According to Osho, 'not touching the ground' isn't levitation but a metaphor: he wears the shoes of awareness. Awareness cushions you from the world's roughness, so you move through life without being pulled down by ego, drama, or identification. It's simple presence, not miracle—walk in the world, yet remain inwardly untouched.
It’s like wearing special shoes called awareness: you still walk on the ground, but life’s dirt and bumps don’t hurt you because you’re calmly paying attention and not getting stuck.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Although I have been standing on my head for lifetimes, I cannot walk without feet. Why?
YOU CAN GO ON STANDING ON YOUR HEAD FOR MANY more lifetimes... that has nothing to do with it. To walk without feet you need not stand on your head. That has no relevance. It has no relationship. To walk without feet and to fly without wings, you need not do any unnecessary things like standing on your head. Standing on your head you will not even be able to walk with your feet -- what to say about walking without feet? Standing on your head you will not be able to walk at all. Standing on your head you will be dead, you will not be alive. When I say walk without feet, what am I saying? I am saying, first: learn how to walk with feet, and then be very very watchful inside, be alert. Create a luminous consciousness. See who is walking when you are walking. Are…
Osho, I don't know who I am. I feel like I need grounding at some level. Is there no place for grounding?
This is my understanding: unless you can enjoy the meaningless, you will never become religious. God, to me, is the meaningless beauty that surrounds you, the meaningless song that is heard all around: the meaningless murmur of a brook, the meaningless whisper of the winds, the meaningless silence of the stars. Tremendously beautiful, but meaningless. Why do I say meaningless? Because it is unknowable. A thing remains meaningless unless it is known. Once you know, then it is meaningful. And I tell you, stars are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner being. Rivers are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner stream of consciousness. The Himalayas are mysterious, but nothing as compared to your inner peaks of ecstasy. Be, rather than know. Marcus Aurelius looks to me to be of more and deeper understanding when he says, "Be thyself!" than Socrates when he says, "Know…
After today's lecture, I felt as if levitating and flying. I walked along the road in front of the ashram gate, approached a flowering bush, and looked at it, suddenly having the sensation of being one with nature and floating like driftwood in the river. All of a sudden I realized that the driftwood had stepped into a heap of dog shit. Do you happen to see any symbolic significance to this?
The significance is there, but not symbolic; it is very real. You need not go into symbolism, because it is not a dream, It happened when you were perfectly awake. The reality is saying something to you.... Listening to me you can feel that you are levitating, but you cannot levitate. The feeling is not the thing, not the real thing. Listening to me you can feel very happy, but that happiness is like a reflection. It is my happiness reflected in your mirror, it is not your happiness. You are bound to land somewhere in dog shit. One should not depend on anybody else. You need your happiness. Listening to me, you can become engulfed, you can be overwhelmed, but the farther you go from me, that music will start disappearing from you. It was not yours in the first place. It is as if I am sitting here:…
Then you still remain upon this earth, yet you do not walk upon this earth. The feet fall here — only to others they appear to fall here — your feet no longer fall upon this earth. You then soar as if in the sky. Everything suddenly becomes light. The earth's attraction, gravitation, is lost. Those stories that a yogi rises from the ground — they have sometimes been true. But one thing is certainly true: whosoever's energy enters Sahasrar, going through the gate of Sushumna into Sahasrar, suddenly finds that he has risen from the earth. If you are sitting in meditation and such an event happens, then with eyes closed you will find that you have risen at least four hand-spans above the ground. Opening the eyes, perhaps you will find that you are sitting on the ground, not risen. Because what is rising is the inner energy-body.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THE INESCAPABLE WHENEVER YOU RUN INTO SOMETHING INESCAPABLE AMIDST THE HUBBUB, YOU'VE BEEN EXAMINING YOURSELF CONSTANTLY, BUT WITHOUT APPLYING THE EFFORT TO MEDITATE. THIS VERY INESCAPABILITY ITSELF IS MEDITATION: IF YOU GO FURTHER AND APPLY EFFORT TO EXAMINE YOURSELF, YOU'RE EVEN FURTHER AWAY. RIGHT WHEN YOU'RE IN SOMETHING INESCAPABLE, DO NOT BESTIR YOUR MIND AND THINK OF EXAMINING YOURSELF. THE PATRIARCH SAID, "WHEN DISCRIMINATION DOESN'T ARISE, THE LIGHT OF EMPTINESS SHINES BY ITSELF." AGAIN, LAYMAN P'ANG SAID: IN DAILY ACTIVITIES WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION, I ALONE NATURALLY HARMONIZE. NOT GRASPING OR REJECTING ANYWHERE, NOT GOING WITH OR GOING AGAINST. WHO CONSIDERS CRIMSON AND PURPLE HONORABLE? THERE'S NOT A SPECK OF DUST IN THE MOUNTAINS. SPIRITUAL POWERS AND WONDROUS FUNCTIONING: HAULING WATER AND CARRYING FIREWOOD.