The only difference between men and other animals is that of values. No animal lives according to values; he lives blindly, not knowing why. His life force is unconscious of itself. Many men also live in the same way. They only look like men, but they have not yet transcended the animal. Th...

You can watch the mind because you are not the mind. That is the whole reason to watch it: To become aware that you are separate. Existentially, no problem arises because you cannot watch this watcher. You have come to the very end of the rope; in the very first step you have completed the ...

Question 4: Is Psychic Exploitation possible in the name of Shaktipat? How is it possible And how is the Meditator to guard against it? It is possible. Much spiritual exploitation is possible in the name of shaktipat. In fact, where there is a demand, a declaration, there is always exploita...

One of the most beautiful and the profoundest prayers is found in the Upanishads. It is the smallest prayer ever uttered yet it contains all the scriptures. The prayer is: Asto ma sadgamay — lead me, lord, from the world of untruth to the world of truth. Tumso ma jyotirgamay — lead me, lord...

Question 1: Sometimes you call us ‘you Fools’ and sometimes you call us ‘you Buddhas’. Are fools and Buddhas the same to you? They are not the same to me but they are both meeting in you right now, shaking hands within you. Your past is the fool, your future is the buddha, and at this momen...

Seeing this game of happiness and unhappiness, the watcher, the meditator becomes unidentified with both. When happiness comes he knows that unhappiness will be coming, so why get excited? When unhappiness comes he is not at all disturbed because he knows happiness will be coming just aroun...

There is a constant war between the evil and the good, between the forces of darkness and the forces of light, between that which brings you down and that which uplifts you. One has to be very conscious in choosing sides. And it is an every moment affair. When you become angry you have chos...

If you allow desire and pleasure and lust and greed and anger and jealousy and possessiveness and violence and all these rushing streams towards you, they will sweep you away. Don't play with them in your imagination; that is strengthening them, that is getting under their sway. And the mir...

If you can watch your breath then you can start watching other things too. Walking you can watch that you are walking, eating you can watch that you are eating, and ultimately, finally, you can watch that you are sleeping. The day you can watch that you are sleeping you are transported into...

Question 4: Osho, The more I am able to absorb You, The more thirsty I become. Please talk about Meditation and Passion. There is no harm in becoming more thirsty for truth. There is no harm in becoming more thirsty for new spaces of experience, new challenges, voyages to new stars in your ...

[To two resident sannyasins returning for a brief visit to the States to see their parents, Osho spoke about how one could introduce one’s parents to sannyas, meditation, and Osho, in a way that would be acceptable. He said one should not try to argue, but simply let one’s being, one’s happ...

He is saying that every meditator comes to this point: he has known a small space of thoughtlessness, so the natural conclusion seems to be that if he can stop the thought process, then he will have that open sky again. But with what are you going to stop the thought process? Even this idea...

The mind is always result-oriented: What is going to happen? If I do this, then what will happen? If the cause is there, what will be the effect? The mind is always for the result; the mind is result-oriented. This cook simply walked out. He didn't wait for what was going to happen; he didn...

Just hold a bird in your hand and don’t think about it … or a flower in your hand, and don’t think about it. Just see it. Without any thoughts moving between you and the flower, what happens? Suddenly you are the flower. And if you feel one with the flower you have felt one with existence. ...

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?...

[A sannyasin returning to the west says: It doesn’t happen here, but at home by the end of the week I feel very tired. Sometimes I can’t even stand.] I understand. Do one thing. Every night before you go to sleep, just sit in the bed and imagine an aura around your body, just six inches awa...

Concentration will make you a man of will. Meditation will make you an emptiness. That's what Buddha is saying to Sariputra. Prajnaparamita means exactly 'meditation, the wisdom of the beyond'. You cannot bring it but you can be open to it. You need not do anything to bring it into the worl...

Revolution is concerned with outer things: the economic structure of the society, the political structure, the state. Rebellion is inner: it is concerned with the state of consciousness. Revolution is political, rebellion is spiritual. And a true rebellion transforms you into divinity; it r...

Even if you have to give up a meal, do it... but do not give up meditation. The more regular you are, the greater depth you will attain. And meditation is such a delicate thing that it takes months to grow but just a day or two to wither away. A delicate thing needs much regularity, continu...

Question 1: Osho, What are the roots and what are the winds of a meditators? Meditation is a way of settling in oneself, at the innermost core of your being. Once you have found the center of your existence, you will have found both the roots and the wings. The roots are in existence, makin...

