31/05/2026
“I was staying in a village rest house.
It was a very poor village,
but filled with dogs.
Every night,
they gathered around the rest house.
Perhaps it had become their usual place —
big trees, cool shadows,
a quiet place to rest.
At that same rest house,
a minister from a certain state was also staying.
But the minister became extremely disturbed.
The dogs were barking,
fighting,
making noise all through the night.
Half the night passed,
and he could not sleep.
Finally, he came to me and asked:
‘Are you asleep?’
I had been sleeping deeply.
He woke me up and said:
‘Please tell me how you can sleep in the middle of all this noise.
There must be twenty or thirty dogs outside — barking, fighting, doing what dogs normally do.
I am exhausted after the whole day’s journey.
If I cannot sleep tonight, tomorrow will be difficult.
I have to leave again early in the morning.
I’ve tried everything:
chanting mantras,
praying to God,
all the methods I know…
but nothing works.
What should I do now?’
So I told him:
‘Those dogs are not gathered here for you.
They are not trying to disturb you.
They do not even know a minister is staying here.
They do not read newspapers.
They are completely unaware of you.
They are simply doing what dogs do.
Why are you becoming disturbed?’
He replied:
‘How can I not be disturbed?
With so much barking, how can anyone sleep?’
So I told him:
‘The problem is not the barking.
The problem is that you are fighting the barking.
The noise is not disturbing you —
you are disturbing yourself because of the noise.
You have created a condition.
You are saying:
“If the dogs stop barking, then I can sleep.”
But the dogs are not going to listen to you.
Your condition is the disturbance.
So instead of resisting,
accept them.
The dogs are there.
They are barking.
Do not fight it.
Do not resist it.
Do not try to forget the sound.
Just listen.
The night is silent,
and the dogs are barking so intensely, so vitally.
Listen to them completely.
That will become your mantra.’
He said:
‘All right.
I don’t believe this will help…
but since nothing else is working, I’ll try.’
And he fell asleep.
The dogs were still barking.
The next morning he came to me and said:
‘This is miraculous.
I accepted the noise.
I dropped my condition.
I simply listened.
And suddenly the barking became musical.
It no longer disturbed me.
In fact, it became like a lullaby…
and I fell into deep sleep because of it.’
It all depends on your mind.
If you are positive,
everything becomes positive.
If you are negative,
everything turns negative.
Everything turns sour.
Remember this -
not only about noise,
but about life itself.
Whenever something feels negative around you,
look within and find the cause there.
It is you.
Somewhere inside,
you are expecting something,
desiring something,
demanding conditions from life.
But existence does not move according to your conditions.
Life flows in its own way.
If you flow with it,
you become peaceful.
If you fight against it,
you become negative —
and the whole universe begins to feel against you.”
— Osho
