Osho Quotes – Quotations from Osho

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Your Heart Is Just a Blood Pumping Station

"Your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your sentiments, all are centered in your head. It is just a fallacy to think that your feelings are in the heart. Your heart is just a blood pumping station.

"When we are talking about the empty heart, we are really talking about the empty mind. Buddha has used the word heart instead of mind because mind has become associated with the idea that it is only the process of thinking, and the process of feeling is in the heart, and the heart is deeper.

"These ideas have been created by the poets. But the truth is, you can call it empty mind or you can call it empty heart; it is the same. Emptiness – you are just a watcher and all around there is nothing with which you are identified, there is nothing to which you are clinging. This non-clinging watchfulness is the empty mind, no-mind, or empty heart. These are simply words. The real thing is emptiness – of all thoughts, feelings, sentiments, emotions. Only a single point of witnessing remains."

Osho, The Buddha: The Emptiness of the Heart, Talk #8
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Rebellion Is Individual

"I don't preach revolution. I am utterly against revolution. I say unto you that my word for the future, and for those who are intelligent enough in the present, is rebellion. What is the difference?

"Rebellion is individual action; it has nothing to do with the crowd. Rebellion has nothing to do with politics, power, violence. Rebellion has something to do with changing your consciousness, your silence, your being. It is a spiritual metamorphosis.

"And each individual passing through a rebellion is not fighting with anybody else, but is only fighting with his own darkness. Swords are not needed, bombs are not needed. What is needed is more alertness, more meditativeness, more love, more prayerfulness, more gratitude. Surrounded by all these qualities you are born anew."

Osho, Satyam Shivam Sundaram: Truth Godliness Beauty, Talk #26
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A Meditator Needs No Personal Guidance

"If you can become just your own self, if you can blossom into your intrinsic nature, then only you will have blissfulness – a peace which cannot be expressed in words, and a certain poetry to your being; a certain dance to your being, because you will be in tune with existence. To be in tune with yourself is the only way to be in tune with existence. Nobody needs personal guidance, because all personal guidance is a beautiful name for dependence on somebody and he is going to distort you."

"A meditator needs no personal guidance. A meditator, on the contrary, needs only one thing: the atmosphere of meditation. He needs other meditators; he needs to be surrounded by other meditators. Because whatever goes on happening within us is not only within us, it affects people who are close by. In this communion people are at different stages of meditation. To meditate with these people, just to sit silently with these people, and you will be pulled more and more towards your own intrinsic potentiality."

Osho, The Invitation, Talk #12
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Relaxation Is Only a Beginning

"Relaxation is good, but it is only a beginning; it just prepares the ground for meditation. But meditation is a totally different affair. You have to become aware of your mind stuff. Whatever goes on in your mind you have to become a watcher, and the watcher has to be so deep-rooted that slowly, slowly your mind disappears and only the watcher remains. Then all possibilities of tension, anxiety, anguish, disappear and you will not find even the conflict."

Osho, The New Dawn, Talk #29
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Enlightenment Is Not an Experience

"One of the most fundamental things to be remembered – not only by you but by everyone – is that whatever you come across in your inner journey, you are not it.

"You are the one who is witnessing it. It may be nothingness, it may be blissfulness, it may be silence, but one thing has to be remembered: however beautiful and however enchanting an experience you come across, you are not it. You are the one who is experiencing it. And if you go on and on and on, the ultimate in the journey is the point when there is no experience left – neither silence, nor blissfulness, nor nothingness. There is nothing as an object for you, but only your subjectivity.

"The mirror is empty; it is not reflecting anything. It is you.

"Even great travelers of the inner world have got stuck in beautiful experiences, and have become identified with those experiences, thinking, "I have found myself." They have stopped before reaching the final stage where all experiences disappear. Enlightenment is not an experience."

Osho, The Hidden Splendor, Talk #10
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The Ego Is a Puzzle

"The ego is a puzzle. It is something like darkness – which you can see, which you can feel, which can obstruct your way but which does not exist. It has no positivity. It is simply an absence, an absence of light. The ego does not exist – how can you surrender it? The ego is only an absence of awareness."

