Osho on Philosophy

 

 

I Avoid Philosophy Because It Is Playing with Shadows

 

I am not teaching philosophy here. What I am saying has nothing to do with philosophy, it is absolutely experimental and experiential. My effort is to create a scientific religion -- the psychology of the Buddhas. So I am giving you experiments and I am giving you possibilities to experience something that you have not experienced yet. This is a lab, a workshop. We are bent upon doing something. I mean business here! Philosophy is not the concern at all.

 

I am very anti-philosophic and I avoid philosophy because it is playing with shadows, thoughts, speculation. And you can go on playing infinitely, AD INFINITUM, AD NAUSEAM; there is no end to it. One word creates another word, one theory creates another theory, and you can go on and on and on. In five thousand years much philosophy has existed in the world, and to no purpose at all.

 

But there are people who have the philosophic attitude. And if you are one of them, please drop it; otherwise you and your energy will be lost in a desert. [....]

 

Philosophy becomes a kind of madness. It leads you into neurosis because philosophy is a mind phenomenon. Science has taken the body, religion has taken the soul, only the mind is left for philosophy. And mind is potential madness. If you go on too much into the mind, you will be moving slowly slowly towards madness. It is very rare to find a philosopher who is sane. And vice versa is also true: it is very rare to find a madman who is not a philosopher.

 

I am not teaching philosophy here, because I am teaching no-mind. And if you become a no-mind all philosophy disappears: Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, Buddhist -- all philosophies disappear; Hegelian, Kantian, Russellian -- all philosophies disappear. If the mind disappears, where can the philosophy exist? where can it grow? Mind is the breeding ground of philosophy.

 

Let the mind disappear. And the beauty is: when there is no mind and nobody to philosophize and nothing to philosophize about, one comes to know. Philosophy is the blind man's effort. It is said: Philosophy is a blind man in a dark room on a dark night, searching for a black cat which is not there...

 

-Osho, “The Secret of Secrets, Vol 1, #4, Q7”

 

 

 

I Would not Like my Way of Life to Be Ever Called a Philosophy

 

I am not a philosopher. The philosopher thinks about things. It is a mind approach.

My approach is a no-mind approach. It is just the very opposite of philosophizing.

 

It is not thinking about things, ideas, but seeing with a clarity which comes when you put your mind aside, when you see through silence, not through logic.

 

Seeing is not thinking.

 

The sun rises there; if you think about it you miss it, because while you are thinking about it, you are going away from it. In thinking you can move miles away; and thoughts go faster than anything possible.

 

If you are seeing the sunrise then one thing has to be certain, that you are not thinking about it. Only then can you see it.

 

Thinking becomes a veil on the eyes. It gives its own color, its own idea to the reality. It does not allow reality to reach you, it imposes itself upon reality; it is a deviation from reality.

 

Hence no philosopher has ever been able to know the truth.

 

All the philosophers have been thinking about the truth. But thinking about the truth is an impossibility. Either you know it, or you don't. If you know it, there is no need to think about it. If you don't, then how can you think about it?

 

A philosopher thinking about truth is just like a blind man thinking about light. If you have eyes, you don't think about light, you see it.

 

Seeing is a totally different process; it is a byproduct of meditation.

 

Hence I would not like my way of life to be ever called a philosophy, because it has nothing to do with philosophy. You can call it philosia. The world "philo" means love; "sophy" means wisdom, knowledge -- love for knowledge. In philosia, "philo" means the same love, and "sia" means seeing: love, not for knowledge but for being -- not for wisdom, but for experiencing.

 

So that is the first thing to be remembered. Nonviolence is a philosophy to Mahatma Gandhi; it is not a philosophy to me, it is a philosia. That's where I have been constantly struggling with Gandhian philosophers, thinkers. Gandhi wrote his autobiography entitled EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. Now that is an utter absurdity; you cannot experiment with truth.

