According to Osho, a problem isn’t an abstract thing called “the problem”; it arises whenever you are internally divided. A problem is your own duality—two minds pulling in opposite directions, producing confusion and indecision. When you are one, you simply move and there is no problem. So drop borrowed, theological questions; return to your felt, existential situation and clarity (integration) dissolves the so‑called problem.
A problem is when you’re split inside; become one within, and the problem disappears.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is a problem?
Forget all about God. Right now, enter into your being and see what God has given to you, what the whole has given to you. And if you can learn it, more doors will be opened for you. The more you learn, the more mysteries open. And God is the ultimate mystery -- when you have learned everything else and nothing remains to be learned and you have passed through all the turmoils, anxieties, anguishes of life, only then. God is the last gift; you have to earn it. Don't ask questions which are irrelevant to you. And don't live a routine life of empty gestures. People go to the church -- empty gesture. They never wanted to go there; then why are you going? Because everybody else is going, because it is a social formality, because people think good if you go to the church, because it gives you…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS THE GREATEST PROBLEM IN THE WORLD? Any small problem, just look at it, at how you have been trying to solve it, and it goes on becoming worse and worse. Certainly in your doing there is something which is becoming a nourishment to it rather than a killer. You are not poisoning it, you are nourishing it, feeding it. And don't try to work on so many knots together. Just choose one small knot, the smallest you can find in yourself; by smallest, I mean the most insignificant. People have the tendency to choose the most significant; even when they are choosing to solve their problems, they choose the greatest problem first. Now, that is simply foolish. Just become a little aware, alert. Start from the small things, very small things.
Sometimes as I watch people playing the same old games over and over, my eyes feel ancient and jaded and my heart weary and cynical. I guess it's because I'm seeing more and more my own games and tricks and I hear your maddening voice between my ears saying,'that's okay -- just you have to accept and love yourself; and there is no problem.' just???! I think if you say this word again I will scream. Wasn't I happier when I thought there was a goal?
So it depends on you whether you create a problem or you don't create a problem but problems are not there. Problems are not in existence: they are in the psychology of man. Just look next time you are having some trip and riding a problem just watch. Just stand aside and look at the problem. Is it really there? or have you created it? Look deeply into it, and you will suddenly see it is not increasing, it is decreasing; it is becoming smaller and smaller. The more you put your energy into observation, the smaller it becomes. And a moment comes when suddenly it is not there... and you will have a good laugh. Whenever you are having a problem, just look at it. Problems are fictitious, they don't exist. Just go around the problem, look from every angle -- how can it be? It is a ghost!…
Osho, my problem is that I think there is something wrong with me. If I think that I have a problem then I really do have one. In fact, thinking seems to be just the making up of problems. What do you think?
Have you watched this? If one day many things happen you have a different sense of time; if some day nothing happens You have a totally different sense of the time. The sense of time depends on what happens. Time is measured through events. But nothing is happening in the womb all is quiet, The child cannot feel that there are nine months only; it is infinity. It is a timeless state. And floating in the mother's womb in a warm liquid is immensely pleasant. That's how the desire for bliss arises in us, because we have experienced it. Otherwise, you cannot seek for anything that you have never experienced. Something must be there lingering deep down in your unconscious -- some experience, some nostalgia that keeps you searching for bliss. The whole search for God is basically the search for the mother's womb. And the meditator really enters into…
[A visitor says that he had a problem about sannyas. Osho asked him why the question of sannyas arose... ] ... because if you don't feel like taking it, there is no problem. And if you feel like taking it, there is no problem. The question arises only if you are feeling a conflict within your heart. The problem arises because you want to take it and something in your mind is preventing you. A question is always indicative of a conflict. The problem is not sannyas; the problem is an inner conflict, a division. And as I see it, it is not only sannyas; this will be your whole life's problem. Whenever you have to decide something, you will always feel a conflict, a wavering. It has nothing to do with sannyas as such. It has something to do with you.