According to Osho, the inner sense is your direct, private awareness—feelings, intuitions, and being—known only from within, impossible to prove or display, yet the final authority in life. Modern conditioning makes us doubt it and depend on others’ opinions. Rediscover it by looking inward and trusting it; only through this inner sense do beauty, goodness, love, and the divine become real, a palpable well-being of being-at-home.
It’s the quiet knowing inside you—like an itch or joy—that only you can feel, and you should trust it more than what others say.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is inner sense?
God is not a person but the ultimate sense of well-being, the ultimate sense of being at home, the ultimate sense that "I belong to this world and this world belongs to me. I am not alien here, I am not an outsider." The ultimate sense -- existential -- that "This whole and I are not separate." This experience is God. But this experience is possible only if you allow your inner sense to function. Start allowing it! Give it as many opportunities as possible. Don't look always for outside authorities, and don't look for outside opinions. Keep yourself a little more independent. Feel more, think less. Go and look at the rose flower, and don't just repeat parrot like, "This is beautiful." This may be just opinion, people have told you; from your very childhood you have been hearing, "The rose flower is beautiful, is a great flower." So…
Having obtained the use of the inner senses, having conquered the desires of the outer senses, having conquered the desires of the individual soul, and having obtained knowledge, prepare now, o disciple, to enter upon the way in reality. The path is found: make yourself ready to tread it.
HAVING OBTAINED THE USE OF THE INNER SENSES.... We know about our outer senses, but each sense has a double dimension. For example, eyes. They can look out. This is only one dimension of their functioning. They can look inward also. That is their other function. Or, ears. You can hear what is happening outside. That is one function, one dimension. You can also hear what is happening within. That is another function, another dimension. Every sense has two doors. One opens into the outside world; the other opens into the inside world. Each sense is both outer and inner, but we use our senses in only one way. We have become fixated; we have forgotten that these same senses can be used to reach within. Having obtained the use of the inner senses.... Having obtained the hidden dimensions of the senses, many things can become possible. A new world…
Knowing oneself as unattached and indifferent as the sky, a yogi is not attached at all after that to any future actions.
JUST AS THE SKY PRESENT IN A POT FULL OF LIQUOR IS NOT AFFECTED BY THE SMELL OF THE LIQUOR, THE SOUL REMAINS UNTOUCHED BY ALL HAPPENINGS IN SPITE OF BEING PRESENT DURING ALL OF THEM. JUST AS AN ARROW RELEASED WILL NOT STOP BEFORE PIERCING THE AIMED AT OBJECT, THE ACTIONS DONE BEFORE THE HAPPENING OF ENLIGHTENMENT WILL NOT CEASE TO YIELD FRUITS AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPENS. AN ARROW RELEASED TAKING AN ANIMAL TO BE A TIGER, CANNOT BE STOPPED MIDWAY IF LATER ON THE UNDERSTANDING DAWNS THAT THE ANIMAL WAS INSTEAD A COW. THE ARROW WILL HIT THE TARGET WITH ITS FULL STRENGTH. SIMILARLY, ACTION ALREADY DONE COMES TO FRUITION EVEN AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT HAS HAPPENED. ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT HE IS DEATHLESS AND EVER YOUNG REMAINS ONE WITH THE SOUL AND HAS NO RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FRUITS OF HIS PAST ACTIONS. Actions are like arrows released from the bow.…
Beloved Osho, this morning, again you came to me and I wonder: I know how the sun touches me, how your face enters my eyes, your voice my ears. I know those five doors to the world. But I wonder what this sixth sense is that feels you. What door do you pass to reach me so deeply, and why is it always in the morning that you touch me the most? Is openness related to the rhythm of the day? Would you please speak on senses and openness?
The red color is significant. The psychology of color and the science of color is that whichever color you see -- if you see something red, then one thing is certain, that that thing is not red; it appears red. The sun rays have all the seven colors of the rainbow, and when the sun rays fall on anything, if all the rays are absorbed then you see the thing as black. If all the rays are reflected back and nothing is absorbed, then you see the thing as white. It is because of this reason that black has some connotation with the devil, with death, and white has become symbolic of renunciation, of simplicity, of purity. If the red ray is reflected back, is not absorbed, if the other rays are absorbed and only the red is not absorbed, then you see the thing as red. If blue is…
Therefore the knowers of the Self have said: all the world’s experiences are indirect; only the experience of the Self is direct. This is a reversal. Ordinarily we think everything is direct—the tree is seen, you are seen—everything is right there before the eyes. But the self-knower says: all worldly knowledge is indirect—because between you and the object an organ stands as middleman. You are hidden behind; the knowable object is outside; between them a mediator—the broker—called the eye. The eye can deceive. Knowledge is not straight, not immediate. Between the knower and known stands a medium. If one has jaundice, he sees yellow; if one is color-blind, colors do not appear at all. What reliance on the eyes? On what evidence say the eyes are right? We merely trust them.