 

When you are silent, truth is there in its fullness, in its absolute glory. And when you are not silent, truth is absent.

 

When you are silent, truth does not appear like an object before you. When you are silent, suddenly you recognize you are the truth.

 

There is nothing to see.

 

The seer is the seen, the observer is the observed; that duality no more exists.

 

And there is no question of thinking. There is no doubt, there is no belief, there is no idea.

 

-Osho, “From Ignorance to Innocence, Talk #2, Q1”

 

 

 

Philosophy Is the Worst Wastage of Human Intelligence that Is Possible 

 

I am not a philosopher. The philosopher thinks about the truth. His approach is rational. Reason is his instrument, and here just the opposite is the case. I am an irrational man. And the people who have gathered around me -- around the world -- the appeal to them is my irrationality, because reason has failed so utterly. For three thousand years in the West, ten thousand years in the East, philosophers have been struggling to find the truth, and not a single philosopher has been able to find it.

 

The way of philosophy does not go with truth at all. It is just rational gymnastics. So one philosopher can argue against another philosopher, and they go on arguing for centuries, but they have not come to agreement on a single point. Philosophy is the worst wastage of human intelligence that is possible. When I say I am not a philosopher, I simply mean that my approach towards reality is not through the head, it is through the heart.

 

I also say that I do not preach a religion because religion is something like love -- you cannot teach it. There is no way to teach love, and if you teach love and somebody becomes trained under your teachings, he may go to Hollywood and become an actor, but he will never become a lover. Your very teaching, your very discipline will be the barrier. So I say I don't teach religion. Religion is something that passes heart to heart, not head to head. The moment religion passes head to head, it becomes theology. It is no more religion.

 

-Osho, “The Last Testament, Vol 1, Talk #11”

 

 

 

Existence Needs no Philosophy

Osho,

You have often used the word “existentialism,” and you have referred to yourself as an existentialist. Please define these words.

 

There has been a contemporary school of philosophy in Europe called existentialism. I have nothing to do with it. That is only a philosophy, a mind game. These people were talking about existence, but they knew nothing of what it means to be existential. I also use the word "existentialist" for myself, but the difference between Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers, Marcel, and me is vast, unbridgeable.

 

When I say I am an existentialist, I am not saying that I believe in the philosophy of existentialism.

 

Existence needs no philosophy. Birds don't need philosophy, flowers don't need philosophy, rivers and oceans don't need philosophy -- but they are all existential; they exist, and they exist with totality and intensity.

 

I am not a philosopher. To be a philosopher is just to be a "foolosopher." It is a sheer waste of time. Down the centuries philosophers have been struggling intellectually to find the truth. Not a single one of them has found it, for the simple reason that intellect and its way goes round and round, about and about, but it never penetrates to the center.

 

To love, you do not have to be a philosopher of love. Love needs no philosophy; love is an existential experience.

 

I call myself an existentialist. I call you existentialists. But it has nothing to do with those dodos in France. It is not a philosophy but a way of life -- not according to any dogma, cult, doctrine, discipline, no! -- just living without any idea of how to live. The moment the "how" enters, it opens the door for all the philosophies to come in, all the theologies to come in.

 

I want you to live like the trees, like the birds, like the clouds. Without man, do you think existence will disappear? Without man, after the third world war, do you think the sun will not rise? And the nights will not rejoice in millions of stars?

 

My insistence is: live spontaneously without any discipline. Live in freedom and live in totality, because one never knows the next moment. I may not be here, you may not be here. The next moment is meaningless. As far as existence is concerned, it knows only one tense, and that is the present tense. The past is no more, the future is not yet.

 

Only idiots bother about the past; they are gravediggers. And only idiots are concerned about the future, for the simple reason that they have lost contact with existence now. They are hoping perhaps tomorrow the miracle will happen, perhaps tomorrow the messiah, Jesus Christ, will come down and give you salvation, liberation, paradise.

