Is there any relation between awareness and the instinctive alertness man once relied on for survival?

Question: Maneesha has asked: OUR BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE ANY RELATION BETWEEN AWARENESS AND THE INSTINCTIVE ALERTNESS MAN ONCE HAD TO RELY ON FOR HIS SURVIVAL? Relax. But remain a witness. The body is lying there as an object, the mind is there as an object. You are the witness. You are neither the mind, nor the body. You are a pure consciousness. This pure consciousness we have been calling the buddha. The buddha is only a symbol. So many flowers have blossomed, so much fragrance... all boundaries have disappeared and the Buddha Auditorium has become a lake of consciousnesses without any ripples. You have to bring all this fragrance with you, all these flowers with you. Now I have brought the Buddha statue, just in front of the Buddha Auditorium. He is waiting there.

Beloved Osho, some people do things instinctively. Is instinct the same as intuition? Or is instinct animal-like, and intuition only human? Beloved master, please comment on the difference, if there is a difference.

Just a few months ago one Jaina monk did this kind of suicide. They call it santhara. And I wonder that a government which is against suicide takes no note of these people. They should be prevented. They should be put in jails, with others who attempt suicide ... because what does it matter what kind of means you use for suicide? Whether you die within nine minutes or ninety days does not matter. And if you allow the Jaina monks, then why should you prevent others? And the prevention is also very beautiful. If you are caught committing suicide -- if you have committed, nothing can be done -- but if you are caught committing suicide, then you will be sent to the gallows. Strange punishment! That's what he was doing himself! Now why waste unnecessary years of time in courts, cases, judges, advocates and finally, because he was…

Beloved Osho, please could you talk about the subtle differences between instinct and intuition?

Yogeshwar, your individuality can be divided -- just for the purpose of understanding it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head, the heart, and the being. Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your body, intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing. The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality, thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility. Intellect is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air. The body…

Beloved master, is maturation an ongoing process? How is maturation related to awareness? Please explain.

Yes, maturation is an ongoing process. There is no limit to it -- not even the sky is the limit. Your consciousness is far bigger than the whole universe. It is infinitely infinite. You cannot come to a point where you can say, "Enough." There is always more and more. There is always a possibility to go on growing. And growing, maturing is such a beautiful experience, that who wants to stop it? We are stopped in every way. Even a great scientist like Albert Einstein has used only fifteen percent of his intelligence. What to say about ordinary people? -- they never use more than five percent. Just think, if Einstein was capable of using one hundred percent of his intelligence he would have given the world unimaginable richness. And if everybody is using his consciousness one hundred percent, then who would like to go to heaven and live…

Question: OSHO, WHAT IS INTUITION, AND WHAT IS ITS PLACE IN YOUR RELIGION? Instinct and intuition are both independent of you. Instinct is in the power of nature, of unconscious nature, and intuition is in the hands of the superconscious universe, the consciousness that surrounds the whole universe, the oceanic consciousness of which we are just small islands -- or better, icebergs, because we can melt into it and become one with it. In some ways intuition is exactly opposite to instinct. Instinct always leads you to the other; its fulfillment is always dependent on something other than you. Intuition leads you only to yourself. It has no dependence, no need for the other; hence its beauty, its freedom and independence. Intuition is an exalted state needing nothing. It is so full of itself that there is no space for anything else.