Daily Life

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WILL YOU DESCRIBE FOR US WHAT YOUR DAILY LIFE IS LIKE? It is the same as it has always been! -- and it will be the same always. I never miss anything. Even in jail I enjoyed it; although it was absolutely a different world. In twelve days I took only one shower! -- and that too because Vivek persisted. She used to meet me in court and her only insistence was, "You should take a shower!" And I told her, "I am enjoying resting in my bed twenty-four hours a day. And when I come out I can take a good shower for all the twelve days -- don't be worried!" In the jail they were asking me... because as I was being moved from one jail to another the press would ask many questions. One question was: "How are you feeling?

Osho, the life I am living, and the way I am living—Is this what life is?

He didn’t listen. He came just now, greatly repentant—didn’t become chief minister, and is no longer even a minister. He said, Now tell me meditation. I said: Now come again—when the chance to become chief minister arises once more in your life. People want meditation free—without giving up anything. And meditation is the most precious thing in life. There is no gem greater than it. Even if you give up everything for it—you have lost nothing. Take to meditation, Madhukar! Your very name is sweet—Madhukar, honeybee! Within, the true flower is in bloom. Come inside. Hum its song there. There is the real nectar. Whoever has drunk it is satisfied forever. If to the blossoming mangoes the maddened bees do not come, how am I to know that springtime has arrived? Granted, the sky seems open now and washed, wide-spread, blue upon blue, the frost-burned lawn turns yellow-green again on…

Osho, what would be the daily routine of your sannyasin?

How much to eat, what to eat, what to wear, how to wear it, how to sleep—these can be discussed in very general terms, but a routine cannot be made. You have to set your own routine—individual to individual. Each person must decide for himself. At least keep that much freedom. The worldly may not be able to; a sannyasin can. In fact, a sannyasin must—strictly—that whatever is comfortable, peaceful, blissful for him, he will live that way. Only keep one thing in mind: that it should not cause hurt, pain, or trouble to anyone—anyone at all. Live like that; such a guideline is enough. I would have to go into detail with you, because generalities can be said—what to eat or not—but nothing can be made rigid. Now, we see a man smoking. The whole world is against him, yet he keeps smoking. Doctors explain he will get sick.…

Osho, how should life be lived, and what is its purpose?

Enter life—stay awake and experiment; try waking and observe; try sleeping and observe; try eating; try lying and truth-telling; try anger and forgiveness; try love and enmity—taste all. In all of it, wherever depth increases, where peace increases, where joy increases, where a glimpse of the divine comes—recognize that as the rule forming for your life. And do not make even that rule so rigid that there is no possibility of change tomorrow. No one knows what life will bring tomorrow. The straight path may suddenly need a turn. What was pleasurable may become painful. Keep an opening for tomorrow. Hence the second thing: discover life’s rules from within. And also: do not consider your discovered rule absolute. Do not regard it as perfect. It must have the flexibility to change tomorrow. Life flowers fully only in one who can change each moment. But we are “consistent” people. We insist:…