osho quotes

Comparision

Comparison brings inferiority, superiority. When you don't compare, all inferiority, all superiority, disappears. Then you are, you are simply there. A small bush or a big high tree--it doesn't matter; you are yourself. You are needed. A grass leaf is needed as much as the biggest star. Without the grass leaf God will be less than he is. This sound of the cuckoo is needed as much as any Buddha; the world will be less, will be less rich if this cuckoo disappears. Just look around. All is needed, and everything fits together. It is an organic unity: nobody is higher and nobody is lower, nobody superior, nobody inferior. Everybody is incomparably unique.

Osho The Sun Rises in the Evening Chapter 4

The Fool

A fool is one who goes on trusting; a fool is one who goes on trusting
against all his experience. You deceive him, and he trusts you; and
you deceive him again, and he trusts you; and you deceive him again,
and he trusts you. Then you will say that he is a fool, he does not
learn. His trust is tremendous; his trust is so pure that nobody can
corrupt it.
Be a fool in the Taoist sense, in the Zen sense. Don´t try to create a
wall of knowledge around you. Whatsoever experience comes to you, let
it happen, and then go on dropping it. Go on cleaning your mind
continuously; go on dying to the past so you remain in the present,
herenow, as if just born, just a babe.
In the beginning it is going to be very difficult. The world will
start taking advantage of you...let them. They are poor fellows. Even
if you are cheated and deceived and robbed, let it happen, because
that which is really yours cannot be robbed from you, that which is
really yours nobody can steal from you.
And each time you don´t allow situations to corrupt you, that
opportunity will become an integration inside. Your soul will become

The Source

Zen asks you to come out of the head and go to the basic source.... It is not that Zen is not aware of the uses of energy in the head, but if all the energy is used in the head, you will never become aware of your eternity.... You will never know as an experience what it is to be one with the whole. When the energy is just at the center, pulsating, when it is not moving anywhere, neither in the head nor in the heart, but it is at the very source from where the heart takes it, the head takes it, pulsating at the very source--that is the very meaning of Zazen. Zazen means just sitting at the very source, not moving anywhere, a tremendous force arises, a transformation of energy into light and love, into greater life, into compassion, into creativity. It can take many forms. But first you have to learn how to be at the source. Then the source will decide where your potential is. You can relax at the source, and it will take you to your very potential.

Osho The Zen Manifesto: Freedom from Oneself Chapter 11

Past Lives

The child can become conscious only if in his past life he has
meditated enough, has created enough meditative energy to fight with
the darkness that death brings. One simply is lost in an oblivion and
then suddenly finds a new womb and forgets completely about the old
body. There is a discontinuity. This darkness, this unconsciousness
creates the discontinuity.
The East has been working hard to penetrate these barriers. And ten
thousand years' work has not been in vain. Everybody can penetrate to
the past life, or many past lives. But for that you have to go deeper
into your meditation, for two reasons: unless you go deeper, you
cannot find the door to another life; secondly, you have to be deeper
in meditation because if you find the door of another life, a flood of
events will come into the mind. It is hard enough even to carry one
life....

Osho Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen Chapter 7

Ripeness

Only if your meditation has brought you a light that shines in every night will even death not be a death to you but a door to the divine. With the light in your heart, death itself is transformed into a door, and you enter into the universal spirit; you become one with the ocean. And unless you know the oceanic experience, you have lived in vain. Now is always the time, and the fruit is always ripe. You just need to gather courage to enter into your inner forest. The fruit is always ripe and the time is always the right time. There is no such thing as wrong time.

Osho A Sudden Clash of Thunder Chapter 6

Ice-olation

We are miserable because we are too much in the self. What does it mean when I say we are too much in the self? And what exactly happens when we are too much in the self? Either you can be in existence or you can be in the self--both are not possible together. To be in the self means to be apart, to be separate. To be in the self means to become an island. To be in the self means to draw a boundary line around you. To be in the self means to make a distinction between 'this I am' and 'that I am not'. The definition, the boundary, between "I" and "not I" is what the self is--the self isolates. And it makes you frozen--you are no longer flowing. If you are flowing the self cannot exist. Hence people have become almost like ice-cubes. They don't have any warmth, they don't have any love--love is warmth and they are afraid of love. If warmth comes to them they will start melting and the boundaries will disappear. In love the boundaries disappear; in joy also the boundaries disappear, because joy is not cold.

Osho Zen: The Path of Paradox, Volume 1 Chapter 5

Control

Controlled persons are always nervous because deep down turmoil is still hidden. If you are uncontrolled, flowing, alive, then you are not nervous. There is no question of being nervous - whatsoever happens, happens. You have no expectations for the future, you are not performing. Then why should you be nervous?

