How should one live before achieving enlightenment?

You said that the real morality is the shadow of enlightenment. But then how is one to live before becoming enlightened?

THE moment you ask 'how' you are asking again for a discipline. The moment you ask 'how' you ask for methods, techniques. Why can't you simply live? Are not animals living? Are not trees living and birds living without asking any 'how'? Why do you carry on continuously about everything with this 'how'? How to love? How to pray? How to be friendly? How to be compassionate? How to be silent? How to live? Drop the 'how' and let life take its own course. It will. It is not waiting for any 'how'. That's what Tao calls spontaneity, TATHATA, suchness. Let life take its own course. Who are you to interfere continuously? Can't you simply eat? Why do you ask how to eat and how to taste? Can't you simply taste? Just eat, chew well, and enjoy. Let life move, don't try to manage it. By trying to manage, you…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT WHETHER YOU'RE HAPPY OR ANGRY, IN QUIET OR NOISY PLACES, YOU STILL MUST BRING UP CHAO CHOU'S SAYING, "A DOG HAS NO BUDDHA-NATURE." ABOVE ALL, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT. IF YOU CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU'RE SAYING, "RIGHT NOW I'M DELUDED." IF YOU WAIT FOR ENLIGHTENMENT, CLINGING TO DELUSION, THOUGH YOU PASS THROUGH COUNTLESS EONS YOU WILL STILL NOT BE ABLE TO GAIN ENLIGHTENMENT. AS YOU BRING UP THE SAYING, JUST AROUSE YOUR SPIRIT, AND SEE WHAT PRINCIPLE IT IS. CONSTANTLY TAKE THE TWO CONCERNS -- NOT KNOWING WHERE WE COME FROM AT BIRTH AND NOT KNOWING WHERE WE GO AT DEATH -- AND STICK THEM ON THE POINT OF YOUR NOSE.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, BEFORE BECOMING YOUR SANNYASIN, I WAS DESPERATELY SEEKING SPIRITUAL TRUTH. DESPITE WHAT I FELT TO BE MANY GENUINE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES, I REMAINED DISCONTENTED AND DESPERATE. AFTER SANNYAS I BEGAN TO LIVE WITH YOUR PEOPLE, WORK IN YOUR COMMUNES AND MOST OF ALL, FEEL YOUR BEAUTY AND PEACE GROW IN MY HEART. IN THIS TIME, MY BURNING DESIRES FOR SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE AND THE FRUITS OF THOSE EXPERIENCES HAVE BEEN SLOWLY DISAPPEARING. NOWADAYS I SIMPLY ENJOY EVERYDAY LIFE, AND EVERYTHING THAT GOES WITH IT -- A TASTY MEAL, A WALK IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, A GOOD LAUGH WITH A LOVED ONE, AND SO ON. BELOVED MASTER, AM I GETTING LAZY ON THE WAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT? CAN YOU PLEASE TALK ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FALLING ASLEEP AND LETTING GO? You are doing perfectly well. Just forget all about enlightenment. Enjoy simple things with total intensity.

You say, Osho, don’t try to be something, to become, to attempt “becoming”—just be, just being. Please explain in detail how this is to be attained.

The very moment you ask how to practice it, you miss the understanding. Because “to practice” already means the effort to become something has begun. When I say, remain as you are, just as you are, the question of practice does not arise. Practice means you have started trying to be what you are not. So you have not understood. Any practice implies discontent; there is no fulfillment in being as you are. The mind says, let something more happen. A little money—let’s gather more. A little knowledge—accumulate more. A little renunciation—become a great renunciate. A slight taste of meditation—let’s manufacture the taste of samadhi. It is all the same; there is no difference. The issue is neither money nor meditation; the issue is the demand for “more.” So whether you ask for wealth you remain worldly, and even if you ask for meditation you remain worldly. Wherever there is…

Osho, how should life be lived, and what is its purpose?

Enter life—stay awake and experiment; try waking and observe; try sleeping and observe; try eating; try lying and truth-telling; try anger and forgiveness; try love and enmity—taste all. In all of it, wherever depth increases, where peace increases, where joy increases, where a glimpse of the divine comes—recognize that as the rule forming for your life. And do not make even that rule so rigid that there is no possibility of change tomorrow. No one knows what life will bring tomorrow. The straight path may suddenly need a turn. What was pleasurable may become painful. Keep an opening for tomorrow. Hence the second thing: discover life’s rules from within. And also: do not consider your discovered rule absolute. Do not regard it as perfect. It must have the flexibility to change tomorrow. Life flowers fully only in one who can change each moment. But we are “consistent” people. We insist:…