According to Osho, truth cannot be sought or achieved, because it is already your very being. Seeking and avoiding keep the mind striving and thus missing it. Illusion needs no avoidance—it is what is not. When longing and the achiever’s mind fall silent, and you are empty—even of the idea of emptiness—the ever-present truth reveals itself effortlessly.
Stop chasing truth or fighting illusions; relax into silence, drop even ideas of enlightenment, and you’ll notice you already are what you seek.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Walking In Zen Sitting In Zen · Discourse 14
1980-05-08 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, is it not necessary to desire, to long and to seek truth and avoid the untrue, to seek truth and renounce the false?
The Master said, "Now you are clinging to the idea of emptiness. This is not emptiness -- this is not true emptiness. Now you are full of the idea of emptiness. Once it was light, once it was energy, once it was fragrance now it is emptiness. It is nothing but labels changing. And unless you throw this too you will not be truly empty. A truly empty person is neither empty nor nonempty. There is nothing to experience, not even emptiness. And in that state of silence when there is nothing to experience -- no object, no content, but only consciousness, only the observer and nothing to observe only the seer and nothing to see -- one attains truth." Yoka says: <q>OUR SPIRIT IS LIKE A CLEAR MIRROR THUS IT REFLECTS THE UNIVERSE HARMONIOUSLY OUR SPIRIT AND THE UNIVERSE ARE ONE.</q> Once you are utterly empty you are a…Read the full discourse →
Eighty Four Thousand Poems · Discourse 23
1980-04-25 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
First you have to become a little happier, you have to learn to be a little more love-full, joyful; your life has to have the color of a little happiness. Then go into the search for truth and you will be moving in the right direction, because then no lie can ever deceive you. You are no more interested in lies, because you are no more interested in consolation and comfort. Now you are ready to know the naked truth as it is. And to be a seeker of truth is the greatest thing in life. Satbodh One cannot find truth by mere thinking. Thinking is not the process that leads you to the truth. It leads only to inference. And inferences are just inferences, they are hypothetical. They may be true, they may not be true. They are just conjectures, not real conclusions.Read the full discourse →
The Sound Of One Hand Clapping · Discourse 12
1981-03-12 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
truth cannot be achieved by human efforts because all human efforts are bound to originate in the mind and mind is the barrier between truth and consciousness the mind has to be put aside that's what man is capable of doing not using the mind, putting the mind aside by-passing the mind, transcending the mind and the moment the mind is not functioning consciousness immediately becomes connected with the truth the barrier is no more there hence the bridge happens and that is the greatest blessing in existence when truth showers on you only with the experience of truth life becomes meaningful, significant a celebration a man without truth is a beggar a man without truth is not yet really alive he is simply living in a kind of dream he is not awakened not awakened to the tremendous beauty of existence to the immense ecstasy of life not aware…Read the full discourse →
If You Choose To Be With Me You Must Risk Finding Yourself · Discourse 3
1980-02-03 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Go beyond your doubt, your doubting mind, and then you will really be a seeker of truth. A seeker of truth neither believes nor doubts. He is simply available, ready, open, vulnerable. He is ready to go with the universe wherever it leads. And the universe is always leading you, guiding you towards the ultimate expression of your being. If you can surrender to existence, if you can allow yourself to be overwhelmed by it, then the transformation happens so easily, without any bloodshed and without any damage. Not even scars are left in you. One changes so silently, so noiselessly, as if nothing has happened. On the outside everything remains the same and on the inside nothing is the same. One can seek truth either out of misery or out of bliss. Both people are seekers, but the first one is going to miss, he will never reach.Read the full discourse →
Even Bein Gawd Ain T A Bed Of Roses · Discourse 9
1979-10-09 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Osho (to Reta) : Unless one is full of light there is no possibility of bliss. Light itself is transformed into delight. Hence those who seek bliss directly can never find it, but those who seek light, they always find bliss. Bliss is a by-product of the experience of light; hence meditation becomes immensely important. It does not give you bliss directly, because there is no way to reach bliss directly. Meditation disperses your darkness. Meditation releases your inner potential of light. You become full of light and the moment you are full of light suddenly there is bliss. It follows light inevitably. Hence the word "enlightenment"; it simply means one who has become total light. And bliss is a by-product, a consequence. Seek light: you will find both light and bliss. Seek bliss: you will not find bliss and you will remain miserable.Read the full discourse →