To control that mind, one has to remain so cold and frozen that no life energy is allowed to move into your limbs, into your body. If energy is allowed to move, those repressions will surface. That's why people have learned how to be cold, how to touch others and yet not touch them, how to see people and yet not see them. People live with clichés - "Hallo. How are you?" Nobody means anything. These are just to avoid the real encounter of two persons. People don't look into each other's eyes, they don't hold hands, they don't try to feel each other's energy, they don't allow each other to pour - very afraid, somehow just managing, cold and dead, in a straitjacket.

Osho Dang Dang Doko Dang Chapter 5
Controlled persons are always nervous because deep down turmoil is still hidden. If you are uncontrolled, flowing, alive, then you are not nervous. There is no question of being nervous - whatsoever happens, happens. You have no expectations for the future, you are not performing. Then why should you be nervous?

To control that mind, one has to remain so cold and frozen that no life energy is allowed to move into your limbs, into your body. If energy is allowed to move, those repressions will surface. That's why people have learned how to be cold, how to touch others and yet not touch them, how to see people and yet not see them. People live with clichés - "Hallo. How are you?" Nobody means anything. These are just to avoid the real encounter of two persons. People don't look into each other's eyes, they don't hold hands, they don't try to feel each other's energy, they don't allow each other to pour - very afraid, somehow just managing, cold and dead, in a straitjacket.

Osho Dang Dang Doko Dang Chapter 5

Turning in

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 frustration.That each desire
brings misery, that there is no fulfillment through desire. That you
never reach anywhere, that contentment is impossible. Seeing this
truth, that running after desires takes you nowhere, you stop. Not
that you make any effort to stop. If you make any effort to stop it is
again running, in a subtle way. You are still desiring--maybe now it
is desirelessness that you desire. If you are making an effort to go
in, you are still going out. Any effort can only take you out,
outwards. All journeys are outward journeys, there is no inward
journey. How can you journey inwards? You are already there, there is
no point in going. When going stops, journeying disappears; when
desiring is no more clouding your mind, you are in. This is called
turning in. But it is not a turning at all, it is simply not going
out.

Celebration

Life is a moment to celebrate, to enjoy. Make it fun, a celebration,
and then you will enter the temple. The temple is not for the
long-faced, it has never been for them. Look at life--do you see
sadness anywhere? Have you ever seen a tree depressed? Have you seen a
bird anxiety-ridden? Have you seen an animal neurotic? No, life is not
like that, not at all. Only man has gone wrong somewhere, and he has
gone wrong somewhere because he thinks himself to be very wise, very
clever. Your cleverness is your disease. Don't be too wise. Always
remember to stop; don't go to the extreme. A little foolishness and a
little wisdom is good, and the right combination makes you a buddha.

Osho I Celebrate Myself Chapter 4

Possibilities

Mind can accept any boundary anywhere. But the reality is that, by its
very nature, existence cannot have any boundary, because what will be
beyond the boundary? - again another sky.
That's why I am saying skies upon skies are available for your flight.
Don't be content easily. Those who remain content easily remain small:
small are their joys, small are their ecstasies, small are their
silences, small is their being. But there is no need! This smallness
is your own imposition upon your freedom, upon your unlimited
possibilities, upon your unlimited potential.

Osho Live Zen Chapter 2

We Are The World

When thousands and thousands of people around the earth are
celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there
is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and with
such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and
spontaneity, how can there be a war?... Life has been given to you to
create, and to rejoice, and to celebrate. When you cry and weep, when
you are miserable, you are alone. When you celebrate, the whole
existence participates with you. Only in celebration do we meet the
ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration do we go beyond the circle
of birth and death.

Osho I Celebrate Myself Chapter 4

The Outsider

So you are feeling yourself an outsider. This is good. This is the
transitory period. Now you have to be alert not to fill yourself with
pain and misery. Now that God is no longer there, who is going to
console you? You don't need any consolation. Humanity has come of age.
Be a man, be a woman, and stand on your own feet.... The only way to
be connected with existence is to go inwards, because there at the
center you are still connected. You have been disconnected physically
from your mother. That disconnection was absolutely necessary to make
you an individual in your own right. But you are not disconnected from
the universe. Your connection with the universe is of consciousness.
You cannot see it, so you have to go deep down with great awareness,
watchfulness, witnessing, and you will find the connection. The buddha
is the connection!

Osho God is Dead: Now Zen is the Only Living Truth Chapter 3

The Miser

The moment you become miserly you are closed to the basic phenomenon
of life: expansion, sharing. The moment you start clinging to things,
you have missed the target--you have missed. Because things are not
the target, you, your innermost being, is the target--not a beautiful
house, but a beautiful you; not much money, but a rich you; not many
things, but an open being, available to millions of things.

