According to Osho, 'What is, is what' is Zen’s way of pointing to the formless, unnameable suchness of existence. It avoids loaded words like 'God,' which trigger images and beliefs, and calls you to meet reality directly, beyond concepts. Only lived being, not borrowed language, can express it; the question tests whether one answers from experience (presence) rather than repetition.
It means: drop labels and pictures in your head and just notice reality as it is, from your own direct experience.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is zen?
These sounds, these birds, these trees, these people, this silence... three thousand people disappearing into a silence, losing their identities, egos... and suddenly Zen is there! It becomes almost tangible. You can touch it, you can eat it, you can drink it. But there is no way to convey it through words. You have to be calm and quiet and contented so that you can be in the present. You have to be free of all care. Care simply means you are not trusting existence; you are trying to be careful on your own. You are afraid. You are not yet aware that existence cares for you, that it mothers you, that it fathers you. Once you start feeling the mothering, the fathering that surrounds you, in the air, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, you drop caring for yourself. There is no need to be worried.…
Like the empty sky it has no boundaries, yet it is right in this place, ever profound and clear. When you seek to know it, you cannot see it, you cannot take hold of it, but you cannot lose it. In not being able to get it you get it. When you are silent it speaks; when you speak, it is silent. The great gate is wide open to bestow alms, and no crowd is blocking the way.
And remember, when Zen says 'just sitting' it means just sitting -- nothing else, not even a mantra. If you are repeating a mantra you are not just sitting, you are again getting into some tommyrot, again into some mind thing. If you are not doing anything whatsoever.... Thoughts are coming, coming; they are going, going -- if they come, good; if they don't come, good. You are not concerned with what is happening, you are simply sitting there. If you feel tired you lie down. If you feel your legs getting tense you spread them. You remain natural. Not even watching. Not making any effort of any kind. That's what they mean by just sitting. Just sitting it happens. Zen is the feminine approach and religion is basically feminine. Science is male, philosophy is male -- religion is female. All that is beautiful in the world -- poetry, painting,…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, TOZAN SAID TO UNGAN, "MASTER, IF SOMEONE ASKS ME A HUNDRED YEARS AFTERWARDS WHAT I THOUGHT WAS YOUR DEEPEST UNDERSTANDING, WHAT SHOULD I SAY?" UNGAN ANSWERED, "TELL HIM I SAID, `IT IS SIMPLY THIS.'" TOZAN WAS SILENT FOR A TIME, AND UNGAN SAID, "TOZAN, IF YOU HAVE GRASPED THIS, YOU MUST CARRY IT OUT IN DETAIL!" TOZAN WAS STILL SILENT. UNGAN STRUCK HIM. SOME YEARS LATER, WHEN TOZAN WAS HOLDING A SERVICE IN MEMORY OF UNGAN'S DEEPEST UNDERSTANDING, A MONK SAID TO HIM, "THE DEAD TEACHER SAID, `IT IS SIMPLY THIS!'" THE MONK THEN ADDED: "IS THIS THE YES-SAYING SPIRIT?" "IT IS," REPLIED TOZAN. THE MONK ASKED, "WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?" TOZAN SAID, "AT THE TIME UNGAN SAID THAT, MY IDEA WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY A MISTAKEN ONE, THOUGH I UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE MEANT ALL RIGHT." "THE DEAD TEACHER," SAID THE MONK, "DID HE KNOW IT, OR NOT?
Osho, what is the meaning of existence?
Buddha says: The inner emptiness is so beautiful, don't stuff it with junk, leave it as it is. And that's what meditation is all about, that's what Zen is. It means living out of emptiness, asking nothing from life, living moment to moment for no other reason, just enjoying being alive. It is more than you can ask for! What more meaning do you need? Is breathing not enough? Is this chirping of the birds not enough? Is the green and the red and the gold of the trees not enough? Is this vast existence with all its splendor not enough? You want some meaning? Yoka says: <q>THE MOON RISES ABOVE THE RIVER. ON THE BANK THE WIND PLAYS SOFTLY IN THE PINES ALL NIGHT LONG, PURE AND CALM. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT SERENITY? LOOK ON THE BUDDHA'S PRECEPTS OF NATURE. WINTER AND AUTUMN MISTS, DEW, CLOUDS, SPRING…
A master got up to address a group seeking enlightenment and had only this to say: 'ha! Ha! Ha! What's all this? Go to the back of the hall and have some tea.' he then got down and departed.
That which cannot be said should not be said at all. One should keep silent. That's what this master is doing -- without saying anything he is making a gesture. First he says, 'Ha! ha! ha!' -- he laughs, a belly laughter. It must have been a shock for those who had come to seek enlightenment. You don't expect that, that you will be taken so non-seriously. Enlightenment-seekers are very serious people, long-faced people. And here comes this man, stands there on the stage and says, 'Ha! ha! ha!' What kind of sermon is this? But it is a Zen sermon. He laughs at the absurdity that you are trying to seek enlightenment. It cannot be sought -- that's what he is saying. He is ridiculing them. He is saying, 'You are ridiculous! Ha! ha! ha! You are foolish, you are stupid. Enlightenment cannot be sought; it is not something…