When you feel scared and try to control everything, life stops flowing; relax and move with the changes instead.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, lately, I have been feeling very insecure, and I see how much I dislike that space of not knowing. And then I try all kinds of stupid things to control the situation. I feel as if it is such an imprisonment, and at the same time, I have a deep feeling in me that knows that this is how life is, and I should accept it. I find it very difficult to watch myself, and the insecurity comes up even more. Could you please comment?
Anubhasha, we are trained in wrong ways; otherwise, security is something to be afraid of, and insecurity is something to be rejoiced. What exactly is insecurity? It means tomorrow is not going to repeat today. It means tomorrow you may not even be alive. It means that one has to live each moment as if it is the last moment. A life of security will be simply boring. It will be like seeing the same movie again and again and again -- knowing every detail of what is going to happen. You can enjoy a movie only once. If you are an idiot, then it is another matter .... Insecurity is the very fabric of life. If you don't understand insecurity, you can never understand life. Seasons will change; climates will change; the fall will come, the spring will come. Everything will go on changing, nothing can be taken for…
Osho, the sense of insecurity in the inner life is quite difficult, yet perhaps one can manage it. How can that sense of insecurity be applied in practical or outer life? In business, in a job, in the external life—how can we use the feeling of insecurity?
I understand. In truth the question is not about outside and inside; the question is about knowing this truth that we are insecure. You don’t have to create a feeling of insecurity; it is a fact, simply a fact, that we are insecure. What is secure—outside or inside, anywhere? Are relationships secure? They are not. Is it certain that what was yours yesterday will still be yours today? That what is yours today will be yours tomorrow morning? Nothing is certain. Is respect secure? Not in the least. Yesterday a crowd stood behind someone—today you can’t even tell whether that man is alive or dead. What is secure? Is wealth secure? Insecurity is not a feeling; insecurity is the awareness of the truth that life is insecure. As life is, it is insecure. No guarantee of birth, of youth, of the body—no guarantee of anything. Awareness of this truth—and to…
Osho, I live in the world of the conditional -- could, should, would, may, might and is, are my dream operatives, which only my mind accomplishes, usually in the past tense. Why am I so secure in this illusion?
ONE can be secure only in an illusion, because security is the greatest illusion there is. Life is insecure. Love is insecure. To be is to be in insecurity. To be is to be in constant danger. Only the dead are secure because they cannot die any more; nothing can ever happen to them now. The more alive you are the more insecure you are. Hence many people have decided not to be alive, because a kind of deadness gives security, protection, armor. Many people have decided not to look into reality, because reality IS insecure. I cannot do anything, you cannot do anything about it -- it is how it is. Reality is insecure; one never knows what is going to happen in the next moment. I may be here, I may not be here; you may be here, you may not be here. The next breath may come…
Osho, can you please sing us a song on this? Lately I have seen that I am totally vicious. Suddenly my heart then carries me into a very insecure but beautiful place. I love this whenever it comes, but why the insecurity and muddledness, yet so muck grace?
A person who lives within the boundaries defined by others... of course they are defined by others because a child cannot define his own boundaries. Parents define boundaries out of their fear -- their parents have done the same to them; now they are doing the same to their children. This is how from one generation to another the diseases go on being transferred. Each child hates the parents but pretends to love them. I can understand why he hates them, because the parents are poisoning him. He feels it in his guts, that they are destroying something tremendously significant. They are destroying his very life! -- but they are destroying it for his own sake. He cannot even revolt because he is so helpless. It was thought in the past that the proletariat is the most exploited class; that was not true. Later on we found it is not…
Question: Second question: Osho, everyone is searching—for a fistful of sky. Everyone wants a fistful of sky to hold to the heart, such a world that one can embrace. Everyone is running after love and security, but both remain mirages. Where, after all, is security? You say: leave yourself in the hands of existence. But that state looks even more insecure. How can love and security be attained? Well asked. Man is really chasing only two things: to have love and to have security. For security he hoards money; for love he forges relationships. For security he builds houses, raises fortress walls, sets up strongboxes. For love he gathers a wife or husband, sons and daughters, friends, beloved ones, family. Such is the golden rule, full of paradox, of life. Seek security, and you will become more insecure. Seek love, and you will be filled with melancholy.