According to Osho, one should sustain unbroken remembrance of alertness twenty-four hours a day—waking and sleeping. Go to bed with the clear feeling: the body will sleep, but I, the witnessing awareness, remain awake. Carry this inner stance into every act so alertness becomes continuous, independent of bodily states, ripening into effortless, ever-present consciousness.
Keep remembering to be awake inside all the time; even when your body sleeps, feel that the real you is still watching.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is one to keep this remembrance at all times? At all times. For twenty-four hours, waking and sleeping; that is, even at the time of sleep—when one goes to bed—should one go to sleep carrying this feeling that the body is sleeping, I am alert, I remain awake; what is there for me to sleep? This attitude, in every action, for twenty-four hours...
At all times. For twenty-four hours, sleeping or waking—that is, even while asleep. When you go to bed, go with this very feeling: the body is going to sleep; I remain alert, I am awake—what is sleep to me? Let this feeling be there twenty-four hours a day, in every act...
Osho, I don’t see dreams in sleep, yet it feels as if I haven’t slept for many days. At the slightest disturbance the body wakes up, as if I had been awake all along. But I don’t feel tired, and the hours of sleep seem to slip away. Please tell me what this state is?
Good, auspicious; do not be afraid. Dreams will slowly disappear. When the witness is awake, dreams cannot be. If there is dreaming, there cannot be witnessing. Good. The dream has fallen away; a sense of wakefulness remains through the night. Gradually it will deepen and grow denser; swiftness and intensity will come. The witness becomes keen—like the edge of a sword. But in the beginning there will be difficulty. We believe that eight hours of sleep are necessary—this is a notion—and then what is this that is happening? The whole night seems to pass as if awake. And if you remain “as if awake” for eight hours, the night feels very long, as if it will never end. If you sleep, you forget; you do not know when the night began or ended. You sleep and it is morning. But now it feels as if all night it remained morning;…
In all three states — whether you are awake, asleep, or dreaming — you must keep alive the remembrance of the fourth. Let your attention remain on the fourth. Let whatever happens on the periphery happen; keep your gaze on the center. Guard awareness while rising and sitting. While eating, going home, going to the shop — keep guarding awareness. Remember one thing: I am the seer, not the doer. Do not take life to be more than an enactment. Do not identify too much with the role. Whether you are a husband or a wife, a shopkeeper or a customer — do not get lost in it. Your being a husband or wife, a shopkeeper or customer, is part of the play. But within, remain outside. Go to the shop; it is needed. The play is dear — there is nothing to break.
How to be alert in sleep and dream?
The person who has asked says that whenever he tries to be aware, he cannot sleep. Or, if sleep is coming and suddenly he remembers that he has to be alert, the sleep is broken, and then he cannot sleep -- it is difficult. Awareness with sleep cannot be worked out directly. First you have to work with the waking. Don't try that, otherwise your sleep will be disturbed and your whole day will be disturbed and you will feel depressed, lazy, sleepy. Don't do that. Remember always there is a chain and one has to move from step to step. The first step is to be aware while waking. Don't think about the sleep at all. First you be awake while waking in the day. And when you will gather enough energy of awareness, then only the second step can be taken. Then there will be no effort really.…
Osho, if witnessing is possible through the knowledge-senses, is it also possible through the action-senses, or not?
One can be a witness to the body, because inside, consciousness is separate and distinct. I raise this hand—at that moment an action is occurring: I have raised the hand. Ordinarily we only know that I am the doer of the hand’s raising. But look within: while I am raising the hand there is a consciousness inside that is seeing the hand being raised. When you are walking on the road there is someone within who is seeing that you are walking. When you are doing anything there is someone within who is seeing that you are doing something. Twenty-four hours a day there is a seeing point within you. But you are not aware of it. Witnessing means: we gradually come to remember that point; its remembrance keeps returning; its awareness dawns. As awareness of that point grows, as awakening happens there, the coverings fall away; you will find…