According to Osho, aloneness threatens the very existence of mind, which is a social byproduct needing others to function; deprived of its usual reactions and chatter, it panics into anxiety and depression. Modern individuals suffer more because they lack patience and are obsessed with linear, one-life time—creating urgency, unfulfilled desires, and restlessness—whereas older, Eastern circular-time cultures allowed waiting and eased the shock of solitude.
When you’re alone the mind loses its toys and freaks out—and modern people freak out faster because they’re always in a hurry and feel time is running out.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, you often tell stories of persons who went into aloneness in some forest and who became silent and peaceful there. But aloneness seems to make most modern persons anxious and depressed, and it creates a yearning for human companionship. Instead of the patterned mind dropping, we become more acutely aware of it and preoccupied with it. How to overcome this? How can we learn to enjoy long periods of aloneness, and drop the old mind in it?
In the East time is a circular concept, just like seasons moving in a circle. The summer comes and then the summer will come again, and it has been so always and it will be so always. And the Eastern concept is nearer to truth than the Western, because every movement is in a circle. The earth moves in a circle, the sun moves in a circle, the stars move in a circle, the life moves in a circle -- every movement is circular. So time cannot be an exception; if time moves at all, it moves in a circle. The linear concept of time is absolutely wrong. That's why in the East we were never interested in history. We have been interested in myth, but never in history. The West introduced history into the world. That's why Jesus became the center of history, the beginning of the calendar. We…
Why is the modern man feeling so lonely?
MAN HAS ALWAYS FELT LONELY, because man basically IS alone. We are born alone, and we will die alone. And in the middle we can only pretend to be together. Aloneness remains unaffected. It becomes an undercurrent, it goes underground. Man has always been alone, but modern man is feeling it more for a certain reason -- because modern man for the first time has time enough to think about his own self. In the past, the struggle for bread and butter was so much that it kept people occupied from the early morning to the late night, and then too they were not able to feed themselves and their children enough. And that's exactly the case in the East even today. Modern man in an Indian village is not feeling lonely. He has no time to feel anything at all! He feels hungry, not lonely; he needs a shelter,…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IN THE OLDEN DAYS IT WAS CALLED MELANCHOLIA; TODAY IT IS CALLED DEPRESSION, AND IT COUNTS AS ONE OF THE MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. IT IS DESCRIBED AS A SENSE OF DESPAIR OR HOPELESSNESS, A LACK OF SELF-ESTEEM WITH NO ENTHUSIASM OR INTEREST IN THE SURROUNDINGS. IN ADDITION, THERE ARE PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS OF POOR APPETITE, SLEEPLESSNESS AND A LOSS OF SEXUAL ENERGY. ELECTROSHOCK TREATMENT HAS LARGELY BEEN ABANDONED TODAY, AND DRUGS OR TALK THERAPY SEEM EQUALLY EFFECTIVE -- OR INEFFECTIVE. EXPLANATIONS FOR DEPRESSION HAVE VARIED FROM THE CHEMICAL TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL. OSHO, WHAT IS THIS DEPRESSION? IS IT A REACTION TO A DEPRESSING WORLD, A KIND OF HIBERNATION DURING "THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT"? IS DEPRESSION JUST A REACTION TO REPRESSION -- OR OPPRESSION -- OR IS IT JUST A FORM OF SELF-REPRESSION?
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS IT THAT WESTERN SOCIETY REACTS SO STRONGLY TO ANY INDIVIDUAL DEVIATING FROM THE NORM, PARTICULARLY AS FAR AS HIS MENTAL STATE IS CONCERNED? IT LOOKS ON THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN BELOW THE MIND IN SUCH A WAY AS TO CAST A STIGMA ON THEM, AND REGARDS THE POSSIBILITY OF GOING BEYOND THE MIND -- ENLIGHTENMENT -- -WITH SKEPTICISM. IT DOES ALLOW A SLIGHT MARGIN OF DEVIATION IN ITS CREATIVE PEOPLE AND GENIUSES; HENCE SUCH PEOPLE ARE EXCUSED FOR THEIR "ECCENTRICITIES." IT IS AS IF THE MIND IS THE TOUCHSTONE OF ONE'S ADJUSTMENT TO SOCIETY, AND ANY ABERRATION THAT MIGHT THREATEN THE STATUS QUO IS REGARDED WITH FEAR. WHAT IS THAT FEAR? -- BOTH OF THE SICK MIND AND THE ENLIGHTENED NO-MIND? In the East we have tried for a breakTHROUGH, not for a breakdown.
Osho, the mind does not settle in the crowd, and sheer loneliness also makes the heart panic. Is this a symptom of madness? Kindly explain.
A few things about solitude should be understood. Solitude has three forms. First: what we call loneliness. Second: aloneness. And third: kaivalya. Loneliness is negative. Loneliness is not true aloneness; the memory of the other keeps tormenting you—if only the other were here; the other’s absence hurts, a thorn pricks; the mind is entangled in the other. To outward eyes you are alone, but not within; inside, a crowd is present. Someone may find you sitting by yourself, yet you know you are not alone: someone comes to mind; your heart is set on someone; you are sending out a call to someone; weaving dreams of someone; a cry is going on within—if only someone were here, I would not be alone! You are not reconciled to loneliness. Far from joy, there is not even peace in it. You are restless, agitated. Soon you will find some entanglement: you will…