According to Osho, yes: life itself supplies decisive happenings. Every movement has a limit; when you reach the boundary, the circle completes and a natural turning-back—conversion—happens. No one truly returns from the middle; half-experiences regress. Even ‘bad’ fully lived reveals its futility and ripens goodness. The real obstacle is self-deception—believing you are good while you’re not—which postpones change, sometimes for lifetimes.
Life pushes you to the edge of a path; when you really hit the limit, you turn around on your own—unless you fool yourself about who you are.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, for that change to happen, do certain happenings occur somewhere in a person’s life? Do they come—right there, at the right moment?
Yes, there are happenings—certainly there are. In fact, even if you keep on becoming worse, the moment will arrive from which you will turn back. Wherever you go—everything that goes, returns; everything has a limit. But those who do not go to the limit never return. That is why I say: if a man drinks, I tell him, don’t go on drinking just a little—because then you may never be able to come back! If you must drink, then drink—and go to the very limit that seems to be the last to you. And surely you will return. For returning, the circle has to be completed. Yes, we can go to some boundary—and from there we can return. That too is a way of returning. No one ever returns from the middle. And one who returns from the middle can again fall back, because the one who turns back from…
But for them to change, aren’t there some happenings in their lives?
There certainly are happenings. Yes, absolutely—there are happenings. Yes, definitely, happenings. In fact, even if you keep becoming worse, the moment will come from which you will turn back—if only you really go. Everything has a limit; when it reaches it, it returns. But those who do not go to the limit never return. That’s why I say: if a man drinks, I say, don’t keep drinking just a little, a little. Because you will never be able to return. If you must drink, then drink—and drink right up to the limit that seems the very last to you. And surely you will return. To return, the circle has to be completed. Yes, by going somewhere, by reaching some boundary, one can return.
Osho, when we are reborn, where is the accounting kept? What remains?
We are all bundles of habits. If you want to change these habits, resolve is needed. And the beginning of resolve is this: that it dawns on you that they can be changed. If you think they cannot be changed, your resolve will die completely. A German Jew, Frankl, during the last world war was imprisoned in a great camp. He has written—he has written very astonishing things—in his memoirs. Because he is a psychologist, he kept observing what was happening. December was approaching; the festival days were near. All the prisoners hoped that at least around Christmas there would be release; that around Christmas Hitler would show mercy and people would be freed. Frankl writes: until Christmas, however many tortures the prisoners were given, no one died. People remained ill, but there was a hope—Christmas is approaching. With that hope, there was strength in their life-breath. He writes: the…
One day suddenly the contact happens. And it happens out of the blue, unpredictable. Nobody knows when it will happen. Nobody can say anything about it, but it happens. When you look for it and you go on looking for it, you go on waiting for it -- one day it happens. You go on striking again and again and hammering and hammering, and one day suddenly it is there.... [A visitor had previously written to Osho, confessing he was a con-man and hustler. He had asked Osho to help him put his abilities to positive ends.] Hello,... come here. So you have come! Very good. This time don't try to escape. Your whole life you have been escaping. There were many possibilities, many times.... But it is natural -- one misses many times. But enough is enough! Now you have come home -- don't try to escape.
Question: Osho, to me the present state of world affairs appears illusory. Eminent scholars from different walks of life offer various themes for the transformation of life. For instance, religious leaders affirm that God or religion alone is omnipotent and can transform life and provide heaven. Sociologists, politicians, educationists and moralists believe that only better forms can create a better society. Naturalists say that understanding nature will bring transformation. Whereas psychologists and psychopathologists believe that psychoanalysis, tranquilizers, sedatives or brainwashing agents can transform life, etc., etc. But to me, sir, all this appears to be merely a partial transformation. Would you suggest what total and spontaneous transformation is? Man has constantly been thinking how life can be transformed from the roots. There are reasons for such thinking: as life is, there seems to be nothing in it but sorrow, pain, restlessness, struggle and strife.