According to Osho, there is no real difference: 'no-mind' is the inner, subjective silence—no thought, question, or person—while 'being present' is its outer radiation, the palpable aura or charisma others can feel. No-mind is the center; presence is the circumference, the by-product. In mind you are mostly absent; in no-mind you are 100% alert, a solid pillar of light.
No-mind is the quiet inside you, and presence is the warm glow others feel from that quiet.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, is there any difference between the state of no-mind and being present?
Just leave the mind aside ... But we are against the body, we are very condemnatory of the body, not knowing at all that this condemnation of the body is breaking the bridge to your being. A man of authentic spirituality is deeply in love with his body, because he knows body shares many things with being. Mind shares nothing, either with body or with being. It is an absolute stranger that has been forcibly put into you by the culture, the religion, the society. They are using the mind to enslave you. And because you are in the mind you continuously go on asking about things of which you have no experience. You don't know what no-mind is, except a word. You don't know what presence of being is, except that you have heard about it. Just words won't do. Move away from the mind ... And when I…
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…
Osho, is no-mind the ultimate prayer?
PRAYER IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE DONE. Prayer is not something that can be thought either. Prayer is a state of silent being, of utter silence. One simply is... then one is in prayer. If you do prayer, you miss the whole point. Doing remains on the circumference; doing cannot enter to the center of your being. If you are saying your prayer, you again miss -- because in saying it you are thinking of yourself as separate from God, you are relating to God as if he is separate from you. And that is the basic illusion: God is not separate from you. Hence, prayer cannot be a dialogue between I and thou. I is thou -- there is no possibility of any dialogue. The moment you say your prayer, you have accepted a hypothesis which is basically wrong -- that God is there, far away from you,…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS PRESENCE OF MIND? Kavita, presence of mind is really a state of no-mind. You can call it mindfulness, awareness, or you can call it a state of no-mind. The words seem to be contradicting each other, but they are indicative of the same state. Presence of mind means to be in the present, to be spontaneous, to be available to whatsoever is happening right now. To be available to here and now is presence of mind. But the only way to be available to here and now is not to be in the past, not to be in the future. And mind consists of past and future; mind knows nothing of the present. Mind is always occupied, it is never unoccupied. And whenever the mind is unoccupied, utterly without any thought, just watchful, alert, conscious, there arises a great presence.
Question: WHAT IS HERENOW? DOES 'THOUGHT' FORM PART OF IT? IF SO, THEN ALL-TIME AND ALL-THINGS ARE NOW. OR... IS HERENOW ONLY IN NO-MIND? What is he saying "This is it"? He is simply indicating. He-is simply saying there is nothing to say -- there is much to see, but there is nothing to say. You ask: DOES THOUGHT FOR MY PART OF IT? No, thought cannot form part of it. It is asking: Does darkness form part of light? Just like that. Darkness cannot form part of light. When light is present, dark-ness is absent; when light is absent, darkness is present -- they never meet. So is the state of mind and herenow -- they never meet. Herenow means no-mind. No-mind means no thought. And you know it!