Unconsciousness isn’t nothing; it’s a mental mistake that feels real until you wake up—like seeing a snake when it’s only a rope.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, in the Dwarka camp you said that meditation and samadhi are a voluntary, conscious entry into the state of death, through which the illusion of death dissolves. Then the question arises: to whom does the illusion of death occur? Does it occur to the body or to consciousness? Since the body is only an instrument, it cannot have delusive awareness; and there is no reason for consciousness to be deluded. Then what is the cause and basis of this event of delusion?
They sent word. She came very annoyed. “It’s his same old habit,” she said. “He’s grown old but hasn’t dropped it. Even at death he will create mischief.” She came with a stick, banged it on the ground and said, “Stop this devilry! If you must die, die properly!” The man laughed, came down, and said, “I was only playing a little—wanted to see what they would do. Now I will die properly, conventionally.” Then he lay down and died. His sister left, saying, “Fine, now finish the rites. There is a right way for everything; do things properly.” Our illusion about death is a social delusion. It can be broken. There are methods and arrangements to break it. And even if no one else breaks it for you, anyone who has done a little meditation will break it himself at the time of death. No outside help is needed.…Read the full discourse →
At the dwarka meditation camp you mentioned that all sadhanas, all spiritual disciplines are false, because we have never been separate from god. Does that mean the state of unconsciousness is false? Is the growth of body and mind false? Is the cessation of conditioning false? Is the achievement of moving from the gross to the subtle false? Is all the preparation for the journey from the first body to the seventh body false? Is the long process of the discipline of kundalini all a sham? Kindly explain.
Life is a great mystery wherein one needs to climb up certain things and climb down other things; wherein one needs to cling to certain things and drop certain other things. But the human mind says, "If you want to hold on to something then hold to it completely; if you want to drop it then drop it absolutely." This kind of reasoning is dangerous. It cannot help bring about any dynamism in life. I am aware of both things, and I can see the problem. Some people are holding on to their riches while others are holding on to their religion. Some are clinging to the samsara, while some are holding tight to the idea of moksha -- but basically the holding remains. Only he is liberated who hangs on to nothing. One who is free from all clinging, attachments, blocks, demands, he alone knows the truth. Only he…Read the full discourse →
A friend has asked: Osho, if through meditation or spiritual practice one can conquer death, does not the same state occur in sleep? And if it does, why can’t death be conquered through sleep?
But meditation and hypnosis are not the same. Understand me carefully. I said: up to this point it is hypnosis, mesmerism—so long as we are manufacturing suggestions. When the manufacturing of suggestions stops and you awaken—where awareness begins—there meditation begins. Where witnessing begins, meditation begins. And the reason for this hypnosis is that you have fallen into a reverse hypnosis. In scientific language, this is not hypnosis but de-hypnosis. Not mesmerism, but the breaking of mesmerism. We are the ones mesmerized—but we don’t know it. In life we have become hypnotized, and we have no idea how many kinds of hypnotic trances we have taken on, by how many devices we have produced them. A large part of our life is hypnosis. And when we want to be hypnotized, we don’t notice what we are doing. For example… we live like this all our lives. If we became aware of…Read the full discourse →
Oh lotus-eyed one, sweet of touch, when singing, seeing, tasting, be aware you are and discover the ever-living.
WHEREVER SATISFACTION IS FOUND, IN WHATEVER ACT, ACTUALIZE THIS. AT THE POINT OF SLEEP, WHEN THE SLEEP HAS NOT YET COME AND THE EXTERNAL WAKEFULNESS VANISHES, AT THIS POINT BEING IS REVEALED. ILLUSIONS DECEIVE, COLORS CIRCUMSCRIBE, EVEN DIVISIBLES ARE INDIVISIBLE. That is why we are so much afraid of death: because the unreal is going to die. The unreal cannot be forever, and we are attached to the unreal, identified with the unreal. You as a Hindu will have to die; you as Ram or Krishna will have to die; you as a communist, as an atheist, as a theist, will have to die; you as a name and form will have to die. And if you are attached to name and form, obviously the fear of death will come to you, but the real, the existential, the basic in you, is deathless. Once the forms and names are forgotten,…Read the full discourse →
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking. All dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams or flowers in the air: foolish try to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong: such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
IF THE EYE NEVER SLEEPS, ALL DREAMS WILL NATURALLY CEASE. IF THE MIND MAKES NO DISCRIMINATIONS, THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS ARE AS THEY ARE, OF SINGLE ESSENCE. TO UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERY OF THIS ONE-ESSENCE IS TO BE RELEASED FROM ALL ENTANGLEMENTS. WHEN ALL THINGS ARE SEEN EQUALLY THE TIMELESS SELF-ESSENCE IS REACHED. NO COMPARISONS OR ANALOGIES ARE POSSIBLE IN THIS CAUSELESS, RELATIONLESS STATE. The man said, "I don't bother, is there any other way? For twenty years you have been thinking, for twenty lives you will continue thinking. And whenever you renounce you will renounce this way, because this is the only way -- at once!" You see a thing clearly and it happens. The question is of clarity. An immediate look into the nature of things, then there is no question of changing somewhere in the future. No one changes in the future -- transformation is always here and…Read the full discourse →