According to Osho, there are no kinds of nirvana; the release happens in a single, timeless drop, like a ripe fruit falling. What differs are the preparatory stages: an inner emptiness (Zhinmai), intermittent illuminations (satori), and the sunrise-like steadiness of samadhi. Samadhi is ripeness; nirvana is the falling—beyond gradations, beyond types.
No, nirvana isn’t in different versions; it’s one drop, but we ripen through stages—feeling inner emptiness, getting brief flashes, then steady dawn—until it happens.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, Buddha has said that those steadfast ones who practice meditation continuously attain the unsurpassable ease and security called nirvana. Are there kinds of nirvana?
It is said of the Zen master Rinzai that he had eighteen hundred satori experiences before samadhi. Eighteen hundred is only symbolic; they could be eighteen thousand. However many glimpses there may be, a glimpse is only a message: “I am coming closer, closer”—but I have not yet arrived. The goal begins to be seen, and then it is lost again, because the moods of the mind keep changing. On some days meditation settles easily—the mind is buoyant, quiet, blissful. On other days it does not settle—there is a miss, and a great distance arises. So there is often a coming near and a moving far. But once the glimpses begin—once the taste comes—you cannot be led astray. One thing is now certain: what you are seeking is. It is not imagination. Whatever the births it may take, it is. Faith arises. And as soon as faith arises, satori slowly…
Osho, are the English word “salvation” and the Sanskrit terms moksha, Vaikuntha, and nirvana all synonymous?
Nirvana is the final notion. No one remains. This will frighten you too. That is why not many are drawn to nirvana—no one remains! Then what is the point? You want bliss, yes—but you also want to remain; otherwise, what is the point even of bliss! And Buddha says: as long as you are, suffering remains. You are the suffering. The very notion of “I” is suffering. Where you are not, there is bliss. Now this becomes a little difficult. It has to—when things reach such heights they become difficult. They go beyond logic. They slip out of the grasp of the intellect. These four words are different, as I said, in practical terms. In the transcendental sense, they are not different. Whether one goes by the path of salvation, or by Vaikuntha, or by moksha, or by nirvana, ultimately one will arrive only at nirvana. Because those that do…
Osho, what is the status of death in nirvana?
Nirvana means, first, that one has come to know perfectly that death does not happen at all—one. Second, that what we call life yields nothing—this too has been known. Nirvana means the knowing of two truths: that what we call death is not death, and what we call life is not life. Are you following me? I have just told you one thing: whoever truly knows death will find that death is not death. But coupled with it is a second happening: whoever looks at life with total wakefulness will discover that what the world calls life is not life either. That too is a social delusion, just as death is a social delusion. Nirvana means these two insights are fully realized. If you know only this much—that death is not death—life will still continue. You have known only half. The longing will remain to live again, to grab another…
In yesterday's sutra, buddha says 'someone who has set out in the vehicle of a bodhisattva should decide that "I must lead all the beings to nirvana, into that realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind."' Osho, what is this realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind?
Buddha has talked about two kinds of nirvana. One he calls nirvana with substratum. The tree has disappeared, the tree of desires. The foliage, the leaves, the flowers, the fruits -- everything has disappeared. But the roots are still there underground, hidden in the dark soil. From the outside the tree has been removed, but the tree is still capable of renewing itself again. The substratum is still there, the seed has not been burnt yet. This he calls 'nirvana with substratum. This is exactly the same that Patanjali calls SABEEJ SAMADHI -- samadhi with seed. It is very difficult from the outside. The tree has been completely removed, but underneath the soil the roots are still alive, waiting for the right moment to sprout again. Rains will come and they will sprout. They are waiting for their season, for the moment again to assert. This is the state when…
How do you see death in relation to nirvana?
Nirvana means, firstly, that one has realized totally there is no death at all. Secondly, it means one has also come to know that, in what we call life, nothing is attained. Nirvana means awareness of the reality that what we understand as death is no death at all, and that what we mean by life is not really life. Do you follow what I am saying? One thing: nirvana means that when a person knows death he will find there is no death. There is another phenomenon connected with this, and that is that one who sees life with full awareness will find that what everyone calls life is not life either -- just as death is a social illusion, that is a social illusion too. Nirvana means the total realization of both realities. If you only know there is no such thing as death, then you will continue…