According to Osho, the "dark night of the soul" is our current, ordinary condition of unconsciousness—living unawares of thoughts, feelings, and the egoic sense of 'I'. This darkness ends when nonjudgmental witnessing awakens. By silently observing mind, emotions, and the sense of separateness, they dissolve, revealing universal, timeless awareness—the sunrise of the soul. Practice continuous witnessing in daily activities to strengthen this presence and let all identities fall away into light.
It’s the darkness of living on autopilot, which lifts when you calmly watch thoughts, feelings, and ‘me-ness’ until only clear awareness remains.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I ask you a question because I want your attention. And the only question that occurs to me in the two years I have been here is about the dark night of the soul. You said sometimes that we have to dance and celebrate so that we can go through it easily. In the back of my mind there is a question: what is that dark night of the soul? Am I missing something?
You are not missing anything, not even the dark night of the soul: You are already in it! To be unconscious of your actions, your thoughts, your feelings creates your dark night of the soul. The moment you are aware of all these three layers of your being.... Thought is the most superficial, feeling, a little deeper, and then being -- the last thing that you have to lose into the ultimate. The process is simple, the process is the same. Watch, witness, observe your thoughts -- without any judgment, without any condemnation or evaluation.... Because the moment you make any judgment for or against, you are no longer a witness; you have already become part of the thought process. Remain silent, and just see whatsoever is passing on the screen of your mind, the way you see a film. Just remember that you are only a seer. And the…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THE OTHER NIGHT YOU SPOKE OF THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL -- THAT STATE ONE PASSES THROUGH AS ONE MOVES FROM SUSHUPTI INTO TURIYA. LOOKING AT IT LOGICALLY, IT SEEMS CURIOUS THAT AS ONE MOVES TOWARDS THE ULTIMATE STATE OF AWARENESS, ONE IS -- JUST BEFORE REALIZATION -- OVERCOME MOMENTARILY BY DARKNESS. I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT ONE WOULD HAVE BEEN GATHERING MORE AND MORE AWARENESS, THEREBY DISPELLING DARKNESS AS ONE MOVED THROUGH THE STATE OF DEEP MEDITATION -- SO DEEP THAT THERE ARE NO LONGER DREAMS -- TO THE POINT WHERE THE WATCHER IS EVEN ABLE TO WITNESS SUSHUPTI. IS IT PERHAPS, ANALOGOUS TO WHAT HAPPENS AS DEATH APPROACHES? YOU HAVE SPOKEN OF HOW LIFE SUDDENLY ASSERTS ITSELF AT THE POINT OF DEATH -- THE RESURGENCE OF THE BODY'S LIFE-FORCE IN THE FACE OF ITS EXTINCTION.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE "DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL"? AND IS IT OUT OF DATE? LOOKING INSIDE ME AND ALL AROUND ME, I ONLY SEE MORE JOY, CONTENTMENT, LOVINGNESS, APPRECIATION OF LIFE AND OF WHAT IS. LOOKING BACK, I SEE A LOT OF MISERY, HEAVINESS, PAIN -- BUT THEY SEEM TO BE RELATED TO WRONG UPBRINGING AND UNNECESSARY SELF-TORTURE, NOT TO ANY DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL. YET, I SEEM TO REMEMBER YOU ALSO TALKING ABOUT HAVING, YOURSELF, GONE THROUGH DEEP DESPAIR, RELATED TO THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH. SO I WONDER, IS THIS RELAXING MORE AND MORE INTO THE JOY OF BEING ALIVE, WITH SUCH BEAUTY ALL AROUND, WITH SLOWLY GROWING WATCHFULNESS -- IS THIS JUST FINE; OR ARE WE, AM I, SOMEHOW JUST STAYING ON THE SURFACE AND NOT MOVING INTO THE DEPTH OF THE "SEARCH"? AND WHY AM I ASKING?
Osho, you speak so much about the inner light, but my experience is different. Whenever my thoughts fall silent in meditation, a dense darkness descends within me, which feels cool and pleasant. Kindly explain what this is.
Psychologists say that in every human being’s unconscious that caveman’s experience is still there; it has not gone. It has become embedded in the body’s memory. Hence we fear the dark. Now there is no reason—one sits at home, electricity is at hand; press a button and there is light; there is no such hassle. In the country a “festival of discipline” is going on—no disturbances, no cause for fear. You are sitting in your room, and still you are panicking at the dark. That experience from twenty thousand years ago is in your every vein. You too are born from that same man; the chain is linked to him. It has not been forgotten; it is lodged very deep. So darkness seems frightening. Man becomes afraid of the dark. But the one who is afraid of the dark will never be able to go within. His inner journey will…
Beloved Osho, problems seem to disappear into thin air. They keep trying to come, but cannot take root; and if for a few moments one settles, it soon looks ridiculous, so fades away. Does the light you share with us dispel even the dark night of the soul? What is the dark night of the soul? Is it really true?
Prem Shunyo, problems are never solved. They remain in different forms; you go on solving them, and they go on appearing in different forms. That is the way of philosophy where every question that was asked at the very beginning of human thinking, is still asked. Millions of solutions have been proposed, but the problem is as fresh and as pertinent as ever. All the philosophers of the world have not even been able to make a dent in the problem -- because they have moved in a wrong way. Problems are not to be solved; problems need to be dissolved, and that is a totally different path -- the path of the mystics. They don't solve the problems, they simply create devices in which problems disappear into thin air. One great philosopher came to Gautam Buddha. He was known all over the country for his great commentaries on the…