According to Osho, the post‑turmoil ‘freshness’ isn’t a cleansing by pain; it’s the brief gap when you stop creating the valleys of greed, jealousy and self‑condemnation. These lows persist only as long as you choose them. Learn to live the present moment in its richness—like Ryokan absorbed in sunset and moonlight—and the cycle of darkness and relief simply ends.
You feel clear after pain because you briefly stop making the mess; stay present and the rollercoaster fades.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
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…
Question: The first question: Osho! Ah, what joy! Ah, what pain! Vinod Bharati, at first one is startled when it feels like this: such joy, such pain—together! They arise together; they can only arise together—in equal proportion. But the glory of bliss, its magic wand, is that it fills even pain with a new sweetness. Pain is no longer pain. A sannyasin, Bhavani Dayal—well known—returned to India after years of traveling in the West. In his autobiography he writes: I went on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. A steep ascent, blazing noon, the sun like fire, the slope sheer—a struggle to take each step—drenched in sweat. Just ahead of me a mountain girl, no more than eleven or twelve, was climbing with her younger brother on her shoulder. The boy, though small—three or four at most—was pretty heavy, a sturdy hill child. The girl was dripping with sweat.
A friend has asked: Osho, if events happen in nature and feelings in man, then when one attains siddhi and experiences one’s separateness, do bodily pain and mental anguish stop?
This needs a little understanding. First, understand the difference between pain and suffering. If a thorn pricks your foot, two things happen. One is pain. Pain means you experience that there is hurt in the foot. I know there is hurt in the foot. You are the knower. The pain happens in the foot; you are the seer of it. You are the witness. This does not mean that if you are a witness and someone pricks your foot you will feel no pain. Do not fall into that illusion. There will be pain, because the prick of a thorn is an event. But there will be no suffering. Keep this distinction in mind. Suffering happens when I become one with the pain. When I say, “A thorn is pricking me,” then suffering happens. When I say, “A thorn is pricking the foot—and I am seeing it,” then there is…
Osho, when I listen to you I become very sad seeing the futility of my life. Deliver me! Save me!
Soon this atmosphere will smile… Wait a little. Do not be frightened by sadness. Do not suppress it. Do not plaster it over. Do not quickly blow breath again into your dead hopes. Do not water hopes that have died. Soon this atmosphere will smile… These eyes that have become sad—they will smile. Just wait. …soon light will appear. Now everything has gone dark; do not be afraid. It is from just such darkness that one reaches the light. When false lamps go out, there is darkness. But if you sit in that darkness, and remain seated, then true lamps will be lit. Certainly they are lit. True lamps are already burning, but your eyes have grown accustomed to recognizing false lamps; that is why it takes a little time. Have you not seen? When you come home returning from the bright outside, the house seems dark. Sit a little,…
Osho, living in the ashram I feel very blissful; but sometimes, suddenly, I become sad. What is this sadness that comes and goes? Please explain.
Even so, Ranjan will sometimes remember. The husband may not remember. In America, a husband whose wife has gone off to India—will he remember! For him it’s like the cat’s luck finding the cream pot open. He must be tasting freedom. But Ranjan—she has a woman’s heart—sometimes worry will come, and sadness will seize her. Watch that sadness with witnessing. Gradually it will disappear. And if ever you do go back home, go only as a witness. Do not go before that. So that there, too, you can see it all as a dream—whether sweet or bitter. Whatever happens outside in this world has no ultimate value. What happens within is the only value. Ranjan, look to the inner! Unfurl, O petals—open your fragrant doors. On the little couch of the far horizon dawn has awakened, the sky has smiled. The splendor of the rising sun is scattered on the…