Meditation is just part of living fully—listen inside, do it wholeheartedly, and let life sort things out.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, here again, I find myself in the distress of a relationship finishing. It's still the same pattern. I feel that I cannot deal with it any differently than before. Is there no other way than playing the record again and again and again and just watching it? Each time, I think, "with awareness it will be different this time." but no -- the anger, the distress, the hurt, the aloneness, and also the understanding that love comes and fades away. I also am doubting that these moments of love were real. But when those moments of love and connecting are there, they do feel real.
Life is a vicious circle. One things lead to another thing until the circle is complete. To go on moving in a circle is boring, is monotonous, is heavy on the heart. It destroys all playfulness, it destroys weightlessness; it takes away the charm, the magnetic pull towards life. You go again and again in the same routine, in the same circle, unwillingly. You do not want to repeat; nobody wants to repeat. Repetition is the function of a machine. Wherever there is a consciousness, there is a revolt against mechanical repetition. So I can understand your tragedy. Moreover, it is the tragedy of millions of human beings. They are all caught in a circle and then they don't know how to jump out of it. The problem can be reduced to very simple terms: You find it difficult to jump out of the routine because you have some vested…Read the full discourse →
Werner erhard, a western yogi, says that problems that you have been trying to change or put up with clear up in the process of life itself. How does this relate to meditation? Are the two incompatible?
ERHARD IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, but you can misunderstand him because whatsoever he is saying is as profound as anything that Lao Tzu can say. You can misunderstand him. Try to understand it. Profundities are dangerous, and listened to by ignorant people they can become very very dangerous. Joined with your stupidity, a profundity can become a very great fall. Yes, this is absolutely right: problems that you have been trying to change or put up with clear up in the process of life itself -- that's true, a statement of fact, it happens that way. But then the problem arises whether meditation is compatible with it or not. Now your stupidity has come in. Meditation is also part of life -- you have to do it as you have to do many other things. Why take meditation as something which is not part of life? Meditation is part of life,…Read the full discourse →
You believe that man should live more meditatively. How can this solve life problems or prevent wars?
Love should be accepted more, violence should be rejected more. Love should be available more. Two persons making love should not be worried that no one should know. They should laugh, they should sing, they should scream in joy, so that the whole neighbourhood knows that somebody is being loving to somebody -- somebody is making love. Love should be such a gift. Love should be so divine. It is sacred. You can publish a book about a man being killed, that's okay that is not pornography. To me, that is pornography. You cannot publish a book about a man lovingly holding a woman in deep, naked embrace -- that is pornography. This world has existed against love up till now. Your family is against love, your society is against love, your state is against love. It is a miracle that love has still remained a little, it is unbelievable…Read the full discourse →
Osho, to solve problems, is it necessary to trace each one back to its roots?
Gurudatt! If you can go to the root of a problem, the solution happens by itself. That much capacity for observation brings the solution. People don’t want to go to the roots of a problem. They whitewash the surface. They apply ointments and bandages on top. They treat symptoms. They don’t bother to go to the root. If you reach the root, the very journey there makes the problem evaporate. But keep in mind, many times it happens that a problem has no root at all. And if you start searching for roots, you will get into trouble. So first understand whether the problem even has a root. Many problems are like dodder—rootless parasitic vines that spread over other plants. For example, a man kept going to doctors; all the doctors got tired and perplexed. No one could figure out what his illness was. He was deeply restless—couldn’t sit still…Read the full discourse →
Osho, to abide in oneself beyond the knower, knowledge, and the known—can one live in that state for an entire lifetime? Just as a lake is sometimes calm, sometimes playful, and sometimes stormy, does the self-realized one remain unaffected by worldly circumstances in the same way? Osho, dispel my ignorance!
Spring means harmony between season and mood. Meditation means harmony between you and the whole. You become harmonious. Whatever is, is perfectly okay—accepted. Nowhere any refusal, nowhere any opposition. Whatever is happening is auspicious. That is trust; that is meditation. Such meditation naturally takes you into an altogether new experience. Storms will rise; they will not stop because you meditate. Diseases will not stop coming to the body because you meditate. They will come. A thorn will sometimes pierce the foot. Raman had cancer; so did Ramakrishna—great storms came! Ramakrishna got cancer of the throat; he could neither eat nor drink. Vivekananda said to him, “What is not in your power! Why don’t you pray to the Lord at least to allow food and water to pass? We suffer watching you writhe.” Ramakrishna said, “Ah, it never even occurred to me to pray. How could it occur—to one whose prayer…Read the full discourse →