Yes—when you truly understand, you just smile because nothing more needs to be said.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what question could I ask, and what answer could you give! You are the question and the answer too. In love, should there be a question, or an answer, or silence?
Life’s ultimate peaks are peaks of paradox. Words are noise, a spectacle; in the ocean of feeling they are sugar-candy that melts. Do not speak the heart’s secret with your lips; silence alone is the language of feeling. Weep—your tears will speak. Dance—your gestures will tell. Hum. Yesterday evening it so happened. Vani, a sannyasin, has come from Germany. I asked her, “Is there something you want to say?” And I felt she had so much to say; her heart was full. She had come from so far, and could stay only for a day or two. She cannot remain long. Every two or three months she rushes here. Even if time allows only two or three days, sometimes only a single day—she comes from Germany to Poona even for a single day! Once she stayed only five hours. So she comes to say something, to make some offering. I…
Beloved Osho, most of my questions are never completed in my mind. They surface like the bubbles of a lava pool, then sink back into the mud. The only questions that are undeniably authentic, like thirsts that need quenching, are those to do with the mystery of your presence. Should I be putting more energy into crystallizing my incomplete questions, or should I just be allowing myself to go more and more deeply into the silence of this mystery?
Questions and answers are just intellectual. You need a real encounter with existence. Only that can help you to blossom, to be liberated, to be enlightened. Silence is perfectly the right path. If your heart has heard and felt something of silence and is entering into the mystery of existence, then forget all about your questions and forget all about answers. Just be silent. And as you become more and more silent, the mystery will go on opening its doors to you. Door upon door, peak upon peak ... there is no end. Life is such an eternal miracle, and it opens its doors only to the magic of silence. Whoever has understood silence has known the science, the magic, the art, the knack of entering into reality as if it is your own home. In fact it is. Questions and answers will keep you outside the temple and will…
Beloved Osho, I cannot find the question, but my heart needs an answer. What is it?
It is a very profound inquiry. Anybody who is sincere will have the same inquiry. All questions are foolish, silly at the most. But still, there is some existential need for an answer. The question is not known. I have told you about one of the most beautiful woman poets, Gertrude Stein. She was dying, and a small circle of friends had gathered around her. Just before her death she opened her eyes and asked, "What is the answer?" They were all puzzled because this is not the way... first you have to ask the question. She is first asking what the answer is -- answer to what? But you cannot be hard to a dying woman -- and no ordinary woman, a really great poet. And even in this statement her greatness is absolutely present. For a few seconds there was silence. Then one person gathered courage and said,…
Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.
These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…
Osho, nothing makes sense to me. Sometimes it feels there is nothing to ask—everything is fine; and sometimes there are only questions upon questions before me.
What answers I give you are not answers to the questions; they are only so that your courage does not fail, so that you do not lose heart. The road is long, the lake is far; it isn’t free; the path is thorn‑strewn; there is more likelihood of going astray than of arriving. People who came very near have gone astray; just as they were arriving, they took a wrong turn; they had practically arrived and then pitched camp. Two steps more and the lake was there—but they grew tired and thought the goal had come; they closed their eyes and began to dream. I can only tell you this much: the lake exists, and attaining it is your birthright. But it will not happen without seeking. And why so much fear of seeking? Because seeking means traveling on unknown paths. Seeking means: there are no maps in your hand—otherwise…