Question 7: What is Nirvana? This story is about NIRVANA… this ancient Buddhist story. An exceptionally beautiful young woman, Enyadatta, enjoyed nothing quite as much as gazing at herself in the mirror. She was a little crazy, as all human beings are. When she looked into her mirror one mo...

Osho on Satori Satori is not such a thing. 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 ...

Question 1: Many people in the west are engaged in the creation of a science or technology of enlightenment. the need is certainly there, but how do you see the possibility? is it irresponsible to engage in its creation without having reached the state of enlightenment? is the arica method ...

Osho Quotes on Samadhi Sanskrit has two words VYADI and SAMADHI. VYADI means "sickness of the soul" and SAMADHI means "health and wholeness of the soul." But these are existential meanings. A man who has not experienced samadhi is spiritually sick. He may be bodily fit, but he is not spirit...

Osho Quotes on Satori Satori is samadhi and yet not samadhi. It is a glimpse, and a glimpse in the very ordinary of the extraordinary: samadhi happening in ordinary moments. A sudden thing also -- it is not gradual, you don't move in degrees. It is just like water coming to boiling point, t...

Question : So, We start from the idea of Pleasure. Can Enlightenment be the top most pleasure, as a definition? It is not pleasure. Pleasure is always something opposed to pain. It is never separate from pain. So pain can become pleasure. That’s why there are masochists in the world who tor...

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...

Question 10: Why is it that we hear of fewer enlightened women than men? The basic reason is that man is an expert in bragging; women are not. Many women have attained to enlightenment. The number is exactly the same as men — cannot be otherwise, because existence goes on balancing itself —...

Question 4: Two mornings ago i slept through the lecture and woke up at the end with the word ‘single-mindedness’ on my mind. so what to do? Be single-minded. The message is so clear; what is there to ask? Your being has given you a great message. Sometimes it happens after deep sleep that ...

Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the wh...

Samadhi is a word very difficult to translate into English; there exists no parallel. But in Greek there is a word which is parallel; that word is ataraxia. The Greek word means quiet, calm, of deep inner contentment. That is the meaning of samadhi so contented, so deeply contented, that no...

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...

Question 1: What is a Mystic? I don't know, Purna, and nobody else knows either. That's why a mystic is called a mystic. Something indefinable, something very elusive, something that cannot be grasped, that cannot be comprehended. Not that it is something special -- it is very ordinary. Tha...

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 enligh...

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...

Question What proportion of the people who achieve satori, achieve samadhi? (?) Satori becomes possible for a great number of people because sometimes it needs no preparation. Sometimes it happens by the way. The situation is created but unknowingly. There are so many people, a great number...

Man ordinarily lives in darkness. We are born in darkness. In fact darkness is a basic need in the beginning. There is darkness in the mother’s womb. It is needed because light will be a disturbance for the growing child. The child is so soft, so tender; it needs velvety darkness to surroun...

Question 1: Osho, I can’t conceive of you ever being unenlightened. Did you really become enlightened only thirty-two years ago? Neither can I conceive it. This is one of the very fundamental things in the nature of enlightenment. Once you are enlightened, you are in a very strange situatio...

Question 1: Do positive thoughts bring happenings too? — like wishing for enlightenment. THAT IS TOO MUCH ASKING from positive thoughts because enlightenment is beyond duality: it is neither negative nor positive. When both the polarities are dropped, it happens. With positive thoughts many...

THUS, THE SAGE DOESN'T USE HIS MIND TO LOOK FOR REALITY, OR REALITY TO LOOK FOR HIS MIND, OR HIS MIND TO LOOK FOR HIS MIND, OR REALITY TO LOOK FOR REALITY. HIS MIND DOESN'T GIVE RISE TO REALITY. AND REALITY DOESN'T GIVE RISE TO HIS MIND. AND BECAUSE BOTH HIS MIND AND REALITY ARE STILL, HE'S...

Question 5: Does an enlightened person always remain enlightened or can he become unenlightened also? The question is from Deva Swarup Yogiraj. Even an unenlightened person remains enlightened. The only difference is that he does not know it. The enlightened person knows it, and there is no...

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 4: 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 mi...

