What happens when the mind is restless?

First, I have asked one question. And I have also asked one or two related questions. It is asked: Osho, the mind is restless. Without effort and without renunciation, how can it become steady?

No. I will say to you: it is not an effort. If I am clenching my fist and ask you, “How do I open this fist?” what will you say? You will say: “To open it, you need do nothing. Please stop doing what you are doing to clench it; the fist will open by itself.” Opening is not an effort; the moment you cease the effort that clenches, opening happens. Or if I pull down a branch and hold it, and ask how to return it to its place—what will you say? “Do nothing to return it. Just stop doing what holds it down; it will return by itself.” What are we doing continuously with the mind? We are doing something. If we stop that, the mind will quiet by itself. It will quiet by itself. As I said this morning, we are constantly engaged in resistance—twenty-four hours resisting.…

A friend has asked, Osho, I am very restless, and so much energy gets used up in this restlessness. How can I make use of it, and what is its cause?

But the anger remains there; it will not change by your turning away. It will change by your standing your ground and seeing it. If you turn your back, anger will make deeper wounds within and lay down roots. Fix both your eyes on anger. This is the moment to consciously see anger. When lust seizes the mind, do not run. Do not panic. Do not chant Ram-Ram. Look lust straight in the face. A direct encounter with the passions is necessary. But man has been taught to run. He has been told, wherever something bad appears—run away. But where will you run? The bad is within you; it will go with you. There is no way to run away from yourself. If evil were outside somewhere, we could run. It stands within—we will have to change it. We will have to use this manure. And using it is not…

But the mind is so restless, isn’t it? It may take less effort, but the mind is very restless.

Its restlessness is its power. To be restless is its strength. If it were not restless, you would have become a simpleton.

Without a doubt, the campaign against the mind has been carried on with even greater intensity than the one against the body. Form spiritual quarters the mind has been the central target for attack. We must free ourselves from this barrage of hostility. The mind is a power, an energy, and like all others is a divine power. It is a highly developed, very subtle energy. Criticizing it, being hostile to it, or abusing it are actions of sheer stupidity, fraught with fatal consequences. You must realize that even today man it not completely acquainted with all of the mind's mysteries. He really does not know how to use his mental energies at all. At present the mind is more or less in the position electricity once was. There was a time when electricity was only a destructive agent, but today it is being employed in colossal creative projects.

A friend has asked, Osho: Because of the small and great sorrows of life, the mind sometimes becomes agitated, despondent, and restless. So how can one, while living in the world, keep the mind always calm, joyful, and enthusiastic?

The vision of destiny says: do not do anything. You cannot do anything; simply consent. Try this experiment. Restlessness has come many times, and you have tried to become calm—and you have not managed it so far. Try the second experiment. When restlessness comes, accept: “I am restless. I am such a person that restlessness will come to me. I must have done such actions that restlessness is coming to me. In my destiny I am a vessel fit for restlessness.” Accept this. Do not struggle even a hair’s breadth against this restlessness. What will happen? The moment you accept, restlessness begins to vanish. Because the feeling of acceptance becomes its death. The sorrow we consent to—where does that sorrow remain? We are such that we cannot even consent to happiness; consenting to sorrow is far more difficult. But the very thing to which we consent… Just a few days…