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 tim...

Question : What is the difference between a contented pig, a discontented Socrates, and a natural man of Zen? You will have to understand these five categories. First, the contented pig. It has nothing to do with pigs, remember: all these categories are of human beings. The contented pig is...

Question 1: Osho, You tell us to be aware of everything -- which means to be a witness to everything, every act. when i decide to be aware in work, i forget about awareness, and when i become aware that i was not aware. i feel guilty; i feel that i have made a mistake. could you please expl...

Question 2 Osho, For the last four days i have been taking part in the zazen group. when anger arises, it is so difficult for me to watch this feeling instead of throwing this anger on others. Osho, would you please speak about the art of watching? Everything that I have been saying to you ...

Love, and you will know what meditation is; Meditate, and you will know what love is. Question 3 Osho, When i hear you speak on love and meditation, or sex and death, saying they are two sides of the same energy, something in me knows it is true. but, although drawn by both aspects, i feel ...

Awareness - and that is the secret key, the most essential part of religious experiment, of religious investigation, enquiry, exploration. One has to become more aware than one ordinarily is. To be a sannyasin means to enter into the phenomenon of the sacred. For that more awareness is need...

The Ultimate Polarity: Meditation and Love These are two polarities in life: meditation and love. This is the ultimate polarity. The whole of life consists of polarities: the positive and the negative, birth and death, man and woman, day and night, summer and winter. The whole of life consi...

Mind is movement just as mind is sound. Sound travels and mind also. Mind is on a constant move, never standing still. You cannot conceive of a still mind. There exists no such thing, because when stillness is, mind is no more; when mind is, there is movement. So what is the movement of min...

CHIDAGNI SWAROOPAM DHOOPAH "TO CREATE THE FIRE OF AWARENESS IN ONESELF IS DHOOP, THE INCENSE." FOR PHILOSOPHY, many are the problems - infinite. But for religion there is only one problem, and that problem is man himself. It is not that man has problems, but man is the problem. And why is m...

Ego and the Self Question 1 Osho, In the west I was trained as a social worker. I was taught that it is important that a person respects and loves himself and feels worthwhile. I was taught that it is important to give support to help strengthen the ego. You say kill the ego. I am confused....

Question 3 Beloved osho, I have always heard you say, "Stop doing, watch." Several times lately I′ve heard you say that the mind should be the servant instead of our master. It feels that there is nothing to do except watch. But the question still arises: is there anything to do with this u...

TRUTH IS ONE, but it can be approached in many ways. Truth is one, but it can be expressed in many ways. Two ways are very essential; all the ways can be divided into two categories. It will be good to understand that basic polarity. Either you approach truth through the mind or you approac...

Try to understand what meditation is. Compassion can become a criterion as to whether the meditation was right or not. If the meditation has been right, compassion is bound to come -- it is natural; it follows like a shadow. If the meditation has been wrong then compassion will not follow. ...

I would like you all to be deeply, intensely, passionately in life, with one condition only: alertness, watchfulness, witnessing. And I know the difficulty arises, because you will be living with millions of sleepy people. And sleep is contagious, just as awareness is. Awareness, too, is co...

Man is so miserable that he cannot live consciously with this misery. He needs a few gaps, at least a few holidays from this miserable anguish, anxiety, and all kinds of tortures. Drugs have been a tremendous help. But not only the chemical drugs - Karl Marx is right when he says that the r...

I do not believe in fixed methods. I use methods just to push you into a very chaotic consciousness, because the first thing to be done with you, as you are, is to disturb your whole pattern. You have become solid, rigid; you must become more and more liquid and flowing. And unless you beco...

Question 1 Are you the only enlightened person in this ashram? If yes, is it impossible to enlighten or to be enlightened near an enlightened person? Since I became enlightened I have never come across a person who is not enlightened. You see only that which you are. Before I became enlight...

