Enlightenment
Buddha uses the words "no-self," "no-soul," "no-being." He leaves no possibility for the ego to sprout again; he simply cuts it from the very roots. Never before Gautam the Buddha had it been done so efficiently.
My understanding, my experience, is exactly the same: nirvana cannot be claimed by anyone; to claim it is to falsify it. The UPANISHADS say: "Those who know cannot claim, and those who claim cannot know." The knower cannot say "I know," because in the knowing the "I" melts -- there is nobody to claim, there is nobody to brag. Hence, Devaprem, I can only say one thing: it is absolutely certain that I am not enlightened. What is enlightened is not ME; it is beyond the idea of I. It is transcendental to the ego, and in that sense you are also enlightened. You may not know it, that's another matter. Knowing or not knowing makes no difference to your nature;
When you become enlightened you don‘t become a new person. In fact you don’t gain anything, you only lose something: you lose your chains, you lose your bondage, you lose your misery, you go on losing.
Enlightenment is a process of losing; you don’t gain anything. When there is nothing left to lose, that state is nirvana; that state of utter silence can be called enlightenment. I don't claim anything.... [....]
I don’t promise you anything. I don‘t promise you the kingdom of God, I don‘t promise you enlightenment—I don‘t promise at all. My whole approach is of living moment to moment; enlightened or unenlightened, what does it matter? Living moment to moment joyously, ecstatically, living moment to moment totally, intensely, passionately....
If one lives passionately, the ego dissolves. If one is total in one‘s acts, the ego is bound to dissolve. It is like when a dancer goes on and on dancing: a moment comes when only the dance remains and the dancer disappears. That is the moment of enlightenment.
Whenever the doer is not there, the manipulator is not there; whenever there is nobody inside you and there is only emptiness, nothingness, that is enlightenment. And out of that beautiful space whatsoever is born has grace, has glory.
Paradise is not something geographical, it is not somewhere else; it is a way of living. It belongs to those who can live totally and intensely. Then immediately, herenow, paradise descends -- or, even better, wells up within their own sources, within their own beings. Just the space is needed for it to well up.
And I don't tell you to drop the ego, because if YOU drop the ego then the dropper will become the ego. I don't say become humble, because if YOU become humble then behind the facade of humbleness there will be a very subtle ego hiding.
So my devices are different. I say dance to abandon, sing, play music! Do whatsoever you like doing and move into it so totally that nothing is left behind. When nothing is left behind, the ego dissolves of its own accord.
That's the meaning of nirvana: you have blown the candle out, suddenly it is not there. Then whatsoever is, is divine.
The ego is human; egolessness is divine.
The ego is hell; egolessness is paradise.
-Osho, "Come, Come, Yet Again Come, #7, Q1"