According to Osho, when you explore your inner self to the very center, you discover a single, shared core where all differences vanish. There you are welcomed by a living presence—Osho and the awakened ones—who already abide at that center. This realization unites you with existence, provides guidance, and ends the sense of isolation on the periphery.
Look deep inside and you’ll reach a place everyone shares, where you feel not alone and guided by wise friends.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Inquire of the inmost, the one, of its final secret which it holds for you through the ages.
THE GREAT AND DIFFICULT VICTORY, THE CONQUERING OF THE DESIRES OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL, IS A WORK OF AGES; THEREFORE EXPECT NOT TO OBTAIN ITS REWARD UNTIL AGES OF EXPERIENCE HAVE BEEN ACCUMULATED. WHEN THE TIME OF LEARNING THIS RULE IS REACHED, MAN IS ON THE THRESHOLD OF BECOMING MORE THAN MAN. THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS NOW YOURS IS ONLY YOURS BECAUSE YOUR SOUL HAS BECOME ONE WITH ALL PURE SOULS AND WITH THE INMOST. IT IS A TRUST VESTED IN YOU BY THE MOST HIGH. BETRAY IT, MISUSE YOUR KNOWLEDGE, OR NEGLECT IT, AND IT IS POSSIBLE EVEN NOW FOR YOU TO FALL FROM THE HIGH ESTATE YOU HAVE ATTAINED. GREAT ONES FALL BACK, EVEN FROM THE THRESHOLD, UNABLE TO SUSTAIN THE WEIGHT OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, UNABLE TO PASS ON. THEREFORE LOOK FORWARD ALWAYS WITH AWE AND TREMBLING TO THIS MOMENT, AND BE PREPARED FOR THE BATTLE. BETRAY IT....…
And a friend has asked: Osho, this matter of meditation—is it, after all, auto-hypnosis, self-hypnosis?
There is a great deal of similarity to self-hypnosis; at the final point the path diverges. For a long stretch there is a connection with hypnosis. All three stages are of hypnosis; only the witnessing state is not. That which must remain in the background the whole time—the witnessing: that I know, I see that the breath has come and gone; I know, I see that the body is trembling, spinning. I know, I see—this very sense is not of hypnosis. That is the difference. And it is a very fundamental difference. The rest is all the process of hypnosis. The process of hypnosis is very precious: if it is joined to witnessing, it becomes meditation; if it is separated from witnessing, it becomes stupor. If you use only hypnosis, you will become unconscious; if you also use the witnessing, you will become awakened. The difference between the two is…
Question: First question: Osho, Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. Neither heaven says a word, nor does hell open its gate. I look into every eye, feeling for your picture, and I have wandered who knows where. Are these just the gaps between breaths, or only distances upon distances? You too say nothing—your lips never open. How long must I keep walking, groping about in everyone’s heart? Where are you and where am I? Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. I could not meet you on the earth, nor could I fix your address in the sky. I searched everywhere for you and yet did not find you. Now, in searching, I set out after myself—who knows where I strayed. Ah, what is this? Your address is found: your image in my eyes, like musk that dwells within the deer.
Osho, you said that awareness created centering and crystallization, but I personally feel that awareness brings a feeling of deep void within me. Please explain the relationship between centering and inner void.
As man is, he is without a center -- without a real, authentic center. He has a center, so to speak, but the center is false. He only thinks he has a center. The ego is a false center. You feel that it is there, but it is not. If you go to find it, you will not find it at all. Bodhidharma reached China 1100 years after Buddha. He was a Buddha himself. The Emperor Wu came to receive Bodhidharma. When no one was there, he asked Bodhidharma, "I am very, very disturbed. My mind is never at ease. What can I do? Tell me. Make my mind at peace, at ease. I am in deep conflict; an inner struggle continues -- so do something." Bodhidharma said, "I can do something. Come early in the morning at four o'clock, but remember to bring your self." The Emperor felt: "Either…
Osho, is there any practical process for being in the realm of existence beyond thoughts, in the void?
The way to thin them out is non-cooperation. Right now we are their makers—that is, we are the ones maintaining them. When we sit idle, some thought or other is running, because without our cooperation they cannot run. Withdraw your cooperation from whatever thoughts are running, and do nothing else; regard just this as samayik, as meditation. If all thoughts dissolve, you will feel no ego and no person within. You will know only being—only being will be known, in which the distinction “I am an individual” or “I am the whole” will not be felt. Only pure being will remain—pure existence. In truth, because of the thoughts accumulated upon that pure existence, we appear to be a person. This sense that I am “A,” you are “B,” you are “C”—the A, B, C we have pasted on—is our thought-power. We commonly say, “I will become liberated”—this is not quite…