According to Osho, the fourth stage is not an experience at all but a gap—pure, silent no-experience in which the experiencer dissolves. Nothing happens; the knower, known, and knowledge vanish. It can only be felt, never said. Any name—Brahman, nirvana, etc.—is just a provisional label, inevitably misleading before this wordless silence.
At the deepest stage, there’s only a quiet emptiness where ‘you’ and any happening disappear—felt but impossible to describe.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Does one experience various things in this fourth stage?
Experience, as such, is psychic. There is no such thing really as "spiritual experience." It is only a gap. The experiencer is not there, so you cannot use the terminology of experience. You experience a moment which is of no-experience. As far as language can indicate it, I can only say that it is a gap. Every type of indication is bound to be negative. Language is for events, it is not for silence. If I try to express what happens in meditation through the medium of language, the terms I will use will depend on me -- and one term will be as meaningless as any other because the experience cannot be indicated by words. So you may call it Brahman, you may call it nirvana, or anything you like, but it will just be a choice between different names. Every name is as meaningless as any other, so…
To my mind the real sanity is that which comes after the transcendence of madness. Then there is neither the question nor the answer. The mind becomes calm and quiet. Then the fourth stage is reached. It comes only when you have come to the peak, to the height of tension. Then comes Relaxation. Having gone through the previous three stages each for ten minutes, for the next ten minutes or more just relax, and remain just as you are, without doing anything, because you are tired completely--The policy of 'LET GO' is achieved as an automatic process. The fourth step is the moment of doing nothing. That I call dhyana, meditation. The first three stages are steps only, the fourth is the door. Then you are there without breathing or movement. Just silence! This fourth step comes of its own accord and in these moments comes Grace.
Question: IN THIS SEVENTH STAGE, THE STATE OF VIDEHAMUKTI, LIBERATION WHILE LIVING IN THE BODY IS ACHIEVED. THIS STAGE IS TOTALLY SILENT AND CANNOT BE COMMUNICATED IN WORDS. IT IS THE END OF ALL STAGES, WHERE ALL THE PROCESSES OF YOGA COME TO THEIR CONCLUSION. IN THIS STAGE, ALL ACTIVITIES -- WORLDLY, BODILY AND SCRIPTURAL -- CEASE. THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IN THE FORM OF THE WORLD -- VISWA, INTELLIGENCE -- PRAJNA, AND RADIANCE -- TEJAS, IS JUST AUM. THERE IS NO DIVISION HERE BETWEEN SPEECH AND THE SPEAKER. IF HOWEVER ANY SUCH DIVISION REMAINS, THE STATE HAS NOT BEEN ATTAINED. THE FIRST SOUND 'A' OF AUM, STANDS FOR THE WORLD, THE SECOND 'U' FOR RADIANCE AND THE THIRD 'M' FOR INTELLIGENCE. BEFORE ENTERING SAMADHI, THE SEEKER SHOULD CONTEMPLATE ON AUM MOST STRENUOUSLY, AND SUBSEQUENTLY HE SHOULD SURRENDER EVERYTHING, FROM GROSS TO SUBTLE TO THE CONSCIOUS SELF.
On the attainment of the fifth state, the mind of the seeker ceases, like clouds in an autumn sky, and only truth remains.
IN THIS STATE, WORLDLY DESIRES DO NOT ARISE AT ALL. DURING THIS STATE ALL THOUGHTS OF DIVISION IN THE SEEKER ARE STILLED AND HE REMAINS ROOTED IN NONDUALITY. ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FEELING OF DIVISION, THE FIFTH STAGE, KNOWN AS THE SUSHUPTAPAD -- SLEEPING -- DRAWS THE ENLIGHTENED SEEKER INTO ITS NATURE. HE IS PERPETUALLY INTROVERTED AND LOOKS TIRED AND SLEEPY, EVEN THOUGH EXTERNALLY HE CONTINUES HIS EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES. ON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THIS STAGE, THE DESIRE-FREE SEEKER ENTERS THE SIXTH ONE. BOTH TRUTH AND UNTRUTH, BOTH EGOISM AND EGOLESSNESS AND ALL SORTS OF MENTATION CEASE TO EXIST IN THIS STATE, AND ROOTED IN PURE NONDUALITY, THE SEEKER IS FREE FROM FEAR. AS THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF HIS HEART DISSOLVE, SO ALL HIS DOUBTS DROP. THIS IS THE MOMENT WHEN HE IS COMPLETELY EMPTIED OF ALL THOUGHT. WITHOUT ATTAINING NIRVANA, HE IS IN A NIRVANA-LIKE STATE AND BECOMES FREE WHILE…
Beloved Osho, will you please indicate something about the fifth stage in active meditation.
Do not do anything. You are not going to die! Even if the sneeze is coming and you do not sneeze for ten minutes, you will not die. If you feel like coughing, if you feel an irritation in the throat and you do not do anything, you are not going to die. Do not be afraid: no one has ever died. Remain DEAD as far as the body is concerned so that the energy can move in one flow. When the energy moves upward you become more and more silent. Silence is the by-product of energy moving upward and tension is the by-product of energy moving downward. You will be more and more in anxiety when energy moves down; you will be more and more silent, quiet, calm and cool as energy moves upward and inward. And these words downward and outward are synonymous, and inward and upward are…