"You cannot surrender ego, because it does not exist. You can bring a little awareness, a little consciousness, a little light. Forget completely about the ego; concentrate totally on bringing alertness into your being. And the moment your consciousness has become a flame, concentrated, you will not be able to find the ego."

Osho, The Osho Upanishad, Talk #28
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Nobody Really Wants to Be Free – Because Freedom Brings Responsibility

"Everybody wants freedom as far as talking is concerned, but nobody really is free and nobody really wants to be free, because freedom brings responsibility. It does not come alone. And to be dependent is simple: the responsibility is not on you, the responsibility is on the person you are dependent on.

"So people have made a schizophrenic way of life. They talk about truth, they talk about freedom, and they live in lies, they live in slaveries – slaveries of many kinds, because each slavery frees you from some responsibility. A man who really wants to be free has to accept immense responsibilities. He cannot dump his responsibilities on anybody else. Whatever he does, whatever he is, he is responsible."

Osho, The Path of the Mystic, Talk #16
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My Effort Is to Leave You Alone with Meditation

"My effort is to leave you alone with meditation, with no mediator between you and existence. When you are not in meditation you are separated from existence and that is your suffering. It's the same as when you take a fish out of the ocean and throw it on the bank – the misery and the suffering and the tortures he goes through, the hankering and the effort to reach back to the ocean because it is where he belongs. He is part of the ocean and he cannot remain apart."

Osho, The Last Testament, Vol. 5, Talk #16
(This Osho talk is currently not available in the library or on audio)

I Had Always Wanted Not to Be a Master to Anybody

"I had always wanted not to be a master to anybody. But people want a master, they want to be disciples; hence, I played the role. It is time that I should say to you that now many of you are ready to accept me as the friend."

Osho, The Last Testament, Vol. 3, Talk #25
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Possessiveness Destroys Love

"In my vision, marriages in the commune should be dissolved. People can live together their whole life if they want, but that is not a legal necessity. People should be moving, having as many experiences of love as possible. They should not be possessive. Possessiveness destroys love. And they should not be possessed, because that again destroys your love.

"All human beings are worthy of being loved. There is no need to be tethered to one person for your whole life. That is one of the reasons why all the people around the world look so bored. Why can't they laugh like you? Why can't they dance like you? They are chained with invisible chains: marriage, family, husband, wife, children. They are burdened with all kinds of duties, responsibilities, sacrifices. And you want them to smile and laugh and dance and rejoice? You are asking the impossible.

"Make people's love free, make people non-possessive. But this can happen only if in your meditation you discover your being. It is nothing to practice. I am not saying to you, "Tonight you go to some other woman just as a practice." You will not get anything, and you may lose your wife. And in the morning you will look silly. It is not a question of practicing, it is a question of discovering your being.

"With the discovery of being follows the quality of impersonal lovingness. Then you simply love."

Osho, From Death to Deathlessness, Talk #17
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I Speak to Help You to Be Silent

"I speak to help you to be silent. I say something so that you can go beyond words. I use words to help you to go into wordlessness. It is just like having a thorn in the foot: with another thorn you pull it out. Your mind is full of words, so many, and so much chattering – yakkety-yak, yakkety-yak – it goes on and on. But then people became intoxicated with my words. That was not my purpose. I continuously insisted, "Don't be concerned with my words. Be concerned with my silences, the gaps between the words, the gaps between the lines."

Osho, The Last Testament, Vol. 1, Talk #20
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Doubt Needs Great Courage

"Doubt needs great courage because you will be doubting everything possible. You will be surrounded by all kinds of doubts. All consoling beliefs will be taken away, beliefs which gave you a certain confidence, a certain stability, a certain feeling that you belong to a big tradition, a well-respected religion of holy scriptures, messiahs, representatives of God.

"You had all these things surrounding you. They gave you a cozy feeling that you are not alone. I am trying to do just this: cut away everything that gives you a false, cozy feeling and that keeps you dozing all your life.

