Question 2: Osho, If one experiences or understands inwardly the deep feeling of becoming as a dry leaf to be moved only by the existence itself, then how can one push oneself to breathe or jump or do anything at all but lie flat on the earth and dissolve? First, to experience and to unders...

The existence is not willing for that. And it is good that it is not willing for that; otherwise, just as you are neurotic, the whole would go neurotic. So many wills imposing themselves upon existence, and if the existence were to yield to each and everybody’s desire… Just think what would...

Osho on Ramakrishna Bhakti yoga and Path of Devotion Ramakrishna said that bhakti yoga was the most suitable approach because it was the most suitable for him. That is the basic window through which he came under the sky. It is not a question of an approach being suitable or unsuitable for ...

THIS IS ONE of the most basic things. Try to understand as deeply as possible. The mind can see only one pole, and reality is two poles, the two opposite poles together. The mind can see one extreme; in the one extreme the other is hidden, but the mind cannot penetrate it. And unless you se...

Question 2: Beloved Osho, Is Misunderstanding natural to the Human Mind? Milarepa, misunderstanding is certainly natural to the human mind. Mind is a misunderstanding, and through mind whatsoever you understand is misunderstanding. Understanding arises only when mind is absent, because what...

Question 1: Beloved Osho, Research over the past few years has suggested that certain states of consciousness brought about by meditation techniques appear to evoke specific brainwave patterns. these states are now being created by electronic and auditory stimulation of the brain, and they ...

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 Devotion Devotion, the path of devotion, is the path of surrender. ♦ The feminine mind will need a path of devotion -- the path of Narad, Meera, Chaitanya, Jesus. ♦ Love is freedom, but not total. If love becomes devotion, then it becomes total freedom. It means surrendering ...

Question 3 For years I am most of the time witnessing and I feel like it is a disease. So is it that there are two kinds of witnessing and mine is wrong? Tell me It must be wrong; otherwise it cannot be felt like a disease. Self consciousness is not consciousness of the self, and there is t...

[A sannyasin who bakes said that because of his work he was unable to do the meditations, and should he do anything else. Osho said that when he had time he could meditate alone… ] Baking is a good meditation. Put your love into it, your whole awareness into it. Just don’t do it for the mon...

Osho Quotes on Ego All our dreams are our ego projections. ♦ The ego is your enemy, not your friend. ♦ The ego is a deep desire to dominate. The ego is a deep desire that says, "I am special, higher, bigger, greater than you." ♦ The ego does not, cannot live in the present, because the pres...

Question 5 : If we are all buddhas why did we fall into ignorance and unawareness? Because you are Buddhas. A rock cannot fall into unawareness. Because you are Buddhas you can fall: only awareness can fall into unawareness, only an alive person can die, only a loving person can hale, and o...

Question 3: Can meditation be learned, or is it, like love, a state of being that comes as a present? Prem Prabhati, meditation cannot be learned in a positive way, but it can be learned in a negative way. This is very important to understand: the basic method of meditation is negative. Wha...

The word `God' is not God. The word `love' is not love. The word `fire' is not fire. So the first thing is to remember: don't get attached too much to words, don't get obsessed too much with words. Words are only symbols, indicative: use them, but don't become burdened too much by them. If ...

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...

In the beginning, effort will be there in Meditation 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 med...

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 ...

Don’t be in a hurry to find any answer, otherwise some rubbish will kill the answer. Don’t allow your mind to kill the question. And the way of the mind to kill the question is to supply answers, unlived, unexperienced. You are truth! But it can happen only in utter silence, when not a sing...

Question 3: In meditation the distraction is often physical pain. Would you talk about meditating on pain while pain is happening? This is what I was talking about. If you feel pain, be attentive to it, don’t do anything. Attention is the great sword — it cuts everything. You simply pay att...

Question 3: Osho, What do you mean by understanding something in meditation? how does one go about it, and what part of oneself is involved in the understanding? Nigel, meditation and understanding are synonymous. So when I say "understand in meditation," I am simply saying to be silent, qu...

