See your ups and downs like weather; watch them come and go without calling them “me,” and they will trouble you less.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Whenever a certain feeling of opening comes and a certain peace, always a strong anxiety and a depression follow and make me very tired. It seems to be a vicious circle. What is the attitude to take?
And what is good in sadness? The depth. Sadness is very deep, no laughter can be as deep as sadness. No laughter can be as deep as sadness, because laughter is always superficial, a little profane, a little vulgar. Sadness has a sobriety of its own, sadness has a depth of its own, sadness has a deep feeling -- the feeling of the valley, very deep and penetrating. It has something sacred about it, holy about it. A man of bliss is in that depth, in that holiness, in that sacredness. He is both, and is not both; he transcends both and he is a harmony of both. A man of bliss is a miracle, a rare combination of opposites, a rare synthesis of opposites. So don't think that this is vicious, it is natural. All that you have to do is to remember that you are separate. When happy,…
Osho, at times I feel I am on the very peak of life. It seems that everything—the whole mystery of life—has been found. But then, in certain moments, I also experience a very dense sadness and helplessness. I cannot grasp what my real problem is.
As long as there are peaks, there will be valleys. As long as there is the longing for the peak, you will have to endure the melancholy of the valleys as well. One who has asked for pleasure has, along with it, asked for pain. And when pleasure comes, pain enters with it like a shadow. We change the names of our pleasures, but we do not become free of pleasure; and the one who is not free of pleasure will not be free of pain. Ashtavakra’s entire teaching is just this: be free of duality. Only the one who is free of duality arrives. The peak you think you have reached is the illusion of arrival—because there is no peak to arrive at. Arrival is a vast plain—neither height nor depth. Arrival is like a scale that has balanced: both pans exactly equal and the needle at rest. Or…
The peaks are getting pretty wonderful, but the valleys are deeper and darker than ever. Finding balance seems impossible. What to do?
Don't be worried about balance. Balance will seek you; I will see that balance seeks you. You simply do this much: while on the peak, dance; while in the valley, rest. Accept the valley; accept the peak. Both are parts of the one whole and you cannot deny one part. They are two aspects of the same coin. Remember, one who enjoys more is bound to suffer more because he becomes very sensitive. But suffering is not bad. If you understand it rightly, suffering is a cleansing. If you understand it rightly, sadness has a depth to it which no happiness can ever have. A person who is simply happy is always superficial. A person who has not known sorrow and has not known sadness, has not known the depths. He has not touched the bottom of his being; he has remained just on the periphery. One has to move…
Beloved Osho, I have done so many therapy groups in order to deprogram myself; and above all I have the greatest fortune in existence to be so close to you. Still, sometimes I feel like having moved miles from where I was stuck a few years ago, and sometimes I feel I haven't moved one inch. Then I feel so desperate that everything seems to be futile. I can watch this happening but still there is suffering.
It happens to everybody, because both the experiences are still of the mind. The beautiful space and the despair, the suffering -- they are not opposite to each other. They are part of the same mind, because mind exists in duality. It is just like a bullock cart: two wheels are needed. You cannot have a bullock cart with one wheel. The mind is even older than a bullock cart -- it is the mind that invented the bullock cart. The trouble arises when you start identifying yourself with the beautiful moments, then you are getting ready for trouble. Then soon the other thing is going to happen: you will be suffering, you will be desperate. So the first thing to be understood is that both things are of the mind. That will give you a little distance from both the experiences. And secondly, don't bother about the suffering and…
Beloved master, more and more I see how my energy is either going very high or very low, how sometimes I get very excited, come down again and then feel embarrassed about what happened during this state of excitement. Do you have a knack to give me for how to watch when the excitement comes, not to get carried away and not to get identified with depression, and how to find my grounding and balance?
Latifa, mind is almost like the ocean, waves upon waves. Some waves are higher, and between two waves there is a depression. There are two ways to get out of this continuous up and down process. The easiest is that when you are ecstatic that is the moment to be aware. In depression, in agony, awareness becomes more difficult. When you are flowing with joy, blissfulness, that is the moment to be aware, but people do exactly the opposite. When they are happy who cares about awareness? And when they are in anguish, then certainly they start thinking it is time to be aware and get out of anguish. But nobody has ever been able to get out from anguish directly. First, one has to get out from ecstasy. If you can be aware of your joyful moments in the first place, the depression, the downs will not come. The…