YOU HAVE BEEN DOING THE MEDITATIONS VERY COURAGEOUSLY HERE. Back home, you may feel alone. But don’t feel it as a loneliness. If you are ready, I can help you there also. Just remember me, feel my presence, and then meditate. Space, distance, is meaningless if there is love. You may be sitt...

Look at the flowers — and not in a scientific way, because when you look at a rose in a scientific way it is a totally different kind of thing that you are looking at. It is not the same rose that a poet experiences. The experience does not depend on the object, the experience depends on th...

The wheel is created by infinite desires, by all desires that have ever existed, that are in existence today -- all the desires of all persons, of all beings who have ever existed. You will die, but your desires have created waves which will go on. You will not be here, but your desires hav...

The human body is a mysterious mechanism. Its working is two-dimensional. In order to go to the outside, your consciousness goes through the senses to meet the world, to meet matter. But this is only one dimension of your body’s functions. Your body has another dimension also: it leads you ...

Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity — physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you, when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot b...

When the inner sky becomes one with the outer sky, when the inner emptiness merges with the outer emptiness, everything becomes desireless and actionless. Desires cannot arise without a thought: thought is disturbance of mind. Remember, a thought arises only because one wants to do somethin...

[Another participant says: I feel more attracted to the deeper silent meditations, but I always have the uncertainty about whether there’s something I’m suppressing and should go into. There’s always a doubt.] I think an Encounter group will be helpful. There is not much there, but even if ...

Desire for happiness. Kill it out. It appears very gloomy, sad, life-negating. It is not. The more you desire comfort, the more discomfort will be felt. The more you desire comfort, the more discomfort you are creating for yourself, because discomfort is relative to the desire for comfort. ...

A single glimpse transforms the whole life. Once you have looked into your innermost core, you are never the same again. Then your life is nothing but love. Then you live love, then you are love. And that love is not the love that you know. What you know is nothing but lust camouflaged as l...

KILL OUT ALL SENSE OF SEPARATENESS. Mind thinks in terms of separateness, division analysis. Through mind, life is divided into fragments. Life itself is not divided; life itself is a unity. Life itself remains undivided, but the mind thinks in terms of fragments so whatsoever the mind says...

One and only one moment of determination, of sankalpa, of complete determination is enough, whereas a whole life without it is nothing. Remember it is not time but determination that is the important thing. The achievements of the world are accomplished in the realm of time and those of tru...

7. ”What is the most essential factor in search of truth? I said: ”Courage – courage to know the reality in the self. To know oneself as one is, is most essential. That is very difficult. But without that there is no understanding of the truth. What else is the greater penance than knowing ...

Question 1: What is turning Inwards? TURNING INWARDS is not a turning at all. Going inwards is not a going at all. Turning inwards simply means that you have been running after this desire and that, and you have been running and running and you have been coming again and again to frustratio...

[A sannyasin says: I have a lot of energy at twilight and it s very beautiful. I sing and I play the tamboura… it just comes.] Very good… enjoy it. Everybody has a period in twenty-four hours, a special period. People don’t know about it, but once you know about it that will become your doo...

Man is a seed of great potential: man is the seed of buddhahood. Each man is born to be a buddha. Man is not born to be a slave but to be a master. But there are very few who actualize their potential. And the reason why millions can’t realize their potential is that they take it for grante...

KILL OUT DESIRE OF LIFE -- the second sutra. Kill out Desire of Life. Life’s laws are very paradoxical. If you desire life, you will miss it. That is the surest way to miss it. If you desire life, you will miss it; but if you don’t desire it, abundant life will happen to you. Through desire...

Deva means divine, uparati means indifference to the non-essential – a divine indifference to the non essential. And that’s the whole work of the seeker. We are caught up in the non-essential, the mundane, the trivial. For the moment it looks so important, and the next moment it appears as ...

Meditation cannot be a fragmented thing, it should be a continuous effort. Every moment one has to be alert, aware and meditative. But the mind has played a trick: you meditate in the morning and then you put it aside; or you pray in the temple and then forget it. Then you come back to the ...

Question 2: Isn’t it true that all meditation techniques are really doings which lead the seeker to his being? In a way, yes; and in a deeper way, no. Meditation techniques are doings, because you are advised to do something. Even to meditate is to do something, even to sit silently is to d...

[A sannyasin, leaving for the West, asks about meditation. Should she still keep trying or is it time to let go and drop effort, she wonders. Osho checks her energy. ] My feeling is that for a few months more you should continue doing things. Right now, it will not be possible for you to do...

