According to Osho, true communication bypasses language; words are only ripples on the lake of silence. Those who don’t know the tongue can often connect more deeply, because thought doesn’t interfere and a wordless bridge forms. What matters is heart-to-heart resonance—sharing a meditative field where breaths align, presence transmits, and transformation happens. The message is not in words but in the being from which they arise.
Even if you don’t understand the words, you can feel the person’s silence and love—and that is the real message.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, even in your Hindi discourses seventy to eighty percent are Western sannyasins who do not know Hindi at all. It is surprising that you still speak with the same alertness, ease, and depth, as if the whole assembly understands the language. Does this not create any difficulty for you? Please be gracious and explain how this is possible.
Chinmaya! It is not a matter of language here; it is a matter of feeling. And those who understand the language—do they really understand? Mere comprehension of words does not make you understand. What is being said may be expressed through language, but it is not confined to language. It is communicated by means of words, but it is not of the words. Only when you connect through the heart, through feeling, will you understand. Many must wonder: those who do not understand Hindi—how could they be understanding? They may not grasp what I am saying, but they do understand what I am. And that is what is valuable. Not what is said, but where it is said from. My silence is the valuable thing. From that silence the words arise. Words are like ripples on a lake. Ripples are not the whole of the lake. The lake can be…
Why is communication so difficult?
So only in rare moments of love does communication happen, otherwise it is always a quarrel, a subtle conflict. You say one thing, the other understands something else. The other says something, you understand something else. If you really want to communicate, become more and more loving -- because love is needed, not language. Language is a barrier, love is a bridge. If you really want to communicate, start slipping out of your mind. Become more and more zeros, no-minds, and suddenly you will see miracles happening. It is happening here. The new people who come here are not in tune with me. For a few days I say something, they understand something else. But as they become more and more open to my love, communication starts happening. To those who have really lived long with me and have become intimate, to those with whom the barrier of language has…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT? "This time you have come, they have all gone to spread the message. They have ripened, they have arrived at the space they had been searching for. Now they have gone to catch hold of other mad people. I will have to begin again when new people come. I will talk, and when they are ready just to enjoy my presence in silence, then I will sit in silence with them. And when they have come so close that their heart and my heart have become one, I will send them to fetch other mad people who are in need of me." Enlightenment has no language, Milarepa. But enlightenment finds ways, even without language, to convey the essential message. Even language can be used as a device, but it is not a communication of the experienced truth.
Beloved Osho, your words are so beautiful, yet we feel there is also another communication happening when you are talking to us. Would you talk to us about silent communication, and how we can become more open to it.
It is always there. While I am talking to you, I am also BEING to you. Talking is relating to you through the intellect, and being is relating to you with my totality. While you are listening to me, if you are really listening, then it is not only a listening to the words. Listening to me, your mind stops. Listening to me, you are not thinking. When you are not thinking, you are open. And when you are not thinking and your mind is not functioning, you start feeling. Then I can overwhelm you, I can move and fill you. Words are used only as a device. I myself am not interested much in words. But I have to speak, because this has been my feeling: while I am speaking you become silent. If I am not speaking, then you are speaking within and you are not silent. If…
Osho, it is surprising that only when you speak do we get a slight glimpse of your peak through words. Why is that?
No one understands silence. If someone loves you and does not say so, you will not be able to grasp that he loves you. If in no way does he express it—through gesture, through the eyes, through words—these are all “words”—if he remains silent, you will never recognize that someone loves you. It has to be said; it has to be expressed. And then a very amusing thing happens. Even if there is no love, if someone is skilled in expressing, you will feel that there is love. Many times, the one who is skilled in expression becomes the lover. It is not necessary that there be love—because you do not understand love; you only understand words. Husbands and wives begin to feel depressed—how long can one keep saying the same words? Then they no longer carry any flavor. But as soon as words are lost, the relationship is lost.…