According to Osho, everything in life—love, wealth, fame, failure—is a river-boat happenstance conditioned by outer circumstances; only Buddhahood is not. Buddhahood is your intrinsic nature, untouched by events or practices; you don’t become it, you remember it. Awakening is recognizing the seer behind all dreams. Religion means turning from changeable happenstances toward this ever-free, pure being.
Almost everything that happens is like changing weather; the only unchanging thing is the clear sky of your awareness—you’re already a Buddha, just notice it.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is everything in life a river-boat happenstance? The Buddha too? Buddhahood too?
No—except for Buddhahood, everything is a river-boat happenstance. Because Buddhahood is your nature, not a happenstance. It is not that you have to become a Buddha. You are a Buddha. All that is needed is to recognize it. It is not that you have to acquire Buddhahood. You never lost it. It is re-cognition, a remembering. You simply have to wake up and see what is already there. Buddhahood is not a happenstance. Buddhahood does not depend on any circumstances. Nor does it depend on your spiritual practices—remember that. Don’t think that by doing a lot of meditation you will become a Buddha. By much meditation and austerity it may become easier for you to awaken to Buddhahood, but not to be a Buddha—you were that already. Even when you were in deep stupor, snoring away, you were still a Buddha. Wandering through wombs—countless wombs—living like insects and worms, lost…
Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?
If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…
Osho, what is the essence of buddha dharma -- the religion of the buddha?
Mouna, <q>YOKA SAYS IF YOU REACH THE ZEN OF BUDDHA, AT THAT VERY MOMENT YOU ACCOMPLISH EVERYTHING.</q> <q>IN YOUR DREAM THERE ARE MANY PATHWAYS, BUT WHEN YOU WAKE UP, THEY ARE REDUCED TO NOTHING. NEITHER ERROR, NOR HAPPINESS, NOR LOSS, NOR GAIN. DO NOT TRY TO FIND ANYTHING IN THE ESSENCE OF YOUR BEING. IT IS A LONG TIME SINCE YOU WIPED THE DUST FROM YOUR MIRROR, NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO SEE ITS BRILLIANCY PERFECTLY.</q> <q>WHO CAN NOT-THINK, ALL IS HIS. IF YOU PRACTICE CHARITY IN ORDER TO BECOME BUDDHA WHEN WILL YOU SUCCEED? NEVER -- A THOUSAND TIMES NEVER. DRINK AND EAT ACCORDING TO YOUR TRUE NATURE. ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE IMPERMANENT, AND THEREFORE ALL EXISTENCE IS VOID. THAT IS THE WHOLE UNDERSTANDING OF BUDDHA.</q> This is the essence of Buddha Dharma, the religion of the Buddha. First: it is not a philosophy that…
Am I a restless, confused buddha and only need to accept right now the peculiar nature of my buddhahood, or is it different from and comes after all this stuff happening now?
See the difference, the difference is great. A man can move in two ways. One is through motivation: something has to be achieved THERE, in future. There is a goal. Then you pull yourself together and you start dragging yourself towards the goal. Your life will be a life of misery. There is another kind of movement -- the true movement -- which has no motive in it, but you are so full of energy that you have to move. "Energy is movement, and energy is delight," says William Blake. Yes, it is, because movement is delight, movement is dance. You start moving because there is so much energy and the energy starts flowing. One day you arrive, but that arrival has not been a goal. That arrival has never been pre-planned, you had never thought about it. The Ganges reaches to the ocean, but the Ganges was not trying…
Anyone who gives up the transcendent for the mundane, in any of its myriad forms, is a mortal. A buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Such is his power, karma can't hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a buddha transforms it. Heaven and hell are nothing to him. ...if you're not sure, don't act. Once you act, you wander through birth and death and regret having no refuge ..... To understand this mind, you have to act without acting. Only then will you see things from a tathagata's perspective.
BUT WHEN YOU FIRST EMBARK ON THE PATH, YOUR AWARENESS WON'T BE FOCUSED. YOU'RE LIKELY TO SEE ALL SORTS OF STRANGE, DREAMLIKE SCENES. BUT YOU SHOULDN'T DOUBT THAT ALL SUCH SCENES COME FROM YOUR OWN MIND AND NOWHERE ELSE. IF YOU SEE A LIGHT BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN, YOUR REMAINING ATTACHMENTS WILL SUDDENLY COME TO AN END, AND THE NATURE OF REALITY WILL BE REVEALED. SUCH AN OCCURRENCE SERVES AS THE BASIS FOR ENLIGHTENMENT. BUT THIS IS SOMETHING ONLY YOU KNOW. YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN IT TO OTHERS. ...OR IF, WHILE YOU'RE WALKING, STANDING, SITTING OR LYING IN THE STILLNESS AND DARKNESS OF NIGHT, EVERYTHING APPEARS AS THOUGH IN DAYLIGHT, DON'T BE STARTLED. IT'S YOUR OWN MIND ABOUT TO REVEAL ITSELF. ...IF YOU SEE YOUR NATURE, YOU DON'T NEED TO READ SUTRAS OR INVOKE BUDDHAS. ERUDITION AND KNOWLEDGE ARE NOT ONLY USELESS, THEY CLOUD YOUR AWARENESS. DOCTRINES ARE ONLY FOR POINTING…