What is the relationship between declaring enlightenment and the process of transformation?

You say we need only declare our own enlightenment to ourselves, but what about the gap, the discontinuity, the quantum leap, the death and the rebirth? Is the declaration a device -- a way of creating the effect for the cause to follow? Is this an acceptance of enlightenment with a small 'e', knowing that one day the big 'e' will come in a sudden flash of lightning? Confused, confused.

You have a purse somewhere in your pocket, but you have forgotten it and you are feeling miserable. And you are thinking that now you are in a strange city, nobody knows you -- where are you going to eat? you don't have any money. And the money is there, just you have forgotten the purse. Or you may have misplaced it; you go on looking in the left-side pocket and it may be in the right-side pocket. And again and again you look, and again and again you feel more and more afraid, insecure -- what is going to happens who is going to give you food today? But nothing has to be done really; all that is needed is to remember where you have put it. Doing is not the thing, only awareness. That is the emphasis of Zen. Yoga emphasizes doing, 'Do this, do that', that's why…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? IS IT DIVINE REVELATION? It is not divine revelation, it is divine realization. And the difference is big. Divine revelation means something objective, like God, is revealed to you. You see some God, but you are separate from him and he is separate from you. I don't believe in a God who is separate from us, who is separate from existence. I don't believe in a God who is a creator; I believe in a God who is creativity. To say it in other words, I don't believe in a God as a person, I believe in godliness as a quality. So I say it is not divine revelation, but divine realization. You realize that you are God, and in realizing that you are God, you realize that everything is God -- that only God exists and nothing else exists.

Beloved Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and witnessing? In what way are mind and ego dissolved by them? Is surrender possible without attaining complete egolessness? To what extent are orange clothes and the mala helpful for meditation and witnessing? Also please explain the difference between witnessing, wakefulness and right remembering.

Then there are some who say doing has no attraction for them, but thoughts come rushing in waves. They are thinkers-they have no juice for doing. They have no interest in the outer, but great waves arise within, a great tempest. And they cannot be inside for a single moment without thoughts. They say, "If we sit silently more thoughts come. When we sit silently more thoughts than usual come. Just mention worship, prayer, meditation, and a great deluge of thoughts -- -armies -- come in wave after wave and drown us. What should we do?" The master says, "Drink meditation mixed in with your thoughts. Don't stop your thoughts, but when thoughts come observe them. Don't get lost in them, stand a little apart, at a distance. Calmly watching your thoughts, you will gradually attain witnessing. Add meditation to your thoughts." Then there are some who say, "We have…

It is because of this that Martin Heidegger uses the word 'releasement' instead of 'enlightenment'. His word is beautiful. It is a releasement: something is already there, it has only to be released. Just like the seed sprouting, becoming a big tree, and then comes the spring... and there is great joy, and the tree bursts forth into thousands of flowers. But they were all hidden in the seed, the small seed. The seed has been carrying the blueprint for all that: the colour, the shape, the fragrance -- all was hidden in the seed. The tree is not anything new. The seed was unmanifest; the tree is its manifestation. It is a releasement. I like Heidegger's word, it is beautiful. It is a releasement: enlightenment is a releasement. You are already that. You have never been other than that. Remember, remind yourself, shake yourself into awareness.

Beloved Osho, I am afraid to jump from a three-meter tower into a swimming pool. Will I still be able to jump into enlightenment?

The first basic thing to understand is that you are not expected to jump into enlightenment. You have to climb for it -- it is higher than you, not lower than you. So at least one fear you can drop! And climbing to enlightenment is a simple process. It is not something tortuous, arduous. It is something like peeling an onion; after one layer there is another layer -- fresher, younger, juicier, after that layer there are still more, juicier layers. And if you go on peeling, finally nothing is left in your hands -- because the onion was nothing but layers upon layers. Enlightenment is a kind of peeling of the ego. It is parallel to the onion because it has no inner substance, only layers. And those layers sometimes slip by themselves -- they become old sometimes by accident. If you watch your life, you can see it…