According to Osho, totality is not extremity but balance: it happens in the middle when you stop choosing between opposites and let them dissolve into each other. By remaining choiceless (neti-neti), love and hate cancel, birthing compassion. An undivided, nonsplit awareness acts wholly without leaning, so you are total yet never extreme.
Don’t pick sides inside—hold both feelings gently, stand in the calm middle, and your whole self can act kindly.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
How can one be total yet not extreme in all that one experiences?
Sometimes, while I was travelling in India, in many places many people asked me one question again and again. The question seems to be very pertinent and relevant. They have asked me, "Why is it so, that in India there have been so many saints, and yet the country is so immoral?" I have told them it is natural. When a country produces so many saints it has to produce the same number of sinners; otherwise the balance will be lost. When the country produces all the teerthankeras, twentyfour; all the avataras, twenty four; all the Buddhas, twentyfour; then where will the sinners go? And how can a Buddha exist if all the sinners are not here? A Buddha exists in an ocean of sinners; there is no other way. For one Buddha to exist millions of sinners are needed. In fact, because of those sinners he looks so enlightened:…
When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
THE WAY IS PERFECT LIKE VAST SPACE WHERE NOTHING IS LACKING AND NOTHING IS IN EXCESS. INDEED, IT IS DUE TO OUR CHOOSING TO ACCEPT OR REJECT THAT WE DO NOT SEE THE TRUE NATURE OF THINGS. LIVE NEITHER IN THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF OUTER THINGS, NOR IN INNER FEELINGS OF EMPTINESS. BE SERENE WITHOUT STRIVING ACTIVITY IN THE ONENESS OF THINGS AND SUCH ERRONEOUS VIEWS WILL DISAPPEAR BY THEMSELVES. WHEN YOU TRY TO STOP ACTIVITY TO ACHIEVE PASSIVITY YOUR VERY EFFORT FILLS YOU WITH ACTIVITY. AS LONG AS YOU REMAIN IN ONE EXTREME OR THE OTHER YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ONENESS. THOSE WHO DO NOT LIVE IN THE SINGLE WAY FAIL IN BOTH ACTIVITY AND PASSIVITY, ASSERTION AND DENIAL. Logic will say something absolutely different. Logic will say, "Practice rest the whole day, so in the night you can rest beautifully." Mulla Nasruddin went to his doctor. Coughing, he entered.…
Osho, please comment on the art of balanced living. Mr life is often an experience of extremes, with the middle road difficult to maintain for any length of time.
Masochists have always moved towards religion. Religion has a great attraction for masochists. In fact, so many masochists down the ages have moved towards religion -- it was very natural, that movement -- that religion became dominated by the masochists. That's why religion goes on insisting on being life-negative, life-destructive. It is not for life, it is not for love, it is not for joy. It goes on insisting that life is misery. By calling life misery, it rationalizes its own clinging to misery. I have heard a beautiful story -- I don't know how far it is correct, I cannot vouch for it: In paradise, one afternoon, in the most famous cafe, Lao Tzu, Confucius and Buddha are sitting, and talking sweet nothings. The bearer comes and in a tray brings three glasses of the juice called life and offers them. Buddha immediately closes his eyes and he says,…
Question: OSHO, DURING THE TWO MONTHS THAT I HAVE BEEN HERE, I OFTEN FEEL THE THREAT OF A NEW KIND OF TOTALITARIANISM. IT IS CONTINUALLY PRESENTED AS THE SOLUTION: BE TOTAL IN THIS AND THAT EVEN IN NOT BEING TOTAL. BEING TOTAL, WITHOUT FRAGMENTATION ANY MORE, IS NOT THAT A FINAL STATE, THE LAST STAGE ON THE WAY? SO IS NOT THIS ADAGE CREATING A NEW IDEAL WITH ALL ITS FRUSTRATIONS AND NEUROSIS TO FOLLOW? ANYWAY, FOR ME, NOT BEING A SUPERMAN, IT IS VERY RARE THAT I AM ABLE TO DO, TO EXIST, TO FEEL MYSELF TOTAL IN ANYTHING, AND I HAVE NO REASON TO HOPE THAT IT WILL EVER HAPPEN AS A CONTINUOUS STATE. SINCE IT SEEMS TO BE THE CONDITION FOR THE THINGS THAT ARE PROMISED HERE IS THERE STILL ANY HOPE FOR ME?
Osho, on the one hand you say that whatever you do, do it totally, and on the other hand you say, don’t overdo anything, remain in the middle. Would you kindly resolve this apparent contradiction?
And the mind makes you overdo. It says, “Raise the danger mark a bit. Don’t listen to the body—what is there in the body? The body is blind; what intelligence does it have?” One day the mind makes you eat too much; then, when there is discomfort the next day, the mind says, “Now fast—one day a month you must fast; one day a week is very good for health. Now fast.” Even then the body says, “Brother, I am hungry; eat.” The mind says, “Fast.” Gradually these perverse activities of the mind destroy the body’s subtle sensitivity. Then the body stops speaking. When it is not heard, it slowly becomes mute. With this mute body you commit excesses. Psychologists have conducted experiments and very surprising conclusions have come to hand. They have shown that if small children are seated near food, you think they will overeat. You are mistaken;…