Buddha and the Knotted Handkerchief I am reminded of a story. Gautam the Buddha one day comes into his morning discourse; ten thousand sannyasins are waiting for him, just like every day. But today there is something surprising. Everybody is puzzled and looking at each other, because Buddha is coming with a handkerchief, it is very costly – perhaps some king has presented it to him. But he does not accept that kind of...

The Key is to be Delivered Question 1 Beloved Osho, Buddha had many enlightened people around him, yet he felt something special for this one enlightened person. Is there something different in enlightenments? Yes, Buddha, had many enlightened persons around, but the key can be given only to such a person who can become a master in his own right, because the key is to be delivered on and on. It has to be kept alive. I...

Compassion: Love Come of Age Question 1 Beloved Osho, Buddha was saying again and again to his disciples that meditation and compassion should grow side by side. These days I have been feeling your compassion as never before, and I have also been feeling the urge to start learning from it, at least the ABC. For now, the only thing that makes me feel close to it are those warm tears that flow down my cheeks as I look a...

We Surrender the Wrong Thing Question 1 : Beloved Osho, I love to hear you call us your friends. Why is it both exciting and challenging? It has many implications. It was twenty-five centuries ago that Gautam Buddha said as a departing message to his disciples before he died: “I will come back after twenty-five centuries. My name will be Maitreya.” Maitreya means the friend. And why should it be the name of Buddha? – ...

Wakefulness is the Way to Life You are alive only in the proportion that you are aware. Awareness is the difference between death and life. You are not alive just because you are breathing; you are not alive just because your heart is beating. Physiologically you can be kept alive in a hospital, without any consciousness. Your heart will go on beating and you will be able to breathe. You can be kept in such a mechanic...

Anapana-sati Yoga A flower that has never known the sun and a flower that has encountered the sun are not the same. They cannot be. A flower that has never known the sunrise has never known the sun to rise within itself. It is dead; it is just a potentiality. It has never known its own spirit. But a flower that has seen the sun rise has also seen something arise within itself. It has known its own soul. Now the flower...

Spiritual Snakes and Ladders The mind can be suppressed – though even that is difficult. The mind can be hidden – though even that is difficult. But the annihilation of mind – that is the last thing that can be managed. Even if your mind becomes quiet, it becomes unquiet again the next day. It arises again and again; it revives again and again. It sprouts again and again – somehow its seed remains. However much we may...

Question 1: Beloved Osho, Can the intellect be a door to enlightenment, or is enlightenment only achieved through surrender? Enlightenment is always through surrender, but surrender is achieved through intelligence. Only idiots cannot surrender. To surrender you need great intelligence. To see the point of surrender is the climax of insight; to see the point that you are not separate from existence is the highest that...

Synthesis of the Opposites (Two Tales of a Tale) Question Beloved Osho, Buddha used to tell the story of a man who met a tiger in the jungle. The man ran for his life, and the tiger came after him. Suddenly the man came to huge ravine and found himself standing at the top of a sheer cliff. In desperation – the tiger hot on his heels – the man climbed over the edge of the cliff, and caught hold of the root of a tree so...

The Vehicle of the Bodhisattva AT THAT TIME THE VENERABLE SUBHUTI CAME TO THAT ASSEMBLY AND SAT DOWN. One of the great disciples of Buddha is Subhuti. THEN HE ROSE FROM HIS SEAT, says Ananda -- and again he repeats the whole thing. Because Subhuti is also no ordinary man. He is almost a Buddha, just on the verge of it. Any moment he is going to become a Buddha. So Ananda repeats again: THEN HE ROSE FROM HIS SEAT, PUT ...

Buddham Sharanam Gachchhami Question 1 Beloved Osho, Is this a question, a realization, or a declaration? Something beyond forces me to put this on paper; though I am writing this, the words are not mine. It is past midnight, about five o’clock on the full moonlight night of the Indian month known as “Bhadra the Thursday,” The Guruvar Master’s Day in Indian language. I am in vipassana meditation, as my eyes open, a da...

Prajna or Samadhi? Beloved Osho, Once, when Obaku was sitting in Nansen’s reception room, Nansen asked him, “It is said that the Buddha Nature can be clearly seen by those who study both samadhi and prajna equally. What does this mean?” Obaku answered, “It means that we should not depend on anything at any time.” Nansen then asked, “I wonder whether the opinion you have just expressed is really your own. “ Of course n...

Emptiness Has Its Own Fullness Question 1 : Beloved Osho, For years I have contemplated what seems to me to be the basic message for well-being: love yourself. When I was a therapist, all day hearing, “I hate myself; I feel sorry for myself; I am proud of myself; I want to destroy myself,” I started wondering—who is this self? I love when you say there is no self. That seems so freeing. Could you please say more? The ...

