After fully waking up, you look like a normal person who has come home, but you must pass through awakening first and the adventure still goes on.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT? I am reminded.... Mulla Nasruddin had applied for a post on a ship. He was interviewed. The captain and the high officials of the ship were sitting in a room. Mulla entered. The captain asked, "If the seas are in a turmoil, winds are strong, waves are huge and mountainous, what are you going to do to save the ship? It is tossed from here to there...." Mulla Nasruddin said, "It is not much of a problem: I will just drop a huge anchor to keep the ship stable against the winds, against the waves. It is not much of a problem." The captain again said, "Suppose another mountainous wave comes and the ship is going to be drowned; what are you going to do?" He said, "Nothing -- another huge anchor.Read the full discourse →
Beloved master, I see your enlightenment as a speaking medium between existence and all sannyasins -- based on love as the only true way to go. Beloved master, I've heard you say that you are beyond enlightenment. What, theoretically speaking, is the difference between enlightenment and beyond enlightenment?
Anand Nadeen, life is a continuous change. It knows no stop -- not even a semicolon. Enlightenment is not to get stuck somewhere. Nobody has talked about beyond enlightenment, because what is the point? People are not even enlightened. But I'm certain my people are going to be enlightened, and I have to make them aware not to get stuck. Even enlightenment has to be transcended. Even transcendence has to be transcended. One has just to go on and on. Existence is infinite, in multidimensions -- and there is no end anywhere. You can never say I have come. You are always coming closer and closer and closer, but you never come, because once you have come what will you do? Then the only way is to go back home. One has to go beyond enlightenment; otherwise you will find yourself in a very difficult situation -- stuck in a…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, when you speak so beautifully of enlightenment, awakening and dreaming, for me the dreaming is so real that even imagining awakening seems impossible. I wonder at your beauty, your grace, your love, your understanding, but to be in your presence seems a situation so unlikely for me that it must be either a dream or some bizarre accident. Life has been such that whatever I ask for has been given. Through you, gifts have been showered in so many ways that the fairy tale just goes on and on. As life lazily passes by I go from one bit of fun to another. This way seems so easy and ple
It is good that the desire for enlightenment seems far away, because the desire for enlightenment is the greatest barrier in attaining it. It is one of the eternal questions for the seekers of truth. On the one hand the masters go on saying, "Attain enlightenment," and on the other hand they go on saying, "Don't desire it." And it has been a great puzzle for the poor disciple. The master is saying both things: desire it, and don't desire it. Desire it because it is the only thing desirable; don't desire it because desire becomes a barrier. Not to create that puzzle for you, my way of working has been different. Just being with you, talking or not talking, just giving my whole heart to you and creating a situation in which you can taste something of enlightenment... even that small taste of enlightenment will be enough for you…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, as a disciple of your mystery school, I want to ask you the following question: when I heard you say that you were beyond enlightenment now, it felt like a relaxation in my heart. That very moment a picture arose in me showing me that you are even closer to us now, and it feels to me as if I can somehow understand "beyond enlightenment" better than enlightenment itself. Can you please say something about this?
Adima, it raises a few fundamental questions. First, if you cannot understand enlightenment, how can you understand that which is beyond it? You are MISunderstanding. Your misunderstanding is that perhaps beyond enlightenment means below enlightenment. And you are feeling happy, but I cannot feel happy with your happiness. I feel sorry for it. You are feeling happy that I have come close to you. You should feel happy when you come close to me. Just think: if I say that I have dropped even "beyond enlightenment," that it was all fiction -- enlightenment, beyond enlightenment... I am just one of you who had a few imaginative, fictitious ideas -- you will feel even happier. Now there is nothing for you to worry about, nowhere to go, nothing to achieve, you are perfectly okay. Your question makes me understand why Gautam Buddha remained with enlightenment -- although he was seeing it,…Read the full discourse →
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…Read the full discourse →