What should I do after feeling worn out from practicing religion?

Osho, I am worn out from practicing religion—vows, fasts, yama and niyama—I’ve tried them all and found nothing. What should I do now? I have come to your refuge to ask this.

So sometimes fasting is useful. But fasting is not a way of life. Otherwise you are choosing slow suicide; you begin enjoying torturing yourself; you turn perverse and violent toward yourself. Such fasting is abuse—self-abuse—and no one can protect you from it. And your mute body already suffers so much at your hands. Do not imagine this abuse will bring you religion. Yes, the body will dry and wither—but do not fall into the delusion that the lotus of the soul blooms because the body withers. There is no necessary connection. So all that you did—yamas and niyamas, vows and fasts—each has its own value in its own place. But when you take them as synonyms for religion, Dayanand, you go astray. They are not synonyms. Religion has only one synonym—meditation. Mahavira used an exact word for it: samayik. The Jains call the soul “samay”—the timeless time. Samayik means: abiding…

You say, Osho, don’t try to be something, to become, to attempt “becoming”—just be, just being. Please explain in detail how this is to be attained.

The very moment you ask how to practice it, you miss the understanding. Because “to practice” already means the effort to become something has begun. When I say, remain as you are, just as you are, the question of practice does not arise. Practice means you have started trying to be what you are not. So you have not understood. Any practice implies discontent; there is no fulfillment in being as you are. The mind says, let something more happen. A little money—let’s gather more. A little knowledge—accumulate more. A little renunciation—become a great renunciate. A slight taste of meditation—let’s manufacture the taste of samadhi. It is all the same; there is no difference. The issue is neither money nor meditation; the issue is the demand for “more.” So whether you ask for wealth you remain worldly, and even if you ask for meditation you remain worldly. Wherever there is…

What I mean by sannyas is a spiritual discipline so that one becomes a religious person, but it is not happening to me. What to do?

So don't go anywhere, don't renounce. Live it as totally as possible -- and live it as an integrated being. My emphasis is for an integrated being. You are not in the body: you ARE the body. Drop that nonsense of "I am in the body." Hmm? from the very beginning that nonsense makes a distinction, and then you are very far away from the body and a conflict arises. You start manipulating your body, you start controlling your body, you start doing things to your body. You become destructive, you become violent. Your so-called saints are all violent. Howsoever much they talk about nonviolence, howsoever much, it makes no difference. They are violent people. There are two types of violent people. The first type is violent with others; the other type is violent with himself. There are sadists and masochists. The sadists torture others; they become Adolf Hitler, Mussolini,…

Osho, I have taken great pains in pursuit of Your devotion; every joy of mine has been erased in pursuit of Your every joy. How far and wide I have wandered for Your worship! Now please have the compassion to tell me what I should do next.

Poems can be beautiful; that does not make them true. Truth is certainly beautiful; but not everything beautiful is true. Truth is supremely beautiful. But don’t take something to be true just because it is beautiful. For you deem all kinds of things beautiful! You take even a body of bone, flesh, and marrow to be beautiful—which is utterly untrue. You take a rainbow in the sky to be beautiful—which in fact isn’t there. You take the dreams of night to be beautiful—and a thousand times you have awakened to find them false! There is not much truth in your sense of beauty; there cannot be—unless truth has blossomed within you. You did choose a beautiful verse. It isn’t even yours—borrowed as well. “My every joy has been wiped out in pursuit of Your every joy.” No, God asks no sacrifice of you. And those who taught you that God…

Osho, what should I do? How should I pray? How should I worship?

“What should I do? How should I pray? How should I worship?” Bid farewell to the word “how.” Move into inactivity. Sit for an hour—do not think what to do—just sit for an hour. If birds are singing, listen. If sunrays are dancing upon you, feel them. If a breeze comes and rustles your clothes, makes them quiver, feel it. Just sit. You will be amazed to discover that if you can sit for an hour without any occupation, one day prayer will be born within you—like a wonder. But when you ask “how,” you don’t realize what you’re asking. You are saying, “All right, I will sit for prayer—just give me some occupation. Should I turn a rosary? Chant a mantra? Arrange a puja tray? Perform aarti?” You want some device to keep busy. You cannot remain without doing. Doing is your disease, your madness. In the shop you…