When beauty touches you, your heart longs not to get something, but to become that peaceful, timeless feeling forever.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, it is true that listening to you I often feel surrounded by softness, peacefulness, silence, but within all that is such a deep longing. It happens also sometimes when I am overwhelmed and delighted by a sunset, a full moon, a beautiful piece of music. There is always a longing, almost like a sweet pain. Osho, what is it that I long for?
Anything of beauty, anything reminding you of the beyond, will create a longing in you, a longing that you cannot figure out what it is for. You don't know the name of the object because in fact it is not for any object. Listening to beautiful music, looking at a sunset or just a bird on the wing or beautiful roses, or sitting here in silence, a sweet pain can be felt. The longing is how to become one with this state of feeling. It should not be a fleeting thing that comes and goes but something that remains with you, that becomes you, because the same music which was sweet today may not be sweet tomorrow, may be boring the day after tomorrow. So it is not the music. It is something else that is triggered in you: the longing to be peaceful, to be musical, to have all…
Beloved Osho, when I listen to you talk about superconsciousness and the beautiful experiences ahead of us, I often feel literally uplifted, as if my body becomes weightless. Only my hurting back reminds me that I am still here! This experience in your presence is so precious. But this feeling can turn into a pain which is not physical. Tears flow, and I have such a despairing longing in me which has no distinct direction. Even if this experience doesn't have the light and weightless qualities like the first one, it is tremendously relieving. What is this experience, Osho?
But nobody is too tired. Whatever they had been doing the whole day, they could have been waiting alert and awake if there was trust. But nobody trusted from the very beginning. They thought that the chief priest is senile. They agreed to clean the temple because that looked rational. For years no cleaning had been done. They agreed to bring flowers, to put candles. They said, "There is no harm; it will be just a beautiful festive day." But all along they knew nobody is coming. The sleep was not just ordinary sleep, it was sleep supported by their logic, by their doubt. They knew nobody is coming -- it was for sure. These experiences will be happening more and more to you because there are so few people. I want the mystery school to contain only a few people so that they can be in immediate contact with…
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…
Beloved Osho, oftentimes, when I close my eyes and look inside, I get in touch with a deep longing in my heart, for nothing in particular, just a longing. Beloved master, is this a hindrance on the path, or is this the fire that keeps me going?
All the great illumined people have been killed, destroyed, poisoned, for the simple reason that the crowd could not tolerate it, it was too much. They were flying so high that it was hurting millions of people: "They belonged to us, they have been amongst us, and it is humiliating that they have attained such height and such flight and we are still crawling on the earth. The only way to forget our humiliation is to destroy them." They don't think of the other possibility. A few think of it, and those few go through the transformation. Those few are very blessed. Those few start looking at those who have reached to the height as their pioneers, as glimpses of their own future and their potentiality. They start also moving in the same direction. But these people are very few. The majority take the easiest course, and that is to…
Beloved Osho, I love to cry and to feel this sweet pain of longing in my heart that has been visiting me for a while. It seems to be a treasure that is bringing me back after having been lost in the mind. I have experienced a stillness beyond this pain and tears; yet, sometimes it feels as if I would love to cry my way to god. Beloved, beautiful master, is it possible to indulge too much in this sensation in my heart?
Prem Udgita, there are a thousand and one ways to reach to the ultimate. If your crying is out of joy, then your tears are more valuable than any laughter can be. It all depends on the quality. Tears can be of pain, tears can be of blissfulness, tears can be of silence, tears can be of gratitude. And when tears are of gratitude it is not suffering, it is rejoicing -- just in your own style. I don't deny any possibility of reaching to the divine. And all possibilities are available. Just choose the one that suits you best. Don't be concerned and don't compare with others; that brings complexity. Just watch yourself. If your tears are helping your growth, making you richer, making you more loving, making you more lively, if you feel tears are bringing your spring closer, these same tears will turn into flowers. So you…