Question 2: Osho, What really is the difference between a Baul, a Tantrika, a Bhakta, and a Sufi? Do they all belong to the path of love? They seem to be intermingled. Please enlighten. THE boundaries are overlapping. They are all on the path of love, but still there are subtle distinctions...

Osho Quotes on Meditation As you become more and more mature in your meditation, sex becomes less and less interesting. The day you become fully attuned with existence, sex disappears just like a dewdrop in the early morning sun. ♦ Except meditation, everything can be done by the mind; ever...

There is no need to say, "I am sad." The fact is that you are a witness that a cloud of sadness is passing over you. There is anger - you can simply be a witness. There is no need to say, "I am angry." You are never angry - there is no way for you to be angry - you are always a witness. The...

Question 3: Osho, You mentioned that rapid eye movements indicate mental processes and that if eye movements are stopped the mental process will also stop. But this physiological control of the mental processes, this stopping of eye movements, seems to create psychic tensions such as happen...

Question 8 : Beloved Osho, Yes, Yes, Yes, Osho. Yes. Mukta, that’s what prayer is. Prayer consists of only one single word. That is the meaning of AMEN: it means yes. If you have said yes with your total heart, you have said all that can be said, that need be said. If you can say yes with y...

Question 4: Osho, It seems that my problems are getting more and more since i have become your sannyasin. Is that your work? It is my work. My work is to make you more and more aware, and when you become more aware you become aware of more problems. Those problems were there before. I don’t...

The whole ignorance of mind consists in not being in the present. Mind is always moving: into the future, or into the past. Mind is never here and now. It cannot be. The very nature of mind is such that it cannot be in the present, because mind has to think, and in the present moment there ...

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...

Beyond Mars and Venus Early one morning, before sunrise, a fisherman went to a river. On the bank he felt something underfoot, and found it to be a small sack of stones. He picked up the sack, and putting his net aside, squatted on the bank to await the sunrise. He was waiting for dawn to b...

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 ...

Once you have seen the light within you will be able to see it everywhere. God has to be freed from all concepts of personality. Personality is a prison. God has to be freed from any particular form; only then he can have all the forms. He has to be freed from any particular name so that al...

Question 4 Since i have been here, i have lost my ability to concentrate. it is hard for me to utter a logical sentence. and i have become very forgetful. i feel myself as a stupid child. is that the way to me intelligence you talk about? The ability to concentrate is not something to feel ...

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 walk...

Mind is vacillation, mind is either/or, mind is always in that space of “to be or not to be.” If you really want to grow, mature, if you really want to know what this life is all about, don’t vacillate. Commit, involve! Involve yourself with life, get committed to life, don’t remain a spect...

on What is Meditation and Concentration What is meditation? -- because this whole Heart Sutra is about the innermost core of meditation. Let us go into it. The first thing: meditation is not concentration. In concentration there is a self concentrating and there is an object being concentra...

Question 1 : What's the difference between a Madman and a Devotee? Not much. And yet much. Both are mad but their madness has a totally different quality to it; the center of madness is different. The madman is mad from the head; the devotee is mad from the heart. The madman is mad because ...

Question 5: Through doing your meditations, the body is getting stronger and healthier, and awareness less than ever. The more i jump and dance, the louder i snore. Why is this” Nothing is wrong in snoring; it is as holy as anything else. And nothing is wrong in the body. Never think in ter...

Osho Quotes on Mind The mind is not your reality; it is a false interpretation. You are not the mind, you have never been a mind, you can never be the mind. That is your problem- you have become identified with something which is not. You are like a beggar who believes that he has a kingdom...

Question 1 Why Meditate Why Seek? I DON'T SAY that you should meditate, I don't insist that you should meditate. It is you who are seeking it. And you have to seek it. It is just like a man who is ill and asks, "Why take medicine?" Because you are ill, that's why. If you are not ill, then t...

Question 1: Osho, Please explain how i can meditate over something without using my mind. Dinesh, Meditation has nothing to do with mind; meditation simply means a state of no-mind. The functioning of the mind is the only disturbance in meditation. If you are trying to achieve meditation TH...

Osho on how to Stop Thinking Question 1: I have been Thinking all day of a way to ask the Question: How to stop thinking? THINKING cannot be stopped. Not that it does not stop, but it cannot be stopped. It stops of its own accord. This distinction has to be understood, otherwise you can go ...

