What is the essence of Buddha Dharma?

Osho, what is the essence of buddha dharma -- the religion of the buddha?

Mouna, <q>YOKA SAYS IF YOU REACH THE ZEN OF BUDDHA, AT THAT VERY MOMENT YOU ACCOMPLISH EVERYTHING.</q> <q>IN YOUR DREAM THERE ARE MANY PATHWAYS, BUT WHEN YOU WAKE UP, THEY ARE REDUCED TO NOTHING. NEITHER ERROR, NOR HAPPINESS, NOR LOSS, NOR GAIN. DO NOT TRY TO FIND ANYTHING IN THE ESSENCE OF YOUR BEING. IT IS A LONG TIME SINCE YOU WIPED THE DUST FROM YOUR MIRROR, NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO SEE ITS BRILLIANCY PERFECTLY.</q> <q>WHO CAN NOT-THINK, ALL IS HIS. IF YOU PRACTICE CHARITY IN ORDER TO BECOME BUDDHA WHEN WILL YOU SUCCEED? NEVER -- A THOUSAND TIMES NEVER. DRINK AND EAT ACCORDING TO YOUR TRUE NATURE. ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE IMPERMANENT, AND THEREFORE ALL EXISTENCE IS VOID. THAT IS THE WHOLE UNDERSTANDING OF BUDDHA.</q> This is the essence of Buddha Dharma, the religion of the Buddha. First: it is not a philosophy that…

Osho, please say something about the real nature of dharma.

Dharma means your intrinsic nature. Dharma means your spontaneity. As fragrance is to a rose, as heat is to fire, as coolness is to water, so you too have a nature of your own; living in tune with that nature is called dharma, living against it is called adharma. There will be slight differences in each person’s nature—there must be, because existence does not make carbon copies. Therefore each person’s dharma will also differ a little. What is medicine for one can be poison for another, and what is poison for one can be medicine for another. Hence each person has to search for his own nature in the depths of meditation. No one else can give you a clear, definitive statement about your nature. You yourself have to recognize, slowly, your naturalness in the depths of meditation, and then gather the courage to live according to it. Courage is…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, QUESTION: WHAT IS BUDDHA-MIND? ANSWER: YOUR MIND IS IT. WHEN YOU SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT SUCHNESS. WHEN YOU SEE THE CHANGELESS NATURE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT DHARMAKAYA. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED EMANCIPATION. IT WORKS EASILY AND FREELY, NEVER BEING DISTURBED BY OTHERS; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED THE TRUE PATH. IT WAS NOT BORN AND, THEREFORE, IT IS NOT GOING TO PERISH, SO IT IS CALLED NIRVANA. QUESTION: WHAT IS TATHAGATA? ANSWER: ONE WHO KNOWS THAT HE COMES FROM NOWHERE AND GOES NOWHERE. QUESTION: WHAT IS BUDDHA? ANSWER: ONE WHO REALIZES THE TRUTH, AND HOLDS NOTHING THAT IS TO BE REALIZED. QUESTION: WHAT IS DHARMA? ANSWER: IT WAS NEVER PRODUCED, AND WILL NEVER BE REDUCED; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED DHARMA, THE NORM OF THE UNIVERSE. QUESTION: WHAT IS SANGHA?

Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?

Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…

Osho, Gautam Buddha, who rejected the soul and God, is counted among those rare Bhagiraths who brought the Ganges of religion down to earth. And you titled your Dhammapada discourses—Es dhammo sanantano. In this concluding festival of the Dhammapada discourses, kindly, once again and briefly, help us understand this dharma.

If someone brings down your palaces of playing cards, you will be angry. If someone breaks your dreams and wakes you from sleep, you will make him your enemy. And no one has labored so tirelessly as Buddha. Buddha’s blow is devastating. Those who had courage and took it upon their chest were made new; they were reborn. The weak were enraged. The weak took revenge. They couldn’t do it while Buddha was alive; but after he left they did. In the very land where a Buddha was born, barely a trace of Buddhists remains! How could this happen? Surely the mind of this country reacted: “Our God is false? Our soul is false? Our scriptures are false? Our Vedas are false! We are false! All false! And only this one man, Gautam Buddha, is true!” Buddha never said, “Only I am true.” He said only this: belief is false;…