According to Osho, when a commune embodies positivity, people naturally mature—becoming loving, caring, responsible, and joyous. Work turns into worship, hierarchy dissolves into gratitude, and collective energy transforms both individuals and the environment—an arid desert becomes an oasis. Positivity breeds resilience amidst hostility and inspires intelligent, compassionate choices, making the commune a living model for the world.
Positivity makes everyone kinder and more responsible, turns work into joy, and helps the whole place bloom.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, some time ago, before you started speaking again, there was a strong message coming from the higher-ups in the commune about being positive. We don't hear this so much anymore, and yet the commune seems more relaxed, positive and loving. Is this the commune maturing?
The commune is certainly maturing. People are becoming more loving, more caring, feeling their own responsibility, fulfilling it to their best. While I was not speaking, I was standing apart from you. Hence, the people who are serving you -- don't call them higher-ups; there is no hierarchy here. Be grateful to those people who have been maintaining you, particularly when I was silent -- I was almost absent to you. They managed to keep you together to work, and naturally they had to say to you again and again, "Be positive." Since I have started speaking, I am again amidst you, not standing outside. What they had to say to you is no longer needed. I am in the middle of you. My presence is enough to make you positive, loving, rejoicing. It has not to be told to you that work is worship; being with me, you yourself…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF A MODEL COMMUNE? This is as far as human growth is concerned. One thing for the inner growth is that everybody, irrespective of whether he is a man or a woman, should be allowed to choose a method of meditation suitable to him, so that he can not only experience the joys of life, but he can also experience the joys of his spirit. Communism is missing only one thing: a spirituality. A model commune should be a spiritual gathering of seekers, of lovers, of friends, of creative people in all dimensions of life. They can produce paradise here on the earth. The time for families is over, and the time for cities is over, and the time for nations is over. The world should be one, consisting of small communes.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THE OTHER NIGHT WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT YOUR VISION OF A MODERN COMMUNE, AND YOUR OFFER TO GORBACHEV TO ESTABLISH A MODEL COMMUNE IN RUSSIA, I WAS DEEPLY TOUCHED. AFTER YOUR COMMUNE DISSOLVED ONE AND A HALF YEARS AGO, I WENT BACK INTO THE WORLD AND GOT QUITE A BITTER TASTE OF LIFE IN WESTERN SOCIETY: POWER, MONEY, FRUSTRATION, COMPENSATION. YOUR VISION OF A COMMUNE SEEMS TO BE THE ANSWER FOR MANKIND -- TO FIND A FULFILLING WAY TO LIVE; YOUR VIEW IS SO VAST, SO CLEAR. BUT LOOKING AT MY OWN REALITY, I STILL DISCOVER POSSESSIVENESS, NARROW-MINDEDNESS, UNLOVINGNESS, GREED, LACK OF HUMBLENESS, DESIRES, JEALOUSY. I FELT ASHAMED LISTENING TO YOUR WORDS BECAUSE THE GAP BETWEEN YOUR VISION AND MY REALITY IS SO HUGE. BELOVED MASTER, SOMETIMES I THINK THAT YOU HAVE TOO POSITIVE A PICTURE OF US. OR ARE YOU SIMPLY SUPPORTING THE GOOD SEED?
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE COMMUNES? I don't think much about the future because the future is born of the present. If we can take care of the present, we have taken care of the future. It is not going to come from nowhere, it is going to grow from this moment. The next moment will be growing out of this moment. If this moment is beautiful, silent, blissful, the next moment is bound to be more silent, more blissful. Now there are communes all over the world, and they are rejoicing in the present. Naturally, whatever comes in the future will be better.
Osho, for two months I lived in the commune aa and for two years in some communes in france. They have all failed -- hate becoming stronger than love. I felt that I could be more totally myself living in a group with collective decisions and property and free sexuality. What do you think of the way of living in communes?
The problem is not where you live, the problem is you. You can go to a commune and you will carry all your problems with you. And others who have come to live in the commune have also come just like you, with all their problems. Sooner or later those problems will surface. These outer things cannot help. They are distractions. The real change has to happen in you, commune or no commune. The real change has to happen in the deepest core of your being. If it happens there only then will life be different, otherwise it will not be different. You say: "They have all failed." They have failed because you are the same. They have not failed really. Their failure only proves that you are frustrated, they have not fulfilled your expectations. And what were your expectations? You were thinking that just living in a commune would…