How does the journey on the spiritual path begin?

Osho, you said that God-realization cannot be added as one more desire to the mind’s many cravings. “Let the One alone dwell within; to none other give your mind.” In this context, how then does the journey on the spiritual path begin?

There are many desires. There are thousands of things to get. Naturally it seems that if the desire for the Divine arises, it will arise as just one more among these desires. If all desires must fall away before the desire for God can be meaningful, then how will it arise? Understand: there are a thousand desires; God cannot be the thousand-and-first. Then where does the beginning happen? It begins when the futility of these thousand desires starts becoming visible to you. If the thousand remain meaningful and the thousand-and-first also becomes meaningful, your world just gets bigger; religion is not born. Let it become clear to you that these thousand are futile—that you are running after mirages. As one desire after another drops, nine hundred and ninety-nine remain; the space that opens is consecrated to God. When nine hundred and ninety-eight remain, a little more space opens—consecrate that too…

Osho, you say that desire moves outward; then what is it that leads one on the inner journey?

To be defeated in the world; to be defeated in lust; the failure of craving leads you to the divine, leads you inward. When a deep wound awakens in you—that life as you are living it is futile—then the excitement about the outer life drops. Understand this a little. I see many people who are eager for the inner life, but they have not been wounded; the outer life has not failed for them, yet they get interested in the inner. Then their so‑called inner life is only a part of the outer life; it is not inner life at all. Their temple too is just a corner of their shop. Their prayer is merely the opening line of their ledgers—“Shri Ganeshaya Namah.” The ledger begins with God. To keep the shop running smoothly they remember the Divine. By remembering God they make arrangements for hell. As far as I…

Osho, you say, “As He wills, let us become mere instruments; whatever role in life we have been given, let us fulfill it.” But letting what happens happen—i.e., flowing along with the body, mind, and ego—gives rise to suffering. So should we keep applying the principle of instrumentality even in relation to the body, mind, and ego, and go on suffering? How do we solve the riddle between the principle of instrumentality and the continuous reality of suffering?

That supreme bliss is beyond both pleasure and pain. It is neither like night nor like day. It is twilight. The sun has set, night has not yet come; the light remains—very gentle, sweet, non-aggressive—that is twilight. Morning has come, the sun is not yet risen, the night has gone—such is the twilight. One who abides in that twilight—that is what we call prayer. That is why Hindus call their prayer sandhya. Sandhya means one who has stopped in between the dualities, who has found the truce between the two. Between pleasure and pain, love and hate, victory and defeat, night and day, life and death—one who has found the pact and stands in that concord. Seek that interval of conjunction. Krishna says, it is simple to find. If you cease to be the doer, you will find it instantly. It is only through your doer-ship that you keep missing.…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SPIRITUAL SEEKER? First know that desire is just running and reaching nowhere. Then stand still, and know what is. Everything is open. Only we are closed in our desires. The whole existence is open. All doors are open, but we are running with such a speed that we cannot see. And the more we become frustrated, the more we increase the speed, because the mind says, "You are not running fast enough. That is why you are not reaching." The mind will not say, "Because you are running, you will not reach." How can it say that? It is illogical. The mind says, "Because you are not running fast enough, that is why you are not reaching. So run faster. Those who are running faster, they are reaching." And ask those who are running faster.

A friend has asked: Osho, Krishna says, “The devotee who lets go of all beginnings is dear to me.” So should one also let go of the very beginning of the search for the Divine?

The idea of the Divine, meditation on the Divine, is there to remove all the thorns of this world—but it too is a thorn. But don’t be hasty, thinking, “If it’s a thorn, then what have we to do with it? We are already troubled by thorns—why pick up another?” Don’t be so quick. That thorn serves to remove all these other thorns. And the day your thorn is out, that day both thorns must be thrown away together; you don’t keep the second one either. As all desires fall away, in the end the desire to realize the Divine also has to be dropped. It is the last desire. The very moment it drops you realize: it has always already been attained. There is a limitation in our language: it makes it seem as if the Divine is somewhere to be sought, hidden somewhere far away, to be located;…