Is the inability of the mind to settle in a crowd and the panic of sheer loneliness a symptom of madness?

Osho, the mind does not settle in the crowd, and sheer loneliness also makes the heart panic. Is this a symptom of madness? Kindly explain.

A few things about solitude should be understood. Solitude has three forms. First: what we call loneliness. Second: aloneness. And third: kaivalya. Loneliness is negative. Loneliness is not true aloneness; the memory of the other keeps tormenting you—if only the other were here; the other’s absence hurts, a thorn pricks; the mind is entangled in the other. To outward eyes you are alone, but not within; inside, a crowd is present. Someone may find you sitting by yourself, yet you know you are not alone: someone comes to mind; your heart is set on someone; you are sending out a call to someone; weaving dreams of someone; a cry is going on within—if only someone were here, I would not be alone! You are not reconciled to loneliness. Far from joy, there is not even peace in it. You are restless, agitated. Soon you will find some entanglement: you will…

Beloved Osho, I feel like my mind is going crazy these days. It is as if it is trying to grasp anything it possibly can, especially during discourse as I sit in silence with you. It feels like it's having less and less to hold on to, less and less to think about, so it's creating the craziest things. Is this part of your work, or am I going mad?

The psychoanalyst tried to manage things in such a way that he wouldn't lose the patient because he was really a treasure, but he didn't want to lose his normalness either because then what would he do with the treasure? Then he would have to give all the money to other psychoanalysts to clean his mind. So he said to the rich man, "Because you need so much time, I cannot look after other patients. And you need that much time so I am not saying to cut it. I have found a way: I will put my tape recorder here so that you can go on talking as long as you want, and in the night when I am free I will listen to the tapes." The rich man said, "That is perfect. For me it makes no problem." The next day as the psychoanalyst was entering his office…

Who is your wife? Who is your son? This world is very strange. Whose are you? Who are you? From where have you come? Do think over these essential questions.

FROM SATSANG COMES ALONENESS, FROM ALONENESS COMES NONATTACHMENT; BECAUSE OF NONATTACHMENT MIND BECOMES STABLE AND BECAUSE OF STABLE AND UNWAVERING MIND LIBERATION IS ATTAINED. WHAT IS SEXUAL DESIRE ONCE THE OLD AGE HAS SET IN? WHAT IS A POND ONCE ITS WATER IS DRY? WHO IS THE FAMILY ONCE YOUR WEALTH IS FINISHED? WHERE IS THE WORLD AFTER SELF-REALIZATION? DO NOT BE PROUD OF WEALTH, PEOPLE AND YOUTH, BECAUSE DEATH TAKES THEM ALL AWAY WITHIN A MOMENT. DROPPING ALL THESE ILLUSORY MATTERS, KNOW THE DIVINE AND ENTER INTO IT. DAY AND NIGHT, EVENING AND MORNING, WINTER AND SPRING COME AND GO AGAIN AND AGAIN. THUS THE PLAY OF TIME GOES ON AND ONE'S LIFE IS OVER. AND YET THE BREEZE OF HOPE DOES NOT LEAVE ONE ALONE. OH, YOU MADMAN! WHY ARE YOU CAUGHT UP IN THE WORRIES ABOUT YOUR WIFE AND YOUR WEALTH? DON'T YOU KNOW THAT EVEN A…

A master who lived as a hermit on a mountain was asked by a monk: 'what is the way?' 'what a fine mountain this is,' the master said in reply.'I am not asking you about the mountain,' said the monk, 'but the way.' the master replied: 'so long as you cannot go beyond the mountain, my son, you cannot reach the way.'

In the East, particularly in Japan -- because of zen -- a totally different treatment has existed for at least one thousand years. In zen monasteries... these are not in any way hospitals, not meant for ill people, but in a village, if a zen monastery exists, it is the only place; if someone goes mad or neurotic, where to go? In the East always they bring the neurotic people to the master because if he can treat normal people, why not neurotics? The difference is only of degree. So they will bring the neurotic people to the zen monastery, to the master, and they will say, 'What to do? You take charge of him.' And he will take charge. And the treatment is really unbelievable! The treatment is -- no treatment at all. The man has to be given a solitary cell somewhere at the back of the monastery,…

I am experiencing something that I am calling "the pain of myself". Can you say what this is?

Vandan, the ordinary life of humanity is a continuous effort to avoid oneself. Everybody is doing it, in different ways of course. Nobody can sit silently and be alone. Watch yourself, how fidgety you become if there is nothing to do. If the radio is not there and television is not there and the newspaper is not there and you don't have a book to read and nobody to talk to, just think how fidgety, restless you become. You are almost in a panic, as if you are dying. You need something to remain occupied with, you cannot be with yourself. And whenever you are with yourself you start feeling bored. Now, this is strange. And if somebody else feels bored with you, you feel very hurt, but you yourself feel bored with yourself! And everybody is the same: nobody feels good being alone. Man is constantly escaping from himself;…