The man of spontaneity does not react, he responds. What is the difference? He just allows
the situation to function over him, and he allows the response to come out, whatsoever it is.
The man who lives out of the past is predictable, and the man who lives moment to
moment is unpredictable. And to be predictable is to be a thing. To be unpredictable is to be
freedom -- that is the dignity of man. The day you are unpredictable... nobody knows, not even
you; remember, not even you... If you already know what you will do, then it is no longer
response. You are already ready, it is rehearsed.

For example, you are going for an interview. You rehearse: you think what is going to be
asked and how you are going to answer it. It happens every day, it is so clear cut. Every
 evening I see people -- both kinds of people are there: when somebody has come here
ready made, has thought over what he is going to say to me, has prepared it already; the script
is ready, he has just to replay it, he has decided everything about what he is going to ask. And
I can see the difficulty of the person, because when he comes in front of me, when he sits by
the side of me, it is a different situation. A change starts happening. The climate, the presence,
his love for me, my love for him, others' presence, the trust that is there very tangibly, the love
that is flowing, a meditative state -- and it is absolutely different than he had been thinking
before. Now whatsoever he has prepared looks irrelevant; it does not fit. He becomes fidgety,
restless -- "What to do?" And he does not know how to act spontaneously, how to act out of
this situation.

He comes in front of me but I see the phoniness of it. His question does not come from his
heart. It is just from the throat, it has no depth. His voice has no depth. He himself is not
certain whether he wants to ask it any more or not, but he has prepared it, maybe for days. So
the mind goes on saying, "Ask it. You have prepared it." And he sees the irrelevance of it.
Maybe it has already been answered. Maybe in answering somebody else I have answered it.
Maybe the very situation is such that his own mind has changed and it is no longer
meaningful. But he acts out of the past: that is reacting. It will look awkward. He feels
embarrassed if he has nothing to ask. And he cannot cry because he is a phony person, and he
cannot simply say, "Hello," and he cannot say, "I would like just to sit in front of you for one
minute, and I have nothing to say." He cannot act out of this moment. He cannot be here now;
he feels embarrassed. He has to ask, otherwise what will people think? -- "Then why, in the
first place, had you asked for darshan if you had nothing to ask?" So he asks. He is no longer
behind it. It is a rotten old question which has no more meaning -- but he asks.

And sometimes -- you may have watched -- to a few people I go on answering and take a
long time, and to a few people I answer in a very short way. Whenever I see that somebody is
phony, his question is phony, is a prepared question, then it is meaningless to answer him. Just
out of respect for him I talk a little bit to him, but I am no longer interested. And the phony
questioner is also not interested in what I am saying -- because he is no longer interested even
in his question, so how can he be interested in the answer?

But there are other people... by and by the phoniness disappears and sannyasins become
more and more true, authentic. Then somebody simply sits there and laughs. That's what is
coming in that moment. He does not feel embarrassed, he does not feel that it is out of place.
It is not. The prepared script is out of place.

Facing a nothingness you have to be nothing. Only then can there be a meeting, because
only the similars can meet. Then there is great joy, then there is great beauty. Then there is
dialogue. Maybe not a single word is uttered, but there is dialogue. Sometimes somebody
comes and simply sits and starts swaying, closes his eyes, goes inwards -- that is the way to
come towards me; he goes inside himself and simply jumps into me and allows me to jump
into him, or simply touches my feet, or simply looks into my eyes. Or sometimes a great
question also arises, but it is in the moment -- then it is true, then it has immense power, then
it comes from your very deepest core. It has relevance.

When you act out of nothingness, you respond; it is no longer a reaction. It has truth, it has
validity in it, authenticity. It is existential. It is immediate, spontaneous, simple, innocent. And
this action does not create any karma.

Osho.

The Heart Sutra.
Ch. 5.

The Fragrance of Nothingness