According to Osho, there is no single cosmic center outside you; the only true center is your own being. Existence allows each person to be the center of themselves—no one can be the world's hub or a universal savior. Real spirituality is to mature into your innermost center, where consciousness peaks, ecstasy flowers, and peace, love, and silence naturally radiate to others without any doer.
Everyone has their own center; if you find quiet and joy inside yourself, it naturally shines to others.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, the other day you were saying that scientists have yet to discover the center of the universe, away from which whole galaxies and stars are moving at incredible speeds. Master, are you not the very center of this infinite universe, where everything and nothing are happening with such awesome majesty?
Milarepa, I don't even know what is happening in Anando's room! Just the other day, Niskriya wanted to photograph the ghost. And ghosts are known not to like being photographed. So the ghost disappeared. He was searched for everywhere. In the morning, when Avesh was cleaning my Mercedes limousine, he suddenly felt a presence, so he looked back -- that gentleman was sitting reading his newspaper in the back seat. He almost fainted, because there is only one key -- by mistake the other key has not yet come from the company -- and that key is with Avesh. Finally he gathered courage. He informed Anando, "Please take your ghost back because I have to clean the car, and he has given me such a shock! I was thinking that the last moment of my life had come, and that now Anando will have two ghosts instead of one because…
And a friend has asked: Osho, this matter of meditation—is it, after all, auto-hypnosis, self-hypnosis?
There is a great deal of similarity to self-hypnosis; at the final point the path diverges. For a long stretch there is a connection with hypnosis. All three stages are of hypnosis; only the witnessing state is not. That which must remain in the background the whole time—the witnessing: that I know, I see that the breath has come and gone; I know, I see that the body is trembling, spinning. I know, I see—this very sense is not of hypnosis. That is the difference. And it is a very fundamental difference. The rest is all the process of hypnosis. The process of hypnosis is very precious: if it is joined to witnessing, it becomes meditation; if it is separated from witnessing, it becomes stupor. If you use only hypnosis, you will become unconscious; if you also use the witnessing, you will become awakened. The difference between the two is…
Osho, you said that awareness created centering and crystallization, but I personally feel that awareness brings a feeling of deep void within me. Please explain the relationship between centering and inner void.
As man is, he is without a center -- without a real, authentic center. He has a center, so to speak, but the center is false. He only thinks he has a center. The ego is a false center. You feel that it is there, but it is not. If you go to find it, you will not find it at all. Bodhidharma reached China 1100 years after Buddha. He was a Buddha himself. The Emperor Wu came to receive Bodhidharma. When no one was there, he asked Bodhidharma, "I am very, very disturbed. My mind is never at ease. What can I do? Tell me. Make my mind at peace, at ease. I am in deep conflict; an inner struggle continues -- so do something." Bodhidharma said, "I can do something. Come early in the morning at four o'clock, but remember to bring your self." The Emperor felt: "Either…
13. Or, imagine the five-colored circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, at any point in space or on a wall -- until the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true.
14. PLACE YOUR WHOLE ATTENTION IN THE NERVE, DELICATE AS THE LOTUS THREAD, IN THE CENTER OF YOUR SPINAL COLUMN. IN SUCH BE TRANSFORMED. I was working with a seeker on this technique. I gave him a picture of the body structure to concentrate upon so that he would begin to feel how the spinal column can be visualized inside. Then he started. Within a week he came and said, "This is very strange. I tried to see the picture you gave me, but many times that picture disappeared and I saw a different spine. It is not exactly like the picture you gave to me." So I told him, "Now you are on the right path. Forget that picture completely, and go on seeing the spine that has become visible to you." Man can see his own body structure from within. We have not tried it because it is…
A friend has asked: Osho, please repeat the instructions for the afternoon meditation.
In the afternoon meditation there is nothing to do. The afternoon meditation is a practice of absolute silence. I will sit among you; you will sit silently near me. In that silence, whatever happens, let it happen—dancing, shouting, crying, singing, the body swaying—whatever it is, let it happen. If someone feels that a longing has arisen within to come to me, then come and sit by me for two minutes and then get up and go. Come to me only if you feel it. Do not come because someone else is going. If the feeling arises within you, then come and then leave. Forget about others.