Feeling apart is part of love’s dance; bodies can’t fully merge, so look inside to the quiet place where you and everything are already one.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, lately, I have begun to realize how even my lover is a stranger to me. Still, there is an intense longing to overcome the separation between us. It almost feels as if we are lines running parallel to each other but destined never to meet. Beloved Osho, is the world of consciousness like the world of geometry -- or is there a chance that parallels can meet?
People go on repeating the same thing, again and again. If you look at the faces of people in the world, you will be surprised: why do all these people look so sad? Why do their eyes look as if they have lost all hope? The reason is simple; the reason is repetition. Man is intelligent; repetition creates boredom. Boredom brings a sadness because one knows what is going to happen tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow... until one goes into the grave, it will be the same, the same story. A Jewish man and a Polack are sitting in a bar watching the news on television. On the news, they are showing a woman standing on a ledge, threatening to jump. The Jewish man says to the Polack, "I will tell you what. I will make a bet with you: If she jumps, I get twenty dollars. If she…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, when I meet with someone in the heart I become completely intoxicated by the experience. In those moments I feel gloriously fulfilled and ecstatic. A tremendous amount of energy starts moving in my body and I feel to go totally with it, to lose myself in it. Then -- and it always happens -- the pendulum makes the natural swing in the other direction and I find myself clinging to the recent moments of love and become unhappy. This feels like a very old pattern. I would be grateful if you would talk about awareness and love, or how to let go but not get lost?
What the woman is saying is perfectly true. If every lover had understood it, life would have been a very joyful experience. But lovers cling; they want to be together twenty-four hours a day. And they destroy something beautiful because they don't give a rest. It becomes a burden rather than a joy. They don't allow a gap for longing, for waiting. So all lovers who get married soon find that the only mistake they have committed is the marriage. All love marriages fail -- without exception. The only successful lovers are those who, by circumstances, by society, by parents, were not allowed to meet, to marry and to be with each other. They are the only successful lovers. They love each other to the last moment of their lives; their longing goes on growing. They are unhappy, they are miserable that they cannot meet the person they want to…Read the full discourse →
Question: BELOVED OSHO, I'M EXPERIENCING MORE AND MORE A HARMONY, A QUIETNESS, AN EASE, AN ABUNDANCE IN MYSELF, MOMENTS IN WHICH I FEEL SO VAST AND RICH, LIKE THE UNIVERSE, AND SO CLOSE TO YOU. I DIVE INTO IT AND DISAPPEAR, AND SEE THAT THIS AGAIN WAS JUST AN OPENING, A DOOR TO ANOTHER DIMENSION ON THIS ONGOING, NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY YOU ARE TAKING ME, MY BELOVED MASTER. AND I CAN FIND NO WORDS TO EXPRESS HOW MUCH I FEEL, THAT I CAN BE WITH YOU. BEING TOGETHER WITH A MAN I FIND THESE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND PRECIOUS MOMENTS SO RARELY; IT SEEMS MOST OF THE TIME IS WASTED IN LOVING AND FINDING OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER. WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR ME TO BE IN THIS HARMONY TOGETHER WITH A MAN, AND EVEN TAKE HIM WITH ME INTO THIS UNKNOWN?Read the full discourse →
The other day, soon after I arrived, the battle began between sex and silence, relationship and aloneness. I felt at the time that a synthesis was impossible. It was as if I had to choose one or the other and that either way I would miss out. It seemed at the time possible to go straight to the sky without going through the earth.
Now, aloneness will look not like aloneness but loneliness. Now there will be a change -- the honeymoon is finished. Aloneness will start turning into loneliness. You will have a great desire to find the other. In your dreams the other will start appearing. Go and ask the monks what they dream: they dream only about women; they cannot dream about anything else. They dream of somebody who can unburden them. Ask the nuns: they dream only about men. And the thing can become pathological. You must be aware of the Christian history. Nuns and monks start dreaming even with open eyes. The dream becomes such a substantial reality that you need not wait for the night. Even in the day, the nun is sitting there and she sees the Devil coming, and the Devil is trying to make love to her. You will be surprised: many times it happened…Read the full discourse →
Osho, please say something about viraha—the ache of separation.
Nothing can really be said about viraha; it can only be experienced. For viraha does not come in words—it comes in tears. Viraha does not speak; it is silence, it is mute. Viraha weeps, viraha keeps vigil; it does not talk. Nothing can be said about viraha, yet whoever has known love will begin to pass through the feeling of viraha. Know love, and separation comes with it. The deeper the love, the deeper the state of viraha. Viraha means that our true nature—the very core of us—has slipped from our hands; we are not meeting it. Our center has been lost; we spin on the circumference like the bullock tied to the oil press. We experience things, but the Divine is not seen. And that is the master. The master is lost; only the servants are visible. The temple walls are understood, but the deity is not recognized. Yet…Read the full discourse →