 

-Osho, “From Death to Deathlessness, Talk #2, Q1”

 

 

 

The Most Useless Activity in the World Is Philosophy

 

It is not philosophy, it is not religion, it is a totally different phenomenon. I am not interested in philosophy at all because philosophy has not done any service to humanity, it has only filled people's minds with unnecessary chattering and noise. It has not given man any radical transformation, it gives you only a false feeling of knowing. It is a pseudo phenomenon and it prevents you from searching the real truth because you become so addicted with words, you forget totally that truth is not a word, that God is not a word, that love is not a word. The philosopher becomes more and more wordy. He becomes so full of words, he forgets completely his being. He is surrounded with the crowds of words, clouds of theories, hypotheses, which all pretend to be conclusive, but none of them is conclusive.

 

Philosophy has not reached to any conclusion and it will never reach -- it is an exercise in utter futility. It is a good game if you want to play an intellectual game, an intellectual gymnastics; it is hair splitting.

 

But I am not interested in it at all -- and I know it from the inside: I have been a student of philosophy and a professor of philosophy too. I know it as an insider that the most useless activity in the world is philosophy, the most uncreative, the most pretentious -- but very ego-fulfilling, gives you great ideas of knowledgeability without making you wise at all. [....]

 

-Osho, "Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol.2, Talk #9, Q4"

 

 

 

Philosophy Is a Mind Trick

 

Philosophy is an obsession with words. The word God becomes more significant than the experience of God; that is philosophy. Philosophers ask: What do you mean when you use the word God? What do you mean when you use the word truth? What do you mean when you use the word good? What do you mean when you use the word love?

 

Philosophy is more or less a linguistic phenomenon, a question of language and grammar, of hair-splitting and shadow-boxing. It is not concerned with reality at all. It talks about reality. But remember, to talk about reality is one thing and to move into reality is quite another. Philosophy is talk, religion is experience.

 

My interest is in religion, not in philosophy at all.

 

Noah Webster's neighbor came into the pantry and found him kissing the pretty chambermaid.

 

"My, Mr. Webster!" she exclaimed. "I am surprised!"

 

"No, my dear," said Mr. Webster with a reproving smile. "You are astounded, I am surprised."

 

It is only a question of words -- the reality is put aside. Webster is a linguist, a great grammarian. He changes the words, he says, "No, my dear, you are astounded. You are using the wrong word when you say 'I am surprised.' You are astounded, I am surprised."

 

The emphasis -- you see the emphasis -- is no longer upon the act of kissing the pretty maid, the emphasis is on the wrong word or the right word.

 

Philosophers go on and on with words, and words have their own way. One word brings another word, and so on and so forth. You can go on and on ad infinitum; there is no end to words. You can fabricate, manufacture, new words, and you can create such a fuss about words that you can mystify people. Philosophy is a mind trick, a very sophisticated trick but a mind trick.

 

Religion has nothing to do with philosophy, religion is just a totally different dimension. It is going beyond words, it is reaching into experience. Religion is existential, philosophy is intellectual. And you can't understand even a small thing like a roseflower intellectually.

 

If you try to understand the roseflower and its beauty intellectually, either you have to say that the beauty is indefinable -- that is another way of saying that it is unthinkable -- or you have to say there is no beauty at all; it is all projection, it is all illusion. These are the only two alternatives for philosophy.

 

The philosopher says, "God is an illusion, truth is an illusion, love is an illusion" -- he tries to prove everything is illusion -- and then suddenly he is at a loss what to do; he is in a deep misery, in great frustration. Life seems to be just a chaos with no meaning to it. Then suicide seems to be the only outlet from this whole mess.

 

Many philosophers think of committing suicide and many commit suicide, too. And those who cannot commit suicide -- they go mad. Just in between the two, neither alive nor dead, just hanging in limbo, that is madness.

