What is the relationship between God and our existence?

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…

Beloved master, what is existence? Is it something like what people call god?

Sampurna, existence is that which is, and God is that which is not. Existence is a reality, God is a fiction. Existence is available only to meditators, people of silence; God is a consolation for sick minds, sick psychologies. Existence is not your production -- God is. That's why there is only one existence, but thousands of gods. Each according to his needs, each according to his suffering, each according to his expectations, creates a god or accepts an old belief about God. God is a great consolation, but it is not a cure. Existence is not a consolation. To be in tune with it is to be healthy and whole. All the religions of the world have been teaching God; I teach you existence. I teach you to be in tune with that which surrounds you, which is within you and without you. Once you are in tune with…

Osho! A few days before his passing, revered Dadda-ji, while talking one night, said: “Only That is, and other than That there is nothing.” When we asked, “Who runs the world?” he said, “No one. Everything moves on its own. What is happening is happening. No one is doing anything; it is all happening.” In response to questions about the doctrine of karma he said, “It’s all nonsense.” We asked, “Then what should we do?” He said, “Eat, drink and live joyfully. That’s all—there is nothing else in the world.” Osho, please say something about these teachings of his.

You are lying on both counts. You do not believe you are a great sinner. Put your hand on your heart and say it. You will say: “Me, a great sinner? There are much worse than me! What count am I in! I’m only saying it. I call myself a great sinner so I can call you great compassion. I blacken my face to brighten yours.” But ask your heart. Such praises won’t work there, because there is no one to hear. No answer will come. And because your prayers are not answered, atheism arises. For thousands of years you have prayed; no answer came—so atheism grew. The basic cause of growing atheism is your pundits and priests with their false assurances. Since those assurances fail. Yes, now and then, by chance, an arrow hits the target. Shoot in the dark, sometimes it hits. No prayer is heard—sometimes it lands.…

Osho, is the soul itself God?

Yes, that very essence is God. That very essence is God. In truth, from childhood we are given certain notions: we are told there is a God sitting up in the sky who runs everything. There is no such God sitting anywhere. The whole universe is not only matter; within matter, consciousness is also hidden. The name of that totality—the total consciousness hidden throughout the whole cosmos—is God. God is not a person. God is the name of the entire flow of the total consciousness. And the name of the entire flow of insentience is the world. Here we are so many people sitting together. Two kinds of happenings are taking place here: so many bodies are sitting here, and so many consciousnesses are sitting here...

Beloved Osho, "excuse me," said an ocean fish, "you are older than I, so can you tell me, where do you find this thing they call the ocean?" "the ocean," said the older fish, "is the thing you are in now." "oh, this? But this is water. What I am seeking is the ocean," said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere.

Anand Katyayani, this is an old parable. But this is one of the beauties of parables -- that they never become old, they always remain relevant... because the parable is about you -- not about the fish, not about the ocean. Everybody is searching for truth; everybody is searching for God; everybody is searching for the miraculous, the mysterious source of life. And the situation is the same: the younger fish is asking the older fish, "Where is this thing they call the ocean? I hear so much about it." And the older fish said, "You are in it." And naturally, the younger fish said, "But this is water and I am searching for the ocean." She was so disappointed that she said, "It is better to go away somewhere else to find the truth -- what the ocean is." God is the ocean you are in, because God is…