Question 3 If the ego is unreal, then does it not mean that the unconscious mind, the accumulation of memories in the brain cells, and the process of transformation that is the subject matter of spirituality, is also unreal, a dream process? No. Ego is unreal; brain cells are not unreal. Eg...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, Lately, I feel that the longing inside to go beyond the mind and experience something more is growing. It seems like such a long process – Does it have to take a long time? Atit Yama, the longing to go beyond the mind is the only longing worthwhile. All that man des...

DRIVE ALL BLAME INTO ONE. The third sutra. The ordinary mind always throws the responsibility on somebody else. It is always the other who is making you suffer. Your wife is making you suffer, your husband is making you suffer, your parents are making you suffer, your children are making yo...

The basic problem before a spiritual seeker is not how to know, but how to be. Knowing is not the problem, it is easy. The real problem is how to be, how the being should be strengthened. Knowing can grow easily; knowing has its own ways of growing. But knowing is a parasitic growth. Knowin...

Osho Quotes on Meditation You are feeling empty because you have not yet encountered your real self, you have not come to your authentic individuality. Meditation is the way to individuality. It makes you a light unto yourself. ♦ Remember it: as meditation deepens, you become farther and fa...

I have heard a story about an old doctor. One day his assistant phoned him because he was in very great difficulty - his patient was choking himself to death. A billiard ball was stuck in his throat, and the assistant was at a loss for what to do. So he asked the old doctor, 'What am I supp...

Osho Quotes on Meditation If you are meditating, Buddha says, let it be samyak -- right meditation. Don't make too much fuss about it, don't make a tension out of it. Don't create anguish. Don't become mad. Don't be aggressive. And he also says that that does not mean to forget all about it...

My whole effort here is to teach you consciousness, not concentration Question 4 Since I have been here, I have lost my ability to concentrate. It is hard for me to utter a logical sentence. And I have become very forgetful. I feel myself as a stupid child. Is that the way to me intelligenc...

Our minds always think in terms of dichotomies. They cannot think without dividing. Whenever we go to think about something, we dissect it, we divide it into two. That is the methodology of the mind. Mind cannot think in terms of Unity, in terms of synthesis. Mind thinks in terms of analysi...

Osho Quotes on Meditation The moment you put the mind aside, you have entered into the world of meditation. ♦ My whole effort is to create a no-mind state in you. I am not here to convince you about anything. I am not here to give you a dogma, a creed to live by. I am here to take all creed...

Meditation is the door to the divine. To live in the mind is to live in the mundane. Mind belongs to the marketplace; in fact it is prepared for the market-place — for competition, for ego trips, for politics, for money, power, prestige. From the kindergarten, school to the university we cr...

Concentration is not Meditation; it is just the opposite of Meditation Question 8 Osho, I have been doing meditation for almost forty years, but I am as far away from the goal of god-realization as ever. What should I do? Surendranath, to make God a goal is to start in a wrong direction. Go...

Question 2 I have been thinking of becoming a Sannyasin for at least seven years. Why am I not able to take the jump? It seems you are not aware of death at all. If you are aware of death you cannot postpone like that. And now, because you have been postponing for seven years, postponement ...

Meditation is a state of awareness, watchfulness, witnessing. Meditation is a state of awareness, watchfulness, witnessing. Ordinarily we live just like a robot: we go through all the gestures of living, but they are only gestures; there is no consciousness behind it. We are functioning lik...

In the search for the first principle, silence is the door – the only door. And except it there is no way to approach the first principle. The first principle can be known only when you move to the primordial state of your being. Thinking is secondary. Existence precedes thinking, existence...

26 Evening has merged into night. Some people have come. They say, "You teach nothingness. But the thought of nothingness. terrifies us. Is there nothing we can hold on to?" I tell them that courage is certainly essential for a leap into the void. But those who leap in, do not attain nothin...

Question 2: Kindly explain contemplation, concentration and meditation. 'Contemplation' means directed thinking. We all think; that is not contemplation. That thinking is undirected, vague, leading nowhere. Really, our thinking is not contemplation, but what Freudians call association. One ...