Prem means love, vatayana means now, the present moment – love now. And my whole emphasis is on this moment, because this moment contains all. Now is the only reality – all else is either memory or imagination. And even for the past to exist as memory, now is needed. It doesn’t exist as the...

The moment one starts functioning as a pure mirror, god is revealed immediately. God is already here: we are just not a mirror to him. One need not search for god, because he is not far away: he is very close, he is closer to you than you are to yourself. All that is needed is to become a p...

Man can live in constant conflict or in constant music. It is the same energy that become conflict or that becomes music. The whole thing is to learn the art of creating harmony within your being — and the whole conditioning of humanity is to create conflict. They tell you not to be angry b...

Man is a very small phenomenon, but man contains the whole universe; he is a miniature universe. Inside also there is a sun. It has to be provoked, challenged. Once it starts functioning you will see your life changing of its own accord. You will see great energy arising in you, and you wil...

If you can live this moment, if you can be here this moment, then everything takes care of itself. Then you need not be anxious. Then there is no need to ask — before you ask, the answer is delivered. The answer has been always there, but we are not aware. So the whole effort of Zen is how ...

Question 11 Is it necessary to make someone a Guru in our quest for knowledge ? Do not make only one person a guru; make everyone a guru. If you care to move about with wide open eyes, and are willing to learn with an open and relaxed mind, you discover that the whole world is a, master. Yo...

If you are too much engaged with your intellect you will not find time to be engaged with your total being. If you are too much in your head you will miss much that is available. The way can be known only if you deeply participate with existence. It cannot be understood from the outside, yo...

[A group member says: All the emotional things, catharting things, seemed to be superficial on the one side, yet on the other seemed to be true, as I feel them. I don’t know if it is because of my knowing it or…. It’s not acting or theatre, because I feel it. Perhaps it’s because I’m aware ...

Question Osho, You have said that your sannyasins' hearts beat in the same tune as your heart is beating. Can you talk to us more about this phenomenon? How does a disciple move from the head to the heart? Is it that sometimes a disciple is in tune with you and sometimes not? And, if so, wh...

A small lamp has to burn, has to be kindled, in the heart. The heart has all the potential to become light. We have not tried, we have not worked on the heart; otherwise it start radiating, glowing, it becomes aflame. All that has been so much of a problem simply disappears. One need not fi...

Ninety-nine percent of your illnesses are your own working. Be alert and watch. If you are stupid, you are stupid. This is the first ray of intelligence that has happened to you: that you feel that you are stupid – perfectly beautiful. To understand that one is stupid is to already be intel...

The ego is result-oriented, the mind always hankers for results. The mind is never interested in the act itself, its interest is in the result. "What am I going to gain out of it?" If the mind can manage to gain, without going through any action, then it will choose the shortcut. That's why...

Question 1: Is not the search for enlightenment a selfish search? Yes, it is. And the most selfish. There is nothing like it, it is incomparably selfish. And one has to be selfish, there is no other way to be. And all the teachings that go on telling you not to be selfish have not helped; r...

Question 4: Please explain the difference between witnessing and tathata. In witnessing, the duality is present. The witness finds himself separate from that which he experiences. If a thorn pricks his foot, the witnessing man says, “The thorn has not pricked me, it has pricked my body — I ...

Meditation is always passive; the very essence of it is passive. It cannot be active because the very nature of it is non-doing. If you are doing something, your very doing disturbs the whole thing; your very doing, your very "activeness," creates the disturbance. Non-doing is meditation, b...

In Zen, and only in Zen, something of great import has happened. That is, they don’t make any distinction between ordinary life and religious life; rather, they have bridged them both. And they have used very ordinary skills as UPAYA, as methods for meditation. That is something of tremendo...

Meditation cannot be a fragmented thing, it should be a continuous effort. Every moment one has to be alert, aware and meditative. But the mind has played a trick: you meditate in the morning and then you put it aside; or you pray in the temple and then forget it. Then you come back to the ...

Question 2: Osho, I Understand everything that you say, but why does my Life still remain Unchanged? Sudhas, to understand something intellectually is one thing, but to understand something intellectually is not going to transform your life. You will remain the same. To understand something...

[A visitor says: Please tell me who I am.] Mm mm…. My telling you won’t help; you will have to come upon it yourself. Others have been telling you, that is the problem. Your father has told you ’This is what you are’; your mother has told you ’This is what you are.’ Your teachers and the pr...

