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...

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,...

We all think we are aware; that is one of our unawarenesses. We are only functionally aware. We have learned to do things, to go to bed, to get up early in the morning, to go to the job. Everything has been learned. Even a robot can do the whole process. You are not needed. And that’s exact...

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 ...

Question 3: You tell me to follow my feelings, and when i finally dare to and am feeling much freer and simpler and happier, you say i am immature. What does it mean? IT is from Madhuri. It means exactly what it says: you are immature. What is immaturity? Whatsoever you are doing, you are d...

A life lived unconsciously cannot be beautiful, a life lived unconsciously cannot have freedom. And without freedom, how can there be any beauty? Beauty is a shadow of freedom. A life lived unconsciously can only be mediocre, mundane, superficial. Only with consciousness does your life star...

God is always ready to give. He is always ready to share his being, his bliss, his truth, but we are unavailable, we are very closed. We don’t give him any way into our being, we don’t open even a single window. Out of fear we keep all the doors and windows closed; hence the wind and the su...

When you are playing, you are not trying to prove that you are somebody. You are at ease, at home. While playing, just for fun, you are not worried what others think about you. Have you seen a father in a mock fight with his child? He will be defeated. He will lie down and the child will si...

Question 2: What is the difference between desire and longing? Krishna, desire is desire for something that is outside you. Desire is objective. Longing is not objective. Longing is for that which wants to explode in you. It is inner, it is subjective. If a rose wants to become a lotus, it ...

FIRST, IN TANTRA, spontaneity is the greatest value – to be just natural, to allow nature to happen. Not to obstruct it, not to hinder it; not to distract it, not to take it in some other direction where it was not going on its own. To surrender to nature, to flow with it. Not pushing the r...

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...

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 2: Osho, Why does spontaneity create so much fear in me? Having no structure feels like a death. How can i turn this fear into a let-go, a welcome, a rejoicing? Anand Anupam, perhaps you are not aware that you are again asking for another structure. I will read your question so tha...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, How can i leave my ego outside the front gate? it follows me like a shadow and even hides behind my back and then i am not able to see it. Anand Shantideva, the question shows you have not understood the meaning of the ego. It is not something visible or tangible; i...

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 : Do you recommend any particular discipline besides Dynamic Meditation? Even to move into an undisciplined life you have to follow some discipline. But you must remain the master; it must not become a slavery. The real thing, the end, is always to be spontaneous As we are, we are ...

Man is awake and yet not Awake. His wakefulness is very thin, his wakefulness is almost of no use. He is not asleep, that is true, but he is not awake either — he is in limbo, in the middle. He has awakened from the world of animals, but he is fast asleep to the world of gods. Man is a tran...

Question 1: Osho, What are the qualities of the Seeker of truth? Every child is born with an innate search for truth. It is not something learned or adopted later on in life. Truth simply means, “I am, but I do not know who I am.” And the question is natural — “I must know the reality of my...

Question 4: Osho, Can the watcher, the consciousness, ever be judgmental about what he sees, or is it still the ego judging the ego, the mind condemning itself? Consciousness is never judgmental. Consciousness is only a mirror. The mirror reflects, but it never gives any judgment. A beautif...

Question 5 : What is the difference between Prayer and Meditation? A lot of difference. A great difference. in fact they are absolutely different things. Their movement is in different directions. There are two types of religions in the world: prayer oriented religions and meditation orient...

Question 1: How to Sacrifice the Ego? Deva Ahuti, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. THE EGO CANNOT BE SACRIFICED because the ego exists not. The ego is just all idea: it has no substance in it. It is not something — it is just pure nothing. You give it reality by believing in it. You can withdraw belief an...

Question 2: Osho, Why does everyone want to pretend to be what they are not? What is the psychology behind it? Narendra, everybody is condemned from his very childhood. Whatever he does on his own accord, out of his own liking, is not acceptable. The people, the crowd in which a child has t...

SPEAK THE TRUTH, GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN, NEVER BE ANGRY. THESE THREE STEPS WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE GODS. Speak the truth, whatsoever the cost. It is going to cost you much, because the world lives in lies. People are brought up in such a way that truth never crosses their path...