Question 2 Beloved, Osho, As a disciple of your Mystery School, I want to ask you the following question: When I heard you say that you were beyond enlightenment now, I felt like a relaxation in my heart. That very moment a picture arose in me showing me that you are even closer to us now, ...

Question 2 Beloved Osho, I am a first grade student in the subject of witnessing. Whenever I am listening to you talking about watching, witnessing, something in me feels so thrilled, excited, joyful, and a big "Ah!" comes up. Recently I have heard you talk about watching the witness, yet I...

Question Why has there never been a single woman enlightened master? A woman cannot be a Master - it is not possible. When a woman arrives she becomes a Mistress, not a Master. The fulfilment of a woman is love. The flowering of a woman is love. Mastery is not the goal of the feminine mind;...

Question 1 Can one live and function in the world in a state of enlightenment or no-mind? is an enlightened person self-sufficient in the world? THE STATE OF ENLIGHTENMENT is not the state of individuality. There is no person in it. One who is enlightened is enlightened only because he is n...

Question 4: Osho, Is there really no difference between an ordinary person and one who is enlightened? Narendra, everyone is born enlightened. Everyone is born absolutely innocent, absolutely pure, absolutely empty. But that innocence, that purity, that emptiness, is bound to be lost becaus...

I AM NOT THE DOER. I AM NOT THE CONSUMER. I AM SIMPLY THE WITNESS OF NATURE. AND JUST BECAUSE OF MY NEARNESS, THE BODY, ET CETERA, HAVE THE FEELING OF BEING CONSCIOUS, AND THEY ACT ACCORDINGLY. BEYOND A SHADE OF DOUBT, I AM STILL, ETERNAL, EVERLASTING BLISS -- EVERKNOWING PURE SELF OR SOUL....

Question 4 Beloved Osho, What is presence of mind? Kavita, presence of mind is really a state of no-mind. You can call it mindfulness, awareness, or you can call it a state of no-mind. The words seem to be contradicting each other, but they are indicative of the same state. Presence of mind...

Enlightenment has no polar opposite to it. Unenlightenment is not the polar opposite of enlightenment; it is only the absence of enlightenment. It is just like darkness and light. You ordinarily think they are opposites, but that is not true. Darkness simply does not exist, it is only the a...

Meditation is a simple art, very simple. It need not be taken seriously. It is so simple that even a child can learn it, in fact a child can learn it more easily. The older one becomes, the more serious one becomes. In fact it is thought that if you are mature you have to be serious. Seriou...

Tension and Relaxation Question 2 Osho, Please talk to us of tension and relaxation. usually, when i sit in front of you i relax all through myself. i lose any alertness i may have. when i am alert, there is a subtle tension which i need to maintain this wakefulness. it winds me up like a s...

Question 3 Beloved Osho, I have done so many therapy groups in order to deprogram myself; and above all i have the greatest fortune in existence to be so close to you. still, sometimes i feel like having moved miles from where i was stuck a few years ago, and sometimes i feel i haven't move...

To be aware of the mind is being a witness of the mind. As the witnessing grows stronger, you already start feeling yourself beyond the mind. Slowly, slowly the distance grows. Your witness reaches to a sunlit peak and the mind is left in the dark valleys, far away. You can still hear the e...

Everyone considers himself extraordinary. This is Ego. Question 6 Can the common man acquire the capability of egolessness? From his question it seems it is not possible for an ordinary person, whereas the fact is, it is very difficult for an un-ordinary person to attain egolessness. The ve...

EXISTENCE IS A DIALECTICS. IT DEPENDS ON POLAR OPPOSITES: man/woman, yin/yang, life/death, daylight. But the basic polarity in all the polarities is that of positive and negative. Only positive cannot exist, neither can the negative exist alone. They depend on each other. They are opposites...

The fear is part of the mind. The mind is a coward, and has to be a coward because it doesn't have any substance -- it is empty and hollow, and it is afraid of everything. And basically it is afraid that one day you may become aware. That will be really the end of the world! Not the end of ...

