Living without getting exhausted

How can you live without getting exhausted?

Somebody's asks 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

Osho: "The situation appears so. It is not. Rather, the situation is 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:

Do not go on thinking that modern man is more burdened with work. He is

Mechanization, industrialization, they both 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 fewer problems, not because he is silent and still but because he has no time - no time, to create troubles for himself.

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. 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 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 and 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.

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.

You are a creator. We create our time, we create our space and 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 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 a play, it will refresh you. It is not the work; it is the attitude.

The mind that lives in meditation transforms all work into play and the mind which is not meditative will transform even play into a work.

Look at children. They are doing more work than you are but they are never exhausted. They are always bubbling with energy. Why? Because everything is a play.

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 become nonsense.

Leisure, pleasure, fun, festivity, play will be 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 in a relaxed way. 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 of 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 it 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.”