According to Osho, to settle on a sign is to cling to the finger instead of seeing the moon—to mistake symbols, doctrines, experiences, or techniques for the truth they indicate. Signs are pointers, not the destination. Use them provisionally, then let them go. The living reality is known only in immediate awareness, not in names, rituals, or meanings the mind settles upon.
Don’t get stuck on labels or rules; look at what they point to—your own direct experience.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
All that we do here is to help you to put the mind aside. All the meditations are nothing but devices to put the mind aside. And once you have got even just a glimpse of your inner light, then things become very easy. Then you know that the light is inside. And then to put the mind aside is not difficult because now you know there is no risk -- it is worth putting it aside. Only in the beginning is it difficult because you only know the mind. You have been identified with it, you think you are the mind so to put it aside feels very dangerous. It feels like committing suicide, because it is you! But you are not it. It is just a deep-rooted misconception, a wrong calculation. You are simply making a mathematical mistake. Two plus two are four, and you are putting five.
bibles, korans, gitas cannot give it to you -- they are all words, they are beautiful they were spoken by beautiful people but that does not make any difference even if buddha says the word rose it does not become a rose even if jesus says the word fire it does not become fire but beautiful people can be so hypnotic that you start believing in their words christians, hindus, mohammedans, buddhists are all doing the same they have all forgotten the reality and are clinging to the labels they are all clinging to the cages maybe they are golden cages but the bird, the alive bird, the singing bird is no more there the search of sannyas is for the alive, the singing bird man has two alternatives two possible orientations one is character, the other is consciousness character is imposed from the outside it is a political and…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, SEE THE MOON, FORGET THE POINTING FINGER YOU MUST SEE THE MOON AND FORGET THE FINGERS. DON'T DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING BASED ON THE WORDS. AN ANCIENT WORTHY SAID, "THE BUDDHAS EXPOUNDED ALL TEACHINGS TO SAVE ALL MINDS; I HAVE NO MIND AT ALL, SO WHAT'S THE USE OF ALL THE TEACHINGS?" IF THEY CAN BE LIKE THIS WHEN READING THE SCRIPTURES, ONLY THEN WILL PEOPLE OF RESOLVE HAVE SOME COMPREHENSION OF THE INTENT OF THE SAGES. STORIES AND SAYINGS THESE DAYS, IN THE CH'AN COMMUNITIES, THEY USE THE EXTRAORDINARY WORDS AND MARVELOUS SAYINGS OF THE ANCIENTS TO QUESTION AND ANSWER -- CONSIDERING THEM SITUATIONS FOR DISCRIMINATION, AND BEGUILING STUDENTS. THEY ARE FAR FROM GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THEIR REALITY.
Emptiness here, emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes. Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference, for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen. So too with being and non-being. Don't waste time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this.
ONE THING, ALL THINGS: MOVE AMONG AND INTERMINGLE, WITHOUT DISTINCTION. TO LIVE IN THIS REALIZATION IS TO BE WITHOUT ANXIETY ABOUT NON-PERFECTION. TO LIVE IN THIS FAITH IS THE ROAD TO NON-DUALITY, BECAUSE THE NON-DUAL IS ONE WITH THE TRUSTING MIND. WORDS! THE WAY IS BEYOND LANGUAGE, FOR IN IT THERE IS That's why in the world of religion you see the most egoistic people possible, because they are trying to be perfect about everything. They insist on perfection. They cannot be relaxed, they will always be tense. And always something will be wrong and they have to put it right -- and they will always remain in anxiety. Go to the madhouses, and you will find there ninety percent perfectionists. A man of understanding remains relaxed. That doesn't mean that he doesn't care. No, he cares but he knows the limitations. He cares, but he knows that he is…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SPIRITUAL SEEKER? A Buddha, a Mahavira, could call this world sansar, a wheel, because they knew that it was a wheel when they stepped aside. It is not that you are running in a line, it is a circle -- repeating the same desires, the same days, the same nights, the same disillusionments, and going on in the whirlwind. Pushed from behind, pulled from the front, you go on. Sannyas means to step aside, to step out. This is the second part of sannyas. Sannyas has two parts. The first part is knowing the frustration, knowing the anguish. This is the miracle: once you know that the world is anguish, the world is frustration, you are not frustrated at all. The frustration comes because you think the world is not frustrating.