Question 4 Osho, You said today that there is nothing like a ‘group soul’, but i have been strongly feeling something like that in the commune. not only that, but this feeling of a collective soul is becoming more and more intense and attuned day by day. it is something new for me, and very...

Question 6: Osho, Have i become enlightened? And if not yet, then when? Enlightenment is not an object to be desired, it is not a goal to be achieved. And you will become enlightened only when you have forgotten all about it — otherwise, never. And it is not a question to be asked. Even if ...

on Turiya It depends where you are stuck: at the body, at the mind, at the heart. These are the three most important places from which one can function. But there is also the fourth in you; in the East it is called TURIYA. Turiya simply means the fourth, the transcendental. If you are aware...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, I heard you say that someone who is not yet prepared for enlightenment might die from the experience. i believe it is also possible that the experience remains a short satori and the person comes back to his normal state. this is my own experience. i was in a state ...

Question : If I could ask you a question about your past…. When you were looking for that door, You spent a year when you were Mad — in which you couldn’t formulate a sentence — and you lost your perspective. Is this correct? Is that the time that you were looking for that door? I have been...

Question 2: If there is absolute emptiness inside an enlightened one, then how is it that he seems to be making decisions, discriminating, liking this or disliking that, saying yes or no? This will really look a paradox. If an enlightened one is simply emptiness, then for us it becomes a pa...

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...

Through all three states – wakefulness, dreaming and deep sleep – turiya, the fourth state, runs like a thread through the beads of a mala. Even while you sleep there is someone awake within. When you dream there is someone witnessing the dream. When you are awake during the day there is a ...

Osho on Destiny and Free Will Question 2: Are Our Lives Predestined or Not? This is not a personal problem, it is a philosophical question. Our lives are both predestined and they are not. Both yes and no. And both answers are true for all questions about life. In a way, everything is prede...

Question 2: Osho, I’m afraid that the world is going to end before I get enlightened. What can I Do? You seem to be very much in a hurry. If you understand me, there is no problem — right now you can become enlightened. At least right now the world has not ended. There are thousands of peop...

Question 3: If Krishnamurti is enlightened he must see what you are saying himself, right? So why doesn’t he just come here and find himself a chair and a case of cold sodas and lean back and forget all that? He sees what I am saying and I see what he is saying, but neither will he come her...

(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...

Question 7: What is Nirvana? This story is about NIRVANA… this ancient Buddhist story. An exceptionally beautiful young woman, Enyadatta, enjoyed nothing quite as much as gazing at herself in the mirror. She was a little crazy, as all human beings are. When she looked into her mirror one mo...

A parable… Once in the garden of a Master there lived a monkey. And, as monkeys are curious people, he became very curious about the Master. He saw the Master sitting silently, doing nothing, and by and by he started coming close to him – what is this man doing? It was a mystery. Certainly,...

Question 3: Osho, When i look inside myself, i catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning. i feel that i certainly will not become enlightened, although others might. Is this attitude a natural mistrust? Is this attitude a habit i have to break? Osho, will this attitude pr...

Question 5: What is it that happens when one becomes awakened? Nothing special, no big deal; nothing really happens. All happening stops, the world stops. The smoke from the eyes disappears; you start looking at things as they are. Don't make much fuss about it. Sooner or later many of you ...

Question 2: Since coming to you, living a meditative life has become an easier and more natural phenomenon. However, i have practically given up all hope for enlightenment. Are these tendencies contradictory? Not at all. To attain to enlightenment that is a must — that you should lose all h...

Question 1 If enlightenment and samadhi mean total consciousness, cosmic consciousness, all-pervading consciousness, then it seems very strange to call this state of cosmic consciousness centering, as the word `centering' implies one-pointedness. why is cosmic consciousness, or samadhi, cal...

Question 1: Osho, What is the most significant thing about Enlightenment? THE most significant thing about enlightenment is that it is the most insignificant thing in the world. The scriptures are full of great attributes, qualities, about enlightenment. It is the highest peak human conscio...

Question 4 This question has been hovering in me for years. A few times you have talked around it, but this has mystified me more, So please enlighten. When and where did enlightenment happen to Jesus? Was he born enlightened? -- as it is said some three wise men from the east travelled to ...

