What is the fundamental difference between the inner journey of meditation and that of devotion?

Osho, you have said that meditation is an inner journey. Is devotion also an inner journey? What is the fundamental difference between the inner journey of meditation and that of devotion? Please explain with compassion.

This is the path of love; here the Other is essential. From the union of two arises variety; the stream of rasa flows. A man alone cannot give birth to a child; a woman alone cannot give birth either. For a child to be born, the meeting of these opposites is necessary. Yes, a man can paint alone, a woman can sculpt alone—but they cannot give birth. For devotion, two are needed. Devotion is the unity that happens between two. Knowledge is the experience of the One. In the end, only One remains; thus both, ultimately, lead to the same place. But knowledge assumes the One from the very beginning; knowledge is nondual. Bhakti fundamentally accepts duality. The heart of bhakti is large: it says, let us accept the two; then we will unite them. Bhakti has trust in union. The faith that a bridge can be built between two—that…

Osho, meditation is the solitary one’s flight—from the alone to the Alone. Devotion is the solitary one’s flight—to the Divine. Does devotion, like meditation, also begin with loneliness?

Extravert means: his God will be seen with open eyes. Introvert means: his God will be seen with closed eyes, within himself. There too is light. There too are no fewer moons and stars. Kabir has said: thousands upon thousands of suns—inside as well! As many moons and stars as outside. As much greenery as outside. The same vastness is present within as without. Outside and inside are balanced, in equal proportion. Do not mistakenly think: “How can such vastness fit into this small body? The vast is so big—out there it is vast; inside it must be small!” Do not think so. You have not yet gone within. Inside is just as vast—within, and within, and within! It too has no end. Just as you can go on and on outward and never meet a boundary to the universe—so too you can keep diving, and diving, and diving within,…

Osho, to cross the ocean of becoming and dissolve into the Supreme Self, which should one rely on—insensate devotion, foolish devotion, or blind devotion?

So drop this worry—whether insensate devotion, foolish devotion, blind devotion, or deranged devotion. Drop it; devotion is enough. And in devotion all these labels will take care of themselves. Become a devotee once, and “blind” you will automatically be—meaning: the whole world will call you blind. You will not become blind; rather, you will gain eyes. You will begin to see what ordinary eyes cannot see. The invisible will become visible; the imperceptible will come within perception. That which no one has ever touched will be felt as touch. But the world will call you blind. The world will not be able to accept it—because the world is blind, and the blind call you blind. H. G. Wells has a story: somewhere in Mexico there is a valley where children go blind within three months of birth. The story is based on fact. The climate, the food—something there ruins the…

Osho, should I practice meditation or devotion? I’ve been thinking about this for years. And since I can’t decide anything, even if I want to begin, how should I begin?

That is why, in my Buddhafield, meditation is happening and devotion is happening. Lovers are dancing in ecstasy, and meditators are sitting in silence. Both are flowing together. This has never happened before. Those who gathered around Buddha meditated; those who gathered around Meera were devoted. For the first time on this earth, Sufi ecstasy and Sufi dance are here, the joy of the devotees is overflowing, and alongside that, Vipassana, zazen, and deep, deep meditative processes are also here. I am giving you both opportunities. You are the master—taste both. Then the decision will happen by itself. But you are sitting outside. You neither meditate nor sing bhajans; you sit afar as a spectator, pondering: “What should I do? What should I not do?” Could it be that there is a great laziness in the mind, a great inertia? Two lazy men were lying under a tree—Satyapriya sent me…

Osho, are the deaths of meditation and of love different? Are their processes different as well?

Death is one and the same—whether through meditation or through love. But the processes, the paths, the methods that lead to that death are different. Through meditation, the same thing happens: you disappear. Through love, the same thing happens: you disappear. The dissolving happens in both cases, but the ways are very different. In the first stages of meditation, you do not vanish. At that stage, what is false in you is burned away and what is true is preserved. The inauspicious is removed; the auspicious is kept. Impurity is burned; purity is protected. Thus on the path of knowledge or meditation one begins to be purified. One does not disappear; one becomes refined, yet one remains. In the final leap, the refinement reaches a point where even purity appears impure. Where mere being appears impure, there, in the last jump, the meditator snuffs himself out. The devotee snuffs himself…