Question 1: Techniques are shortcuts, revolutions, but are not these against Tao, Swabhav, The Nature? They are. They are against tao, they are against swabhav. Any effort is against shabhav, tao; effort as such is against tao. If you can leave everything to swabhav, tao, nature, then no te...

Question 3: Osho, Seeing the dialectical facts of life, can one practise the path of relaxation and the path of effort simultaneously? No, it is not possible! You cannot practise both simultaneously because both are diametrically opposite. They lead to one point, but they don't pass through...

Let us try to understand this a bit more deeply. There are two ways to reach the destination. One way is that of meditation; the other, that of prayer. The path of meditation is for the pursuers of knowledge; the path of prayer is for the lovers, for the devotees. On the path of meditation ...

Don't try to be special All the nonsense that goes on in the name of religion and spirituality is nothing but ego decoration. A really religious man is bound to be very ordinary. [....] Don't try to be special -- because the only way to be special is to run counter to the ordinary man. If t...

Question 2: In the natural course, after millions of years and lives, one will be enlightened. But we might have already passed through millions of years and lives and yet are not enlightened. Why? You cannot ask why. You can ask why only if you are doing something. If nature is dong someth...

Question: What is the difference in experience between satori – in Zen, a glimpse of enlightenment – and samadhi, cosmic consciousness? Samadhi begins as a gap, but it never ends. A gap always begins and ends - it has boundaries: a beginning and an end - but samadhi begins as a gap and then...

The first step in awareness is to be very watchful of your body. Slowly slowly one becomes alert about each gesture, each movement. And as you become aware, a miracle starts happening: many things that you used to do before simply disappear, your body becomes more relaxed, your body becomes...

Remaining a Witness Question1 : Osho, Is it always good to follow the heart or once in a while should a clear mind decide what is to be done? And what to do when they want to go in opposite directions? Your question is hilarious - to say the least! Let them go on their way. Why should you b...

Question 2 Osho, Will you say something more about relaxation? i am aware of a tension deep at the core of me and suspect that i have probably never been totally relaxed. When you said the other day that to relax is one of the most complex phenomena possible, i glimpsed a rich tapestry in w...

Question 1: Osho, On the path of meditation many seekers find it difficult to know clearly whether they are making any progress or whether they are just suspended on one plane, simply moving in repetitions. will you please explain in detail about those factors which indicate the meditator's...

Unawareness Question 5 Osho, What is unawareness? To be in the mind, to be identified with the mind, is unawareness. To think that “I am the mind,” is unawareness. To know that mind is only a mechanism just as the body is, to know that the mind is separate…. The night comes, the morning com...

Question: What is your way of meditation? My way of meditation is very simple. There are one hundred and twelve methods of meditation. Out of all of those I have chosen the most simple - the most easily done. I call it witnessing. The moment you witness something you become separate from it...

Observation, the constant observation of oneself, of the mind′s unconscious tendencies, awakens the consciousness and allows it to penetrate into the unconscious mind. The unconscious enters the conscious through the door of stupor, ignorance, intoxication and carelessness, and is able to d...

Question 3: You say that millions of lives and millions of years of natural evolution can be avoided through reaching total awareness and total freedom can it not be argued that karma, with its natural forces of cause and effect, should not be interfered with by any shortcuts, or is it also...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, Where is the witness when the observer and the observed become one? The observer and the observed are two aspects of the witness. When they disappear into each other, when they melt into each other, when they are one, the witness for the first time arises in its tot...

Meditation and love These are two polarities in life: meditation and love. This is the ultimate polarity. The whole of life consists of polarities: the positive and the negative, birth and death, man and woman, day and night, summer and winter. The whole of life consists of polar opposites....

"Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself." ------------------------------------------------------------- Question: We are constantly drilled with the aphorism, "Don't just stand there – do something! Yet, Buddha would say, "Don't just do something – s...

