Born Again is a meditative therapy created by Osho to help you rediscover the innocence, immediacy, and playfulness of childhood. Each session is two hours: the first hour is an open field of spontaneous, childlike expression; the second hour is pure, effortless silence. Over seven days, this rhythm loosens the armor of seriousness, unlearns conditioned behaviors, and re-tunes you to the living current of existence.
The method is simple yet radical. In the first hour you drop time, past and future, and become total in whatever arises—laughter, tears, dancing, jumping, singing, even a quick flare of anger that passes like a cloud. Nothing is carried over; nothing is performed for a reason. In the second hour you sit silently, doing nothing, allowing the stirred energies to settle into clarity and ease. This playful passage from unrestrained vitality to unforced stillness invites a fresh, childlike seeing of the world and a deep taste of being.
Phase Instructions
First Hour: Regain Your Childhood
For the first 60 minutes, take the space and freedom to behave as a child. Be playful. Drop all seriousness and the need for a reason to act or feel. Laugh for no cause, cry if tears come, sing, hum, dance, jump, run, roll on the floor, babble, make faces, play simple games—let everything be spontaneous. Do not carry anything over from one moment to the next: if anger arises, be totally angry and let it pass; if love or joy arises, be totally loving and joyful, then let that pass. Put aside knowledge, judgments, and self-consciousness. Allow masks and roles to fall away. Live only in the present moment, responding freshly, as a child would—complete in each feeling, then free of it the next moment.
Second Hour: Silent Sitting, Doing Nothing
For the next 60 minutes, sit silently and do nothing. Simply be. Let the body become still and allow the energy from the first hour to settle on its own. No technique, no effort to control breath or mind, no goal to achieve—just sit in quietness and allow whatever is happening to come and go. Rest in this unforced silence until the session ends.
Core Benefits
- Rediscover the innocence of childhood
- Encourage spontaneity and playfulness
- Loosen the armor of seriousness
- Unlearn conditioned behaviors
- Experience a fresh, childlike seeing of the world
What Osho Said About This Technique
Love brings such a new energy into your being that you were not even aware of. You had never dreamed about it, you could not have conceived it. It is so mysterious, so thrilling, so ecstatic, that it almost drives one mad; that's why people say "Love is mad, love is blind". But the madness that love brings is really a higher form of sanity. And the blindness that love brings is real insight because the blindness of love can see God and the madness of love can take the ultimate plunge into God. Swami Sannyas Rene! Sannyas in my approach means a life-affirmative, a life-enchancing, life-affirming, attitude. In the old days sannyas was negative; it was life-denying, it was against life. The old meaning of sannyas is renunciation of the world: my meaning of sannyas is renunciation of the mind.Read the full discourse →
[Meditation is a mother; through it you are reborn. And that is the meaning of her original name, Renate, Osho told the next person.] Meditation is synonymous with awareness. The English word 'meditation' gives a slightly wrong idea. The eastern word for it is "dhyana". Out of dhyana in China it became chana and in Japan it became Zen, but the root is dhyana. In English there is no real equivalent; the word that comes closest to it is meditation -- but something is missing in it because whenever you say meditation it gives you the idea of meditating on something. One immediately asks "On what to meditate?" Now that question cannot be asked about dhyana. "Dhyana simply means a state of mind where there is nothing to meditate upon, a state of consciousness without content, a contentless consciousness.Read the full discourse →
The other kind is the 'turned on people' who are joyous, who are always looking for something adventurous, always expecting that something is going to happen. They are leaning more towards the brighter side of life. They can see the white lining, the silver lining in the dark cloud. Only these people are capable of being religious. The turned off people are against god. The turned on people are for god, because god is possible when you are turned on totally, aflame... your whole being in a dance. So the first quality for a sannyasin is to attain to a state of 'turn-on' and the second quality is to get off your ego trips. Otherwise somebody can be turned on, but for wrong reasons. A politician can be very turned on for his ego trip.Read the full discourse →
ASANGA, SAMAPATTI AND TWO-YEAR-OLD SAMVIDA -- HERE FOREVER. OSHO: Forever? -- that's good! Start working.... OSHO (TO PATRICIA): It is only through love that one becomes aware of the beyond, of that which trasncends all boundaries, of the divine, of God. The very awareness that God exists brings honor -- nothing else can do it. The moment one feels oneself surrounded by God, then there is glory in life, great splendor. We are carrying the splendor inside us -- it has to be released. We are unaware of it: of the great dignity of being, the great dignity of just being. Just to be is more than one can ask for. In giving you life God has given you all, and in giving you the capacity to love, he has given you the way to seek and search for him again.Read the full discourse →
The child is born physically he comes into light but spiritually he still remains in darkness. And that darkness can be dispelled only through meditation; hence meditation gives you a second birth. The first birth is physical, the second is spiritual. And that is the whole meaning of initiation into sannyas: it has to become a second birth. Physically you are in light, now you need another birth too -- so that psychologically, spiritually also, you are in full light. And there is no difficulty in it, it is just that people are not aware of it. They never think about it, they have never bothered about it, so they remain only physical beings. They never grow spiritually. While you are here concentrate your whole energy on meditation so that you can learn the secret. It is a knack.Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
Each session is two hours long.
The first hour involves spontaneous, childlike expression, and the second hour is devoted to sitting silently.
No prior experience is necessary; the method is designed to be simple yet radical.
The meditation is conducted over a period of seven days.
Participants engage in various spontaneous activities such as laughter, tears, dancing, and singing without carrying anything over or doing it for any reason.