Exhaustion in modern life and continuous loss of inner contact
THE ULTIMATE ALCHEMY, VOL 2, CHAPTER 8
OSHO, MODERN MAN, IN THIS INDUSTRIALIZED AGE OF SPEED, HURRY, ACTIVITY AND
TENSIONS, FEELS COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED AFTER A DAY'S WORK. IN THIS SITUATION IT
BECOMES DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO HAVE INNER SILENCE AND STILLNESS.
PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT ARE THE REASONS AND WHAT IS THE WAY?
The situation appears so. It is not. Rather, the situation is quite the vice versa. You are not exhausted because of this industrialized age and the work and the tensions. You are exhausted because you have lost contact with your inner stillness. The work is not the problem: you are the problem. Neither is the age the problem: you are the problem.
Do not go on thinking that modern man is more burdened with work. He is less burdened. A primitive man is more burdened. Mechanization, industrialization, they all help to save time. They are for saving time and they have saved much.
But because you now have time and no stillness, because you now have time and no use for it, it creates problems. A primitive man has less problems, not because he is silent and still, but because he has no time, no time, to create troubles for himself. You have more time and you do not know what to do.
This time can be used for an inner journey. And if man cannot use it for that inwardness, he is done for. Then there is no hope because now more and more time will be saved. Soon the whole world will be under automatic mechanization. You will have time and you won't know what to do, and for the first time in history man will have achieved the utopia he has always longed for, desired. Then he will be at a loss as to what to do with it.
You have more time than any age, and you are not exhausted because of the work. You are exhausted because you have lost the inner contact - because you do not know how to go deep in yourself and be revitalized. You have even lost the ability to sleep. That used to be the natural method to go in. Then one would be fresh in the morning, recharged, revitalized. But now we have lost the ability to sleep, and we have lost it because of the mechanical revolution, because now your bodies are not forced to work. Because of less work you are less exhausted, and because of less exertion you cannot sleep.
A villager still sleeps deeply; because his body is so exhausted, he falls deep into sleep. Your body is not exhausted; that is why you go on turning in your bed. Machines have replaced labour and you are less exhausted - remember this. And then you cannot sleep, and even the natural source of inner revitalization is lost. In the morning you are more exhausted than in the evening, and then the whole day begins again and you feel again exhausted.
You are living an exhausted life. It is not only that you are exhausted in the evening: in the morning you are also exhausted. What has happened? Man needs continuous contact with the inner source.
So do not ask me how an exhausted man can meditate. It is like asking me how a diseased man, an ill man, can take medicine. He needs it, and only he needs it.
You are exhausted, so meditation will be a medicine to you. And do not say that you have no time.
You have much time, much that you can use. Everyone is wasting time in so many ways. People are playing cards. If you ask them they will say, "We are killing time." The cinema houses are packed.
What are people doing there? Killing time! They go to hotels, clubs. What are they doing there?
Killing time!
But you cannot kill time. Time only can kill you. So no one is now without time. And do not think that time is a limited quantity. Do not think that every day consists of twenty-four hours - no! It is up to you. It depends on you how many hours you put into it. It depends on that.
Someone asked Emerson, "What is your age?" He said, "Three hundred and sixty years."
It was unbelievable, so that man said, "Pardon me! It seems I have not heard you rightly. Tell it again. How many years are you saying?"
Emerson repeated loudly, "Three hundred and sixty years!"
But the man said. "I cannot believe it. This is impossible. You are not more than sixty."
Emerson said, "That is right, you are right. My actual age is sixty, but I have lived six times more than you. I have used my sixty years in such a way that they have proved to be three hundred and sixty years."
This man was about fifty and Emerson said, "If you say you are fifty, the same will be the problem for me. I cannot believe it because you look to me not more than thirty. You have simply wasted life.
You have not lived."
The wasting of time is one thing, living is another. So every day is not a fixed thing. A Buddha can use it in such a way that it becomes a life. It is not "how much" - it ultimately depends on how much you put into it.
You are a creator. We create our time, we create our space, we create our milieu, through living. So whatsoever your position in life and whatsoever your work and whatsoever your outward situation, do not make it an excuse. You can meditate all the same, and meditation doesn't need time. It needs a deep understanding, not time.
And it is not in conflict with other things. For example, if you are eating, eat with awareness. No extra time is needed. Rather, on the contrary, you will save time because you will eat less. With awareness you will eat less; with awareness you will become more efficient. You will save time. With awareness you will lose less energy, you will dissipate less energy. And even after a whole day's work, you will be as fresh as in the morning - because it is not work that exhausts you: it is the attitude.
