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Osho on What is the relationship between hearing, meditation, sound, and silence?

What is the relationship between hearing, meditation, sound, and silence?

Use sound as a bridge to silence, but do not cling to it; true meditation begins only when all sound fades and the mind dissolves into utter stillness.

— Osho
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Core Insight:
According to Osho, inner ‘hearing’—bells, mantras, any sound—is only a technique that concentrates the mind and can hypnotize, giving peace by stopping thought. But meditation itself begins only when all sound—outer or inner—fades and the mind dissolves into no-mind: utter silence. Use sound as a bridge, then drop it; otherwise attachment to hearing becomes the obstacle that prevents the flowering of true meditative silence.
Sounds can calm you, but real meditation starts when even those sounds vanish and you rest in quiet, alert stillness.
Why this matters practically
- Avoid mistaking hypnotic calm for true meditation.
- Use mantras or bells to settle, then consciously release them to enter silence.
- Break attachment to techniques so awareness, not objects, leads you.
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