A man who had recently opened a shop hung a large sign above the shop that read, “Fresh Fish is Sold Here.” A friend came up to him and said, “Why does the sign say ‘Here’?” The man removed the word “here” from the sign.
Then another friend came and said, ‘It is sold!’ Of course it is sold. You don’t donate after all, do you?” The word “sold” has been removed from the sign.
The third came and said, ‘Fresh Fish!’ It has to be fresh. Who will buy the stale fish from you? The word “fresh” has been removed.
The shopkeeper bowed his head. The sign now only had the word ‘Fish’ and came fourth and ‘Fish!’ How good to get that out! You can already smell it from a kilometer away,” he said. The shopkeeper also deleted the last word on the sign.
A fifth man came and said, “What’s the point of hanging a blank sign over the top of the shop?” The shopkeeper removed the sign.
A sixth man came to the stage and said, “You opened such a big shop. Can’t you hang a sign that says “Fresh Fish is Sold Here”?
If you continue to listen to people, you will become more and more confused; That’s how you got confused. This is your confusion; listening to a lot of people and they all give different advice. And I am not saying that they are not well-intentioned; they are well-intentioned, but not conscious; If they were, they wouldn’t be giving you advice. They would give you insight, not advice. They wouldn’t tell you what to do and what not to do. They would help you become more alert so that you could see for yourself what to do and what not to do.
A true friend is someone who doesn’t give you advice, but helps you to be more alert, more alert, more conscious in your life -into your life’s problems, opportunities, mysteries- helps you to go on your own journey, to experience, to explore and seek, many It encourages you to make mistakes. Because he who is not ready to make mistakes will never learn anything.
A true friend helps you sharpen your mind. It does not make firm recommendations; because fixed advice won’t work. What is true today may not be true tomorrow, and what is true in one situation may be false in another. Situations are always changing, so what you need is perspective, not a fixed model of life. So wherever you are, whatever situation you find yourself in, you know how to act spontaneously and how to withstand your own existence.
Osho
