What is beyond enlightenment?

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.

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.

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…

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…

Beloved Osho, what is enlightenment? Have the experience and the idea of enlightenment evolved with time?

So nirvana is just like darkness. The light is put off and your reality is all there, with all its beauty, benediction, blessing. But there is no word in English to translate nirvana. Jainas use the word moksha. Moksha means absolute freedom, ultimate freedom, freedom from all fetters. And the biggest fetter is the ego. Other fetters are just parts of the ego: greed, lust, ambition, anger. All that is thought to be sin in other religions, in Jainism is thought only to be a fetter. But the root, the main root of the whole tree of your slavery, is the ego. So cut the main root and all other roots will die of their own accord. Don't bother to cut small roots, branches, leaves, because they will come again. Cut the main root and the whole tree will die. And when all your fetters fall, what remains? The unfettered…