What does feeling detached from external events indicate?

I feel somewhat detached from all external events -- even sharp physical pain. It would be nice to think that this is the first bud of meditative being, but it seems more likely to be a chilling sign of schizoid withdrawal. Could you please say something about the perils of withdrawal, and how to avoid them?

IN THE search for a meditative state of mind, that peril always exists. In the search of one's own self there is always a danger that you may choose the inner against the outer -- then the withdrawal becomes schizoid, because you become lopsided, you lose balance. Balance is health. To lose balance is to lose health. And balance is sanity -- to lose balance is to become insane. The fear is always there. The danger is always there. The danger comes because of your mind. It is always easy for the mind to change its diseases. Somebody is mad after women; only sex is his obsession. One day or other he will be fed up with this, tired of it all. He will start moving to the other extreme: he will start thinking of brahmacharya -- celibacy -- of becoming a Catholic monk or something. There is danger. It…

With deepening meditation, one becomes more and more sensitive to objects, events and persons. But due to this heightened sensitivity one feels a sort of deep intimacy with everything, and this usually becomes a cause of subtle attachments. How to be sensitive and yet detached?

Let me tell you a story. Buddha was staying in a village. A woman came to him, weeping and crying and screaming. Her child, her only child, had suddenly died. Because Buddha was in the village, people said, "Don't weep. Go to this man. People say he is infinite compassion. If he wills it, the child can revive. So don't weep. Go to this Buddha." The woman came with the dead child, crying, weeping, and the whole village followed her -- the whole village was affected. Buddha's disciples were also affected; they started praying in their minds that Buddha would have compassion. He must bless the child so that he will be revived, resurrected. Many disciples of Buddha started weeping. The scene was so touching, deeply moving. Everybody was still. Buddha remained silent. He looked at the dead child, then he looked at the weeping, crying mother and he said…

Osho, you have spoken about remaining unattached—please explain this a little more. At work, when in the course of doing our tasks there is loss, mistakes happen, or someone does no work, does not deliver on time, and because of that there is loss or a breach of promise—such people naturally come under suspicion. How should one be at such times? I have understood detachment to mean that one should either keep quiet about that work, become silent, or say nothing at all.

Second: while sitting in meditation a feeling keeps arising in the mind that one must be aware, silent. Should this feeling arise or not? Sometimes thoughts to the contrary also come. Third: some thoughts arise that are not about others—rather about my own work: that if such-and-such happens it will be fine, or how so-and-so’s work can be set right. Fourth: during the time one sits in meditation, should one keep exhaling long breaths the whole time, or let it be natural as it is? Every morning I sit for about three hours—one hour sitting, one hour lying down, one hour in siddhasana. In this, quite a lot of time passes without thoughts, but thoughts do not disappear entirely. If I miss alertness even a little, a thought comes in. My effort remains to be aware and silent. You are transparent; you know others’ souls; you even converse with them—as…

[A sannyasin says: I'm isolating myself -- and I feel I should be doing something else. At first I felt good alone, but now it's changed.] Then move out of it! One should always be watchful, because if one is not feeling happy in any situation, in any mood, then one should come out of it. Otherwise that becomes your habit, and by and by you lose sensitivity. You will go on being miserable and living in it, which simply shows a very deep insensitivity. There is no need! If you are not feeling good in isolation, then come out of it. Meet with people, enjoy company, talk and laugh -- but when you feel you are fed up with it, move into isolation again. Always remember to judge everything by your inner feeling of bliss. If you are feeling blissful, everything is alright.

Osho, in a lecture you spoke about non-identification, that one should become a witness. But in the west many people are alienated, they cannot get involved. They are simply indifferent to everything. That is also my experience. Please can you make clear the difference between non-identification and alienation?

The sannyas that teaches you how to live in the world and yet float above it like a lotus flower, like a lotus leaf, remaining in the water and yet untouched by the water, remaining in the world and yet not allowing the world to enter into you, being in the world yet not being OF the world, that is true renunciation. That true renunciation comes through witnessing; it is not indifference. Indifference will make you alienated, being alienated you will feel meaningless, joyless, accidental. Feeling accidental, the desire to commit suicide will arise, is bound to arise. Why go on living a meaningless life? Why go on repeating the same rut, the same routine, every day? If there is no meaning, why not end it all, why not be finished with it all? Hence many many more people are committing suicide every day, many many people are going mad…