According to Osho, right-mindfulness is a mirrorlike, choiceless awareness of the present, free of goals, desires, judgments, and mental interpretations. It is not a goal to achieve but the natural clarity that remains when all striving stops; an innocent, amoral seeing that simply reflects what is, here and now, without calling it right or wrong.
Just notice what’s happening right now without trying to get anything or decide if it’s good or bad.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Please explain 'right-mindfulness'. If not a goal or something to practise, what is it?
SAMBUDDHA, RIGHT-MINDFULNESS IS A STRANGE WORD. First: there is no mind in it -- hence it is called 'right-mindfulness'. Secondly, there is nothing right and wrong in it -- hence it is called right-mindfulness. This is a Buddhist way of saying things. It can't be a goal, because when there is a goal you are always in the wrong. Why are you in the wrong when there is a goal? because when there is a goal there is desire, when there is desire you are unhappy, discontented. When there is desire, there is anxiety -- whether you will be able to make it or not? Will it be possible or not? When there is desire there is future, and with the future anxiety enters into your being. With the desire you have lost contact with the present. Right-mindfulness is not a goal, cannot be a goal -- because when ALL…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, NOT "KEEPING THE MIND STILL, "BUT MINDLESSNESS THOUGH YOU MAY NOT FULLY KNOW WHETHER THE TEACHERS OF THE VARIOUS LOCALITIES ARE WRONG OR RIGHT, IF YOUR OWN BASIS IS SOLID AND GENUINE, THE POISONS OF WRONG DOCTRINES WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HARM YOU, "KEEPING THE MIND STILL" AND "FORGETTING CONCERNS" INCLUDED. IF YOU ALWAYS "FORGET CONCERNS" AND "KEEP THE MIND STILL," WITHOUT SMASHING THE MIND OF BIRTH AND DEATH, THEN THE DELUSIVE INFLUENCES OF FORM, SENSATION, PERCEPTION, VOLITION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS WILL GET THEIR WAY, AND YOU'LL INEVITABLY BE DIVIDING EMPTINESS INTO TWO. LET GO AND MAKE YOURSELF VAST AND EXPANSIVE. WHEN OLD HABITS SUDDENLY ARISE, DON'T USE MIND TO REPRESS THEM. AT JUST SUCH A TIME, IT'S LIKE A SNOWFLAKE ON A RED-HOT STOVE. FOR THOSE WITH A DISCERNING EYE AND A FAMILIAR HAND, ONE LEAP AND THEY LEAP CLEAR.
Osho, is choiceless awareness also a kind of choice? It seems to come down to a paradox.
No, choiceless awareness is not a choice. Choiceless means we do not make any choice, we do not select any option; we simply awaken. In that awakening we do not decide, “This is right, that is wrong; this should be accepted, that should be dropped.” We make no decision. We simply look, awake. In this awakened seeing there is no choice at all. And as long as there is choice, we cannot see with awareness. “Awareness with choice”—there is no such thing. Awareness, as such, is without choice. Awareness by its very nature is choiceless. So awareness can never be together with choice, because choice means bias has begun; sleep has begun. There are so many people sitting here: if I say, “Bacchu-bhai is a fine man,” then I cannot be aware in relation to Bacchu-bhai either, because my attachment has begun. Nor can I be aware in relation to…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, DO NOT GRASP ANOTHER'S BOW ACTIVELY TRY TO CLEAR OUT YOUR MIND, THEN YOU WON'T GO WRONG; SINCE YOU DON'T GO WRONG, CORRECT MINDFULNESS STANDS OUT ALONE. WHEN CORRECT MINDFULNESS STANDS OUT ALONE, INNER TRUTH ADAPTS TO PHENOMENA; WHEN INNER TRUTH ADAPTS TO EVENTS AND THINGS, EVENTS AND THINGS COME TO FUSE IN INNER TRUTH. WHEN PHENOMENA FUSE WITH THEIR INNER TRUTH, YOU SAVE POWER; WHEN YOU FEEL THE SAVING, THIS IS THE EMPOWERMENT OF STUDYING THE PATH. IN GAINING POWER YOU SAVE UNLIMITED POWER; IN SAVING POWER YOU GAIN UNLIMITED POWER. THIS MATTER MAY BE TAKEN UP BY BRILLIANT, QUICK-WITTED FOLKS, BUT IF YOU DEPEND ON YOUR BRILLIANCE AND QUICK WITS, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO BEAR UP. IT IS EASY FOR KEEN AND BRIGHT PEOPLE TO ENTER, BUT HARD FOR THEM TO PRESERVE IT.
Osho: To think is the nature of the mind. And if you don't think then there is no mind. A state of no-mind comes, then you know. That is nature, this too is nature; that is not against this nature which creates ignorance, creates unknowing, creates conflict. We have not known the total mind, we have known only the mind which thinks. If you transcend it then you know the total mind -- which knows. Thinking is one thing, knowing is quite another. QUESTION: THE NATURE OF THE MIND IS TO THINK, AND THEN IT CEASES TO THINK. WHAT DO YOU DO IN ORDER TO CAUSE IT NOT TO THINK? DOES IT NATURALLY NOT THINK? Osho: If you become aware of your thinking process, then the process by and by is dissolved.