Question 1: How does one feel after the Sahasrar begins to open? After the sahasrar opens, there should be no feeling but inner silence and void. The feeling will be acute in the beginning – when you feel it for the first time it will be very acute – but the more you know it, the less acute...

Question 2: Does a Buddha also need something as a Complementary? Who is complementary to a Buddha? Buddha or Buddhahood is not any polarity. It is not opposite to anything. It is beyond the duality. Night is against day. Life is against death. Love is against hate. Buddhahood is not agains...

You have lost the night; you could not wake up in the night. But it can be forgiven: it was night and you slept. But you cannot be forgiven when death is coming closer — now it is time to wake up! And if even death cannot wake you up, then what is going to wake you up? And if a person wakes...

Osho Quotes on Enlightenmen Enlightenment is always sudden because it is not an achievement; it is already the case. It is only a remembering, it is only a reminding, it is only a recognition. You are already enlightened; you are just not aware of it. It is awareness of that which is alread...

Question : How do you define Atma Chintan? There is no such thing as self-thinking, atma chintan. You cannot be in a state when you are thinking about yourself, because one who knows, knows; he never thinks about it. We only think about things which we don’t know… you go on thinking. But on...

Question 5 : Vivekananda had an experience of samadhi through contact with ramakrishna. was it an authentic experience? It will be good to call it a preliminary experience. The question of its authenticity is not important here. It was totally a preliminary experience in which one gets only...

Question 2 Is it possible for Man to Live without God? Yes. In fact, it is only possible for man to live without God. A man with God does not live, he hesitates on every point of living, he is just half-hearted. He is making love and worried about hell. How can he love a woman when the Bibl...

Question 6 : Did jesus become the christ on the cross, or when he came out of the jordan river? are there stages of christhood also? There are no stages. Enlightenment -- or Christhood or Buddhahood -- happens in a single split second, there are not gradual stages. When Jesus was baptized b...

Question 1: When an enlightened being dissolves into the cosmos, does his uniqueness dissolve also? The enlightened man, even while he is alive in the body, has already dissolved. He knows that he is no more, he knows that he is a nothingness. The dissolution has already happened. In fact, ...

It is reported that Vivekananda started his disciplehood and then one day he attained the first glimpse. You can call it SATORI, the zen word for SAMADHI, because it is a GLIMPSE, not a permanent thing. It is just as if clouds are not there in the sky — the sky is clear and from a distance ...

[The sannyasin says: My tendency is to always be serious when it comes to the business of enlightenment.] Not even there! If you are serious anywhere else, it is not so dangerous. But if you are serious when it comes to enlightenment, then it is absolutely wrong. Anywhere you can be forgive...

There are no degrees of enlightenment. Once it is, it is there. It is just like jumping into an ocean of feeling. You jump, you become one with it, like a drop dropping into the ocean becomes one with it. But that doesn’t mean that you have known the whole ocean. The moment is total: the mo...

Question 1: Osho, What does Enlightenment feel Like? Prem Geetam, enlightenment is not a thought nor a feeling. In fact, enlightenment is not an experience at all. When all experiences have disappeared and the mirror of consciousness is left without any content, utterly empty; no object to ...

”IT IS NOT OBTAINED FROM OTHERS. THEREFORE, WHEN YOU ARE ENLIGHTENED, YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE MANIFESTS ITSELF. NOW YOU HAVE ATTAINED IT – CAREFULLY CULTIVATE IT.” This is a very significant statement of Hyakujo. You cannot cultivate enlightenment, that will be phony. You can walk like a buddh...

Samadhi is a word very difficult to translate into English; there exists no parallel. But in Greek there is a word which is parallel; that word is ataraxia. The Greek word means quiet, calm, of deep inner contentment. That is the meaning of samadhi so contented, so deeply contented, that no...

What happens when you simply sit? The whole energy that has been moving in the body, outside the body, in actions, is no more moving. You become a pool of energy. The energy goes on gathering; you become a reservoir. In zazen you are not even allowed to sway or move your body, not even a sl...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, What is the relationship between enlightenment and the spring of life? is enlightenment the spring of life? Chandaram, one basic thing has always to be remembered: not to get involved in questions of intellect. They are pseudo questions, they don't belong to your ex...

