According to Osho, leaving is not an escape but an opportunity: love dissolves distances of time and space, so physical separation cannot sever real closeness. When hearts beat in the same rhythm, continents become bridges, not walls. Existence evolves through every event; what seems disastrous now will reveal new flowers. Trust, be silent, remember—and you’ll find my presence beside you.
Going away doesn’t break real love; if your heart stays connected, distance helps you remember and grow.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I want to go very, very far away from you. It feels that if I stay close, you will erase me.
People are afraid of love, have always been afraid. That is why the earth has become loveless. That is why master and disciple have been lost; only the names remain, only the words remain. In place of masters there are teachers; in place of disciples there are students. Between student and teacher there is no dying, no love—it is a matter of transaction. The student buys something from the teacher, gives something in return—the matter is finished. There is no exchange of life-breath. O heart, do not revive the tale of worn-out love; do not entangle the people of the gathering in this thorn-thicket. People have begun to fear. They think love is a thorn, a thicket in which, if you get caught, you won’t be able to free yourself. People walk around it. Ordinary love entangles so much—what then to say of extraordinary love! When the thought arises in…
Osho, accept my tears! I am leaving your city. How I am leaving—only you can know. My life was nothing but sorrow. I cannot imagine when and how it happened that fountains of joy are bursting forth within and without! You have filled my begging bowl with your happiness. Yet there is a deep sadness in my heart, and at the thought of leaving my breath seems to stop. You are present every moment in every fiber of my being. Give me strength that, until your call comes, I may live away from you.
You said, “You are present in every pore of my being. Give me strength that until your call comes, I may remain away from you.” But the call has already been given. There is no need now to remain far. Even distance will not feel like distance. There is one kind of nearness of the body—and it can be that you sit close to someone, bodies touching, and yet you are thousands of miles apart. And it can also be that there are thousands of miles between you and yet there is no gap at all. Life is such a mystery; it is not solved by straight arithmetic. Lovers are close even across thousands of miles; and those with bodies pressed together, if they are not in love, remain far. Love is nearness. And the love has been born in you. So how far can you be? Nearness will remain.…
One should desire it. But people desire it when it is not there, and when it starts coming they become shaken and afraid. Then they start finding little excuses -- those are meaningless. The real thing is this -- that you are feeling alone. Not that before you were not alone and now you have become alone... before you were a little less aware. You have become a little more aware. Before you were more immature, and you were believing in toys. Now you have become mature, and the toys are -- toys. You can play with them, but they are of not much use. So when for the first time the child suddenly becomes aware that these are toys that he is playing with, he feels emptiness. The toys are gone -- as you say, everything is going -- and the real things have not come up.
Osho, the moment I arrived here, intellect turned into heart and words into silence. While listening to you, my heart sometimes begins to flow as tears. I am doubtful whether this state will remain when I return home. Kindly explain how this state can be stabilized.
First thing: a human being has nothing more sacred than tears. There is no prayer greater than tears. People have known only one form of tears—tears of sorrow. But there is another form—tears of joy. Very few have known it; very few ever come to know it. When you see someone crying, you think he must be unhappy, in pain, wounded, burning. Not necessarily. Tears flow whenever any feeling becomes so intense that you cannot contain it—any feeling. If sorrow grows too much, it overflows as tears. If happiness grows too much, it too overflows as tears. Great pain flows out and lightens the heart through tears; great bliss also flows out as tears. So first, do not tie tears inextricably to sorrow. Deep down our minds have been conditioned to think tears come because of suffering. So we hide them, we hold them back. We try hard that tears…
[A sannyasin says: The last six months I've been in relationship... and now I'm going back to the West. It's putting me through an attachment trip.] ... East is the centre and West is the periphery. One gets attached to one extreme. Never get attached... always be a wanderer between East and West. If [your girlfriend can go, take her. If she is not going then go alone. Enjoy aloneness -- nothing wrong in it. When one enjoys a relationship, one has earned aloneness. If you loved somebody, I say you have earned now to be alone. And it is going to be beautiful. It is going to be a rest from relationship, and then you will be ready again with more energy, vitality, to move into a relationship. Nothing is wrong in it.