Osho on breakdown and meditation – Any breakdown is a possibility for a breakthrough

[A sannyasin, recently returned after three years, says he went completely crazy and was put in hospital.]

Osho – Yes, I know. That too is nothing to be worried about, mm? If it happens next time, think of the hospital as a resting place, as a place for meditation, and enjoy it! The word has become very wrongly associated. Once you are put in a hospital you are given the feeling that something has gone wrong. Nothing has gone wrong; society is just hospitalising you.

[The sannyasin says: I’ve come to reason with that, I’ve come to be at one with it, but it’s still not very pleasant when it happens.]

Osho – Yes, it is difficult – I understand. But if it happens, it happens; one has to enjoy it. And by enjoying it you will learn more and you will go deeper into your being.

Any breakdown is a possibility for a breakthrough. If you use it rightly it can be transformed into a breakthrough. And any breakthrough can become a breakdown if you don’t use it rightly. That is a very delicate problem and Western psychology has yet not been able to cope with it. No, everything, a breakdown or a breakthrough, is just; a breakdown for them. They aren’t yet aware of the difference between a breakthrough and a breakdown, and because they are not aware, they cannot utilise it, they cannot utilise it in a creative way. Otherwise every madness can be used as a great meditation.

Sooner or later it is going to happen in the West too. It has happened in the East, we have used it: if somebody goes mad, we have used it as a meditation. Madness simply means that all the armour of the ordinary reality is broken, the man is no more normal. The man is no more confined by the so-called normal structure of mind. The more that structure is, the less free you are; the less that structure is, the more free you are. In fact it is an expansion of consciousness. Society makes every consciousness very narrow, and whenever it happens that your consciousness is no more contained by that narrowness, the society condemns you as mad. But that moment can be used for a great spiritual experience, for satori.

So I understand – it is difficult and they will not understand – but still if it happens, you can use it. Just don’t bother about them, about what they are thinking. Just smile at them deep inside, and rest in bed! It is a great time to rest. In fact in the West there is no other way to rest, mm? Unless you are mad, nobody allows you to rest; because what are you doing? You have to be constantly on the go. And come back for a few weeks sometimes so that you can go through a few groups, a few meditations; it will be good.

Source – Osho Book “Don’t Bite My Finger, Look Where I’m Pointing”