What is the relationship between truth and lies?

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…

Beloved master, the other day you said all masters have had to lie. I don't see the necessity for lies. Isn't it rather that the truth, no matter what the consequences, is the only means of liberating ourselves? Besides, what do we have to lose?

First, you seem to be understanding more than I understand. In fact, you should be here and I should be sitting there. Come on! I am ready to vacate this place and I will be sitting there, and you do the job. Stand up! Now, don't chicken out! All kinds of idiots have entered. Do you understand that there is no way to express truth in words? Not a single enlightened person in the whole history has said that truth can be said. So whatever can be said will be a lie. Lao Tzu, one of the greatest masters, never wrote any book. He continuously avoided his disciples persuading him, asking him, "Soon you will be gone; you are too old, and you have not given us anything written that we can remember, understand." And one day Lao Tzu left. Even the emperor of China was a disciple of Lao…

Beloved Osho, when the communist party tells a lie, we know it is a lie. When the pope tells a lie, we know it is a lie and we say that he is telling a lie, but when you tell a lie, we always say it is a "device." I would like to know why you tell us so many lies-devices. Whether I connect with you as a master or as a friend, it is still for me a question of trust. Osho, my hand, and my whole being, is trembling as I write you my first question since I have become your sannyasin. Please make it clear for me once again.

Even if I have to tell you things which are not going to happen, if they can lead you towards that which needs to happen... They are lies, but not just lies; they are devices. And they are out of compassion, they are just to help you. So whatever you want, whatever you desire, whatever you long for, I use it because I know that once you have started moving in the right direction, you will stop longing for anything that is a hindrance. In the beginning it may have been a help. As you go closer to the truth, you yourself will see that now it is a hindrance. You will drop it. When Edmund Hilary went to Everest he had a group of at least thirty people and tons of luggage, food, materials, tents, emergency equipment, cameras, all kind of things... but he reached to the top. As…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, ARE ALL WORDS LIES? Peter Hendrickson, truth is an experience so profound that it is inexpressible, so vast that no word can contain it. Words are small things; they have a certain utility, but they have limitations. And truth has no limitations; it is vaster than the sky. Truth means the whole existence. When you disappear into the whole you know it. Saying that you know it is not accurate; rather, you feel it. Or, to be even more accurate, you BECOME it. When you have become the whole it is impossible to say it. And truths need to be said; they have an intrinsic quality that they have to be shared. Hence words are only hypothetical; they can be used, but one should not believe in them. They should be used as stepping-stones.

Beloved Osho, I remember once hearing you tell us that buddha's definition of truth was: that which works. It struck me as almost audacious, and yet totally pragmatic, and for both reasons I loved it. My understanding is that your definition of truth is probably the same, that you will do and say anything at all, in the name of truth, that might prod us in the right direction. I would love to hear you speak to us on this.

It is true. I can say anything if it directs you towards truth. Of course truth cannot be said, it can only be pointed at. I can use anything that points towards it. Perhaps for different people different pointers are needed. To me it does not matter what I say. What matters is whether it leads you in the right direction -- towards your illumination. Yes, my definition is exactly the same: truth is that which works. It is pragmatic, and Gautam Buddha was a very pragmatic man, very scientific. This definition can be called scientific also. All definitions of science are nothing but proof for this definition. We don't know what electricity is, we only know how it works. We don't know anything about atomic energy, what it is, but we know how it works. And that knowledge of how it works is the whole science of it. The…