According to Osho, life runs on a principle of balance: authentic relationships and social systems are reciprocal exchanges where each side gives what costs them less and receives what benefits them more, so both grow. When we shift to zero-sum, winner/loser frames—like war—the balancing principle collapses into chaos and destruction. Real progress demands cooperation, mutual profit, and redirecting energy from conflict to creating a better humanity.
Balance means fair give-and-take where everyone benefits; trying to take it all breaks life’s harmony.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
One of the essential laws of nature seems to be relationship, interdependence. I have watched two birds fly, intimate with each other and with the wind, so easy and without strife, in perfect harmony. What is the secret of this that seems so hard for human beings? Please Osho, say something about relationship.
Vasumati, the most fundamental thing to be remembered is that life is dialectical. It exists through duality, it is a rhythm between opposites. You cannot be happy forever, otherwise happiness will lose all meaning. You cannot be in harmony forever, otherwise you will become unaware of the harmony. Harmony has to be followed by discord again and again, and happiness has to be followed by unhappiness. Every pleasure has its own pain, and every pain has its own pleasure. Unless one understands this duality of existence, one remains in unnecessary misery. Accept the total, with all its agonies and all its ecstasies. Don't hanker for the impossible; don't desire that there should be only ecstasy and no agony. Ecstasy cannot exist alone, it needs a contrast. Agony becomes the blackboard, then ecstasy becomes very clear and loud, just as in the darkness of night the stars are so bright. The…
And remember that life is already there, manifested. There is nothing hidden in it. In Zen they say that nothing is hidden from the very beginning, but people are trying to find it -- and it is just in front of the eyes. The meaning is here in these trees, in the life of these insects, in this railway engine, in you and me. The meaning is here. [In speaking of T'ai Chi, Osho said... ] The idea is to concentrate on the chi energy in the hara. The effort is to conserve energy that is not available to anyone else, inside a citadel in your being. It is available when you need it and it makes you tremendously powerful. [Osho went on to say that once one had accumulated energy, it then has to be shared.
Osho, please comment on the art of balanced living. Mr life is often an experience of extremes, with the middle road difficult to maintain for any length of time.
Masochists have always moved towards religion. Religion has a great attraction for masochists. In fact, so many masochists down the ages have moved towards religion -- it was very natural, that movement -- that religion became dominated by the masochists. That's why religion goes on insisting on being life-negative, life-destructive. It is not for life, it is not for love, it is not for joy. It goes on insisting that life is misery. By calling life misery, it rationalizes its own clinging to misery. I have heard a beautiful story -- I don't know how far it is correct, I cannot vouch for it: In paradise, one afternoon, in the most famous cafe, Lao Tzu, Confucius and Buddha are sitting, and talking sweet nothings. The bearer comes and in a tray brings three glasses of the juice called life and offers them. Buddha immediately closes his eyes and he says,…
Osho, in this complicated society based on the division of labor—and division of labor requires communication—don’t we necessarily have to maintain certain links and make certain adjustments?
When I was in high school, a teacher used some abusive words toward me. I said to him, “If you are using abusive words, I take it you are not opposed to their use. Since you are using them, I can assume you permit them—so may I also use such words?” He became so furious that he went and entered a five-rupee fine against my name in the punishment register, writing that I had behaved indecorously. I followed him and, beneath that entry, I wrote a twenty-five-rupee fine against his name: if a student behaves indecorously, a five-rupee fine is fine; but if a teacher behaves indecorously, at least five times the fine should be there, because he is assumed to be five times wiser than I am. I wrote twenty-five rupees. The principal called me and said, “Have you gone mad? Has any student ever fined a teacher?” I…
Mokusen hiki was living in a temple in the province of tamba. One of his adherents complained of the stinginess of his wife.
MOKUSEN VISITED THE ADHERENT'S WIFE AND HELD HIS CLENCHED FIST BEFORE HER FACE. 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?' ASKED THE SURPRISED WOMAN. 'SUPPOSE MY HAND WERE ALWAYS LIKE THAT, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL IT?' 'DEFORMED,' REPLIED THE WOMAN. THEN HE OPENED HIS HAND FLAT IN HER FACE AND ASKED: SUPPOSE IT WERE ALWAYS LIKE THAT -- WHAT THEN? 'ANOTHER KIND OF DEFORMITY,' SAID THE WIFE. 'IF YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MUCH,' FINISHED MOKUSEN, 'YOU ARE A GOOD WIFE.' THEN HE LEFT. AFTER HIS VISIT THIS WIFE HELPED HER HUSBAND TO DISTRIBUTE AS WELL AS TO SAVE. Have you ever seen a river with one bank? Life is a river, and mind tries to flow with one bank -- that is the neurosis. There are peaks and there are valleys. There are high moments and there are low moments. Don't get obsessed with any high peak, otherwise, what will happen to…