Question 3: Is the ego still working when i feel joy and contentment? Champak, when the joy is there, there is no ego. But when the joy is gone, the ego comes back; and when the ego comes back, it turns the joy into an experience. Otherwise, when the joy is there, there is no experiencer an...

Question 3: Osho, What is the Ego? It seems a complementary question to “Who am I?” and as much a Koan. The ego is just the opposite of your real self. The ego is not you. The ego is the deception created by the society so that you can continue playing with the toy and never ask about the r...

THEN AND THERE HE BECAME A DISCIPLE. Whenever you come against something like this -- a real patience, a real substantial silence -- deep down something is touched in your heart also. Deep down you are no more the same. Something real has penetrated like a ray of light into your darkness. T...

Sudhindra means god of remembrance, god of awareness, god of mindfulness. The most important thing in your life will be awareness. Pour your whole energy into that dimension: become more alert, more attentive, more mindful. Whatsoever you are doing, make it a point that you should do it wit...

Question 1: Osho, Tao is greater than mind. Then why do we keep choosing the mind instead of flowing with the Tao? Prem Radha, It is precisely because of that. Tao is so vast that one is afraid to lose one’s identity in it. We are like dewdrops and Tao is like an ocean. The dewdrop is afrai...

The Unconscious can be transformed only through awareness. It is difficult, but there is no other way. There are many methods for being aware, but awareness is necessary. You can use methods to be aware, but you will have to be aware. If someone asks whether there is any method to dispel da...

Question : Osho, On one occasion, Joshu said to his monks: I have single-heartedly practiced zazen in the southern province for thirty years. He is referring to those thirty years with his master, Nansen. He is saying, ”I have singleheartedly practiced zazen for thirty years continuously, w...

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 1: Osho, Please, In the Question”WHO AM I?” What does “I” mean? Does it mean the essence of Life? Hermann Sander, “WHO AM I?” IS NOT REALLY A QUESTION because it has no answer to it; it is unanswerable. It is a device, not a question. It is used as a mantra. When you constantly inq...

Deva means divine and vineet means humbleness. Humbleness is going to be your work. And when I say humbleness, I don’t mean what the word ordinarily means. Ordinarily it means a person who tries to subdue his ego, who tries to control his egoistic mind, who tries never to assert himself — a...

Question 4 : The other day you said that effort is dangerous, but hard work is needed in the meditations. For my german mind, effort equals hard work. Is there hard work without effort? The point is delicate. Effort is always half-hearted, effort is always partial. You are doing it because ...

Question 2: Osho, What is the source of consciousness? Prem Komal, consciousness is the source of all. Consciousness is the stuff existence is made of. But there is no source of consciousness itself. Consciousness is another name of God — a better name, more scientific, less mythological. Y...

Question 4: Osho, Who Am I ? Narayano, it is a question to be made a meditation. It is not a question to be asked, it is a question to be contemplated — because nobody can answer it for you and nobody’s answer can become your answer. This is one of those questions which is not really a ques...

Ego is the only undivine thing. Ego is the only evil in the world. And it is not really an entity; it is just our fantasy, it is just imagination. It does not exist, it is only a nightmare; but we go on nourishing it and watering it and then it goes on growing more and more thorns. No flowe...

Question 2: Osho, Is Meditation enough to be whole and healthy? Please explain. The word “meditation” and the word “medicine” come from the same root. Medicine means that which heals the physical, and meditation means that which heals the spiritual. Both are healing powers. Another thing to...

Acceptance is one of the most beautiful words. Buddhists, the followers of Buddha, have a term for it which is even deeper than the English word ‘acceptance’; it is tathata. tathata means saying ‘yes’ so totally that in your being there is no division. You become one in your yes. You say ‘y...

Question 4 : Sometimes it seems like wherever i go i am facing the wall. The wall is not outside, the wall is inside you. So wherever you go, you carry your wall. When you are alert, you feel it; when you are not alert, you don’t feel it — but the wall is inside you. The wall is of your own...

Question 1: Osho, The vision “neither this nor that” feels so negative. How can i be accepting or even creative with this? I feel totally confused. Prem Helmut, MIND LIVES IN THE DUALITY of the positive and the negative. It lives like a pendulum, moving from yes to no, from no to yes. It ca...