There is nothing more noble than meditation. There is nothing more divine either. Meditation is the bridge between the earth and the sky, between the dust and the divine, between the base metal and gold. Meditation is the process of rebirth. It is giving birth to yourself. It is a process —...

Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation Question 3 : Beloved 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 c...

Sri Aurobindo says somewhere that the whole life is yoga — and it is so. Everything can become a meditation. And unless everything becomes a meditation, meditation has not happened to you. Meditation cannot be a part, a fragment. Either it is — and when it is you are wholly in it — or it is...

If the mind is filled with dreams you cannot see rightly. If the heart is filled with desires you cannot feel rightly. Desires, dreams and hopes – the future disturbs you and divides you. But whatsoever is, is in the present. Desire leads you into the future, and life is here and now. Reali...

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 i...

Question 3 : You said last night that the more the mind grows, the more we know that the nature of the mind is confusion. But isn’t it true that this growth of the mind also leads to clarity? Whatsoever I was just saying is related to this. Yes, it leads to clarity, because only when you ha...

A person who wastes his life in accumulating things that can be purchased is simply being stupid, because those are not the things which can give meaning to your life. They don’t have any real value; they have a price but no value. So this is one of the most significant criterions to judge ...

[A sannyasin, leaving, asks: How do I find when I am the witness?] It is something self-evident: when you are, you know it; no extemal proof is needed. If the question arises that means that you are not, otherwise the question does not arise at all. It is like having a headache: nobody asks...

The dark no-moon night is descending. The birds have returned to their nests and in the gathering darkness there is great chirping on the trees before they retire. The lamps are being lit in the city. In a short while, the sky is going to be studded with stars and the earth glittering with ...

Question 2: 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 mak...

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...

While you are here with me, be here with me; be totally here with me so that you can learn a new mode of movement, so that you can move into eternity, not in time. Time is the world and eternity is God; horizontal is the world, vertical is God. Both meet at a point — that is where Jesus is ...

A warrior can be of two types: one is engaged in external war, war with others; the other is interior war, war with one’s own sleep, unconsciousness, war with one’s own stupidity, lethargy. Don’t be a warrior in the external sense of the word, that is violence; but certainly be a warrior in...

Question 2 : At times I feel like I can just sit silently and wait for eternity – and other times like sobbing with the futility of sitting outside a gate I cannot even see – frozen between action and inaction. Does one miss by demanding? Is impatience a lack of trust? One misses only by de...

Osho Quotes on Meditation Go deep into meditation. And by meditation I mean awareness, watchfulness, witnessing. It is only through meditation that the inner light begins. Otherwise man lives in darkness. Meditation enkindles something that is latent in all of us, but needs to be provoked. ...

Osho Quotes on Let Go Let go, and move closer to existence in silence and peace, in meditation. -Osho, "Beyond Psychology“ ◈ Relax, let go. But remember only one thing: You are a witness. -Osho, "Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind“ ◈ Just two small things: meditation and let-go. Remember thes...

Osho Quotes on Meditation Mind is a mechanism to distort. Hence, whether you are on the, path of love or on the path of meditation, one thing is needed on both the paths as a basic requirement: that the mind should be put aside. Mind goes on distorting. ♦ Drop the mind and move into deep me...

Mind is just a disturbance. Mind is just a disturbance in consciousness. It is not your nature; it is just a disturbance. The moment there is no disturbance, there is no mind. And this state of no-mindedness is the state of consciousness – the expansion of consciousness. You drop into yours...

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 on Devotion People ask me what, in my religion, will be the place of worship, of devotion, because they think worship and devotion are impossible without a God.I want to say to you that they are impossible with a God. The whole idea of God is so ugly that I cannot be devoted to such an...

The most difficult thing, the almost impossible thing for the mind, is to remain in the middle, is to remain balanced. And to move from one thing to its opposite is the easiest. To move from one polarity to the opposite polarity is the nature of the mind. This has to be understood very deep...

