According to Osho, most socializing is nervous talk—gossip and small talk—to escape the embarrassment of silence we’ve forgotten. True communion begins in shared silence: a warm, wordless attunement where presence flows between hearts. From this inner stillness, words gain life and meaning. Without silence, conversation is empty; with silence, speaking becomes authentic connection.
Real socializing isn’t endless chatter; it’s feeling easy together in quiet and letting words arise from that calm.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
If you take gossiping out of social interaction, it seems little is left except uncomfortable silences. So what is socializing about?
Of course the question is from a woman. The woman exists with gossip. Man has many more things to do; gossiping is not all. Woman has nothing else to do, she has only gossiping. It is really difficult to think, conceive, of what is left if all gossiping is dropped. The questioner is right. It is from Deva Richa. She said 'then only uncomfortable silences are left'. Why do you feel uncomfortable about silence? Why is it so embarrassing? It is true, her insight is right. You always have felt it, everybody knows it. If you sit with somebody and you don't have anything to say, then one starts feeling embarrassed. One finds something to talk about. So people talk about weather, climate... useless. They both know that it is raining outside, so what is the point? Or it is a beautiful morning, so what is the point? I have…
Becoming a sannyasin means that now the world of communion starts. Now you will not only be hearing my words but my silence too. And slowly slowly the gestalt changes: words become a background and silences become the real thing. One starts reading between the lines, and that's how a master has to be read and understood. So let this be the beginning of communion -- a heart to heart relationship, a melting, a merging, and then something that has happened to me can start happening to you too. It is contagious, it is a kind of infection. Truth can only be delivered like an infection; there is no other way. So all that is needed is that the disciple should start coming closer and closer to the master, closer in the heart, dropping all defences, dropping all rationalisations, growing into trust.
Osho, every time after speaking I feel I have been dishonest; only when I remain silent do I feel honest—completely honest with myself. Why is this?
At Harvard University, psychologists ran an experiment. They split a class into two groups. To one half, in a separate room, they said: “The problem on the board is very difficult. There is hardly any hope that any of you can solve it. Even students in higher classes struggle with it. Only great mathematicians can solve it. We’re giving it just to see—by chance, perhaps—there is no assurance at all—maybe one of you might head a little in the right direction. Solving it completely is impossible, still try.” They tried. Out of fifteen students, only three solved it. To the other fifteen, in another room, they said—about the same problem—“It’s very simple. So simple that if any of you fail to solve it, it would be surprising. Students in lower classes have solved it.” Amazingly, twelve solved it; only three failed. What happened? Your confidence is borrowed—others hand it to…
Now to allow these idiotic politicians to destroy this earth is to destroy existence whole effort of millions of years. And it is not only that this earth is being destroyed. The whole universe is losing something which was attained with great difficulty, and perhaps it may take millions of years for another planet to come to such a position, such a state. So our work is to raise consciousness around the world that, "Religions are dead and we are ready to give you a living religiousness so you will not feel empty, you will not miss your dead religion that you have been carrying." And we have to tell the politicians that it is time you start thinking of dropping old ways of dividing the world into nations, because that's what creates war. Those boundaries have to be withdrawn. The earth has to be declared one.
If we sit empty, do words become useless?
Yes, that is exactly the likelihood—that they become too many. Because this is how it is… conversation does carry one away; conversation takes you far. So here, the ones farthest are Paage-ji and I. For these others here there is no reason to be far; they can come nearer. A word, the moment it is spoken, takes you away. The moment a word is uttered, it sets thinking in motion. The moment I say something, you begin to think. The moment you start thinking, you set out on a distant journey. Silence brings you close. That is why the deep meaning of satsang is simply to sit near. And many times what we cannot say through words descends into experience just by sitting close. And then the other is not other. Then the other is not other. In silence the other is not other. In silence the boundaries we have,…