According to Osho, when you’re tired of trying to understand, stop trying. Leave your ‘understanding’ at the door—drop conclusions, knowledgeability, and comparison—and simply listen with an empty, mad lover’s heart. Turn from analysis to witnessing: look at the mind, step aside from it, and relax into no‑mind. Clarity comes through presence, not punditry.
Quit forcing it; let go of your ideas, quietly watch your mind, and real understanding will arise on its own.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I have grown tired of trying to understand you. Nothing makes sense. What should I do now?
Surely, Rupchand, you’ve come here carrying some peculiar kind of “understanding”—Hindu understanding, Muslim understanding, Christian, Jain—who knows which! Who knows which books are crammed into your head! Who knows through which walls my words have to pass to reach inside you! But there will be walls. You are deaf; otherwise, to understand what I’m saying, does one need higher mathematics, science, some great art? I am saying something as simple as “two and two are four.” One night the hotel room became very cold. Chandulal was shivering under a blanket. He thought, “I should call for another blanket; otherwise, I won’t sleep the whole night.” He phoned the receptionist: “Listen, Miss, I’m feeling very cold. I’d be most obliged if you…” Before Chandulal could even finish, the reply came: “All right, all right, I’ll be at your service within two minutes. In the meantime, please take off your clothes and…
Question: Second question: Osho, I don’t understand what you say. What should I do? Both are unwise. Both were in a hurry. There’s no hurry to be for or against. Patience is needed. The art of listening comes only to the patient. Listen in stillness, in silence. Listen just to listen—“for now, let me simply hear.” Listen as you would to the roar of the ocean, the rumble of thunder. At such a time you don’t think, Is it right or wrong? Does it conform to the Vedas? Are the verses of the Quran for or against this mountain stream? You must have heard the story. Three pundits finished their studies in Kashi and set out for home. They halted in a forest at night. In the morning, hungry, they decided to cook. One was a botanist. “You go buy the vegetables; who better than you to choose?
Beloved master, I cannot understand you; I have tried hard but failed. What should I do now?
Govindo, is there a need to understand me? What is understanding? It is an intellectual effort. What I am trying to communicate to you has nothing to do with the intellect. You can feel it, but you cannot understand it. You can live it, and only by living it will you be able to understand it. But people try just the opposite -- first they want to understand. The idea is: Unless we understand a thing, how can we try it, how can we live it? It is logical that first one should understand and only then should one try to live. But life is not logical; life is far deeper than logic, and many times life is absolutely illogical. If you try to cling to logic you will miss many things, and those many things are the most precious. You will miss love, you will miss meditation, you will…
Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!
You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…
Osho, in you the impossible has become possible—the unheard-of has happened. And understanding you too seems almost impossible. Why is it so?
If you want to understand, it will become impossible. The very desire to understand creates distance. Listen with love; drop the worry about understanding and the rest. Just listen with love and you will understand. If you set out to understand, you will miss. Why? Because when you sit down to understand, you bring the intellect in between. All the while you are alertly examining: which point is right, which is not; which agrees with logic, which is against logic; which accords with my scriptures, which goes against them. You get caught in this whole tangle. The dust of scripture rises within you like a sandstorm. You forget me altogether. In that storm you catch only fragments; sometimes you hear something as something else. Then you interpret. Then with your own hands you create confusion. These things are not for understanding. These things are for descending into love. Just listen.…