The unity of emptiness WHEN THOUGHT OBJECTS VANISH, THE THINKING SUBJECT VANISHES, AS WHEN THE MIND VANISHES, OBJECTS VANISH. THINGS ARE OBJECTS BECAUSE OF THE SUBJECT; THE MIND IS SUCH BECAUSE OF THINGS. UNDERSTAND THE RELATIVITY OF THESE TWO AND THE BASIC REALITY: THE UNITY OF EMPTINESS. ...

Osho on What is Meditation 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 ...

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. ...

Osho Quotes on Meditation Any action in which you can be total becomes meditation. ♦ Choose one meditation and then put all your effort in it. That effort has to be very regular because will is created only out of regularity. It has to be very persistent and a continuity has to be maintaine...

Question 3 I feel so much resistance against meditation and I don't have this desire for god that you speak about. Is this the right place for me? If you feel much resistance against meditation it simply shows that deep down you are alert that something is going to happen which will change ...

Osho Quotes on Meditation If you want to do Vipassana, or any silent meditation, Dynamic Meditation becomes absolutely essential, because Christianity having poisoned your mind, that poison has to be thrown out. You have to go completely crazy to throw it out; otherwise that craziness remai...

Question 3 Beloved Osho, Eight years ago I saw you on TV. There was a report about the Poona ashram. I saw you doing the energy darshan, putting your finger on to the third eye of some people, causing them to fall down. At that moment I recognized you. It took me six years to sit in front o...

Question 1 Beloved Osho, Why can a man not become meditative? How can a movement for meditation be created? Meditation is a danger, it is a risk. It is a danger to all the vested interests, and it is a risk to the mind. Mind and meditation cannot co-exist. There is no question of having bot...

Now we will enter into the sutra. Do nought with the body but relax; shut firm the mouth and silent remain; empty your mind and think of nought. Do nought with the body but relax. Now you can understand what relaxation means. It means no urge to activity in you. Relaxation doesn’t mean lyin...

Osho Quotes on Meditation Meditation is not contemplation either because it is not thinking at all -- consistent, inconsistent, crazy, sane. It is not thinking at all; it is witnessing. It is just sitting silently deep within yourself, looking at whatsoever is happening inside and outside b...

Question 7 : I have been doing all the five meditations every day regularly for three years and because of these meditations i cannot do anything else. i am feeling very happy but my family is worried. what should i do? You are overdoing it, sir. You have to choose one meditation. One is en...

Question 4: When does Discipline become Meditation? Never. Discipline never becomes meditation; meditation certainly becomes-a discipline. Don’t start with discipline otherwise you will never arrive at meditation. Start with meditation and you will arrive at a discipline, and the discipline...

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...

We go on avoiding our own misery. If you feel miserable, you put on the radio or the tv and you become engaged. You start reading the newspaper so that you can forget your misery, or you go to the movies, or you go to your woman or your man. You go to the club, you go shopping in the market...

Man is a potentiality, a possibility. We can miss it millions miss it, and the reason why we miss is very simple: we think that we have already attained life. We make birth synonymous with life — that is our fundamental misunderstanding. Birth is only an opportunity to be alive, it is not s...

Mind itself means projection, so unless you transcend the mind, whatever you come to experience is projection. Mind is the projecting mechanism. If you experience any visions of light, of bliss, even of the divine, these are all projections. Unless you come to a total stopping of the mind y...

How you look at things depends on you, not on things. Unless you come to a point where you drop the interpreting mind and look direct, look immediate, mind is your mediator. It brings you things distorted, it brings you things mixed with interpretations. They are not pure. So the only way t...

Osho Quotes on No-Mind To be aflame with silence, with joy, is wisdom. It is not through logic but through love. It is not through words but through a wordless state called meditation or a state of no-mind, satori, samadhi. ♦ Only no-mind can be without any duality, because it is empty. The...

Question 4: Osho, What is prayer? It is a tremendously significant question because I do not have a God, but I still have some place for prayer in my vision, in my approach. Prayer ordinarily is towards the concept of a God. I do not think that is a right kind of prayer, because in the firs...

Question 1: Osho, Is it possible to meditate without any technique? Deva Maturo, the question you have asked is certainly of great importance because meditation, as such, needs no technique at all. But techniques are needed to remove the obstacles in the way of meditation. So it has to be u...