You walk to your office on a two-mile walk. You go to your office, and that exhausts you. But if it is Sunday and you are just walking for pleasure, and you walk to your office and come back, then it is just a play and it is not going to exhaust you. Rather, it will refresh you. If you are doing a certain thing as work, it will exhaust you. If you are doing the same thing as play, it will refresh you. It is not the work: it is the attitude. The mind which lives in meditation transforms all work into a play, and the mind which is not meditative will transform even a play into a work.
Look at people who are playing cards. They are tense. They are not "playing" cards - it has become a work. Now there is a problem of life and death. It is not a play. If they are defeated they won't be able to sleep in the night,, and even if they win they will not be able to sleep in the night. Either way they are going to be exhausted. It is not a play; it will not refresh them. It will only exhaust them.
Look at children. They are doing more work than you, but they are never exhausted. They are always bubbling with energy. Why? Because everything is a play. And because of industrialization, and sooner or later because of total automatic processes coming in, man will have only one dimension - that is the dimension of play. Work will be useless then, and all the old teachings that "work is Divine" - that "work is duty and work is Divine and one must do work" - they all will become nonsense.
Leisure, pleasure, fun, festivity, play, will be the key terms for the future. Seriousness will be taken as a disease; playfulness will become the symbol of sanity. Time will be saved more and more, and even old men will have to be like children playing. Only then will they be able to exist; otherwise they will commit suicide.
The whole human history up until now has been work-oriented. From now on it will be play-oriented.
And meditation gives you a new childhood, a new innocence, a new festivity. Then the whole life becomes a ceremony. It is not work.
So do not make excuses. They may look valid, but they are dangerous. And meditation is not in conflict with anything. If you are going to your office, go meditatively. If you are doing work in your office, do it meditatively, do it relaxedly. Then you will not be exhausted. Take everything as a play, and you will not be exhausted. Rather, the work will become a pleasure.
Meditation gives you a new quality of mind, so it is not a question whether you have time or not. I am not saying that you have to meditate for three hours daily, that you should take three hours out of your life, out of your work-life - no! If you can take it, it is good. If you cannot take it, do not make an excuse. Then try to turn and change and transform your work into a meditative act.
You are writing something: write with full awareness. You are digging a hole in the earth: dig it with full awareness. Whether you are working in the street or in the office or in the market, do it with full awareness.
Remain in the present and then see: you will not be exhausted. You will have more time, more energy, less dissipation, and ultimately your life will become just a play.
OSHO, MODERN MAN, IN THIS INDUSTRIALIZED AGE OF SPEED, HURRY, ACTIVITY AND
TENSIONS, FEELS COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED AFTER A DAY'S WORK. IN THIS SITUATION IT
BECOMES DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO HAVE INNER SILENCE AND STILLNESS.
PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT ARE THE REASONS AND WHAT IS THE WAY?
The situation appears so. It is not. Rather, the situation is quite the vice versa. You are not exhausted because of this industrialized age and the work and the tensions. You are exhausted because you have lost contact with your inner stillness. The work is not the problem: you are the problem. Neither is the age the problem: you are the problem.
Do not go on thinking that modern man is more burdened with work. He is less burdened. A primitive man is more burdened. Mechanization, industrialization, they all help to save time. They are for saving time and they have saved much.
But because you now have time and no stillness, because you now have time and no use for it, it creates problems. A primitive man has less problems, not because he is silent and still, but because he has no time, no time, to create troubles for himself. You have more time and you do not know what to do.
This time can be used for an inner journey. And if man cannot use it for that inwardness, he is done for. Then there is no hope because now more and more time will be saved. Soon the whole world will be under automatic mechanization. You will have time and you won't know what to do, and for the first time in history man will have achieved the utopia he has always longed for, desired. Then he will be at a loss as to what to do with it.
You have more time than any age, and you are not exhausted because of the work. You are exhausted because you have lost the inner contact - because you do not know how to go deep in yourself and be revitalized. You have even lost the ability to sleep. That used to be the natural method to go in. Then one would be fresh in the morning, recharged, revitalized. But now we have lost the ability to sleep, and we have lost it because of the mechanical revolution, because now your bodies are not forced to work. Because of less work you are less exhausted, and because of less exertion you cannot sleep.
A villager still sleeps deeply; because his body is so exhausted, he falls deep into sleep. Your body is not exhausted; that is why you go on turning in your bed. Machines have replaced labour and you are less exhausted - remember this. And then you cannot sleep, and even the natural source of inner revitalization is lost. In the morning you are more exhausted than in the evening, and then the whole day begins again and you feel again exhausted.
You are living an exhausted life. It is not only that you are exhausted in the evening: in the morning you are also exhausted. What has happened? Man needs continuous contact with the inner source.