"Belief is the opium which all the religions have been giving you in good doses. I am trying to destroy your addiction to the opium. My whole effort is to leave you alone."

Osho, From Personality to Individuality, Talk #13
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Tantra Is Possible Only if You Move Deep Into Meditation

"Tantric experience means neither to be repressive nor to be indulgent. Tantric experience is possible only if you move deep into meditation, otherwise not. When you become very, very still, silent, aware, alert, then only is it possible that you will know something of Tantra. Otherwise, Tantra can also become an excuse for indulgence – a new name, a religious name. And you can move into indulgence behind the name of Tantra. Names won't make much change; your being needs change."

Osho, The Dhammapada:The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10, Talk #12
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Is Awareness a Higher Value Than Love?

"You ask: 'Is awareness a higher value than love?' There is nothing higher and nothing lower. In fact, there are not two values at all. These are the two paths from the valley leading to the peak. One path is of awareness, meditation: the path of Zen we have been talking about these days. And the other is the path of love, the path of the devotees, the bhaktas, the Sufis. These two paths are separate when you start the journey; you have to choose. Whichever you choose is going to lead to the same peak. And as you come closer to the peak you will be surprised: the travelers on the other path are coming closer to you. Slowly slowly, the paths start merging into each other. By the time you have reached the ultimate, they are one.

"The person who follows the path of awareness finds love as a consequence of his awareness, as a by-product, as a shadow. And the person who follows the path of love finds awareness as a consequence, as a by-product, as a shadow of love. They are two sides of the same coin.

"And remember: if your awareness lacks love then it is still impure; it has not yet known one hundred percent purity. It is not yet really awareness; it must be mixed with unawareness. It is not pure light; there must be pockets of darkness inside you still working, functioning, influencing you, dominating you. If your love is without awareness, then it is not love yet. It must be something lower, something closer to lust than to prayer.

"So let it be a criterion if you follow the path of awareness, let love be the criterion. When your awareness suddenly blooms into love, know perfectly well that awareness has happened, samadhi has been achieved. If you follow the path of love, then let awareness function as a criterion, as a touchstone. When suddenly, from nowhere, at the very center of your love. a flame of awareness starts arising, know perfectly well…rejoice! You have come home."

Osho, Ah, This!, Talk #8
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I Don’t Teach You Optimism – I Teach You Transcendence

"I don't teach you optimism. In the West it is very fashionable nowadays; it is called "positive thinking." That is a new name for optimism; the old name has become a little too out of fashion, out-of-date. The new name is positive thinking. I don't teach you positive thinking, because positive thinking carries the negative in its wake.

"I teach you transcendence – neither positive nor negative. Be a watcher: witness both. When there is day, witness the day, and when there is night, witness the night – and don't get identified with either. You are neither the day nor the night; you are the transcendental consciousness. Become more and more centered there in that transcendence.

"True religion is not positive, nor is it negative. It is neither via negativa nor via positiva; it is via transcendence."

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 4, Talk #2
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The Cyclone Is the Center

"There is no center to this cyclone, the cyclone is the center. We have a chronic habit of dividing things into two, we have a chronic habit of duality: God and the world, body and soul, the lower and the higher the good and bad. The habit persists. Now it is the center and the cyclone.

"Let me insist on it: the cyclone is the center and there is no other center to it. Once you understand this oneness of life then all tension, anxiety, anguish, disappears. The anxiety is created because you are always dividing. Through division you become split; through division you become schizophrenic. Now you think that you are on the circumference – the cyclone – and the center has been lost, so now the center has to be found.

"It is the old habit of duality. The "center and the cyclone" is a new language, but this habit is very old, the gestalt is very old. It is always that wherever you are you are not right, you should be somewhere else.

"My whole emphasis is that whatsoever is, is right. There is no other right. There is nowhere to go. This is the only life there is, the only dance there is. Only then you can be spontaneous, really spontaneous."

Osho, Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol. 2, Talk #6
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The Seeker Is the Sought

"Man is almost mad – mad because he is seeking something which he has already got; mad because he's not aware of who he is; mad because he hopes, desires and then ultimately, feels frustrated. Frustration is bound to be there because you cannot find yourself by seeking; you are already there. The seeking has to stop, the search has to drop: that is the greatest problem to be faced, encountered.

