According to Osho, middle age is your cue to stop speculating about the obvious—aging and death are certain—and turn inward. Choose the vertical path: meditate, dis-identify from body-mind, and let awareness ripen into wisdom. Then old age becomes celebration, not decline; fear yields to insight, and you welcome the ultimate guest with readiness.
Stop worrying about getting old and use this time to look inside, meditate, and grow wise so aging feels like a happy arrival, not a loss.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I am also getting old. Would you tell me a few laws for middle age also?
In India, the idea of evolution has never existed, but on the contrary just the opposite idea. The word is not even used in the West -- you may not have even heard of the word -- but in India they have been thinking about involution, not evolution: "We are shrinking, we are falling down." In the second stage of the fall one leg is lost; the table becomes a tripod. It is still balanced, but not as much as it was with four legs. In the third stage it loses another leg; now it is standing only on two legs, absolutely unbalanced. And this is the fourth stage: even two legs are not available; you are standing on one leg -- how long you can stand? The first stage is called satyuga, the age of truth; the second is simply named by the number; treta is the third, because…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IN WESTERN SOCIETY, AT LEAST, YOUTH IS CONSIDERED TO BE EVERYTHING, AND TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, IT SEEMS THIS IS AS IT SHOULD BE IF WE ARE TO CONTINUE GROWING IN EVERY DIMENSION OF LIFE. BUT THE NATURAL COROLLARY OF THAT IS THAT AS ONE MOVES AWAY FROM YOUTH, BIRTHDAYS ARE NO LONGER A CAUSE FOR CONGRATULATIONS, BUT ARE AN EMBARRASSING AND UNAVOIDABLE FACT OF LIFE. IT BECOMES IMPOLITE TO ASK SOMEONE THEIR AGE; GRAY HAIR IS DYED, TEETH CAPPED OR REPLACED ENTIRELY, DEMORALIZED BREASTS AND FACES HAVE TO BE LIFTED, TUMMIES MADE TAUT, AND VARICOSE VEINS SUPPORTED -- BUT UNDER COVER. YOU CERTAINLY DON'T TAKE IT AS A COMPLIMENT IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT YOU LOOK YOUR AGE.
Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.
These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…
"everything arises and passes away." when you see this, you are above sorrow. This is the shining way.
"EXISTENCE IS SORROW." UNDERSTAND, AND GO BEYOND SORROW. THIS IS THE WAY OF BRIGHTNESS. "EXISTENCE IS ILLUSION." UNDERSTAND, GO BEYOND. THIS IS THE WAY OF CLARITY. YOU ARE STRONG, YOU ARE YOUNG. IT IS TIME TO ARISE. SO ARISE! LEST THROUGH IRRESOLUTION AND IDLENESS YOU LOSE THE WAY. MASTER YOUR WORDS. MASTER YOUR THOUGHTS. NEVER ALLOW YOUR BODY TO DO HARM. FOLLOW THESE THREE ROADS WITH PURITY AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF UPON THE ONE WAY, THE WAY OF WISDOM. SIT IN THE WORLD, SIT IN THE DARK. SIT IN MEDITATION, SIT IN LIGHT. CHOOSE YOUR SEAT. LET WISDOM GROW. CUT DOWN THE FOREST, NOT THE TREE. FOR OUT OF THE FOREST COMES DANGER. Any thought goes on inside your mind. Watch for a few minutes and you will be surprised: the mind seems to be crazy! It jumps from one thought to another thought for no reason at all.…
Osho, Only when life ended did the art of living arrive. When the lamp went out, the gathering filled with color. In old age the body is unwell, yet the mind is sound. I am far from the desire for heaven, moksha, nirvana. But then why—and for what—is there such a strong desire to see here on this earth the Shri Rajneesh Ashram, a picture of heaven, this festival-play?
This is exactly what I want, this is precisely my message. Let there be no desire for heaven and no desire for liberation. Heaven is attained only by those who have no desire for heaven. Eligible for liberation are only those who have no longing for liberation. Because as long as there is desire, there is the world. Desire’s other name is the world. What you desired makes no difference. You desired wealth—world. You desired status—world. You desired liberation—world. You desired samadhi, nirvana—world. In desire is the seed of the world. Desire and world are synonyms. Therefore liberation cannot be desired. When all desire becomes futile and drops, like leaves fall from a tree in autumn—when, in the maturity of a life’s experience, in ripeness, all the leaves of desire fall, in that moment when there is no desire in the mind, samadhi happens. In that moment you are free.…