Are all words lies?

Question: BELOVED MASTER, ARE ALL WORDS LIES? Peter Hendrickson, truth is an experience so profound that it is inexpressible, so vast that no word can contain it. Words are small things; they have a certain utility, but they have limitations. And truth has no limitations; it is vaster than the sky. Truth means the whole existence. When you disappear into the whole you know it. Saying that you know it is not accurate; rather, you feel it. Or, to be even more accurate, you BECOME it. When you have become the whole it is impossible to say it. And truths need to be said; they have an intrinsic quality that they have to be shared. Hence words are only hypothetical; they can be used, but one should not believe in them. They should be used as stepping-stones.

The master foso hoyen said: 'they say that buddha uttered five thousand and forty-eight truths during his lifetime. They include the truth of emptiness and the truth of being. They include the truth of sudden enlightenment and the truth of gradual enlightenment. Are not all these yea-sayings?

'BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, YOKA, IN THE "SONG OF ENLIGHTENMENT" SAYS THERE ARE NO BEINGS AND NO BUDDHAS -- SAGES ARE SEA-BUBBLES, AND GREAT MINDS ARE ONLY FLICKERINGS OF LIGHTNING. ARE NOT ALL THESE NAY-SAYINGS? 'OH MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU SAY YEA, YOU DENY YOKA, AND IF YOU SAY NAY, YOU CONTRADICT BUDDHA. IF BUDDHA WERE HERE WITH YOU, HOW WOULD HE SOLVE THIS PROBLEM? 'IF WE KNEW WHERE TO STAND WE WOULD QUESTION BUDDHA EVERY MORNING AND GREET HIM EVERY NIGHT. BUT AS WE DON'T KNOW WHERE TO STAND I WILL LET YOU INTO A SECRET: WHEN I SAY THIS IS SO, PERHAPS IT IS NOT A YEA-SAYING. WHEN I SAY THIS IS NOT SO, PERHAPS IT IS NOT A NAY-SAYING. 'TURN TO THE EAST AND SEE THE HOLY WESTERN LAND, FACE SOUTH TO SEE THE NORTHERN STAR.' But if a man is stupid and he becomes silent,…

Beloved Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and witnessing? In what way are mind and ego dissolved by them? Is surrender possible without attaining complete egolessness? To what extent are orange clothes and the mala helpful for meditation and witnessing? Also please explain the difference between witnessing, wakefulness and right remembering.

Then there are some who say doing has no attraction for them, but thoughts come rushing in waves. They are thinkers-they have no juice for doing. They have no interest in the outer, but great waves arise within, a great tempest. And they cannot be inside for a single moment without thoughts. They say, "If we sit silently more thoughts come. When we sit silently more thoughts than usual come. Just mention worship, prayer, meditation, and a great deluge of thoughts -- -armies -- come in wave after wave and drown us. What should we do?" The master says, "Drink meditation mixed in with your thoughts. Don't stop your thoughts, but when thoughts come observe them. Don't get lost in them, stand a little apart, at a distance. Calmly watching your thoughts, you will gradually attain witnessing. Add meditation to your thoughts." Then there are some who say, "We have…

Yesterday you said that there is no goal, no path, no one to lead and no one to follow. Is this statement a lie again? Were you kidding us yesterday?

That's what I am doing every day. That's the only possible thing to do. ALL statements are lies. Truth remains unstated. Truth cannot be reduced to a statement, it cannot be reduced to a formula. It is vast! How can you reduce it to a statement? The moment you state anything about truth, the very expression becomes a barrier. Words cling around truth like chains. Truth can be transferred only in silence. So those who really listen me, they don't listen to what I say -- they listen to what I am. They listen to the gaps, they listen to the intervals. Words are not important, but there are small gaps between words and the meeting between you and me happens in those gaps. Those gaps are of meditation. Slowly slowly, words move on the periphery and my meeting, my communion with you becomes the center phenomenon. Words are there,…

Beloved master, the other day you said all masters have had to lie. I don't see the necessity for lies. Isn't it rather that the truth, no matter what the consequences, is the only means of liberating ourselves? Besides, what do we have to lose?

First, you seem to be understanding more than I understand. In fact, you should be here and I should be sitting there. Come on! I am ready to vacate this place and I will be sitting there, and you do the job. Stand up! Now, don't chicken out! All kinds of idiots have entered. Do you understand that there is no way to express truth in words? Not a single enlightened person in the whole history has said that truth can be said. So whatever can be said will be a lie. Lao Tzu, one of the greatest masters, never wrote any book. He continuously avoided his disciples persuading him, asking him, "Soon you will be gone; you are too old, and you have not given us anything written that we can remember, understand." And one day Lao Tzu left. Even the emperor of China was a disciple of Lao…