According to Osho, when you don’t know what to do, cease all doing: sit silently, relax into non-doing, and let existence work. Many problems ripen only through allowing; effort merely complicates them. In the stillness of meditation, nature’s own intelligence returns, like spring arriving and grass growing by itself; then clarity, rest, and the right action emerge spontaneously.
When you’re unsure, stop trying; relax quietly, and let the next right step show up by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, referring to the present situation of the world and of humanity, the famous psychiatrist, r.d. Laing, asks himself the question: "what to do when we don't know what to do?" can you please answer him and all of us?
SITTING SILENTLY, DOING NOTHING, THE SPRING COMES AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF. He has said everything about meditation, all the essential ingredients. It is not something that you have to do; it is something that happens. You have just to wait; it happens in its own time. When the spring comes, the grass grows by itself. And just sitting won't do, because you can sit and your mind can go on wandering around the world. Hence, he has added: "Doing nothing" -- neither with your body, nor with your mind. Just sitting like a stone statue of Gautam Buddha, and waiting for the spring.... There is no impatience: it always comes, and when it comes, the grass grows. The world has come to a point... and it has been brought to this point by the Western attitude of action, and always action, and condemnation of inaction. Now the East…
Question: OSHO, EXACTLY HOW DO YOU NOT DO IT? So there are only two types of non-doers in the world: one who by sheer understanding relaxes and finds the state of non-doing, of peace, of silence; and the other type, who will go thousands of miles, torture themselves in every possible way, do yoga exercises, stand on their head and fast, starve, renounce, repress, pray, go into the monasteries and do all kinds of stupid things. And finally, simply by being tired, exhausted, they sit down -- and suddenly it is there. Perhaps they may think it has come because of all their doing. That is not the case -- it has come in spite of all their doing. Otherwise, they are such practiced doers that it was possible they might have continued still, because the more you run, the better your running becomes.
Beloved Osho, I often experience that to relax and to trust existence is good. On the other hand, there is also a pressure to be responsible for everything in my life. Then I start brooding about decisions I need to make. I feel unable to unite "sitting silently the grass grows by itself" with "going for it." can you comment?
Yes, the grass grows by itself, but not the gold. So please, understand the meaning of grass. Perhaps you want to sit silently, doing nothing, while the gold grows into mountains by itself, and the dollars go on falling from all sides over you. Who then bothers about grass? The man who wrote these lines, a mystic of Japan, Basho, was not interested in dollars, was not interested in gold, was not interested in the presidentship of the country. These things don't grow by themselves, remember. These things, you have to go for -- and to go with as much speed as possible, because many others are also going. Be cunning, be deceptive, lie as much as you can, promise things which cannot be fulfilled. Do everything that is wrong, only then do you become Ronald Reagan. The White House does not come closer by itself, you have to go…
Beloved Osho, after eight years as your disciple, I feel that the tide is bringing me towards the shore. I can't swim, but in I come; and there you are on the beach watching me. Is it time I learned to swim?
Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu were the disciples of Lao Tzu. These three people have reached to the highest peaks, but nobody seems to be impressed by them. People are impressed when you do something great. Who is impressed by somebody who has achieved a state of non-doing? But Confucius had heard the name of Lao Tzu, and was interested -- "What kind of man is this who says that real things can be achieved only by non-doing? Nothing can be achieved by non-doing; you have to do, you have to become a great doer." And hearing that Lao Tzu was very close by in the mountains, Confucius went with his disciples to see him. He had many disciples -- kings, princes. He was a great teacher. But he stopped everybody outside. He said, "Let me go inside the cave to see him, because as I have heard he is…
A friend has asked, Osho, if all human beings become non-doers, accept the Gita’s teaching, then what juice would be left in life and in the world?
What juice is there in life right now? Right now you are doers, contrary to the Gita—what juice is there in life? And if life is already juicy, then what need is there to read the Gita? What need to hear it? If life is already juicy, why even raise the question of religion? Why talk of God, liberation, meditation, samadhi? If there is juice in life, the matter is finished. Juice itself is God. Then nothing remains to be done. Then become even more of a doer so that you get even more juice. Plunge deeper into the world so that you find deeper sources of juice. And if, by being a doer, you are already getting juice, then offer the Gita and the rest into the fire. There is no need. And do not listen to Krishna and the others—otherwise they will destroy your juice. You are in…