[A sannyasin had written to Osho about feeling guilty about recurrent sickness, and wondering if, in her involvement with a love relationship, she was diverting energy formerly invested in Osho. Osho checks her energy.] Nothing is wrong with your energy, mm? just your mind goes on playing t...

Truth is one - cannot be otherwise because existence is a universe, it is not a 'multiverse'. It is one. It is glued together. It is a togetherness. It is a cosmos. That which keeps the universe together is what we call truth, or Tao, or God. Tao is not a person, neither is god a person, bu...

My sannyasins have to be meditators and lovers and together, because both are supportive energies for each other. If you love, you will be able to meditate more deeply; if you meditate you will be able to love more totally, and so on, so forth. They go on helping each other; they are very s...

Question 3 Lao tzu has talked about pure, absolute truth and has looked upon all conceptions as the only barrier that prevents man from entering his nature. from this are we to assume that religion and truth are beyond the capabilities of an ordinary person? will the embracing of the simple...

Jesus is a BHAKTA, a devotee - Knows no techniques. Love is not a technique - Question : Osho, The Gospels provide no techniques for developing a loving heart. The gospels are also too difficult for ordinary people. Perhaps this is why the Christian message has always seemed less practical ...

Find out the witness and then obey him. First find the witness and then obey him, because to find the witness means to find one's own innermost core. We live on two layers, two levels. One is the periphery: the world of action. The other is the inner being, the world of no-action: the world...

Question 2 What is the difference between introspection and self-remembering? A lot of difference. Introspection is thinking about yourself. Self-remembering is not thinking at all: it is becoming aware about yourself. The difference is subtle, but very great. The Western psychology insists...

Question 2 Why do I make mountains out of molehills? Because the ego does not feel good, at ease, with molehills -- it wants mountains. Even if it is a misery, it should not be a molehill, it should be an Everest. Even if it is miserable, the ego doesn't want to be ordinarily miserable -- i...

The only thing to be learned is not to do anything, but just be. Doing moves you. Doing, in the beginning at least, may take you away from witnessing; you may forget to witness. So in the beginning, just be -- silent, utterly immobile, as if dead, so that you can experience being in its pur...

Question 1 Osho, Recently i heard you say that transcendence of life's misery and confusion can occur by either a let-go of life or by fight -- as long as either is done with totality. mahavira's way was fight, and yours is let-go. could you say more about let-go and its relationship to int...

There are two types of people. Just as physically there are men and there are women, psychologically the same distinction also, the same division exists. But a man may be physically a man and may not be psychologically a man; he may have a feminine psyche. Hence things become complicated. A...

The Tantrik is absolutely of the scientific attitude. He will find a woman or a man with whom he is not attached at all. And before he even moves into a Tantric relationship with somebody, months are needed to prepare. And the whole preparation is: how to avoid love, how not to fall into de...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, I find that the true moments of joy and peace in my life come when I am the witness. Witnessing seems to come easier when I make some effort for it, such as now, in Vipassana group. You talked recently about the futility of will, but for me, it seems some effort or ...

Life is just a river, a long river – a long line through snowy fields. And then what happens? Each river, small or big, dissolves into the ocean, finds its way without any guide, without any sutras, without any masters. It may go astray, zigzag, but finally it reaches to the ocean. And that...

Coming to me is a long journey. Many times you will feel that you have come and again I will make you aware that it is yet to happen; it is always ′yet′. One is arriving and arriving and one never arrives. But that′s the beauty of it - it is an eternal growth - and once you have understood,...

Satori is a miniature experience of samadhi, but once you get into it, you cannot get out of it. That's the real test and the criterion. Anything that comes and goes is of the mind; it is imagination. Anything that comes and remains, even in spite of you, even if you want it to go it is imp...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, What has gone wrong? Why is it that people meet everything new reluctantly, and with fear, rather than with eager joy? The new does not arise out of you, it comes from the beyond. It is not part of you. Your whole past is at stake. The new is discontinuous with you,...

