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Osho on Can only other enlightened beings or future individuals be contemporaries of a master?

Can only other enlightened beings or future individuals be contemporaries of a master?

Contemporaneity is not bound by time; the moment you awaken, you stand alongside all enlightened beings, transcending the limitations of history.

— Osho
According to Osho, only enlightened beings are true contemporaries of a master, because enlightenment stands beyond time and mind; dates and centuries are just mental measurements. The instant an unenlightened person awakens, they join the timeless fellowship of buddhas—standing beside Gautam Buddha or Rinzai—regardless of history. Thus contemporaneity is a quality of consciousness, not a calendar.

When you truly wake up inside, time disappears and you’re side-by-side with all awakened people, no matter when they lived.

In His Own Words

From the Discourses

Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.

Rinzai Master Of The Irrational · Discourse 3
1988-10-26 · Gautam the Buddha Auditorium · English

Maneesha has asked a question: BELOVED OSHO, HAS ONE ONLY RECEIVED A HIT IF IT HURTS?

Maneesha, a master hits not to hurt but to heal. And a disciple receives the hit with tremendous gratitude, not with anger. Unless a hit is received with gratitude it cannot do its work of healing. You are all full of wounds, and they all need to be exposed to the sun, to the open sky. Unless you allow yourself to be exposed completely, you cannot get rid of those wounds. The normal way in the world is to hide the wounds so nobody knows about them -- go on hiding them deeper and deeper in the unconscious, so even you forget them. But to work on the consciousness, cleaning it from all the wounds is absolutely necessary. Those wounds have to be brought into the open. You are asking, "Has one only received a hit if it hurts?" No, Maneesha. If it hurts you have missed. If it does…
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Athato Bhakti Jigyasa · Discourse 24
1978-03-14 · Pune · Hindi · English translation

Osho, forgive me; I want to ask something that has been on my mind for a long time. Why is it that all the great masters who are alive—including you—never come together?

Kabir’s disciples asked, “Why were you silent? Your speech has such power—give a little taste of it to Farid too! You shower it on us every day.” Kabir said, “Farid has already received it. What I shower on you, Farid has already received. Where I am, there is Farid. We both stand in the same place. Seeing each other, we were amazed. We are not two; we are one. So what is there to say? To whom to say it? If a man sits alone and talks, would you not call him mad? Someone sitting alone, talking to himself—raising the questions and giving the answers—that is what you call madness. So,” said Kabir, “did you want to make me mad? We were not two.” Therefore there is no need for saints to meet. Saints are not separate that they should have to meet. A Janata Party is formed by non-saints,…
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Yoga The Alpha And The Omega Vol 2 · Discourse 5
1975-01-05 · Buddha Hall · English

Being beyond the limits of time he is the master of masters. He is known as aum.

REPEAT AND MEDITATE ON AUM. REPEATING AND MEDITATING ON AUM BRINGS ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL OBSTACLES AND AN AWAKENING OF A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS. Remember this -- desire and need -- these two words. Desire is of the mind; need is of the body. Desire and need, then you are a clock with hands. Only need, no desire, then you are a clock without hands, and when need also drops, you have gone beyond time. This is eternity; beyond time is eternity. For example: if I don't look at the watch -- and I have to look continuously the whole day -- if I don't look at the watch, I don't know what is the time. Even if I have seen it five minutes before, again I have to look because I don't know exactly, because now -- no time inside -- only the body is ticking. Consciousness has no…
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Jyoti Se Jyoti Jale · Discourse 20
1978-07-30 · Pune · Hindi · English translation

Osho, even with a living master present, in our country the dead are worshipped. Is this our misfortune, our foolishness, or our downfall?

Satya Prem! Neither misfortune, nor foolishness, nor downfall. It has always been so. This has been man’s way. It is built into the very mode of human being. It is an inevitable part of man’s unconsciousness. You can worship the dead; with the living you have to be transformed. Worship won’t do. Worship is a trick to avoid, a device, a politics. The most cultured way to avoid someone is to worship him. Offer a couple of flowers at his feet and be free—and remain exactly as you were. And you even take the inner pleasure of feeling you did something. In fact you did nothing. The flowers belonged to the trees; they were already dedicated to the divine. You plucked them and placed them on a stone idol or on a scripture. All flowers are already at the feet of the divine. All the birds’ songs are prayers unto…
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Jin Sutra · Discourse 18
1976-05-28 · Pune · Hindi · English translation

Osho, awakened ones, considering place, time, circumstance, and the era-appropriate psychology of people, have expressed the same truth in very different forms. To the point that they appear mutually quite disputatious and even contradictory. Is an absolute expression of the ultimate truths of life and existence not possible? Will the limits of the age and the condition of the people always continue to be imposed upon truth?

Expression will always be limited. Expression will always be relative. The speaker and the listener—both create the boundaries of expression. I will say only what can be said. You will understand only what can be understood. Truth is vast. If I go to see the ocean and you say to me, “On your way back, bring a little of the ocean,” I will not be able to bring the whole ocean. I may bring a little water from it. But in that water much will be missing. There will be no storm of the ocean, no waves. And that was the real ocean: that tumultuous roar and fierce thunder! Waves crashing against cliffs! Those surges rising and spreading for miles! That swell! None of that will be there. I will bring a vessel filled with a little ocean water. Still, there will be something! If you taste it, it will…
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