According to Osho, don't rehearse how to thank; any preplanned gratitude will be false. When awakening happens, authentic thankfulness will arise on its own, fresh, unpredictable, uniquely yours. In Zen even a slap became the perfect bow. Let go of anticipations and experiences; in the silent witnessing, the right expression of gratitude naturally flowers.
Don't plan your thank-you; when you truly wake up inside, the right thank-you will come out by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Fourth question: Osho, the day I attain, how will I thank you? Don’t get into useless worry from now. When an unprecedented event like attainment happens, you will also find a way to say thank you. That’s a small matter! When such a great thing happens, do you think you won’t be able to find a way to express gratitude? You will find God and not find a way to say thank you? It will happen on its own. Don’t worry about it. And there is nothing to practice in advance—that you will rehearse gratitude. If you practice it, it will be false. And if a false practice persists, then at that moment you may end up thanking from that same falseness. At least let that gratitude be spontaneous—don’t prepare for it. Don’t rehearse it.
Beloved Osho, how can I thank you?
There is no need: just be what you can be. Allow yourself to blossom. Enjoy in glory -- and that will be thankfulness enough. Anybody who blossoms close to me has already shown his gratitude. Saying it would be profane. Saying it would destroy the beauty of the unsaid, the silent. If you have really come to a point when you want to say thank you to me, then don't say it; I will understand it. By saying it, you will be bringing down something from a very high level. You will be surprised to know that in India, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, perhaps the oldest, you rarely hear anybody thanking somebody else. No child will thank his parents; no parents will thank their child. In the West that is part of your formal training: on each occasion say, "Thank you." I was thinking about the…
Beloved Osho, is enlightenment the only way a disciple can truly express her gratitude to her master?
Maneesha, even enlightenment is not enough to express the gratitude the disciple has for the master. There is simply no way. The gratitude of the disciple remains unexpressed. It is one of those mysteries which can be experienced but cannot be explained. It will look strange to you when I say that the closer the disciple comes to enlightenment, the more difficult it becomes for him to express the gratitude -- because now he is coming to a point which he had never known before. He has been grateful all the way along, but enlightenment, the experience of one's own unfolding, is just too much. You can simply shed tears, or dance -- but everything is ineffectual; it shows your intention only, but not the gratitude. The depth and the greatness of gratitude is such that no word can express it, no experience can express it. But in a way,…
Beloved Osho, in every situation, if I say to you within me, "thank you, Osho," something happens. This creates some distance from my mind, I become more and more weightless, I begin to float, to fly. I don't know where I will go. But please let me say again and again and now, "thank you, Osho."
It happens sometimes that you suddenly stumble upon a beautiful phenomenon. That's what has happened when inside you say "Thank you, Osho." It is not only words, it is a gratefulness felt by every fiber of your being -- it is gratitude. That's why you suddenly feel weightless; all the burdens of the mind -- worries, tensions -- disappear. You feel as if you can float into the sky like a cloud. You have stumbled on a technique without knowing that it is a technique. It is a Tibetan method. It has been used for at least two thousand years. In a Tibetan monastery -- you will be surprised if you visit -- every lama, whenever he comes across the master during the day working in the field, working in the garden, he simply bows down, puts his head on the master's feet and says, "Thank you, master." That is…
Osho, it is said that under the wish-fulfilling tree, whatever you ask for, you receive. But here there is also a tree under which you receive without asking—and in abundance! Osho, how can I thank your compassion?
Liberation! Sing, dance! The more you dance, the more you thank me. The more you sing, the more you thank me. There is no need to thank me directly. Become ecstatic. Live in rapture. Live brimming with nectar. Let every single moment be drenched in rasa, awash in bliss—only that is gratitude. There is no other need to thank me; if I see you joyous, I am thanked. Whose sign is this—that the lips keep turning into song! In whose remembrance the stars spent the night within the eyes, that very image within the eyes keeps growing resplendent! Whose sign is this—that the lips keep turning into song! I do not know how the incomplete picture will ever be complete! Even the faintest line keeps vanishing away. Whose sign is this—that the lips keep turning into song! How shall I write, upon the page of breath, the account of the…