A man who

knows how to
be alone knows
I have not told you that a sannyasin has to be ready to live a lonely
life. What I had told you was: a sannyasin knows how to live
alone. And to be lonely is totally different from being alone. Not
only different, they are opposites. They are as far away from each
how to be other as the sky and the earth; the distance is infinite between them.
To be lonely means a negative state: you are hankering for the
meditative.
other, you are longing for company, you are missing the crowd.
Aloneness You cannot tolerate yourself; you feel yourself intolerable. You are
means bored with yourself -- that's what being lonely means -- utterly
meditation -- bored.
To be alone is totally different: it is utterly ecstatic. To be alone
just relishing means a positive state. You are not missing the other, you are
your own enjoying yourself. You are not bored by yourself, you are
being, intrigued. A great challenge comes from your innermost core. You
start a journey of interiority. When there are others you are
celebrating occupied with them, your consciousness remains focused on them.
your own being When you are alone, your consciousness moves inwards. When
you are with others you have to be an extrovert -- your
consciousness turning upon itself, showering upon itself. When

48 OSHO WORLD
you are with others your light
shows their faces; when you are
alone your light shows your own
original face.
Maya, you have not understood
me. I had not told you that to be a
sannyasin means "to be ready to
live a very lonely life." From where
did you get this idea of living a very
lonely life? Certainly one has to be
able to live alone, but to live alone
does not mean that you cannot
relate; on the contrary, a man who
can live alone becomes so full of
joy, becomes so brimful, that he
has to relate. He becomes a
raincloud -- he has to shower. He
becomes a flower so full of
fragrance that he has to open its
petals and allow its fragrance to be
released to the winds.
A person who knows how to be
alone becomes so full of song that
he has to sing it. And where can
you sing a song? You can sing a
song only in love, in relating, in
sharing with people. But you
can share only if you have in the
first place.
The problem is that people don't
have any joy in their being and they
are bent upon sharing it. Now, two
miserable people bent upon sharing
their joys with each other -- what is
going to happen? The misery will
not be doubled, it will be
multiplied.
That's what people are doing to
each other: husbands to wives and
wives to husbands, and parents to
children and children to parents,
and friends to friends. In fact
Walt Whitman says: "I
celebrate myself, I sing myself.
That is aloneness." This man
Whitman is really a mystic,
not just a poet
enemies are not so inimical as
friends prove finally: torturing each
other, unloading their miseries on
each other, throwing their dirt on
each other. They are stinking --
what can they do? When they come
close to you, you have to suffer
their stink. And you have to suffer
if you want them to suffer your
stink. So it is a bargain.
You cannot live alone, they
cannot live alone -- you have to be
together. Even if it stinks, at least
there is the consolation that "I am
not alone."
A man who knows how to be
alone knows how to be meditative.
Aloneness means meditation -- just
relishing your own being,
celebrating your own being.
Walt Whitman says: I celebrate
myself, I sing myself. That is
aloneness. This man Whitman is
really a mystic, not just a poet. He
should be counted with the ancient
rishis of the Upanishads. America
has not given birth to many great
mystics; Whitman is really one of
the most precious gifts of America
to the world. He says: I celebrate
myself, I sing myself. That's what a
mystic has always been supposed
to do, that's what a mystic's
function is: to celebrate himself. But
how will you celebrate? You will
have to invite others. You will have
to ask others to come and
participate.
Meditation gives you the insight
of your own inner treasure, and in
love you share it. That's what I
mean when I say that a sannyasin
has to be ready to be alone -- so that
one day he can be ready to love.
Only a man who knows the
beauties of solitude can love. But
just a slight difference and you can
miss the whole point.
Now, the difference between
aloneness and loneliness is not
much; as far as language is
concerned there is no difference at
all, they are synonyms. In the
dictionaries you will find aloneness
described as loneliness, loneliness
as aloneness -- but that is only in
the dictionaries, not in life itself. In
life itself it is totally different.
Don't live through language,
don't become too much obsessed
with language, because language is
only utilitarian. It can mislead you -
- it misleads. It can't help it; it has
been invented by people who know
nothing. I am saying "aloneness"
and your mind hears "loneliness."
Once you translate aloneness as
loneliness you are millions of miles
SEPTEMBER 2008 49
away -- not only miles but millions
of light-years away from me.
You change that word
'loneliness'; drop it completely from
your mind. Learn what aloneness is
-- and aloneness is a beautiful
phenomenon, the most beautiful.
Then my presence will not disturb
your aloneness, my presence will
enhance it. My presence, my
remembrance, feeling me around
yourself, engulfing you, will
enhance it, will make it richer, will
make it more crystal-clear. And not
only my presence but the presence
of my sannyasins will also be
absolutely non-disturbing to
aloneness.
In fact, aloneness cannot be
disturbed at all. It is such a
crystallized state of consciousness,
nothing can distract you away from
it, and everything helps to make it
stronger. Have you watched this
paradoxical phenomenon? For
example, right now we are sitting
here in silence... the chirping of the
birds -- is it disturbing the silence or
enriching it? The crow -- is he
disturbing your silence, or helping
and giving it a contrast? If you are
really silent, then even in the
marketplace you will be surprised
that your silence deepens. If your
silence is disturbed by the market
place, that simply means it was not
silence in the first place. It was just
forced, cultivated, practiced, plastic
-- it was not true.
If true silence is there, nothing
can disturb it. Each disturbance
comes to enhance it. It is like in a
50 OSHO WORLD
If true silence is there, nothing
can disturb it
dark night you are walking on a
street and a car passes by with full
headlights on. For a moment you
are dazed by the light, and then the
car is gone by. Do you think the
darkness is less than before? It is
deeper than before, it is denser than
before. The car and its headlights
have not disturbed it at all; rather,
they helped tremendously.
And this is how it is with
aloneness: your aloneness will not
be disturbed by the commune, and
certainly not by me -- because I am
not a noise. I am a melody, a music -
- a music that cannot be heard by
the ears but can only be heard by
the heart.
It is good that you have started
feeling me. It is good that you say,
"Since I am a sannyasin I feel that I
can't be lonely anymore, as you are
always around."
Yes, you cannot be lonely
anymore, but you will be more
alone now that I am always with
you. And aloneness is a precious
treasure, the door to the kingdom
of God. But forget that word
'loneliness'; it is ugly, it is
pathological.
And a man who seeks
friendship, love, companionship,
out of loneliness is not going to find
it. In fact, with whomsoever he will
associate he will feel cheated and he
will make the other feel cheated. He
will feel tired and bored, and he
will make the other feel tired and
bored. He will feel sucked and he
will make the other feel sucked,
because both will be sucking on
each other's energies. And they
don't have much in the first place.
Their streams are running very
thin; they are like summer streams
in a desertland. You cannot take
any water out of them. But if you
seek friendship and love and
companionship out of aloneness,
you are a flooded river, a river in
the rains. You can share as much as
you want. And the more you share,
the more you will have.
This is the inner economics:
the more you give, the more
you get from God. Once you have
known the knack of it you become
a spendthrift, you are no longer
a miser.
A spiritual person cannot be a
miser, and a miser cannot be a
spiritual person.
- Osho,
The Dhammapada:
The Way of the Buddha,
Vol-3, Ch 6.