Osho Ancient Music in the Pines Chapter 2

Mind

This is the situation of your head: I see cycle-handles and pedals and
strange things that you have gathered from everywhere. Such a small
head...and no space to live in! And that rubbish goes on moving in
your head; your head goes on spinning and weaving - it keeps you
occupied.
Just think what kind of thoughts go on inside your mind. One day just
sit, close your doors, and write down for half an hour whatsoever is
passing in your mind, and you will understand what I mean and you will
be surprised what goes on inside your mind. It remains in the
background, it is constantly there, it surrounds you like a cloud.
With this cloud you cannot know reality; you cannot attain to
spiritual perception.
This cloud has to be dropped. And it is just with your decision to
drop it that it will disappear. You are clinging to it - the cloud is
not interested in you, remember it.

Osho The Sun Rises in the Evening Chapter 9

Adventure

Zen says truth has nothing to do with authority, truth has nothing to
do with tradition, truth has nothing to do with the past - truth is a
radical, personal realization. You have to come to it.
Knowledge is certain; the search for personal knowing is very, very
hazardous. Nobody can guarantee it. If you ask me if I can guarantee
anything, I say I cannot guarantee you anything. I can only guarantee
danger, that much is certain. I can only guarantee you a long
adventure with every possibility of going astray and never reaching
the goal. But one thing is certain: the very search will help you to
grow.
I can guarantee only growth. Danger will be there, sacrifice will be
there; you will be moving every day into the unknown, into the
uncharted, and there will be no map to follow, no guide to follow.
Yes, there are millions of dangers and you can go astray and you can
get lost, but that is the only way one grows.
Insecurity is the only way to grow, to face danger is the only way to
grow, to accept the challenge of the unknown is the only way to grow.

Moment To Moment
The past is no more and the future is not yet: both are unnecessarily moving in directions which don't exist. One used to exist, but no longer exists, and one has not even started to exist. The only right person is one who lives moment to moment, whose arrow is directed to the moment, who is always here and now; wherever he is, his whole consciousness, his whole being, is involved in the reality of here and in the reality of now. That's the only right direction. Only such a man can enter into the golden gate. The present is the golden gate. Here-now is the golden gate. ...And you can be in the present only if you are not ambitious--no accomplishment, no desire to achieve power, money, prestige, even enlightenment, because all ambition leads you into the future. Only a non-ambitious man can remain in the present. A man who wants to be in the present has not to think, has just to see and enter the gate. Experience will come, but experience has not to be premeditated.
Osho The Great Zen Master Ta Hui Chapter 37

We Are The World

When thousands and thousands of people around the earth are celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and with such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and spontaneity, how can there be a war?... Life has been given to you to create, and to rejoice, and to celebrate. When you cry and weep, when you are miserable, you are alone. When you celebrate, the whole existence participates with you. Only in celebration do we meet the ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration do we go beyond the circle of birth and death.

Osho I Celebrate Myself Chapter 4

Suppression

In Sanskrit the name is alaya vigyan, the house where you go on throwing into the basement things that you want to do but you cannot, because of social conditions, culture, civilization. But they go on collecting there, and they affect your actions, your life, very indirectly. Directly, they cannot face you--you have forced them into darkness, but from the dark side they go on influencing your behavior. They are dangerous, it is dangerous to keep all those inhibitions inside you. It is possible that these are the things that come to a climax when a person goes insane. Insanity is nothing but all these suppressions coming to a point where you cannot control them anymore. But madness is acceptable, while meditation is not--and meditation is the only way to make you absolutely sane.

Osho The Great Zen Master Ta Hui Chapter 11

Innocence

Zen says that if you drop knowledge - and within knowledge everything is included; your name, your identity, everything, because this has been given to you by others - if you drop all that has been given by others, you will have a totally different quality to your being: innocence. This will be a crucifixion of the persona, the personality, and there will be a resurrection of your innocence. You will become a child again, reborn.

Osho Dang Dang Doko Dang Chapter 7

Awareness

Mind can never be intelligent - only no-mind is intelligent. Only
no-mind is original and radical. Only no-mind is revolutionary -
revolution in action.
This mind gives you a sort of stupor. Burdened by the memories of the
past, burdened by the projections of the future, you go on living - at
the minimum. You don't live at the maximum. Your flame remains very
dim.
Once you start dropping thoughts, the dust that you have collected in
the past, the flame arises - clean, clear, alive, young. Your whole
life becomes a flame, and a flame without any smoke. That is what
awareness is.

Osho A Sudden Clash of Thunder Chapter 1