Osho – The man of Tao is not one of much action – he is not a man of action, the least possible action happens through him. He is really a man of inaction, he is not much occupied with activity. But you are occupied with activity just to escape from yourself. You cannot tolerate yourself, you cannot tolerate the company of yourself. You keep looking for somebody as an escape, some occupation in which you can forget yourself, in which you can get involved. You are so bored with yourself.
A man of Tao, a man who has attained the inner nature, a man who is really religious, is not a man of much activity. Only the necessary will happen. The unnecessary is cut out completely, because he can be at ease without activity, he can be at home without doing anything, he can relax, he can be company for himself, he can be with his self.
You cannot be with yourself, hence the constant urge to seek company. Go to a club, go to a meeting, go to a party, move into the crowd, where you are not alone. You are so afraid of yourself that if you are left alone you will go mad. In just three weeks if you are left absolutely alone without any activity, you will go mad. And this is not something said by religious people, now psychologists agree to it. For only three weeks, if all activity, if all company, is taken from you, if you are left alone in a room, within three weeks you will be mad – because all your activity is just to throw out your madness, it is a catharsis.
What will you do when you are alone? For the first three or four days you will dream and talk within, an inner chattering. Then this will become boring. After the first week you will start talking aloud because at least you will hear the sound of your own voice. When you walk along a dark street at night you start whistling. Why? How is this whistling going to give you courage? How is this whistling going to help you? Just listening to it you feel that you are not alone, somebody is whistling. The illusion of two is created!
After the first week you will start talking aloud because then you can also listen. You are not alone, you are talking and you are listening as if somebody else is talking to you. After the second week you will start answering yourself. You will not only talk, you will answer – you are divided. Now you are two; one who questions, one who answers. Now there is a dialogue – you have gone completely crazy.
A man asked his psychiatrist, ”I am very worried, I talk to myself. What should I do? Can you help me?”
The psychiatrist said, ”This is nothing to be worried about. Everybody talks to himself, this is not a big problem. Only when you start answering, then come to me, then I can be of help.”
But the difference is only of degree; it is not of kind, it is only of quantity. If you start talking to yourself, sooner or later you will start answering also, because how can one go on simply talking? The answer is needed, otherwise you will feel foolish. By the third week you start answering – you have gone crazy.
This world, the world of activity, business and occupation, saves you from the madhouse. If you are occupied, energy moves out; then you need not care about the inward, the inner world, you can forget it.
A man of Tao is not a man of much activity – only the essential activity. It is said of Chuang Tzu that if he could stand, he would not walk, if he could sit, he would not stand, if he could fall asleep, he would not sit. The essential, the most essential, only the must would he do, because there is no madness in it. You do the nonessential, you keep on doing the nonessential. Look at your activities: ninety-nine percent are nonessential. You can drop them, you can save much energy, you can save much time.
But you cannot drop them because you are afraid, you are scared of yourself. If there is no radio, no television, no newspaper, nobody to talk to, what will you do?
Source: Osho Book “The Empty Boat”