Meditation feels scary because it seems like you’re disappearing, so admit you’re scared and keep going gently; the fear fades when you stop fighting it.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I am frightened of meditation. Please explain what the reasons might be. And how can I be free of this fear?
Fear of meditation is natural—it will be there. Because meditation means: to lose yourself, to dissolve. Meditation means: to be effaced. Your entire familiar ground will vanish. You will move in an unfamiliar realm. The world of your thoughts—which has been your home for ages, for lifetimes—will be left behind. Suddenly you will be homeless. The shade of thoughts will be removed, the roof torn away. You will descend into the void, you will be submerged in no-mind—there is danger in it. It is like taking a tiny canoe into the ocean. The far shore is not visible and you have to leave this shore. Naturally there will be fear. The waves are high, and you carry no map. You have no firm assurance that someone has reached the other bank, because no one returns. Meditation is a very deep journey. So fear will arise. Fear is natural; nothing unnatural…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, for years I have been a "groupie" searching for ways to understand myself. I have been in such misery that almost nothing asked of me was too much if it held a chance of alleviating my distress. Now you offer meditation as a means for leaving my misery behind, and all I do is resist. The thought of being still and quiet doesn't excite me. In fact it scares me, and I end up even more anxious. I don't understand this. Could you please explain this resistance to meditation?
In India if you take a bath once a year you alone will be enough to stink up the whole neighborhood -- so much perspiration, so much dust. And those lamas are still using many clothes, layer upon layer, I think seven layers at least. And they suffer from the heat, but the mind... they feel something is wrong, but the mind has gone so deep. For centuries they have lived that way. I told them, "If you want to talk to me you have to be at least ten feet away. Don't come near me because I am allergic to any kind of smell -- it may be Buddhist, it does not matter." In India it is very usual to take two baths, one in the morning, one in the evening. And those who have time, people like me... I used to take three -- one in the morning,…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, could you say something to me about fear? What is fear? Will meditation help me overcome my fear of death? Why am I afraid to let go into something more powerful than me?
Your form is changing every moment. And death is nothing but a change, a vital change, a little bigger change, a quicker change. From childhood to youth... you don't recognize when childhood left you and you became young. From youth to old age... things go so gradually that you never recognize at what date, on what day, in what year, youth left you. The change is very gradual and slow. Death is a quantum jump from one body, from one form into another form. But it is not an end to you. You were never born and you never die. You are always here. Forms come and go and the river of life continues. Unless you experience this, the fear of death will not leave you. You are asking, "Will meditation help me overcome my fear of death?" There is no other way. Only meditation... and only meditation can help.…Read the full discourse →
Kill out all sense of separateness.
If you are afraid of death you will be afraid of meditation also. But if you love meditation, you will not be afraid of death. If you enter meditation unafraid, fearless, you will become deathless, because there will be no death for you. You are already dead, so how can you die again? One who has entered meditation is already dead. Now you cannot die again, now death cannot destroy you. You have already surrendered; you are no more. Death will enter an empty house. You will not be found there. Only the ego dies, not you. Your life is eternal, but the ego is transitory. The ego is just a created, composed phenomenon. You have created it. It is needed, it has some utility. In society, you need an ego; but in life, in existence, that same ego becomes a barrier. Sannyas means going beyond society, because it means…Read the full discourse →
Osho, in the last two verses there remains a small yet special point. It says that for the meditator there should be a specific seat, a pure place, an upright body, the gaze fixed on the tip of the nose, and the vow of brahmacharya. Then it says: fearless, and with an inner being properly quieted. What does fearless mean for a seeker? Please clarify.
Fearless, and with a properly quiet mind! This is important—very important. Because the one who carries fear will not be able to enter into the Divine. Why? Then we must understand fear a little. What is fear? What is its fundamental basis? Why are we afraid? What is the root cause from which all fear arises? There is fear of illness. Fear of going bankrupt. Fear of losing reputation. There are a thousand fears. But deeply there is only one fear—the fear of death. Illness frightens, because in illness a partial glimpse of death begins. Poverty frightens, because in poverty too a partial glimpse of death appears. Disrepute frightens, because in losing status a partial taste of death begins to show. Wherever there is fear, look closely and you will see some trace of death. Even if not immediately obvious, scratch the surface a little and it will be revealed:…Read the full discourse →