Osho on Why Being Alone Is Good for Your Spiritual Growth

Greatness is attained by those who have the courage to be alone; the deeper secrets of life open their doors only in solitude, says Osho

A woman enjoying being alone at a lake

Somebody was asking me about religion. I told him: “Religion has nothing to do with what you believe or do not believe. It is meaningful only if it becomes your breathing, not your faith. It is something which you either do or you do not do, which you either are or you are not. Religion is action, not a mere talk.

“And religion manifests in your actions only when it has become your essence first. Our actions become our being first. Before releasing the fragrance, it is essential to become a flower. Like the cultivation of flowers, the soul also needs to be cultivated. And for the flowers to arise in the soul it is not necessary to go to the mountains. They can be cultivated wherever you are, because you can be in the mountains while remaining exactly where you are. There are mountains and forests in the inner solitude of one’s self.”

Being Alone Is Good

This is so — truth and beauty are seen only in complete solitude. And whatever is great in life is attained by those who have the courage to be alone. The deeper secrets of life open their doors only in solitude, and the soul attains to love and light. Only when all is calm and quiet will those seeds sprout which are lying deep in the soil of our being, containing all our bliss in them. The growth happens from inside towards outside and only in solitude. Remember, truth grows from inside. Artificial flowers can be imposed from outside but as far as the real flowers are concerned, they grow from within.

For this inner growth, it is not necessary to go to the outer mountains or forests, but it is necessary to be in that inner space. The path leading there is within everybody.

Take a few moments away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday racy rush, and forget the concepts of place and time around you, and your so-called personality, and the ’I’ that is born out of it. Empty your mind of all that keeps it constantly full. Whatsoever comes to your mind, know well that you are not it and throw it out. Drop it all — everything — your name, your country, your family. Let all of it disappear from your memory and remain like a blank sheet of paper.

This very path is the path to our inner aloneness and solitude. It is through this that the inner sannyas finally happens.

In Solitude, You Meet Your Real Self

When your mind drops all clinging, breaks all barriers of name and form, only then that remains in you which is your real being.

In that moment you are alone, in solitariness. What is known at that time is not of this world. It is in this knowing that the flowers of religiousness bloom and life is filled with the fragrance of the divine.

What is known in these few moments – the silence, the beauty, the truth – it gives you strength to live simultaneously on two planes. Then you are in the world, yet you are not of the world. Then there is no bondage, and life is liberated. You are in water, yet the water does not touch you.

In this very experience is the fulfillment of life, and the attainment of religiousness.

Excerpted with permission from The Seeds of Wisdom by Osho.
Courtesy: Osho International Foundation

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