"The problem is that you have something and you are seeking it. Now, how can you find it? You are too occupied with seeking, and you cannot see the thing that you already have. Unless all seeking stops, you will not be able to see it. Seeking makes your mind focus somewhere in the future, and the thing that you are seeking is already here, now, this very moment. That which you are seeking is hidden in the seeker himself: the seeker is the sought; hence, so much neurosis, so much madness."

Osho, Yoga: The Supreme Science, Talk #1
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Freedom Is Not License

"Freedom is not license, and does not mean no structure. It simply means flexibility, that one can move from one structure to another easily – from no-structure to structure, from structure to no-structure. If your freedom is afraid of being in a structure, then it is not freedom at all.

"Just try to understand this, and the split will disappear. It is not there in your being, but just in your mind, just an idea. Drop the idea and enjoy freedom, and sometimes discipline.

"Discipline has its own beauty, it is not all slavery. And freedom has its own dangers and is not all beautiful. A real person is always capable of infinite discipline and infinite freedom – he is not a slave or an addict to anything."

Osho, Hammer on the Rock, Talk #26
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Love Is Dangerous, Sex Is Not Dangerous

"People who are afraid of love are not afraid of sex. Love is dangerous; sex is not dangerous, it can be manipulated. There are now many manuals on how to do it. You can manipulate it – sex can become a technique. Love can never become a technique. If in sex you try to remain in control, then even sex will not help to reach the ultimate. It will go to a certain point and you will drop back, because somewhere it also needs a let-go.

"That's why orgasm is becoming more and more difficult. Ejaculation is not orgasm, to give birth to children is not orgasmic. Orgasm is the involvement of the total body: mind, body, soul, all together. You vibrate, your whole being vibrates, from the toes to the head. You are no longer in control; existence has taken possession of you and you don't know who you are. It is like a madness, it is like a sleep, it is like meditation, it is like death."

Osho, Returning to the Source, Talk #10
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Celebration Is Unconditional

"To me, life in its totality is good. And when you understand life in its totality, only then can you celebrate; otherwise not. Celebration means: whatsoever happens is irrelevant – I celebrate. Celebration is not conditional on certain things: "When I am happy then I will celebrate," or, "When I am unhappy I will not celebrate." No. Celebration is unconditional; I celebrate life. It brings unhappiness – good, I celebrate it. It brings happiness – good, I celebrate it. Celebration is my attitude, unconditional to what life brings."

Osho, The Alchemy of Yoga, Talk #10
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You Cannot Chose Choicelessness

"Krishnamurti consistently emphasizes not to choose, and to be choiceless – that's the base of innocence. But you can deceive yourself by choosing choicelessness: "Because Krishnamurti says, 'Be choiceless' I will be choiceless." If you decide, the will has entered – and the will is cunning. If you decide to be choiceless, your choicelessness will be part of a morality, not part of purity.

"Just understand, don't choose – don't choose even choiceless-ness."

Osho, No Water, No Moon, Talk #3
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At the Center There Is Neither Love Nor Hate

"When one becomes a center, when one becomes crystallized, there is neither repulsion nor attraction to anyone. This creates a deeper problem because it means that you cannot go beyond hate unless you go beyond love.

"Everyone wants to go beyond hate, but no one wants to go beyond love. But that creates an impossible situation for you because hate is a part of the one phenomenon of repulsion and attraction."

Osho, The Great Challenge, Talk #12
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You Are the Aloneness

"A single moment of knowing the realization that you are alone – alone to tread the path, alone to create the path, alone to be committed to living, alone to be involved in the moment – can penetrate you and society vanishes. You are alone."

"There is no guru now, there is no one to be followed. There is no leader, there is no guide. You are alone; you are the aloneness. There is no one to adulterate it or contaminate it. It is so pure, innocent and beautiful. This aloneness is the path, this aloneness is meditation, this aloneness is yoga."

Osho, The Great Challenge, Talk #1
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