Should one not plan for the future at all?

Do you teach then that one should not plan for the future at all?

Psychologically one should not plan for the future at all, but that does not mean that practically you should not plan. The difference is great, and has to be understood. If you are going to travel, if you are going to the Himalayas, you will have to go to the railway station and book your ticket a few days ahead. That's simply practical. You cannot say 'When the idea arises to go to the Himalayas I will simply go.' It will be difficult: you may not get a ticket on the train or on the plane. Don't be foolish. But psychologically, yes, don't plan for the future. What is the meaning of psychological? You are here, and in your mind's eye you start trekking in the Himalayas, and you start enjoying -- just in fantasy. You are already there where you are not. This is psychological. This has to be…

Beloved Osho, can one live without planning? Not counting the dreams about a hazy future, I see that a lot of my mind activity goes into planning -- for next week, for next month. And when I try to act spontaneously I look like a weather vane that does not know how the wind blows.

These are the people who have made the proverb: Man proposes and God disposes. There is no God and nobody disposes. Your very proposition is wrong. Proposing anything from your side means you are not trusting existence. Just be a weather vane which slowly moves without any reluctance, without any resistance, wherever the wind is blowing. It enjoys all directions. The whole of life has to be enjoyed; existence in all its colors has to be enjoyed. But the mind is one of the most stupid things that you are carrying within you. When it is morning it is longing for the evening, when it is evening it is longing for the morning; it is the root cause of all your misery and frustrations. What is the need? I cannot understand why the weather vane should want to know how the wind blows. Can you figure it out? Is there…

Osho, you often say we should be aware only of the present. But along with that, would you also say that while remaining aware we should not worry about the future? Do you want to exclude it altogether—are you advocating its total banishment?

In truth, my emphasis is on living, not on thinking. And one can live only in the present; you cannot live in the future. My emphasis is on living—just as my emphasis is on eating food. Now if someone says to me, “Shall we eat tomorrow’s bread—do you object?” I would say, first of all, you cannot eat the bread of the future; you can only dream about it. And the great danger in dreaming is that today’s bread may be missed. The real danger of dreaming is this: if you are busy eating the bread of the future, who will eat the bread of the present? And the present does not stop for you even for a moment. Whether you are present or not, it keeps rushing on. You are there or you are not—still the present does not wait. It does not stop for you; it goes on.…

Osho, “He neither investigates the future nor broods over the past; he cheerfully moves with the instant of the present.” No research into the future, no worry about the past—live laughingly in the present. It feels as if this verse from the Yogavasistha is a Sanskrit rendering of your teaching. Please be kind enough to explain it to us once again.

A famous Greek tale: a great astrologer, studying the stars at night, fell into a well—no steps or parapet. His eyes were glued to the distant stars; he tumbled in. Only then did he come to his senses and cry out. Dark night, deserted path, the village far behind. In a hut in a field an old woman, a watch‑keeper, was sleeping. Hearing the shout she came, threw down a rope, and with difficulty pulled him out. The astrologer thanked her profusely. “Listen, you may not know—I am Greece’s greatest astrologer. My pronouncements about the future, through the stars, never go wrong. Emperors come from afar to ask their fate. My fee is in the thousands. But I will tell your future for free, because you saved my life.” The old woman laughed. “Son, don’t trouble yourself. I won’t burden you.” He said, “No, no—no burden. Come tomorrow. Here’s my…

The old man wastes his present in the past, the young man wastes his present engaged in the future. Both exercises are absolutely futile. Not only futile but very harmful, because the present which is, is being wasted for that which is not. Don't think of the future. Live in the present. That's my message to you. Be in the present moment. And if you can be present to the moment you escape from all kinds of stupidities of the old people. If you can be in the present you transcend time. Time consists of past and future, eternity consists only of the present. Eternity is now, always now and never then, always here and never there. And to enter into the now and the here is to enter into God. This has to become your meditation, to come more and more close to the present moment.