 

-Osho, “The White Lotus, #8, Q6”

 

 

 

Philosophy Talks about Water, Religion Drinks

 

Question 2

Osho,

Why are you so much against philosophy?

 

PHILOSOPHY means mind, philosophy means thinking, philosophy means going away from yourself Philosophy is the art of losing yourself in thoughts, becoming identified with dreams. Hence I am against philosophy, because I am all for religion.

 

You cannot be philosophical if you want to be religious; that is not possible. Religion is existential, philosophy is intellectual. Philosophy is about and about, religion is direct. Philosophy is thinking about things you don't know. Religion is a knowing, not thinking. Philosophy depends on doubt, because the more you can doubt the more you can think. Doubt is the mother of thinking.

 

Religion is trust, because the more you trust the more there is no need to think. Trust kills thinking; in trust, thinking commits suicide. And when there is no thinking and trust pulsates in your being, in each pore of your being trust permeates you, overwhelms you, you know what is.

 

Philosophy TRIES to know, but never knows. Religion never tries to know, but knows. Philosophy is an exercise in futility, of futility. Yes, it talks about great things -- freedom, love, God, meditation -- but it only TALKS about. The philosopher never meditates. He talks about meditation, he spins and weaves theories, hypotheses, inferences ABOUT meditation, but he never tastes anything about meditation. He never meditates.

 

Hegel, Kant -- these are philosophers; Buddha, Kabir -- these are NOT philosophers -- Plato, Aristotle -- these are philosophers; Heraclitus, Plotinus -- these are not philosophers, although in the books of philosophy they are also called philosophers. They are not! To use the word 'philosopher' for them is not right, unless you change the whole meaning of the word. Aristotle and Heraclitus cannot be called philosophers in the same sense. ]f Aristotle is a philosopher, then Heraclitus is not; if Heraclitus is a philosopher, then Aristotle is not.

 

I use a totally different word, 'philosia', instead of philosophy. Philosophy means, literally, linguistically, love for knowledge. Philosia means love for seeing, not only for knowledge. Knowledge is not enough for the real enquirer; he wants to see. He does not want to contemplate on God, he wants to encounter God. He wants to hold His hand in his own hands, he wants to hug and kiss God! He is not satisfied with the concept of God. How can the concept be of any help?

 

When you are thirsty you cannot be satisfied by the formula H20. Howsoever right it is -- that is not my concern, that is irrelevant -- right or wrong, the formula H20 cannot quench your thirst. You would like water, and whether you know about H20 or not does not matter. For millions of years man has been drinking water without knowing anything about H20, and it has been perfectly satisfying.

 

Philosophy talks about water, religion drinks.

 

-Osho, “The Guest, Talk #14, Q2”

 

 

 

I Am not a Philosopher

 

 

I am not a philosopher. Always remember that I am a poet, not a philosopher. Remember always that I am not a missionary, but a musician playing on the harp of your heart. Songs will go on changing... you need not cling to anything, then there will be no confusion at all.

 

The people who are always hankering for consistency can never enter into the mystery of life. Consistency is something manmade, it is arbitrary. Existence is not consistent. And now even physicists agree with the poets and the mystics. [....]

 

I am not a philosopher who is trying to make a system of thought. I am a mystic who is trying to convey the mysteries that have become available to me. I will confuse you.

 

It is like a friend of mine who is a jigsaw puzzle fiend. One day his kids were playing with his puzzles and they put his Marilyn Monroe puzzle back in the same box with his Revolutionary War puzzle.

 

I asked him how he made out with things all mixed up.

 

"Oh," he said, "I did all right. But I never realized that George Washington had such sexy legs."

 

Life is a very mixed puzzle. Whatsoever you make out of it is going to be arbitrary, you cannot figure it out in reality. My suggestion to my sannyasins is to forget all about figuring out what it is. Rather, live it; rather, enjoy it! Don't analyze it, celebrate it.

 

-Osho, “The Book of Wisdom, Talk #26, Q3”