Life, death & weekends

[1]

Amrit Sadhana [1]

Everyone believe that after long working days, it is important to take a weekly break as it helps us to unwind, rejuvenate and prepare for the week ahead.
Are the off days really so precious? Could it be conditioning, not a necessity? In fact it is self-hypnosis. The contemporary man is completely sold out to the idea of the weekend, and therefore he is distressed by the idea of working seven days a week.

Essentially this idea is borrowed from the West. In the East, weekend was never so important that people would wait for it almost fanatically. This division of workdays and off days is not healthy. It implies that you don’t enjoy the work you are doing. The catch is, if you don’t enjoy your work you won’t enjoy your holiday, too. Because basically you don’t know the art of enjoying.
So instead of justifying the need for a holiday, it will be beneficial to look at the quality of your working life. Do you go on working, while wishing you did something else? Is your work a necessary evil — simply to earn a living, or to fulfil an ambition rather than a joy unto itself?
If you work through the week, secretly waiting for the weekend, it is a great drain on your efficiency. People drag themselves through each workday so that they can relax in the evening; they endure the week so that they rest on weekends. They work through the year so that they can apply for leave at the end of the year. If we stretch the logic a little further, it can be said that they put up with life so that they can relax in death!
Osho completely disapproves the idea of an “off day”. He says that this idea is a gift of Christianity because the Christian god was tired after creating the world and needed a break, so he went on a holiday. That holiday became the Sunday. But according to the Eastern view, the world was created as a lila, a play; therefore the creator didn’t need a holiday. He enjoyed the expression of his creativity.
When work itself becomes fun, when you are aware and totally involved with your work there is no need for a separate time for relaxation. If your work is fulfilling, if you put your total energy into it, the work itself becomes meditation. The key is, if you love the work that you are doing, you get nourishment out of it, it gives you a creative satisfaction, as it is devoid of competition, ambition and comparison, which destroy the joy of working.