Remember only one thing: the past is a hindrance, the greatest hindrance. It has to be completely dropped, utterly dropped. To be with me is to be in the now — no past, no future. This moment is all there is and just this moment is god. Everything else is just the mind dreaming, desiring, i...

Meditation is object-less. If you use any object, then it is not meditation; it becomes thinking. It becomes contemplation; it becomes reflection, but not meditation. This is the most essential point to be understood. This is the essence of a meditative state: that it is object-less. Only c...

Question 7: Whenever a certain feeling of opening comes and a certain peace, always a strong anxiety and a depression follow and make me very tired. It seems to be a vicious circle. What is the attitude to take? It always happens, it is natural, not vicious. Whenever you are happy, very hap...

Question 2 : Osho, Though your emphasis has been for us, as individuals, to go within to save ourselves, I guess I am still naïve enough to feel that our love, our dancing, our joy could still save this beautiful planet. Can you please say something about this? The question is meaningful, b...

[To a sannyasin returning to Germany, Osho suggested that it would be very helpful to make meditation a regular part of her routine. He said sometimes it was permissible to miss a meal – could even be beneficial – but to miss meditation meant to undo months of work.] It is very delicate wor...

Question 2: Osho, Can you please say something about the difference between the spiritual question, “who am i” and the psychological trauma of “who am i” Prem Shunyo, it is exactly the difference I was just talking about — the difference between the ego and the self. The ego is your false i...

When I say meditate, I know that through meditation nobody reaches, but through meditation you reach to the point where no meditation becomes possible. Unless you meditate, how will ”no meditation” become possible? One has to go through meditations, and as strongly and as totally as possibl...

[Osho suggested to a sannyasin to start a small meditation centre.] It will be good for you also. This is my observation, that there are many things that you learn only when you start teaching them. The best way to learn a thing is to teach it. And you grow more when you are less concerned ...

ALL BEINGS ARE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING BUDDHA. IT IS LIKE WATER AND ICE: APART FROM WATER, NO ICE, OUTSIDE LIVING BEINGS, NO BUDDHAS. NOT KNOWING IT IS NEAR, THEY SEEK IT AFAR. WHAT A PITY! IT IS LIKE ONE IN THE WATER WHO CRIES OUT FOR THIRST; IT IS LIKE THE CHILD OF A RICH HOUSE WHO HAS ST...

You cannot seek the divine, it cannot be sought after, because you can seek only that which you know already. Seeking means desiring and you cannot seek something that is unknown. How can you seek something that you have not known at all? The very urge to seek comes only after you have tast...

Question 2: Osho, What is orgasm in reference to meditation and higher levels of consciousness? Isn’t feeling orgasmic in a deep state of meditation totally nonsexual? The experience of orgasm itself is always nonsexual. Even though you have achieved it through sex, it itself has no sexuali...

Question 2: Osho, Can one Meditate too much? Shanti Animisha, there are things which you can never do too much. For example, you cannot love too much; more is always possible, and there is no limitation anywhere. I am taking the example of love because that will be easily understood. The sa...

Life is god's grace, ant so is death. Love is god's grace, and so is all that ever happens, good and bad too. The whole duality of existence is god's grace. One who understands this is not only grateful for all that is good but is also grateful for all that appears bad; that is real gratefu...

YOU HAVE BEEN DOING THE MEDITATIONS VERY COURAGEOUSLY HERE. Back home, you may feel alone. But don’t feel it as a loneliness. If you are ready, I can help you there also. Just remember me, feel my presence, and then meditate. Space, distance, is meaningless if there is love. You may be sitt...

One and only one moment of determination, of sankalpa, of complete determination is enough, whereas a whole life without it is nothing. Remember it is not time but determination that is the important thing. The achievements of the world are accomplished in the realm of time and those of tru...

Ananda means bliss, blissfulness, neelamber means blue sky: blissful blue sky. Blue is the symbol for depth. The sky is not really blue; it looks blue just because of the infinite depth. Neelamber is one of the names of Krishna, because he is as blue as the blue sky. So the first thing: aby...

This is the key -- the inner part of it is silence, and the outer part of the key is celebration, laughter. Be festive and silent. Create more and more possibility around you -- don't force the inner to be silent, just create more and more possibility around you so that the inner silence ca...

It is very difficult to be in the world, but it is even more difficult to be nonattached when the spiritual world opens its doors. The difficulty of the second is a millionfold because the worldly powers are not real powers. They are impotent; and they never satisfy you, they never make you...

