What is the connection between truth and tears during meditation?

Osho! While listening to you I start to weep. Now, even in the celebration of active meditation, tears burst forth. What is this? In the midst of meditation a feeling arises that this body is a hindrance now; how can it be shed—the feeling keeps growing more intense. Why? Please explain out of compassion.

Akshay Vivek! Human beings have been given such wrong conditioning that they have neither ever cried to their heart’s content nor laughed to their heart’s content. They have never really lived to their heart’s content. In no aspect, in no dimension, have they ever done anything totally; everything remains half-done! So many things hang inside, suspended like Trishanku. I say meditation is a celebration, but what is happening to you happens to others as well. While celebrating, suddenly tears arise from some unknown corner! They must have been suppressed somewhere—perhaps for lifetimes. Especially in men. Because from childhood we tell boys: Don’t cry! Girls cry. You are a man; crying is not for you. This is false. It is utterly false. Nature has made the tear glands in the eyes of men and women just the same. Men’s tear glands are not smaller than women’s. So one thing is certain—nature…

Osho, when I sit to pray, nothing occurs to me except to weep. What should I do?

That is prayer. Prayer is happening. Weeping is prayer. The prayer of words is paltry; the prayer of tears is deep. What is said by the tongue does not go very far; what is cried through the eyes grows wings to reach the sky. So do not stop the crying. You asked for prayer, and prayer is being given—now recognize it. Prayer is feeling. And what do you have that is more full of feeling than tears? If you speak with the mouth, the mind speaks; if you weep with the eyes, the heart speaks. And prayer rises from the heart, not from the head. Learned, second-hand prayers have no value—count them as worth a brass farthing. Prayer must be one’s own, intimate. Tears are utterly personal. As every thumbprint is unique, so is every tear from every eye. Words become stale. You speak the same words others speak. Words…

Osho, why do devotees weep? What is the relationship between weeping and meditation?

If devotees did not weep, what else would they do? Why do little children cry when they are hungry? Why does the baby in the cradle cry when thirst arises? That is why devotees cry. Devotees are calling out to Existence itself. And before this vastness the devotee is as helpless as an infant—perhaps even more helpless. Do you see this immensity? What is our strength before it? Do you see this infinity? Where are we before it? Who are we? What are we? We are not even a speck. What standing does a speck have? If this speck does not weep, what else can it do? In helplessness, in darkness, wandering for lifetimes, what else can the devotee do? Had they not been threaded on the bond of sorrow, the pieces of the heart would have lain scattered. It is this cry, these tears, that bind them together— had…

Why do I cry whenever something real happens in meditation? Sometimes, even during lecture, when you say something that strikes me as my own truth, tears come to my eyes and I tremble with silent sobs. What is the connection between truth and tears?

The question is from Michael Gottlieb. First, it may be, Gottlieb, that only tears are true in you, everything else has become false. Your smile, your face, your gestures, your words -- all may have become false. It may be that only your tears are still true. That's why whenever you hear something of truth, they start surfacing. They are in tune with truth. And this is not only so with you, this is so with many people. Tears have not been corrupted too much, particularly un men. About women it is not so true. Their tears may he just a facade, their tears may be their diplomacies, their tears may be their tricks, strategies. But about men... men have not been allowed tears at all. People have been told from their very childhood that if you are a man, then tears are not available for you. You should NEVER…

Osho, just hearing your voice, my tears start to pour. Then why does a prayer not arise such that only the prayer remains and I do not? Why does the world still entice just as much and call me toward itself? Are these tears merely crocodile tears?

What you said that day— as if those words were not words: they were trees, they were dwellings, they were persons. Sometimes beneath them, sometimes within them, sometimes clasping them, I live. And even if I turn away from them for a while, their shade comes and touches me morning and evening. What you said that day— as if those were not words, they were trees, dwellings, persons. What I am saying to you is not mere saying. I am not telling a tale; I am speaking the anguish of your life. And I am indicating the way to go beyond the anguish of your life. And beyond your life’s anguish there is a treasure; I am reminding you of it. My words are an invocation, a call—to take you on the journey to the Vast, if you consent to move. If tears have begun to come, it means your…