Stop trying to fix every problem; let it go so it no longer blocks you, and you’ll feel peaceful and clear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, DO YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEM WHICH YOU HAVE NOT SOLVED YET? I don't have any problem. I used to have problems, but I never solved them. My procedure is totally different. I dissolve the problem; I never solve it -- because solving does not help. You solve a problem, and you will find that ten other problems have arisen out of your solution. I have been dissolving, I have been getting rid of -- because no problem is significant. All problems are barriers between you and existence. Now I have only mysteries -- no problems, no questions. In that way I am a very poor man. No problem, no question; I am utterly silent. But silence has a richness that millions of problems cannot give to you. Silence has a richness that all the philosophies of the world and all the answers together cannot give you.
Osho, what is a problem?
Forget all about God. Right now, enter into your being and see what God has given to you, what the whole has given to you. And if you can learn it, more doors will be opened for you. The more you learn, the more mysteries open. And God is the ultimate mystery -- when you have learned everything else and nothing remains to be learned and you have passed through all the turmoils, anxieties, anguishes of life, only then. God is the last gift; you have to earn it. Don't ask questions which are irrelevant to you. And don't live a routine life of empty gestures. People go to the church -- empty gesture. They never wanted to go there; then why are you going? Because everybody else is going, because it is a social formality, because people think good if you go to the church, because it gives you…
Osho, to solve problems, is it necessary to trace each one back to its roots?
Gurudatt! If you can go to the root of a problem, the solution happens by itself. That much capacity for observation brings the solution. People don’t want to go to the roots of a problem. They whitewash the surface. They apply ointments and bandages on top. They treat symptoms. They don’t bother to go to the root. If you reach the root, the very journey there makes the problem evaporate. But keep in mind, many times it happens that a problem has no root at all. And if you start searching for roots, you will get into trouble. So first understand whether the problem even has a root. Many problems are like dodder—rootless parasitic vines that spread over other plants. For example, a man kept going to doctors; all the doctors got tired and perplexed. No one could figure out what his illness was. He was deeply restless—couldn’t sit still…
Beloved Osho, here again, I find myself in the distress of a relationship finishing. It's still the same pattern. I feel that I cannot deal with it any differently than before. Is there no other way than playing the record again and again and again and just watching it? Each time, I think, "with awareness it will be different this time." but no -- the anger, the distress, the hurt, the aloneness, and also the understanding that love comes and fades away. I also am doubting that these moments of love were real. But when those moments of love and connecting are there, they do feel real.
Life is a vicious circle. One things lead to another thing until the circle is complete. To go on moving in a circle is boring, is monotonous, is heavy on the heart. It destroys all playfulness, it destroys weightlessness; it takes away the charm, the magnetic pull towards life. You go again and again in the same routine, in the same circle, unwillingly. You do not want to repeat; nobody wants to repeat. Repetition is the function of a machine. Wherever there is a consciousness, there is a revolt against mechanical repetition. So I can understand your tragedy. Moreover, it is the tragedy of millions of human beings. They are all caught in a circle and then they don't know how to jump out of it. The problem can be reduced to very simple terms: You find it difficult to jump out of the routine because you have some vested…
Beloved Osho, problems seem to disappear into thin air. They keep trying to come, but cannot take root; and if for a few moments one settles, it soon looks ridiculous, so fades away. Does the light you share with us dispel even the dark night of the soul? What is the dark night of the soul? Is it really true?
Prem Shunyo, problems are never solved. They remain in different forms; you go on solving them, and they go on appearing in different forms. That is the way of philosophy where every question that was asked at the very beginning of human thinking, is still asked. Millions of solutions have been proposed, but the problem is as fresh and as pertinent as ever. All the philosophers of the world have not even been able to make a dent in the problem -- because they have moved in a wrong way. Problems are not to be solved; problems need to be dissolved, and that is a totally different path -- the path of the mystics. They don't solve the problems, they simply create devices in which problems disappear into thin air. One great philosopher came to Gautam Buddha. He was known all over the country for his great commentaries on the…