According to Osho, there is no doctrine to teach: truth is not reached by philosophy, thought, or theories, but by direct, existential awareness. His 'teaching' is meditation - being here-now, open, humble, and empty of accumulated knowledge. In this receptive void, revelation happens; words may later indicate it, but knowledge serves only communication, never realization.
Quiet your mind, be fully present, and let truth show itself; explanations can come after.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What do you teach and what is your doctrine ?
I am not teaching a doctrine. Teaching a doctrine is rather meaningless. I am not a philosopher; my mind is antiphilosophical. Philosophy has led nowhere and cannot lead anywhere. The mind that thinks, that questions, cannot know. There are so many doctrines. But a doctrine is a fiction, a human fiction. It is not a discovery but an invention. The human mind is capable of creating infinite systems and doctrines, but to know the truth through theories is impossible. A mind that is stuffed with knowledge is a mind that is bound to remain ignorant. Revelation comes the moment knowledge ceases. There are two possibilities: either we can think about something, or we can go into it existentially. The more a person thinks, the more he moves away from what is here and now. To think about something is to lose contact with it. So what I teach is an…
Osho, what is your fundamental teaching to your sannyasins?
Truth is a transmission beyond words. Words move from one mind to the other mind. What I am saying to you is from one mind to another mind. What is not said is far more important. Listen to my silences the pauses in between. Listen to the gaps. When you are in tune with me, in deep harmony with me, when there is no fight going on between you and me -- no resistance, no conflict no argument... And there is no need of any argument because I am not trying to convince you of anything, I am not trying to persuade you to become followers, to become imitators. My effort is totally different: it is that of communion, not of communication. When two hearts are beating together in rhythm, in a kind of synchronicity, when they are dancing together hand in hand, in a deep loving embrace, then something…
What is your message, Osho? I don't understand you.
When you try to understand me you will miss, because while I am imparting something to you, you are engaged and occupied in understanding it. You will miss it. Don't try to understand it, just listen! Just as I am talking to you without any motive, listen on your part without any motive -- and the meeting is bound to happen. When I am without motive and you are without motive, what can hinder, what can obstruct the meeting? Then the meeting is going to happen. And in that communion is understanding; in that communion is light, clarity, transparency. So rather than trying to understand me, celebrate me, rejoice in me -- and you will understand, and without any effort to understand. Nobody ever understands through effort. What effort do you make when you listen to music? Do you try to understand it? If you try to understand it, you…
So the first thing is, the first step is to revive your heart; hence my emphasis on dancing, singing creativity, painting. So something that needs your heart and put the mind aside as much as possible. To be here with me simply means to commune with me through the heart. It should not become an intellectual relationship, it should be a love relationship. The relationship between the master and the disciple cannot be intellectual. First it has to be a loving relationship, heart to heart -- and then finally it has to be an existential relationship, even deeper than the heart. These are the three centres. First, the most superficial, is the head; the second, is the heart, which is just in between the three centres; and the third is your being.
Osho, what exactly, in simple words, are you trying to teach? What is your exact message to humanity at large? -- again in simple language that I can understand.
Six times the Master goes on dropping, and the disciple is puzzled as to what he means. Then suddenly the idea struck him: "The Master is saying try to get it." He said, "But how can I try? Either I pick it up or I don't. How can I try?" And the Master said, "That's what you have been doing for three years -- trying to meditate. Either you meditate or you don't! How can you try?" Trying is a device. Trying is a trick. When you don't want to do a thing, you try. When you want to do a thing, you simply DO it! Your house is on fire -- do you try to get out? You simply get out! You don't try -- you don't consult maps, you don't look into the scriptures. You don't think, "From where and how should I get out? Whom to ask?…