According to Osho, all esoteric and ‘higher’ teachings are escapist fantasies—mumbo-jumbo invented by those unable to live this ordinary life. The real mystery and enlightenment are found in fully, passionately, and consciously living the simple, everyday—chopping wood, carrying water—with no inner commentator. Presence turns the ordinary extraordinary; secret doctrines only feed imagination and distract from the here-and-now pulse of love, prayer, nature, and relating.
There’s no hidden magic—live your normal life with total attention and love, and that is the real mystery.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I love ordinary life. It is like daytime in which I feel more and more awake. But I often have the sense that there is a universe of mysteries that belongs in darkness and is unavailable to me. Esoteric teachings, symbols, 'higher knowledge', seem to point to these mysteries, but I can never get interested in the books. I would rather journey into the night. Can you talk about this please?
The question is from Anand Rajen. Rajen, there is no other life than this ordinary life. Because people are incapable of living this ordinary life, they invent esoteric things. These are the people who are incapable of living -- they distract their minds and beings. All esoteric teachings and all hidden teachings and all those so-called mysteries are just mumbo-jumbo. The mystery is here. The mystery is in the trees and in the rocks and in the birds. The mystery is in people -- in you, in me. The mystery is in relating, the mystery is in singing, the mystery is in dancing, the mystery is in love, the mystery is in prayer. Avoid all that nonsense literature which goes on in the name of esotericism. It is pathological. These are the people who are incapable of tasting this life. They have to find some excuses, alibis, to avoid this…
Beloved master, what is the use of esoteric teachings and spiritual knowledge? How can I find out if they are true or not?
Sef Kicken, the esoteric teachings are only for the fools. The fools are very much interested in anything they cannot understand. The idea of the foolish mind is that anything it cannot understand must be very mysterious, must be very superior, must belong to higher planes. A really religious person has nothing to do with esoteric nonsense -- with theosophy, with anthroposophy, and with so many Lobsang Rampas... and all kinds of nonsense that goes on being written. It must be fulfilling some people's needs. Just as a few people like detective novels, a few others are interested in esoteric knowledge. There is nothing esoteric in existence. Existence is nude, naked; nothing is hidden. Once Buddha was asked, "Have you said everything, or is there something esoteric which you have not said?" Buddha showed his hand -- an open hand -- and he said, "I am like an open hand,…
Beloved Osho, does knowledge of the esoteric play any role on the path of awareness?
No. No knowledge -- esoteric or otherwise -- plays any role on the path except that of hindrance. Innocence helps, knowledge hinders. Be a child -- full of wonder, without knowing anything. One Indian saint was very much respected in India. There were only two men in India who were called mahatma. One was Mahatma Gandhi -- `mahatma' means `the great soul' -- and the second was Mahatma Bhagwandin. This second man used to stay with me whenever he passed the city I was living in. I used to go for a morning walk, for a night walk, and he was also very much in love with going for a walk. He was an old man, but immensely knowledgeable; he knew the names of all the trees -- Latin names, Greek names -- all the flowers. He was almost a walking encyclopedia. I told him, "You have wasted your whole…
Beloved Osho, I have been accused of being esoteric ever since I have been a sannyasin. Why is `esoteric' a four-letter word?
It is; there is no question of why. A four-letter word is a four-letter word. All esoterics is nonsense. But the question is significant. Because you became a sannyasin, naturally people must have assumed that you have become esoteric. You are no longer part of the ordinary world; you are searching for truth, going into higher stages of consciousness. People must have thought that you had become esoteric. They don't know anything about my sannyas. The old sannyas is a four-letter word, it is esoteric. Esoteric means all kinds of nonsense -- that you have seven bodies, that you have fourteen stages of consciousness... In India there is a small, very rich community known as Radhaswamis. They are making a temple in the memory of their dead master in Agra, because he lived in Agra. They want to defeat the Taj Mahal in Agra. For one hundred years the work…
Osho: is all esotericism nonsense?
"Well, it's simple, sir," stated the operator. "The call to heaven was long distance, while the one to hell was only a local call!" Yes, Viramo, all esotericism is nonsense -- except Almasto's esoteric questions. She has again asked. She says, "Osho, can I ask a few more esoteric questions?" I love her esoteric questions -- they are REALLY esoteric! First: How many Gandhians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Almasto, five. First of all Urinjibhai Morarjibhai Desai to hold the lightbulb, and the other four to turn the table he is standing on. This is called non-violent Gandhian revolution! Second: How many communists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Almasto, two. One to screw in the lightbulb and one to pass out pamphlets. Third: How many Jews does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Almasto, three. One to call the cleaning woman and two…