According to Osho, leaking is the mind-driven dissipation of energy that leaves you tired, heavy, and frustrated; overflowing is spontaneous, loving sharing from inner abundance that brings delight, lightness, peace, and renewed energy. Leaking is mechanical and local; overflowing is total and unplanned. The sure test is the aftermath: leakage weakens and burdens, while overflow strengthens, unburdens, and fulfills.
Leaking drains your energy and makes you tired, while overflowing means you have so much joy and love that sharing it makes you feel lighter and stronger.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I am not always clear on the difference between leaking and overflowing. Could you give a few pointers please?
Socrates is thrilled! You are not thrilled with life and he is thrilled with death. His disciples started crying and weeping, and he said, "Stop! You can do that when I am gone. Don't waste these moments. These moments are momentous. Let us receive death -- it only comes once in life. It is a rare guest. It is not every day that it comes. And I am fortunate that it is coming in a predictable way; otherwise it comes unpredicted and one cannot welcome it." He was going to be poisoned, he was sentenced to death by the Greeks. Six o'clock exactly and he will drink the poison -- and he is waiting like a thrilled child. The disciples could not believe it! He took the poison and he started walking in the room, and somebody asked, "What are you doing?" He said, "I am trying to be alert,…
Osho, it makes me very sad that my vessel is not big enough to contain you. Whenever I allow you in, your energy is so overwhelming that it spills out as laughter, tears, or dance. Sometimes I wonder if I am being miserly in receiving your generous blessings! Or is this the right way for the energy to express itself?
Kavya, understand that grand arithmetic—the inner arithmetic. There, by squandering you receive. By sharing it grows. By saving it dwindles. Whoever saves completely—loses everything. But the mind is a miser; it knows only the outer rule. Chandulal had a million rupees in the bank. He never spent a penny on himself; only thus did he accumulate a million. He lived like a beggar. He rode a rickety bicycle. It needed no bell—people could hear him a mile away. So many patches on the tires and tubes that even Chandulal lost count. His bicycle was a marvel, worthy of exhibition. That it moved at all was a miracle. Only he could ride it; no one else could. He could leave it anywhere without a lock; anyone else would fall at once. Only Chandulal could manage it—like circus riders. Chandulal never ate ice cream. And since Coca-Cola was banned, he was even…
[A sannyasin said that she had not been meditating for the past few months as she felt the presence of a force almost like a person's presence when she started to meditate, and in fear she would have to open her eyes. Osho checked her energy.] It is nothing to be worried about. Rather you should be happy that it is happening... but fear comes. Nobody is there. It is just your expansion of consciousness that you feel around you -- and particularly near the shoulder Sometimes it happens in deep meditation that your body aura becomes bigger than ordinarily. Ordinarily it is close to the body, clinging to the body like clothes. When you are deep in meditation -- and it will happen particularly in Dynamic meditation because much energy arises, and so much is flowing inside -- the aura becomes bigger.
Osho, when in Kundalini or Active Meditation energy is awakened, why is it then finished off by dancing?
Now you’ve come here—by mistake you’ve come. You’ve come to the wrong place. Here I teach pouring out. Here I teach sharing. Here I want to teach you the joy of spending. And you ask: “When in Kundalini or Active Meditation energy is awakened, why is it then finished off by dancing?” Dancing does not finish energy. Dancing refines energy. Dancing shares energy. And the more it is shared, the more is generated within you. The more creative a person is, the more powerful he is. If you have sung one song, you will become capable of singing a second—and the second will be deeper than the first. Then you will be capable of a third, deeper still. As you go on singing, you will find new layers opening, new depths appearing, new dimensions being touched within you. But out of fear you hold back your very first song, lest…
Kabir has a verse: “You have found the diamond—tie the knot tight; why keep opening the bundle again and again?” Elsewhere he says: “Pour out with both hands; this is the wise man’s work.” Osho, do these seemingly contradictory verses apply to different levels of practice and attainment? Please shed light on this.
Whatever you repeat day after day becomes empty, loses its juice. That is why Kabir says, “You have found the diamond—tie the knot tight; why keep opening the bundle again and again?” Don’t keep looking back. Don’t keep asking for the same experience. Even if it comes, it will be finished. And the second point is even more important: asking again will not bring it. These experiences do not come by asking. Asking creates obstruction. The first time meditation happened to you, you had not asked. You didn’t even know what meditation is. You were innocent, childlike—and in that innocence, meditation happened. Now you have become clever. Now you are no longer a child. Now you are demanding the same experience. This very difference becomes the obstacle. The same experience will not happen. You will get stuck. So Kabir says: whatever has happened, tie a knot and forget it. Move…