According to Osho, live in the present by responding instantly to what uplifts consciousness—love, generosity, meditation, prayer—because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Simultaneously, defer harmful impulses; let unwholesome desires wait. Presence needs discernment: in wise hands, even poison becomes nectar. Use the paradox skillfully—‘now’ for virtue, ‘later’ for vice—so awareness turns each moment into transformation.
Do the good things right now, and when bad or silly urges show up, tell them to come back tomorrow.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you often say we should be aware only of the present. But along with that, would you also say that while remaining aware we should not worry about the future? Do you want to exclude it altogether—are you advocating its total banishment?
In truth, my emphasis is on living, not on thinking. And one can live only in the present; you cannot live in the future. My emphasis is on living—just as my emphasis is on eating food. Now if someone says to me, “Shall we eat tomorrow’s bread—do you object?” I would say, first of all, you cannot eat the bread of the future; you can only dream about it. And the great danger in dreaming is that today’s bread may be missed. The real danger of dreaming is this: if you are busy eating the bread of the future, who will eat the bread of the present? And the present does not stop for you even for a moment. Whether you are present or not, it keeps rushing on. You are there or you are not—still the present does not wait. It does not stop for you; it goes on.…
Osho! To live in the world and yet not be of the world is sannyas. Why does this feel impossible to me?
Prem Chaitanya! It certainly feels impossible, but it isn’t. It only seems so because, until the taste of witnessing arises, whatever we do and wherever we are, we identify with it. That very identification settles on us like dust. Then the mirror of consciousness no longer reflects existence. A Zen saying: cranes and egrets fly over a lake; they have no desire that their reflections form in the water, yet reflections appear. The lake has no desire to reflect them either, yet reflections appear. The cranes and egrets fly on, and the reflections vanish. Such is the state of witnessing: reflections appear and disappear. Ordinarily, we clutch at the reflections. As they begin to fade we cling, we plead with them, “Stop! Stay!” They cannot stop; hence pain, hence sorrow. We cannot let go of the past; we cannot be free of the familiar—that is the hindrance. And upon the…
The old man wastes his present in the past, the young man wastes his present engaged in the future. Both exercises are absolutely futile. Not only futile but very harmful, because the present which is, is being wasted for that which is not. Don't think of the future. Live in the present. That's my message to you. Be in the present moment. And if you can be present to the moment you escape from all kinds of stupidities of the old people. If you can be in the present you transcend time. Time consists of past and future, eternity consists only of the present. Eternity is now, always now and never then, always here and never there. And to enter into the now and the here is to enter into God. This has to become your meditation, to come more and more close to the present moment.
Osho, you say, “Live here and now.” But when we look at ourselves, living here and now doesn’t feel appealing. Instead of living in the present, it feels more pleasant to live in fantasies of the future. So what should we do?
Therefore I say, live today. But you feel the present does not feel worth living. If the present does not feel worth living, tomorrow too will come only as the present; then that too will not feel worth living. The day after tomorrow will also come as the present; that too will not feel worth living. I call this self-destruction. Then you are committing suicide, not living. There is no other way to live. Only today exists, and it is today that has to be lived. Whether it feels worth living or not makes no difference. There is no other way. Living will happen only here. Do not fall into the delusion of tomorrow. The mirages of tomorrow have drowned many. Live today. Do not let this moment pass empty. This moment is an opportunity. Do not waste it like this. Make something of it. Take some juice out of…
The contemporary ideal of living completely within the present moment, no less than the classical mystical notion of living totally within the divine eternal, is as impossible as it is inhuman. It results in a diseased rather than a graceful present. Graceful existence integrates present, past and future.
Buddha is saying: To be in desire is to be miserable. He is not saying desire about what: desire as such creates misery -- because in desire you start moving from the present, you start thinking of the future. You start thinking of dreams -- you are going to do this, and this is going to happen; and if this happens you will be happy, and if that happens you will be very very miserable. The moment you start dreaming and desiring you have missed contact with life; you disconnected. You are no more living in those moments of desire. Those moments of desiring are death moments. Life has stopped flowing. You are frozen. Whenever you are in desire you are not alive. Life and desire can't exist together. They are two gestalts, you can have only one at one time. If you move into desire, life disappears; if you…