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Osho on What does it mean when I perceive a satanic image during meditation?

What does it mean when I perceive a satanic image during meditation?

The satanic image you perceive in meditation is merely a reflection of your own inner darkness; embrace it, understand it, and let it dissolve within you.

— Osho
According to Osho, seeing a satanic image in meditation is your own mind projecting an inner 'devilish' aspect onto the screen of awareness. The master or any object is only a mirror. Use the vision as a pointer: meditate on it, recognize the trait within, own it, and consciously drop it, rather than blaming the outside.

If a devil appears in meditation, it’s your own mind showing you something inside you—notice it, find it in yourself, and let it go.

In His Own Words

From the Discourses

Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.

Dhyan Sutra · Discourse 6 1965-02-14 Hindi

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…
Maha Geeta · Discourse 54Question 3 1976-12-04 Pune Hindi

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…
Samadhi Ke Dwar Par · Discourse 6 1970-02-24 Pune Hindi

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…
That Art Thou · Discourse 24Question 1 1972-03-28 Mt Abu Meditation Camp, India English

By meditating upon the lord parameshwar, consorted by mother uma, the highest lord, the all-powerful, the three-eyed, and the ever-silent, the meditator reaches him who is the source of all manifestation, the witness of all, and who is beyond all ignorance.

There is another school which is known as the gradual enlightenment school. There are many many followers of it, because the moment one says "gradual," we are at ease -- now we can do something. And in steps, gradually, in degrees we can proceed. In a sudden phenomenon there is no time, so you cannot postpone -- you cannot say tomorrow. If the phenomenon can happen suddenly, this very moment, then your mind cannot excuse itself; there is no basis to postpone it. With a gradual school you can say, "Okay, we will try in this life, and if not in this life, then in another life. Gradually we will reach the peak. One step, second step -- by steps we will reach to the ultimate." Then you have to divide. But this UPANISHAD belongs to neither. This is neither sudden nor gradual. This UPANISHAD takes a middle way. It…
Just wait for a hundred years more and the scientist will speak exactly the same language which we find in the Upanishads. They will have to speak the very language that Buddha spoke; they will have to speak the same language that St. Augustine and St. Francis spoke. They will have to speak it, because as the experience of realizing truth becomes deeper, the experience of asserting oneself will become less and less. As the truth becomes manifest the ego dissolves, and some day it appears that whatever was known was because of God's grace. One comes to the understanding that: "It has descended upon me; I as such am not in it. And whatever I did not know, I am responsible because I was so incapable that I could not have known it." So the presence of "I" is necessary only if un-truth is to be realized.