According to Osho, the essential is your inborn being—your individuality or soul—not the imposed personality of ego, ambition, and desire. It is a seed of unique potential that education and a true Master should draw out, not overwrite. Through meditative silence, stillness, and awareness, you discover your inner direction, actualize your destiny, and find blissful fulfillment.
It's the real you you were born with; you find it by being quiet and aware, not by wearing labels others give you.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Can you tell us more about the essential?
Buddhist monks go on following the Buddha. They sit the same way, they talk the same way, they behave the same way. That is not going to help at all. That is not going to make you religious. That is not going to make you another Buddha. You are being simply stupid. And the more stupid you are the better you can imitate, because imitation needs no intelligence. In fact, only a mediocre mind can be imitative. The more intelligent you are, the more you want to be simply yourself, whatsoever it is. Now the whole thing goes non-essential. For Buddha it was essential to sit that way; that was his intuitive feeling. When Buddha dropped the ideas imposed on him by others, his followers left him. He had five followers -- before he became very famous he had only five followers; that is before he became enlightened. Those five…
Osho, gurdjieff talks about three aspects of being: essence, false personality and true personality -- false personality being a false, conditioned vehicle for our real essence, and true personality being that which can be developed and conveys and protects our real self.
PRIMITIVE PEOPLES LIVE IN THE ESSENCE STATE LIKE ANIMALS. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT NOT ENLIGHTENED. IF ENLIGHTENMENT IS NATURAL AND OUR BIRTHRIGHT, WHY ARE NOT THE PRIMITIVE PEOPLES ENLIGHTENED, OR ARE THEY? I HEAR YOU TELL US TO ACCEPT THE ANIMAL THAT WE ARE, RETURN TO ESSENCE. I HAVE READ GURDJIEFF SAYING YOU MUST BECOME YOUR TRUE SELF -- THE MASTER. HE SAID BEWARE OF BEING SWALLOWED BY THE ANIMAL. GIVE IT SOME CIGARETTES OR ICE CREAM AND IT WILL BE CALMED. WHAT IS TRUE PERSONALITY AND WHAT IS ITS RELATIONSHIP TO ESSENCE? Love is sharing; greed is hoarding. Greed only wants and never gives, and love knows only giving and never asks for anything in return; it is unconditional sharing. There may be some alchemical reason that LOBHA has become 'love' in the English language. LOBHA becomes love as far as inner alchemy is concerned. Swallow the animal! That…
Master lu-tsu said: only the primal spirit and the true nature overcome time and space.
THE PRIMAL SPIRIT IS BEYOND THE POLAR DIFFERENCES. HERE IS THE PLACE WHENCE HEAVEN AND EARTH DERIVE THEIR BEING. WHEN STUDENTS UNDERSTAND HOW TO GRASP THE PRIMAL SPIRIT THEY OVERCOME THE POLAR OPPOSITES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND TARRY NO LONGER IN THE THREE WORLDS BUT ONLY HE WHO HAS ENVISIONED HUMAN NATURE'S ORIGINAL FACE IS ABLE TO DO THIS. WHEN MEN ARE SET FREE FROM THE WOMB THE PRIMAL SPIRIT DWELLS IN THE SQUARE INCH BUT THE CONSCIOUS SPIRIT DWELLS BELOW IN THE HEART. THIS HEART IS DEPENDENT ON THE OUTSIDE WORLD. IF A MAN DOES NOT EAT FOR ONE DAY EVEN IT FEELS EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE. IF IT HEARS SOMETHING TERRIFYING IT THROBS; IF IT HEARS SOMETHING ENRAGING IT STOPS; IF IT IS FACED WITH DEATH IT BECOMES SAD; IF IT SEES SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IT IS DAZZLED. BUT THE HEAVENLY HEART IN THE HEAD, WHEN WOULD IT HAVE MOVED…
Osho, is my name an essential or something non-essential?
Existence is nameless. We are all nameless, but the name has a certain utility; without it life will be impossible. When the child is born he comes as a nobody, as pure nothingness -- that's the beauty of a child -- but it is a necessity that he should be given a name. Once the name is given, slowly slowly the child becomes autohypnotized by his own name; it becomes almost a reality to him. In fact, he can even sacrifice himself for the name. That's what millions of people are doing all over the world: sacrificing themselves for name, for me -- sacrificing the essential for the non-essential. A name is not an essential, but it has certain purposes; without it life will be very difficult. Hence we have even to invent names for God. God cannot have any name, but God has to be addressed. There are moments…
I am confused about the difference between surrender and following my inner light. It seems that when I want to surrender, I am afraid to be responsible for myself, and when I want to follow my inner light, I'm afraid of what you will ask of me in surrender.
You have to be absolutely clear about it: if you already have the inner light there is no need for any surrender, because surrender is only going to help you to bring the inner light. If you have it already, then forget all about surrender. But... you don't have it. Just to avoid surrender you imagine that you have it. If you have it, you have it. Then the question of surrender does not arise. You don't have it. You only have inner darkness, no inner light. So when you go in you find darkness; then you start thinking of surrender. When you start thinking of surrender then you become afraid -- because the ego comes in. It is not the inner light that is hindering you. Inner light never hinders anybody. Let me say it in this way: if you surrender, it is a help to the inner light;…