Is the diversity of vision of the Divine dependent on the seer?

Osho, sages, buddhas, and devotees have seen the Divine in countless forms and the formless, and have given it many names in their own ways—including “the Nameless” and “neti-neti.” Is this diversity of vision dependent on the seer’s personality?

There is no diversity in vision; the diversity is in expression. What has been seen is one. Yes, what has been said is many. “Ekam sat viprā bahudhā vadanti”—Truth is one; the wise speak of it in many ways. The knowers have seen that One; they have spoken of it in many ways because there are many ways to speak. There are not many ways to see, for as long as a way of seeing remains, it will not be seen. Understand this. As long as a viewpoint remains, there is no vision. As long as you carry a viewpoint, a way of seeing, a pair of spectacles, you will color it; you will not see what is, you will see what you could see, what you wanted to see. You will project yourself onto it. The moment vision is free of viewpoint, vision happens. When you have no “eye”…

Osho, is the experience of the Divine different for each person?

Think of it like this: you go home from this garden, and your children say, “Tell us—what was the garden like?” A painter might tell you by making a painting: “It was like this.” A poet will write a poem—of the trees, of the winds passing through them, of the sun filtering between their leaves. Now a poem and a painting differ greatly. Or perhaps someone is a musician; he will not even write a poem—he will lift his vina. Why write? The winds passed through the trees and there was sound and resonance—he will reproduce that resonance on the vina. The colors in the trees he will translate into tones. The sun and shade he will pour into music. He will play the garden on his vina. Another will write a poem; another will render it on paper. The three expressions will differ. And if you look only at…

A friend has asked, Osho, the Gita says that whatever desire a person holds at the time of death, that is the birth he attains next. So if a person has spent his whole life in sin, and at the moment of death desires to become like Mahavira or Buddha in the next life, can that man become like Mahavira and Buddha in the next birth?

No one really wants to do religion; therefore we postpone it. We say, we’ll do it in old age—what’s the hurry now? There is great hurry to sin! That must be done now, it can only be done in youth. We’ll do religion in old age. And if some young person becomes religious or eager, the so‑called wise advise him, “It is not your age yet. For now, do irreligion.” Their meaning is: now is the age for sin. As long as strength is there, sin away; when strength is gone, then do religion. But is strength necessary for sin and not for religion? Is life necessary for sin, power necessary for sin—do you take religion to be some eunuch’s task that needs no strength! Remember, the very energy with which you sin becomes virtue. And when that energy is no longer in your hands, you can neither sin nor…

So it is. When you reach the shore of the divine and bring the experience back, by the time you get here, the chests you bring—chests of words—have killed it. The experience happens where there is no mind. But to tell of it, you must employ the mind. The very mode of that experience is so different, so unique, that you cannot catch it in words. Go beyond words—it is grasped. Bring it into words—it slips away. Still, the master speaks—not thinking he can convey it by speech, but to arouse thirst. The poet’s folly—yet I say, he did right. At least this much would happen: seeing his eyes, the effort of filling the chest—though he failed—his beloved’s thirst would awaken. A thrill would arise: “I too must go to the seashore. When I am well, I will go.

Why is a spiritual experience often called a vision? What is the difference between sight and vision? A while ago you spoke about what it is 'to hear'. Please, what does it mean 'to see'?

Be more sensitive -- less of belief, less of the head, and more of sensitivity. Be more sensuous, alive in your senses, and then suddenly one day you will see: it is not simply the light that is coming to you, it is God in the form of light; and it is not the tree that is standing there in front of you, but God; not the rock, but God; not the woman that you have fallen in love with, but a God; not the man, but God. When the insight becomes clear, unclouded, suddenly you start seeing that everywhere God is, because all is God. A man took a flower once, and without a word, held it up before the men seated in a circle about him. Each man in his turn looked at the flower, and then explained its meaning, its significance, all that it symbolized. The last…