Question 1: Osho, What is beyond enlightenment? Maneesha, beyond enlightenment is only beyondness. Enlightenment is the last host. Beyond it, all boundaries disappear, all experiences disappear. Experience comes to its utmost in enlightenment; it is the very peak of all that is beautiful, o...

The ninth technique: LIE DOWN AS DEAD. ENRAGED IN WRATH, STAY SO. OR STARE WITHOUT MOVING AN EYELASH. OR SUCK SOMETHING AND BECOME THE SUCKING. LIE DOWN AS DEAD. Try it: suddenly you have gone dead. Leave the body! Do not move it, because you are dead. Just imagine that you are dead. You ca...

Osho Quotes on Enlightenment Zen believes in sudden enlightenment because Zen believes that you are already enlightened; just a certain situation is needed which can wake you up. Just a little alarm may do the work. If you are a little alert, just a little alarm and you are suddenly awake. ...

Question 3: Osho, Sannyasins who are dying in your presence discover their enlightenment. Why is it so difficult for those of us who are still alive? Is it that life comes so close to death, and we are afraid of dying yet still not capable of being alive in this precious moment? It is an im...

Question 3: What constitutes the behaviour of an enlightened man? An enlightened man is all emptiness. What constitutes an emptiness? It has no ‘constitutes’ in it; hence it is empty. A man who is enlightened has no character. Let me repeat it: an enlightened man has no character at all. He...

Question 2: Is there an Intellectual path to Enlightenment? First, there is no path. The very idea of a path is fallacious. The path necessarily leads you away — the path necessarily takes you from this to that, from here to there, from now to then. There is no need for any path for enlight...

Question 2 Please explain How it is possible that one can be spiritually transformed by beings total in actions that are of anger, hatred and violence. Yes, you can be totally transformed through anger, through hatred, through violence. And there is no other way – because you exist in viole...

ON ONE OCCASION, A MONK ASKED ISAN ABOUT THE NEED FOR CULTIVATION OF ONE'S SPIRITUAL LIFE AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT. ISAN RESPONDED THAT IT WAS NEEDED BECAUSE OF THE "INERTIA OF HABIT." HE THEN WENT ON TO SAY: "WHAT YOU HEAR MUST FIRST BE ACCEPTED BY YOUR REASON; AND WHEN YOUR RATIONAL UNDERSTAND...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, How to Slow Down? Anand Somen, life is not going anywhere; there is no goal to it, no destination. Life is non-purposive, it simply is. Unless this understanding penetrates your heart, you cannot slow down. Slowing down is not a question of any how; it is not a ques...

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 4 In which body is that obtained which you refer to as samadhi? Actually there are many types of samadhi. One samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body. Remember, samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight p...

Question 6: Is it possible to be in a state of pure consciousness for a while and to fall out again? No, it is not possible. But something like it happens: you have a glimpse of pure consciousness; you have not entered. It is just as if you look from hundreds of miles’ distance towards the ...

Osho on Characteristics of Samadhi First is: Oneness, at-one-ment. Duality disappears. The division between the known and the knower disappears. Fusion arises, confusion disappears. There are no longer two. But remember: the moment Buddha says there are no longer two, he is not saying there...

Question 1: Osho, Watching the mind, it seems to me there is an infinite ocean of thoughts. Meditation gives me more peace and grounding, but hearing you speak about enlightenment — it seems to me far, far away. can you give me some advice? Dhyan Jashan, enlightenment is as far away as you ...

The moment the screen of the mind is empty, a miracle happens. Your consciousness, which was focused on the screen of the mind, finding nothing there, turns upon itself. The circle is complete. It went from you up to the screen, but there is nothing there to stop it, and it comes back to th...

Question 3: Osho, I think I have become Enlightened. What do you say about it? Nisarga, THE moment one becomes enlightened, one does not think that one is enlightened; one simply knows. Thinking is guessing, it is not knowing. And when one becomes enlightened one never asks ‘whether I have ...

Question 1: 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 ...

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 8: Is it possible to become Enlightened in a Dream? Not only possible — whenever it happens, it always happens in a dream. Whatsoever you think is your waking consciousness, that too is not waking; that too is dreaming. While sitting here in front of me, do you think you are awake?...

Question 4: This question has been hovering in me for years. A few times you have talked around it, but this has mystified me more, So please enlighten. When and where did enlightenment happen to Jesus? Was he born enlightened? -- as it is said some three wise men from the east travelled to...

