According to Osho, the absolute never becomes relative. The relative exists only by comparison—hot needs cold—while the absolute is self-sufficient awareness that needs no ‘other,’ like a lamp illuminating only itself. In samadhi one tastes this self-illumined state; then, even amidst changing, comparative experiences, one abides as the absolute, untouched by relativity.
No—the absolute doesn’t depend on comparisons; it’s like a light shining by itself, while ‘relative’ needs something else to compare to.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, doesn’t that which is absolute also become relative in relation to the relative?
It does not. It does not, because—what does “relative” mean? That which is other than the absolute. No, no! Here is the real difficulty: not “other than the absolute.” The relative does not mean separate from the absolute. Relative means that for its experience a second is needed. Understand this clearly: for its experience, the other is required. It cannot be experienced on its own; it can only ever be a relative experience. For example, I say, “This water is hot.” The word “hot” can never be absolute, because without “cold” it has no existence. It could even happen that I warm up one hand and cool the other on ice; then I put both hands into the same water, and to one hand the water feels hot, to the other it feels cold. That is the relative. The same water, the same vessel, one hand warm and one cold—when…
I absolute and relative -- he who knows these two together, through the relative leaves death behind and through the absolute gains immortality.
THE THRESHOLD OF REALITY IS VEILED BY GOLDEN LIGHT. REVEAL IT, O LORD, FOR MY DHARMA IS TO KNOW THE TRUTH. O LORD OF LIGHT, THE KNOWING ONE, THE GOLDEN GUARDIAN, GIVER OF LIFE TO ALL, SPREAD APART THY RAYS, GATHER UP THY BRILLIANCE, THAT I MAY PERCEIVE THY FINEST AND MOST SPLENDROUS NATURE, THAT COSMIC SPIRIT WHICH LIES AT THY HEART. FOR I MYSELF AM THAT! LET MY BREATH MERGE WITH THE COSMIC BREATH, MAY MY BODY BE AS DUST, REMEMBER, O MIND, REMEMBER WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. REMEMBER, O MIND, REMEMBER WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. O AGNI, SHOW US THE RIGHT PATH, LEAD US TO ETERNAL FREEDOM, THOU WHO KNOWEST ALL. MAY WE NOT BE DIVERTED FROM OUR GOAL, FOR WITH ALL DEVOTION WE SUBMIT OURSELVES TO THEE. AUM PURNAMADAH PURNAMIDAM PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE. When I was a student, one of my professors in the…
Last night you said that the absolute cannot be defined by any system. However, in the relative domain of life on earth, are not seeds and seasons part of a discernable mechanism through which this limited existence functions?
He used to write letters to the president, to the prime minister, to the governor... and he would show me his letters -- ten pages, twenty pages of dictionary... just words. You could not make any sense of what he was writing, because not a single sentence was there. And he would say, "What is the matter? I go on writing to these people -- nobody answers me." I said, "Nobody can understand your letters, they are so mysterious. You do one thing." He brought a letter -- twenty pages he had written to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. I said, "You write a small summary, because the prime minister may not have the time for twenty pages. So give a small summary -- half a page of just the essential points." After seven days, he said, "That is not possible. I cannot make the summary, because I don't know myself what…
Into a blinding darkness go they who worship action alone. Into an even greater darkness go they who worship meditation.
FOR IT IS OTHER THAN MEDITATION, IT IS OTHER THAN ACTION. THIS WE HAVE HEARD FROM THE ENLIGHTENED ONES. MEDITATION AND ACTION -- HE WHO KNOWS THESE TWO TOGETHER, THROUGH ACTION LEAVES DEATH BEHIND AND THROUGH MEDITATION GAINS IMMORTALITY. INTO A BLINDING DARKNESS GO THEY WHO IDOLIZE THE ABSOLUTE, INTO AN EVEN GREATER DARKNESS GO THEY WHO DOTE ON THE RELATIVE. FOR IT IS OTHER THAN THE RELATIVE, IT IS OTHER THAN THE ABSOLUTE. THIS WE HAVE HEARD FROM THE ENLIGHTENED ONES. AUM PURNAM ADAHA PURNAM IDAM PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA PURNAMEVA VASHISHYATE Action means that which is external to you, meditation which is internal to you. Action is outer, meditation is inner. Action is extroversion, meditation is introversion. Action is an objective approach; science is rooted in it, hence science insists on experimentation. And because science insists on action, experiment, it destroys all that is more than the external…
Yesterday someone asked a question. I did not answer it then; I had kept it for today. The question is: Who is a siddha?
Drowsy, listless, the days slipped by; nights won vows of wakefulness. Why does arrival turn to departure? Why does destruction become creation? Is death birth, or birth death? Nowhere a resolution appears. Pride in knowledge is all that remains, sewing together the start and end. In a moment, sunlight turned to shadow— Maya’s forms, and forms enamored of Maya. Water in the stone, stone in the water; in each soul the world is nestled. In the river—wave; in the wave—current; in each current, all of life. O you who fill drop by drop— why do brimming oceans run empty? “All’s well”—that’s what we heard; why did all depart, head in hands? If Brahman is truth and the world a lie, why do sunbeams weave dream-sky? In darkness—rays; in rays—dark prisons; victory upon victory, and yet life lost. A diamond-birth squandered so, weeping—singing, eating—drinking. Pride in knowledge is all that remains,…