal, they have always been here now, only you have not looked in.
- Meditation is the only way to become fulfilled, to know the innermost core of your being which is already perfect, which needs no perfection, which is already overflowing with joy and peace and love. Meditation simply makes you aware of that which is already inside you. It is a way of awakening to one’s own self. And the moment you know it you have found the home; then you are no more homeless. Then you are rooted in existence; then you know that you are not just a driftwood, then you know that you are not accidental. Then you know that you are part of a divine existence, of an organic unity of the whole.
