According to Osho, only the witness—the pure, changeless consciousness that observes thoughts, dreams, sensations, and the world—is not illusion. All objects and experiences are temporarily true and thus illusory; they come and go. By shifting attention from the seen to the seer, you enter the non-illusory, eternal awareness that remains untouched by change.
The only thing that isn’t a passing dream is the quiet awareness inside you that notices everything come and go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is not illusion?
All is illusion except the witness. All is dream except the witness. Only the knower is true, is real. Whatsoever you see is illusory; the seer is not illusory. In the night you see one type of dream, in the day you see another type of dream. In the night the dreams of the day are forgotten, in the day the dreams of the night are forgotten. Sometimes you dream with open eyes and sometimes you dream with closed eyes, but one thing remains eternally there, never changing, and that is your consciousness. In the night you see dreams; in the day you see things, the world. Everything changes: night into day, day into night, dreams into thoughts, thoughts into dreams; only one thing remains eternally there -- your witnessing. That which is eternal is true. That which is changing is illusory. Remember, by 'illusion' I don't mean that it…
When it comes, it comes and never goes. And if it is achieved through any process, it comes and it goes, because it has not come, really; it has been part of the feeling created by the process. When the process stops, it goes. It will go by and by, but it will go. and you will have to repeat the process constantly. When the explosion comes, then it has come. In the explosion, it is not that you have achieved bliss, because in the explosion you have gone. Only the bliss is there... not even you, not even the experiencer. When you go through a technique the experiencer remains, the ego remains, and the ego says, "I have experienced, I am experiencing." If the experiencer is there, then you have not come to the explosion, because the very explosion is the explosion of the experiencer. That experiencer is gone.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, ILLUSION SPEAKING OF "EMPTY ILLUSION," IT IS ILLUSION WHEN CREATED, AND ILLUSION WHEN EXPERIENCED TOO; IT'S ILLUSION WHEN YOU'RE KNOWING AND AWARE, AND ILLUSION WHEN YOU'RE LOST IN DELUSION TOO. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE ARE ALL ILLUSIONS. TODAY, IF WE REALIZE OUR WRONG, WE TAKE AN ILLUSORY MEDICINE TO CURE AN EQUALLY ILLUSORY DISEASE. WHEN THE DISEASE IS CURED, THE MEDICINE IS REMOVED, AND WE ARE THE SAME PERSON AS BEFORE. IF YOU THINK THAT THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE OR SOME SPECIAL DOCTRINE, THEN THIS IS THE VIEW OF A MISGUIDED OUTSIDER. IN THE INSTANT OF MAITREYA'S FINGER-SNAP, SUDHANA WAS EVEN ABLE TO FORGET THE MEDITATIVE STATES FOSTERED IN HIM BY ALL HIS TEACHERS: HOW MUCH MORE SO THE BEGINNINGLESS HABIT ENERGY OF EMPTY FALSEHOOD AND EVIL DEEDS!
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking. All dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams or flowers in the air: foolish try to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong: such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
IF THE EYE NEVER SLEEPS, ALL DREAMS WILL NATURALLY CEASE. IF THE MIND MAKES NO DISCRIMINATIONS, THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS ARE AS THEY ARE, OF SINGLE ESSENCE. TO UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERY OF THIS ONE-ESSENCE IS TO BE RELEASED FROM ALL ENTANGLEMENTS. WHEN ALL THINGS ARE SEEN EQUALLY THE TIMELESS SELF-ESSENCE IS REACHED. NO COMPARISONS OR ANALOGIES ARE POSSIBLE IN THIS CAUSELESS, RELATIONLESS STATE. The man said, "I don't bother, is there any other way? For twenty years you have been thinking, for twenty lives you will continue thinking. And whenever you renounce you will renounce this way, because this is the only way -- at once!" You see a thing clearly and it happens. The question is of clarity. An immediate look into the nature of things, then there is no question of changing somewhere in the future. No one changes in the future -- transformation is always here and…
25. The disassociation of the seer and the seen which is brought about by the dispersion of ignorance is the remedy that brings liberation.
26. THE UNWAVERING PRACTICE OF DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN WHAT IS THE REAL AND WHAT IS THE UNREAL BRINGS ABOUT THE DISPERSION OF IGNORANCE. 27. THE HIGHEST STAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS REACHED IN SEVEN STEPS. The whole effort of yoga is like that. Many methods have to be used to remain alert: and because of this many things have gone wrong. For example, fasting: fasting is a method to remain alert -- it has nothing to do with the body -- because whenever you are fasting you cannot fall asleep easily. To fall asleep, the body needs food. When you have overeaten you fall asleep immediately. If you have overeaten, immediately you feel that now you cannot move. you cannot do anything. The consciousness is losing itself. The whole energy of the body moves into the stomach, it leaves the head where it remains conscious, because the food has to be digested,…