According to Osho, 'God' and 'no-mind' are not synonymous: 'God' is a mind-made belief, an external, judgmental fiction used by priests; no-mind is your inner, experiential reality—health, freedom, and the ever-present source of life. God implies creator and creature; no-mind dissolves personality and boundaries, revealing a nonpersonal, timeless awareness that contains existence. Drop beliefs—both theism and atheism—and discover no-mind directly.
No—‘God’ is a belief about something outside you, while no-mind is the quiet, alive space inside you that you can experience now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: The first question: TO US, ARE THE WORDS `GOD' AND `NO-MIND' SYNONYMOUS? No, not at all. God can never be synonymous with no-mind. God is always there, far away. God has been always referred to by the word `that' -- invisible, just a fiction. No-mind has been always referred to as this. No-mind is your reality, your ultimate nature; God was a mind-created lie. No-mind is your truth, your splendor, your very universe. They cannot be synonymous. God does not exist; no-mind exists. God is only a belief; no-mind is an experience. God has been the cause of all your mental sickness. No-mind is pure health, wholeness. The moment you utter the word `God' you immediately start thinking of him as a person, as a creator. No-mind is not a person; on the contrary, your very personality disappears, only then does no-mind start blossoming. No-mind is not a creator.
Beloved Osho, a long time ago I replaced the word god with simply "it." it is about as vast as I can go with my mind. Do I need to abolish it as well? -- because it is alive and all around me.
The first thing to be understood is that changing names does not change anything. You can call it God, you can call it Allah, you can call it Ishwar -- there are three hundred languages on the earth. There are three hundred ways to call God, or you can invent your own private name for God. You say, "I have replaced God with the word `It." What does it mean? You have only changed the label. Perhaps you can change even the container, but the question is of the content. And the content is there, I can see from your question, because you say, "it is alive and all around me." Now, "it" is used for things. You have changed just the word; you are giving him a new name, but "It" is all alike. And the second thing you say is, "This is as far as my mind can…
I, alone, am the theme taught in the various vedas. I am the revealer of the
UPANISHADS, THE VEDANTA, AND OF THE VEDAS. I ALONE AM THE REAL KNOWER. FOR ME THERE IS NEITHER VIRTUE, PUNYAM, NOR SIN, PAPA. I SUFFER NOT DESTRUCTION, NEITHER HAVE I BIRTH, NOR BODY, NOR SENSES AND MIND. I, ALONE, AM THE THEME TAUGHT IN THE VARIOUS VEDAS. I AM THE REVEALER OF THE UPANISHADS, THE VEDANTA AND OF THE VEDAS. I ALONE AM THE REAL KNOWER. But the basic problem arises because of this concept of non-contradictoriness in existence. Existence is dual but not contradictory! And the duality is only in the expression, not in the ultimate source. The ultimate source remains the same. These contradictions are there, because without contradictions, without a dual nature, things cannot exist, the world cannot be. The world is there through duality. Can you conceive of silence without noise? Can you conceive of birth without death? Can you conceive of beauty without ugliness? They…
Osho, is no-mind the ultimate prayer?
PRAYER IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE DONE. Prayer is not something that can be thought either. Prayer is a state of silent being, of utter silence. One simply is... then one is in prayer. If you do prayer, you miss the whole point. Doing remains on the circumference; doing cannot enter to the center of your being. If you are saying your prayer, you again miss -- because in saying it you are thinking of yourself as separate from God, you are relating to God as if he is separate from you. And that is the basic illusion: God is not separate from you. Hence, prayer cannot be a dialogue between I and thou. I is thou -- there is no possibility of any dialogue. The moment you say your prayer, you have accepted a hypothesis which is basically wrong -- that God is there, far away from you,…
Osho, it seems Buddha put all his emphasis on knowing and understanding the mind. Is a human being made by the mind? Are all talks about the soul and God useless?
Pandits go on chattering; they have no idea what they are saying. The enlightened fall silent, because they know. How can the most sacred be said? Bring it to the lips and it becomes false. Words are too small. Can they contain the vast? They cannot. It is like trying to bind the sky in your fist—the fist will close, the sky will remain outside. In the same way words get bound, and God remains outside. The word “God” is not God. Your rote of “God, God” has nothing to do with God; it is a disease of your mind. We do know the truth of Paradise, but to console the heart, Ghalib, this fancy is pleasing. You know it well. Your heaven, your liberation, your God—you know very well the truth of them: this “God” of yours is nothing. It is overheard talk. A rumor. You heard it from…