What is the significance of darkness?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT DARKNESS? I have much to say about darkness, because nobody has taken notice of the mystery that darkness is. Much has been said about light, almost nothing about darkness. But darkness is a much deeper phenomenon than light is. Light comes and goes -- darkness remains; it never comes, it never goes. Light is not eternal, because it needs fuel, some kind of fuel, and the fuel will be exhausted sooner or later. Darkness needs no fuel, no cause; hence darkness is not an effect and can remain eternally there. In the morning, you see the sun arises and there is light; in the evening the sun sets, the light disappears, and suddenly all over there is darkness. It does not mean that when the sun disappears, darkness comes in.

Sometimes running here and there, talking, laughing, working, reading, writing and cleaning -- the fact is: when the door closes behind and the eyes are shut -- it is dark. Thoughts or no thoughts feelings or no feelings it is dark. Morning or night any time inside it is dark. Looking inside for the looker it is dark. Is 'I' darkness who is is writing this question?

So, remember it: whatsoever you know about light and darkness -- both have to be left behind. When you close your eyes, you have left the light outside; now you enter darkness. Love it. Sing? a song with it. Have a dance with it. Don't fight with it, don't be afraid of it, don't keep a distance from it. And don't go on looking for light. Forget about light. This darkness is there -- it has to be enjoyed; one has to be grateful to God for this darkness, this silence, this stillness, this velvety expanse. And then, one day, the observer and the observed are no more two. When you love something, the duality disappears. If you love darkness, you become darkness. And when there is no duality, there comes a luminousness of a totally different quality. It is not the light that comes from the sun, and it…

Question: IN RAIN DURING A BLACK NIGHT ENTER THAT BLACKNESS AS THE FORM OF FORMS. WHEN A MOONLESS RAINY NIGHT IS NOT PRESENT, CLOSE EYES AND FIND BLACKNESS BEFORE YOU. OPENING EYES, SEE BLACKNESS. SO FAULTS DISAPPEAR FOREVER. Reflect. Why has God been symbolized everywhere as light? Not because God is light, but because man is afraid of darkness. This is human fear -- we like light and we are afraid of darkness, so we cannot conceive God as darkness, as blackness. This is human conception. We conceive God as light because we are afraid of darkness. Our gods are created out of our fear. We give them shape and form. That shape and form is given by us -- it shows something about us, not about our gods. They are our creations. We are afraid in darkness, so God is light. But these techniques belong to the other school.

Osho, you speak so much about the inner light, but my experience is different. Whenever my thoughts fall silent in meditation, a dense darkness descends within me, which feels cool and pleasant. Kindly explain what this is.

Psychologists say that in every human being’s unconscious that caveman’s experience is still there; it has not gone. It has become embedded in the body’s memory. Hence we fear the dark. Now there is no reason—one sits at home, electricity is at hand; press a button and there is light; there is no such hassle. In the country a “festival of discipline” is going on—no disturbances, no cause for fear. You are sitting in your room, and still you are panicking at the dark. That experience from twenty thousand years ago is in your every vein. You too are born from that same man; the chain is linked to him. It has not been forgotten; it is lodged very deep. So darkness seems frightening. Man becomes afraid of the dark. But the one who is afraid of the dark will never be able to go within. His inner journey will…

The song continues:

THE DARKNESS OF AGES CANNOT SHROUD THE GLOWING SUN; THE LONG KALPAS OF SAMSARA NE'ER CAN HIDE -- THE MIND'S BRILLIANT LIGHT. THOUGH WORDS ARE SPOKEN TO EXPLAIN THE VOID, -- THE VOID AS SUCH CAN NEVER BE EXPRESSED. THOUGH WE SAY "THE MIND IS BRIGHT AS LIGHT," IT IS BEYOND ALL WORDS AND SYMBOLS. ALTHOUGH THE MIND IS VOID IN ESSENCE, ALL THINGS IT EMBRACES AND CONTAINS. Look at the beauty of this truth: only the dreamer is not a dream, because the dreamer cannot be a dream; otherwise the dream cannot exist. At least somebody, the dreamer, has to be a real phenomenon. In the day you are awake; you do many things: you go to the shop, you go to the market, you work in a farm, or in a factory, and you do millions of things. By the night when you are asleep, you forget everything…