According to Osho, meditation is not related to unlearning—it is unlearning itself. In meditation you peel off the mind’s layers of acquired thoughts, opinions, and inner conflict, dissolving the ‘crowd’ of opposites until nothing remains but non-dual, unified presence. This culmination is samadhi—enstasy—where inner and outer disappear, and you become total togetherness, a harmony beyond thinking.
Meditation means letting go of all the mental stuff you’ve collected until only peaceful, whole being is left.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Tao The Three Treasures Vol 3 · Discourse 4
1975-08-14 · Buddha Hall · English
What is the relationship between meditation and the unlearning process?
In the East just the totally different thing has happened. We cannot conceive of Buddha going mad. That would be the most impossible thing in the world: Buddha going mad. Nietzsche goes mad because Nietzsche is a thinker, Buddha CANNOT go mad because he is a NO-thinker; he drops thinking, how can he go mad? One day the whole crowd is gone and he is sitting alone, nobody to even disturb, so much alone that he is not even one, because who is there to say that you are one? If somebody is there to say that you are one, the other is still present. Meditation is unlearning. Peel your onion. It is difficult, because you have become identified with the onion, you think these layers are YOU so to peel them is difficult, it is painful also, because it is not like just throwing your clothes, rather it is…Read the full discourse →
Philosophia Perennis Vol 2 · Discourse 5
1979-01-04 · Buddha Hall · English
What is meditation?
MEDITATION is A STATE OF NO-MIND Meditation is a state of pure consciousness with no content. Ordinarily, your consciousness is too much full of rubbish, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant traffic: thoughts are moving, desires are moving, memories are moving, ambitions are moving -- it is a constant traffic! day in, day out. Even when you are asleep the mind is functioning, it is dreaming. It is still thinking; it is still in worries and anxieties. It is preparing for the next day; an underground preparation is going on. This is the state of no meditation -- just the opposite is meditation. When there is no traffic and thinking has ceased, no thought moves, no desire stirs, you are utterly silent -- that silence is meditation. And in that silence truth is known, and never otherwise. Meditation is a state of no-mind. And…Read the full discourse →
The Psychology Of The Esoteric · Discourse 2
1971-02-04 · English
What is meditation?
Meditation is not an Indian method; it is not simply a technique. You cannot learn it. It is a growth: a growth of your total living, out of your total living. Meditation is not something that can be added to you as you are. It can come to you only through a basic transformation, a mutation. It is a flowering, a growth. Growth is always out of the total; it is not an addition. You must grow toward meditation. This total flowering of the personality must be understood correctly. Otherwise one can play games with oneself, one can occupy oneself with mental tricks. And there are so many tricks! Not only can you be fooled by them, not only will you not gain anything, but in a real sense you will be harmed. The very attitude that there is some trick to meditation -- to conceive of meditation in terms…Read the full discourse →
From Misery To Enlightenment · Discourse 2
1985-01-30 · Lao Tzu Grove · English
Osho, what is meditation?
He said, "I had no idea whether I was standing or sitting, or where I was. The subject was so absorbing that I went totally with it. I don't know when the snow started falling or when the whole night passed. I would have died, but I would not have come to my senses because the subject was so absorbing. I was still unfinished it was a whole theory, and you have awakened me in the middle. Now I don't know whether I will be able to get hold of the unfinished theory." It is just like you are dreaming and somebody wakes you up. Do you think you can catch hold of your dream again by just closing your eyes and trying to sleep? It is very difficult to get back into the same dream. Contemplation is a kind of logical dreaming. It is a very rare thing. But…Read the full discourse →
The Invitation · Discourse 7
1987-08-24 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Beloved Osho, how are one-pointedness, concentration and meditation related to each other?
Prem Dinesh, one-pointedness, concentration and meditation are not related to each other at all. This is one of the confusions prevalent all over the world. One-pointedness is another name for concentration, but meditation is just the opposite of concentration. But in most of the books, in most of the dictionaries, and by the so-called teachers, they are used as if they are synonymous. Concentration simply means one-pointedness. It is something of the mind. Mind can be a chaos, a crowd. Mind can be many voices, many directions. Mind can be a crossroads. Ordinarily, that's what mind is, a crowd. But if the mind is a chaos, you cannot think rationally, you cannot think scientifically. To think rationally and scientifically, you have to be concentrated on the object of your study. Whatever the object is, the one thing necessary is that you are pouring your whole mental energy onto that object.…Read the full discourse →