TREASURES: ACTING IS THE MOST SPIRITUAL PROFESSION

Acting is certainly the most spiritual of professions for the simple reason that the actor has to be in a paradox: he has to become identified with the act he is performing and yet remain a watcher.

If he is acting as Hamlet he has to become absolutely involved in being a Hamlet, he has to forget himself totally in his act, and yet at the deepest core of his being he has to remain a spectator, a watcher ...

The real actor has to live a paradox: he has to act as if he is what he is acting, and yet deep down he knows that

"I am not this." That's why I say acting is the most spiritual of professions.

The really spiritual person transforms his whole life into an acting. Then this whole earth is just a stage, and all the people are nothing but actors, and we are enacting a play.

Then if you are a beggar you play your act as beautifully as you can, and if you are the king you play your act as beautifully as you can. But deep down the beggar knows,

"I am not it," and the king too knows, "I am not it."

If the beggar and the king both know that "What I am doing and acting is just acting; it is not me, not my reality," then both are arriving at the very center of their being, what I call witnessing. Then they are doing certain acts and witnessing too.

So acting is certainly the most spiritual of professions, and all spiritual persons are nothing but actors. The whole eath is their stage, and the whole of life is nothing but a drama enacted.

• Osho