The world of the gurus has ended. My Friends and my Fellow Travelers, I would have loved to use the Urdu words for the same, because they have a depth and a poetry . . . even the very sound of them rings bells in the heart. The ordinary meaning is the same: my friends, my fellow travelers. ...

There is only one secret which is not part of the mind, and that is witnessing, watching. Thoughts are passing, desires are moving, memories are coming and going like clouds in the sky and you are sitting silently simply watching, not doing anything. If you do anything immediately the mind ...

There are two ways to reach the destination. One way is that of meditation; the other, that of prayer. The path of meditation is for the pursuers of knowledge; the path of prayer is for the lovers, for the devotees. On the path of meditation there is a danger that the ego, the "I," may not ...

Question 1: Osho, I have been your sannyasin for seven years and i am unable to express my gratitude, as it gave my life direction and joy and grace and more. Now, being here for only one week, i realize that i have always had a need for personal guidance from somebody tuning into me and my...

The Ocean is not Far Away Enjoy, live, love. But when things change, let them change; when things move, don't stop their movement. Always remain with the changing flux of existence, never be against it, and then nobody can create misery for you. Then whatsoever is, brings bliss, because you...

The witness, the observer, divides the world into subject and object, into the witness and the witnessed. Therefore as long as there is a witness, duality will continue. Witnessing is the last frontier of the dual world, after which the non-dual begins. But one cannot reach the non-dual wit...

The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul... it is freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional. He does not want to give you an ideology, because every ideology creates its own slavery. He does not want to give you a religion, because religion binds you....

Question 1 Is it that there are only two alternatives before man - a life of abiding sorrow and suffering or one of divinity and bliss - and this choice lies with him? How is it that most have chosen the path of sorrow and suffering? It is a very significant question, but very delicate also...

Question: Osho, Is Maturation an ongoing process? How is maturation related to awareness? Please explain. Yes. Maturation is an ongoing process. There is no full stop, not even a semicolon anywhere... it goes on and on. The universe is infinite. So is the possibility of your maturing. You c...

Question 1: Osho, You describe witnessing as a knack. Often, late at night, which I am in a very relaxed state, witnessing happens. At other times, though, it just seems to be mind watching mind watching mind. Please comment on this knack. The moment I say that witnessing is a knack, it imp...

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...

Sannyas is to be true to your original face. Then all your fragments start melting into each other and they create a centre, they create integrity, they create individuality. And that's what religion is all about. Religion has nothing to do with god or heaven and hell and all kinds of theor...

JESUS SAID UNTO HIS DISCIPLES: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. THY NAME? AND IN THY NAME HAVE CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? THAT WORK INIQUITY. WILL LIKEN HIM UNTO A WISE MAN, WHICH BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON A ROCK: BEA...

Question 1 Osho, I see you here every day, so radiant, so full of light, so far away from the everyday reality of my life. You are a shining beacon showing the way, and the possibility of something more that can happen in me. Years ago, here with you, I used to feel that enlightenment was j...

Question 3 Since your program began, what results have there been with your sannyasins? Has anyone become enlightened? They are all enlightened people. I don't deal with unenlightened people at all. I have never come across any unenlightened person. Since I became enlightened I have been co...

This is the first step of enlightenment: Gautam Buddha behind you as a shadow. But the shadow is miraculous, the shadow is not dark; the shadow is pure light, pure presence. You can feel the warmth of it, you can almost feel the touch of it. It surrounds you with a new fragrance, and it giv...

Buddha has said, “Unless you cease to be, you cannot be still. You are the problem, you are the noise, you are the movement. So unless you cease completely you cannot attain perfect stillness. Because of this, Buddha is known as anatmawadi — one who believes in no-self. We go on thinking th...

"Spiritual or otherwise, wise or otherwise -- whenever you have some experience, remember, you are not it. It is a content in consciousness -- and all contents have to be dropped. Only then does the mind disappear. The mind is nothing but all the contents together; the accumulation of conte...

