[A sannyasin says: I’m not sure which direction to take – whether to go out more to people or to go inside myself more. I’m not sure which is best for my growth. Osho checks his energy.]

Good, come back. The energy is really good. You have to do both. Choosing won’t be good. These are not alternatives – whether one should go out, meet, mix with people, or should go in. Both are needed together. If you move towards one, you will become lopsided. So sometimes go out, mix with people, forget yourself. Then really go out. And make it part of meditation that going out is good. Balance is needed; choice is not needed. All choice is wrong, because these are are not alternatives; they are complementaries. Together they make the whole, and together they make you holy and healthy. Together they will heal you. 

[Osho went on to say that people who are like monks could not be whole and healthy because they were living just half lives, were rejecting life and other people.... ]

Even if they are silent, their silence is very poor. It is the silence of beggars. It is empty. It is simply negative. It is not a fulfillment, it is not a benediction. It is not an overflowing ecstasy. They cannot dance... they cannot sing. And unless you can dance your way to god, you can never reach. So this is what I would like to say to you: dance your way to god. And dance comes by balance. One cannot dance on one leg; both legs will be needed. And one cannot dance by choosing the inward or the outward, by becoming the introvert or the extrovert. Dance will need continuous coming and going. It is a movement. You have to reach others. And it is helpful; it is not contrary to meditation. When you go to somebody and you are lost in the world, suddenly a need arises to be alone. It is an appetite. Then you come home and you sit alone, and now you can enjoy. Now this is not loneliness, this is aloneness. If you don’t go out and you sit there, it will be loneliness,. not aloneness, and there will be no appetite. You will be bored by it. It is as if one is full and still sitting at the table and trying to eat. It will create nausea. You need a few hours in which not to eat – six, seven or eight hours fasting – then suddenly you are hungry again. So when you go into the world you become hungry for aloneness. It creates an appetite for meditation. When you are alone it creates an appetite for relationship. These are like two wings. No bird can fly with one wing, and no dancer can dance with only one leg. So balance is my whole message, summum bonum. Always remember, never choose anything which is going to disrupt your balance. Do whatsoever can be done to bring more balance into your life. Whatsoever brings balance is good, healthy, and whatsoever makes you lopsided is unhealthy and dangerous. So sometimes go out and enjoy it. Don t go reluctantly. Don’t go because I am saying. Go in deep delight because outside god is also waiting for you in so many forms. Find, search for him there also. And when you are tired of the outside and tired of relationship, tired of people, come home,.close your eyes, sit alone, meditate, go in. There also, god is waiting for you as your own self. He is everywhere so there is nothing to choose. One has to be choicelessly aware. So just try balance. It will take a little time. It is very easy to choose one because then there is no problem. It is simple arithmetic. If you choose one, you drop out of the world, you forget all relationship; you close all your doors and windows and you shut yourself in. Simple – no polarity, no challenge – but by and by you will shrink and die. Or you can choose relationship and the world, and never come home... always being with others. If nobody is there, then in fantasy, but still with others. If nobody is there, then put on the radio or the TV, but never be alone. There are people who are alone only when they are fast asleep, and then even it is not certain that they are alone; they may be dreaming of people. These are both wrong attitudes. I am neither for the world nor against it. I am neither for a monastery nor against it. Hence I have made this monastery deep in the world. We could have chosen the himalayas, but that would have been unbalanced. This noise of the railway, the aeroplane and the traffic, is enriching. It gives polarity, it gives shape and sharpness. It gives tone. Anand means bliss and sahajo means spontaneous; spontaneous bliss. And sahajo is the name of one woman mystic, a great indian saint; one of the very rare woman mystics. I give you the name so that you can remember continuously that you have to be spontaneous. Live moment to moment. Don’t think of the past and don’t think of the future. Both are non-existential. The past is gone, the future is not yet. Only the present is.

So to be in the present is the only way to be. Be responsive to the moment. If somebody asks something, don’t answer from your mind. Put the mind aside – because the mind can never be spontaneous, and that which cannot be spontaneous is not you. When you put the mind aside, your spontaneous being surfaces. So don’t bother to be consistent; there is no need. There is no need to have a character because character means that the past decides the present. You have been doing something in the past, now you have to be consistent with it; that’s what character is. The society wants you, and everybody, to be with character, because a man of character can be manipulated very easily. A man of character is predictable. A spontaneous man is unpredictable because he is basically freedom. One never knows what he is going to do next. Not even you know what is going to happen in the next moment. If you know what is going to happen in the next moment, what you are going to do, you are already dead. Then that moment cannot be alive, fresh, young; you have already prepared for it. So, no preparations. Just wait for the next moment to come, and respond with your totality, whatsoever the consequence. To think about the consequence is to be worldly. And to drop thinking about consequences is to become a sannyasin. You follow me? That will be the meaning, and it is not only going to be your name – it has to become your very being. 

Osho, Dance Your Way To God