Question 2: During my dancing meditation i kept having flashes about What you said concerning the society, drugs, etc. And Wondering that now that i am intoxicated by the ultimate drug, you, Osho, can anyone take that away from me? Bring me down from that eternal high? No one except you. Yo...

Question 1: 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 th...

Question 1 Part of a discourse given by osho on june 2, 1971 in bombay, india, and based on an interview by ma ananda pratima. Awakening is possible even in a single moment. In that single moment, one can explode into the divine. That is possible, but generally it never happens. One has to ...

Anand means bliss, nirbeeja means seedless. The word nirbeeja is a very specific word. In Yoga two kinds of samadhi are talked about, two kinds of ultimate states of consciousness. One is sabeeja; it means with seed. Another is nirbeeja; it means seedless, without seed. The sabeeja state of...

Question 4: In which body is that obtained which you refer to as Samadhi? Actually there are many types of samadhi. One samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body. Remember, samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight ...

Question 3: Does Transcendence come with the opening of the Sahasrar? No, transcendence is beyond the opening. But enlightenment has two connotations. One, the dying mind - the ending mind, the mind that is going to die, the mind that has come to its peak, the mind that has come to its last...

Question 1: Osho, You just told us you have nothing to teach us, and last night it was a great shock when you said as far as you are concerned your work is done, that you're carrying your body for us. A young jesus also said, "wist ye not that i am about my father's business." what is or wh...

Question 3 : You said that life is a pilgrimage without a goal. is this only for the unenlightened? when an enlightened being leaves his body, does the pilgrimage continue? Yes, the pilgrimage continues, but the pilgrim is no more. The pilgrim disappears, the pilgrimage continues. In you ju...

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 3 Does an enlightened person ever dream? can you tell us something about the quality and nature of an enlightened person's sleep? No, an enlightened person cannot dream. And if you like dreams very much, never become enlightened. Beware! Dreaming is part of sleep. The first thing i...

Question 7: Am i right to feel that you have travelled the path of gradual enlightenment? Did you dance when the enlightenment happened? I am still dancing. If you have eyes you can see. If you don’t have eyes what can I do? And there is no gradual enlightenment; enlightenment is always sud...

Question 2: When the internal talking stops, is this enlightenment? Parivesh, when the internal talking stops, who cares? Who is there to care? Who is there to raise the question ‘Is this enlightenment’? If you can still ask the question, then it is internal talking continuing. If you can s...

Question 2: You suggest that we become fully-merged, that we drown. How can we do this? I tell you from my own experience that there is no easier path than merging with one’s own self. The only thing one has to do is stop seeking for the support of anything on the surface of the mind. By ca...

Question 7: I often take drugs. once when i was attending the discourse, i closed my eyes and suddenly felt the same as i feel on a drug trip. osho, is there any relation or similarity between samadhi and drugs? There is and there is not. There is because drugs create a false SAMADHI, a pse...

Question 4 Osho, I have come here in search of nirvana but now all that i want is to be a part of your buddhafield, i don't care a bit about nirvana anymore. please accept me, although i'm not worthy of it. Aruna bharti, It is one of the most significant things to understand that the very d...

Question 3: What is the purpose of existence? what will we do after enlightenment? WHAT AM I DOING AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT? I eat when I am hungry, and I sleep when I feel sleepy. I am doing exactly the same thing that you are doing, but the quality has changed, the significance has changed, my...

Question 1 : The west has given birth to aristotle, nietzsche, heidegger, camus, berdyaev, marcel and sartre. Is it going to give birth to buddhas by itself or is a communion with the eastern consciousness needed? CHINMAYA, THE BUDDHA-CONSCIOUSNESS is neither Eastern nor Western. It has not...

Question 6 This morning in the Dancing Meditation I found myself crying heart-rent tears of happiness. What is this strange paradox? Life is a paradox; paradox in its nature. It is not strange. But you are so much addicted to logic that whenever life reveals itself to you, it looks strange....

All divisions are workable, life remains one. The path and the goal and the stages, they are just to help you, so don't take them dogmatically and don't take them literally. These seven stages are just to help you, to give you a view of the whole path. When you have understood forget that t...