According to Osho, the mind is intrinsically dualistic—whatever arises from it splits into for/against, left/right, and remains superficial. Duality is the mind’s very fabric. Real knowing begins only beyond mind: in silent, living nothingness where beauty is formless and joy wordless. Meditation is the movement beyond the mind’s duality into this non-dual presence from which authentic truth and blessing flow.
The mind always divides things into two; real peace comes by relaxing beyond thinking into a quiet nothingness, which meditation reveals.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, to be open and to be witnessing are two different things. Is it so, or is this a duality created by my mind?
Mind always creates duality; otherwise, to be open or to be witnessing are not two things. If you are open, you will be witnessing. Without being a witness, you cannot be open; or if you are a witness, you will be open -- because being a witness and yet remaining closed is impossible. So those are only two words. You can either start with witnessing -- then opening will come on its own accord; or you can start by opening your heart, all windows, all doors -- then witnessing will be found, coming on its own. But if you are simply thinking, without doing anything, then they look separate. Mind cannot think without duality. Duality is the way of thinking. In silence, all dualities disappear. Oneness is the experience of silence. For example, day and night are very clear dualities, but they are not two. There are animals who see…
It has been said that duality is the nature of mind. But by saying "mind" does that mean only the analytical processes which occur mainly in the left brain? Does that mean that activity such as music, beauty, wholeness and synthesis also arise from an inevitable intrinsic dualism of the mind itself?
Everything that arises out of the mind is bound to be dual. It may be arising from the right side of the mind or the left side of the mind, it does not matter. There is a music which does not rise from the mind. That music is absolutely soundless, and is heard only by those who have come to be nothing. There is a beauty known, there is a dance experienced only by those who have gone beyond the duality of the mind. Meditation can be defined as going beyond the duality of the mind. Whatever comes out of the mind is going to be ordinary; it may be music, it may be mathematics. One arises from the right side, one arises from the left side -- that does not matter. Your music and your mathematics, your philosophy and your poetry, all are very superficial. But there is something…
To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source. At the moment of inner enlightenment there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness. The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance. Do not search for the truth; only cease to hold opinions.
DO NOT REMAIN IN THE DUALISTIC STATE; AVOID SUCH PURSUITS CAREFULLY. IF THERE IS A TRACE OF THIS AND THAT, THE RIGHT AND WRONG, THE MIND ESSENCE WILL BE LOST IN CONFUSION. ALTHOUGH ALL DUALITIES COME FROM THE ONE, DO NOT BE ATTACHED EVEN TO THIS ONE. WHEN MIND EXISTS UNDISTURBED IN THE WAY, NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN OFFEND, AND WHEN A THING CAN NO LONGER OFFEND, IT CEASES TO EXIST IN THE OLD WAY. WHEN NO DISCRIMINATING THOUGHTS ARISE, THE OLD MIND CEASES TO EXIST. All opposites are together in existence. Inside you are divided, outside they are divided. When you fall to your source and you become one, the whole existence suddenly falls into line and becomes one. When you are one, the BRAHMA appears, the ultimate appears, because to the one only one can appear; to the two, the two; to the many, the many. And…
Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?
It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…
Osho, if the truth of life is nonduality, then why is there duality?
One world, shaped into the visible. One imagining, merely possible. One world, incessantly eloquent. One solitude, soundless. One unbroken surge of movement. One unmoving, waveless stillness. Two readings, one poem. There are not two. There are two readings—the poem is one. Truth is one. Look while half-asleep and the world appears. Look awake, and the Divine appears. The world and the Divine are not two different things. The sleeping person, when he looked for the Divine, saw the world; and the awakened person, when he looked at the world, saw the Divine. The awakened one says: the world is not; the Divine is. The sleeping one says: where is the Divine? There is only the world. These are two perspectives; the truth is one. Two readings, one poem!