How can peace be attained amidst restlessness in life?

One more question has been asked on this: there is restlessness in life; how can peace be attained?

In response to the question that was asked—“We are restless; how can we be peaceful?”—this is what I want to say: Reflect, look at the way you view life. And it is in your hands: if it becomes clear that my way of looking at life is wrong, that with my own hands I keep sowing the seeds of restlessness, and that with my own hands, where there are both flowers and thorns, I see only the thorns and not the flowers—then what can anyone else do? If this thought arises, changing life is in your hands. Because no human being wants to be unhappy. Who wants to be unhappy? No one wants to be unhappy. If it becomes clearly understood that my suffering lies in my vision, then being free of that vision is not difficult. The moment the awareness dawns that my way of seeing is wrong, change…

This friend has asked: How can I find peace while living at home, in the world?

First thing: don’t try to attain peace—accept unrest. You will become peaceful. Then no one in this world can disturb you. If I am willing for disturbance, who can disturb me? If I am willing to be abused, who can insult me? It is because I am not willing for abuse that someone can insult me. It is because I am not willing for disturbance that anyone can disturb me. And the more we try to be peaceful, the more touchy we become. You see, this often happens in homes. If, by some accident, one “religious” man appears in a house, the whole house is thrown into turmoil. Because if he is praying, no disturbance may arise; children cannot play; no one can make a racket. At the slightest clatter he will raise an uproar. He is sitting there to become silent! Sitting there to worship, to pray, to meditate!…

A friend has asked, Osho, I am very restless, and so much energy gets used up in this restlessness. How can I make use of it, and what is its cause?

But the anger remains there; it will not change by your turning away. It will change by your standing your ground and seeing it. If you turn your back, anger will make deeper wounds within and lay down roots. Fix both your eyes on anger. This is the moment to consciously see anger. When lust seizes the mind, do not run. Do not panic. Do not chant Ram-Ram. Look lust straight in the face. A direct encounter with the passions is necessary. But man has been taught to run. He has been told, wherever something bad appears—run away. But where will you run? The bad is within you; it will go with you. There is no way to run away from yourself. If evil were outside somewhere, we could run. It stands within—we will have to change it. We will have to use this manure. And using it is not…

Understand the mechanism of mind. The mind is restless; you say it should be quiet. The mind was restless; you have added a new restlessness—that now it should be quiet. Understand the restlessness of mind. You have ten thousand rupees; you wanted a million; therefore the mind is restless. You were not content with what is. You demanded what is not. Restlessness arises from the demand for the ‘no’. Restlessness comes from lack. From what is, restlessness never arises; from asking for what is not, it arises. The wife you have—you want one more beautiful. The husband you have—you want one more renowned. The son you have—you want one more intelligent. The house you have—you want one bigger. The prestige you have—you want it deeper. The position you hold—you want one higher. Restlessness comes from wanting what you do not have.

A friend has asked: Osho, if meditation brings peace to life, then why does it not spread across the whole country?

We teach children: anger is bad, anger is a sin, don’t be angry. The result is not that they stop being angry—that cannot happen. The anger only remains incomplete, never allowed to run its full course; they never fully experience the pain of anger; they never pass through its fire. And then the question of non-anger does not arise; the search for peace does not begin. One who has not even been truly unpeaceful—how can he become peaceful? One who lacks even the capacity to be fully unpeaceful—how will he have the capacity to be peaceful? These things may sound upside-down, but I tell you: only the one who can be thoroughly unpeaceful can truly set out on the path to peace. One who, by getting angry, lives anger through and through—who is pierced by all its thorns, who is singed in its flames—one who drinks anger to the dregs…