What happens when I question my own well-being?

Am I okay?

YOU CANNOT BE -- CERTAINLY NOT. Otherwise the question will not arise. The very question says something is wrong somewhere, otherwise who will bother to ask it? 'Okayness' is such a feeling that when it is there you know it. It is just like a headache: you never ask anybody else, "Have I got a headache?" And if you ask they will laugh. They will say, "Have you gone mad?" If you have, you have, and you know! If you don't have, you don't have, and you know. Okayness is an inner well-being. A great, beautiful feeling arises in your being, and goes on spreading -- ripples upon ripples. Everything seems to be light. Everything seems to be weightless. You don't walk -- you run. You don't run -- you dance. You feel as if gravitation does not exist. You start flying. You move in unknown bliss. You go on…

Osho, I am the question—along with all my weaknesses, all my illnesses, all my limitations. That is, as I am now, for the time being I am a question. The answer is undoubtedly you. Then why does this question not fall away, not vanish? I am the ailment, you are the medicine, and yet the ailment remains as it is—on the contrary, it keeps growing.

And what is the way to become that? Do not search for answers to the question—because where will you search? Answers are searched for outside—in scriptures, from masters, in society. No: do not search for answers to the question; become a witness to the question. Within you there are questions upon questions, weaknesses upon weaknesses—utterly natural. Everyone’s condition is like this; there is nothing special about it. Do not condemn yourself unnecessarily. This is everyone’s condition; this is natural. Accept it, and be a witness to it. Stand within and look at all your illnesses, all your limitations, all your questions, all your problems—only look; be the seer. Do nothing else—no fiddling, no repression, no alteration, no interference. Stand at a distance—the farther you can stand and see, the better. Because the farther off you can stand and look, the clearer the perspective becomes. As if one were standing on…

Osho, the inner lamp of equanimity and bliss, even after remaining steady for a long time, sometimes begins to flicker. Is this a phase in my growth, or the result of some slackness on my part? Please, from your experience, illumine my path so that this well-being, this joy of rightness, may remain forever unshaken.

If you understand this rightly, you have the whole principle of karma and conditioning. What you did yesterday will affect your today. Yesterday is gone; there is no way to change it now. Be gracious enough to change today—because today will become the tomorrow that harasses you. What you did in your past birth you are reaping now. And now you are busy thinking about the next birth, and this birth is slipping out of your hands. This empty, wasted life will again set you wandering on a road full of darkness. You ask how the lamp of equanimity can burn forever. Simply taste it for a moment. When equanimity is thick, hum, dance, drown in it. When equanimity is thick, drink—don’t delay. Don’t bring in even so much thought as, “Will it stop?” There is a Zen story: At a temple gate two monks are arguing about what is…

Osho, at times I feel I am on the very peak of life. It seems that everything—the whole mystery of life—has been found. But then, in certain moments, I also experience a very dense sadness and helplessness. I cannot grasp what my real problem is.

As long as there are peaks, there will be valleys. As long as there is the longing for the peak, you will have to endure the melancholy of the valleys as well. One who has asked for pleasure has, along with it, asked for pain. And when pleasure comes, pain enters with it like a shadow. We change the names of our pleasures, but we do not become free of pleasure; and the one who is not free of pleasure will not be free of pain. Ashtavakra’s entire teaching is just this: be free of duality. Only the one who is free of duality arrives. The peak you think you have reached is the illusion of arrival—because there is no peak to arrive at. Arrival is a vast plain—neither height nor depth. Arrival is like a scale that has balanced: both pans exactly equal and the needle at rest. Or…

Osho, when I came here I was very unwell. Now I am leaving having found complete health. Your love keeps showering on me; I am deeply grateful for it.

Human beings have tied great self-interest to their sorrow. You have noticed—people tell their tales of pain greatly exaggerated. They magnify their miseries so that others will pat their back and sympathize. People are mad for sympathy. And what does sympathy give? What is the use even if all pay attention to you? You’ve heard the story: a poor woman somehow saved up by grinding flour and had gold bangles made. She longed for someone to ask, “How much were they? Where did you get them?” But no one asked—no one asks about happiness! She grew anxious, distraught; she jangled them loudly all over the village, but no one asked. Whoever saw the bangles turned their eyes away. At last she set her hut on fire. The whole village gathered. She beat her breast, raised her hands and cried, “I’m ruined! I’m ruined!” From the crowd someone asked, “All right,…