What does it mean to have an extraordinary dream after reading about Bodhidharma?

Beloved Osho, when I read the first book I had ever read of yours, come follow me, and I came to the story of bodhidharma who was staring at the wall, I collapsed in great laughter for almost an hour. The following night I had an extraordinary dream because I dreamed in words -- which I had never done before. It was a four-second dream: an old man asked a young man, "is?" the young man answered, "yes." the old man asked, "what?" the young man said, "nothing."

The dream was really the whole message of the book that you had read. Those few words -- it came in words because there is no way of making a picture of it. How will you make a picture of `is' or a picture of `nothing'... and a picture of `yes'? That's why you saw the first dream in your life in words -- because the book that you were reading was concerned with these words. It was concerned with isness. The old man said, "Is?" Perhaps he is the master... And the young man, perhaps the disciple, said, "Yes." But the old man asked, "What?" He wanted to be certain whether the young man has understood "is?" or has just said "yes" rationally. If it was only a rational answer "yes," things would have been different. That is why he is asking, "What?" And the young man said, "Nothing."…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, BEFORE SEEKING YOU'VE INDICATED YOU WANT ME TO INSTRUCT YOU BY LETTER IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS. THIS VERY THOUGHT OF SEEKING INSTRUCTION IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS HAS ALREADY STUCK YOUR HEAD INTO A BOWL OF GLUE. THOUGH I SHOULDN'T ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF FROST TO THE SNOW, NEVERTHELESS WHERE THERE'S A QUESTION IT SHOULDN'T GO UNANSWERED. I ASK YOU TO ABANDON AT ONCE ALL THE JOY YOU'VE EVER FELT IN READING THE WORDS OF THE SCRIPTURES YOURSELF OR WHEN BEING AROUSED AND INSTRUCTED BY OTHERS. BE TOTALLY WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING, AS BEFORE, LIKE A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD. THOUGH THE INNATE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THERE, IT DOESN'T OPERATE. THEN CONTEMPLATE WHAT'S THERE BEFORE THE THOUGHT OF SEEKING THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS ARISES: OBSERVE AND OBSERVE.

Osho, I meditated with my mala for thirty minutes. I kept looking at your picture. After a while the eyes in your picture turned toward me and I said: Osho, how can I participate in group meditations when I don’t have any money? To this you replied: Don’t worry, I will provide your money. Then I asked: This isn’t an illusion, is it? And you said: Yes, it is an illusion.

And the proof is that what you spoke came from the right place. Because you asked, “This isn’t an illusion, is it?” and “I” replied: “Yes, it is an illusion.” If I had said, “Yes, it is true, not an illusion,” then there would be the fear that your desire had spoken, your imagination had spoken, that you had made it say exactly what you wanted to hear. That would have been illusion. This may sound very paradoxical. I say, if I had said, “Yes, it is true,” it would have been illusion. And because I said, “Yes, it is an illusion,” therefore it is true. Try to understand. Your dreams too are not sheer illusion. In your dreams it is you who speak; that’s why psychologists probe dreams. They don’t rely on your waking state; they ask, “What do you dream?” Because in waking you have become so dishonest…

Question: what is meditation in emptiness? Answer: one observes things in the phenomenal world, yet always dwells in emptiness. That is meditation in emptiness.

QUESTION: HOW CAN ONE DWELL IN DHARMA? ANSWER: ONE SHOULD STAY NEITHER IN IN-DWELLING DHARMA NOR IN NON-DWELLING DHARMA. HE SHOULD LIVE NATURALLY IN DHARMA. THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL DWELLING IN DHARMA. QUESTION: HOW CAN A MAN LIVE AS NOT-MAN AND A WOMAN AS NOT-WOMAN? ANSWER: THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN BUDDHA-NATURE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN, NOR AN ENTITY DESIGNATED AS MAN OR WOMAN. PHYSICAL MATTER PRODUCES THE GRASS AND TREES AS IT DOES HUMAN BEINGS. IN COMPARISON YOU SAY 'GRASS' OR 'TREES'. YOU GIVE ALL SORTS OF NAMES TO YOUR ILLUSIONS. BUDDHA SAID, "IF ONE SEES THAT EVERYTHING EXISTS AS AN ILLUSION, HE CAN LIVE IN A HIGHER SPHERE THAN ORDINARY MAN." QUESTION: IF ONE ATTAINS THE NIRVANA OF AN ARHAT, HAS HE ZEN REALIZATION? ANSWER: HE IS JUST DREAMING AND SO ARE YOU. QUESTION: IF ONE PRACTISES THE SIX PARAMITAS, AND PASSES THROUGH THE TEN…

Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?

It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…