Loneliness

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,…

Should one first come to terms with one's own loneliness before entering into relationship?

Two lonely people are always facing each other, confronting. Two people who have known aloneness are together, facing something higher than both. I always give this example: two ordinary lovers who are both lonely always face each other; two real lovers, on a full moon night, will not be facing each other. They may be holding hands, but they will be facing the full moon high in the sky. They will not be facing each other, they will be together facing something else. Sometimes they will be listening to a symphony of Mozart or Beethoven or Wagner together. Sometimes they will be sitting by the side of a tree and enjoying the tremendous being of the tree enveloping them. Sometimes they may be sitting by a waterfall and listening to the wild music that is continuously being created there. Sometimes, by the ocean, they will both be looking to the…

Osho, I feel so lonely that I panic and sadness surrounds me. What should I do? Lord, please guide me!

Do not stop me now, O pourer of wine! We are not ones to turn back and go away! Our thirst is endless—and your treasure is inexhaustible, inexhaustible—O giver, keep pouring! We have come to awaken the Unseen at your door! We have come to be dissolved at your door! Fill this empty cup—fill it, fill it, fill it! Make us intoxicated—make us, make us! We have been standing at the gate with hands outstretched— Make us immortal, O Immortal, give us your boon! In a single drop the ocean of life is contained— Fill to the brim this mind’s emptiness! From here on, gaining is losing; hidden in laughter at drinking is the sob of thirst. Let the rounds of bliss go on—let them go on! Let every corner of the heart be filled, even with sorrow! Reveal to us your boundless Presence! Teach us only to dissolve, to…

Question: OSHO, NEVER BELONGED, NEVER BEEN ON THE 'INSIDE', NEVER FELT 'AT ONE' WITH ANOTHER, WHY SUCH A LONER ALL MY LIFE? LIFE is a mystery, but you can reduce it to a problem. And once you make a mystery a problem you will be in difficulty, because there can be no solution to it. A mystery remains a mystery; it is insoluble -- that's why it is called a mystery. Life is not a problem. And that is one of the most basic mistakes we all go on committing: we immediately put a question mark. And if you put a question mark on a mystery, you will be searching for the answer your whole life and you will not find it, and naturally it brings great frustration. My observation of you, Madhura, is that you are a born meditator. Rather than making it a problem, rejoice!