Can one believe in God without seeing Him?

Osho, can't one believe in god without seeing him?

Surendra Mohan, WHO IS TELLING YOU TO BELIEVE IN GOD? I am against all belief. You must be a very new comer here. Belief is irreligious, as much as disbelief is. Belief means you don't know yet you have accepted something. It is cowardly -- you have not inquired. You are pretending, you are a hypocrite. All believers are hypocrites -- Catholic and communist, Jainas and Jews -- all. Believers are hypocrites. They don't know and yet they pretend AS IF they know. What is belief? It is playing the game of "as if." And the same is true about disbelief. The communist knows NOT that there is no God, just as the Hindu knows not that there is a God. The Hindu believes there is a God, the communist believes there is no God. Disbelief is also a kind of belief -- a negative kind of belief. And that's…

Osho, do you believe it is in everyone? I do not believe. There is no need to believe. It is in all; it needs to be seen—there is no need to believe.

One last thing. Let me give you a sutra: whoever accepts on belief that it is in everyone will never come to know. Belief will become a barrier; belief has no meaning. Why believe at all? If it is seen, fine; if it is not seen, fine. At least we should declare the truth: that I do not see it. There was a fakir, Sarmad. In Islam it is uttered like a sacred mantra: There is only one Allah, and there is no Allah other than Him. There is only one God, and there is no God other than Him. But Sarmad would say only half. He would not say the whole. He would say: There is no God. The first part is: There is only one God; other than Him there is no God. Sarmad would utter only the last fragment. He would say: There is no God. Aurangzeb…

Question: DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU? DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? WHO IS GOD? No, religion need not be based on belief. Religion has to be based on experience -- not on fear but on love; not on negation of life but on affirmation of life. Religion has not to be a belief -- it has to be a knowing, an experiencing. That's why I say 'belief' is a dirty word here. 'Knowing', 'loving', 'being' -- these are real words. And, belief hinders them: you cannot know if you believe, you cannot love if you believe, you cannot see if you believe. And remember: I am not saying that you have to disbelieve, because disbelief is again belief. The atheist and the theist are not different -- they are in the same boat, they are fellow-travellers.

Osho, God does not appear to me anywhere. What should I do?

Anand! Open your eyes. You are trying to see with your eyes shut, trying to hear with your ears closed, with the doors of the heart barred—then it is impossible to see God. When the eye is open, there is light. The very opening of the eye is light. Keep the eye closed and even if not one but a thousand suns were to rise, there will still be darkness, a moonless night. But this is not only your mistake; it is almost everyone’s. When God does not appear, people conclude: perhaps there is no God—hence He is not seen. Rarely does someone wonder: perhaps my eyes are closed—hence I do not see. Those rare ones, sooner or later, become able to see the Divine. So the first and the last sutra is this: drop the search for God; learn the alchemy of opening your eyes. Eyes open in two…

Osho, I cannot bring myself to have faith in God. Then what is the remedy for me?

The sliding drop of dew on the grass is enough—to fill you with faith. The newborn sprout breaking through the earth is enough—to fill you with faith. There is no shortage of supports for faith. If there is a lack, it is in your capacity for wonder. And man’s greatest stupidity is that he becomes ‘knowledgeable.’ The more ‘knowing’ he becomes, the more wonder dies. Then he knows everything. Ask him anything—he has an answer. Find some places where you become answerless. From there faith will come. Love is such a place—from where faith wells up. For love does not fit into knowledge. Love has not been known till today. People have lived it, people have experienced it; but it has not been known. No one has even been able to define what love is. If your life is nothing but mathematics, then where is rest?—there is only toil. And…