According to Osho, effectiveness isn’t a number to chase; it flowers when you are rooted in truth and relaxed awareness. From that center, opposition can’t truly defeat you—so wait, watch, and let results speak. Instead of proving yourself, embody clarity and presence; then action becomes effortless, decisive, and resilient, beyond the reach of external resistance.
Be calm and true inside, and your actions work better on their own—no need to measure how effective you are.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The sooner one becomes aware of it, the better Because time is very short. One never knows about tomorrow: It may come, it may not come. Hence everything has to be done now. Now the real battle begins! It is easy to fight with others. The real fight is with one's own darkness The real fight is with one's own ego. The ego is the only evil, the only devil. And if you can kill the devil You become victorious. But very few people enter into that fight. They fight with everybody else in the world They fight many kinds of battles But the real battle remains unfought. Sannyas means the beginning of the real war. It is a war between Your consciousness and your unconsciousness. Your consciousness is very tiny Just one-tenth of your being. And the unconsciousness is vast Nine-tenths of your being.
Osho, have I learned correctly that simplicity is a state of effortlessness, and that wherever there is effort there is no simplicity?
Only the person who has not made efforts for simplicity can be simple in the true sense. But what does this mean? Does it mean we should do nothing for simplicity? No, it does not mean that. I am saying: do not make effort—but you will have to be aware. And being aware is not effort, because in awareness we are not suppressing anything. In awareness we are not repressing anything. In awareness, the light of our consciousness, which lies asleep in dark corners, we lift it up; we awaken it. A man is asleep; we wake him. We are not making him repress anything; we are only breaking his sleep. Our consciousness within is asleep—deeply asleep in many ways. We are awakening it. This awakening may look like a kind of effort, but it is not effort in that sense. Therefore the Zen masters call it effortless effort—actionless action,…
They very rarely happen together. Intelligent people are not diligent Then their intelligence is Just an exercise in futility. They go on thinking and thinking and thinking And by thinking nothing is ever achieved. And then there are people who are very diligent But without any intelligence. They go on doing harm to others and to themselves. They do much, but not knowing what they are doing They are bound to create more misery in the world For themselves and for others too. Remember this That these two things have to be two aspects Simultaneous aspects of your growth. And then life starts growing so fast That in moments one can make quantum leaps. Egolessness is the goal of all meditation. That is the goal of sannyas itself. the ego is the only problem And then it creates a thousand and one problems.
You spoke convincingly about awareness being the only virtue and unawareness the only sin. How can an ordinary unenlightened being find enough energy to stay in awareness as much as possible?
IN FACT, MORE ENERGY IS NEEDED TO BE MISERABLE than to be blissful. Because blissfulness is a state of nature. No energy is needed to be blissful! It is natural. Energy is needed to be miserable, because it is unnatural. The more natural you are, the less energy is needed; the more unnatural you want to be, the more energy will be needed. If you are standing on your feet, it needs less energy; try to stand on your head, it needs more energy. Wherever you see more energy is needed, know well that you are trying to do something unnatural. Meditation needs no energy! because meditation is passive, inaction, silence. You are not doing anything -- why should you need any energy? Anger needs energy, thinking needs energy, violence needs energy -- because you are doing something against nature, you are fighting against nature. It is like you are…
Beloved Osho, I have been studying aikido for the past ten years, but I didn't get the basic truth. But when I saw the movement of your body in discourse, I understood the point of the basic truth: I understood that the movement which is one with existence is coming from total relaxation and deep awareness. It is utterly different from the movement which one gets from training. I feel very much, "action through inaction" by watching how you move. Please comment on "action through inaction." beloved master, I am grateful to you.
In one class, I could not believe my eyes. What I saw being done was such an absurdity that I was almost stunned. The professor was teaching nearabout sixty students who were ready, almost ready to go for their missionary work. He was telling them, when you repeat a certain statement of Jesus, what kind of gesture, what kind of facial expression to use. When is the time to hit hard on the table, and when is the time to whisper silently that God is love. "And when you describe paradise, don't just describe it in prose. Let your face be radiant; let each of your words be pure honey, just poetry." And at that time one student asked, "And when we are describing hell, what are we supposed to do?" The professor said, "As far as hell is concerned... as you are, it is perfectly okay." There is no…