What happens when a person becomes enlightened?

Beloved Osho, I'm constantly amazed at how you use your mind like a computer -- such pure and simple genius, in fact, super-genius. Lao tzu said he was a muddlehead, yet the clarity of genius is there also. Beloved Osho, when a person becomes enlightened, is the mind so free of ego that only genius is left? Or are some people actually enlightened muddleheads?

Enlightenment has nothing to do with mind. In meditation, you bypass the mind. Meditation reaches with you to the highest peak -- with all its silence, with all its flowers, with all its beauty. As you become enlightened, your mind drops all the rubbish it has carried for hundreds of lives; it is an autonomous happening. As you become enlightened, the mind immediately drops all rubbish, that rubbish you were clinging to because you had no idea who you are. That rubbish had become your identity, and now you know your real identity; you don't need that false burden on you. It simply falls naturally, on its own accord. Your mind becomes a simple, immensely powerful mechanism. But it remains now as a servant. Up to now it was the master; after enlightenment, it is a beautiful servant. And certainly, as you say, it is a computer. The people who…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, HOW DO YOU EXPERIENCE YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT? But in this whole changing, riverlike being... who are you? Only the stupid will speak out; the wise will remain silent. One who knows not will say, "I am this; I am a man, I am a woman, I am young, I am Hindu, I am a Christian..." Only the stupid will speak out. The wise will become absolutely silent. He is also answering -- his silence is the answer. Buddha calls this silence "right remembrance"... sammasati. You are saying, "I go on remembering all kinds of things you have said, and my own insights..." Agyeya, I had no idea that you also have insights! But... okay. Remembering all kinds of things that I have said, and what you have imagined as your intuitions... just try to find a single intuition that is yours, and you will be surprised.

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.

What is enlightenment?

He had read all the Buddhist scriptures -- there are thousands of them. It is said about this Chikanzenji that he had all these scriptures in his room and he was constantly reading day and night. And his memory was so perfect he could recite whole scriptures -- but still nothing happened. Then one day he burned his whole library. Seeing those scriptures in the fire he laughed. He left the monastery, he left his guru, and he went to live in a ruined temple. He forgot all about meditation, he forgot all about yoga, he forgot all about practising this and that, he forgot all about virtue, SHEELA, he forgot all about discipline and he never went inside the temple to worship the Buddha. But he was living in that ruined temple when it happened. He was mowing down the weeds around the temple -- not a very religious…

Osho, what is the most significant thing about enlightenment?

People want definite answers to believe in: this way or that. Either be a Catholic or be a communist, but be clear. People want clarity because they are so confused, and this man brings all these seven categories; now their confusion is worse, they are even more confounded. First you were at least aware that you were confused. Now you will not be aware to which category you belong: yes, no, yes -- no both, neither yes nor no, or indescribable. Mahavira could not create a world religion for the simple reason that perhaps he had the deepest penetration into reality. If you ask about his enlightenment, he will answer in seven sentences. You will not be able to come to any conclusion -- and I feel this is something tremendously valuable. Why this urge to come to a conclusion? If existence is a continuum, an ongoing process -- never…