According to Osho, indecision arises from the mind’s inherent split—it endlessly weighs ‘to be or not to be’ and so whatever you choose, the other option haunts you. Meditation ends this division, giving clear, unwavering action. Until then, examine the situation impartially, weigh pros and cons, choose the weightier side, act totally, and then forget the alternative—no regret, no looking back.
Your mind is like two kids pulling you; calm down with meditation to feel one clear yes, or just list pros and cons, pick the heavier, and go all-in without second-guessing.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, living decisively, knowing what one wants, seems easy. However, my reality is that I can never make up my mind about anything. I can always see both sides of an argument and can never decide which is right. So I am left hanging between the two. One part of me, listening to you, feels this is okay, but it makes me feel static, as if I am only partially alive. Please comment.
What I have been telling you is that it is the nature of the mind to be in a limbo. It is the nature of the mind to be in the middle of polar opposites. Unless you move away from the mind and become a witness to all the games of the mind, you will never be decisive. Even if you sometimes decide -- in spite of the mind -- you will repent, because the other half that you have not decided for is going to haunt you: perhaps that was right and what you have chosen is wrong. And now there is no way to know. Perhaps the choice was better that you had left aside was better. But even if you had chosen it, the situation would not have been different; then this which would have been left aside would haunt you. Mind is basically the beginning of…
The mind is always wavering -- that's its intrinsic quality. You cannot make it unwavering. It is just as a river flows; the very flow makes it a river. If you stop the flow it is no more a river, it becomes a pond, a lake; its quality immediately changes. It is a river only when it is moving. Movement is mind's nature; hence you cannot come to any conclusion with the mind, you cannot resolve anything because by the time you resolve it the mind has moved. You were just thinking that you were coming closer to a conclusion, that now the decision is very close and suddenly you see the ground underneath you has slipped away. Mind cannot be decisive; hence the system that depends on mind -- religion, theology, philosophy -- any system that depends on mind is bound to be wavering, hesitant.
First of all, you have asked, “Then what should that person do—choose the marketplace or the forest?”
Choose, and you are lost. In choice is the world; even if he chooses the forest, it is the world—because in choice is the world. And if he stays in the marketplace without choosing, that is sannyas. Choicelessness is sannyas; choice is the world. Therefore there is no way to choose sannyas—sannyas happens. So many people come to me. I see two kinds of sannyasins—those who make it happen, and those to whom it happens. Those who try to make it happen say, “We’re thinking about it; what you say appeals; we’re considering.” “We’ll take sannyas someday—just not now. Right now there’s so much to do; yes, what you say does make sense.” I have heard: Mulla Nasruddin was sitting in the mosque and the preacher gave a sermon. In the middle, in a very dramatic way, he asked, “Those who want to go to heaven, please stand up.” Everyone…
Osho, should I practice meditation or devotion? I’ve been thinking about this for years. And since I can’t decide anything, even if I want to begin, how should I begin?
That is why, in my Buddhafield, meditation is happening and devotion is happening. Lovers are dancing in ecstasy, and meditators are sitting in silence. Both are flowing together. This has never happened before. Those who gathered around Buddha meditated; those who gathered around Meera were devoted. For the first time on this earth, Sufi ecstasy and Sufi dance are here, the joy of the devotees is overflowing, and alongside that, Vipassana, zazen, and deep, deep meditative processes are also here. I am giving you both opportunities. You are the master—taste both. Then the decision will happen by itself. But you are sitting outside. You neither meditate nor sing bhajans; you sit afar as a spectator, pondering: “What should I do? What should I not do?” Could it be that there is a great laziness in the mind, a great inertia? Two lazy men were lying under a tree—Satyapriya sent me…
Beloved master, why do I have so much difficulty when I have to decide something, for instance, whether I should go or stay here longer? I do not seem to be able to solve such problems.
I said, "Now that is impossible, you will have to accept it. As far as my work is concerned, I have completed it in this university. You cannot call a single student who can complain against me. What people do in thirty days, I can do in one week, so the work has not suffered. What concern is it for you, where I am?" He said, "It is not my concern. You just take your resignation back; otherwise the whole university, particularly the students, will kill me!" I said, "There is no harm in it. You need to be killed, it is time. You are seventy-five." He said, "You are a strange fellow." I said, "I have been here nine years in this university. Have you come to know now that I am a strange fellow?" In the evening he came back to my home and said, "You just take…