According to Osho, attachment is the mind’s clinging to people, things, and hopes for pleasure, which inevitably produces sorrow when truly seen. It persists because we haven’t realized this by our own experience; we still secretly expect enjoyment, postpone awakening, and are misled by the crowd’s example. In the rare presence of the awakened it is obvious, but absent that vision, clinging continues until firsthand seeing makes it drop effortlessly.
We keep holding a hurting thing because we still think it will feel good, and everyone around us is holding it too—only when we clearly feel the hurt ourselves do we let it go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the definition of God?
Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…
Osho, what is attachment? Why do we become so attached to things, ideas and persons? And is there freedom from attachment?
“So do one thing,” she told the courtesan. “I will pay you whatever you ask. Go to him at midnight. He meditates at midnight—has done so for thirty years. I want to know whether meditation has happened or not before I die. His hut door is only latched; no one ever goes there. Open it and go in. Whatever he says, notice every word and tell me. Go and embrace him—then come back and report. Before I die, I want to be sure that my service was not in vain.” The courtesan went. She opened the door. The monk was startled. He opened his eyes—he had been sitting in meditation—and shouted, “You wicked woman! Why are you here? Get out! What need have you to come at midnight?” But his tongue faltered; his body trembled. The woman had taken her money; she went right in. He cried, “Stay back! Why…
Osho, “man eva manuṣyāṇāṁ kāraṇaṁ bandha-mokṣayoḥ. Bandhāya viṣayāsaktaṁ, muktyai nirviṣayaṁ smṛtam.” That is, the mind alone is the cause of human bondage and liberation. The mind that is attached to objects becomes the cause of bondage, and the one that turns away from objects is said to be the cause of liberation. This aphorism from the Shatyāyanīya Upanishad is quite well known; it also appears in many other scriptures. Osho, would you kindly explain this sutra for us?
Chidananda, the sutra is indeed precious—but when it falls into ignorant hands, even the most precious thing is made worthless. The Kohinoor becomes just a pebble. These immortal Upanishadic utterances, once grasped by certain hands, were turned to poison. The whole message was inverted; what was meant became its opposite. The entire country is rotting in that pain. The Upanishads are voices arising from the very life-breath of awakened beings. When the unstruck veena sounds, such incomparable music is born. But when pundits begin to “comment,” they drag the lotus back into the mud. True, the lotus arises from mud—but the lotus is not mud; it is a transcendence of mud, an expression of that within the mud which is not mud. To smear it with mud again is to turn the beautiful into the ugly, truth into untruth. Commentary has not honed truth; it has layered it with dust…
Osho, how can we know whether what we feel for someone is love or attachment?
Deepika, If it is love, the question will not arise at all. If the question arises, it is attachment. It is like someone asking, “Is it light or darkness? How can I know?” If you have eyes, such a question does not arise. Only if you have no eyes can it arise. Only a blind person can ask, “Is it light or dark? Is it day or night?” The blind must ask; he has no eyes of his own and must depend on the eyes of others. Love is the eye of the heart. Love is the heart opening like a lotus. When the flower of love blossoms, it is impossible not to know. It has never happened otherwise; such is the law of life. When the flower of love blooms, you know—inevitably. Even if you try to hide it, you cannot. Not only will you know; others too, who…
If they are painful, why does attachment to them endure?
If attachment endures, one thing is clear: somewhere a glimpse of pleasure is connected with it; otherwise attachment would not persist. You must be taking some enjoyment in it somewhere. For example, when you criticize, you probably enjoy it. You enjoy the sharpness of your intellect—“See how keen a blade my intellect is!” When you refute someone, you enjoy, “Look, I am more intelligent, you less.” When you display your knowledge before someone, there is a savor: “You know nothing; see how much I know! Where am I, where are you!” Surely somewhere there is a relish in it. Without relish you could not do it. Without relish, no attachment happens. You are also getting suffering... now understand what the matter is! When does suffering arise? When your intellect loses, then there is suffering. And when it wins, there is pleasure. When someone defeats you in argument, there is pain.…