According to Osho, you can live without mental planning by living totally in the present. Planning, if needed, belongs to this moment as a lucid seeing, not to future daydreaming. In presence the mind falls silent, clarity guides action, and the future is naturally contained in the depth of each lived moment—spontaneous, responsive, and unpostponed.
Pay full attention to now, do what’s clear now, and the next step will reveal itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, can one live without planning? Not counting the dreams about a hazy future, I see that a lot of my mind activity goes into planning -- for next week, for next month. And when I try to act spontaneously I look like a weather vane that does not know how the wind blows.
These are the people who have made the proverb: Man proposes and God disposes. There is no God and nobody disposes. Your very proposition is wrong. Proposing anything from your side means you are not trusting existence. Just be a weather vane which slowly moves without any reluctance, without any resistance, wherever the wind is blowing. It enjoys all directions. The whole of life has to be enjoyed; existence in all its colors has to be enjoyed. But the mind is one of the most stupid things that you are carrying within you. When it is morning it is longing for the evening, when it is evening it is longing for the morning; it is the root cause of all your misery and frustrations. What is the need? I cannot understand why the weather vane should want to know how the wind blows. Can you figure it out? Is there…
Osho, you said that shaktipat occurs in an egoless state; then how can there be planning?
Planning can happen in an egoless state. The ego has nothing to do with planning—no connection whatsoever.
No, no need to resist. Nothing is wrong in planning. If you are not burdened with it, it is perfectly good. The problem arises when it becomes a tension in you. If you are playing it as a game, it is perfectly good. If it is a leela, it is perfectly good. If plans are fulfilled, good. If they are not fulfilled, don't feel frustrated, that's all. While planning, don't become tense about it. Remain relaxed. The problem arises when you plan and the planning becomes so important that you are lost in it and you cannot keep your coolness. You become so hot and excited that you are almost feverish, ill. Then it is a problem. Otherwise, if you can remain cool, and plan, it is perfectly good. Just try to remain cool and centred, and if you find it difficult, just leave everything to me.
If a man steps on a stranger's foot in the marketplace, he makes a polite apology and offers an explanation: "this place is so crowded."
IF AN ELDER BROTHER STEPS ON HIS YOUNGER BROTHER'S FOOT HE SAYS, "SORRY," AND THAT IS THAT. IF A PARENT TREADS ON HIS CHILD'S FOOT NOTHING IS SAID AT ALL. THE GREATEST POLITENESS IS FREE OF ALL FORMALITY. PERFECT CONDUCT IS FREE OF CONCERN. PERFECT WISDOM IS UNPLANNED. PERFECT LOVE IS WITHOUT DEMONSTRATIONS. PERFECT SINCERITY OFFERS NO GUARANTEE. All that is great, all that is beautiful, all that is true and real, is always spontaneous. You cannot plan it. The moment you plan it, everything goes wrong. The moment planning enters, everything becomes unreal. But this has happened to humanity. Your love, your sincerity, your truth, everything, has gone wrong because you have planned it, be-cause you have been taught not to be spontaneous. You have been taught to manipulate yourself, to control, to manage, and not to be a natural flow. You have become rigid, frozen, dead. Life knows…
Do you teach then that one should not plan for the future at all?
Psychologically one should not plan for the future at all, but that does not mean that practically you should not plan. The difference is great, and has to be understood. If you are going to travel, if you are going to the Himalayas, you will have to go to the railway station and book your ticket a few days ahead. That's simply practical. You cannot say 'When the idea arises to go to the Himalayas I will simply go.' It will be difficult: you may not get a ticket on the train or on the plane. Don't be foolish. But psychologically, yes, don't plan for the future. What is the meaning of psychological? You are here, and in your mind's eye you start trekking in the Himalayas, and you start enjoying -- just in fantasy. You are already there where you are not. This is psychological. This has to be…