According to Osho, satori isn’t something to attain but your ordinary, original nature remembered. Stop chasing the extraordinary, drop the false ego and ambition—cut the root, not the branches. Step out of the competitive race, turn inward, and live your suchness in the present. Give space for inner silence; being simply yourself, the jewel of wisdom reveals itself.
You don’t get satori by achieving; you find it by stopping the chase, dropping ego and ideals, and relaxing as your natural self right now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS SATORI AND HOW TO ATTAIN IT? Pratima, SATORI IS EXACTLY YOUR ORDINARY NATURE; it is not anything special. Hence there is no question of attaining it - it is already the case. You are in it, you have just forgotten. You have become too occupied with the outside world. You have forgotten your own kingdom, you have forgotten your own treasure, you have forgotten yourself. You have become too concerned with others. You are too much in the world and you don't give any time, any space for your inner nature to have a dialogue with you, to whisper a few things to you. You have become artificial. You have created a false ego because nobody can live without a center. You have forgotten your real center, and nobody can live without a center, so you have created a false center as a substitute.
Beloved Osho, over the years, I have heard various sannyasins saying that they experienced a satori. What exactly is a satori, and how does it come about?
Satori is a glimpse of the ultimate... as if you are seeing the Himalayan peaks. But you are far away, you are not on the peaks, and you have not become the peaks. It is a beautiful experience, very enchanting, exciting, challenging. Perhaps it may lead you towards samadhi. Satori is a glimpse of samadhi. Samadhi is the fulfillment of satori. What was a glimpse has become now an eternal reality to you. Satori is like opening a window -- a little breeze comes in, a little light. You can see a little sky, but it is framed. Your window becomes a frame to the sky, which has no frame. And if you always live in the room and you have never been out of it, the natural conclusion will be that the sky is framed. It is only in this decade that a few modern painters have started painting…
During three years of severe training under the great master gizan, koshu was unable to gain satori.
AT THE BEGINNING OF A SPECIAL SEVEN-DAY SESSION OF DISCIPLINE, HE THOUGHT HIS CHANCE HAD FINALLY COME. HE CLIMBED THE TOWER OF THE TEMPLE GATE, AND GOING UP TO THE ARHAT IMAGES HE MADE THIS VOW: EITHER I REALIZE MY DREAMS UP HERE, OR THEY'LL FIND MY DEAD BODY AT THE FOOT OF THIS TOWER. HE WENT WITHOUT FOOD OR SLEEP, GIVING HIMSELF UP TO CONSTANT ZAZEN, OFTEN CRYING OUT THINGS LIKE: WHAT WAS MY KARMA THAT IN SPITE OF ALL THESE EFFORTS I CAN'T GRASP THE WAY? AT LAST HE ADMITTED FAILURE, AND, DETERMINED TO END IT ALL, HE WENT TO THE RAILING AND SLOWLY LIFTED HIS LEG OVER IT. AT THAT VERY INSTANT HE HAD AN AWAKENING. OVERJOYED, HE RUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS AND THROUGH THE RAIN TO GIZAN'S ROOM. BEFORE HE HAD A CHANCE TO SPEAK, THE MASTER CRIED: BRAVO! -- YOU'VE FINALLY HAD YOUR DAY. Satori…
Osho, what is zen?
These sounds, these birds, these trees, these people, this silence... three thousand people disappearing into a silence, losing their identities, egos... and suddenly Zen is there! It becomes almost tangible. You can touch it, you can eat it, you can drink it. But there is no way to convey it through words. You have to be calm and quiet and contented so that you can be in the present. You have to be free of all care. Care simply means you are not trusting existence; you are trying to be careful on your own. You are afraid. You are not yet aware that existence cares for you, that it mothers you, that it fathers you. Once you start feeling the mothering, the fathering that surrounds you, in the air, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, you drop caring for yourself. There is no need to be worried.…
Question: what kind of preparations are necessary to experience satori?
Satori becomes possible for a great number of people, because sometimes it needs no preparations; sometimes it happens by chance. The situation is created, but unknowingly. There are so many people who have known it. They may not know it as satori, may not have interpreted it as satori, but they have known it. A great surging love can create it. Even through chemical drugs, satori is possible. It is possible through mescaline, LSD, marijuana, because through a chemical change the mind can expand enough so that there is a glimpse. After all, all of us have chemical bodies -- the mind and the body are chemical units -- so through chemistry, too, the glimpse can be possible. Sometimes a sudden danger can penetrate you so much that the glimpse becomes possible; sometimes a great shock can bring you so much into the moment that the glimpse becomes possible. And…