Work in the world but don't get lost in it

Sadhana

My friend Sundari from Portugal has asked for some words of wisdom from Osho about working in the world. I understand her for she has just been here. When you come to Pune in the Osho Meditation Resort life is so serene and blissful, you wish it stays like this forever. And then you go back and face reality. The dream has disappeared! Here is an Osho insight for all those who want to change the quality of their working life.
Osho says: " It is good to continue the work and to continue working on yourself side by side. Never be an escapist because escape is not going to help. The best arrangement is to work in the world but don't be lost in it. Work for five or six hours and then forget all about it. Give at least two hours for your inner growth, a few hours for your relationship, love, children, friends, society.
Your profession should only be a part of life. It should not overlap into every dimension of your life, as ordinarily it does. A doctor becomes almost a twenty-four-hour doctor. He thinks about it, he talks about it. Even when he is eating he is a doctor. While he is making love to his woman, he is a doctor.
My whole effort is to help you to be in the world and yet to be a meditator. Of course it is more difficult because there will be more challenge and situations. It is easier to be either a doctor or a meditator. It will be difficult to be both because that will give you many contradictory situations. But a person grows when there are contradictory situations. In the turmoil, in that clash of the contradictions, integrity is born. You become more centred.
A wise man has to be so wise that he can allow himself a little foolishness also. That is the greatest wisdom: to use foolish-ness also as a part of life so that you can laugh -- not only at others but at yourself also; so that you can play for no profit, no motive; so that you can simply relate to people for no reason whatsoever. "
Cypress In The Courtyard