According to Osho, looking at yourself in a mirror during emotional awakening means witnessing the unmoving center behind the storm—your true being. In that clear seeing, fear-based identities drop and a fresh, radiant presence is revealed. Like Rumi’s whirling, the body and emotions may move, yet awareness reflects pure stillness, inviting movement guided by love and joy rather than fear.
It’s like spotting the calm, real you in the middle of big feelings, so you act from love instead of fear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
6. Eyes closed, see your inner being in detail. Thus see your true nature.
7. LOOK UPON A BOWL WITHOUT SEEING THE SIDES OR THE MATERIAL. IN A FEW MOMENTS BECOME AWARE. 8. SEE AS IF FOR THE FIRST TIME A BEAUTEOUS PERSON OR AN ORDINARY OBJECT. Really, for the first time you become your self; for the first time you know you are. Your being is revealed in a flash. But why does it happen? You might have seen, in children's books particularly, a picture, or in some psychological treatises, but I hope everyone must have seen somewhere or other -- a picture of an old woman, and in the same lines a beautiful young woman is also hidden. There is one picture, the same lines, but two figures are in it: one old woman, one young woman. Look at the picture: you cannot become aware of both simultaneously. You will become aware either of one or the other. If you have become…
Osho, all the masters have always said that the dawn is not far. But when I look at myself, morning always seems far away. If I stop looking at myself, will morning come sooner?
People come to me. Only last night someone said, “I’m feeling great bliss—could this be imagination?” You have lived so long in sorrow that when even a faint ray of meditation breaks through and a subtle music of joy sounds, you cannot trust it. You suspect it. I asked that gentleman, “When you were in suffering, did it ever occur to you that perhaps it was imagination?” He said, “That thought never occurred.” In suffering, it was “reality.” Not even a doubt arose that perhaps the suffering was imagined. But now that a little movement in meditation has begun, the boat has loosened from the shore, the oars have lifted, doubt arises: “Could this joy be imaginary?” Mind says, “Come back to the shore. Where are you going? This ocean is all fantasy. Your old spot is fine; your old identification is fine. What are you out to find? Self…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHO IS IN THE WAY? WHEN MASTER JUI YEN WAS DWELLING CONSTANTLY IN HIS ROOM, HE WOULD CALL TO HIMSELF, "BOSS!" AND ALSO RESPOND TO HIMSELF, "YES?" "BE ALERT!" "I WILL." "HEREAFTER, DON'T FALL FOR PEOPLE'S DECEPTIONS." "I WON'T." JUST AROUSE YOURSELF RIGHT HERE, AND SEE WHAT IT IS. THE ONE WHO DOES THE AROUSING ISN'T ANYONE ELSE, HE'S JUST THE ONE THAT CAN RECOGNIZE DIMNESS AND DULLNESS. HE'S YOUR OWN FUNDAMENTAL IDENTITY. THIS IS ME GIVING MEDICINE TO SUIT THE DISEASE, HAVING NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE; BRIEFLY POINTING OUT THE ROAD FOR YOU TO RETURN HOME AND SIT IN PEACE, AND THAT'S ALL. IF YOU STICK TO DEAD WORDS, AND SAY IT REALLY IS YOUR FUNDAMENTAL IDENTITY, THEN YOU'RE ACKNOWLEDGING THE CONSCIOUS SPIRIT AS YOUR SELF, AND THIS HAS EVEN LESS TO DO WITH IT.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE THIS POEM BY RUMI. WE ARE THE MIRROR AS WELL AS THE FACE IN IT, WE ARE TASTING THE TASTE THIS MINUTE OF ETERNITY, WE ARE PAIN AND WHAT CURES PAIN BOTH, WE ARE THE SWEET COLD WATER AND THE JAR THAT POURS. Dancing and singing, allow yourself to be so completely overwhelmed that nothing is left behind. And you have entered into the temple of God, where you are the mirror, and you are the face mirrored in it; where you are the seeker and you are the sought; where you are the devotee and you are the God at whose feet you are offering yourself. It happened in Ramakrishna's life... a very strange incident. One great painter wanted to paint the picture of Ramakrishna. After great persuasion Ramakrishna agreed.
Bassui wrote the following letter to one of his disciples who was about to die: "the essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither colour nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains. "I know you are very ill. Like a good zen student, you are facing that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: what is the essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake
There is nothing to be worried about. You will disappear like a snowflake in pure air. You are not going to die, you are only going to disappear. Yes, you will not be found in the individual form. The form will disappear into the formless -- the snowflake into the pure air. But you will be there and more so. When the river disappears into the ocean, it is not dying -- it is becoming the ocean, it is spreading, it is becoming bigger, huge, enormous, infinite. Death, if you cling to life, will look like death. If you don't cling to life, death will look like a transformation, a freedom. You are freed from the imprisonment of form, you become formless. Then there is great joy. A man who can die like a snowflake disappearing in the pure air is blessed. There is great ecstasy, great silence and peace,…