According to Osho, meditation benefits national and social life because what transforms one individual uplifts the whole: a nation is only a web of individuals. Meditation flowers into dharma—truth, love, nonviolence, fearlessness—the real foundations of living community. A non-sectarian yet dharma-centered society gains cohesion, clarity, and compassion; without inner dharma it remains a mechanical crowd, not a true nation.
When people meditate and grow kind, truthful, and fearless inside, their relationships improve—and that goodness scales up to families, communities, and the whole country.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is the result of meditation useful only for the religious life, or is it also useful in day-to-day practical life? Please explain.
Fundamentally, it is useful for religion. But religion is the soul of a person. And when the soul changes, behavior changes on its own. If the within changes, the without inevitably follows. That change, however, is like a shadow, like an outcome. It walks behind. It is like asking: if a man runs, will only the man run or will his shadow also run? The question is of that kind. If the man runs, the shadow is bound to run. Yes, the reverse is not possible: if the shadow runs, will the man run? First, the shadow cannot run. And even if it appeared to, there is no way for the man to run after it. So, if a person’s practical life changes, it is not necessary that his religious life has changed. It may be that in behavior he is a very good man, and inwardly not good at…
Beloved Osho, the longing for a better life, for a utopia, has been constantly in man's mind since he became aware of his consciousness. On the other hand he became more and more afraid of all his irrational powers. Can you please comment?
That's why marriage was created; otherwise it was easier for man not to have any marriage, because marriage was simply a responsibility -- of children, of a wife. When the woman is pregnant, then you have to feed her.... And there was no need to take all that responsibility. The woman was taking the whole responsibility. But the man wanted some immortality, and that his property should be possessed by his own blood. And the woman wanted some protection -- she was vulnerable. While she was pregnant, she could not work, she could not go hunting; she had to depend on somebody. So it was in the interest of both to have a contract that they would remain together, would not betray in any sense, because the whole thing was to keep the blood pure. So Marx's idea was that when communism comes, and property becomes collective, marriage becomes meaningless…
[Meditation is a mother; through it you are reborn. And that is the meaning of her original name, Renate, Osho told the next person.] Meditation is synonymous with awareness. The English word 'meditation' gives a slightly wrong idea. The eastern word for it is "dhyana". Out of dhyana in China it became chana and in Japan it became Zen, but the root is dhyana. In English there is no real equivalent; the word that comes closest to it is meditation -- but something is missing in it because whenever you say meditation it gives you the idea of meditating on something. One immediately asks "On what to meditate?" Now that question cannot be asked about dhyana. "Dhyana simply means a state of mind where there is nothing to meditate upon, a state of consciousness without content, a contentless consciousness.
Man has tried in thousands of ways to change the outer structure of the society, to change the state, the economy. We have tried all kinds of economies, Capitalist, communist, socialist, fascist -- we have tried all kinds of political ideologies. And all have failed, without any exception, for the simple reason that if man remains inwardly a slave you cannot make him free from the outside that is impossible. We will again create a new kind of bondage, he will move from one prison to another prison. But he cannot live without chains; he has become accustomed to chains. And the root cause is within him. Meditation simply destroys the root cause of all slavery. Meditation simply means a state of no-mind. Mind means all that society has given to you. It is not yours, mind is something borrowed.
What does your movement signify about the condition of society? Is it an escapist and self-regarding cult? Or do vou propose through changing human nature to change society and the world?
WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE IS NOT A movement: it is a mutation. It has no concern with the society: its whole concern is with the individual. It is a revolution in the true sense of the word. There is no idea of changing the society or the world, because there is no society at all. Only individuals exist -- society is an illusion. And because we believe in society, all the revolutions have failed. The belief that the society exists has sabotaged all efforts to change man -- because the belief is rooted in illusion. Ask the scientist: he says there is no matter but only electrons. Matter is an illusion. In exactly the same way, those who understand human consciousness will say that society is an illusion like matter. Electrons are true, so are individuals. The individual needs a mutation. And what we are doing here is utterly individualistic;…