Feeling doubtful is normal, but it’s just a learned habit—when you notice you’re the watcher, not the doubts, they fall away and your natural light shows.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, when I look inside myself, I catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning. I feel that I certainly will not become enlightened, although others might. Is this attitude a natural mistrust? Is this attitude a habit I have to break? Osho, will this attitude prevent me from becoming enlightened? Please, shower some light on me.
Divyam Mayo, your question needs great consideration for the simple reason that it is going to arise for many sannyasins at different stages, but it has to be divided so that you can understand clearly what is happening. First you say, "When I look inside myself, I catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning." This will happen to everybody because everybody has been conditioned for centuries. You are forgetting just one thing -- which is often forgotten by seekers of their inner world, and this is most important to remember, not to forget. You are saying, "When I look inside, I catch a glimpse of what seems like centuries of conditioning." One thing is certain: that you are not part of the conditioning, you are the watcher. When you go in, you see centuries of conditioning around your consciousness. But you are not part of the conditioning,…
Osho, when Swami Chaitanya Bharati goes to conduct camps, he says, “I too have attained enlightenment.” From what attitude does he say this?
You have erected a needless Gaurishankar. Enlightenment is no Gaurishankar; it is walking on level ground. Even “walking” is not right—it is sitting on the plain ground. Enlightenment is rest; it is repose. But we waste time in pointless questions and problems. If Chaitanya Bharati says it, then clap heartily and welcome him, garland him with flowers. What’s the harm? Say: “Good—one more person has become enlightened!” Strike up the band, play the shehnai. Be exuberant. What is wrong in it? No catastrophe has occurred. But I want to say to my sannyasins: I will make your announcement. Do not be in haste. Haste is the hallmark of the ignorant. If I can speak for you, you remain silent. By speaking you will raise unnecessary obstacles for yourself. And the fear is that in your speaking there may be the very juice of ego—the greater likelihood is exactly that. Your…
Beloved master, you say that enlightenment can happen any moment. To me it feels like a very slow process of learning and becoming aware of the unconscious parts of my being. Do you have something to say about this?
Enlightenment is not something like an achievement; one cannot achieve it. One has to disappear for it to happen. It is a happening and it happens only in the absence of the ego. And whenever you are doing something the ego becomes more and more strengthened. The ego is a doer, and enlightenment happens in a state of nondoing. It is simply the realization of who you are; it is not a question of achievement. You are already it! Just an awakening, just a turning in! Seeing the point, Buddha relaxed; he dropped all his methods. That is the only use of methods: you get tired of them, you feel utterly bored with them. One day out of sheer boredom you drop all the methods. That evening he dropped his whole spiritual search. He had dropped all worldly search six years before, but it is the same search whether you…
Beloved Osho, this sounds like a silly question. I am not sure that I want to become enlightened. I am surprised to see so many people around who seem to have that desire. I feel very much attached to my country and I love my work there. Still I want to take sannyas. Is that possible? Is it not a contradiction?
To live now is to be enlightened, to live here is to be enlightened, to be a lily is to be enlightened this very moment! Don't think about what I am saying. Don't think about it, just be here. This is the taste of enlightenment. And once you have tasted it, you will want to taste it more and more. Don't make a goal out of it; it is not a goal, it is the most ordinary state of consciousness. It is nothing extraordinary, it is nothing special. Trees are enlightened, and the birds are enlightened, and rocks are enlightened, and the sun and the moon are enlightened. Only man is not, because only man thinks and goes on missing. The moment you realize that you are missing because you are brooding too much, then small glimpses start happening. Small gaps in the traffic of the mind, small gaps when…
Beloved Osho, is it possible to become enlightened in a really easy and relaxed way, with not too much effort and lots of naps?
Gayano, you are asking me, a man who has never done anything. Just through relaxation ... without any effort and lots of naps! Mostly I am asleep. I just get up to talk to you in the morning, then I go back to sleep; then I get up again in the evening to talk to you and go back to sleep. My total hours of sleep must be eighteen. Six hours I am awake, two hours with you, one hour for my bath, for my food and the remainder I am in absolute samadhi. And I don't even dream -- so lazy! And you are asking me the question. This is my whole philosophy, that you should not make any effort, that you should relax and enlightenment comes. It comes when it finds you are really relaxed, no tension, no effort and immediately it showers on you like thousands of…