Do sounds, fragrances, or lights in meditation become obstacles?

Osho, in meditation the sounds one hears, the fragrance that arises, or the light that appears—don’t these become obstacles?

If you mistake all this for spiritual attainment, it will become a hindrance. If you think, “I have found it—fragrance is coming, the inner sound resounds, light is appearing—now everything is achieved,” you miss. The stone that could have become a step now becomes a wall. You get stuck badly. You were safer with the gross, because there the risk of confusing it with the spiritual was small; here the risk is great. Out there it was collective. Others would say, “What spirituality? That’s just a house. That’s the sound of a sitar. That’s electric light. That’s the scent of a flower.” You had critics. Now you are utterly alone. There is no one else there, so it is easy to trust yourself—and easy to deceive yourself. There is no critic now. Only you hear that sound; no one else hears it. Only you see that light; no one else…

Some friends come to me and say, Osho, we keep hearing all sorts of sounds. When will this stop?

It is never going to stop. You are not to become unconscious so that you don’t hear sounds. No—meditation will not come by the stopping of sounds. Sounds are there, and within you no reaction, no response arises—meditation is concerned only with this much. A man is shouting next door; nothing happens to you: you hear, and nothing happens. A sister came to me today and said that in the last fifteen minutes of the afternoon silence her heartbeat increased a lot. So many sounds became audible that she got frightened; she felt like getting up and running away. Not hearing sounds would be a swoon. Hearing sounds and reacting by running away—that is the ordinary state. Hearing sounds and simply listening, remaining only the witness, the watcher—that is meditation. You are not to become stupefied. Whatever is happening, you will know it all—but it will become dreamlike. As long…

Osho, to abide in oneself beyond the knower, knowledge, and the known—can one live in that state for an entire lifetime? Just as a lake is sometimes calm, sometimes playful, and sometimes stormy, does the self-realized one remain unaffected by worldly circumstances in the same way? Osho, dispel my ignorance!

Spring means harmony between season and mood. Meditation means harmony between you and the whole. You become harmonious. Whatever is, is perfectly okay—accepted. Nowhere any refusal, nowhere any opposition. Whatever is happening is auspicious. That is trust; that is meditation. Such meditation naturally takes you into an altogether new experience. Storms will rise; they will not stop because you meditate. Diseases will not stop coming to the body because you meditate. They will come. A thorn will sometimes pierce the foot. Raman had cancer; so did Ramakrishna—great storms came! Ramakrishna got cancer of the throat; he could neither eat nor drink. Vivekananda said to him, “What is not in your power! Why don’t you pray to the Lord at least to allow food and water to pass? We suffer watching you writhe.” Ramakrishna said, “Ah, it never even occurred to me to pray. How could it occur—to one whose prayer…

I want to tell you this: when I meditate, in the background it feels as if some machine is running—a long “sssss” kind of sound keeps going. Sometimes it is disturbing.

Mm-hmm. Just witness it all. Whether points of light appear, or sounds, even a fragrance may arise.

Osho, in meditation I experience light; I also experience peace and bliss. Is this the state of samadhi?

Not so fast. Call it the first glimpse of samadhi. The first waft of fragrance has arrived. Say, the first flower of spring has bloomed. But the blooming of spring’s first flower is not spring’s arrival. Spring is on the way; it will come. The first guest has arrived. Don’t take this to be the whole, otherwise you will get stuck, you will stop. Much is yet to happen. And the final understanding dawns only when no experience remains—not the experience of light, not the experience of peace, not the experience of bliss. You will be a little startled. Up to now you have known suffering; opposite to it comes the experience of happiness. As the meditative state in the mind deepens a little, happiness takes the place of sorrow. Then both happiness and sorrow depart. The duality is gone. Then a tremor of bliss arises. But that tremor feels…