So do not ask me how an exhausted man can meditate. It is like asking me how a diseased man, an ill man, can take medicine. He needs it, and only he needs it.
You are exhausted, so meditation will be a medicine to you. And do not say that you have no time.
You have much time, much that you can use. Everyone is wasting time in so many ways. People are playing cards. If you ask them they will say, "We are killing time." The cinema houses are packed.
What are people doing there? Killing time! They go to hotels, clubs. What are they doing there?
Killing time!
But you cannot kill time. Time only can kill you. So no one is now without time. And do not think that time is a limited quantity. Do not think that every day consists of twenty-four hours - no! It is up to you. It depends on you how many hours you put into it. It depends on that.
Someone asked Emerson, "What is your age?" He said, "Three hundred and sixty years."
It was unbelievable, so that man said, "Pardon me! It seems I have not heard you rightly. Tell it again. How many years are you saying?"
Emerson repeated loudly, "Three hundred and sixty years!"
But the man said. "I cannot believe it. This is impossible. You are not more than sixty."
Emerson said, "That is right, you are right. My actual age is sixty, but I have lived six times more than you. I have used my sixty years in such a way that they have proved to be three hundred and sixty years."
This man was about fifty and Emerson said, "If you say you are fifty, the same will be the problem for me. I cannot believe it because you look to me not more than thirty. You have simply wasted life.
You have not lived."
The wasting of time is one thing, living is another. So every day is not a fixed thing. A Buddha can use it in such a way that it becomes a life. It is not "how much" - it ultimately depends on how much you put into it.
You are a creator. We create our time, we create our space, we create our milieu, through living. So whatsoever your position in life and whatsoever your work and whatsoever your outward situation, do not make it an excuse. You can meditate all the same, and meditation doesn't need time. It needs a deep understanding, not time.
And it is not in conflict with other things. For example, if you are eating, eat with awareness. No extra time is needed. Rather, on the contrary, you will save time because you will eat less. With awareness you will eat less; with awareness you will become more efficient. You will save time. With awareness you will lose less energy, you will dissipate less energy. And even after a whole day's work, you will be as fresh as in the morning - because it is not work that exhausts you: it is the attitude.
You walk to your office on a two-mile walk. You go to your office, and that exhausts you. But if it is Sunday and you are just walking for pleasure, and you walk to your office and come back, then it is just a play and it is not going to exhaust you. Rather, it will refresh you. If you are doing a certain thing as work, it will exhaust you. If you are doing the same thing as play, it will refresh you. It is not the work: it is the attitude. The mind which lives in meditation transforms all work into a play, and the mind which is not meditative will transform even a play into a work.
Look at people who are playing cards. They are tense. They are not "playing" cards - it has become a work. Now there is a problem of life and death. It is not a play. If they are defeated they won't be able to sleep in the night,, and even if they win they will not be able to sleep in the night. Either way they are going to be exhausted. It is not a play; it will not refresh them. It will only exhaust them.
Look at children. They are doing more work than you, but they are never exhausted. They are always bubbling with energy. Why? Because everything is a play. And because of industrialization, and sooner or later because of total automatic processes coming in, man will have only one dimension - that is the dimension of play. Work will be useless then, and all the old teachings that "work is Divine" - that "work is duty and work is Divine and one must do work" - they all will become nonsense.
Leisure, pleasure, fun, festivity, play, will be the key terms for the future. Seriousness will be taken as a disease; playfulness will become the symbol of sanity. Time will be saved more and more, and even old men will have to be like children playing. Only then will they be able to exist; otherwise they will commit suicide.
The whole human history up until now has been work-oriented. From now on it will be play-oriented.
And meditation gives you a new childhood, a new innocence, a new festivity. Then the whole life becomes a ceremony. It is not work.
So do not make excuses. They may look valid, but they are dangerous. And meditation is not in conflict with anything. If you are going to your office, go meditatively. If you are doing work in your office, do it meditatively, do it relaxedly. Then you will not be exhausted. Take everything as a play, and you will not be exhausted. Rather, the work will become a pleasure.
Meditation gives you a new quality of mind, so it is not a question whether you have time or not. I am not saying that you have to meditate for three hours daily, that you should take three hours out of your life, out of your work-life - no! If you can take it, it is good. If you cannot take it, do not make an excuse. Then try to turn and change and transform your work into a meditative act.
You are writing something: write with full awareness. You are digging a hole in the earth: dig it with full awareness. Whether you are working in the street or in the office or in the market, do it with full awareness.
Remain in the present and then see: you will not be exhausted. You will have more time, more energy, less dissipation, and ultimately your life will become just a play.