The Buddha Knows No Answers Question 1 Beloved Osho, I feel like I know the answers. Why do I still allow the questions to become problems? Savita, there are not answers, there is only The answer. And that answer is not of the mind, that answer cannot be of the mind. Mind is a multiplicity. Mind has answers and answers, but not the answer. That answer is a state of no-mind. It is not verbal. You can know it but you ca...

Sammasati Question Beloved Osho, What exactly is the right remembrance that Buddha talks about? I go on remembering all kinds of things you have said, and my own insights, but isn’t that my mind trying to deceive mind? And who is remembering it? Anand Agyeya, what Gautam Buddha calls the right remembrance is not what you understand by remembering. To create the distinction between what he means and your understanding ...

Awake! One of the most important things to be understood about man is that man is asleep. Even while he thinks he is awake, he is not. His wakefulness is very fragile; his wakefulness is so tiny it doesn’t matter at all. His wakefulness is only a beautiful name, but utterly empty. You sleep in the night, you sleep in the day; from birth to death you go on changing your patterns of sleep, but you never really awake. Ju...

The Four Spheres of Teilhard de Chardin and The Heart Sutra Teilhard de Chardin divides human evolution into four stages. The first he calls geosphere, the second, biosphere, the third, noosphere, and the fourth, christosphere. These four stages are immensely significant. They have to be understood. Understanding them will help you to understand the climax of the Heart Sutra. The geosphere. It is the state of consciou...

Osho on Appa Deepo Bhava Question 1 Osho, How can I become a light unto myself? These were the last words of Gautam the Buddha, his parting message to his disciples: “Be a light unto yourself.” But when he says, “Be a light unto yourself,” he does not mean to become a light unto yourself. There is a great difference between being and becoming. Becoming is a process, being is a discovery. The seed only appears to becom...

Sandhya: Twilight of Meditation When people come to me and they ask, “How to meditate?” I tell them, “There is no need to ask how to meditate, just ask how to remain unoccupied. Meditation happens spontaneously. Just ask how to remain unoccupied, that’s all. That’s the whole trick of meditation – how to remain unoccupied. Then you cannot do anything. The meditation will flower.” When you are not doing anything the ene...

The Door to Sankhya is Open There are two things in this sutra: the cave of the heart opens for one who knows, or, one whose heart opens will know. We will enter deeply into both. How to know the divine? How can this knowing happen? Throughout these talks on the Kaivalya Upanishad, many times I have said that there is only one way to awaken this knowing – and that is that all your actions must happen with awareness, w...

Buddha’s Way was Vipassana Buddha’s way was VIPASSANA — vipassana means witnessing. And he found one of the greatest devices ever: the device of watching your breath, just watching your breath. Breathing is such a simple and natural phenomenon and it is there twenty-four hours a day. You need not make any effort. If you repeat a mantra then you will have to make an effort, you will have to force yourself. If you say, ...

Be a light unto yourself Question 1 Osho, How can I become a light unto myself? Shraddho Yannis, These were the last words of Gautam the Buddha, his parting message to his disciples: “Be a light unto yourself.” But when he says, “Be a light unto yourself,” he does not mean become a light unto yourself. There is a great difference between being and becoming. Becoming is a process, being is a discovery. The seed only ap...

Authentic Living In the West we are constantly drilled with the aphorism: Don’t just stand there—do something! Yet, Buddha would say: Don’t just do something—stand there! The unconscious man reacts while the wise man watches. But what about spontaneity? Is spontaneity compatible with watching? Buddha certainly says: Don’t just do something — stand there! But that is only the beginning of the pilgrimage, not the end. W...

Synthesis of the Opposites (Two Tales of a Tale) Question 1 Beloved Osho, Buddha used to tell the story of a man who met a tiger in the jungle. The man ran for his life, and the tiger came after him. Suddenly the man came to huge ravine and found himself standing at the top of a sheer cliff. In desperation – the tiger hot on his heels – the man climbed over the edge of the cliff, and caught hold of the root of a tree ...

The Vertical Line Opens a Door to Eternity Question 1 Beloved Osho, You once said, “The moment is rare when eternity penetrates time.” Can you speak more on this? Vadan, the question seems to be simple but the answer is very complex. And the complexity becomes multidimensional, because the answer can come only from your own experience, not from outside. Just as the question is arising in you, the answer has to also be...

Go On, Go On! Question 1 Beloved Osho, In Homer’s great epic stories, The Iliad and The Odyssey, he describes Ulysses’ voyage homeward when his ship sails near the island of the lotus-eaters. The siren’s song wafts across the ocean, hypnotizing the sailors and causing them to steer off their course towards the sensuous sound. Ulysses’ efforts to keep the ship on course were of no avail. Sailors leapt off the ship and ...