Question 2: What is the difference between a seeker and a sannyasin? can't one be a seeker without being a sannyasin? One cannot be a seeker without being a sannyasin, because to be a seeker is the beginning of sannyas. A seeker is one who is seeking sannyas. What else can a seeker do excep...

Hakuin said to his disciples: THE STUDY OF ZEN IS LIKE DRILLING WOOD TO GET FIRE. An old, ancient method. THE WISEST COURSE IS TO FORGE STRAIGHT AHEAD WITHOUT STOPPING. IF YOU REST AT THE FIRST SIGN OF HEAT AND THEN AGAIN AS SOON AS THE FIRST WISP OF SMOKE ARISES, EVEN THOUGH YOU DRILL FOR ...

Question 2 Osho, Will you say something more about relaxation? i am aware of a tension deep at the core of me and suspect that i have probably never been totally relaxed. When you said the other day that to relax is one of the most complex phenomena possible, i glimpsed a rich tapestry in w...

Question : Osho, What is the best way to encourage people in meditation? The first thing: for a patient to go to the doctor, you must make him realize that he is sick; otherwise there is no need to go to the doctor. So the people you want to encourage into meditation: first you have to make...

Question 3: Osho, For me the most beautiful meditation is to sit in a corner and watch the children playing around the ashram. but i'm in trouble: is this a meditation at all? Watching is meditation. What you watch is irrelevant. You can watch the trees, you can watch the river, you can wat...

(In 1984, an announcement was made in Rajneeshpuram of three categories of enlightened sannyasins: Siddhas, Arihantas and Acharyas. At the same time, Osho spoke several times of three committees that would continue his work after his death, composed of Mahasattvas, Sambuddhas and Bodhisattv...

Twenty-one-day experiment in silence and seclusion It is helpful to practice breath awareness for twenty-one days in total seclusion and silence. Then, much will happen. During the twenty-one-day experiment, practice Dynamic Meditation once a day and constant awareness of breathing for twen...

Question 4 Osho, Does the seeker have to suffer inevitably on the way? It all depends. Growth in itself has no suffering in it; suffering comes from your resistance towards growth. Suffering is created by you because you resist continuously, you don't allow it to happen. You are afraid to g...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, What does it mean when you say, "Just be yourself"? How can I be myself when I don't know who I am? I know many of my preferences, likings, dislikings and tendencies, which seem to be the outcome of a programmed biocomputer called the mind. Does just being oneself m...

Waiting Enlightenment has not to be sought actively, to be brought about, because it is already there. Waiting is all that is needed: waiting, just waiting, TADA, with no object. If you are waiting for something, you are not waiting; then positive thinking has come in. If you are waiting fo...

Question 2 Beloved Osho, How do I come to know when I am really witnessing my body, feelings and thoughts, or when it is only my mind pretending to be a witness? The question is only intellectual; you have not even tried to pretend. When you are witnessing and you start feeling that it may ...

Without love there is no prayer, no grace, no mercy. On the tree of love all these flowers bloom. People can pray without love -- that's what they are doing all over the world, in all the churches, temples and synagogues: they don't know what love is trying to pray. That is very absurd, the...

In my opinion only the meanest people in the world are attracted towards politics; the meanest, the lowest, because they know they can only do something if they have power. You Need Power Only To Do Something Harmful; otherwise Love Is Enough, Compassion Is Enough. And for compassion you ne...

God can be attained through two ways: either prayer or meditation. They are different ways, diametrically opposite but, strangely leading to the same experience. If you look at the ways they look antagonistic, and if one thinks logically one will think, how can these contrary thoughts lead ...

Your love is hocus-pocus. This is the reason why in the world you don't see so much love and you see so much hate. You listen to too much talk about love in the world. Everybody is loving everybody else, talking about love, but it is all talk: yakketty-yakketty-yak! It goes on all over the ...