According to Osho, enlightenment isn’t achieved by racing or trying; the very effort postpones it. Drop the hurry, stop fighting inner ghosts, and simply be present, relaxed, and silent—right now, before any ‘end.’ Let go of imposed disciplines and ambitions; don’t imitate teachers. In effortless awareness, without attachment or struggle, the step happens by itself—this instant is the door.
Stop trying so hard; just relax and be fully here, and awakening happens on its own.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
From The False To The Truth · Discourse 9
1985-07-07 · Rajneeshmandir · English
Beloved Osho, I'm afraid that the world is going to end before I get enlightened. What can I do?
He is still fighting with the ghosts of the Theosophists. All his life he has been fighting and fighting with those ghosts -- who are dead, there is no need to fight with them. One should be simply free of them, but being free means you don't hate them. Hate imprisons you. He has become so afraid of the master and disciple phenomenon.... It is his experience -- I can forgive him, I can understand him. What happened to him through his masters was so ugly that he has been teaching everybody that you don't need any master. This is a contradiction. If they don't need any master, why are you bothering them? Who are you? You have assumed, unknowingly, the role of a master, of a teacher. What have you been doing for ninety years? -- teaching people: Beware of teachers! If the people had really understood you, they…Read the full discourse →
Sat Chit Anand · Discourse 25
1987-12-04 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Beloved Osho, is it possible to become enlightened in a really easy and relaxed way, with not too much effort and lots of naps?
Gayano, you are asking me, a man who has never done anything. Just through relaxation ... without any effort and lots of naps! Mostly I am asleep. I just get up to talk to you in the morning, then I go back to sleep; then I get up again in the evening to talk to you and go back to sleep. My total hours of sleep must be eighteen. Six hours I am awake, two hours with you, one hour for my bath, for my food and the remainder I am in absolute samadhi. And I don't even dream -- so lazy! And you are asking me the question. This is my whole philosophy, that you should not make any effort, that you should relax and enlightenment comes. It comes when it finds you are really relaxed, no tension, no effort and immediately it showers on you like thousands of…Read the full discourse →
The Fish In The Sea Is Not Thirsty · Discourse 14
1979-04-24 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, I keep thinking of my life in terms of goal or destination, waiting to wake up some day and find myself enlightened, and I worry that others will reach before me. Today is a tension. Why is eternity so difficult to feel and remember? You keep reminding me but I keep forgetting and lose patience. Why am I such a food? And then I think 'so what?' and then I want to scream 'no more!' but go on.
But do you think a day will come when all your invest-ments and all your worries and all your acts are complete? Will there ever come a day when you are finished with the activities of your so-called life, and you can come and say, "Right now I am ready"? It will never come, because life is such a complexity. It never begins, it never ends. You are always in the middle. It is like reading a novel from the middle. The beginning part is missing and the end part is missing -- you know only the middle. That is the mystery of life! Try some time reading a novel from the middle and you will find that even an ordinary novel becomes very mysterious. Intrigued you will be, and many times you will be tempted to look back: "What is the beginning?" But resist the temptation, go on reading…Read the full discourse →
Tao The Pathless Path Vol 1 · Discourse 8
1977-02-18 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, when am I going to become enlightened?
Please don't be in such a hurry because I will be left without business. This is not fair. If I have so much compassion for you, you should have at least a little compassion towards me too. Go slowly. Let me also enjoy the Masterhood. The psychiatrist leaned heavily on the bar and began to drink long, hard doubles. His face was wreathed in sorrow and he was, at the same time, ominously sad. Another psychiatrist happened by. 'John!' he exclaimed: 'John! My good fellow. You don't seem to be yourself tonight. Care to tell me about it?' 'There isn't much to tell' John replied. 'Remember that rich nut I was treating for years? The one who practically kept me in business from the start?' 'I certainly do. You mean the one who kept dreaming for thirty years that he was still in high school?' John nodded. 'What happened?' 'Last…Read the full discourse →
From Unconciousness To Consciousness · Discourse 21
1984-11-19 · Lao Tzu Grove · English
Beloved Osho, what is enlightenment? Have the experience and the idea of enlightenment evolved with time?
So nirvana is just like darkness. The light is put off and your reality is all there, with all its beauty, benediction, blessing. But there is no word in English to translate nirvana. Jainas use the word moksha. Moksha means absolute freedom, ultimate freedom, freedom from all fetters. And the biggest fetter is the ego. Other fetters are just parts of the ego: greed, lust, ambition, anger. All that is thought to be sin in other religions, in Jainism is thought only to be a fetter. But the root, the main root of the whole tree of your slavery, is the ego. So cut the main root and all other roots will die of their own accord. Don't bother to cut small roots, branches, leaves, because they will come again. Cut the main root and the whole tree will die. And when all your fetters fall, what remains? The unfettered…Read the full discourse →