According to Osho, samsara and nirvana are not two separate realms but one reality seen with different eyes: without awareness, it appears as samsara; suffused with awareness, the same life flowers as nirvana. He rejects all escape or 'journeys'—bring meditative presence to tea, love, work. When the ordinary is lived profoundly, the profane turns sacred and God includes all.
It’s the same life—unaware it feels like samsara; with loving, clear attention it becomes nirvana.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, Buddha has said that those steadfast ones who practice meditation continuously attain the unsurpassable ease and security called nirvana. Are there kinds of nirvana?
It is said of the Zen master Rinzai that he had eighteen hundred satori experiences before samadhi. Eighteen hundred is only symbolic; they could be eighteen thousand. However many glimpses there may be, a glimpse is only a message: “I am coming closer, closer”—but I have not yet arrived. The goal begins to be seen, and then it is lost again, because the moods of the mind keep changing. On some days meditation settles easily—the mind is buoyant, quiet, blissful. On other days it does not settle—there is a miss, and a great distance arises. So there is often a coming near and a moving far. But once the glimpses begin—once the taste comes—you cannot be led astray. One thing is now certain: what you are seeking is. It is not imagination. Whatever the births it may take, it is. Faith arises. And as soon as faith arises, satori slowly…
Osho, in the Chandogya Upanishad there is a sutra: na pashyato mṛtyuṁ pashyati na rogaṁ noto duḥkhatām, sarvaṁ ha paśyaḥ paśyati sarvam āpnoti sarvaśa iti. That is, the knower does not see death, nor disease, nor sorrow; he sees all as the Self and attains everything. You are a witness—does a buddha truly see even death, disease, and sorrow as the very Self? Kindly give us direction on this sutra.
Buddha uses nirvana in exactly this sense. When the flickering lamp of ego is extinguished, the whole sky is yours. The moons and stars are yours. When you are not, everything is yours. Understand this paradox well—here lies the secret of religion, the distilled essence of the mystics and seers. The sutra of the Chandogya is profound—very profound. Let the ego dissolve; you are no more; then all is yours. When you are not, nothing is “other.” It is the “I” that creates the “you,” the division. When the line of “I” disappears, the courtyard becomes the sky. Demolish the walls you have drawn around your yard—your courtyard is the open heavens. Na pashyato mṛtyum... To the knower death is not seen—he does not know death, he does not die—because whatever could die he let die in advance. Ego could die—and what is unreal alone can die. What is, is…
Osho, what is the status of death in nirvana?
Nirvana means, first, that one has come to know perfectly that death does not happen at all—one. Second, that what we call life yields nothing—this too has been known. Nirvana means the knowing of two truths: that what we call death is not death, and what we call life is not life. Are you following me? I have just told you one thing: whoever truly knows death will find that death is not death. But coupled with it is a second happening: whoever looks at life with total wakefulness will discover that what the world calls life is not life either. That too is a social delusion, just as death is a social delusion. Nirvana means these two insights are fully realized. If you know only this much—that death is not death—life will still continue. You have known only half. The longing will remain to live again, to grab another…
Osho, are the English word “salvation” and the Sanskrit terms moksha, Vaikuntha, and nirvana all synonymous?
Nirvana is the final notion. No one remains. This will frighten you too. That is why not many are drawn to nirvana—no one remains! Then what is the point? You want bliss, yes—but you also want to remain; otherwise, what is the point even of bliss! And Buddha says: as long as you are, suffering remains. You are the suffering. The very notion of “I” is suffering. Where you are not, there is bliss. Now this becomes a little difficult. It has to—when things reach such heights they become difficult. They go beyond logic. They slip out of the grasp of the intellect. These four words are different, as I said, in practical terms. In the transcendental sense, they are not different. Whether one goes by the path of salvation, or by Vaikuntha, or by moksha, or by nirvana, ultimately one will arrive only at nirvana. Because those that do…
How do you see death in relation to nirvana?
Nirvana means, firstly, that one has realized totally there is no death at all. Secondly, it means one has also come to know that, in what we call life, nothing is attained. Nirvana means awareness of the reality that what we understand as death is no death at all, and that what we mean by life is not really life. Do you follow what I am saying? One thing: nirvana means that when a person knows death he will find there is no death. There is another phenomenon connected with this, and that is that one who sees life with full awareness will find that what everyone calls life is not life either -- just as death is a social illusion, that is a social illusion too. Nirvana means the total realization of both realities. If you only know there is no such thing as death, then you will continue…