Gurdjieff, one of the buddhas of this century, used to give a certain meditation to his disciples which is very significant. He used to say to his disciples, “If you can remember in a dream that ‘This is a dream,’ then you are on the very threshold of transformation.” But it is very difficu...

There is a story in Buddha’s life: One day one of Buddha’s sannyasins was passing through a street where he had gone to beg. The most beautiful woman of that town, the prostitute of the town, fell in love with the monk. She came down out of her house and requested the monk to come and resid...

Question 1: You told me that my mind is immature. What does it mean to have a mind that is mature? To think that you know is to be immature. To function from knowledge, from conclusion, is to be immature. To function from no-knowledge, from no conclusion, from no past, is maturity. Maturity...

Question 2: It is said that unless one is in contact with one who is Awakened, it is impossible to come out of one's Ignorance or deep sleep. How to find out that one is Awakened? It is a difficult question. Not that it is difficult to find out -- the question is difficult because if you do...

Question 2: On the path of surrender, How does the Seeker come to the right technique out of One hundred and twelve methods? On the path of will there are methods – these one hundred and twelve methods. On the path of surrender, surrender itself is the method, there are no other methods – r...

Deva is a sanskrit root; it means divine. Hasido is a hebrew root; it means pious – divinely pious. There is a piety that can be cultivated by man, but deep down it remains an ego trip. Only on the surface is it pious. Deep down it is just the opposite. It is the ego playing a new game. It ...

Question 4: Where do individuality and ego separate? Individuality means your uniqueness — not compared with anybody else. Your incomparable uniqueness: that is individuality. Individuality is beautiful; that’s how God has made you — as an individual. Ego is comparison. Ego is your inventio...

Essentially love is humbleness — there is no other kind of humbleness. If humbleness is cultivated without love, it is just a face for the ego, just another trick of the ego. When humbleness comes naturally out of love, then it is tremendously beautiful. So fall in love with existence — and...

[A sannyasin says: “The distance between me and others, between me and you grows smaller so slowly.”] No need to force it; everybody has to follow his own pace. Great patience is needed — don’t be in a hurry. These things are not like seasonal flowers; they are like cedars of Lebanon: they ...

MEDITATION IS A PROCESS OF DEATH, OF NON-BEING, of becoming nothing on your own accord, of disappearing into the whole, into the harmony of the whole. But it is a miracle, the greatest paradoxical experience of life. There is no contradiction in it, but there is a paradox. Seen from the int...

[A sannyasin keeps thinking about an experience she had when she took sannyas – an experience of seeing a light. It was beautiful but it has never happened again.] Remember one thing: if something happens never ask for its repetition; otherwise it will never happen again. If you ask for it ...

A man who has forgotten words, he is worth talking to, because he has the innermost reality, the center of being within him. He has the message. His silence is pregnant. Your talking is impotent. What are you doing when you talk? You are not saying anything in particular. You have got no me...

Question 3: Will you please tell us why krishnamurti is against techniques, whereas shiva is for so many techniques. Being against techniques is simply a technique. Not only Krishnamurti is using that technique, it has been used many times before. It is one of the oldest techniques, nothing...

[A visitor has been posted by the army from Nepal to Poona. Osho explains how to use even the discipline and uptightness of army life as meditation.] The basic thing is not the technique of meditation. The basic thing is to do it with awareness. Any method can be of help if one practises it...

Many other questions are there, questions about making a synthesis of love and meditation, of heart and mind, of thought and feeling — because many people would like to move on both the ways together. Synthesis comes, but you cannot make it. If you follow the path of meditation, one day you...

The ego goes on agreeing for wrong things, because the ego can exist only with the wrong. It feeds on the wrong. So whenever you feel that your ego is fulfilled, beware! — you have eaten something wrong, you have swallowed something wrong. Whenever you feel egoless, relax — now you have eat...

The games of the ego are very subtle. And if one is trying to drop the ego they become more and more subtle. And if one has really decided to drop it anyhow, the ultimate strategy that the ego can use to protect itself is to become egolessness; is to pretend humility, humbleness; is to show...

The only problem is the ego, but it creates thousands of other problems; it is the root cause. And I am not interested in pruning the leaves and the branches — cut the root — because that is a futile effort, cutting leaves and branches; they will grow again. And all the religions have becom...

