Is the realization of enlightenment the same for everyone?

Beloved Osho, a short time ago you said that spring has come and many sannyasins are ready to flower. Do "flowering," "awakening" and "self-realization" all mean enlightenment, the ultimate truth? Or is there a difference? And can a person, after attaining, fall back into identification with the mind?

From enlightenment, falling is simply impossible. You are gone -- and gone forever; not even a shadow or a trace of you is left behind. Up to self-realization the possibility remains -- it becomes less and less, but it remains. You can start being egoistic about your self-realization: "I have known, I am a realized person. I am a saint, I have encountered God" -- but that "I" is there, howsoever pious. Even its shadow is dangerous; it can pull you back. I have heard a very beautiful story about Jesus.... Jesus was walking through Jerusalem when he saw an angry crowd shouting and screaming at a woman. He came closer and heard the mob accusing the woman of adultery. Jesus strode to the front of the mob, held up his arms and said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." The crowd fell silent, but one…

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…

Beloved Osho, I heard you saying that enlightenment is the transcendence of mind -- conscious, unconscious, sub-conscious -- and that one dissolves into the ocean of life, into the universe, into nothingness. I also hear you talking about the individuality of human beings. How can the individuality of an enlightened person manifest itself if he is dissolved in the whole?

The ordinary, unconscious human being has no individuality; he has only a personality. Personality is that which is given by others to you -- by the parents, by the teachers, by the priest, by the society -- whatever they have said about you. And you have been desiring to be respectable, to be respected, so you have been doing things which are appreciated, and the society goes on rewarding you, respecting you more and more. This is their method of creating a personality. But personality is very thin, skin-deep. It is not your nature. The child is born without a personality, but he is born with a potential individuality. The potential individuality simply means his uniqueness from anybody else -- he is different. So first, remember that individuality is not personality. When you drop personality, you discover your individuality -- and only the individual can become enlightened. The false cannot…

Osho, what does realization feel like? How can a seeker know that something has truly happened? How can one distinguish reality from self-created imagination? How can others recognize the attainment of one who is realized?

You ask: “How can a seeker know that something has truly happened?” When you have a headache, how do you know you have a headache? When I was in school, I had a Muslim teacher—perhaps he is still alive—Rahamuddin, a lovely man, but very strict in one thing: it was almost impossible to get leave from him. He himself never took leave and would not grant it to students. I often needed leave. I would say my stomach hurts, or my head hurts. He said, “Listen, I accept fever; I do not accept stomachache or headache. If you have fever, I can at least take your hand and feel it. But how am I to know whether you truly have a stomachache or headache?” I said, “Since you ask, let me ask you—have you ever had a headache? A stomachache?” He said, “I have.” I said, “What proof can you…

Osho, among the saints some have called the ultimate realization “light,” some “a Holi of colors,” and some “the taste of nectar.” Why this difference?

The difference is not in that ultimate state; the difference is in the experiencer’s mode of sensitivity. Everyone’s sensitivity is different. A blind person, for instance, can also experience the divine—blindness is no obstacle. God is not experienced through your eyes, nor will God be withheld because you lack eyes. Eyes have nothing to do with it. But if a blind person has the experience—say Surdas—then it will not be an experience of light. “Light” is not in his repertoire; it exists nowhere in his felt world, nowhere in his lexicon. But a blind person’s ears are highly attuned. The energy that normally flows through the eyes—about eighty percent of the body’s energy—now becomes available to the ears. That’s why eyes are our most vital organs, and why we feel such deep pity for the blind; not so much for the deaf, the lame, the maimed, or even the mute.…