Is it true that formulating a question indicates an underlying awareness of the answer?

Beloved Osho, is it not true to say that because we can even formulate a question that we have an inkling somewhere of the answer -- even though we are not aware of it? It seems to me like a doctor looking at a patient: the fact that he asks the patient certain questions and not others indicates he has some idea of what the diagnosis -- and hence the answer -- is.

It is true. Whenever you ask a question, somewhere deep down you have some inkling of the answer, but it is in the darker parts of your consciousness. You yourself cannot pull it out and bring it to your consciousness. The question is in the consciousness; the answer is in the unconscious -- vague, a shadow, with no certainty, but the inkling is certainly there. The function of the master is exactly what Socrates has defined it as -- the master is only a midwife. He helps to bring everything that is hidden in you to consciousness. When your question disappears, that means your answer from the unconscious has been brought to the conscious. It has to be remembered that this is the distinction between a master and a teacher: a teacher will give you an answer, which will not bring your own answer from the unconscious. He will force…

Osho, the questions we ask you all arise out of unconsciousness. And your replies come from total awareness. How can the two ever meet? And if they cannot meet, then asking itself seems wrong. Then what do you mean when you tell us to ask?

What is the difference between resonance and string? The string is gross, the resonance is subtle. The string can be grasped; the resonance cannot be grasped. Catch hold of the string and you remain on the surface. Catch the string and you will be bound—the string becomes a chain. Resonance enters your very life-breath. And resonance sets aquiver the resonance already asleep within you. Resonance is liberation. Do not take my strings, my words. Do not be concerned with what I say; be absorbed in what I am. Take the aura, not the form! If you take the form, you are bound. Take a form and you enter a prison. Take the aura! The halo that surrounds a lamp cannot be clutched in a fist, cannot be locked in a safe. But if you look at it with full eyes, your eyes will begin to shine. If you drink in…

A friend has asked: Osho, if we come to know, accept, and recognize that this knowledge is not ours, what will happen within us? What will change? Will there be a revolution?

The minister too stood astonished. “What happened?” The youth said, The very thought that I have been called back and am heir to the throne—and everything changed in that moment. I became another man. The beggar who had been within me for five years—where has he vanished? I cannot find him though I search. My whole consciousness has become different. A small remembrance: for five years he held the notion “I am a beggar,” so he was abject; his eyes were abject; his face dull. In a moment a recognition, a remembrance, an awakening occurred: “I am an emperor”—and everything changed. That abjectness dissolved from his eyes; eyes once dull filled with brilliance; life-energy that had grown sluggish became vibrant; breaths that seemed dead inhaled the air of life again. What happened to that youth? The day you realize that what you have so far taken as knowledge is worth…

Osho, questions arise—and for many of them the answers also come. What is all this?

Girls want people to tell them they are beautiful. A handful of fools to say it—that’s all it takes—and you’ll always find such fools loitering on the seafront; no matter what she looks like—even if she resembles Kali of Calcutta, motherly and forbidding—some fool will still exclaim, “Ah, what beauty!” It feels good when someone says, “You are intelligent!” You gather your self-image from others’ borrowed opinions. You ask their questions and paste on their answers. You call this your knowledge. All of it stale and borrowed... No—no one else can give you knowledge. No one else can answer your questions. The one who truly wishes you well, who truly wants you to become a flame of life, will tell you: the answer to every one of your questions is within you. Therefore the way is to sit silently and go inward. And a moment comes, as you keep finding…

Is it not true that answers are usually given without anyone asking for them?

It is both correct and incorrect in a way. Questions have been raised, otherwise answers would not be possible. It may be that you yourself have not raised the question but someone else has raised it. The first time the question was raised, it was raised from ignorance. And the first time it was answered, the answer was given by a person who knew. But then everything becomes formulated. The question becomes formulated and the answer becomes formulated. Then we have ready-made questions and ready-made answers. Every child is going to ask the same questions really -- because existence is the same, the problems are the same. To pass through existence is to pass through the same suffering and the same inquiry. So just as a safety measure, parents and teachers give answers before the question is raised. Neither the question has been raised nor does the one who is…