According to Osho, a child’s emptiness is natural, unearned, and unconscious—an innocent, animal-like absence of ego that lacks awareness, backbone, and contrast, and must be lost. A Buddha’s childlikeness is the same purity returned through the full circle: tested by life, ripened by suffering, and illuminated by mindfulness. It is conscious, centered, resilient innocence—freedom known after prison, a circumference rooted in its center.
A child’s innocence is unaware and fragile; a Buddha’s is the same innocence regained after life’s storms, now fully aware, strong, and centered.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The Heart Sutra · Discourse 6
1977-10-16 · Buddha Hall · English
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…Read the full discourse →
The Wisdom Of The Sands Vol 2 · Discourse 9
1978-03-10 · Buddha Hall · English
What is the difference between a child and a buddha?
There are great similarities and great differences. Inside of ten minutes a boy announces, "My story is finished." "So soon!" exclaims the astonished teacher. "Stand up and read it out loud." "Holy Moses," said the Princess, "I think I am pregnant again. I wonder who done it this time." This un-knowing, this state of ignorance, this beautiful ignorance, makes the child available to mysteries. The whole life looks like a mysterious world, a fairyland. Everything seems to be so superb, so psychedelic, so colorful. Just small shells on the seabeach, and they look so precious to the child. Just colored stones, and they are Kohinoors. The child lives in a totally different world; he lives in the world of poetry. The Buddha again enters into that world, and the poetry is enhanced, far deepened by his experiences. He had lost all touch with the innocence; now the innocence has been…Read the full discourse →
Tao The Golden Gate Vol 2 · Discourse 10
1980-06-30 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, if an enlightened person cannot lose his buddhahood, how does a baby born as a buddha lose his?
Innocence plus consciousness is equal to Buddhahood. Innocence minus consciousness is equal to childhoodness. And how one can be conscious? The only way -- and let me emphasize -- the ONLY way is to lose it and gain it again. You ask me, Hajo: IF AN ENLIGHTENED PERSON CANNOT LOSE HIS BUDDHAHOOD, HOW DOES A BABY BORN AS A BUDDHA LOSE HIS? The enlightened person has lost it and found it. The baby has not lost it, and has not yet found it; he is born with it, oblivious of it. Hence you will see in the eyes of small children something of the saints, something of the same beauty; but also a deep ignorance. The innocence is there but full of ignorance. The saint is innocent but full of awareness, knowing. His innocence is not mixed with ignorance; it is wisdom. And the children are bound to lose their…Read the full discourse →
Sat Chit Anand · Discourse 22
1987-12-02 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Beloved Osho, sitting close to you these last few mornings and looking into your eyes, I felt so much like a small child, full of innocence and excitement. Many times I wanted to wave my hand in the air wildly and shout: hello, hello, hello, my most beloved. Beloved master, can you talk about this blissful innocence that I am feeling and how it relates to meditation?
It is good to start with innocence, but remember there are two kinds of innocence: one is of the child and another is of the meditator. The meditator also becomes a child, but that is on such a different level, at such a great height -- as if the child is in the valley and the enlightened man who has again become a child is on the sunlit peak. The distance is tremendous. But there is a certain similarity, a thread running from the child to the heart of the sage. The child cannot understand the sage, but the sage can understand the child. Always remember it as a fundamental rule: the lower cannot understand the higher, but the higher can always understand the lower. And in your life, if anything can be compared with that high peak, it is your childhood. Try to rediscover it. Don't cover it with…Read the full discourse →