What happens to worldly affairs when the mind becomes completely quiet?

Osho, when I listen to you, every word sinks to the depths of my heart and stirs me. But when I read you, it remains a mental game. Please tell me why this happens.

It’s plain. The arithmetic is simple. When you read, only you are there; I am not. What you read is nothing but you. It becomes a game of the mind. When you listen to me, then sometimes—knowingly or unknowingly—I also slip into you. You seldom give such a chance, but now and then a lapse happens on your side. Unaware, you leave the door a little open—and I come in. So when you are hearing me, it’s a different matter. That is why truth has always been spoken, not written. It cannot be written. Even speaking it is very difficult, yet it can still be said—at least a little can be said, a little news can be given. Because in speaking, many elements are involved that are lost in writing. When you read a book, the book is dead. A book cannot create an atmosphere around you. A book has…

Osho, if everyone moves toward inner peace, won’t industriousness be lost?

The suffering in the world—if everyone were to attain inner peace, the problem would dissolve, and action would only become better. A peaceful mind can act far better than an agitated or deranged one. Peace is not opposed to action; restlessness is opposed to action. Whatever a restless person does will be unskillful, because restlessness obstructs action. Whatever a peaceful person does becomes skillful, because peace supports action. So in my view, if peaceful people increase in the world, the world’s efficiency will increase. Take Kabir—he kept weaving cloth. It is said no weaver ever made such cloth. When he brought his fabric to market, people would rush to it as if mad. To purchase Kabir’s cloth was itself a joy. People would say, “No one has ever woven cloth like this,” and Kabir would reply, “No one has woven, with such peace and for God, as I do. What…

Another friend has also asked the same question in this regard. They have asked: Osho, if people go deep into meditation and become quiet, what will happen to the household, the family, the shop, the business—what will become of all that?

What is their condition right now? The household, the wife, the children, the shop, the business—what is their state as they are? Is it really all in such great shape? Could it get any worse than this? Yet we are terribly frightened. The hell we ourselves have created—one person calls it “family,” another “business,” another something else—about this very hell we panic that we might end up with nothing but hell! The business will not vanish. Nor will the wife, nor the family. Sons and daughters won’t disappear. But this hellish arrangement we have erected—that will certainly dissolve. New forms will appear. To love a woman is one thing; to tie her down in the house as a “wife” is quite another. The urge to bind happens precisely because there is no love. If there is love, the urge to bind cannot function. There is fear: “If I don’t bind,…

Peace of mind can be gained by withdrawal from the world, by stilling the vortices of the mind. But how much inner peace is appropriate in a world that contains attica, vietnam, johannesburg, biafra, pakistan and sub-sahara africa?

Withdrawal is escapist. Withdrawal can give you a kind of death, but not peace. Peace is very alive. Peace is more alive than war -- because war is in the service of death, peace is in the service of life. Peace is very alive, vibrant, young, dancing.... Withdrawal? -- that is the oldest way escapists have chosen. It is cheap. It gives a kind of peace -- remember, I say 'a kind of peace' -- the same kind as you see in a graveyard. You can go to a Catholic monastery -- there is a kind of peace, the same that exists in the graveyard. You can go to the Jaina monks and you will see a kind of peace -- the same that exists in a graveyard. These people are dead! They have renounced life. The day you renounce life you renounce responsibility, you renounce all kinds of commitments.…

Osho, to abide in oneself beyond the knower, knowledge, and the known—can one live in that state for an entire lifetime? Just as a lake is sometimes calm, sometimes playful, and sometimes stormy, does the self-realized one remain unaffected by worldly circumstances in the same way? Osho, dispel my ignorance!

Spring means harmony between season and mood. Meditation means harmony between you and the whole. You become harmonious. Whatever is, is perfectly okay—accepted. Nowhere any refusal, nowhere any opposition. Whatever is happening is auspicious. That is trust; that is meditation. Such meditation naturally takes you into an altogether new experience. Storms will rise; they will not stop because you meditate. Diseases will not stop coming to the body because you meditate. They will come. A thorn will sometimes pierce the foot. Raman had cancer; so did Ramakrishna—great storms came! Ramakrishna got cancer of the throat; he could neither eat nor drink. Vivekananda said to him, “What is not in your power! Why don’t you pray to the Lord at least to allow food and water to pass? We suffer watching you writhe.” Ramakrishna said, “Ah, it never even occurred to me to pray. How could it occur—to one whose prayer…