Is the path of meditation different from the path of the lover?

Beloved Osho, it has been my understanding that the meditator and the lover have different paths. The other day we heard your beautiful explanation of the path of meditation. Is this path different from that of the lover? If so, how to tell which path to choose?

Somebody attracts you; there can be any reason for that attraction. Mostly -- perhaps one hundred percent, not mostly -- the woman you are attracted to has something in her eyes, in the color of her hair, in her way of talking, in her voice, in her gestures, the way she walks... something in her resembles your mother. You are always in love with your mother, and your whole life you are seeking another mother. Of course, you are going to be frustrated. All lovers are frustrated, except those who never manage to get married. For example, Laila and Majnu -- the society did not allow them. Shiri and Fariad -- their families came in. They were never frustrated, they remained lovers their whole life. They lived loving the other person, they died loving the other person. But if you come together.... They were prevented from coming together. If you…

Osho, you have said there are two opposite paths: meditation and love—intelligence or feeling. So tell us, what is the difference between the practice of meditation and the practice of love? Is a meditator not loving before samadhi?

These paths are opposite; where they lead is one. You can arrive from either side. Erase one of the pair, and the other will vanish by itself. Which one you choose to erase depends on your personal inclination. It is the art of erasing one of a pair. The other will vanish because it was the inevitable counterpart. If from existence we remove light itself, darkness will also be gone. It sounds difficult only because in your house, if you blow out a lamp, darkness doesn’t disappear—it increases. But you haven’t removed light from existence. If light were eradicated from existence, darkness would vanish. If darkness were erased, light would vanish. If we remove death from the world, life will disappear that very day. We think the opposite: that death destroys life. You do not know; they are two parts of one thing. Without death there can be no life;…

Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?

Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…

Osho, every day as I listen, I bathe in tears, the heart throbs—whether you speak on devotion or on meditation. When you take me into the depths, it is like a sacred immersion in the Ganges and the Yamuna. Seeing you in form and formless, I am filled with bliss, I feel blessed. Love and meditation then are not two. Through both there is a glimpse of the One. I feel graced. Countless pranams!

My silent night has been made eloquent by the sweet anklets of Your steps. In the rhythm of those anklets my breaths have recognized their own rhythm; in the sound of those anklets my life-breaths have known their own song. Every pore keeps time, to the jingling of those bells. With this restless, ringing anklet today bind my voice. My silent night is made vocal by the sweet anklets of Your feet. What I am saying to you is no doctrine; it is simply a music. There is a music that puts you to sleep—a mother sings a lullaby and the child sleeps. And there is another kind of music that awakens—you hear the alarm clock and sleep breaks. What I am saying to you is not a doctrine. It is only a music, a single note—if you can hear it, you begin to awaken. If you hold to that…

Question: Osho, you have spoken of two paths to reach the Divine—love and meditation. My situation is that a feeling of love does not well up in my heart. It isn’t that I don’t want to love anyone; it just isn’t my temperament. I like to be quiet and sit in silence. So I chose the path of meditation and began the practice of witnessing. Now the difficulty is this: the moment I become aware that I am watching my thoughts, the thoughts stop and there is a momentary experience of bliss; then a stream of thoughts starts again. And then again I watch them—and again and again the same thing. In my situation I don’t see any progress. Am I making some mistake somewhere? Or is my choice of the path of meditation wrong?