According to Osho, going inward means abandoning secondhand, verbal ‘knowledge’ and entering direct, existential seeing where the mind’s substitutions stop and the ‘I’ dissolves. It is a courageous journey through the death of ego to living truth, not dictionary meanings. By waking from dreamlike beliefs and dropping hypocrisy, one becomes available to God, authenticity, and a unified life.
It’s turning from words and ideas to feel truth yourself by letting the bossy ‘I’ relax and fade away.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is turning inwards?
Now, what does it mean to turn inwards? Tao's question is significant, it is very relevant. What does it mean to turn inwards? It means seeing the futility of desire, seeing the futility of dreaming, seeing the illusoriness of dreaming. In that very seeing, desire disappears. In that clarity, desire cannot exist. And when you are with no desire, you are in. Not that you have to turn in. Not that first you have to stop desiring, then you have to turn in. The cessation of desire is the turning, the transformation -- what Jesus calls 'metanoia', the conversion. Suddenly another gestalt opens. It was there, but you were not aware of it because you were too much obsessed with the desire. The desire for money, the desire for power, the desire for prestige, does not allow your meditation to bloom. Because the whole energy goes down the drain in…
Beloved Osho, before we ask anything we would like to offer our gratitude and greetings to you. The mystics have always said that "there is nowhere to go but in." you also say the same. We are familiar with the words, but our understanding of it does not go beyond the verbal level. Could you please explain the deeper meaning of it?
Understanding at the verbal level is not worth calling understanding. In the world of religion there is no greater deception than words. The words can be understood, there is no difficulty in that, but that which is hidden behind the words remains uncomprehended, and that is the real difficulty. When the word is understood, but not that which lies behind the word, life becomes a great turmoil. We create the illusion of knowing when we do not know, and nothing is more dangerous than assuming that one knows when one does not. Life begins at the point where knowing happens. Life is transformed through knowing. But if we live under the illusion that we know religion because we know the words, then our mind travels in one direction while our life travels in another, and often these directions are completely opposite. This is why hypocrisy comes to be a daily…
Mistaking the false for the true and the true for the false, you overlook the heart and fill yourself with desire.
SEE THE FALSE AS FALSE, THE TRUE AS TRUE. LOOK INTO YOUR HEART. FOLLOW YOUR NATURE. AN UNREFLECTING MIND IS A POOR ROOF. PASSION, LIKE THE RAIN, FLOODS THE HOUSE. BUT IF THE ROOF IS STRONG, THERE IS SHELTER. WHOEVER FOLLOWS IMPURE THOUGHTS SUFFERS IN THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT. IN BOTH WORLDS HE SUFFERS, AND HOW GREATLY, WHEN HE SEES THE WRONG HE HAS DONE. BUT WHOEVER FOLLOWS THE LAW IS JOYFUL HERE AND JOYFUL THERE. IN BOTH WORLDS HE REJOICES, AND HOW GREATLY, WHEN HE SEES THE GOOD HE HAS DONE. FOR GREAT IS THE HARVEST IN THIS WORLD, AND GREATER STILL IN THE NEXT. HOWEVER MANY HOLY WORDS YOU READ, HOWEVER MANY YOU SPEAK, WHAT GOOD WILL THEY DO YOU IF YOU DO NOT ACT UPON THEM? ARE YOU A SHEPHERD WHO COUNTS ANOTHER MAN'S SHEEP, NEVER SHARING THE WAY? READ AS FEW WORDS AS YOU LIKE…
Osho, what is inner sense?
God is not a person but the ultimate sense of well-being, the ultimate sense of being at home, the ultimate sense that "I belong to this world and this world belongs to me. I am not alien here, I am not an outsider." The ultimate sense -- existential -- that "This whole and I are not separate." This experience is God. But this experience is possible only if you allow your inner sense to function. Start allowing it! Give it as many opportunities as possible. Don't look always for outside authorities, and don't look for outside opinions. Keep yourself a little more independent. Feel more, think less. Go and look at the rose flower, and don't just repeat parrot like, "This is beautiful." This may be just opinion, people have told you; from your very childhood you have been hearing, "The rose flower is beautiful, is a great flower." So…
What is the difference between waiting for godot and waiting for god?
It is as if the sun has risen in the morning and you are sitting in your room with closed doors and windows, in darkness. Open the doors, you become available to the sun. The sun was already available -- just the meeting happens. You cannot wait for God. All waiting is for Godot. Godot means the one who never comes, who CANNOT come, whose arrival is impossible. And the only impossible thing is that which has already happened -- how can it happen again? You are alive, and you are waiting for life, Now, this is ridiculous. The real man of religion does not think in terms of God. He thinks in terms of life or, even better, of living -- because life can again become an abstract idea. Living, moment-to-moment living. In that very living, one knows what God is, because one knows who one is. Your idea…