Can the truth be anything other than ultimate?

Beloved Osho, you spoke the other night about honest truth. Mystics have often spoken of the "ultimate truth." can the truth be anything other than ultimate?

Mahavira says that truth itself is relative: he has no ultimate truth. Buddha has no ultimate truth. Again the difficulty is that Mahavira and Buddha can be misunderstood when they say that there is no ultimate truth but that every truth is relative: it can be one thing in one situation, it can be another thing in another situation, and because it is related to situations it cannot have any ultimacy. This goes against all the great mystics. Only Mahavira and Buddha, two people... But I know both, and I understand both better than their own followers, because none of their followers have been able to make any sense out of it: either all the mystics are wrong, or Buddha and Mahavira are wrong! I say nobody is wrong. What Mahavira says is that truth has seven aspects, and Buddha says that truth has four aspects. They are really referring…

When the self as consciousness, which is truth, knowledge, infinity, and bliss, devoid of all its attributes, shines like pure gold freed from all its forms such as a bangle and a crown, it is called twam or thou.the brahman is truth, infinity and knowledge. That which is indestructible is truth. And that which does not perish even after the destruction of space, time, et cetera, is called the avinashi, the imperishable.

There is a dialogue, a deep dialogue between my existence and existence itself, a constant dialogue, a continuity every moment: the incoming breath, the outgoing breath. I am constantly linked with the universe, with existence. If we take two points, between these two points the dialogue continues. One point is "I," and the other point -- the total -- is "thou." A non-religious mind, a material mind, will say that the dialogue is not between "I" and "thou," the dialogue is between "I" and "that," because the world is just a thing; it is not a person. And really, if the world is just a thing and it is not a person, then there can be no dialogue, there can be no intimacy. But if the whole world is just a thing, then myself -- I myself cannot be a person; this "I" is also a thing. This is what…

Osho, what is the first experience of samadhi like?

You will know only when it happens. It cannot be said; at most a few hints can be given. It is as if, in the dark, a lamp is suddenly lit. Or as if a dying patient, right at the edge of death, suddenly finds a medicine that works; life’s wave, life’s thrill spreads again—so it is. As if a corpse becomes alive—such is the first experience of samadhi. It is the taste of nectar. The experience of the ultimate music. But it will be only when it happens; and only then will you understand. You will not understand by my saying it. It is as with love. How can anyone explain it? To someone who has never loved, never known love, no matter how many explanations you offer—he will hear it all and still ask, “I haven’t understood; please explain a little more.” It is like explaining light to…

Beloved Osho,sometimes while just sitting, the question comes up in the mind: what is truth? But by the time I come here I realize that I am not capable to ask. But may I ask what happens in those moments when the question arises so strongly that had you been nearby I would have asked it. Or if you had not replied, I would have caught hold of your beard or collar and asked, "what is truth, Osho?"

When you fall in love with a woman there is some truth -- if you have fallen absolutely unaware, if you have not 'done' it in any way, if you have not acted, managed, if you have not even thought about it. Suddenly you see a woman, you look into her eyes, she looks into your eyes, and something clicks. You are not the doer of it, you are simply possessed by it, you simply fall into it. It has nothing to do with you. Your ego is not involved, at least not in the very, very beginning, when love is virgin. In that moment there is truth, but there is no interpretation. That's why love remains indefinable. Soon the mind comes in, starts managing things, takes possession of you. You start thinking about the girl as your girlfriend, you start thinking of how to get married, you start thinking…

There is a knife, a blade. Boys play with it; we warn them, "Hey, you'll get hurt." When they do get hurt, from their experience we too understand that if you fool around with a knife you get cut. So that counts as truth, doesn't it? From their experience I have learned that this is what happens when you play with a knife.

That is not Truth; it is only a fact. A fact, not Truth. It is merely a fact that if a knife strikes you, you are wounded. That is a fact. When a knife and a hand collide, pain begins—that is a fact. In some situations, the collision of knife and hand can also remove pain. If there is a boil, cutting with a knife can relieve the pain—that is another fact. The meaning of Truth… let me tell you an incident; it will make it clear. In the last world war, in France, a prisoner was injured in his leg. The pain was so intense that they kept him unconscious. At night they operated and amputated the entire leg. In the morning, when he regained consciousness, he started saying again, “My big toe is hurting terribly.” There was no toe. The doctors were very puzzled: how can there be…