Meditation is not for the weaklings; It is not for the cowards It is not for those who are full of fear, Because it is the ultimate adventure. It is going into the uncharted — No maps exist, no guidelines either. The master can only create a thirst in you, A tremendous thirst for truth But ...

Question 6: When moments of Fear come, What to do? Why should you ask to do anything? When there is fear — be afraid! Why create a duality? When moments of fear come — be fearful, tremble with fear, allow fear to take possession. Why this constant enquiry: WHAT TO DO? Can’t you allow life i...

Tomorrow is death -- YOU ARE LIKE THE YELLOW LEAF -- next moment is death: WHAT WILL YOU TAKE WITH YOU? Have you earned anything that you can take with you? If you have not earned anything, then your life has been a sheer wastage. You may have accumulated much wealth, you may have become ve...

Meditation is not concentrating on anything. In fact, it is a relaxing, not narrowing. In concentration there is an object. In meditation there is no object at all. You are simply lost in an objectless consciousness, a diffusion of consciousness. Concentration is exclusive to something, and...

Ma Dhyan Agni. Dhyan means meditation, Agni means fire. Meditation is a fire. It does two things: it burns your past totally, it consumes your mind absolutely without even leaving a trace behind it, and your past contains everything — your religion, your politics, your nationality, your rac...

Mind is never silent. It is constantly chattering. It is constantly crowded with many thoughts, desires. It goes on dreaming and dreaming. It is never still even for a single moment. And we have become identified with the mind, we think that we are our mind. That is creating the whole miser...

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...

[A sannyasin says she is not doing the meditations because: It feels too much of an effort. I enjoy just sitting and walking, and being with friends.] Then don’t create problems! – because that sitting and enjoying you have been doing your whole life. That has not changed you. Your problems...

Meditation means a state of no-mind — where all the functioning of the mind has ceased. The moment the functioning of the mind ceases you have a profound silence such that you have never known before, such clarity, such transparency — because all the clouds are gone, all the smoke is gone, ...

Question 4: Anything i see happening in myself is false, illusory, and a mind trip, right? and my recognition of the mind trip is a mind trip too? RIGHT. As far as thoughts go, everything is a mind trip. When thoughts cease and you see without any thoughts crowding in your mind, when you se...

Question 3: Osho, To break our habitual ways of acting, feeling and thinking, and to start witnessing instead, some effort seems to be required. But ultimately all effort, including the effort towards Enlightenment, has to be dropped. Can you please speak on effort and non-effort, and how t...

Question 1: Osho, I don’t understand. You said that Longing is in and of itself divine. Yet you have often said that all desiring, even for god, is mundane and not spiritual. Deva Ashoka, longing in its purity is divine, longing when it longs for nothing is divine. The moment an object of t...

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 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...

The Observer is the Observed Question 1 : Beloved Osho, There is a statement by J. Krishnamurti that "the Observer is the Observed." will you please kindly elaborate and explain what it means? The statement that “the observer is the observed” is one of the most significant things ever said ...

[A sannyasin says: I’m feeling a bit more inward these days and meditations are feeling good to me.] One has to go inward. And you have roamed outward long enough – it is time to go inward! Have the taste of the inner now. And once you have tasted the inner then there is nothing in the oute...

If you can love, meditation will be very easy. The world will be more religious if love is accepted, helped along, and love becomes a natural milieu around you. Then meditation will be very easy because you will know a taste through love of what it means to be dissolved, even if only for a ...

[The sannyasin adds: how to work and do something which requires great effort on one hand, and yet to do it without any effort.] The problem arises because of the logical mind, because the mind says that these two things are contradictory. If you make effort, you make effort; how can you ma...

Deva means God, Viramo means interval, pause, period. God is in the interval, in the pause between two words, two thoughts, two desires, two emotions, two feelings – wherever there is a pause: between sleep and waking or between waking and sleep, in the pause; between body and soul, in the ...

Deva means divine, and aruna means early morning, dawn… the sun is just going to rise, just before sunrise. Mm? the East becomes red but the sun is not yet on the horizon – it is coming; it is very imminent, just within a second it will be there but it is not there yet. That is the most pre...

Meditation means no-thought, no-mind, no words. They have all been left behind; one has come to an immense, infinite silence. But that silence is not dead, it is a singing silence. It is throbbing, pulsating with life. It has a dancing quality to it. You cannot see the dance, you can only f...

Without meditation one is bound to live in misery. One can cover it up, one can find a few consolations, one has to find a few consolations otherwise life would be intolerable. One has to remain occupied so that one does not feel the inner emptiness. And people find a thousand and one occup...