According to Osho, 'being in the middle'—Buddha’s middle path and a compassionate device—means pausing between all extremes so completely that both poles and the very idea of a middle dissolve. From this transcendence, opposites reveal themselves as complementaries, existence as an organic unity. Recognizing this oneness ends inner conflict, fear, and angst, opening a vast, harmonious, transformed awareness.
Sit quietly between two sides until the fight fades; then you see they belong together, and you feel safe and peaceful.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IN THE MIDDLE? Anand Niyama, it means many things to be in the middle. I will have to start my answer from Gautam Buddha, because he was the first man to use the words "to be in the middle," and of course nobody has been able to improve upon the meanings that he gave to the word `middle.' He called his path the middle path. The first meaning is that if you can avoid both the extremes, the rightist and the leftist -- if you can be exactly in the middle of both the extremes, you will not be in the middle, you will have transcended the whole trinity of extremes, and the middle. If you drop both the extremes, the middle disappears on its own accord. Middle of what...?
Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?
If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…
When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
THE WAY IS PERFECT LIKE VAST SPACE WHERE NOTHING IS LACKING AND NOTHING IS IN EXCESS. INDEED, IT IS DUE TO OUR CHOOSING TO ACCEPT OR REJECT THAT WE DO NOT SEE THE TRUE NATURE OF THINGS. LIVE NEITHER IN THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF OUTER THINGS, NOR IN INNER FEELINGS OF EMPTINESS. BE SERENE WITHOUT STRIVING ACTIVITY IN THE ONENESS OF THINGS AND SUCH ERRONEOUS VIEWS WILL DISAPPEAR BY THEMSELVES. WHEN YOU TRY TO STOP ACTIVITY TO ACHIEVE PASSIVITY YOUR VERY EFFORT FILLS YOU WITH ACTIVITY. AS LONG AS YOU REMAIN IN ONE EXTREME OR THE OTHER YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ONENESS. THOSE WHO DO NOT LIVE IN THE SINGLE WAY FAIL IN BOTH ACTIVITY AND PASSIVITY, ASSERTION AND DENIAL. Logic will say something absolutely different. Logic will say, "Practice rest the whole day, so in the night you can rest beautifully." Mulla Nasruddin went to his doctor. Coughing, he entered.…
15. Closing the seven openings of the head with your hands, a space between your eyes becomes all inclusive.
16. BLESSED ONE, AS SENSES ARE ABSORBED IN THE HEART, REACH THE CENTER OF THE LOTUS. 17. UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE -- UNTIL. Now you are feeling repentant, you are feeling bad. Your self-image is disturbed, shaken. Now you cannot say you are a good man, you cannot say that you are a religious man. You have been angry, and how can a religious man be angry? How can a good man be angry? So you repent to regain your goodness again. At least in your own eyes you can feel at ease -- that you have repented and you have decided that now there will be no more anger. The shaken image has come back to the old status quo. Now you feel at ease, you have moved to another extreme. But the mind that says, "Now I will never be angry," will again be angry. And…
Each thing is perceived through knowing. The self shines in space through knowing. Perceive one being as knower and known.
BELOVED, AT THIS MOMENT LET, MIND, KNOWING, BREATH, FORM, These techniques are to change knowledge into experience. These techniques are to change acquaintance into understanding. That which belongs to a Buddha or to a Krishna or to a Christ, through these techniques can belong to you -- that can become your own. And unless it becomes your own, no truth is true. It may be a grand lie, a beautiful lie, but no truth is true unless it becomes your experience -- individually, authentically your own. Three things. First: always remember that your house is on fire. Second: don't listen to the Devil. He will constantly say to you that there is no hurry. And thirdly: remember, acquaintance is not understanding. Whatsoever I am saying here will make you acquainted. It is needed, but it is not enough. It starts you on a journey, but it is not the end.…