According to Osho, you are already a Buddha; Buddhahood is your source and goal. Restlessness and confusion come from engagement with 'the other' and remain only peripheral; they never touch your essence. Enlightenment is not gained later by accepting the peculiar nature of present experiences, but recognized now by turning awareness inward, disengaging from objects, tasting your own being until self and other vanish.
You’re already a Buddha; the noisy, mixed-up stuff is just surface waves from chasing outside things—look inside and you’ll notice a quiet center where “me” and “others” fade.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Am I a restless, confused buddha and only need to accept right now the peculiar nature of my buddhahood, or is it different from and comes after all this stuff happening now?
See the difference, the difference is great. A man can move in two ways. One is through motivation: something has to be achieved THERE, in future. There is a goal. Then you pull yourself together and you start dragging yourself towards the goal. Your life will be a life of misery. There is another kind of movement -- the true movement -- which has no motive in it, but you are so full of energy that you have to move. "Energy is movement, and energy is delight," says William Blake. Yes, it is, because movement is delight, movement is dance. You start moving because there is so much energy and the energy starts flowing. One day you arrive, but that arrival has not been a goal. That arrival has never been pre-planned, you had never thought about it. The Ganges reaches to the ocean, but the Ganges was not trying…
Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?
If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…
Osho, is everything in life a river-boat happenstance? The Buddha too? Buddhahood too?
No—except for Buddhahood, everything is a river-boat happenstance. Because Buddhahood is your nature, not a happenstance. It is not that you have to become a Buddha. You are a Buddha. All that is needed is to recognize it. It is not that you have to acquire Buddhahood. You never lost it. It is re-cognition, a remembering. You simply have to wake up and see what is already there. Buddhahood is not a happenstance. Buddhahood does not depend on any circumstances. Nor does it depend on your spiritual practices—remember that. Don’t think that by doing a lot of meditation you will become a Buddha. By much meditation and austerity it may become easier for you to awaken to Buddhahood, but not to be a Buddha—you were that already. Even when you were in deep stupor, snoring away, you were still a Buddha. Wandering through wombs—countless wombs—living like insects and worms, lost…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, QUESTION: WHAT IS BUDDHA-MIND? ANSWER: YOUR MIND IS IT. WHEN YOU SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT SUCHNESS. WHEN YOU SEE THE CHANGELESS NATURE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT DHARMAKAYA. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED EMANCIPATION. IT WORKS EASILY AND FREELY, NEVER BEING DISTURBED BY OTHERS; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED THE TRUE PATH. IT WAS NOT BORN AND, THEREFORE, IT IS NOT GOING TO PERISH, SO IT IS CALLED NIRVANA. QUESTION: WHAT IS TATHAGATA? ANSWER: ONE WHO KNOWS THAT HE COMES FROM NOWHERE AND GOES NOWHERE. QUESTION: WHAT IS BUDDHA? ANSWER: ONE WHO REALIZES THE TRUTH, AND HOLDS NOTHING THAT IS TO BE REALIZED. QUESTION: WHAT IS DHARMA? ANSWER: IT WAS NEVER PRODUCED, AND WILL NEVER BE REDUCED; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED DHARMA, THE NORM OF THE UNIVERSE. QUESTION: WHAT IS SANGHA?
Question: ON THE SEA OF DEATH AND LIFE, THE DIVER'S BOAT IS FREIGHTED WITH "IS" AND "IS NOT". BUT IF THE BOTTOM IS BROKEN THROUGH, "IS AND "IS NOT" DISAPPEAR. THE MIND CANNOT BECOME THE BUDDHA; THE BODY CANNOT BECOME THE BUDDHA; ONLY WHAT CANNOT BECOME THE BUDDHA CAN BECOME THE BUDDHA. AS LIGHTNING WHICH DISAPPEARS LIKE DEW, WHICH VANISHES LIKE A PHANTOM -- THUS THINK OF YOURSELF. A MIND TO SEARCH ELSEWHERE FOR THE BUDDHA IS THE FOOLISHNESS IN THE VERY CENTER OF FOOLISHNESS. THE DEW ON THE LOTUS LEAF UNDYED BY ITS COLOUR, JUST AS IT IS, IS THE REAL FORM OF BUDDHA. <q>THE DEW ON THE LOTUS LEAF UNDYED BY ITS COLOUR, JUST AS IT IS, IS THE REAL FORM OF BUDDHA.</q> Be awake! And listen! Just as you are -- JUST AS YOU ARE, I repeat -- you are the Buddha.