Question 1: Surely Meditation is for Mystics. Why do you propose it for ordinary people and their children? First, I have never come across an ordinary person; they do not exist. They are only created by egoistic people. The egoist has to create the ordinary – that is the only way the ego c...

Love is not something to be obtained from the outside. Love is the music of your inner being. Nobody can give you love. Love can arise within you, but it cannot be obtained from the outside. There is no shop, no market, no salesman where you can buy love. Love cannot be bought at any cost. ...

Question 4: Osho, I have heard you say, “Let Go — no Effort is needed.” but i am afraid of letting go because then i slip into my old patterns. please comment. It is one of the difficulties. Letting go, one can slip into old patterns, old conditionings. Still, take the risk. The fear has so...

Visarjan means dissolution, dissolution into the divine, immersion in the divine, the state of being lost…. One has to learn how to disperse oneself, how to come to a point where one is not. Only then god is. You and god cannot exist together; that’s not possible. That’s why so many people ...

[The new sannyasin says: I had an accident and I was unconscious for about eight hours. I felt very different afterwards… but I don’t know where I was.] Mm mm, it can happen sometimes. Sometimes it can happen in an accident that the whole structure of the mind can change. And for better… so...

Question 3 Osho, What is unconsciousness? Consciousness means living with a witness; unconsciousness means living without a witness. When you are walking on the road, you can walk consciously -- that's what Buddha says one should do -- you are alert, deep down you are aware that you are wal...

The desire to exhibit is the desire of an ignorant mind. Why do you want to exhibit? Why do you want people to know you? What’s the cause of it? And why do you make it so significant in your life, the exhibition, that people should think that you are somebody very significant, important, ex...

Learning goes into the ego; learning strengthens the ego. That is why pundits, brahmins, scholars, have the subtlest egos. Learning gives them scope, learning gives them space. They become tumors, egos. Their whole being is then exploited by the ego. The more learned a man, the more difficu...

Bliss is beauty; misery is ugliness. It not only cripples your body, it cripples your very soul. It paralyzes, it poisons, it is very destructive. But people cling to misery because it gives one thing which bliss can never give. That thing is the ego. Ego thrives on misery. Misery is food f...

Question 1: Osho, What is so attractive about Missing? Devaraj, it has a tremendous attraction, because it is only through missing that the ego can survive. It is only through searching, seeking, desiring, that the ego exists; it exists in the tension between that which is and that which sh...

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 ...

Question 7: Who is a Baul? Please tell us the definition. IT should have been asked in the beginning; now this is going to be last. But in a way, it is good. If in the beginning you had asked about the definition of a Baul, it would have been almost impossible to say anything. Not that now ...

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 2: Osho, The dictionary definition of humble is: “having or showing a consciousness of one’s defects or shortcomings. Not proud, not self-assertive, modest.” is a rebel humble? Is there more to the definition of humble? Dhyan Nidhi, the dictionary definition of humble is one thing,...

Remember this. It is impossible to help others till you have obtained some certainty of your own. Resist the temptation to help others. It is evil unless you have obtained some certainty of your own. Don't try to be a guru, don't try to be a helper. because you will disturb; you will create...

Question 2: Osho, When I was a student at a Japenese Buddhist University, I heard the word Consciousness. Beloved Osho, What does it mean? Kranti Satbodha, consciousness you already have, but only in a very small proportion. It is just like an iceberg — one tenth is above water and the rest...

Question : I am a lawyer. I don’t know how to meditate, and I seem to be occupied all of the time. Please suggest what to do. It is important to understand, because all the teachers of meditation in the world have been telling you that you have to keep a separate time for meditation. Mohamm...

When you are not doing anything at all – bodily, mentally, on no level – when all activity has ceased and you simply are, just being, that’s what meditation is. You cannot do it, you cannot practice it; you have only to understand it. Whenever you can find time for just being, drop all doin...

Love is possible only in the climate of egolessness. With the ego love cannot grow. Ego is like a rock and love is like a rose flower: if you put a rock on the rose bush there is no possibility of its growing, no possibility of roses ever flowering. The ego can do everything else. It can ma...

Kabir is a declaration of the secret of this love. He says: This is my path. And the path of love is for many. It is easier to move from the path of love than through any other path — because love is so close to your heart. The only problem that has arisen for the contemporary person, for c...

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 : What is meditation? Meditation is not an Indian method; it is not simply a technique. You cannot learn it. It is a growth: a growth of your total living, out of your total living. Meditation is not something that can be added to you as you are. It can come to you only through a...

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...

Question 3: Osho, Why do I have so much difficulty When I have to decide something, for instance, whether i should go or stay here longer? I do not seem to be able to solve such problems. Anand Tosha, you are asking the question to a wrong person because I don’t have any experience of that ...

We don’t live in existence, we live in desires. Really, we don’t live in the world at all, we live in desires. Our life is not here and now, it is always somewhere else where the desire is arrowed. It may be anywhere, but it is never here. Never here, because desire needs time – desire cann...

Question 1: You said, “Teaching is the best way of learning but you have also said, “The world is irreligious because of too many preachers. “Would you please speak on the subtle difference between helping others and trying to change others. THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE, and tremendously sign...

Question 1: In which way can the Practice of Self-Remembering Transform the Human Mind? Man is not centered in himself. He is born centered, but the society, the family, the education, the culture, they push him off-center, and they put him off-center in a very cunning way, knowingly or unk...

The law of inner victory is very strange. In the outer world if you want to be victorious you have to be violent, aggressive, you have to be ready to fight. In the inner world just the opposite is the case: if you want to be victorious you have to forget fighting, you have to drop the very ...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, Why is it that we are all so afraid of a hit from the master? when it is happening, it is proof that it is just what we needed, yet the fear remains. is cowardice an essential part of the ego? The ego is cowardice. Cowardice is not an essential part of the ego, it i...

Question 1: What is the difference between a Crystallized Self and a big, strong Ego? THEY LOOK ALIKE, but they are as different as two things can be. Not only different, they are diametrically opposite. The crystallized self is not a self at all. It is called a crystallized ”self,” but it ...

REMEMBER remain alert that you don t get too much attached to the accidental — and all is accidental except your consciousness. Except your awareness, all is accidental. Pain and pleasure, success and failure, fame and defamation — all is accidental. Only your witnessing consciousness is es...

Love needs the greatest courage in life, for the simple reason that the basic requirement for moving into the world of love is dissolving your ego — and that is the hardest thing to do. We cling to the ego like anything. We are ready to die for it, but we are not ready to let it die because...

Question 5 Osho, Can a person who has cosmic consciousness really enjoy pleasures or does he just act as though doing so? Only a person who has cosmic consciousness can really enjoy. Only he can enjoy the ultimate bliss. Only he enjoys — the rest of the people are under the false notion of ...

[A sannyasin says: It’s easy for me to be in a situation that I’m in control of – when I’m in control I’m perfectly okay. As soon as the situation gets out of control, somebody else is in control then I get scared and defensive. I don’t like that.] You will have to change this pattern, beca...

Question 2 Osho, Because i am only a beginner in the search for reality, could you define for me the four terms: truth, god, spiritual, fact. Ken Jones, if you are only a beginner in the search, please come back, don't go ahead. Don't become more of an expert in the spiritual search, becaus...

RIGHT CONTEMPLATION AND RIGHT MEDITATION.... This will look a little paradoxical, because we think meditation is always right, contemplation is always right. That is not the case; you can contemplate on wrong things. For example, when you are angry you contemplate; really, when you are angr...

All arrangements of life, like for instance our own life, is all based on a trance. We live in a trance; and the centre of this unconsciousness, is our ego. Lao Tzu says, ”Nature is eternal for it lives not for itself.” He who has no thought about himself, will not live for himself. We all ...

The man of understanding is in a total let-go. He allows the law to function. If you want old religious language, non-buddhist language, you can call it surrender to god. Then the devotee says, ‘Now I am no more, only you are. I am just a flute on your lips, a hollow bamboo. You sing; the s...

The world is just a blackboard, and you become visible because of it. This is an inherent polarity, and it is good. That is why in the East we have never said that the world is bad; we take it just as a school, a training. It is good because only in contrast will you be able to know your pu...

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...